Measures for Progress: A History of the National Bureau of Standards

APPENDIX 1
NOTES
PUBLICATIONS
OF THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS
The Annual Reports of the Bureau, 1901—1960, are the source for the basic data of this
publications chart.
Dash lines on the chart span years when the Annual Report omitted publication data.
In some instances of omission the number of publications was determined by actual
count in NBS C460, which lists all formal Bureau publications issued by the Government
Printing Office from 1901 to 1947, and in Supplements to C460 for publications since
1947.
Not represented on the chart are revisions, reprints, and new editions of Bureau publi.
cations (as many as 50 to 90 annually by 1915); publicity releases and general articles
in the periodical literature on the work of the Bureau; nor calibration and test reports
prepared by the staff.
NBS RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS include the early Scientific Papers (1904—1928)
and Technologic Papers (1910—1928), combined in 1928 in a single Journal of Research
as Research Papers until the reorganization of NBS publications in 1959, noted below.
MISCELLANEOUS NBS PUBLICATIONS in the chart comprise:
Circulars, the compilations of information related to NBS scientific, technologic, and
engineering activities, published from 1903 to 1959. They include the extensive NBS
and U.S. Government Specifications series in the years 1912—1937.
Miscellaneous Publications (1905 to date), which include the NBS Annual Reports,
Weights and Measures Conference Reports, the Standards Yearbook from 1927 through
1933, and charts, directories, and administrative reports.
Handbooks (1921 to date).
Building and Housing Publications (1922—1932).
Simplified Practice Recommendations (1923 to date).
Technical News Bulletin, published monthly (1924 to date).
Letter Circulars, in mimeograph form (1924 to date).
Commercial Standards (1929 to date).
Building Materials and Structures Reports (1930-1939).
Mathematical Tables (1941—1945).
Applied Mathematics Series (1948 to date).
Basic Radio Propagation Predictions, published monthly (1952—1959) ; Central Radio
Propagation Laboratory Ionospheric Predictions (1960 to date).
NON-NBS PUBLICATIONS, first recorded in 1925, comprise articles by members of
the staff appearing in the journals of professional and scientific societies.
NBS REPORTS, on research conducted under transferred funds and formalized in 1951
(estimated in 1952 as more than a thousand reports), actually began before World
War II as nonpublished reports to NACA on special research for that agency, and
later as reports to NDRC, OSRD and other wartime agencies. They continue to com-
prise classified and unclassified reports to other Government agencies on projects
supported by transferred funds.
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