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

38 AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY
navigation, steam engine indicators, or almost any other instrument of
precision. Even though many of these were being made in this country,
'nearly all such instruments have to be sent to Europe * * * for standard-
ization." As for those used in high-precision work in university laboratories,
in scientific institutions, and Government laboratories, they could only be
procured from abroad. The same was true of all our chemical apparatus.
It came from abroad.58
The electrical industry by 1900 represented a $200 million invest-
ment in this country, Prof. Arthur E. Kennelly of Harvard testified, yet for
lack of recognized standards the industry was involved in frequent and costly
litigation, putting a brake on its continued growth.59 As the crowning
insult resulting from our failure to establish national standards, the
Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt, Germany's national standards lab-
oratory, used the Weston voltameter.amxneter, an American-invented and
American.made instrument, for its precision measurement of electrical cur-
rents and electrical pressures, but refused to accept the calibration of its
manufacturer. The Reichsanstalt had also adopted the Weston cell in pref-
erence to its own standard, for the determination of electromotive force.
These and other electrical instruments made in this country for domestic
sale and export were regularly sent first to Germany for recalibration, be-
cause the manufacturers' standards were either not known or not accepted.'°
National laboratories abroad were already at work answering the
demands of science and industry for instruments of greater reliability, ac-
curacy, and range. In this country we were still incapable of supplying
either a certified ins'trument to a scientific laboratory or an authoritative
common measure to the marketplace. Besides impeding the scientific and
commercial development of the Nation, witness after witness told Congress,
the necessity of sending abroad for certification was consuming of time,
expensive, and damaging to our national prestige. Establishment of a na-
tional standardizing laboratory could be deferred no longer.
"A NATIONAL NEED. . . A NATIONAL HUMILIATION"
A Federal standards laboratory had been under discussion for almost
20 years before the burst of nationalism at the turn of the century and the
surging growth of American industry together conspired to assure its serious
consideration. The coincidence made for compelling arguments. As a
result of the Spanish-American War we had in a few short months become a
Hearings before the Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures, May 3, 1900 (56th
Cong., 1 sess., H. Rept., no document or serial number), p.2.
Ibid., p. 13. — -
Hearings * * * Dec. 28, 1900, P. 17.