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

654 APPENDIX M
Sometime after settling into the routine of teaching and research with Michelson,
Stratton was asked by Michelson, who had a strong interest in the Navy, to assist in
organizing a volunteer naval militia at Chicago. A naval vessel on the Great Lakes was
available for training in the operations of a warship, 'and Stratton accepted command
of one 'of the four units constituting the naval militia battalion that was formed. At full
strength his unit comprised a hundred men, consisting of trained engineers as officers
and skilled artisans as crew.
At the outbreak of the war with Spain in the spring of 1898, Stratton was commis-
sioned a lieutenant, put in charge of the battalion, expanded with additional volunteers
to 705 men, and all were formally inducted into the U.S. Navy. The battalion was sent
to Key West where it was distributed among the ships preparing to put to sea. Stratton
saw most of his original unit detailed to the battleship Oregon when it arrived in late
May after its famous 16,000-mile voyage around the Horn.
Many of his men saw action, but not Stratton. He had from the beginning of
his naval service demonstrated marked executive ability and could not be spared.
He was first attached to the naval base, then as watch and division officer on Commodore
George C. Remey's flagship at the base, and finally attached to' 'the battleship Texas,
sister ship of the Maine, when she came north after the battle of Santiago. Mustered
out in November 1898, Stratton kept up his naval connections, and from 1904 to 1912
held the rank of Commander in the District of Columbia Naval Militia. The Bureau
laboratories were never to be without research projects for the Navy and he maintained
a strong attachment to that service all his life.
His trip to the Nation's Capital late in 1898, to invite Admiral Dewey and
Secretary of the Treasury Gage to give talks at the University of Chicago, led to Stratton's
survey of the Office of Weights and Measures in the Coast Survey and the invitation to
form and head the new National of
The originals of the Treasury Department appointment of Dr. Stratton as Inspector
of Standards, effective date of oath Oct. 28, 1899, and the U.S. Civil Service certificate
formally'appointing him dated Dec. 12, 1899, are in the Stratton Papers,
MIT, Box 11.
A communication from Dr. Leonard B. Loeb, emeritus professor of physics, University
of California, who studied and later taught under Michelson at Chicago, to Mrs. Dorothy
Michelson Stevens, daughter of the great physicist, suggests that Michelson himself
was very much interested in the position as Director of the new Bureau and, as plans
for its establishment matured, hoped Stratton would make that known in Washington.
Stratton had been Inspector of Standards for 6 months, working on the bill to be
presented to Congress, when on Apr. 25, 1900, Michelson telegraphed Stratton asking
him to return at once to Chicago, to help reorganize the local naval militia. Stratton,
he said, was to be his chief of staff. (Telegram in Stratton Papers, MIT, copy in NBS
Historical File.) But Stratton was now fally committed to his task in Washington.
One of Stratton's first duties upon becoming Director on Mar. 3, 1901, was to recom-
mend to Secretary of the Treasury Lyman J. Gage suitable members for the Visiting
Committee to the Bureau. A letter in April 1901 to Stratton from Dr. Henry
S. Pritchett, former head of the Coast and Geodetic Survey who had recently become.
President of MIT, agreed with Stratton on the wisdom of asking Elihu Thomson, as
well as Michelson, to join the Visiting Committee. "I think it wise to ask Michelson also
as a member * * * because of his reputation and standing; no doubt we shall be able to
keep him in good order." (Letter, Apr. 13, in Stratton Papers, Box 5.) The letter of
invitation to Michelson was sent on June 6, 1901. No answer has been found. The letters