As an agency concerned with strengthening the Nation's science and technology and promoting more effective applications for the public benefit, the Bureau is increasingly involved in leading problems of our high-technology civilization. With its staff representing the entire spectrum of the physical sciences, NBS is equipped to serve as a technical resource for other government agencies and for organizations in the private sector as they deal with the challenges posed by a nuclear, supersonic age, and the ever-more-rapid pace of change. Environmental, consumer, safety, and other problems affecting the public interest are currently demanding and receiving a major share of the Bureau's attention.

In the war on pollution-air, water, thermal, noise, solid waste, radiation, etc.-new attainments in precision measurement and sophisticated experimentation are required, and NBS skills are being marshalled to aid in the nationwide cooperative effort on this front.

To provide more adequate low-cost housing for millions of Americans, there is a need for sound, up-to-date performance standards designed to encourage innovations in materials and methods. The Bureau's testing know-how is playing a key role in this area.

Planning for dependable high-speed mass transportation is being facilitated by NBS systems analyses and computer simulations which offer a basis for estimating the cost/effectiveness of proposed new systems.

Prevention of famine in many parts of the world is the object of studies of the growth and potential of the food/feed industry, including a continuing statistical survey.

Materials research bearing on the service life of mechanisms and structures is an important activity of the Bureau, and authorities probing serious mechanical failures or disasters such as the collapse of a bridge, the crash of an airplane, the breakup of a ship, or the performance of buildings during hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and floods, are likely to call upon NBS experts to contribute specialized analyses of some of the evidence.

The Secretary of Commerce, authorized under the Flammable Fabrics Act to conduct an in-depth research and development program aimed at reducing injury and loss of life and property resulting from ignition and burning of clothing, upholstery, drapery, carpeting, and the like, has directed NBS to carry out the necessary scientific research and experimentation, including: studies of the flammability of fabrics, related materials, and products; investigation of the feasibility of various methods of reducing flammability; development of test methods and devices; and training of personnel charged with responsibility for using such devices. NBS specialists work with the development of voluntary standards. The NBS role is to present the public interest, including consumers and others.

The Bureau has been conducting a major program of investigation, re

search, and survey designed to "appraise the desirability and practicability of increasing the use of metric weights and measures in the United States," at the direction of the Secretary under terms of Public Law 90472. This three-year program is designed to provide data needed to determine the basic question, Would accelerated increase of metric usage be in the best interest of the United States? A report is scheduled for August 1971.

The relocation of NBS headquarters from Washington, D.C., to a spacious and protectively zoned site near Gaithersburg, Maryland, enabled the Bureau to enlarge its capacity to fulfill these and many other functions with the aid of the most up-to-date and effective scientific facilities. A turnkey ceremony in 1969 marked the opening of the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, the 20th and last of the primary laboratory structures blueprinted for the new headquarters when the farmland site was purchased some 14 years earlier.

Among the specialized NBS facilities now in use are a 100-Mev linear electron accelerator with a beam of up to 65 kilowatts; a 10-megawatt highflux reactor with a unique cold-neutron facility; a 1-million-pound deadweight machine and an associated 12million-pound hydraulic testing machine; and an Environmental Engineering Laboratory, incorporating a full-size "house" which under artificially created climatic conditions contributes to understanding of performance problems such as heat loss through walls, roofs, and foundations.

annually. In addition to patents on devices, compositions, and processes, these include patents on new ornamental designs of manufacture and new varieties of plants.

The Patent Office has a system of classification in which the patents are divided into classes and subclasses of subject matter, covering all items from the simple to the complex -from hairpins to electronic computing devices. This system permits any individual to locate and examine all existing patents in any field of technology. The Patent Office Search. Center at Crystal Plaza, 2021 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, Virginia, is open to the public.

The Official Gazette, published weekly, describes patents and trademarks issued by the Patent Office.

General Information Concerning Patents serves as a guide for the filing of a patent application and an introduction to the subject of patents and the workings of the Patent Office. In addition, General Information Concerning Trademarks contains a vast amount of general information concerning the application for and the registration of trademarks, expressed in non-technical language for the layman. Patents are instrumental in industrial research-important not only to individuals but to all technological progress. This collection of technical data can yield solutions and save valuable research dollars.

NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was created within the U.S. Department of Commerce on October 3, 1970, by Presidential Reorganization Plan Num. ber 4 of 1970.

Its formation brought together the functions of the Commerce Department's Environmental Science Serv. ices Administration (including its major elements: the Weather Bureau, Coast and Geodetic Survey, Environ. mental Data Service, National Environmental Satellite Center, and Research Laboratories); the Interior Depart ment's Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Marine Game Fish Research Program, and Marine Minerals Technology Center; the Navy-administered National Oceanographic Data Center and National Oceanographic Instru mentation Center; the Coast Guard's National Data Buoy Development Proj. ect; the National Science Foundation's National Sea Grant Program; and ele ments of the Army Corps of Engineers' U.S. Lake Survey.

INTERIM ORGANIZATION

Functions combined in the new agency are being reshaped to meet the broad NOAA mission. NOAA's interim organ. ization includes: the National Ocean Survey, combining the activities of the ESSA Coast and Geodetic Survey and the U.S. Lake Survey; the National Weather Service, formerly the ESSA Weather Bureau; the National Marine Fisheries Service, composed of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries and Marine Game Fish Research Program; the National Environmental Satellite Service, formerly ESSA's National Environmental Satellite Center: the Environmental Research Laboratories,

formerly ESSA's Research Laboratories; and the Environmental Data Service, combining the ESSA Environ. mental Data Service and the National Oceanographic Data Center.

The interim organization establishes staff locations for other new functions. The Office of Sea Grant administers and directs the National Sea Grant Program, and the National Oceanographic Instrumentation Center, Marine Minerals Technology Center, and Data Buoy Project Office are attached to the office of the Assistant Adminis trator for Environmental Systems.

The National Ocean Survey prepares and distributes nautical and aeronautical charts, conducts precise geodetic, oceanographic, and marine geophysical surveys, monitors the earth's geophysical fields and seismic activity, predicts tides and currents. and issues tsunami warnings to the Pacific Ocean area. It maps and charts American coastal waters, the Great Lakes, and navigable waters of the New York State Barge Canal System, Lake Champlain, and the Minnesota-Ontario Border Lakes. The National Ocean Survey fleet conducts mapping and charting operations and provides ship support to NOAA's Environmental Research Laboratories.

The Survey employs approximately 2,500 persons. Its major facilities

include the Atlantic and Pacific Marine Centers, at Norfolk, Va., and Seattle, Wash.; the Albuquerque Seismological Center in New Mexico; the National Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii; the Great Lakes Research Center in Detroit; and a network of geophysical observatories.

The National Weather Service reports the weather of the United States and its possessions, provides weather forecasts to the general public, issues warnings against tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and other weather hazards, and records the climate of the United States. The Weather Ser. vice also develops and furnishes specialized weather services which support the needs of agriculture, aviation, maritime, space, and military operations. These services are supported by a national network of observing and forecasting stations, communi. cations links, aircraft, satellite systems, and computers.

The Weather Service's 5,000 employ ees are located at approximately 400 facilities within the 50 states, at 14 overseas stations, and on 20 ships at sea. Special facilities include the National Meteorological Center in Suitland, Md.; the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Fla.; and the National Severe Storms Forecast Center in Kansas City, Mo.

The National Marine Fisheries Service seeks to discover, describe, develop, and conserve the living resources of the global sea, especially as these affect the American economy and diet.

The Fisheries Service conducts biological research on economically important species, analyzes economic aspects of fisheries operations and rates, develops methods for improving catches, and, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of State, is active in international fisheries affairs. With the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Marine Fisheries Service conducts en.