Data Processing Systems

The Bureau continued to serve the Government as a central research and development agency in automatic data processing and as a readily available information center for the solution of specific problems in this field. During 1961 services to other Federal agencies included assistance to the Bureau of Naval Weapons on problems of weapons-systems evaluation and test-range instrumentation of the Pacific Missile Range; studies of a future air-traffic control system for the Federation Aviation Agency; research for the Navy on computer methods for translating aerial photographic information into elevation profiles; and development of a program for simulating municipal traffic flow by high-speed automatic data-processing equipment for the Bureau of Public Roads.

In studies of computer components, significant advances were made in the theoretical analysis of solid-state semiconductor devices operating as circuit elements. For example, a large-signal equivalent circuit, valid for all modes of circuit operation, was produced for junction transistors. Equations were developed that make possible the analytic solution of modes of junctiontransistor operation previously considered untractable.

Calibration, Testing, and Standard Samples

The Bureau continued to be faced with the demands of a rapidly expanding technology for calibration services to insure accuracy in laboratory, shop, and plant, and to meet the need of state and local weights and measures enforcement officers. In meeting these critical needs it was aided by the extensive calibration programs that are being established in the military agencies and in many industries and private standards laboratories. The Bureau continued, insofar as possible, to restrict its calibration work to master standards and high-precision instruments, leaving the calibration of lowerechelon standards to the other standards laboratories that have been set up. To an increasing extent, the Bureau was called upon for assistance to these laboratories.

The activity of the Aerospace Industries Association, in surveying the measurement needs of its member firms, has proved very useful and informative to the Bureau in planning and developing calibration services. In 1959, the Association questioned 70 companies in its field and found greatly increased measurement needs in several critical areas such as microwave, temperature, vibration, and shock measurements. Over 100 of these needs were for measurement and calibration services not then offered by NBS. Either the Bureau did not provide any service for the particular physical quantity involved, or the range of measurement or accuracy required was not available. This survey clearly showed the immediate need for more basic research on measurement problems and increased industry-wide dissemination of calibration procedures.

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As a followup to the AIA Industry Calibration Survey, a series of 16 meetings between measurement specialists from AIA member firms and NBS technical staff members was held at the Bureau over the past 14 months. Aimed at bringing into sharp focus the impact of the "measurement pinch" as it affects the aeronautical and missile industries, these conferences dealt with the following subjects: Temperature; infrared radiation; humidity; vacuum and flow; force and acceleration; shock and vibration; internal diameters; surface flatness and finish; gear calibration and measurement; pulsed voltage; radiofrequency impedance and phase; radiofrequency power, current, and impedance; radiofrequency voltage and field strength; microwave power; microwave attenuation; microwave VSWR, impedance, and phase. The conferences identified many specific areas in which the aircraft and space industries face severe measurement problems. For example, an industry representative cited a million-dollar development of radomes which had to proceed more by trial and error than by test and analysis, because precise phase and amplitude measurement capabilities do not exist in the required frequency range. As a result of the meetings, the Bureau's planning in all the measurement areas that were covered has benefited, and steps have been taken to immediately place greater emphasis on calibrations and related work in the most critical areas such as microwave power and attenuation, high temperature, infrared radiation, and engineering metrology. To facilitate liaison with those who use the Bureau's services, a new Technical Advisory Committee on Calibration and Measurement Services was established. The committee includes leaders in specialized fields drawn from industry, and will foster NBS-industry cooperation in precision measurement. It will advise the Bureau concerning current and anticipated needs of industry for measurement and calibration services, indicating the extent and relative urgency of these needs and suggesting how the Bureau's skills and resources may best be utilized toward meeting them.

The Bureau has also been working closely with the Department of Defense and its contractors to keep informed of new measurement problems and calibration needs. During 1961 a series of visits to the plants of Air Force contractors was made by a Joint NBS-U.S. Air Force Working Group on Standards. It was found that significant progress has been made in measurement standards activities over the past few years and in most plants a keen awareness of the need for highly accurate standards of physical measurement has developed. At the suggestion of several defense agencies, the Bureau's Electronic Calibration Center held a 5-day workshop on microwave frequency measurements for technical supervisors from standards laboratories in the Department of Defense.

The greatly increased activity in measurement standards throughout the country was indicated by proposals from various sources for the establishment of associations to deal with technical and administrative problems of the industrial standards laboratories that are being set up to serve as intermediaries in the calibration chain between NBS and industrial plants.