During the year the Bureau participated in several meetings initiated by representatives of industrial standards laboratories to determine the need for and possible role of an association of standards laboratories.

A three-volume Handbook entitled Precision Measurement and Calibration was issued to provide a “textbook" and reference source for the many scientists and engineers who must be trained in the shortest possible time to fill responsible positions within the new standards laboratories. This 2800page Handbook is a compilation of technical papers on measurement and calibration by the NBS staff. The three volumes, extensive as they are, include only a fraction of the Bureau's work relating to measurement; however, supplementary references are listed and many of the reprinted papers include bibliographies in this field.

An important medium for the exchange of information on electronic measurements was the Conference on Standards and Electronic Measurements, during the summer of 1960, at the Boulder Laboratories. Sponsored jointly by the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the Institute of Radio Engineers, and NBS, the three-day meeting was attended by more than 800 scientists and engineers from industry, universities, and Government. The Bureau also cooperated with the American Institute of Physics and the Instrument Society of America in sponsoring a Symposium on Temperature Its Measurement and Control in Science and Industry, held in Columbus, Ohio, March 27-31. More than 250 papers were presented at this Symposium, the fourth in a series begun in 1919.

The nature and scope of the activity in calibration and testing are shown for fiscal year 1961 in tables 1 and 2. A total of 129,540 calibrations and tests were performed for Government and industry.

Closely related to the calibration effort is the standard materials program (table 3). During the past year the Bureau distributed 78,148 samples of standard materials to other laboratories for use in controlling chemical processes and in maintaining the accuracy of apparatus and equipment. Over 600 different standard materials are at present available-principally chemicals, ceramics, metals, ores, and radioactive nuclides. All are certified either for chemical composition or with respect to a specific physical or chemical property such as melting point, viscosity, color, or index of refraction.

Cooperative Activities

The Bureau cooperates extensively with Federal, State, and local governments; with national professional societies and standardizing bodies; and with many international groups. In this way the results of Bureau research are brought to bear on many current problems of science and industry, particularly those relating to measurement standards, building and safety codes, engineering and purchase specifications, and test methods.

Cooperation with other Federal agencies ranges from the supplying of technical information upon request to long-range projects undertaken through

various scientific and technical committees. An important example of interagency cooperation is the development of Government specifications and test methods. During the year at the request of the General Services Administration, the Bureau accepted responsibility for developing and maintaining 7 additional Federal Specifications, making a total of 157 for which it now has this responsibility. The Bureau also reviewed approximately 400 proposed specifications both for GSA and for other agencies to determine their suitability for use by the Federal Government.

Cooperation with State and municipal governments is principally in the field of weights and measures. Although the Bureau itself does not have regulatory powers, it offers technical advice and consultation to local regulatory bodies and it calibrates and adjusts State standards of weights and measures. A major medium of cooperation is the National Conference on Weights and Measures. Thirty-five States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada, and the United Kingdom were officially represented at the 46th annual meeting of this Conference, held in Washington, D.C., June 12– 16, under NBS sponsorship.

Through the participation of Bureau staff members in the work of national professional societies and standardizing bodies, the Bureau plays an active role in the development of test methods and criteria, in the application of scientific discoveries, and in fundamental research programs of national scope. During the past year Bureau staff members held 1,250 committee memberships in 150 national groups such as the American Society for Testing Materials, the American Standards Association, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Chemical Society, Institute of Radio Engineers, and Instrument Society of America.

In many of these groups NBS staff members work with industry to provide codes and specifications, standard test methods, and standard data on the properties of engineering materials. To help the Bureau cooperate with industry in these areas, a new Technical Advisory Committee on Engi neering and Related Standards was established. This Committee will be concerned with national needs in the general field of standard practices and will seek to maintain awareness of the efforts of private organizations in this field, fostering cooperative programs and recommending use of the Bureau's special competence where needed.

Other means of Bureau-industry cooperation include the Research Associate Plan and the donor program. Under the Research Associate Plan, technical, industrial, and commercial organizations can support work at the Bureau that is of special interest to them, yet of sufficient general interest to justify use of Government facilities. The work is done by research associates who are paid by the sponsor but otherwise function as members of the Bureau staff. At the present time 11 groups are supporting research associates at the Bureau (appendix, p. 175).

The donor program was authorized in 1950 by Public Law 619 under which the Bureau may accept funds for the purpose of furthering its work. This

arrangement permits individuals as well as technical, industrial, and commercial organizations to support work at the Bureau when the results are expected to be of value to the general public. During the past year, eight projects were supported by gifts from six organizations (p. 175).

On an international basis, the Bureau represents the interest of the Government and American science in matters dealing with the establishment and maintenance of standards and establishment of values for scientific constants. Most of this work is done through participation in a large number of international groups such as the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, International Scientific Radio Union, International Commission on Illumination, and International Organization for Standardization. Approximately 124 staff members attended meetings of international societies during the fiscal year.

In October 1960 the Director of the National Bureau of Standards and the Chief of the NBS Metrology Division attended the 11th General Conference on Weights and Measures, in Paris, as head and member, respectively, of the American delegation. An outstanding accomplishment of this Conference was the adoption of a new international standard of length-a wavelength of light-replacing the meter bar which had served as the standard for over 70 years. The meter was thus defined as 1,650,763.73 wavelengths of the orange-red line of the isotope krypton 86. Other actions taken by the Conference included the establishment of a central facility at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures for international coordination of radiation measurements, confirmation of a new definition of the second of time in terms of the tropical year 1900, and adoption of refinements in the scales for temperature measurements.

In April 1961 the National Bureau of Standards was represented at the Pan American Standards Committee Meeting in Montevideo, Uruguay, by an Associate Director and a Consultant to the Director. These staff members also visited several other South American countries to confer with representatives of Government and industry regarding the development and promotion of standards for Latin American raw materials and semi-manufactured products, to discuss exchange of personnel between NBS and Latin American standards laboratories, and to inquire into the effect on commerce and trade of the disparity between the English units of measurement used in the United States and the metric system employed in Latin American countries. Another aspect of international cooperation involves a program whereby scientists or diplomatic representatives from other countries are accepted at the Bureau as guest workers or visitors. Approximately 1,100 foreign scientists and technicians, representing 61 countries, visited the Bureau during the year. Forty-five of these visitors were specialists who came as guest workers to spend from 1 to 12 months in cooperative research. Twenty were trainees who were being prepared for leadership in the national laboratories of their own countries.

Administrative Activities

A number of administrative changes were made as part of the Bureau's efforts to meet the expanding needs of modern science and technology. The divisional reorganization which began in 1960 was completed in 1961 with the subdivision of the former Chemistry Division into two more cohesive divisions: Analytical and Inorganic Chemistry, and Physical Chemistry. In another change, the technical Associate Directors were relieved of responsibility for supervision of particular divisions so that they could spend full time in staff work for the Director and Deputy Director. (See appendix, p. 159, for revised organization.) Also, advisory committees of outside experts were set up in the areas of calibration and measurement services (p. 171), and engineering and related standards (p. 171).

In addition to the existing technical advisory panels appointed by the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council (appendix 3.4), a special NAS-NRC study was initiated on the Bureau's building research. program. The study implements a recommendation of the 1960 report to the Secretary of Commerce by NAS-NRC on the role of the Department in science and technology.

On June 14, Secretary of Commerce Luther H. Hodges broke ground for a new Engineering Mechanics Laboratory. This laboratory is included, along with the power plant and initial site development work, in the first construction contract let for the Bureau's new research center at Gaithersburg, Md. At the Boulder Laboratories construction of a sixth wing for the main laboratory building was well under way.

At the end of the year, the total staff was about 3,900 persons, slightly less than one-third of them at the Boulder Laboratories. Appendix 3.2 gives further data on staffing.

Two new types of positions were established during the year: Senior Research Fellow and Senior Visiting Scientist. Their purpose is to afford recognition to distinguished scientists and to enable them to do independent research and consultation of a broad character beyond the scope of a particular division.

Funds obligated during the year totaled $52,244,000 including $13,406,000 for facilities. Of the $32,812,000 total for the research and development effort, $19,578,000 came from the direct appropriation for Research and Technical Services and $13,234,000 from other agencies and private sources. In addition, calibration, testing, and other services totaled $6,026,000. A more complete presentation of financial data is contained in appendix 3.3.

One of the groups interested in the Bureau's future capabilities is the House Committee on Space and Astronautics. After hearings with Bureau officials, the Committee published a report (House Report No. 711, 87th Congress, 1st Session) which included the following:

"The Bureau of Standards provides a number of services to industry and commerce, to the scientific community generally, and to Federal agencies. . . . its range of interest has, perhaps, a wider scope than that of any other Federal research institution.

"The programs of the Bureau are a large contribution to the work of scientists and engineers of the country. They provide a technical foundation for space, military, and atomic energy programs. Technology and research and development in technological fields play an ever increasingly important part in the life of today. Dr. A. V. Astin, Director of the National Bureau of Standards, sums up this situation as follows:

'By almost any measure, the growth of science and technology in this century has been phenomenal. Regardless of whether we look at the rapidly increasing number of scientists, the greatly increased amounts of funds applied to research and development, the staggering growth in the volume of technical literature, or the tremendous multiplication of new devices and materials from our industrial machines, we find a rate of expansion very much in excess of the rate at which the general population is increasing.

'For some time the rate of growth of the U.S. population has been doubling about every 50 years whereas the number of scientists in several of the major disciplines has been doubling about every 10 years. Comparable exponential growth rates are found with other indices of scientific progress."

In light of the growth picture, efforts were continued and extended to determine present and future needs for standards of measurement and associated calibration services. Within the Bureau a more systematic procedure was adopted for evaluation of current programs. Also, program planning began to be projected further into the future as part of the Government-wide effort to develop tentative budget estimates for at least five years in advance.

Publications

Publications are a major end product of the Bureau's research effort. They are the principal means by which the results of NBS projects are made available to science and technology. The publications of the Bureau are therefore suggestive of the scope and level of its technical program. During the year these totaled 937 formally published papers and documents. In addition some 390 classified and unclassified reports were issued to other Government agencies.

A major publication of the year was Precision Measurement and Calibration (Handbook 77). This three volume Handbook (p. 14) is a compilation of the more important NBS publications of recent years dealing with precision measurement and the calibration of standards.

Another three-volume reference work was completed with the publication of part III of Screw Thread Standards for Federal Services (Handbook 28). This Handbook represents the work of the Interdepartmental Screw Thread Committee, which is sponsored by the Departments of Defense, Army, Navy, Air Force, and Commerce to promote uniformity in screw-thread standards in the Departments concerned.

Other significant reference works were X-ray Protection Up to Three Million Volts (Handbook 76), which gives National Committee on Radiation Protection and Measurements recommended safety standards in this field; and Bibliography of Temperature Measurement (Monograph 27) which contains more than 500 references published between January 1953 and June 1960 in the field of temperature measurement.