The groups to be served by the specialized services of the National Bureau of Standards were well defined by the Congress at the time the Bureau was founded. The Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures in recommending to the House of Representatives in May of 1900 that a National Bureau of Standards be established, said: "It is therefore the unanimous opinion of your committee that no more essential aid could be given to manufacturing, commerce, the makers of scientific apparatus, the scientific work of the Government, of schools, colleges and universities, than by the establishment of the institution proposed in this bill." This statement, which provides an enduring focus for the activities of the Bureau, will be engraved in stone in the lobby of the Administration Building at the new laboratory site near Gaithersburg, Maryland. A. V. ASTIN, Director, National Bureau of Standards. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE Luther H. Hodges, Secretary J. Herbert Hollomon, Assistant Secretary for Science and Technology For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office 1. General review... Contents Basic measurement standards. Standard reference data.. National Standard Reference Data System. Standard reference materials. Special central missions. Radio propagation. Data-processing systems. Building research. Consulting services. Background research. Internal support activities. International activities.. Administrative activities. Publications and technical information. 2. Highlights of the research program. 2.1. Physics, electronics, and measurement standards. 2.1.1. Metrology. Generalized lens-bending procedure developed.. Technique for deriving principal curvatures of wave fronts. Measurement of wave fronts. Length measurement research.. Wave-front-shearing interferometer. Method developed for measuring thiosulfate in processed film.. Thermal expansion measurement capability extended. Screw thread standardization... Laser produces fringes over 200-meter path. Cockpit lighting in TFX aircraft.. Accuracy of spectral transmittance standards investigated. 2.1.2. Mechanics. Vibration amplitudes measured. Microphone calibration.. Portable tube designed for sound-absorption measurements. Measurement of impact sound transmission in buildings. Improvements sought in pressure and vacuum measurements. Boundary layer instability and effect of roughness. Standards designed for million-pound forces. Compact precision centrifuge constructed. Rheological constitutive equations. Review of volume relaxations in polymers. Hypersonic combustion.. Reference fuel control test facilities operated at the Bureau. High-temperature thermocouples. Page 1 2 7 8 11 14 14 15 15 15 18 19 19 21 24 26 26 26 27 27 28 28 28 29 30 30 30 31 31 31 31 32 32 32 32 33 33 33 33 34 34 35 35 35 36 36 36 38 38 39 39 40 41 41 41 42 42 43 43 44 44 |