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 pro

posed 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

Washington, D.C., 20402 Price $1.00

Contents

Page

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1. General review....

Basic measurement standards .
Standard reference data..

National Standard Reference Data System.
Engineering measurement standards.
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..

A new standard of spectral irradiance.
Basis for color measurement amended.
Calibration of flashtubes ..
Fluorescent lamp measurements intercompared.
Equipment developed for calibrating thermal detectors.
Equipment developed for densitometric calibrations.
Refractive index of calcium fluoride.
Generalized lens-bending procedure developed.
Technique for deriving principal curvatures of wave fronts.
Image evaluation...
Measurement of wave fronts.
Stored microfilms inspected.
Microcopy chart designed
Method developed for measuring thiosulfate in processed film.
Length measurement research..
Thermal expansion measurement capability extended .
Wave-front-shearing interferometer.
Screw thread standardization...
Laser produces fringes over 200-meter path.
Cockpit lighting in TFX aircraft.
Accuracy of spectral transmittance standards investigated.

Goniophotometry
2.1.2. Mechanics.

Vibration amplitudes measured.
Microphone calibration ..
Portable tube designed for sound-absorption measurements.
Cavitation data obtained.
Measurement of impact sound transmission in buildings.
Infrasonic waves studied in the atmosphere and in the earth..
Audiometry research...
Improvements sought in pressure and vacuum measurements.
Computer techniques applied in turbulence studies .
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.
Static electric failure of aircraft engine fuel bose.
Reference tables for a new thermocouple to be established.
Flame speed inhibitors.
High-temperature thermocouples.

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