"NBS works very closely with private standards making bodies, of which there are some 500 in the United States." "In 1961, NBS sponsored the establishment of the National Conference of Standards Laboratories, and has acted as its secretariat ever since. The NCSL is a continuing, nonprofit, laboratory-oriented organization to promote cooperative efforts toward solving common standards and measurement problems. Its members include standards laboratories of individual companies, universities, independent laboratories, and those in other Government agencies." "Finally, our laboratory facilities are shared with industry itself. The most effective mechanism is our Research Associate Program," see page 3. Legislative Report Four proposed legislative acts affecting the Bureau were considered by the Congress during the fiscal year. The Flammable Fabrics Act (PL 90-189) was amended on December 14, 1967. The Fire Research and Safety Act of 1968 became law on March 1, 1968. The Standard Reference Data Act was signed into law on July 11, 1968. Also, a bill authorizing the Secretary of Commerce to conduct a study of the metric system was under consideration. (This law was subsequently passed by the Congress and signed into law August 9, 1968.) Flammable Fabrics Act The 1967 amendments to the Flammable Fabrics Act (PL 90–189) make certain provisions for a more effective attack on the overall problem of deaths, injuries, and economic losses resulting from fires involving fabrics and related materials, and products made from them. They extended the coverage of the Act to include all articles of wearing apparel and, if the need is shown, items of interior furnishings. They provide the authority for establishing standards and required levels of performance, with certain operational safeguards; the conduct of investigations of the extent of deaths, injuries and economic losses resulting from fire involving garments and interior furnishings; research into the flammability of fabrics and related materials; the development of test methods and revised or new standards; training in the use of the test methods and devices; and provisions for the enforcement of the amended Act. Under the Act, the Department of Commerce, mainly through NBS, is responsible for research into the flammability of materials and the feasibility of reducing that flammability, development of test methods and apparatus, training in their use, and for the establishment of standards and regulations concerning fabrics and related materials as used in wearing apparel or interior furnishings. The legislation requires the Secretary of Commerce to consider the results of research and investigations in determining that a hazard exists and that a standard or regulation, or a revision thereof, is needed to protect the public. Fire Research and Safety Act The Fire Research and Safety Act of 1968 (PL 90-250) authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to conduct, or through contracts or grants to carry out: 1. Investigations of fire causes, severity, frequency, or other pertinent factors; 2. Research into the causes and nature of fires and the development of improved methods and techniques for fire prevention, fire control, and reduction of death, personal injury, and property damage; 3. Educational programs to inform the public of fire hazards and fire safety techniques and encourage the avoidance of such hazards; 4. Fire information reference services including the collection, analysis, and dissemination of data and research results related to fire protection, control, and reduction of deaths or property loss. 5. Educational and training programs for among other things the improved efficiency, operation, and organization of fire services; and 6. Demonstration projects in support of fire prevention, fire safety principles in constructions, and improved fire services. Further, the Secretary is to support the development of fire safety and protection engineering or science curriculums, and fire safety courses, seminars, or other instruction materials and aids for courses of instruction. NBS will play a significant role in carrying out these activities. Standard Reference Data Act A National system for providing badly needed scientific data to science and industry was authorized by the Standard Reference Data Act which became law on July 11, 1968. The law authorizes NBS to coordinate the program. The Bureau has had a standard reference data operation for three years, but additional authority given by the new law will strengthen and increase the effectiveness of the system. The main purpose of the standard reference data program is to make readily available to the Nation's scientists and engineers data on the properties of matter and materials-melting points, electrical resistance, strength, and many more. Such data are essential for picking the proper material for making a space probe or a toaster, or any other manufactured item. TWO KEY STANDARDS PROGRAMS The role of the National Bureau of Standards as a source of scientific and technical expertise to industry, commerce, science, and Government is clearly evident in two key programs designed to provide highly reliable information and materials to users throughout the world. A STANDARD REFERENCE DATA PROGRAM provides critically evaluated quantitative information relating to a property of a definable substance or system. A STANDARD REFERENCE MATERIALS PROGRAM provides well-characterized materials that can be used to calibrate a measurement system or to produce scientific data that can be readily referred to a common base. These two programs have much in common, as their titles imply. Both are the result of ready-made measurement. Both produce a highly reliable product which foster a user's capability to make meaningful measurements. Both are economically efficient-reference data because they are not exhausted by continued use and reference materials because they are accurately reproducible on a mass production basis. And most important, both serve a critical and wide-spread measurement need in the United States and are important in the development of new areas of international standardization. THE NATIONAL STANDARD REFERENCE Improvement in the effectiveness of the Nation's system for scientific and technical information is currently a matter of great popular concern. Much is being said and written about the flow of information from the generator to the user, and much is being done to try to speed the process. The Chemical Abstracts Service of the American Chemical Society is in the midst of a long-range program designed to increase the retrievability of information within its concern [1]. The American Institute of Physics has embarked on a comprehensive study of means to make the world's output of information in physics more readily available to individual users [2]; the Engineers Joint Council has a similar program [3]. The Atomic Energy Commission, the Department of Defense, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and other major Federal agencies are all increasing their efforts to improve the use of information generated within their technical programs. The President's Office of Science and Technology and the President's Science Advisory Committee maintain continuing efforts to review developments and to stimulate new initiatives for improvement. Indeed, a report of the President's Science Advisory Committee has provided basic guidelines for the development of governmental activities since its appearance five years ago [4]. History of the Program Government interest in all these activities is coordinated through the Federal Council for Science and Technology by means of its Committee on Scientific and Technical Information (COSATI). The initiative of COSATI and its parent council led to establishment in 1963 of the National Standard Reference Data System, a federal interagency activity concerned with one aspect of the broad problem of scientific and technical information-that of providing better access by the American technical community to compilations of critically evaluated data on the properties of substances. Such compilations have been among the basic tools of scientists and engineers throughout the history of technology; each practitioner owns at least one handbook containing table after table of data on the properties of the substances and systems that he deals with daily. Systematic compilations of data also contribute in a fundamental way to progress at the forefront of science. Samuel Goudsmit [5] recently emphasized this importance with the following words: "Experimental results in measurements are the backbone of physics. No theory is acceptable unless it agrees with the experimental data. Conversely, a systematic study of experimental results can suggest new theoretical approaches. Tables and graphs of numerical data therefore play an important role in the progress of physics. . . . It is thus obvious that specialized data compilations are of great importance and should have the full cooperation of those producing the data. It is also clear that modern computer techniques can handle such data more efficiently than old tabulations could, especially since their number and variety are growing so rapidly." Since the numerical data that result from measurements of properties normally appear somewhere in the world's literature, why not let the individual scientist or engineer look them up whenever he needs a value? There are two major reasons why this procedure is not efficient. First, it is often very difficult to locate a desired value among the millions of papers stored in a technical library; searching indexes, abstracts, and papers can consume many hours. Second, conflicting values |