The headquarters of the National Bureau of Standards is located in Gaithersburg, Maryland. As the country's oldest national laboratory, the National Bureau of Standards started working on measurement problems just after the turn of the century. Seventy-eight years later, we are still providing the Nation with the scientific foundations needed for accurate measurements, and we are continuing to serve as a resource of technical support and advice for the Federal Government. Science and technology have changed tremendously since NBS first opened its doors. Basic measurement science has become much more sophisticated, and our technical challenges have become increasingly complex and numerous. In many respects, NBS has changed too. Judging by our expanded Congressional mandates and the variety of research areas we are engaged in, the need for the Bureau's research and assistance in solving national science- and technology-related problems has grown substantially. We have tried to keep pace with the times and this country's needs, carrying out the scientific and technical tasks that are consistent with our multiple missions. This means that in addition to working to provide a better scientific basis for measurements, our researchers have been involved with the tasks of improving industrial productivity, promoting better materials use, using energy efficiently, and other societal challenges. We have now launched a special effort to renew and enhance our technical competences in research areas critical to the Nation and basic to our goals. This strengthening of technical excellence is designed to ensure that the Bureau can continue to provide the underpinning essential to our ability as a Nation to make strides in top priority and emerging research fields. Even as we build for the future, the Bureau is carrying out today's work. This report summarizes a number of significant NBS accomplishments during fiscal year 1978. There were, of course, many more. In fact, the Bureau is working on literally hundreds of projects at any one time. One of our prime goals is to make NBS work more accessible to the Bureau's varied users in industry, academia, government, and the general public. We encourage you to ask for more details on Bureau projects. To help you use the information resulting from our research, an appropriate NBS laboratory or office is noted for each project cited in this report along with a list of selected publications. You will also find a Directory with names, addresses, and phone numbers. Feel free to call on us. R. Ambler. From the outset in 1901 when it was established by Congress, the National Bureau of Standards has been a national scientific and technical resource working in the public interest. As the Nation's central reference laboratory for measurements in the physical sciences and engineering, NBS develops, maintains, improves, and disseminates hundreds of measurement standards. These include the fundamental standards relied upon for temperature, time and frequency, mass, amount of substance (mole), length, and electrical measurements. The methods for making these measurements and the standards themselves are needed by scientists, engineers, and medical practitioners, as well as business managers and consumers. These techniques and standards are used in thousands of ways each day, constituting the Nation's underlying measurement network. Over the course of its 78 years, NBS has also been a technological problemsolver and an unbiased source of scientific and technological advice for the Nation. From the very start-and now more than ever before-the Bureau has used the technical know-how it has developed in meeting its measurement and standards responsibilities to answer problems that the Congress, other government agencies, or industry bring to it. Whatever the challenge, if it involves measurement in any way, NBS has probably been working on the answers-or helping others to find the solutions. The Bureau is not a regulatory agency, so it does not mandate or At left, physicist Louis Holdeman describes the NBS electrical measurements facilities to a delegation from the Peoples Republic of China. Above, DOC Assistant Secretary for Science and Technology Jordan J. Baruch and members of the delegation look on as Robert Crowder demonstrates NBS literature retrieval operations. enforce any standards. Rather, NBS provides the technical basis for the actual selection and application of standards by government agencies or domestic and international voluntary standards organizations. A part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Bureau's staff of 3,150 includes a large contingent of scientists and engineers in just about every specialization, along with mathematicians, economists, architects, and professionals in a variety of other disciplines. This depth and breadth of expertise is one of the reasons why the Bureau has always been viewed differently and relied upon by a very diverse clientele in industry, government, and academia. • To research scientists in university, corporate, or government laboratories, NBS is a source of reference materials, data, and standards that are needed to calibrate equipment, make essential calculations, or improve measurement techniques. • To engineers involved in product or system design-whether it be a waste incineration plant, a super-sensitive microelectronic device, or an energyefficient refrigerator-the Bureau is an authoritative distributor of technical guidelines and standards. To Federal and local government officials administering energy, materials, or any number of research. programs, the Bureau is an independent laboratory that performs research with objectivity and technical soundness. To those making decisions about consumer protection, environmental quality, and public safety regulations, NBS is an |