THE BUDGET FOR 1928

(Page 369) For structural materials, such as stone, clays, cement, etc., and for collecting and disseminating approved methods in building, planning and construction, economy in the manufacture and utilization of building materials and supplies, and such other matters as may tend to encourage, improve and cheapen construction and housing.

For the authority to do this the original Act of March 3, 1901, is quoted.

(Page 371) For investigation of fire-resisting properties of building materials and conditions under which they may be most efficiently used, and for the standardization of types of appliances for fire prevention.

The original act is also quoted as authority for this investigation:

(Page 375) "To study the methods of measurement and technical processes used in the manufacture of pottery, brick, tile, terra cotta, and other clay products, and the study of the properties of the materials used in that industry." The original Act is again cited.

(Page 376) "To develop methods of testing and standardizing machines, motors, tools, measuring instruments,. and other apparatus and devices used in mechanical, hydraulic, and aeronautic engineering. " The original Act is cited.

(Page 377) "To investigate textiles, paper, leather and rubber, in order to develop standards of quality and methods of measurement." Original Act cited.

(Page 380) "For investigating the conditions and methods of use of scales and mine cars used for weighing and measuring coal dug by miners for the purpose of determining wages due and of conditions affecting the accuracy of the weighing or measuring coal at the mines." Original Act quoted.

Again on the same page: "For metallurgical research, including alloy steels, foundry practice and standards for metals and sand; casting, rolling, forging, and the properties of aluminum alloys; prevention of erosion of metals and alloys; development of metal substitutes; as for platinum; behaviour of bearing metals; preparation of metal specifications; investigation of new metallurgical processes and studies of methods of conservation in metallurgical manufacture and products; investigation of materials used in the construction of rails; wheels, axles, and other railway equipment; and the cause of their failure." Again the original Act is cited.

(Page 381) "For laboratory and field investigations of suitable methods of high temperature measurements and control in various industrial processes, and to assist in making available directly to the industries the results of the Bureau's investigations in this field." Same Act is cited.

(Page 382) "For the investigations of the principles of sound and their application to military and industrial purposes." Same Act cited.

(Again on the same page) "For technical investigations in cooperation with the industries upon fundamental problems involved in industrial development following the war with a view to assisting in the permanent establishment of the new American industries." Same Act cited.

(Page 384) "To enable the Bureau of Standards to cooperate with Government departments, engineers and manufacturers in the establishment of standards, methods of testing and inspection of instruments, equipment, tools, and electrical and mechanical devices used by the industries and by the Government, including the practical specifications of quality and performance of such devices and the formulation of methods of inspection, laboratory and service tests." Same Act cited.

(Page 388) "During the fiscal year, 1928, the head of any Departmed or independent establishment of the Government having funds available for scientific investigation and requiring cooperative work by the Bureau of Standards on scientific investigations within the scope of the functions of that Bureau, and which the Bureau of Standards is unable to perform within the limits of its appropriations, may, with the approval of the Secretary of Commerce, transfer to the Bureau of Standards such sums as may be necessary to carry on such investigations."

These transferred funds in 1926 amounted to $173,250. They were used to investigate oil pollution, radio direction for the coast guard, helium recorders, chromium plating, corrosion, fatigue and embrittlement of duralumin, electrically charged dust, optical glass, substitutes for parachute silk, goldbeaters skin, storage batteries, internal combustion engines, fuels, lubricants, photographic emulsions, stresses in riveted joints, machine guns, bomb ballistics, rope and cordage, chemical and metallurgical tests, wind tunnel tests of models, aircraft engines, velocity of flame in explosives, etc.

According to Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, one of the largest publications of the American Chemical Society, the Bureau of Standards has just completed an investigation of the suitability of caroa fiber for paper making, also the development of suitable lubricants for glass stopcocks.

Since the publication of budget estimates, a supplemental grant of funds to the Bureau of Standards has been submitted by the budget authorities, to the amount of $50,000, to enable the Bureau of Standards to investigate farm wastes. These illustrations show how in nearly all cases the Bureau has introduced the word "standardization" or "measurement" in some way to connect these miscellaneous investigations into everything under the skies with the original Act. This Act is cited as authority for these universal studies which can in no way be connected with the basic idea of the standards implied in the hearings.