Annual report of the director, Bureau of Standards, 1921

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1922
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 157 KB
• Volume: 193
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-0032
• DOI: 10.1016/s0016-0032(22)90795-1

✦ Synopsis

IN conformity with the general policy of the Government in restricting expenditures wherever possible without serious detriment to the public service, the Bureau of Standards has, during the fiscal year ended June 3 ° , 192I, confined its activities to the more urgent research problems and testing. This has necessarily meant a curtailment in various directions, but it is believed that from the point of view of value received for money expended the year covered by the last annual report of the Director of the Bureau to the Secretary of Commerce has been a notable one.

Close co6peration with the industries and other Government departments, both National and State, has been continued with satisfactory results. The number of tests completed during the year was 67,398 for the Government and 26,638 for the public, a total of 94,036 tests of all sorts. It should be remembered that this work has been carried out with smaller expenditures and a reduced personnel.

During the year the staff of the Bureau has been composed on an average of 342 statutory employees and 508 engaged in special research work authorized by Congress. This is a total of 850 as compared with 981, the average for last year. However, there has been a decided improvement in turn-over of the personnel and the more staMe conditions existing during the fiscal year now under consideration have improved the quality of the research work.

Important progress was made during the year in the recomparison of the Bureau's fundamental standards of measurement, and the condition of these is steadily improving.

The Annual Conference on Weights and Measures held on May 23-26 was largely attended ; several important questions were considered, including the sale of bread by weight, specifications and tolerances for liquid nleasuring devices, and the methods of weighing coal.