A Cryogenic Heat-Flow-Meter Apparatus

During the 1920s, the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) greatly expanded the kinds of activities it undertook, leading to a sense that the agency was ubiquitous. Some of the agency’s new activities were quasi-regulatory: they sought to shape markets and make products safer. The bureau was a part of the Department of Commerce, and its expansion of market-shaping activities took place when Herbert Hoover was Commerce Secretary. In Ellis Hawley’s influential, oft-repeated interpretation of the bureau’s actions during this period, Hoover pioneered an “associational” mode of governance that emphasized industry self-regulation and rational coordination via conferences, trade associations, and other gatherings. In this essay I show how the NBS under Hoover went well beyond fostering industry self-regulation, thus suggesting the need to revise Hawley’s interpretation. This essay is divided into two main sections: the first section examines the thinking of George K. Burgess, who rose to head the NBS in the early 1920s and who put forth an ambitious vision for the bureau’s role in society, particularly around its potential to improve products on the market. The second section then examines one case of the agency’s proliferation of new organizational routines, namely those around the automobile. A close consideration of Burgess and the NBS’s new routines indicates that the NBS extended its reach far beyond its traditional bounds. Most of these novel efforts were aimed at increasing the market’s virtues.

Authors

The material contained herein was collected from two general sources: (1) scientific, technical, and trade journals and (2) reports of investigations sponsored or conducted by various governmental agencies. The material is an addition to the references and bibliographies appended to the other sections of the manual, the National Bureau of Standards' papers edited by Swindells, and the National Bureau of Standards' bibliography edited by Freeze and Parker, both of which are listed herein. The entries are generally for the period 1963 to 1967, with a few earlier and later items that were brought to our attention. Because of the rapid expansion of the technology, the list does not claim to be exhaustive. Not all of the items are necessarily of current interest, since a few years have made obsolete many that can now be considered only source material of historic interest.

The National Bureau of Standards ' was established by an act of Congress March 3. 1901.Today, in addition to serving as the Nation's central measurement laboratory, the Bureau is a principal focal point in the Federal Government

Some of the calibration services offered to industry and other governmental agencies by the National Bureau of Standard's Radio Standards Laboratory are discussed. The emphasis is placed on field strength measurements and related calibration services at frequencies from 30 Hz to 12 GHz. These include the calibration of 3 basic types of antennas: (1) Loop antennas, (2) Half-wave dipole antennas and (3) Horn antennas. Methods of calibrating these antennas are described and illustrated. A discussion of calibration problems at microwave frequencies emphasizes the measurement errors as related to the antenna and receiver voltage standing wave ratios (VSWR). Antenna and receiver VSWR's are exemplified, and corresponding measurement errors are shown. Methods of estimating errors are given. The National Bureau of Standards recently designed and constructed some antenna standards for both the Air Force and the Navy. These standards were designed to calibrate loop and half-wave dipole antennas. The frequency range is 10 kHz to 1000 MHz. These antenna standards are briefly described and illustrated. The future plans for the development of antenna standards and broadband EMC standards at the National Bureau of Standards are discussed. Work is in progress in areas of impulse generators, random noise generators, and other instruments.

The Chemical Propulsion Information Agency (CPIA) and Technology Applications, Inc. (TAI), in collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has reconstructed and updated the database of the former National Bureau of Standards (NBS) Cryogenic Data Center. NBS maintained a database of cryogenic technical documents that served the national need until the early 1980s. The electronic database, maintained on a mainframe computer, was a highly specific bibliography of cryogenic literature and thermophysical-property data that covered 100 years of data. However, since then, the database has not been maintained for use. We have undertaken a project to convert the NBS database to a personal-computer (PC) platform and to backfill the database with citations of cryogenic literature dating from 1980 up to the present.

TESTING OF WATER-HEATING COLLECTORS ACCORDING TO ASHRAE STANDARD 93-77

Introduction: The purpose of this study is to estimate the color stability of two commercially available acrylic resin teeth and the effect of three types of medications after thermocycling, by spectrophotometric analysis. Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of three types of medications – iron syrup, cough syrup, and digestive syrup on the color stability of two commercially available acrylic resin denture teeth after thermocycling. Materials and Methods: Total 160 samples were divided into two main groups. The samples were first thermocycled and randomly divided into subgroups according to the respective brands and were subjected to baseline spectrophotometric measurement and then immersed in respective medication solutions. After 4 weeks, color measurements were recorded for all samples. Color differences were determined by ΔE* and National Bureau of Standards units (NBS units). Results: After ΔE evaluation, control groups had values A1 (0.509) and B1 (0.498). Color differences with ΔE values above 3.7 were observed in all the test subgroups. When the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) values were evaluated, iron syrup was observed to cause “much” change in both the subgroups A2 (7.835) and B2 (7.843), but more color change was observed in B2. Conclusion: Acry Rock denture teeth were more color stable than Rolex in three medications. Most chromogenic staining medication was found to be iron syrup, which caused “much” color changes, followed by digestive syrup. Moreover, the least staining medication was cough syrup, which caused “appreciable” color changes according to the NBS critical remarks of color differences.

The National Bureau of Standards (NBS) is a national technical resource to U. S. industries and government agencies and provides the nation with a foundation for its measurements. NBS performs research to establish basic and reference standards and to develop measurement techniques both to disseminate these standards and in response to technological needs. Microwave and millimeter wave noise standards and measurement techniques that represent the frontiers of noise measurements will be discussed. These include capabilities in the measurement of noise temperature and excess noise ratio, noise figure (or noise factor), and the use of radio stars to measure system gain to system noise temperature for satellite ground stations. Some comments will be included about efforts to develop the stability of various noise sources and the measures for oscillator noise.

The Automated Manufacturing Research Facility (AMRF) being implemented at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) involves the development of a software system integrating the various information processing, communications and data storage functions required in a totally automated manufacturing environment. The project contains a five year software development effort by more than thirty research staff organizationally partitioned into many units working concurrently on different parts of the system and supplemented by software acquired through procurement or contractual effort. As the facility is implemented in modular blocks, new software development will be undertaken as research into factory automation technology continues. The Automated Manufacturing Research Facility (AMRF) being implemented at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) involves the development of a software system integrating the various information processing, communications and data storage functions required in a totally automated manufacturing environment. The project contains a five year software development effort by more than thirty research staff organizationally partitioned into many units working concurrently on different parts of the system and supplemented by software acquired through procurement or contractual effort. As the facility is implemented in modular blocks, new software development will be undertaken as research into factory automation technology continues.In such a research environment, a system is needed for maintaining documentation for the software life cycle for the following purposes: (1) tracking progress of individual module development, (2) allowing for the availability of up-to-date information on module description to other members of the project who need to interface to a given module, (3) developing a cross reference of module and data element relationships, (4) providing a documentation format that includes specific reporting requirements to upper level management, and (5) generating working level documentation that can be easily modified and serve as an up-to-date reference for anyone with interest in the project or special subproject.This paper describes the structure of a software system that is functioning in a research environment and satisfies the following design constraints: (I) provide minimum additional effort on the part of the system developers, and (2) reflect the structured thinking of the developer during the software life cycle.The key to such a management system is the early documentation of the system modules identified through a decomposition of all functions from the integrated system down to the lowest level subroutines. Each component module of the system has a group of seven documents to track it through the life cycle. The decomposition provides each developer with an understanding of where his module fits into the overall system and permits module documentation to be produced that can be limited to just a few pages. The documenter is encouraged to enter information as it becomes known so that the system always reflects the latest status of the research effort.The automated system is being developed as an on-line interactive menu-driven system that allows the developer to enter information about his modules. The final system version will be capable of the following functions: (1) full-screen editing, (2) menu driven interface between the user and the system, (3) cross referencing between module and data elements, (4) generation of reports, (5) generation of work schedules, (6) monitoring of system milestones, (7) checking for appropriate information, and (8) managing a data element dictionary.

A beam port has been installed at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) reactor by the University of Maryland group in cooperation with the NBS staff in order to initiate studies of a new analytical technique: neutron-capture prompt ..gamma..-ray activation analysis (PGAA). A detection system based on a large, high resolution Ge(Li) detector surrounded by NaI crystal has been developed for measurement of prompt ..gamma.. rays from 80 keV to 11 MeV. With a temporary external beam tube in place, neutron and ..gamma..-ray backgrounds were investigated prior to design and construction of a well-shielded beam tube and massive shielding for the detection system. With the backgrounds suitably low, it has been possible to investigate ..gamma..-ray spectra of a wide range of samples. These spectra are being carefully analyzed to identify species contributing the observed lines. Whenever an element's presence is suspected. Standards of the pure element or simple compounds are irradiated to determine its complete spectrum. This is necessary in order to determine which lines are useful for analytical purposes and which have interferences from other elements. From the results to date, it appears that PGAA will be able to measure the following elements in many types of samples: H, B, C, N, Na, Al, Si, S, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, V, Mn, Fe, Cd, Sm, and Gd. Many other elements will be measurable in certain classes of samples. Furthermore, the list of elements is incomplete, as not all lines have yet been identified in the spectra. The quantitative application of the method is being tested using a wide range of NBS Standard Reference Materials whose elemental compositions are well characterized. Measurements are reported for about fourteen elements in several standards. In general, the agreement with previous measurements is quite good.

Fluid Exchange at the Margins of Dental Restorations

The National Bureau of Standards ' was established by an act of Congress March 3, 1901 . Today, in addition to serving as the Nation's central measurement laboratory, the Bur'eau is a principal focal point in the Federal Government for assuring maximum application of the physical and engineering sciences to the advancement of technology in industry and commerce. To this end the Bureau conducts research and provides central national services in four broad program areas. These are: (1) basic measurements and standards, (2) materials measurements and standards, (3) technological measurements and standards, and (4) transfer of technology.

The National Bureau of Standards is a principal focal point in the Federal Government for assuring maximum application of the physical and engineering sciences to the advancement of technology in industry and commerce.Its responsibilities include development and maintenance of the national stand ards of measurement, and the provisions of means for making measurements consistent with those standards; determination of physical constants and properties of materials; development of methods for testing materials, mechanisms, and structures, and making such tests as may be necessary, particu larly for government agencies; cooperation in the establishment of standard practices for incorpora tion in codes and specifications; advisory service to government agencies on scientific and technical problems; invention and development of devices to serve special needs of the Government; assistance to industry, business, and consumers in the development and acceptance of commercial standards and simplified trade practice recommendations; administration of programs in cooperation with United States business groups and standards organizations for the development of international standards of practice; and maintenance of a clearinghouse for the collection and dissemination of scientific, tech nical, and engineering information.The scope of the Bureau's activities is suggested in the following listing of its four Institutes and their organizational units.

The following ionosphere data are in continuation of those published in each issue of the JOURNAL since 1936.The data given in Table 1 are similar to, but not the same as, those published in the form of graphs by the National Bureau of Standards each month in Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers. The averages given there are for undisturbed days while those given here (Table 1) are for all days of the month. The midnight and noon values given for each day in Table 2 are equivalent to the Bureau's values given in code‐for m in the weekly Ursigrams issued by Science Service.