SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 92, 12 January 1929, Page 22

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

U.S. BUREAU 05 STANDARDS * A YEAR’S ACHIEVEMENTS A successful radio air beacon to direct ’plane flight, the largest telescope reflector ever made in the United States, a novel airship gas cell fabric, and new ways of utilising waste farm products are some of the past year’s scientific and technical developments of the Bureau of outlined by the Director, Air. George K. Burgess, in his annual report to the Secretary of Commerce, which •has just been received by Mr. Julian Foster, American Trade Commissioner in New Zealand. A study of the report reveals the outstanding position of the United States in the world of science. For instance, reference is made to the definition of the meter in terms of light waves and to the establishment of an international temperature scale by the International Conference on Weights and Measures held in Paris a year ago. In both cases the values adopted were those proposed by the United States delegates, Dr. Burgess, the present Director of the Bureau of Standards, and Dr. Stratton, the former Director and present President of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the case of the temperature scale, many of the values were based on determinations made in the bureau’s laboratories.

One of the most interesting and laborious achievements of the bureau described in the report xvas the construction by a new method of a huge telescope mirror. This disc of optical glass which is almost a foot thick, a few inches less than six feet in diameter, and almost two tons in weight, is to be used as a mirror for the first all-American-ihade telescope of large size—the' Perkins reflector at Ohio Wesleyan University. The bureau's glass plant, where it xvas made, is able to supply most of the needs of the Navy Department; as a by-product it obtains valuable information on the technique of glass-making. In order to find what really happens during a fire in a typical non-flre resistive building, two old structures scheduled to be torn down in connection with the Government’s building programme were burned’ to the ground by the Bureau of Standards last year. Special instruments recorded the temperatures at 100 points within the buildings, and 32 safes, contributed by manufacturers and Government Departments, were placed at various locations. Thus the degree of protection afforded by these containers were determined.. Greater precision in electrical measure-

rnents is being demanded by industry, and the redetermination of the fundamental electrical units on an absolute basis has been decided upon at the. International Conference on IVeights and Measures. The necessary programme has been mapped out by a special committee and bureau, as its part of the programme, is working on the values of the ampere, henry, and ohm. i Commercial aeronautics is receiving a great deal of attention by the bureau. A successful radio beacon, with a simple receiving set and indicating device on the aeroplane, has been developed. Irregularities in the beacon’s indication have been overcome by the substitution of a short vertical antenna for the trailing wire formerly used. Aircraft engines are now being given endurance tests on a routine basis to determine whether they will meet the requirements of the aeronautics branch of the Department cf Commerce. Widespread Activities. • To meet the demands of precision tool manufacturers the bureau has perfected a machine for ruling steel scales direct from light waves as the master standard. Scales four inches (10 centimetres) long have been ruled with an error not exceeding two one-millionths of an inch in. any interval. A larger machine is being built to rule standards one metre or 40 inches long.

Special glasses and glass-substitutes, used as windows for transmitting the ultra-violet rays of the sun, have been tested in large numbers. Practically all these materials decrease in transmission upon exposure to sunlight; some which originally transmitted from 45 to 00 per cent, of the violet rays showed a transmission of but 20 to 35 per cent, after complete “solarisation.” ■ Effective assistance to the farmer in the utilisation of waste products of the land appears to be in sight. Wall board is being manufactured from corn stalks in a special semi-commercial plant set up at Ames, lowa, by the Bureau of Standards in cooperation with lowa State College. Laboratory methods have been worked out for recovering xylose, a valuable rare sugar, "from cotton-seed hulls. Peanut shells have been used with some success as a substitute for hardwood chips in gypsum concrete. A successful substitute fabric has been developed to replace goldbeater’s skin in the making of gas cells for airships. Several months’ use in the “Los Angeles” shows the new material to be fully as good as the old, and it can be produced in unlimited quantities at a lower cost than goldbeater’s skin. Specifications used by railroads for bearing bronzes vary greatly in their requirements. Through investigations and tests covering many materials, the bureau has shown that this diversity is unnecessary and that fewer specifications could be used with a considerable saving in cost. The endurance of rail steels is being studied and large variations have been found in steels meeting the same specifications. The properties of rail steels at high temperatures are also being studied, since this has a bearing on failures from “transverse fissures.” A very important discovery groxving out of research xvork at the bureau is the fact that a thin coating of pure aluminium will greatly retard the corrosion of duralium, the alloy used in the construction of aircraft.

A special instrument, knoxvn as a proving ring, xvas designed some time ago by the bureau for calibrating testing macliines. Proving rings with a capacity of 100,000 pounds have now been built, the design having been modified to make them more convenient for use. As the result of co-operative work with brick manufacturers there is now available for the first time comprehensive information on the factors which determine the strength of a brick wall. The tests on wall panels were made in the 10,000,000 pound compression machine. The recommendations of the bureau’s advisory committee on building codes have been incorporated in code revisions in over 120 municipalities. A circular

on city planning was issued, as well as a standard State city-planning enabling’ Act, which should go far toward securing uniformity in these important regulations. Value to Industry. The average adherence to the bureau’s simplified practice recommendations, as determined by field surveys, is 86.86 per cent, as compared with 75 per cent, a year ago. This is a most satisfactory improvement and shoxvs that the recommendations are actually being applied by the manufacturers. Simplified practice recommendations have been issued covering 84 commodities, and 13 more are in process of acceptance. Leaders of industry believe that the estimated saving by simplified practice of 300,000,000 dollars per year is being shared by distributors and users, as well as the manufacturers. The number of items tested by the bureau during the year was 132,213, involving 454,589 determinations. One hundred and thirty-four publications were issued in the regular series of the bureau and 217 were published in outside journals. J