VALUE OF STANDARDS

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 113, 6 February 1941, Page 5

VALUE OF STANDARDS

Application To U.S. Defence

Programme In view vf the indications given by the Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, and tiie Minister of Industries and Commerce, Mr. Sullivan, that the Standards Bill will be reintroduced into Parliament during the forthcoming session, the following statement received by the New Zealand Standards Institute from the American Standards Association is interesting as showing the value of standards as a means of assisting war.as well us civil production. In an address entitled “Th-e Bearing of Standardization on the Co-operative Relations of Government and Industry” to representatives of trade, technical and governmental groups, the retiring president, Mr. Edmund A. Prentis, called attention to the fact that the American Standards Association during tiie year “has been called on to fill new needs and to fit into a somewhat changed industrial pattern.” He was referring to the national defence programme, which, with its need for co-ordination of defence production standards, had affected many of the year’s activities. For example, it had high-lighted almost all standardization work in the mechanical field.

“The integration of the Government’s purchasing programme and industry’s manufacturing programme into a smooth flow of production is an enormous undertaking, and one in which standards play an important part.” One of the problems of the coming year, Mr. Preutis said, would be to speed up work on undertakings most-urgently needed for defence —for example, work on screw threads, on bolts, nuts and wrench openings; on machine pins; on wire and sheet metal gauges; on fits of machine parts; and on some of tiie safety codes which are needed to protect the inexperienced labour that is being turned into defence production. Tile defence programme, Mr. I'rentis pointed out, was requiring activities in new fields, the expansion of existing work, and increased activity on many of the projects now under way. “Among the 73 standards approved this year is a series of 13 for gas appliances and accessories. Many of these are revisions of standards now in wide use. During the year there has been important work in tiie electrical field. The national electrical code, successive revisions of which have been in use for nearly half ti century, has been completely revised. The new edition provides many advantages in safeguarding life and property, at the same time recognizing important new developments in the application of electricity to heating and lighting.”