PHYSICO-TECHNICAL INSTITUTION IN CHARLOTTENBURG. 413 



introduced in the last Congress to establish a national standardizing 

 bureau, and that the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures 

 reported unanimous!}^ and strongly in favor of its passage. So oreat 

 is the importance of this movement from the point of view of science 

 of national pride, and of the higher interests of industrial pursuits' 

 that the effort so happily begun to secure suitable legislation should 

 be repeated with redoubled force and enthusiasm. Some of the reasons 

 for making this effort one does not need to go far to seek. 



In the ffrst place, the scientific interests to be served are certain Iv 

 as great as in any other country in the world. Science is cultivated 

 here with increasing assiduity and success. We^are no longer content 

 to follow in the footsteps of European savants and modestly re])e!it 

 their investigations. Original work of a high order is now done in 

 many American universities, but the difficulties under which univer- 

 sity instructors prosecute research are even greater here than in 

 Germany, and we are still compelled to go to Europe for most of our 

 standards. As a result, inventions of an almost purel}" scientific char 

 acter originating here have been carried to perfection in the Reichsan- 

 stalt, and Germany gets the larger part of the credit. I need only 

 instance the Weston standard cell, which has been so fully investigated 

 at the Reichsanstalt, and the alloy "manganin," which the same insti- 

 tution employs for its standard resistances after a searching in(iuirv 

 into its properties. Both of these are the invention of Mr. Edward 

 Weston, one of the past presidents of this institute. So long as there 

 is no authoritative bureau in the United States under Federal control, 

 and presided over bj- men commanding respect and confidence, we 

 must continue "'to utilize the far superior standardizing facilities of 

 other governments." It is true that science knows no nationality, but 

 the seientiffc workers of any nation can serve their own country Ix'tter 

 if they are not compelled to obtain their standards and their best 

 instruments from distant parts of the globe. America has the culti- 

 vation in physical science, the ability on the part of her investigators, 

 and the inventive faculty to do work in a national institution that we 

 shall not be ashamed to place by the side of Germany's best products. 

 The establishment of a national institution for physical and technical 

 purposes can not fail to foster a vigorous and healthy growth in sci- 

 ence, to which we already owe so much of our national prosperity and 

 renown. 



In the second place Congress should be stimulated to take action 

 because of national pride. It is not creditable for a capal)le and self- 

 reliant nation to continue to depend on foreign countries for its 

 standards of measurement, for the certification of its instruments, 

 and for the calibration of its normal apparatus for precise work. 

 Different departments of our Government and offices under its con- 

 trol must at present appeal to foreign bureaus for the certification of 



