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INTRODUCTION 



Defore the National Bureau of Standards was created by the 

 U.S. Congress in 1901, there were more than eight different 

 authoritative "standard" gallons in the United States. Major cities 

 like Brooklyn, N.Y., recognized more than four different legal 

 measures of the "foot." An estimated 50 percent of scales used in 

 ^e retail sale of butter and other common products were woefully 

 inacciAratc. 



The drawbacks of not having uniform national standards of 

 weights, measures, and industrial quality at the turn of the century 

 were glaring. Hoses from neighboring firehouse jurisdictions did 

 not fit together. Between 15 and 20 percent of purchased 

 construction material was of unusable quality. Three-quarters of 

 light bulbs purchased by the federal government failed to meet 

 performance requirements. The lack of standardization also meant 

 that nearly all precision measuring instruments made in the United 

 States at the time had to be sent to Europe for calibration. 



Today, nearly a century later, U.S. industry benefits from one of 

 the most rigorously maintained systems of national standards in 

 the world. Nevertheless, history could soon repeat itself. 



The keeper of the nation's standards — now with a much expanded 

 mission and renamed as the National Institute of Standards and 

 Technology — is once again struggling to keep up with its 

 international counterparts, this time in both Europe and Japan. 

 After decades as a clear world leader in most precision 

 measurement areas, NIST is steadily losing ground in a number of 

 key technologies. The problem is not a lack of scientific talent, but 

 rather a lack of adequate facilities to conduct today's ultraprecise 

 cutting-edge science. 



NIST's headquarters site in Gaithersburg, Md., was built more 

 than 25 years ago and includes 29 buildings located on 234 

 hectares (578 acres). Its Boulder, Colo., field site was built more 

 than 35 years ago and consists of 16 buildings on 83 hectares 

 (205 acres). The current value of the facilities on both sites 

 exceeds $2 billion. 



