OCEANOGRAPHY 19G1 — PHASE 3 209 



One other item arisinj^ from previous testimony : It is conventional 

 in our type of operation to gather data, have preliminaiy results 

 available in usable form within 3 days, and to have final reports com- 

 pleted within 30 days after the ships return to port. 



This is the type of speed standard required in the petroleimi indus- 

 try. 



Mr. Miller. Are you familiar with the provisions of the bill that is 

 before us at this time ? 



Mr. Savit. I am, sir. 



Mr. Miller. Do you want to comment on any of them ? 



Mr. Savit. Unfortunately, my training is not in the law or in leg- 

 islation, and I cannot really gauge the effects of the specific provisions. 

 1 certainly see no objection to any provision and am strongly in agree- 

 ment with the necessity for establishing a permanent oceanographic 

 coordinating agency. 



Mr. Miller. You think that a calibration center is desirable? 



Mr. Savit. Yes; I think that is probably one of the critical areas, 

 if not the most critical area, of need. We have had the experience of 

 having one of our instruments built which we felt we could not 

 calibrate well enough for our own purposes. We sought out places 

 in the Government. We found one laboratory doing Government 

 work which was willing to calibrate this instrument for us. They sent 

 it to the calibration center in the United States. This was presumabl}^ 

 the outstanding calibration in the place. Tliey sent tlie calibration 

 back to us, and we were not able to reconcile their calibration with ours. 



A few inquiries to them indicated that their calibration equipment 

 was not quite as good as ours. And so the picture is that there is 

 either no or very inadequate calibration equipment at all. And cer- 

 tainly every laboratory that we know of has its own calibration stand- 

 ards, no two of which agree to any reasonable extent. 



Mr. DiNGELL. That makes interchange of data and information 

 extremely difficult, does it not ? 



Mr. Savit. It does ; yes. 



Mr. Dingell. And costly and time consuming, too ? 



Mr. Savit. Yes. A great deal of time is spent, not only discussing 

 calibrations between laboratories, but discussing the methods by which 

 the calibrations were obtained, so that one can decide whether or not 

 they are at least consistent. 



Mr. DiNGELL. Do you run into problems in equating one set of cali- 

 brations with another ? 



Mr. Sa\^t. Yes. 



Mr. DiNGELL. Sometimes they are insurmountable, I imagine, 



Mr. Savit. That is probably true ; yes. 



Mr. DiNGELL. And as a result the information obtamed is prac- 

 ticallj^ useless ? 



Mr. Savit. No. The information is useful for the purposes for 

 which it is obtained, in many cases. As, for example, in the oil indus- 

 try, where any particular piece of calibration is required, it has been 

 made, because, for example, the operator that Dr. Blake mentioned is 

 not going to risk $82 million or $86 million on an uncertain calibration. 



So, for our purposes, we will calibrate. The question is whether or 

 not these individual surveys can be used as part of a whole ; whether 

 they agree with each other. 



