282 



SCIENCE. 



LN. S. Vol. XV. No. 373. 



The OfSee of Weights and Measures 

 while in law a separate bureau of the Treas- 

 ury Department, has been practically a 

 part of the United States Coast and Geo- 

 detic Survey, and has been, since its organ- 

 ization, under the direction of the super- 

 intendent of that bureau. During its 

 existence standards of weights and meas- 

 ures have been furnished to most of the 

 states, and a great impetus has been given 

 to the adoption by international agreement 

 of the metric system. In its custody are 

 kept the international Idlogram and meter, 

 and it has for years done a valuable work 

 in the standardizing of steel tapes, ther- 

 mometers and similar measuring instru- 

 ments; while more recently it has begun 

 the standardizing of electrical instru- 

 ments. 



On coming to the Coast Survey in 1897 

 I found the Office of Weights and Meas- 

 ures engaged in the work which I have just 

 mentioned. In its service were two scien- 

 tific assistants, an instrument maker and a 

 messenger, and a small -appropriation was 

 made for office expenses. The work was 

 under the charge of a field officer of the 

 Coast Survey. The arrangement by which 

 a field officer was in this way detailed 

 temporarily for this duty did not seem to 

 me good administration; it deprived the 

 Coast Survey of the service of a much- 

 needed officer, and in addition there was 

 required for this duty not a surveyor but 

 a physicist. I therefore asked Congress to 

 appropriate a salary sufficiently large to 

 induce a physicist of high standing to take 

 charge of the office, under direction of 

 the superintendent. An appropriation of 

 $3,000 was made. With this sum some 

 difficulty was found in inducing any 

 physicist of standing and reputation to 

 accept the place, and only after many in- 

 terviews and considerable correspondence 

 I succeeded in persuading Professor S. W. 

 Stratton, of the University of Chicago, 



to become a candidate. The appointment to 

 the position was made after competitive ex- 

 amination. 



Mr. Stratton, after coming to the bureau, 

 was instructed to make a report upon the 

 work and efficiency of the office as then 

 constituted, and to recommend, if it seemed 

 advisable, a plan for its enlargement into 

 a more efficient bureau of standards, which 

 might perform in some measure for this 

 country the work carried on by the Reichs- 

 anstalt in Germany. 



Mr. Stratton entered heartily into this 

 work, and the outcome of his examination 

 was the preparation of a scheme for a Na- 

 tional Bureau of Standards. This plan, 

 after being discussed in the office of the 

 Coast Survey, and receiving the criticism 

 of Assistant Superintendent Tittmann and 

 others acquainted with the history of such 

 work abroad, was submitted to a number 

 of physicists, chemists and manufacturers 

 of the country. After their criticisms had 

 been digested a fitnal plan for the bureau 

 was drawn, which is practically that sub- 

 mitted to Congress. In all of this work 

 Mr. Stratton endeavored to avail himself 

 not only of the criticism of those at home, 

 but also of the work which has been done 

 abroad; and the bureau as finally planned 

 is not intended to be simply a copy of the 

 Reichsanstalt, but a standardizing bureau 

 adapted to American science and to Ameri- 

 can manufacture. 



When the final plan had in this way 

 been agreed upon, it was incorporated into 

 a bill and placed before Secretary Gage 

 and Assistant Secretary Vanderlip, of the 

 Treasury Department. The idea at once 

 commended itself to their judgment, and 

 Secretary Gage entered most heartily into 

 a study of the purpose of the proposed 

 bureau, and of the relations which it might 

 have with industry, with commerce and 

 with science. Supported by his hearty ad- 

 vocacy the bill went to the house and was 



