Standards
UNITED STATES NATIONAL BUREAU OF, a bureau of the Department of Commerce of the United States Government, charged by law with the custody of the national standards of weights and measures; the comparison with them of the standards used in scientific investigations, engineering, commerce, and educational institutions; the construction or reproduction of such standards, their multiples and subdivision; the testing and calibration of standard measuring apparatus; the solution of problems arising in connection with standards; and the determination of physical constants and the properties of materials, when such data are STANDARDS of great importance to scientific or manufacturing interests and are not to be obtained with sufficient accuracy elsewhere. The Bureau of Standards, which took the place of the former Office of Standard Weights and Measures, was organized by Act of Congress approved March 3, 1901, with Dr. S. W. Stratton as its first director, who continued in that position in 1920. The scientific work of the bureau is carried on by the divisions of Weights and Measures, Heat and Thermometry, Electricity, Optics, Chemistry, Structural Engineering and Miscellaneous Materials, Engineering Research, and Metallurgy. The bureau publishes an annual report of the director, and from time to time various bulletins.