REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE BUREAU OF STANDARDS. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR, BUREAU OF STANDARDS, Washington, D. C., July 1, 1904. SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of this Bureau for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1904: During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1904, the work of the Bureau has been carried on in the temporary quarters previously occupied in the Butler and Coast and Geodetic Survey buildings and at No. 235 New Jersey avenue SE., and for a portion of the year a part of the work has been conducted in the new mechanical building on Pierce Mill road, near Connecticut avenue NW. The offices of the Bureau, together with the section of weights and measures and the section of resistance and electromotive force, have been, as heretofore, in the Butler and Coast and Geodetic Survey buildings. The sections of heat and thermometry and of light and optical instruments have remained during the year in the temporary laboratory fitted up two years ago at No. 235 New Jersey avenue. The instrument shop was moved into the new mechanical building in the winter and the following sections established themselves in the laboratory rooms of the same building in the spring: (a) Inductance and capacity; (b) electrical measuring instruments; (c) magnetism; (d) photometry; and (e) engineering instruments. The various sections of the Bureau have thus been enabled to expand their work, the sections remaining behind in the temporary quarters having occupied the space vacated by those moving into the new building. The physical building is to be completed by the terms of the contract during August next, but it will not be ready for occupancy before October. This building, which is connected with the mechanical building by a spacious tunnel, so that the two are practically one building so far as service and facilities are concerned, is the larger of the two and will accommodate the offices and library and a large part of the research work and testing of the Bureau. The two buildings will provide for the present work of the Bureau and the temporary quarters now occupied will be surrendered. In addition to the heating and ventilating system, plumbing, steam boilers, pumps, filters, and auxiliary apparatus installed by the Office of the Supervising Architect as an initial equipment for the buildings, the Bureau has installed during the year a considerable amount of apparatus and machinery in the mechanical building. The more important items of this list of apparatus and machines are the following: A tandem compound engine of 120 horsepower, with two directcurrent dynamos of 75 kilowatts combined capacity; a simple engine of 50 horsepower and two dynamos of 30 kilowatts combined capacity; a motor generator for charging storage batteries and a motor-alternator testing set; three motor-generator testing sets brought from the temporary laboratory at 235 New Jersey avenue; two storage batteries; a switch board for all the generators and testing machines, storage batteries, and distributing lines; an ammonia refrigerating machine of 30 tons capacity, together with a small ice-making plant; a gas-making machine for laboratory use, and a large air compressor to be used in connection with a liquid-air plant yet to be installed. The sum of $1,500 was appropriated by the last Congress for grading grounds and building walks and roads. Of this amount $500 was made immediately available, and has been expended in constructing a walk from Connecticut avenue to the laboratories and a roadway from Pierce Mill road to the mechanical building. The balance will be expended after July 1 for paving and grading about the mechanical building and making a short piece of macadamized road. SCOPE OF THE BUREAU'S WORK. The testing work done by the Bureau is much more extensive and important than the table of tests and fees would indicate. It was never expected that the fees received for testing would amount to a sum comparable with the total expense of the Bureau, and yet the amount of fees will increase largely year by year as the work develops and the force increases. By far the greater part of the work of the Bureau is that of investigation in connection with the improvement of standards and methods of measurement, hence it is necessary to maintain a force of men and an equipment for doing scientific work of the highest grade. The act of Congress authorizing the establishment of the Bureau of Standards provided that the Bureau should acquire and construct, when necessary, copies of the standards adopted or recognized by the Government, their multiples and subdivisions; should compare with these standards the instruments and standards employed in scientific investigations, engineering, manufacturing, commerce, and in educational institutions; should conduct researches pertaining to precision measurements, and should determine physical constants and properties of materials. Granting that the primary purpose of the Bureau is to do testing for the Government and the public, it is evident that the wide range of work provided for in the act establishing the Bureau is necessary, in order that testing of the highest grade may be done. The Bureau is the custodian of the legal standards of length of the United States, and hence every precision standard used by manufacturers of bars, rules, tapes, or other measuring instruments, or by engineers or surveyors in laying out buildings or measuring land, or by the States or the Government in running boundaries or making maps or charts, or by scientific investigators in all research work, must come directly or indirectly from the Bureau of Standards. Similarly the Bureau is the custodian of the legal standards of mass, and every manufacturer of scales and balances, from the delicate balances used |