NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

FEB 1 6 1972

16 31 k 5

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT COMMERCE • Maurice H. Stans, Secretary

(j v, NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS • Lewis M. Branscomb, Director

Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries: The Role

of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies

Proceedings of a Seminar

Held at Airlie House, Warrenton, Virginia

February 1-4, 1971

Edited by

H. L. Mason and H. S. Peiser

Office of International Relations

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D.C. 20234

Organized by the Agency for International Development

and the National Bureau of Standards with the

cooperation of the National Academy of Sciences and the

National Academy of Engineering

National Bureau of Standards Special Publication 359

Nat. Bur. Stand. (U.S.), Spec. Publ. 359 391) pages ( Dec 1971)

CODEN: XNBSA

Issued December 1971

For Sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

(Order by SD Catalog No. C 13.10:359), Price $5.00

Stock Number 0303-0951

20402

FOREWORD

Industrialization of a developing economy calls for a technological infrastructure to

deal with problems of stimulating enterprise, assessing alternative courses, choosing

manufacturing methods, and controlling product quality. In these tasks, measurement science

and engineering standardization have an important role; yet with different governmental

philosophies and economic structures, the needs and priorities of government action will

vary greatly.

The National Bureau of Standards has been considering how its experience in metrology

and standardization could be employed in collaboration with the U.S. Agency for International Development for assisting less developed countries to build up their own technological infrastructures. The NBS itself seeks an understanding of how its services

to the science and industry of the U.S.A. should best be managed. In this self -evaluation

we find ourselves working in parallel and in close sympathy with all industrializing nations

of the world.

The Seminar reported here concerns the problems faced by less developed countries

seeking industrialization. With financial support from U.S. AID, thirteen expert

participants from abroad came to express their views on possible relevance of NBS programs.

Discussions took place in the light of findings of such organizations as the United Nations

Advisory Committee on the Application of Science and Technology to Development, and the

1969 UNIDO Symposium on Industrial Development. In each of eight sessions, several invited

papers were presented, followed by informal discussion which ranged widely among diverse

viewpoints. We are especially grateful to our guests for their full and frank comments.

We at NBS feel the Seminar made a contribution that deserves the record inherent in

these Proceedings. However, caution is the best advice NBS has to offer. Developing

nations should not be over-awed by the achievements of industrialized nations and those of

metrological laboratories like NBS; they should not necessarily aim at imitating the

supposedly successful centers. One needs to realize that ideal solutions are rarely

found by any industry or any nation. Often the solution of one problem creates a new unsuspected future problem. However, even if this country cannot solve the problems of

other nations, we can all work more effectively by comparing techniques, attitudes, and

interests as we have done during the course of this Seminar.

So many organizations and individuals have contributed to the Seminar that proper

acknowledgements would be unduly long. I want only to single out the Scientific Apparatus

Makers Association, which arranged a post-Seminar tour of several U.S.A. manufacturing

plants for our overseas guests.

To all participants, I give my hearty thanks.

LEWIS M. BRANS COMB

Director

iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword Page

Seminar Committees

Group Photograph, February 3

Session 1

Perspective

Co-Chairmen: Jorge A. Sabato, Buenos Aires

Glenn E. Schweitzer, AID

Reporter: John A. Birch, OSST

Paper 1.1 - Objectives of the Seminar

Joel Bernstein, AID 1

Paper 1.2 - Expectations from the Seminar

Lewis M. Branscomb, NBS 5

Paper 1.3 - Keynote Address - The Role of a National Capability in

Metrology and Standardization in Industrializing Economies

Jesse D. Perkinson, Pan American Union 9

Paper 1.4 - NBS Programs to Provide Infrastructure

Services for Science and Technology in USA

Lawrence M. Kushner, NBS 15

Discussion 25

Session 2

The Sociological, Economic, and Managerial Environment

in Industrializing Countries

Co-Chairmen: A. N. Ghosh, New Delhi

Edward U. Condon, Boulder, Colorado

Reporter: Sanford B. Newman, NBS

Paper 2.1 - Overview - The Anatomy of an Industrializing Economy

George Kalmanoff, World Bank 31

Paper 2.2 - A Case Study from Latin America

Jorge A. Sabato, Buenos Aires 37

Paper 2.3 - Labor Saving Versus Capital Saving Industrial

Technology for the Developing Countries

Joseph E. Stepanek, UNIDO 43

Paper 2.4 - The Role of Technology in Politics and Economics

Geraldo N. S. Maia, Rio de Janeiro 57

Discussion 63

iv
Session 3 Page

Making Scientific and Technological Measurement Meaningful

Co-Chairmen: Phi Minh Tarn, Saigon

Lawrence M. Kushner, NBS

Reporter: John W. Rowen, NBS

Paper 3.1 - Overview - The Economic Role of Metrology

Capabilities

Edward U. Condon, Boulder, Colorado 71

Paper 3.2 - Needs for Measurement Controls in

Developing Industrialization

Jerry L. Hayes, USN 79

Paper 3.3 - Problems in Establishing Accurate Measurements in Industrializing

Economies: A Case-Study of Basic Standards Activities in the

Israel NPL and Some Possible Lessons to be Learned

Harry Tabor and Leonard R. Farkas , Jerusalem 85

Paper 3.4 - Instrument Problems in a Developing Economy

Luiz Cintra do Prado, Sao Paulo 91

Paper 3.5 - Needs for Standard Reference Materials for Calibration

and Quality Control

J. Paul Cali, NBS 95

Discussion 107

Session 4

The Dissemination of Information

Co-Chairmen: Geraldo N. S. Maia, Rio de Janeiro

Ismael Escobar, Inter-American Bank

Reporter: Christoff N. Schubert, NSF

Paper 4.1 - Overview - The Role of Federal Information Activities

Melvin S. Day, NASA 115

Paper 4.2 - Government Responsibility for Information

for Industry

Alfredo Fontes , Pan American Union 127

Paper 4.3 - Publications: Documentation Indexes

William T. Knox, NTIS 131

Paper 4.4 - Extension Productivity Services Via a Developing

Country Standards Institute

Phi Minh Tarn and Niels C. Beck, Saigon 135

Paper 4.5 - Standardization in Africa: Problems and Programs

Zawdu Felleke, Addis Ababa <. 143

Discussion 151

v
Session 5 Page

Promoting More Effective Use of Science and Technology

Co-Chairmen: Rene Schmied, UNIDO

William T. Cavanaugh, ASTM

Reporter: George C. Nichols, NBS

Paper 5.1 - Overview - The Role of NBS Capabilities

F. Karl Willenbrock, NBS 159

Paper 5.2 - Applying the Computer

James P. Nigro, NBS 163

Paper 5.3 - Problems in Industrial and Technological Research

in Ghana

Emmanuel Lartey, Accra 167

Paper 5.4 - Implementing Metrology through Operations Analysis

and Systems Engineering

Simon E. Russek, Hughes Aircraft Company 173

Paper 5.5 - Product Development and Market Research

Seymour Marshak, Ford Motor Company 177

Discussion 181

Session 6

Additional Case Histories

Co-Chairmen: Mahmoud Salama, Cairo

Newman A. Hall, NAE

Reporter: Henry A. Arnold, AID

Paper 6.1 - The Effect of Local Government Policies

on Transfer of Technology

Glenn E. Pratt, Monsanto Company 185

Discussion on Paper 6.1 191

Paper 6.2 - The Sale of Instrument Manufacturing Technology

to Small Private Industries in Developing Economies

Pradeep K. Rohatgi, Bethlehem Steel Company 195

Paper 6.3 - The Iranian Institute of Standards and

Industrial Research

Harold K. Work, Fairfax, Virginia 199

Paper 6.4 - Institutes for Engineering Education as a Source of

Metrology, Standardization and Quality Control in

Industrializing Economies

Pradeep K. Rohatgi, Bethlehem Steel Company 201

Paper 6.5 - Design and Development Through Metrology (Abstract)

Prem Prakash, New Delhi 206

Paper 6.6 - Nondestructive Testing

H. Steffen Peiser, NBS 207

Paper 6.7 - Problems and Attitudes in Operating and Maintaining a National

Standards Laboratory in a Small Developing Country

D. Pelli, Jerusalem 209

vi
Session 7 Page

Promoting Economic Strength and Commercial Equity

Co-Chairmen: Inyong Ham, Pennsylvania State University

Henry A. Arnold, AID

Reporter: Charles T. Mahaffey, NBS

Paper 7.1 - Overview - The Spread of Standardization

Frank L. LaQue, ISO 213

Paper 7.2 - Overview - The Role of Standardization in Industrializing

Economies

A. N. Ghosh, New Delhi 221

Paper 7.3 - Weights and Measures Standards: Laws, Inspection,

Enforcement

Mahmoud Salama, Cairo 235

Paper 7.4 - The Value of Engineering Standards in Assisting

Industrialization in a Less-Developed Country

Raymond B. Smith, ASTM 239

Paper 7.5 - The Colombia Government Faces the Problem of

Quality Control

Hernando Fernandez F. , Bogota 243

Paper 7.6 - Quality Control and Product Certification

Susana Le Roux C. , Lima 249

Discussion 251

Session 8

Guidance for NBS Technological Assistance Effort

Part A - Co-Chairmen: Zawdu Felleke, Addis Ababa

Allen V. Astin, NBS

Reporter: Henry L. Mason, NBS

Paper 8.1 - A Systems Approach to a Conference Synthesis

W. Edward Cushen, NBS 257

Paper 8.2 - Using National Measurement Standards

Robert D. Huntoon, NBS 265

Part B - Co-Chairmen: Harry Z. Tabor, Jerusalem

Frank L. LaQue, ISO

Reporter: H. Steffen Peiser, NBS

Paper 8.3 - Preparing Product Specifications

Newman A. Hall, NAE 277

Paper 8.4 - Disseminating Information

Edward L. Brady, NBS 281

Discussion 285

vii
Appendices of Proceedings Page

Appendix 1 - Prologue Session - Technology Transfer within

Developing Areas 293

Chairman: Lewis M. Branscomb, NBS

Address - Technology Transfer within Developing Areas - Edward S. Dennison, VITA

Discussion 297

Appendix 2 - Responses by Seminar Participants Associated with

Organizations Abroad to NBS/AID Questionnaire 305

Appendix 3 - The Ethiopian Standards Institution (ESI) : Its

Tasks and Areas for Technical Assistance

Zawdu Felleke, Addis Ababa 315

Appendix 4 - UNESCO Questionnaire on the Facilities for Basic Physical

Standards of Weights and Measurement (Metrology) in Southeast

Asia - Submitted by Mervyn C. Probine, DSIR, New Zealand 319

Appendix 5 - Standards Laboratories Assistance to Developing Industry

F. J. Lehany, DSIRO, Australia 337

Appendix 6 - Promotion of Education, Science and Technology by

the Inter-American Development Bank

Ismael Escobar, Inter-American Bank 345

Appendix 7 - List of Participants NBS/AID Seminar on Industrialization 353

Appendix 8 - Biodata of Seminar Authors 363

Appendix 9 - Author Index 371

Appendix 10- Subject Index 373

viii
METROLOGY AND STANDARDIZATION IN LESS-DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

THE ROLE OF A NATIONAL CAPABILITY FOR INDUSTRIALIZING ECONOMIES

A Seminar organized by the National Bureau of Standards and the

Agency for International Development, with the cooperation of the

National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineer

Airlie House, Warrenton, Virginia February 1-4, 1971.

GENERAL CHAIRMAN

Lewis M. Branscomb, Director, National Bureau of Standards

ADVISORY COMMITTEE

A. V. As tin, National Bureau of Standards

Harrison Brown, National Academy of Sciences

William T. Cavanaugh, American Society for Testing and Materials

Daniel V. DeSimone, National Bureau of Standards

Newman A. Hall, National Academy of Engineering

Francis L. LaQue, International Organization for Standardization

L. I. Medlock, American Society for Quality Control

Jesse Perkinson, Organization of American States

Donald L. Peyton, American National Standards Institute

Glenn E. Schweitzer, Agency for International Development

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

H. Steffen Peiser, National Bureau of Standards, Chairman

Edward L. Brady, National Bureau of Standards

Henry L. Mason, National Bureau of Standards

Henry A. Arnold, Agency for International Development

John C. Green, American National Standards Institute

Julien Engel, National Academy of Sciences

Earl Young, National Academy of Sciences

FINANCE COMMITTEE

Henry A. Arnold, Agency for International Development, Chairman

Henry L. Mason, National Bureau of Standards

J. P. Menzer, National Bureau of Standards

H. Steffen Peiser, National Bureau of Standards

ARRANGEMENTS COMMITTEE

Robert T. Cook, National Bureau of Standards, Chairman

Glenn K. Shriver, National Bureau of Standards

Henry L. Mason, National Bureau of Standards

ix
X
SESSION 1 - PERSPECTIVE

Paper 1.1 - Objectives of the Seminar

Joel Bernstein

Assistant Administrator

Bureau for Technical Assistance

Agency for International Development

Washington, D. C. 20523

For many months my colleagues in the Agency for International

Development have worked with our good friends, the National Bureau of

Standards and the National Academy of Sciences , to plan a meeting which would

lay the groundwork for an effective technical assistance program in standards,

metrology, and quality control. Now it is my pleasure to be able to welcome

and thank all of you who are sharing your valuable time with us this week.

Because any such program has no purpose unless it is directly applicable

to the genuine problems of industrialization in the developing countries,

we are particularly grateful to those of you from Africa, Asia, and Latin

America who are able to join us for this discussion.

What is our interest? The Agency for International Development is

responsible for United States foreign economic assistance programs. This

activity has many components —all guided by the general policy of "...assisting peoples of the world in their efforts toward economic development and

internal and external security."1 The component that brings us together

today is that of technical assistance, directed toward the development of

a sound and competitive industrial element in the developing countries.

The whole field of foreign assistance efforts by the United States

is currently receiving new attention, designed to draw on the lessons of

the past to gear our efforts to changing needs and to strengthen them. In

his recent message to Congress 2 President Nixon proposed "a major transformation in our foreign assistance programs", creating "separate organizational arrangements for each component of our assistance effort: security

assistance, humanitarian assistance, and development assistance." He

proposed that development assistance be carried out by two new and

independent institutions:

"A U. S. International Development Corporation, to bring

vitality and innovation to our bilateral lending activities...

A U. S. International Development Institute to bring the genius

of U. S. science and technology to bear on the problems of development,

to help build research and training competence in the lower income

countries themselves, and to offer cooperation in international efforts

dealing with such problems as population and employment."

These proposals are still being developed and Congress has not yet

commenced hearings on them. Whatever their ultimate shape, the topic you

will be discussing for the next three days fits well with the emphasis on

science and technology that the President has mentioned in connection with

the new International Development Institute.

1 Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 as amended.

2 "Foreign Assistance for the Seventies", President Nixon's Message to the

Congress, September 15, 1970.

1
For most developing as well as developed nations, an increasing rate

of economic growth has become a major national goal—both to meet rising

aspirations for a better life for rapidly growing populations , and to permit

effective participation in the increasingly interdependent international

community » Achieving more rapid growth depends on three factors. One

is the rate at which productive resources can be accumulated, by domestic

savings or from foreign sources. Another and more powerful factor is

improvement in the use of the productive resources already available

(including manpower) —that is, combining them in better ways to produce

more economic and social development. Finally, improved technology

defined as the systematic application of science to useful purposes —is

a critical component, providing both a stimulus and a means to achieve

better use of available resources.

My experiences in development work suggest to me that standards work

suffers an appreciation of its value, relative to its actual value, that

is one of the lowest among the various branches of industrial activity.

Yet standards, specifications, metrology, and quality control have become

essential elements of industry and commerce in all developed countries.

For example, the recently accelerated rate of growth of GNP in Japan could

only have followed an intensive program to introduce these elements.

Without the foundation of standards —without the concept and capability

to generate predictable as well as standard performance—mass production and

the development of a sound internal industry, to say nothing of a mature

export capability, are virtually inconceivable.

On the other hand, the concept of standards is one of the most

difficult to introduce in the early stages of industrialization. Perhaps

this is because many of its effects are indirect—with the relationship

between action and benefits being difficult to perceive. Whatever the

reasons, the lack of a comprehensive standards framework on which to

weave the fabric of industry and commerce severely handicaps many developing

countries

As you know, the level of standards practices —including quality

control—is a major determinant of production costs, of marketing capabilities at home and abroad, and of consumer satisfaction. Indeed, the whole

process of industrialization rests on the basic productive concepts of

fuller and higher quality division of labor, and on its corollary of

economies of scale, which in turn rest on maintenance of effective

standards. Even where the importance of standards is recognized, there

may be a shortcoming in identifying and providing the needed capabilities

to achieve standards appropriate to the specific level of development.

In the past there have been occasional requests from developing

countries for assistance in building their standards capabilities, and AID

has drawn on the outstanding capabilities of the National Bureau of Standards

to respond. For example, between 1963 and 1967, NBS provided substantial

help, in a variety of forms, for development of the Colombian Standards

Institute; and an NBS team sent to Korea in 1967 developed recommendations

that have been applied successfully by that country. However, such efforts

have been few and scattered, and they have dealt with fragments of the

overall standards problem. As in other fields, there have been difficulties

also in tailoring training programs in the U. S. to fit well with the

opportunities and support that can be expected when the trainees return

home.

This brings us to the purpose of this Seminar. That purpose is to

explore the comparative worth of building a continuing program and

capability for assisting developing countries' efforts to improve their

standards work—a program that would be broader and more systematic than

past efforts and that would be centered around the established capabilities

of NBS. Subject to your advice, its components could include such elements

2
as (a) training technical specialists from the developing countries,

(b) indoctrinating managers, planners, and financial people responsible

for developing the standards infrastructure, (c) assisting in surveys

of potential benefits from standards programs in developing countries,

(d) responding to requests for follow-on technical assistance, including

possible participation in adaptive or operational research to identify

and prove out locally suitable methods.

To help us explore this broad question, NBS has brought together

specialists from the developing countries, the U. S. , and multi-lateral

agencies to examine the special needs and experience of the developing

countries in relation to industrial standards, specifications, and quality

control.

We hope you will help us to determine:

(1) whether there is real and high priority need for a broad program,

recognizing that there are many competing claims for the scarce

resources available to the developing countries and to AID;

(2) what kinds of people might benefit from it—technicians,

businessmen, government planners, financial people;

(3) how a program in this field should be structured.

In the next three days we hope that you will examine such issues as

a. What types of standards and standards programs are needed at

various levels of development? Which are the highest priority

components?

b. Are there minimum standards and metrological capabilities that

every country should have regardless of its state of development

and, if so, what are they?

c. What are the consequences if a country does not have an effective

standards program? How serious are they, compared to other needs,

as seen from different points of view, e.g., individual businessmen, Ministers of Finance or Trade, foreign investors, politicians?

d. What problems and barriers have been encountered in developing

standards programs?

e. What procedures and organizational structures have been found to

be effective in a standards program?

f. What types of resources of manpower, equipment, and facilities are

required?

g. What are the problems in developing broad national interest in

a standards capability and in obtaining the necessary resources?

Let me emphasize that we have really asked our overseas guests here

not so much to learn as to help us. Recognizing that problems of developing

countries may be different from ours, we want experts from these countries

to play a major role in answering our questions. We also want experts

from the U. S. and other more developed countries to bring their varied

experience to bear. The joint product should be considerably richer than

either group could produce alone.

So you see why we value and appreciate the participation of each

organization and individual. I look forward at the end of the seminar to

your conclusions and recommendations, which will play a major part in

3
determining:

(1) whether AID and NBS will move forward with a program;

(2) if so, what its character and nature will be.

Allow me to caution you all once more to emphasize the local conditions

and problems in the developing countries, and let me close by expressing

my thanks and best wishes for a lively and productive session.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

4
SESSION 1 - PERSPECTIVE

Paper 1.2 - Expectations from the Seminar

Lewis M. Branscomb

Director, National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 20234-

The National Bureau of Standards, having been founded in 1901, has

grown up with the United States. The functions of NBS, very broadly defined

in the statutes, are to assist industry, universities, and individuals in

the United States with technical matters. However, the actual programs

have been an evolutionary product of the political and technical traditions

of the country. Our role is predicated on several principles; a maximum

reliance on private sector initiative, a maximum opportunity for technical

evolution, and a high degree of pragmatism in finding the right role for a

central federal establishment concerned with putting science to work

efficiently for national purposes. Changing times have constantly required

a reevaluation of these principles, and we are today, perhaps more than

ever before, engaged in serious efforts to understand and identify the

highest priority central science and technology services that the country

needs for the development of its civil economy.

We at NBS do not look on our responsibilities as discharged simply by

maintaining a set of national measurement standards or carrying on any

other specifically defined activity. We view our responsibility as the

identification of those functions that must be provided at national governmental level without which the technological capabilities of the country

cannot be applied with maximum efficiency to national purposes. Thus we

need to challenge constantly the assumptions on which our present activities

rest.

Perhaps the name of our organization, the National Bureau of Standards,

is a handicap in this respect, because a "standard" to most laymen is an

object whose utility increases in inverse proportions to its use. In other

words, if the standard is a meter bar, it is likely to remain stable if you

leave it locked up in a safe. That reminds me of a company in the United

States which was part of a corporate network, each company in the network

having a standards laboratory. One company had responsibility for maintaining surveillance over the accuracy of the secondary standards in the member

companies and each of the standards managers in the member companies vied

with one another for a good record. One laboratory was consistently the

winner. Its instruments were precisely the same and right on calibration

each year they were checked. Finally it was discovered that this company

had, with some money under the table, bought a second set of standards

for actual use, and the ones that they sent back to the primary laboratory

were merely resubmitted every year in the unopened box. Their excellent

record obviously contributed nothing whatever to the quality control of

that operation.

The word "standard" in English covers a set of meanings for which, in

French, there are three words. I think it important for us to distinguish

between standards of measurement, commercial and engineering standards, and

the use of the word "standard" as an identification of a specific acceptance

of level of performance. We must always ask ourselves, what is the function

of a standards program and do we have adequate measures of whether this

function is being adequately carried out? This is not a simple matter,

in part because the value of engineering standards and measurements

standards lies in part in their contribution to confidence in a system of

exchange of both goods and ideas.

5
Standards are important to the maintenance of quality. They may be

important to the making of wise tactical and strategic technical or business

decisions. Where confidence and quality are objectives, measures of

effectiveness are often hard to come by. Measures are also difficult

because we are not dealing with a purely technical subject. Engineering

standards, for example, are the product of a negotiation between technical

people, each representing a commercial interest. If a standard is to be

agreed upon, then compromise and negotiation are required. The result is

rarely a technical optimum, but hopefully it is an optimum with respect to

the efficiency of the overall system of the uses of technology and enhancement of trade. This is true both in internal standards development within

a country and at the international level.

The NBS constitutes roughly two-tenths of one percent of the research

and development activity in this country, or seven-hundredths of a percent

of the GNP. Yet we are probably the government agency most centrally concerned with the national system of civil technology. It is a result of this

responsibility, I believe, that there is such widespread interest in the

NBS on the part of government officials and technical people in other

nations. Indeed, we at NBS, when we are feeling particularly discouraged,

often find that if we would just go abroad we would find that the NBS

is well understood and appreciated in a way that it is not always understood

and appreciated at home.

Like the Department of Agriculture, perhaps, but unlike most Federal

R S D agencies , we do have substantial working contact with less sophisticated customers in the United States. We have many programs that bring

us into direct contact with officials at state and local levels whose

responsibilities include the regulation of technology through the enforcement of building and fire regulations and things of this character. Our

Office of Weights and Measures provides a central technical service to each

of the 50 states, assisting them to fulfill their constitutional responsibilities to regulate weights and measures in order to ensure both fair

and honest trade. This service also ensures that manufacturers can sell to

a national market in which the weights and measures are sufficiently uniform

that a single product will meet the legal requirements of all the states.

Some of these state capabilities are rather primitive on modern technological scales. Nonetheless, they serve a useful function and they are carried

out in an exceedingly economical fashion in view of limited state budgets.

Our Technical Analysis Division has gained extensive experience in assisting

officials at local levels with the management sciences, rather broadly

construed, and have a feeling for the sort of problems that arise when

massive R £ D capabilities are not readily available.

The NBS staff has participated extensively in overseas activity at the

request of the Agency for International Development and other international

agencies. Although these experiences have been rewarding for our staff

members who participated, we have not achieved a very good institutional

learning capability from this experience. We do not pass the experience on

effectively from one man to the next. We do not have a very clear-cut

policy for deciding when we can respond to a request or at what level of

effort. Nonetheless we feel that these contacts are important. Of equal

importance is the very large number of technical visitors who come and

reside in our laboratories for a period of a month to a year or two. We

have as many as 7 0 such people each year, coming from dozens of countries,

and this has given us a useful working level contact with the technical

problems of many different nations and cultures. Secretary of Commerce

Maurice Stans , on a recent trip to South America, announced the intention

to inaugurate a Standards Fellowship Program for Latin America. Under

this program NBS will make available whatever capability we have to assist

in providing participants with a useful experience in the United States

in connection with engineering standards activities. This is a program

which has just begun. We are just feeling our way.

6
One of our hopes from this meeting is that we will gain a clearer

insight on how we can be useful in this kind of activity. More fundamentally, we really would like to understand better the need of the industrial

technological infrastructure of a country for central technical services.

Indeed, what do we know of these needs in the United States itself? If

we do not understand that well, what of the requirements of countries in

other stages of industrial development? Should contemporary societies

less wealthy than our own, and perhaps less plagued with some of the

problems that result from poorly used wealth, follow a similar pattern to

that followed by the United States with respect to these central technological services? I seriously doubt if that would be wise. Indeed, I doubt

that it is even possible, and certainly not necessary. The same historical

pattern need not be repeated, and indeed if we had it to do over again we

would very likely not follow the pattern that the United States did follow

in the last 5 0 years. How might the NBS contribute to such understanding

and contribute to the programs that result from that understanding? It

has often occurred to me that NBS has sister institutions in other industrialized nations with whom we have the most cordial and close working contact,

with whom we could collaborate much more effectively in activities helpful

to the developing nations. I am thinking of the National Research Council

in Canada, the National Physical Laboratory in England, the PhysikalischTechnische Bundesanstalt of West Germany, Bureau Nationale de Metrologie

of France, the TNO in The Netherlands, and the equivalent laboratories

in the U.S.S.R. and in Japan. These major laboratories constitute the

central core of activities in the International Committee of Weights and

Measures (CIPM) which is the instrument of the General Conference of Weights

and Measures and which carries out its activities. CIPM also maintains a

central measurement laboratory, the International Bureau of Weights and

Measures (BIPM), near Paris. There are 43 nations that belong to the CIPM,

and most of them are not the highly developed industrial nations I just

mentioned. I question whether CIPM and the central laboratories, the BIPM,

serve all of these member states as well as they might; but how could they

serve better? If we could come to a better understanding of that question

I believe we could take steps to ensure that this international laboratory

does better serve the nations of the world that participate.

I am personally very grateful to the National Academies of Sciences

and Engineering and especially to AID and, even more especially, to those

of you who have come from long distances to give us a chance to learn at

this meeting. We hope that we will learn where we can put our priorities

of time and talent to help aid international bodies in this worldwide

program of development cooperation. Perhaps we can use our influence to

further those constructive multi-lateral and international endeavors that

are judged to be important.

It is important that you appreciate that we at NBS have a laboratory

of technical people. We have very little legal authority in the compulsory

sense of that word. Our work must be needed by our client in order to be

used. We do not enforce any measurement standard in the United States.

We issue very few engineering standards. We do not do product engineering.

We do not assume management responsibility for enterprises. However, in

every one of these areas we are deeply involved in research and analysis,

understanding and observation. We view the technological system in some

sense from the outside. We hope we can be objective about it. We feel

we can be practical about it. I believe that, if we are successful in some

moderate participation in the improvement of the central technical services'

to developing industrial economies, we may, out of that experience, better

understand how we can serve our own people in this country. Our responsibility for the coordination of a compatible and accurate national system of

measurement, of course, also calls for a system that is harmonized internationally, because a measurement system that is not harmonized internationally is not useful nationally. This strong international orientation that

our central responsibility gives us automatically brings to our staff a

452-533 0-72-2 7
strong interest in the international work that is the subject of this

discussion. I can assure you that the management of NBS will give the

strongest encouragement to whatever practical and constructive programs

emerge from these and subsequent discussions.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

8
SESSION 1 - PERSPECTIVE

Paper 1.3 - Keynote Address - The Role of a National Capability in

Metrology and Standardization in Industrializing Economies

Dr. Jesse D. Perkinson

Director

Department of Scientific Affairs

Organization of American States

Washington, D. C. 20006

In considering "The Role of the National Capability in Metrology and

Standardization in Industrializing Economies" we must examine the development, structure and services of similar capabilities in the more advanced

countries. No one can afford the luxury of not profiting from historical

successes and failures of others.

Before we examine some of the aspects of our concern, I wish to read a

quotation that has haunted me since I first heard it at the age of fifteen.

It is from the writings of a brilliant, inspired, and inspiring man named

Henry Grady—a man who has greatly affected the history of the United

States but whose name will be new to everyone here, unless you lived some

years ago in Georgia or unless you are a scholar of Southern history.

"A few years ago I told, in a speech, of a burial in Pickens County,

Georgia. The grave was dug through solid marble, but the marble headstone

came from Vermont. It was in a pine wilderness, but the pine coffin came

from Cincinnati. The iron mountain overshadowed it, but the coffin nails

and screws and the shovels came from Pittsburgh. With hard woods and metals

abounding, the corpse was hauled on a wagon from South Bend, Indiana.

A hickory grove grew near by, but the pick and shovel handles came from

New York. The cotton shirt on the dead man came from Cincinnati, the coat

and breeches from Chicago, the shoes from Boston; the folded hands were

encased in white gloves from New York, and round the poor neck, that had

worn all its living days the bondage of lost opportunity, was twisted a cheap

cravat from Philadelphia. That country, so rich in underdeveloped resources,

furnished nothing for the funeral except the corpse and the hole in the

ground, and would probably have imported both of those if it could have done

so. And as the poor fellow was lowered to his rest, on coffin bands from

Lowell, he carried nothing into the new world as a reminder of his home

in this, save the halted blood in his veins, the chilled marrow in his bones,

and the echo of the dull clods that fell on his coffin lid.

"There are now more than $3,000,000 invested in marble quarries and

machinery around that grave. Its pitiful loneliness is broken with the

rumble of ponderous machines, and a strange tumult pervades the wilderness.

Twenty miles away, the largest marble-cutting works in the world puts to

shame in a thousand shapes its modest headstone. Forty miles away, four

coffin factories with their exquisite work tempt the world to die. The

iron hills are gashed and swarm with workmen. Forty cotton mills in a

near radius weave infinite cloth that neighboring shops make into countless

shirts. There are shoe factories, nail factories, shovel and pick factories,

and carriage factories, to supply the other wants. And that country can

now get up as nice a funeral, native and home-made, as you would wish to

have.

When I tell you that Henry Grady made his contribution around the turn

of the century, the principal point is, I hope, clear. The industrialization

that he exhorted people to, and the beginnings he was so prominent in,

have so blossomed in the last 50 years that Henry Grady would be amazed

9
to see the changes in the standard of living, the educational level and

the health services of Georgia today.

Given the will and the desire of the people, with leaders of vision

and knowledge, the less developed countries can like the state of Georgia

in a relatively short period of time achieve the same benefits of industrialization that this Southern State did after it was decimated by civil war.

I hope it will be possible at the same time for these countries to escape

some of the environmental problems with which the United States is now

struggling.

A few years ago I had the interesting experience of hearing, at a

small luncheon, the initial concept of the Alliance for Progress. This

was tried out on a few of us who were working in Latin American development.

On my left was one of the foremost economists of the United States. He

remarked to me that he felt no assistance should be given under the proposed

alliance to help build national science capabilities. He believed aid

should only be given in the application of scientific knowledge resulting

from foreign research and that a national scientific infrastructure was a

luxury that should be foregone in favor of achieving universal literacy,

and other goals of this kind. I replied then as I would today: First, that

it did not matter what he or I thought should be done , because each country

would have its own science interests; and secondly, it was clear that

even the adaptation of which he spoke could not be accomplished without

a national capability in science and technology. To show how forcefully

this belief is held by the foremost spokesman of Latin American science, I

will quote from my esteemed friend Dr. Bernardo Houssay who is the first

Nobel laureate in science from the region:

"...If the fundamental scientific research of a country is poor or

weak, applied sciences and industrial and agricultural technologies become

stagnant, deteriorate or disappear."

Since my experience is primarily with Latin America, I will of necessity

use illustrations and data from that region but probably these will apply

to other industrializing sections. Why is national infrastructure in

science and technology necessary, and what is its effect on the development

process? We will probably be able to discuss at greater length what the

role of science and technology might be in socio-economic development than

what its contributions actually are. The discovery of science as a discipline to be extolled and supported by decision makers is quite recent. Its

actual potential and the best way to use it are only now being explored.

The Japanese experience, the OECD work with the Mediterranean countries,

and the OAS studies in Latin America are still current. Some conclusions

are however usually accepted as valid. The only basic wealth any country

has is in its people and its physical resources. The exploration, identification, and evaluation of the natural resources of a country require a

national scientific capability. To have these studies performed by foreign

experts is in most cases too costly and might entail varying degrees of loss

of national control. We might remember here that much of the Andean

region of South America has not been explored for valuable minerals , much

of the interior of South America is untouched by scientific exploration, and

perhaps 7 5% of the plants of the Amazon region are not yet classified.

Just as science and technology are only newly considered in governmental

councils, so a working partnership between the economic planners and the

scientific community is not yet routine. Yet it is beginning; the scientists

and engineers are becoming concerned and are being consulted in the economic

plans of several Latin American countries. This combination is now identifying national needs and determining how they can be more adequately met

through the use of appropriate technology. So far, however, the benefits

of such cooperation in the systematic and intensive determination of

national goals are more to be desired than to be enjoyed, but the increasing

10
role of scientists and engineers in the planning process cannot be denied.

Once a decision is made to initiate or to improve an industry, the

process to be employed must be decided at least in part on a technological

basis. When industries are started or new processes are introduced into

existing industries , the most basic and important decisions must be made

as to the technological procedures that will be used. These decisions to

be sound must at some level be subjected to a scientific analysis based upon

the required technical knowledge and experience. A national scientific

capability must operate in deciding whether a new technological process

should be developed locally or be purchased from abroad. Even before this

step, technical knowledge and experience are required in deciding where to

look and what to look for.

How real is the need for a scientific infrastructure that grows in

strength? How can we justify the expenditure of limited capital in this

direction? What is the minimal capability that will insure a profitable and

continuing technological effort? On what basis do we even determine the

answers to these questions? Although we must face our inability at this

time to answer these questions with quantitative precision, we may venture

some general conclusions that usually serve as guidelines in developing

countries. Even if a country is small and industrialization is little

advanced so that all technology is imported, there must exist a national

capability that will at least serve as a basis for logical decisions.

Once any technical process is begun, there must be the ability to keep

it running. For locally owned and managed agriculture and industry, the

importation of technical experts eventually proves prohibitive.

One of the most rapidly growing areas in Latin American governments

is planning. It is recognized that to the maximum degree possible, the

limited human and financial resources must be used in the most efficient

way. The luxury of years of trial and error cannot be afforded. I wish

I could report that science and technology are an integral part of this

planning process in Latin America. I can report that they are becoming

more nearly so. In some countries, the voice of the science community is

being raised and is being heard. So far, there is not the desirable

degree of cooperation between the national planning bodies on the one

hand and the universities and the national research councils on the other

hand. This is a statement of regrettable fact and not of censure. The

planning offices in most countries are only a few years old and except in

one or two cases the research councils are even newer. Between five and ten

councils have been created in the last three years in Latin America.

Since technology transfer or even more politely, technology exchange,

is a current topic of great interest, let us examine the importance of a

national capability in this process and particularly in relation to the

planning function.

Ideally, the science community would work with the planning offices

in the complex policy decisions that must be made. As I have said, this

does not now happen often or extensively. On the other hand, policy

decisions as to the agricultural and industrial goals and plans of a

country cannot be made solely by scientists. The national consequences of

such decisions are so vitally important that every appropriate sector should

be involved. The complex questions that must be answered require the

knowledge of economists, industrialists, and the social scientists, as well

as the natural scientists and engineers. How else can valid answers be

obtained to such questions as to whether the industry should use a technology

that is labor intensive or capital intensive, how soon limited public or

private financing should be devoted to the initiation of a certain technology,

and what are the social consequences of a decision to go ahead? How else

can valid answers be obtained to the complexities of the importation of

technology and to all of the elements that comprise the "receptive climate

11
for new technology"?

The eminent Argentine economist, Raul Prebisch, recently characterized

technology transfer in Latin America as ambivalent and contradictory in the

sense that the need for innovation is great, but the introduction of advanced

technology without consideration of existing production systems can result

in employment problems and the fixing of scarce capital in sectors of less

need. Once such undesirable results are produced, they are difficult to

reverse. An example lies in the computer situation. A recent survey made

by the OAS showed that expensive equipment is in some locations being used

only an hour or so a day.

What are the needs for national capabilities in metrology and standardization in Latin America? Here we must emphasize the trite but still

important fact that differences exist in size, economies, and degree of

industrialization among the countries. Obviously the needs and capability

of Brazil are several magnitudes different from those of the smallest

countries that are primarily agricultural.

Although it involves standards of a kind different from those with

which we are dealing primarily here, an anecdote might serve to illustrate

that the need is universal. In one of the smallest Latin American countries

where industries are few and funds for science are greatly restricted, a

bright and energetic dean of science campaigned successfully for national

food and drug laws. He then used his university laboratories to test the

products sold in his country. The fees charged paid for excellent teaching

and research equipment and the laboratory now performs these services for

other smaller countries in his region.

As the industrialization of Latin America increases so does the awareness

of accurate measurements and recognized standards. As the trend towards

common markets and the manufacture and international sale of products from

native raw materials grows so does the interest in metrology and standards.

The Latin American Free Trade Association is greatly concerned with the

introduction of standards that will be recognized throughout the hemisphere.

Thought is being given to the development of a certifying seal that would

be adopted by all the members of that organization. The Andean common

market countries have the same interests and plans.

The extent to which metrology and standardization can be supported on

a national basis is an individual matter for each country. The services

required and those to be rendered by a national capability must be determined

in the context of the total country needs and the financial and scientific

resources available. The question then is not whether this capability is

desirable but rather what is the structure and which are the services that

are appropriate.

For those countries that cannot have at present the metrology and

standards services they wish, one possible solution is in a regional

approach. Just as the Central American countries have joined their

interests and resources in the Central American Institute of Technological

Research, in the Central American Institute of Nutrition, and in the Central

American Association of Universities, and just as some of the Caribbean

countries have a central university, so might the smaller countries of a

region band together in metrology and standards.

In this Seminar we have an excellent opportunity of exchanging ideas

and experiences concerning the fundamental structures, missions, goals, and

results of the organizations you represent. We might consider such questions

as

(1) What elements are considered in determining the areas of

active interest and what is the process for arriving at

these decisions?

12
(2) How is it assured that the work meets the needs of government

and private industry?

(3) What mechanisms exist for getting appropriate information

to the user?

(4) How are charges, if any, for services determined?

(5) How is and how could cooperation among governments be

arranged and augmented?

I am sure that each of you has additional questions you wish to raise

and information and experience you wish to share. I look forward with

pleasure to exploring our common interests and to the development of

specific plans for increasingly productive cooperation among the countries

and organizations represented here.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

13
/
X

SESSION 1 - PERSPECTIVE

Paper l.U - NBS Programs to Provide Infrastructure

Services for Science and Technology in USA

Lawrence M. Kushner

Deputy Director

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 2023H

I shall try to build upon the remarks of earlier speakers, particularly

Dr. Branscomb, who did tell you quite a bit about the National Bureau of

Standards. I shall go into greater detail about some of our programs,

stressing the variety of activities in which we are engaged, and the

multiplicity of ways in which we try to serve the scientific and technical

activities of the USA.

The title of this paper is a rather formidable —"NBS Programs to

Provide Infrastructure Services for Science and Technology in USA. " The

explicit reference to the infrastructure of science and technology is,

however, quite deliberate. Economists use the term—infrastructure —to

mean those services, such as transport, power, education, health, in

which a society makes a long-term capital investment, and which investments

may not themselves return a profit. They are social or public overhead

capital and are usually publicly funded for that reason. By analogy,

one can say that a country's scientific and technological endeavors also

are supported by an infrastructure, including its system for educating

scientists, its specialized channels for communication of scientific and

technical information, and its provision for metrological and standardization services. It is also true that the health and effectiveness of these

services is an important factor in determining the vitality of the science

and technology in that country. As infrastructure services, these too

may be publicly supported.

Indeed, the last of these, the provision of metrological and standardization services, was explicitly the reason for the creation of the NBS in

19 01. We have a strong conviction that the NBS is an important part of

science and technology of the USA and that the Congress was wise to have

created it when it did. But, except in a limited number of cases, we have

little quantitative knowledge of the direct economic impact of our programs.

We do know that all of our programs have enthusiastic constituencies; we

learn about this when we try to stop one. However, the extent of this

enthusiasm is really no indicator of the relative importance of the particular program.

I am going to describe to you the many metrological and related services

which are intended to make the conduct of the scientific and technological

activities of this country more effective. Although I will describe the

multiplicity of services that NBS provides, I am not implying that this

display of services in its entirety is the only way to provide what may be

needed, even in a country of technological sophistication comparable to the

USA, let alone to any less developed country. The set of services I will

describe has been developed over a period of many years; even within the

NBS we are not satisfied that they constitute the optimum set, and we are

continually examining ways in which we can accomplish our purposes more

effectively. We are continually eliminating or modifying existing services

and introducing new ones.

One of the subsidiary purposes of this talk was alluded to by Dr.

Branscomb. That is to counter the rather restricted image of the NBS which

15
may be conveyed by its name. We are concerned with much more than

standards, although standards are themselves a very important part of any

country's technical capability. It is our concern for the adequacy of the

measurement capability of the USA in the broadest possible sense that

motivates most of the work that we do at NBS. In addition, we see our role

as encompassing assistance in the application of technology in the public

interest, though we do not ourselves develop that technology. This is an

important point. We do not develop technology for exploitation in the

private sector. We do seek to identify and remove the barriers to its

development in the scientific and technological activities of the rest

of the country.

I also wish to draw attention to the wide range of sophistication and

diversity of the services that are required to support a technologically

based economy. By displaying this variety of services and programs, I

suggest that we at this Seminar may be guided in identifying those that are

particularly appropriate for use in a less developed country which is

striving to develop the industrial base of its economy. It is not very

likely that a carbon copy of the organization of NBS—or even a demagnified

version of it —will provide the proper institutional framework within

which these services should be provided in a country of markedly different

technological development. A less developed country whose economic development is based on an improvement of agricultural technology, or whose

industrialization will be based on the processing of agricultural products,

may find NBS a very poor model indeed. NBS has played a rather small

direct role in the development of agricultural technology. Institutions

dwarfing ours in the Department of Agriculture have largely dealt with

this

Another point which Dr. Branscomb mentioned, is that NBS represents

only a small fraction of the total technical capability which is available

in the USA. In the early days of the NBS, to be sure, we represented a

somewhat larger fraction than we do today. However, at no time have we

had the mismatch between the technical competence in government and that

in industry which I suspect exists in most of the less developed countries

we might consider. In my limited travels to several countries which are

striving to stimulate their industrial development , one of the dominant

problems is that the government technical experts, by and large, have no

one to talk to in industry.

The usually close match between the NBS technical capability and that

in U.S. industry, combined with the limited financial and manpower resources

of NBS, have put us into a characteristic mode of operation. Rather than

blindly doing things for scientists and engineers in industry, we work

with them. We involve them in the work of finding solutions to their

measurement problems. Having made this generalization, let me hasten to

say that in many instances we do deal and interact with people whose

technical skills are quite unsophisticated indeed. Often they are public

officials at the county, state, or city level. So in this respect, we

do have some experience in working in a mode comparable to what one might

expect in a less developed country.

Let me also repeat what Dr. Branscomb mentioned earlier—the NBS has

no powers of enforcement. Our mode of operation with scientists in universities and in industrial and other government laboratories is a cooperative and purely voluntary one. We have no authority to order people to do

things a particular way. We gain acceptance for our ideas and suggestions

only by virtue of their technical soundness and reasonableness.

Our main interest this week is economic development based on the

application of science and technology. Let me point out that a vigorous

scientific activity in a country is no guarantee of economic development.

Even in the USA, there has been concern about the lack of coupling between

16
our basic and our applied research; and the processes through which applied

research and development lead to economic growth are poorly understood.

Some companies have been notably successful; many more have not. No

formula for success has been found, but it will surely involve much more

than simply direct investment, government and/or private, in science and

technology. Tax policies, regulatory policies, policies to stimulate

innovation, and management techniques will all figure importantly.

Now let me discuss the NBS objectives, the resources that we have

available for achieving these objectives, and some of our specific programs.

The NBS is an element of the U. S. Department of Commerce. The Department

of Commerce is broadly dedicated to the stimulation of this country's

economic development. Science and technology are an important part of this

job. The NBS is one of several technical agencies within the Department

of Commerce. We have recently defined our goal: To strengthen and advance

the Nation's science and technology and to facilitate their effective

application for public benefit. This statement of our goal suggests that

we have two operating objectives. The first is assuring an adequate

national capability for physical measurement. This is the statutory

responsibility of the NBS as given in the 1901 law which established our

institution. However, it follows from our performing this first function

that we have developed a remarkable set of resources in the physical

sciences and engineering. We feel a responsibility to apply these resources

to the solution of some of our current national problems. This is our

second objective. Not to apply these resources to these very pressing

problems, would be a denial of our responsibility as scientists.

Looking further at these operating goals , we see them as meeting our

responsibilities to the several sets of customers that we attempt to serve.

The first beneficiary is the individual scientist and engineer wherever

he may be; we help him do his job better on a day-to-day basis. Our

second responsibility concerns using our skills to assist the application

of national scientific and technical skills to meet particular problems

in industry and government. The third responsibility is to use our services

on behalf of buyers and sellers in the marketplaces of the country. The

fourth responsibility is in connection with public safety, and the final

one relates to services provided for the broad technical community generally.

Now, what are some of the resources that are available to us for

achieving these objectives? We have a total staff of approximately 3500

people, 80% of whom are located in our laboratory at Gaithersburg ; 17%

are located in our laboratory in Boulder, Colorado; and 2% are still at

our old laboratory in the District of Columbia. Nearly half of the

people on board are scientists and engineers , people engaged directly in

technical work; it takes nearly an equal number of support personnel to

back up this group. The breakdown of our professional staff I find interesting. The largest single group is physicists, followed by chemists and

engineers. Our most rapidly growing group, now amounting to 12%, we call

"other professionals." It includes economists, sociologists, psychologists,

and lawyers , which suggests something about the types of problems in which

we are now becoming engaged; problems that involve subjective measurement

factors and that have important economic and social impact—which we must

understand if our work is to be effective. The educational level of our

staff is remarkably high. Fifty percent of the professionals have advanced

degrees; 30% have their doctorates.

The dollar resources that are available to us are not insignificant.

In the current fiscal year, we have approximately seventy-four million

dollars available, nearly 60% of which comes to us directly from the Congress.

Nearly all of the remainder comes to us from other government agencies on

whose behalf we undertake particular programs. A small amount of income

4% of the total--comes to us as payment for specific services that we

provide, mainly testing and calibration. Let me draw your attention to

17
the fact that the testing and calibration activities, as such, represent

a rather small fraction of the total activity of the NBS.

Our facility at Gaithersburg, Maryland, which most of you have seen,

comprises 21 buildings with 112,000 square meters of working space.

Another laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, is the center of most of our

activity in high frequency electrical measurements , low temperature

engineering, and work in atomic physics —particularly problems in astrophysics .

The organization chart of these two NBS facilities shows six operating

groups. The three major ones are called institutes: The Institute for Basic

Standards, which is concerned principally with the physical measurement

quantities and related standards; the Institute for Materials Research,

which studies chemical and physical properties; and finally, the Institute

for Applied Technology, which emphasizes our economic and social concerns.

Our Center for Computer Sciences and Technology deals with a specific

area—automatic data processing. We have an information program under

an Associate Director for Information Programs. Finally, we have the

conventional set of administrative activities that support a technical

operation

Let us take a look now at the first operating goal that I mentioned

before, that is, assuring that we have an adequate national capability for

physical measurement. This includes a number of activities. First, it

involves providing national standards of measurement for the important

physical measurement quantities. There are approximately 40 of these,

starting with the basic four—mass, length, time, and temperature. The

other 35 or 38 are related to these four through the laws of physics and

constitute a rational set. It is basic to the technical activities of any

country that it have adequate physical measurement techniques and standards

for these physical measurement quantities. Second, one needs to be concerned

with transferring the measurement capability that we have at the NBS to

other laboratories throughout the country. Third, one needs to provide

reliable reference data for scientists and engineers to use —data which do

not need to be continually re-evaluated and rechecked by the individual

experimenter or designer before he feels confident in their use. And

finally, there is a broad class of measurements that concern the properties

of materials. For these we also need adequate and reliable test methods

and measurement procedures.

We talk a lot about good measurement at NBS. I want to say a few

things about what we mean by good measurement. First, one needs to be

certain he knows what property needs to be measured for the application in

mind. Then one needs to be concerned that the measurement that is being

made is appropriate to determine that property. Having this, one needs

to be satisfied that the accuracy with which the measurement is made is

appropriate to what the needs are. One needs to be certain that the measurement can be repeated as often as it needs to be and give essentially the

same answer. Finally, one has to have some assurance that, if a similar

measurement is made in another laboratory, another investigator can obtain

essentially the same results.

These then are some of the criteria that we use in the provision of

the national standards of measurement, where we are concerned with continually

improving the existing methods and improving the existing standards. For

instance, the present frequency standard at the NBS Electromagnetic

Calibration Center is the cesium beam clock. It has been the national

standard for several years. Its performance is continually being improved.

Most recently, a statistical analysis of the variation of its performance

over a period of time has permitted us to specify with greater degree of

precision the accuracy of the signal that it produces. We are continually

on the lookout for applying new scientific breakthroughs to measurement

18
problems, particularly in connection with these fundamental standards. For

example, the recently discovered Josephson effect in superconductors at

extremely low temperatures may provide a new standard for voltage. The

most recent field of scientific activity that offers promise for metrology

is the field of lasers and laser technology. We expect that in the not too

distant future light from a stabilized laser will be the basis of the

international standard for both length and frequency. We have a very

active program concerned with lasers , specifically for their application

to measurement problems. Finally, we are very much concerned with the

compatibility of our national measurement standards with the national

standards of other countries. To this end, we cooperate enthusiastically

in the (international) General Conference of Weights and Measures and

support, as we can, the activities of the International Bureau of Weights

and Measures.

Of course, we would not be doing our job if the only people in the

country who can measure well were all at NBS. We need to be sure that this

measurement capability that we have is disseminated to all of the people

that need it, including the inspectors of weights and measures in the 50

States. The principal method for accomplishing this is through the testing

and the calibration of secondary standards ; but we have recently come to

the conclusion that simply calibrating secondary standards for a laboratory

is no guarantee that the laboratory is going to be able to make good

measurements. The question of making a good measurement includes much

more than simply the calibration of standards. We have recently undertaken

what we call "pilot programs" with a number of cooperating laboratories

whose performance in making a particular type of measurement we actually

monitor. The two fields in which we are actually operating such programs

now are the measurement of mass and that of voltage. Using techniques

developed here, the participating laboratories are able to monitor their

measurement performance continually so that they can tell whether such

things as factors in the environment of the laboratory or a change in

operator or in operating procedure is affecting their ability to make a

particular measurement. In our measurement analysis program we expect to

extend this principle to other physical measurement quantities such as

length, temperature, electrical current, and so on.

Finally, another way in which we transfer our measurement capability

is through the broadcasting of time and frequency signals which can be

picked up in something approaching two-thirds of the world. We have a

radio station located in Boulder, Colorado—WWV—and another located in

Hawaii—WWVH. We are continually striving for new techniques for disseminating these signals and making them useful to people. We recently developed

a technique by which we are using commercial TV as a carrier for timing

signals which will permit very accurate synchronization of clocks wherever

a commercial TV set and a modest amount of additional equipment are

available.

With respect to providing reliable reference data for scientists and

engineers, there are two ways in which we do this. First, we can undertake

our own careful experiments to provide particular data. Examples would be

our precision calorimetric measurements on sapphire and our experiments

on the redetermination of the velocity of light. Another way of providing

these data is by reviewing critically the data that are available in the

literature. To this end we have a Standard Reference Data Program which

utilizes the knowledge and skills of many laboratories throughout the USA

as well as several outside of the country. Their function is to review

critically the world literature in fields in which they have special

expertise and to distill from the literature those data whose reliability

can be assessed. Each participating laboratory, or data center, periodically

publishes reviews of its evaluations. Tables of critically evaluated data

which can be used with confidence are now available for heats of formation

of compounds, for diffusion in solids, and for x-ray diffraction in some

19
30,0 00 kinds of crystals. We believe this to be a most important program

which we hope can ultimately become truly international in participation.

An important measure of a country's technology is its ability to

exploit materials. This means that people who are working with materials

must have adequate measurement methods for their properties. We have a

very large program at NBS concerned with materials science, materials

measurements and their application. We are concerned with the development

of such measurement methods as electron-microprobe analysis and quantitative

metallography, with methods for polymer purification and for trace characterization, and finally, with standard reference materials. A standard

reference material is a material whose properties have been carefully

measured and so are particularly well known and which can then be used to

calibrate a measurement procedure. We issue over 500 such standard reference

materials, ranging from ultra-pure aluminum with an electrical resistivity

of 0.1473 x 10~ 9 ohm-cm to D-glucose of 99.9% purity.

The services that I have been describing so far cut across lines of

technology. They serve all scientists in the conduct of their work.

Perhaps more than half of the work of NBS is devoted to the solution of

particular, albeit broad, problems which are felt by entire industrial

segments or are national in scope. This work deals much more directly

with assisting the country in applying its scientific and technical skills

to the solution of major problems. Let me repeat, the ability of a country

to utilize and exploit materials is an indicator of the sophistication of

that country's technology. This leads to using materials occasionally at

the limit of their useful properties and makes for a series of problems

that must be of public concern. Many of these have to do with safety.

Corrosion, for instance, is probably the major factor in the failure of

stationary metal structures such as bridges , underground gas lines (which

have exploded with disastrous consequences in terms of property damage

and loss of life), pressure vessels, boilers and containers used for

shipping liquified gases and other products under high pressures. The

corrosion of materials is a very important factor determining their safe

use. Metal fatigue is the principal factor involved in the safe use of

metals and alloys in rotating or vibrating pieces of equipment. It is

often responsible for failures of aircraft and other transportation

equipment

In the tragic collapse of the Silver River Bridge over the Ohio River

several years ago, NBS experts were called in to see if they could figure

out what might have caused the bridge to collapse almost instantaneously

and without warning. As a result of a rather extended investigation, a

good bit of scientific detective work, it was determined that corrosion

led to the sudden rupture of one eye-bar of the bridge, which caused the

entire structure to collapse. The particular phenomenon involved is

referred to as stress corrosion cracking.

We work on measurement problems which are important in dealing with

the various pollution problems that the country faces today. One can do

very little effectively about pollution if one does not have adequate

capability to measure the pollutant ; that is , to determine what the pollutant

actually is, the level at which it is present, and the levels that can

be tolerated by the public. Without measurements, one has no basis for

determining whether or not abatement procedures that have been undertaken

are effective. Recognizing the validity of this viewpoint, we have programs

that deal with the measurement problems in air pollution, in particular,

the measurement of particulate matter, and the concentration of sulfur

dioxide, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxides. These contaminants are

important contributors to air pollution.

We are studying the chemical reactions in the atmosphere that result

in the formation of particular pollutants. We are learning how to use the

20
computer to model entire measurement systems. For example, if one has a

limited number of places in a city in which he can put sensing equipment,

what is the optimum location of those sensors in order to tell what you

need to know about average pollutant levels, sources of pollution, etc.

We recognize today another pollutant, at least in the USA. This is

noise. People are being subjected to much higher noise levels today than

in the past. This problem is becoming a matter of government concern. We

already have laws which set standards for the maximum noise levels that

workers should have to tolerate in industrial environments. There is the

possibility that we may have federal legislation which will set limits

on the noisiness of products that can be sold in interstate commerce.

Noisiness is a subjective measurement. It involves more than simply the

measurement of physical sound. It is an area in which psychological

factors are very important. We are developing a psychophysics program

to help us with this and other measurements in which human factors are

important

One of the major national problems today is providing adequate housing

for our people. Our building industry produces only about two-thirds of

the housing units that are required each year to keep up with our growing

population and with the aging inventory of our housing. An important set

of problems connected with housing deal with building codes and building

standards. The problem breaks down into two parts. At this point in my

talk, I will just direct attention to the technical content of these

documents. Most of our building codes and standards tend to be designor specification-oriented—identifying the particular material or the

particular kind of construction techniques that can be permitted. Instead

there is a need to alter their nature so that there is more emphasis on

performance rather than on design. Instead of specifying that a wall needs

to be constructed in a particular way—which may have been appropriate 20

years ago, but today inhibits the introduction of new techniques —it would

be far better if the code or standard were framed in terms of performance

which state what it is that a wall should do: how much of a structural load

it should be able to withstand and what its thermal and acoustic transmission properties should be. Accordingly, we have a major laboratory

research effort concerned with providing an adequate technical basis for

putting building codes into the performance mode rather than the design

mode. This means identifying the criteria that are important if one wants

to specify performance, identifying appropriate test methodology with respect

to each of these criteria, and trying to identify acceptable levels of

performance with respect to each of these criteria. We do this in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development which has

the principal mission responsibility within the Federal Government for

providing adequate housing for our people.

I have omitted at this time a discussion of an institutional problem

with respect to building codes. Building codes are administered in many

thousands of jurisdictions in the USA, and they differ sufficiently from

region to region and from locality to locality to inhibit effectively the

development of a market which is large enough to encourage capital investments needed for industrialization of our housing industry. This is a

related part of the problem. Later I will describe another NBS program

which deals with that.

Computer technology is a field in which the government and the public

have a very large stake. We have a varied program dealing with computer

technology. The Government is the largest single purchaser and user of

automatic data processing in the USA. The main direction of the NBS program

now, as a result of legislation, is seeing to it that the Government's use

of automatic processing is as effective and as efficient as it can be.

This involves the development of standards for both hardware and software,

the operation of a computer center, offering consulting services for and

21
performing applications research on the government use of automatic data

processing. Also, we are beginning to apply the computer to automate

some of the experiments in our own laboratories.

Dr. Branscomb mentioned our work on the application of systems analysis

and management sciences through our Technical Analysis Division. An

illustrative problem was undertaken for a group of city managers having to

do with the optimum location of firehouses in East Lansing, Michigan. The

computer model used has had broad applicability to many related problems

on the provision of public services involving transportation and distribution.

We are concerned with programs dealing directly with public safety—the

flammability of fabrics, for example. This is one of our safety-related

activities, which include also a broad program of fire research and

safety, and the provision of support to other agencies of government that

have mission responsibilities in the safety area, but whose managements

require the technical support of our specialized skills.

Promoting confidence in the marketplace is the objective of such

programs as the training of weights and measures officials at state and

local levels, the development of voluntary engineering standards in the

private sector, and assistance in the development of performance standards

for a variety of products. NBS scientists serve on more than a thousand

committees in the private sector that develop standards for articles of

commerce. We have a full set of services that are designed to transfer

the knowledge that NBS produces to all who can benefit by it. These

include an active program of publications, sponsorship of meetings and

symposia, and operation of information centers in specific fields in which

we have special expertise.

Now, I would like to conclude by talking about a set of activities

that deal with strengthening these institutions in the country through which

the results of our work are put to use. They may be in the private sector

or involve other levels of government. Dr. Branscomb mentioned earlier that

the NBS has a statutory responsibility for setting national standards for

measurement—mass, length, volume, etc. —but that the enforcement of

weights and measures is a state and local responsibility. How, then, does

one couple the national responsibility with the local responsibility?

In 1905, the NBS found a way to do this which has turned out to be a model

that we are using in other areas. At that time we created a National

Conference on Weights and Measures which consisted of people from various

levels of government and related industry concerned with weights and

measures administration. This Conference has met some fifty times since

1905 and provides a mechanism through which we are made aware of the

technical problems that the enforcers of weights and measures have in their

day-to-day operations. We apply our resources in trying to solve these

problems. Our solutions are communicated back to them through the mechanism

of the Conference. The Conference sessions also serve to bring about

increased uniformity in the development of state and local weights and

measures regulations. It has been successful to the extent that weights

and measures regulation is no longer regarded as an important impediment

to interstate commerce in the United States , as it was at the time that the

NBS was established.

A similar mechanism has recently been set up with the states to bring

about the uniformity or the compatibility which is so necessary in connection

with building codes. We have created with the assistance of the states a

National Conference of States on Building Codes and Standards which has

representation from all of our states and many local communities. Through

this Conference , we expect to obtain knowledge of the specific problems

that building code officials have. This will guide our research. This

Conference is also a mechanism for transmitting our experiences and knowledge

back to them. Most importantly, it serves to improve the uniformity and

22
compatibility of building codes.

There is a concern now that we have no national capability for

accrediting laboratories which test products and materials. This is

particularly important in the building industry. If we are successful in

going to performance-based building codes , local building inspectors will

need to have assurance that a new product does, indeed, perform as a

manufacturer says it performs and does, indeed, meet the requirements in

a performance code. This means that the manufacturer needs to be able

to take his product to a laboratory , have it evaluated with respect to

a performance standard or performance code, and have it certified that

his product meets the code. There must be some system for providing

confidence in the ability of laboratories to make these evaluations. We

are working with a variety of organizations in the private sector and in

the government that are faced with this problem. We hope to establish a

voluntary system that will meet a variety of laboratory accreditation needs.

I hope that I have been able to convey to you the breadth of technical

services that NBS provides to the USA and the range of sophistication of

these services. I hope that this discussion will provide a useful basis

for the discussions during the rest of this Seminar.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

23 452-533 O - 72 - 3

SESSION 1 - PERSPECTIVE

Discussion

Co-chairmen: Jorge A. Sabato and Glenn E. Schweitzer

Dr. Sabato :

The fundamental differences between an underdeveloped country and a

developed country have been put under discussion. Generally it is said

that the difference between one and the other type of countries is related

to economic parameters —the gross national product or the distribution of

income. A more important difference lies in the cultural problem of how

to attain some good for the country. In an underdeveloped country you

jump stages —you impose by force, by decree, by law, by all kinds of legal

procedures something that would be a benefit to your country. Tor standards

and measurements, we set up institutions with all the power of the law

behind them and then superpose these over the culture of the country. This

is a general tendency.

I was struck by the fact that the speakers from the NBS repeated

several times that NBS has no power whatsoever to enforce its results or

methods. Its success then is based on the respect that the community has

for its work. I would like to know what happened in the beginning, in

1905, in 1908, in 1912, when the NBS tried to educate people in those

states that were underdeveloped in those days in the USA. When Dr. Perkinson

read that wonderful quotation I said to my colleague that that was the

best description of Yankee domination that I ever heard in my life. Now,

what happened when the NBS was created by Congress and began to develop

and try to be useful to all the country? I would like to hear the story of

the best failure and the best success of the NBS when it was only beginning

to be respected. This would be really illuminating for us. Is there an

NBS old-timer here that can tell the truth about the early days?

Dr. Condon :

I guess I am the oldest living old-timer, but it makes it extra

difficult for me when you add that part about "who can tell the truth."

I am very happy that you asked this question because I have just come from

a UNIDO meeting in Vienna. That meeting was more narrowly conceived, to

cover just the transfer of industrial information, but it is part of our

interest here. We must not make the error of thinking that in any of these

problems we are dealing with a static situation. You might say that modern

industry started in Western Europe. In that sense, the USA, the Soviet

Union, and Japan are recently developed countries. Back in the period of

time that you are citing there was not much scientifically based industry

in America. Let us remember how recent the American developments are. The

analogous developments in Russia are even more recent.

The acceptance of the NBS in the USA in that period, and I say it in

all seriousness, was the result of the NBS practice of, shall we say,

growing the people that would accept it. Prior to about 1910, the General

Electric Company and the Dupont Company were the only industrial research

organizations in America with any appreciable numbers of people. Some

other companies had a few people assigned to research (Corning Glass Works

hired its first director of research in 1908). The kind of thing we are

talking about is recent. Nevertheless, I think it is also worth stressing

that the kind of change we are talking about —taking a country with a very

low level of technical development and bringing it up to the forefront of

progress —is not going to happen overnight.

25
It is a fact, I think, that a great many universities in the less

developed countries are not very much tied in with the industrial development of those countries. They represent citadels of the old classical

kinds of education rather than active representatives of modern industrial

technology. Therefore, there is a tendency not to make as much use of them

for technology. I encountered that kind of a tendency in the discussions

in Vienna from which I have just come, but of course that is part of the

problem. If universities cannot be made to contribute to the technical

aspects of their countries* development, then we need to change them.

Dr. Sabato :

What do you consider to be the best success of the NBS and the best

failure?

Dr. Condon :

The best failure —that is real Latin diplomacy.' Lew (addressing Dr.

Branscomb), can you help out with the failure? I do not know of any

failures. It depends on what is meant. Scientific or technical failures

as far as I know are lacking. NBS work has been very good work always.

On the other hand, we should call it failure when progress sometimes seems

to go very very slowly, especially with the transfer into commercial

practice

Dr. Sabato :

I would like to be more precise with my definition of failure. I

am not thinking of the scientific and technical work. I am thinking of

failure of the social effect of the NBS. Imagine a group of scientists in

the NBS in 1908 or 1910 with a nice idea of changing the habits of commerce.

Using such and such methods they develop a complete piece of research and

outline a wonderful procedure; yet nobody uses it. You wait for 25 years

before anybody pays attention to the work. That is my definition of

failure, because it is the failure of achieving within reasonable time

a social result from your research.

Dr. Condon :

I think that is a very important distinction and Lew is going to answer.

Dr. Branscomb :

Let me try to answer by describing two failures ; one which I think we

are reversing and the other in which we are still failing. For the first,

I will go back to Dr. Kushner's discussion of the building code problem.

The NBS has had a Building Technology Division for many decades and has

spent several million dollars a year developing methods of measurement for

building materials. A great deal of progress was made in the ability to

determine quantitatively the fire resistance of roofing materials, for

example. The result of all this work, however, was a very elaborate quality

grading system which has been written into building codes by 6,000 separate

jurisdictions. Several national studies report that this situation now

inhibits the development of an industrialized building industry selling to

a 200-million-dollar market. We are now undoing that failure by the

procedures that Dr. Kushner discussed.

The other failure is a contemporary failure —the Standard Reference

Data System. This is an excellent idea which was generated by a White House

panel in 1958. It is a good ten years old now and NBS has statutory

responsibility for it. We are even spending two million dollars a year.

We have a network of information centers, but there is still no widespread

appreciation in the scientific community, or yet in the user community,

26
of the importance or even the appropriateness of quality control in

scientific research leading to the development of knowledge about properties.

The inconsistent values of the specific heats of copper is a good example.

That is still happening. Most of the quantitative information in the basic

scientific literature is still not objectively evaluated by experts, and

not really usable by an engineer without going through a prototype scale

model first to test out whether what the scientist has told is the truth.

I think that is a good example.

Dr. Condon :

I think it is , but it also supports what I was saying about the whole

game being slow. He is calling the Standard Data System a failure when

it has been in existence for only ten years. It is going to take two or

three decades.

Dr. Brans comb :

Let me next describe a sort of a success which did not have adequate

follow-through; it goes back to your original question about the history.

Herbert Hoover was an excellent Secretary of Commerce. He was an engineer.

When he became Secretary, about 1920, he appreciated that there was a great

deal of chaos in industry, much of it of a technological origin. He

established a major program to reduce waste in American industry, and his

procedure for doing that was to establish a voluntary system of industrial

standardization. The NBS was very much his right arm in starting the

institutional structure within the USA for dealing with industrial standardization. In subsequent decades the problem was handed over to industry,

but a number of problems developed which now again urgently call for the

same kind of government leadership. I think it was the combination of the

technical capabilities that the NBS had built up over 20 years, plus the

leadership of a major government executive, who himself had an engineering

background, that provided the biggest impetus in generating our credibility

and effectiveness on the industrial side.

Dr. Schweitzer :

I would like to direct my question to Dr. Branscomb or Dr. Kushner, and

I refer only to the physical measurement objective of the NBS and not the

national problems objective. Dr. Kushner mentioned the difficulty in

quantifying the economic impact of what the NBS does in this area. My

question is, What kind of argument do you use in defending your budget

before the Congress?

Dr. Branscomb :

I will confess that we sometimes take the easy way out, starting with

the premise that the USA is technologically the most advanced nation on

earth. We would claim that we have to stay that way and therefore we

have to have a capability in basic measurement which is essential for a

leadership position. However, the facts of the matter are that this argument

both does not work and is not true. As an example, the highest priority

item in last year's budget was a major effort to revive a very badly

disintegrated capability in applied dimensional metrology. We have in our

laboratories the finest capability in the world for interferometric measurements to a precision of one part in 10^2 } using a stabilized laser which

we invented. At the same time, we are not able to keep up with the precision

measurement requirements of the modern American. We indeed have a situation

in which our optical industry is producing glass scales, intended for use

in precision measuring machinery, which we cannot measure with an accuracy

comparable to the precision with which they are made.

Many segments of our machine tool industry are moving swiftly to take

27
advantage of these new technological developments. Unfortunately we lack,

at the present time, the ability to furnish the needed transfer from the

l:10-1-2 technology of the primary standard to the microinch needs of the

automated machine industry. We have not until now been pressed because

many machine tool users have not been fully aware of the impact of this

new revolution on their metrology laboratories. Finally, we appreciated

what was happening and we are now taking the leadership in developing

measurement methods to match the challenge of the new machine tools. Even

so, I am not sure that NBS generation of the capability to respond to what

the industry ought to be asking us to do is sufficient, if they do not

themselves ask. Therefore we will have to find a way to bring to the

attention of the industry the opportunities that are there and I suppose

we will do that through conferences, discussions, and encouragement of

the leading groups. That particular situation can go either of two ways.

We could be successful in bringing this industrial sector along to take

advantage of the measurement capability that we know can be generated,

even though we do not have it and they do not have it. Alternatively,

we could watch what will happen otherwise. Perhaps IBM, or TRW, or

some other electronics, computer, or space-related companies will move into

the numerically controlled machine area. They might then generate a totally

new industry to replace one which will slowly lose out to overseas

competition

Dr. Sabato :

I thank you very much for your example. That is a perfect case of

having an overdeveloped science and an underdeveloped industry in the same

environment; this is typical in many less developed countries where you

have the capability to do many things, but you do not have even the question

coming from industry. I think we would appreciate it very much if after

some years' time you would publish something about your further experience.

In our case we have found that it is a problem of re-educating industry

not only managers, but technicians. In your case of the machine tools,

I suppose your industry was importing the measuring element from Switzerland,

the real empire for precision mechanical measurements during the last fifty

years. How are you going to reconvert your industry? This would be a

fascinating experience for us to study in our country where we must try

to join two worlds, that of some knowledge and that of an industry which

is behind, and many times does not know what kind of questions must be

put

Dr. Work :

I want to speak about the time when the NBS began to be recognized.

In the early 20' s when I was in college, P. H. Bates of the NBS was recognized as the leading authority on portland cement. When I graduated I

took a job electroplating on aluminum for the Aluminum Company of America.

At that time, William Blum was still alive and unquestionably the top man

in electroplating in the USA. Then the work on the heat treatment of

aluminum by Merick, Waltenberg, and Scott was really an outstanding piece

of work which is still referred to. All this work on materials was done

at NBS in the 20 's, and shows that NBS had established a very strong position

at that time.

Now, I would like to say a word or two about this question of your

doing basic research so that you can understand things and then going ahead

to build your industrial economy. I would be curious to know whether anybody here knows of a single example where basic research in one of the less

developed countries resulted in the development of an industry. I think

that the pattern is actually the other way around. I think that the people

who started the radio business in Japan had practically no technical background. A lot of the Japanese production then was quite inferior. They

got into all kinds of trouble and then they put in standardization.

28
This pattern is basically that being followed in Iran where I have

just finished a tour as Chief Advisor to the Institute of Standards and

Industrial Research. Iran records a very fine increase in GNP. They start

an industry based on world knowledge at the time, then they get in trouble

when they try to run it, and so they get standards worked in. Iran

started a standards institute ten years ago with seven engineers in it.

Today it has somewhere around a thousand people. A great deal of the early

standards work was on agricultural products, not on manufactured goods.

The automobile industry of Iran is now growing very rapidly. The pressures

are great to increase the standardization. The next step that will come

along arises from the fact that some of the standards problems become so

difficult and long-term that you cannot conveniently do them in a quality

control organization. So you pull them out and call them research.

It is my impression that if you carefully analyze the growth of

research in the USA you would find that a tremendous amount of that growth

consisted merely of taking quality control people on the longer term

projects and moving them into a separate building which was then called

research. In other words, the change was in name more than in activity,

and I would like to give you one example of that. I worked for a steel

company with a thousand people in their quality control group. There were

five people in research, and I was made manager of research and development

over these five people. One of the problems on which they were working was

why some transmission towers had fallen down. If you threw the component

plates on the ground on a cold winter day they would break like glass.

Now that would have been a wonderful problem for basic research, but it

happened to be applied research because the motivation was to find out just

what it was that was giving the trouble. The answer turned out to be

nitrogen, and very small amounts of nitrogen—hundredths of one percent.

It seems to me that the story in the USA has been that you first grew

your big industry and then you brought your technology and your science in

afterward. Japan followed the same pattern in this; they are still being

criticized for not having done enough in science. It is my impression

that the countries that go at it from the scientific end are likely to have

more trouble than those that build up industry.

Dr. Kushner (after comments on the application of basic metrology):

There is not much point in developing metrological skills in a central

laboratory if the people who are expected to use these skills and techniques

are not also developing at the same time. I think I would like to make a

point which I am sure everybody appreciates , but which needs to be stated

explicitly; namely that the purpose of the discussion is really to find

ways to convert science and technology into economic development. What

we are really concerned about is the exploitation of science and technology

rather than the state of science and technology itself. In the instance

of Japan, that Harold Work mentioned, economic development has been based

on existing technology, developed elsewhere. The particular skill that the

Japanese people brought to it was their sense of organization, the financial

arrangements, and the assistance of government in an economic and policy

sense. These made possible the development of an industry based on technology that was available to anybody. Moreover, I think that one must not

lose sight of the fact that industrial and economic development relates

to the state of a country's science and technology only through a host of

other policies and institutions which must be taken into account. Japan

clearly provided these systems.

Dr. Perkinson :

The key to everything that has been said here so far in this discussion

is organization in the scientific and technological areas and in their

industrial applications. It is the entire system you have to be concerned

29
with and this is where the real problem lies. It is not a matter of which

comes first and which second so much as how they work together. How do

you organize things so you really produce the results which you are looking

for?

Mr. Peiser :

I am coming back to our chairman's request to be told about an NBS

failure. I would like to talk not about one failure but about a whole

group of failures because I believe these are relevant. I also refer to

Mr. Bernstein's remarks earlier today, that we must treat this Seminar

as looking at a real world where AID and other organizations concerned with

assistance to development have to think very clearly about priorities among

competitive needs. There is more to do than AID can hope to do. NBS

faces this situation in different areas. In measurement, there is a lot

of good and important scientific work to be done, much more than the NBS

can tackle. Our management has to make hard choices, very often not between

good and bad programs, but among several good programs. It is our wish to

offer whatever support we can give to AID and other organizations that look

to providing the type of services for less developed countries that we

provide for USA. We would love to help and encourage organizations in

other countries where this is desired, but we have to realize that within

NBS we are in competition for limited resources. We live in a real world

where NBS is experiencing a failure to do all that this country really

requires of its organization. In this Seminar therefore, we must focus

on priorities and on the optimum techniques of dissemination that NBS

should attempt to use.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

30
SESSION 2 - THE SOCIOLOGICAL, ECONOMIC, AND MANAGERIAL

ENVIRONMENT IN INDUSTRIALIZING COUNTRIES

Paper 2.1 - Overview - The Anatomy of an Industrializing Economy

George Kalmanoff

Deputy Director, Industrial Projects

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Washington, D. C. 20433

The task of outlining briefly a broad frame of reference concerning

the characteristics of an industrializing economy, with particular relevance

to the application of NBS capabilities, involves a considerable degree of

selectivity. I have chosen to concentrate not merely on the structure or

"anatomy" of such an economy but also on certain aspects of its functioning

and processes as well, drawing attention particularly to the constraints

and problems for industrialization.

It is obvious that an attempt to provide an overview of an industrializing economy involves much oversimplification. There is a broad spectrum

ranging from countries at the earliest stages of industrial development

such as Afghanistan or various countries of Africa, to those with industrial

structures of considerable complexity such as Brazil, India, South Korea,

Mexico, or Taiwan. There are, of course, important differences among

countries within such a broad range , but there is a thread of common

characteristics, with which I propose to deal, that sets the "industrializing

economy" off from the "industrialized" or "developed" economies of most of

Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, or Japan.

1. The Rationale for Manufacturing

During the last several decades the less developed countries —or LDC's

for short—generally have seized on manufacturing as a way of breaking out

of economic stagnation. There have been various immediate reasons from time

to time , such as the sharp decline of foreign exchange earnings during the

depression of the 19 30 's and the supply shortages during World War II,

but the fundamental factor has been the difficulty of achieving acceptable

rates of growth in economies dependent mostly on the export of primary

products. Industrialization, usually by the route of import substitution,

has been looked to as the engine of economic progress. Furthermore, it has

been perceived that most of the rich countries have highly developed

manufacturing sectors , and the development of manufacturing has therefore

been equated with the attainment of high levels of living standards.

Increasing amounts of foreign exchange are needed by industrializing

economies to support the requirements of development. In this connection,

industrialization has been looked to as a means of releasing foreign

exchange, through savings from the replacement of manufactured imports by

domestic production. Furthermore, the demand for most of the primary

products which constitute the bulk of exports from the LDC's does not

increase at a rate high enough to meet foreign exchange requirements. An

adequate expansion of export earnings is felt to be possible only through

the export of manufactures , including those involving a greater degree of

processing of those primary products traditionally exported in a crude state.

Industrialization is thus looked to as a means of alleviating in various

ways the endemic problem in LDC's of foreign exchange shortages.

Industrialization is also relied upon to alleviate the problems of

underemployment and unemployment. Underemployment, or the utilization of

manpower below its potentials, is of course merely another way of expressing

31
a lack of development and low income and living standards. When dealt with

through increasing productivity in agriculture —not quite so easily achieved

as in manufacturing but perhaps of even greater importance considering that

the rural sector is the predominant one in LDC ' s--another problem is aggravated: the drift into urban unemployment. Industrialization is the principal

alternative to agriculture for raising national levels of productivity,

i.e., of reducing underemployment, and it is also expected to provide the

stimulus, directly or indirectly, for mopping up increases in the idle

labor force in the cities.

Finally, industrialization is supposed to give rise to a self -generating

process of development. New skills are created in the industrialization

process, and demands are passed on for expansion of other sectors of the

economy, because of linkages in the production process and the greater

purchasing power of the more productive industrial workers. In other words,

industrialization is looked upon as the most dynamic element in total

economic growth since it is a process which induces expansionist changes

in the structure of the entire economy.

2. Industrialization Policies and Some Effects

As indicated, most LDC's have pursued industrialization policies aimed

at import substitution, i.e., industrialization with an "inward" orientation.

They have as a rule felt that the development of manufacturing for wellknown domestic markets, protected against outside competition, is easier

than manufacturing for the much more exacting conditions of international

competition. Such policies, however, have certain marked shortcomings, and

in recent years among LDC's there has been a growing realization of these

shortcomings

The typical pattern has been to start with import substitution in the

consumer goods field, first in non-durables and later in durables. Once

the import substitution process for consumer goods comes to full effectiveness, the logical extension is into intermediates and capital goods. At

the latter stage the undesirable effects of import substitution policies

tend to be compounded. Economies of scale are generally more important

in the more complex manufacturing of intermediates and capital goods, and

the cost differentials compared with highly developed countries are therefore

greater. Furthermore, the higher costs and prices of locally manufactured

intermediates and capital goods have a pyramiding effect on the entire

domestic cost-price structure since they are inputs for other industries.

The policies applied to carry out this strategy have included import

tariffs or direct quantitative control of imports, coupled with the local

maintenance of exchange rates which are not depreciated enough to lead by

themselves to an equilibrium between exchange earnings and expenditures.

Such "overvalued" exchange rates are maintained for various reasons

among others, as a matter of national prestige, and to keep the cost of

imports from rising, particularly imports of foodstuffs, raw materials, and

those capital goods and intermediates which are not domestically produced.

There are various undesirable results which have ensued in many LDC's

from this approach to industrialization. Manufactured goods tend to be

high-priced and cannot compete in international markets. Foreign exchange

savings from import substitution are offset by import requirements of

equipment and intermediates to keep factories going, and the demands for

consumer goods (including perhaps expendable ones) may rise because of their

very local production. The balance of payments situation may therefore

turn out to be even more vulnerable than before the process of import

substitution was undertaken.

Undue benefits to manufacturing tend to have an adverse effect on

agriculture. Inputs for agriculture and consumer goods purchased by the

32
farmers rise in price, diminishing in turn the purchasing power of most of

the population for the output of manufacturing. Furthermore, investment

and productivity increases in agriculture are discouraged, and the agricultural input requirements of manufacturing are adversely affected.

Frequently problems of food supply are created, requiring unduly high food

imports

The effect of industrialization in increasing employment has also

been limited. With overvalued exchange rates, the imported capital goods

are relatively cheap, and capital-intensive rather than labor-intensive

investments are encouraged. Capital-intensiveness in industry is furthermore frequently induced by preferentially low domestic interest rates to

encourage industrial investment. In any case modern industrial techniques,

being transferred from industrialized countries where they are developed

with a labor-saving motivation, inherently work against an LDC taking

advantage of the abundant availability of labor relative to capital. The

employment effects of industrialization depend to a considerable extent

on the indirect demands for labor induced in the services sector. But the

success of such induced effects depends on the momentum generated in the

industrialization effort itself, which tends to be limited under the type

of import substitution process outlined.

3. Role of Manufacturing in LDC's

Manufacturing in the LDC's taken as a whole represents perhaps 20

to 25 percent of the total output of goods in these countries, compared to

60 to 6 5 percent in industrialized countries. Manufacturing output in the

LDC's is equal to little more than half the agricultural output, whereas

manufacturing output in the industrialized countries is more than four times

as much as agricultural output. Manufacturing has nevertheless been the

most dynamic sector in most LDC's. In recent years growth rates in manufacturing, averaging perhaps 7 percent per year, have been about 40 percent

higher than growth rates of total output in all sectors. Manufacturing

growth rates in LDC's have been about triple those in agriculture. Such

high growth rates may perhaps continue in some LDC's at lower stages of

industrial development pursuing policies of import substitution, but there

is a real question as to whether they can continue for many countries in

the advanced stages. Many of these countries are fast approaching the end

of the relatively easy phase of import substitution. Further growth is

dependent on more import substitution, in lines where difficulties and cost

differentials are greater; on the growth of domestic demand, which is

generally slow; and on exports beset by competitive difficulties for both

internal and external reasons. This is, of course, not to say that the

picture is uniformly bleak. There are examples of considerably greater

dynamism in a number of LDC's particularly small countries that have

pursued industrialization policies with an eye toward foreign markets

(Korea, Singapore, Taiwan), and in selected lines of industrial activity

in some other larger LDC's (a variety of capital goods in India, machine

tools in Brazil, small transformers in Mexico).

Industrialization in the LDC's needs special inducements because of

the disadvantages in their environment relative to that of the highly

developed countries. Manufacturing in the LDC's cannot be expected, at

least in the early stages, to compete internationally under conditions of

free trade, and a policy of laissez faire cannot therefore be expected to

bring about sufficient industrial growth. The fundamental problem is to

design policies aimed at overcoming the disadvantages in such a way that

the policies will contribute to achieving the objectives of industrialization;

or else the process will be self-defeating. Industrialization is a means

to an end—not an end in itself. The basic objectives, as previously noted,

are the attainment of increases in productivity and employment and of a

process of self-propelled growth, within the framework of an equilibrated

balance of international payments.

33
It is instructive for our purpose to cite some of the disadvantages

for manufacturing in the environment of the LDC's.

(1) Many of the LDC national markets are small in absolute terms, and

even in countries of larger populations, there is inadequate

purchasing power for manufactured goods. Economies of scale,

which are widely characteristic of manufacturing operations,

are therefore difficult to achieve.

(2) Manufacturing requires entrepreneurship, organization and management ability, and an educated labor force. These elements evolve

and are reinforced by the manufacturing process itself, but they

are in seriously short supply where manufacturing is either absent

or is only in its early stages.

(3) Manufacturing also requires physical infrastructure facilities,

such as transport and power. While great strides have been made

in this respect during the last several decades, LDC's are obviously

still at a considerable disadvantage relative to the industrialized

countries.

(4) Manufacturing also requires cheap and dependable supplies of

materials and component parts. Factories cannot easily prosper

on a sound basis on their own; a widespread network of ancillary

industries is required to supply the inputs. If they are not

available, difficulties inevitably arise because of shortages of

foreign exchange, because of the need to maintain high inventories,

or because of delays and imbalances in production runs.

(5) Manufacturing also requires a pool of savings available for

investment. Aside from the - low level of savings in LDC's, resulting from the very fact of their underdevelopment, institutions

for the effective mobilization of such savings as do exist are

themselves underdeveloped.

Poor public administration and government services may be added to

this catalogue of handicaps. In view of the need for official encouragement

of manufacturing in LDC's, it is inevitable that there will be a greater

involvement with government administration than in developed countries, and

this greater involvement must occur precisely in an environment where

civil service standards leave much to be desired. The same somewhat

paradoxical set of circumstances prevails with respect to government services,

e.g., in standardization—the needs are great, while the capacity to meet

them is small.

4. External Assistance for Industrialization

In certain ways the less developed countries rely on external assistance for industrialization to an even greater extent than for their economic

development requirements as a whole. From the purely financial point of

view, external savings account for perhaps double the share of total

investments in manufacturing in such countries, compared to their share of

investments in all sectors taken together, perhaps 30 percent in manufacturing investments as against 15 percent in all sectors. Foreign financial

assistance for manufacturing comes about half from private sources and half

from public sources. The private share mostly takes the form of foreign

direct investments in manufacturing enterprises and export credits to

finance the export of manufacturing equipment. The attitudes in less

developed countries toward foreign direct investments in manufacturing are

much less hostile than toward foreign investments in other sectors, such

as extractive industries and public utilities. The recent nationalizations

in some Latin American countries and elsewhere have been generally in

mineral industries; the bitter historical conflicts in Mexico over the

34
expropriations in petroleum and nationalizations in public utilities have

not impeded a heavy flow of private foreign investments into manufacturing.

The private foreign investments in manufacturing are increasingly taking

the form of partnership arrangements, with interests from within the host

countries. Export credits, generally easy to obtain because of the coincidence of interest by the LDC's with that of the industrialized countries

which want export sales, are frequently subject to excessive use and to

abuses of various kinds.

The public share of financial assistance for manufacturing is still

dominated by bilateral assistance from donor countries, but the trend is

toward an increasing share from multilateral agencies —the World Bank Group

as well as the several regional development banks operating in Latin

America, Asia, and to some extent in Africa as well. The World Bank Group

provides assistance for industry to the extent of about a fifth of its total

commitments, now in excess of $2 billion per year; with the more than

doubling of its total annual commitments during the last couple of years

compared to the preceding five years , its commitments for industry are now

close to $500 million per year.

Technical assistance for manufacturing is, of course, associated with

the financial assistance. In the private sector, foreign investors bring

their technology and know-how with them in very direct fashion. The public

sector of financial assistance has less built-in technical assistance, but

nevertheless involves technical assistance in one form or another in the

execution of projects. Multilateral agency investment is generally very

much concerned with the technical assistance requirements. Apart from the

financial assistance, there are also public programs of technical assistance

per se for manufacturing—both bilateral, as evidenced by this Seminar, and

multilateral. Indeed, the very raison d'etre of one multilateral agency,

the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, is the provision of

such technical assistance. In any case, virtually all manufacturing

activities in LDC's indirectly involve international technical assistance

since the technologies are fundamentally borrowed from the industrialized

countries.

5. Conclusion

To recapitulate, there are marked differences between the environment

in an industrializing economy and that in which the NBS has evolved. The

fundamental challenge consists of adapting the NBS capability to these

different circumstances. In considering how this can be done, it seems to

me well to bear in mind, among numerous other factors, the following:

(1) There is a considerable variation among LDC's in the levels of

industrial development attained.

(2) In almost all LDC's there are islands of considerable industrial

sophistication and efficiency in the midst of seas of primitive

techniques and inefficiencies.

(3) The industrial technology that tends to be applied in LDC's is

that which has been developed for the labor-scarce environment of

industrialized countries, with virtually no national or international effort being devoted to exploration of the extent to

which technological requirements of LDC's may be unique.

(4) Industrial entrepreneurship in LDC's is to a large extent a

personal or family enterprise, with little concern for continuing

research and development; for that the enterprise relies on the

results of such effort in industrialized countries.

(5) Industrial operations are frequently carried out on a low-volume

35
high-profit-margin basis, in a protected environment, with little

competitive spur to reductions of cost and improvement of

efficiency and quality.

(6) Import substitution policies frequently induce production of an

excessively broad range of products in individual plants at

inadequately low scales of volume.

(7) The development of institutions to provide efficient government

services is in need of vast improvement; as improvements proceed,

it may be possible concurrently to tap more efficient resources

that are available in the private sector.

(8) Finally, on a more positive note, there is a growing realization

among policymakers in LDC 1 s of the need for a new orientation of

policies to induce expansion of manufacturing along more efficient

lines, although the practical problems of dealing with vestedinterest inefficiencies should not be underestimated.

I trust that this presentation will have served to demonstrate that

the industrial sector in LDC's, for which NBS technical assistance is

contemplated, is beset with difficult fundamental problems, and that the

answers to the question of how best to organize such assistance are by no

means simple.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

36
SESSION 2 - THE SOCIOLOGICAL, ECONOMIC, AND MANAGERIAL

ENVIRONMENT IN INDUSTRIALIZING COUNTRIES

Paper 2.2 - A Case Study from Latin America

Jorge A. Sabato, Presidente

Servicios Electricos del Gran Buenos Aires

In the case story I am going to recount I aim to throw light on some

of the key questions of this Seminar, namely, how to couple science with

technology, how the experience of an organization such as NBS can be of

help to less developed countries, and last, but not least—in view of the

interest the problem sparked during the first session—how to relate basic

and applied research. However, mine is a personal story. I apologize for

that, mainly because personal stories can be extremely boring. Nevertheless,

I believe I have a good pretext for choosing this particular one. As you

will see, NBS people, without their knowing it, are very much involved in

this story, so much so that I consider that the NBS philosophy has been

responsible for what proved to be a very important development for Argentina.

The story tells how science and technology were coupled to the development of the process metallurgy branch of Argentine industry, concerned

with the manufacture of metallic products. It began in 1950 and has not yet

ended, so new developments can be expected in the near future. That you

may fully understand this review, let me give you briefly a picture of

what has happened in this field in the last 20 years. In 1950, Argentine

process metallurgy was in its first stages of development—its light sector

(production of consumer goods) was gaining momentum, but its heavy sector

was practically nonexistent, with the single exception of the machine tool

industry which was shaping up quite well. At the same time, metallurgy as

an academic activity was also practically nonexistent , there being no

systematic research and development. In fact, there was no possibility of

obtaining a degree in metallurgy in Argentina at the time

In 1971, by contrast, the situation is altogether different. Argentina

is now an industrial country (agriculture accounts for only 16% of the gross

national product, while industry accounts for 38%, and process metallurgy is

one of the more important sectors —30% of the total industrial activity).

Argentine industry manufactures not only a complete range of consumer goods

(from refrigerators to TV sets), but also automobiles, locomotives,

electric transformers, large boilers, heavy chemical engineering equipment,

and the like. On the academic side there are about 15 research and

development centers, one of which has a staff of approximately 120

scientists and engineers, and a total investment of more than 2 million

dollars ; one can now obtain a degree in metallurgy from at least 5 universities; metallurgical scientific papers are published at a rate of more

than 150 a year; and there exists a very active Argentine Society of Metals

that organizes technical meetings and symposia.

In this frame of reference, let us now proceed with the story proper:

In 1950 an Argentine company, whose field of activity was the manufacturing

of copper and copper alloys (tubes, rods, sheets, wires, and so on),

decided to install a chemical and metallurgical laboratory to control the

quality of its products. You may think: "A rather trivial and obvious

decision", but what was not trivial was that a theoretical physicist

without any experience whatsoever in metallurgy was appointed director of

that laboratory, and that he was given a wide margin of liberty to organize

it, particularly vis-a-vis the production department.

I was that theoretical physicist, and my ignorance regarding metals was

37
really encyclopaedic. I did have some knowledge of wave-functions in

metals and so forth; but, as you can well imagine, nothing could be more

inconsequential than quantum mechanics when dealing with practical problems

of melting and casting, extruding and drawing, rolling and heat-treatment.

My first problem, besides acquiring a little knowledge of process

metallurgy, was to choose a strategy for the proposed laboratory. In those

days —at least in my country—it was accepted that a factory laboratory was

just a production tool, and that, consequently, quality control was more a

routine activity than a creative one. Metallography, analytical chemistry,

materials testing and the like, were just techniques to be applied with

discipline. A little applied research—in practice usually only trouble

shooting—was tolerated, but there was not very much in the way of real

research and development.

It was then that I read a short story—I do not now remember where

on the National Bureau of Standards. It was a paper of a general nature,

describing NBS activities and relating a little of NBS history. At this

juncture, an important realization impressed itself upon my mind: NBS was

organized to perform routine matters with a philosophy that was not routine.

Metrology seems to be a routine job, and is in fact so considered by many

institutions all over the world; and, if that were really so, the immediate

consequence would be that such institutions can attract only routine minds.

This train of thought provides feedback; routine minds can perform only

routine activities. However, as we know, NBS attracted very bright minds

indeed, and so it not only was able to develop metrology, but it also became

one of the most active R and D centers in many fields of industrial development. NBS did all the metrology required by law, but it went much further

than that; it helped U. S. industrialization through R and D not directly

related to metrology, yet NBS throughout served that function under the

cover of metrology. To mention only one of many examples, NBS during the

twenties was one of the most important U. S. laboratories in process

metallurgy. This example was the direct inspiration for my own case: I

decided to organize the laboratory in such a way that it could commit itself

to perform the activities necessary to meet all the needs of production,

provided the company gave the laboratory complete freedom to plan and

perform its R and D program. Following the NBS example, it was our purpose

to use quality control as an "umbrella" to foster R and D in the process

metallurgy of Cu and Cu alloys. It was, of course, a much broader objective

than the company originally had in mind; but we were sure that, if we

followed the NBS pattern we would be able not only to satisfy normal

quality control needs, but also to achieve many other important results.

Once this strategy was established and accepted by the company's board

of directors, two immediate consequences followed:

(a) the laboratory would be fully independent of the production

department (it would report directly to the president of the

company )

; and

(b) the senior personnel of the laboratory should have the capability

to perform research.

We would try to pick brilliant and creative minds without paying too

much attention to whether they had had much previous experience in process

metallurgy. Let me give you an understanding of how we selected our

personnel. As you are aware, in many laboratories metallography is considered quite routine, and much importance is attached to a man's prior experience.

So, in order to select our first man in metallography, we examined more than

25 candidates with previous experience in this discipline. However, as none

of them appeared to have a really creative mind, we forgot about previous

experience and decided to take on a young man with a Ph.D. in chemistry,

who was employed by a large pharmacy where he was in charge of controlling

38
the purity of drugs by chemical analysis. It proved most successful; after

a few months 1 time this man had an excellent command of metallography , and

not only organized all the control procedures for our products, but also

introduced—for the first time in Argentina—such techniques as electrolytic

polishing, texture analysis by means of etch-pits, and so on to techniques

which were new elsewhere also.

Again we were just applying NBS philosophy: Always use a bright mind

for any responsible work, no matter how routine it may seem, and you will

achieve the best results. To put it simply, there is no routine work in

R and D, there are only routine minds. If a brilliant man tackles a

problem as routine as the measurement of the electrical conductivity of

copper, then the electrical conductivity of copper ceases to be a routine

problem from the moment our brilliant man begins tackling it.

The laboratory was organized following this strategy, and I am glad

to report that it was a complete success. We did all the quality control

work that was required by the production department, and at the same time we

produced some important developments on our own initiative, not stemming

from requirements made by the production department, or for that matter by

any other company department. Let me give a few examples, we developed

(i) the process for manufacturing metallic strip for dry-cell

cans, which was then being imported either from the U. S.

or the U. K.

(ii) a new method for casting deoxydized copper ingots;

(iii) a new lubricant for wire-drawing; etc.

Apart from that, we published several academic papers in international

periodicals (Revue de Metallurgie; Journal of the Institute of Metals),

so that the laboratory did work in both applied and basic research.

Now, since this problem of basic against applied research was deemed

to be of importance by many of you during the discussions of previous

papers, I would like to make a few comments. It is becoming increasingly

fashionable to try to decide on the most desirable kind of research, and

much time and effort are spent assessing the relative advantages and disadvantages of pure research versus applied research, basic applied versus

applied basic, basic inspiration versus applied inspiration, and other

equivalent and convenient combinations of similar terms. This exercise

unfortunately is not a very useful one; for there are not only the epistemological difficulties of meaningful distinction between one kind of research

and another, but also the many surprises which history should lead us to

expect. Scores of abstract researches have produced important technical

and economic transformations.

As regards epistemological difficulties, allow me to tell you the

following short story. A friend of mine works in biology. One day I asked

him what kind of work he did in biology, and he answered me proudly: "I

am doing basic research." "Oh, I see", I said, "and what kind of basic

research are you doing?" "Well, I am studying membrane behavior." "Oh,

so you are engaged in applied physical chemistry, are you?" My friend was

astonished. The matter does not end there, naturally. If my friend were

a physical chemist doing basic research in that area, it would really be in

applied thermodynamics; if it were thermodynamics, it would in reality be

applied research in epistemology (as Bridgman discovered, by the way).

Even this conclusion is not the end yet; pure research in epistemology is

applied research in semantics —and if you believe in God, there is still

another step. If God is the origin of everything, basic research is

concerned with the nature of God, as Pascal realized when he decided that

physics and mathematics —fields of knowledge in which he performed work of

39
paramount importance—were not so pure as theology. In consequence, he

resolved to do research in theology. You can, of course, take this analysis

as you wish. From my own point of view it just goes to show how difficult

it is to give a real meaning to the problem of establishing a clear

distinction between terms such as basic and applied.

With respect to historical surprises , let me remind you of what happened

to Irving Langmuir's work, and its practical consequences. Round about 1910

Langmuir, who was at the time a secondary school teacher, went to work on a

very basic piece of research at the then modest laboratory of the General

Electric Company. He went there during his summer vacations. For reasons

that only he knew, he was interested in the vapor pressure of metals, and

at G. E. he had the chance to carry out his experiments. In Langmuir's

mind, this was a piece of research without any practical application

whatsoever, but as you all know it finally led to the tungsten filament

lamp.

There are many similar stories of fundamental or amateur research that

has resulted in very practical applications. History seems happy to

spring such surprises. Many of you know that at NBS research often begins

out of sheer curiosity and ends up in significant development. The secret,

of course, lies in the quality of the mind behind that research.

In my opinion, this philosophy was the key to the success of NBS,

but you will have observed that many other standards institutions have

ignored it, although nominally based on the NBS model. In one of the

speeches made this morning, it was said, and very rightly so, that the name

of NBS is misleading, because in fact NBS has been, and continues to be,

much more than an institution in charge of standards. It is an institution

that has not limited itself to dealing with standards, but has espoused the

wider objective of industrial development. Countries often copy the NBS

name and statutes, but not its philosophy and tradition. In our company

we did, and I am glad of this opportunity to express our gratitude for the

help we received from NBS without the latter' s knowledge.

Before ending my story, I would like to add that our laboratory has

helped the company to become one of the most advanced in the field of

copper and copper alloy products in Argentina. It was recently able to gain

a very important order for many tonnes of copper alloy tubes to be used in

the first nuclear power station which is presently being built in Argentina.

This order was tendered internationally, and we won in the face of keen

competition from foreign bidders.

The final part of my story—which is so personal that I must again

apologize to you—deals with how our experience was applied in another

Argentine institution, the Argentine Atomic Energy Commission, where we

organized the department of metallurgy following the same NBS philosophy.

The main objective of that department was to develop a capability in the

field of fuel elements for nuclear reactors. We again asked for, and were

accorded, complete freedom to organize the laboratory in such a way as to

be able not only to work in nuclear metallurgy, but also in all those

aspects of process metallurgy that could aid us in fulfilling our task.

With this philosophy we were able not only to manufacture all the fuel

elements for the four research reactors presently in operation in Argentina,

but also to help Argentine industry in many developments, such as the

forging of special steels, the rolling of aluminum rods, the development of

new alloys for cutting tools, the heat treatment of stainless steels, and

so on, comprising no fewer than 250 industrial problems. Furthermore, we

have published about 200 academic papers in the most important metallurgical

periodicals (Acta Metalurgica, Scripta Metalurgica, Revue de Metallurgie,

Journal of the Institute of Metals, Journal of Applied Physics, Journal of

Nuclear Materials, Materials Science Journal, etc.).

40
The organizers of this Seminar have told us that its main purpose was

to discover ways and means for NBS to help developing countries , in their

efforts to achieve economic and industrial development. My story shows

that the best aid we can receive from NBS is a clear understanding of the

philosophy that has made possible the tremendous success that NBS itself

has registered.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

41

SESSION 2 - THE SOCIOLOGICAL, ECONOMIC, AND MANAGERIAL

ENVIRONMENT IN INDUSTRIALIZING COUNTRIES

Paper 2.3 - Labor Saving Versus Capital Saving Industrial Technology

for the Developing Countries*

J. E. Stepanek, Director

Industrial Services and Institutions Division

United Nations Industrial Development Organization

Vienna, Austria

1. The Range of Technologies

The highland people of West Irian on the island of New Guinea employ

stone-age technologies today. Their 1968 model stone axe, for example,

is a "capital good" used for the construction of boats, wooden utensils,

houses, and the art work adorning the houses. It is also a "consumer

durable" as it is used to sever various parts of the human anatomy during

the games played in the highlands. The cutting edge of the axe is a

versatile tool which when used in a handle of modified design becomes the

agricultural digging hoe. The stone-age people who are given the name

"Acheulean" also employed a similar tool except for the recent refinements

in finish and some changes in styling. Thus for a period of about 200,000

years a major capital good used in manufacturing industry went through very

little change.

All of a sudden, culturally speaking, people over the developing world

are being confronted with our sophisticated tools. Let me anticipate the

objections of the reader by stating that the writer is aware that India,

for example, has had a rail and telegraph system for over a century, that

Accra has two television assembly factories and that petrochemical

complexes are following steel mills as new status symbols in many of the

developing countries. But I should like to point out that these examples

of sophisticated industrial development are almost exclusively found within or as links between small islands of modernity set in seas of archaic

technologies. Only twenty years ago the paper industry of Mainland China

consisted of two mechanized mills plus thousands of factories making paper

by hand and turning out 300,000 tons a year of a product untouched by

metal in any form except for the knife blade that cut the bamboo in the

forest. Sugar cane in China was being crushed between two stone rollers

meshed by wooden pegs. Even today in India, millions of workers use equipment made solely of wood. The hand textile industry of Ethiopia, producing

over half the cloth utilized in the country and employing over 100,000

individuals, not only does not require any metal but has never been introduced to the flying shuttle. The cultures of many areas of the developing

world are more appropriate to the stone-age economy than to the age of

metals

2. Development of Labor Saving Technologies

The first manufacturing technologies developed during the early years

of the industrial revolution used large numbers of workers drawn from agriculture. As more productive machinery came into use, particularly in the

textile industry, there was social unrest as workers became surplus. The

* Unpublished material used as a basis for the Olin Lectures, Yale University, in October 1969. Presented at the Industrialization Seminar by

Mr. Rene Schmied of UNIDO.

43
growing vitality, however, of the revolution absorbed these workers, and

in recent decades in Europe and America there has been a rough balance between the workers available and the workers required to operate industrial

tools. During the period of increasing demand for industrial labor this

balance has been maintained only by designing new technologies that saved

labor. The more productive labor saving technologies made it possible for

managers to meet demands for increased wages. Thus a further spiral of

new designs to save even more labor was touched off.

The accelerating rate of change can be illustrated by noting the mandays of labor a skilled workman would have to invest were he to purchase

his own tools:

For the carpenter in the West Irian highlands - about 5 days.

For the owner - operator of an improved loom in Hunan, China in 19 49 - about 10 0 days.

For the Ghanaian working in the Kaiser aluminium plant at Tema near

Accra - about 35,000 days or 140 years at five days a week (and in this

case the workmen building the equipment would not be living in Ghana).

The conclusion is not that stone tools are better but that the use of

modern tools requires considerable adjustment in the developing world.

In the 1940* s when serious attention was first turned to the development of the poorer countries it was assumed by all of us that they would

rapidly catch up. The industrial technologies we then employed in the U.S.

were believed to be quite appropriate for the newly industrializing countries.

Since then the widening economic gap between the industrial and the developing countries has decreased the appropriateness of technologies designed

in the former for use in the latter. During the past thirty years the

per hour cost, in constant dollars, for a skilled workman has increased

about five-fold in the U.S. and in addition the installed cost of a machine,

if imported, will be considerably higher. What might have been reasonably

appropriate in 19 39 for India is most inappropriate in the seventies. As

the present trends continue we can predict with some certainty that U.S.

technologies in the eighties will be even less appropriate to the needs of

India—at least as judged by the desirability of employing labor and saving

capital

The developing countries are chronically short of capital. In 1965

they had average per-capita annual incomes of approximately $160. They

were able to invest about 15 percent of this sum in new capital and to

maintain old capital investments. Thus they had no more than a total of

$24 per capita per year for roads, schools, hospitals, home construction,

and, incidentally, factories also. The latter received only 18 percent of

the total available for capital investment or $4 per capita. (In addition

they received annually about $5 per capita in foreign grants and loans for

all purposes.) By contrast the developed countries on the average saved

for capital investment 20 percent of a much larger per capita income or

about $300 per capita. The U.S. invested more than double this amount.

Technologies are most often characterized by their cost per worker.

What we are really interested in is not a low cost per worker but a low

capital cost per unit of output and a return on capital that encourages

investment in competition with other investment opportunities. Handoperated cotton-spinning machines may cost very little per worker but the

capital cost per unit of output is excessive. The 747 jet has an extremely

high cost per worker directly employed but a relatively low cost per tonmile of product. Thus we might characterize the technologies currently

employed in the U.S. as "labor saving" per unit output. They may employ

more capital per unit output but they are not intentionally designed to

44
use capital. Similarly, the technologies most appropriate to the developing countries might be termed "capital saving" with an end result in most

cases of employing relatively more labor.

3. Application of Labor Saving Technologies

Most of the developing countries became independent in a state of

euphoria with respect to industrial planning. Many had sizeable credits

inherited from the former colonial powers. India was able to finance most

of the First Five Year Plan from sterling credits. President Nkrumah in

Ghana started his term with a foreign currency reserve of £ 250 million.

The Korean War boomed commodity prices giving windfalls to exporting

countries. President Sukarno after mis-investing his country's foreign

exchange reserves was able to borrow $2,000 million. It is no wonder that

a trend in many countries was firmly established towards the use of the

most modern and expensive industrial technologies available.

Other factors have contributed to and strengthened this trend. Equipment salesmen from the industrial countries are desirous of selling the

most expensive items which in many cases are more labor saving than the

equipment currently in use in the typical factory in their home country.

The engineering advice available to the developing countries tends to

favor the labor saving machinery. Engineers serving as technical experts

from the industrial countries have experience with no other technologies.

Engineers from the developing countries are almost invariably either trained

abroad or through textbooks concerned only with labor saving technologies.

American schools of engineering take justifiable pride in sharing with

students from developing countries the latest in American techniques and

even employ them in graduate research projects to design still more sophisticated techniques. It is only natural that they should wish to employ

their education on their return home.

Governments of the developing countries in their desire to accelerate

industrialization often contribute to over-investment in capital equipment.

There may be generous tariff concessions on the import of foreign equipment.

Imported equipment may be subsidized in relation to domestic equipment

through below-market exchange rates. Interest rates may also be subsidized

in the desire to accelerate industrial development. Factory managers often

consciously select labor saving equipment because they are having difficulty

in recruiting and supervising workers. Thus scarce capital may be used

as a substitute for improved labor relations and worker training. Engineers

who wish to design factories that are more capital saving may find information lacking on the availability of more appropriate technologies.

The above considerations tending to favor labor saving technologies

in what are likely to be labor surplus areas are not to be counteracted by

a wholesale rejection of the labor saving equipment. The suggestion is

rather that a more discriminating approach be made to the selection of

technologies. India and Ethiopia offer an interesting contrast in the use

of industrial technologies. Ethiopia with a very small national market and

a poor transportation system which divides the small market into smaller

pockets still has on the average larger industrial establishments than has

India. Although the average per capita income in Ethiopia, as far as can

be estimated, is significantly lower than for India, the wage rates in

Ethiopian factories are on the average almost double those of India. Little

concerted effort has been made in India to design or to employ manufacturing

industry technologies which make a rational utilization of the capital

and labor available. India does not do a particularly good job of saving

industrial capital; Ethiopia is even worse, as shown by the tables which

follow.

45
Table I - Factory Industry of All Types

India Ethiopia

Average employees per

enterprise

Gross annual output per unit

fixed capital

1960 data for

39,600 operating

enterprises (1)

90

3.1

1966 data for 248

operating enterprises (2)

175

0.9

Table II - Factory Cotton Textile Industry

Number of operating enterprises

Average employees per enterprise

Fixed capital per employee

Gross annual output per unit

fixed capital

India

1960 data (1)

3,690

310

$ 390

3.5

Ethiopia

1966 data (2)

22

680

$1,750

1.7

The data of Tables I and II lack strict comparability as the product

mixes may be different, information on the profitability of capital and the

method for estimating the fixed capital investment were lacking, and worker

plus managerial skills in India are higher. Note also the tendency in the

less developed countries to load factories with extra workers (tea boys,

drivers, various assistants, etc.) which tend to distort, for example,

data on fixed capital per employee in relation to similar data from the

industrial countries. Even with these limitations there obviously is a

different type of technology in use in Ethiopia than in India, a conclusion

strongly supported by visits to many establishments in both countries.

Even more interesting are the plans prepared recently by a team of

foreign consultants for 11 metal-products factories in Ethiopia. The

data of Table III are compared to those of factories already functioning

in India.

Table III - Metal Product Factories

India

:a : ig « prises (1)

Ethiopia

1960 data for 2150 19 67 data for 11

operating enter- planned enterprises

(2)

Employees per enterprise

Fixed capital per employee

Gross annual output per employee

Gross annual output per unit

fixed capital

44

$ 570

$2 ,300

4.1

42 (full

capacity)

$5 ,600

$9,800

2.1

46
Accelerating population growth rates are the main reason for growing

unemployment but the use of labor saving technologies also contributes.

The countries of Asia and Latin America have long had unemployment and underemployment problems. Even in Africa where the man-to-land ratio is much

higher, there is increasing unemployment. For India the ratio of manufacturing industry workers, both factory and artisan workers, to the total

population decreased between 1901 and 1961 by about five percent. (In

the U.S. during a similar period of rapid industrial growth, 1849 to 1899,

this ratio increased by almost 2 0 percent.)

4. Justifying the Use of More Appropriate Technologies

The shortage of capital is one characteristic of the developing

countries which justifies the use of more appropriate technologies. There

are others which distinguish the less from the more developed countries

and require new design factors to be built into capital equipment.

The markets in most of the developing countries demand a smaller scale

of operation than in the industrialized countries. Disposable incomes are

lower, populations within the economic barriers in many cases are small,

widely dispersed, and with greatly differing tastes. Transport and

distribution systems are underdeveloped. The result is a need for technologies appropriate to small markets supplied by smaller factories. The

technologies designed for large scale operations are most inappropriate

for small markets.

Raw material supplies, like markets, have a tendency to be limited,

dispersed and uncertain as to regularity of supply and quality. Often a

technology designed for high quality raw material and for an exacting

market is used to manufacture products from raw materials of indifferent

or inconstant quality and for an undemanding, goods -hungry market. The

technology is misused. Indeed, in order to make it work at all, it may

prove necessary to import raw materials to replace low quality indigenous

supplies. According to many industrialists, the quality standards required

for the export market make necessary the use of labor saving technologies.

The Japanese, however, have been able to export products of which the

components, at least, have been manufactured by capital saving technologies.

Fuel and electric power costs in developing countries may be double

those in industrial countries and the supply is often uncertain. A

technology requiring continuous operation may lose its advantages if a

stand-by power plant has to be installed.

The less developed countries are often described as lacking investment

opportunities. What is meant is that there are few markets sufficiently

large to justify investment in the type and size of plant to which international investors are generally accustomed. But if we had sharper vision,

and refined mechanisms for conducting the search, we could find opportunities

to supply smaller markets using technologies of a different type. The main

argument in favor of labor saving technologies is that large modern plants

return such high profits that the spiral of growth can be started much more

rapidly in this way than by employing a strategy of smaller and perhaps

less profitable industrial establishments. Large plants can return high

profits, particularly when serving a large domestic market, exporting, or

enjoying a monopoly. However, a large plant at partial capacity, shut down

because it cannot obtain managers, or operating inefficiently because of

spare parts shortages, is not likely to show a profit.

5. Strategies Using More Appropriate Technologies

A general conclusion for the countries initiating industrial development during the 20th century is that even rapid industrial growth is unlikely to relieve growing unemployment. The two countries which are

47
exceptions to this observation, Japan and Mainland China, have had in the

past and are continuing rapid economic growth without major unemployment

problems. Both of these countries have cultures so markedly different

from the rest of the world that the strategies they have employed are not

generally applicable to other developing countries. In addition, Mainland

China has developed its own unique form of economic organization. Even so,

it may be of value to examine the strategies and industrial technologies

employed by them.

The Case of Japan

Japan initiated its industrial revolution, as did many other countries

which industrialized after Britain, by importing the technologies required

to establish basic industries for iron and steel, shipbuilding, railroadbuilding support, electric power, etc. While this process continues on

into the 20th century the Japanese added another strategy. The first large

companies assisted and encouraged the establishment of satellite companies.

These companies operating on a smaller scale and paying lower wages used

improved technologies to supply components or sub-assemblies to the larger

factories. The satellite companies while remaining under private ownership

were tied to the larger companies through long-term contracts which gave

them management services and financial support. In time these satellite

companies surrounded themselves with even smaller companies which often

fabricated wholly by hand the more simple components required by the

medium-sized companies. The smaller enterprises had low fixed capital

investments per unit production and per worker, an average wage scale

approximately half that of large companies , and were dispersed among the

smaller cities. In this manner the Japanese mobilized manpower at relatively low capital cost. By 1957, the average fixed capital investment per

worker for all manufacturing industry in Japan was only $80 3 as compared

to $3566 in the U.S. (3).

During the 1960's a growing shortage of labor in Japan forced the

mechanization and modernization of the medium and small-sized factories.

(The technologies recently forced on the Japanese smaller enterprises by

a shortage of workers are those that many developing countries employ

initially at a time of gross underemployment.) The Japanese willingness

to innovate in the employment of capital saving technologies and their

ability to employ management systems that made such technologies practical

has most certainly contributed to the long-sustained, high growth-rate for

manufacturing industry.

The Case of Mainland China

In rough outline the strategy imposed by the new Chinese Government

in 1949 was one of importing complete factories from the U.S.S.R. to

establish basic manufacturing enterprises primarily for iron, steel,

chemicals, and transport equipment. Consumer and capital goods, not

manufactured by the relatively few large factories, were to be turned out

by widely dispersed factories using whatever machinery and equipment that

could be made available. In many cases a boot-strap operation took place,

in which the industries to manufacture capital goods had to be established

along with the enterprises employing the capital goods. This strategy

was restated by Prime Minister Chou En-Lai in a report to the National

Peoples Congress in 1959 when he called for a "mass campaign to build

small enterprises which use light equipment and employ indigenous methods"

to be carried out in parallel with a "mass campaign in the big enterprises

using heavy equipment and modern methods." (4) In spite of the vicissitudes

in Chinese economic growth rates resulting from the "great leap forward"

and more recently the "cultural revolution" there appears to have been

remarkable growth in the industrial sector with relatively little unemployment. Some information is available from Mainland China indicating the

advantages of capital saving manufacturing technologies. The data are,

48
of course, open to some question since the costs given in Table IV are

likely to have been "managed" through various controls.

Table IV - Cost Data for Small and Large

Enterprises in Heilung Kiang Province, China 1957

Brick Factory Farm Implement Paper Factory

Factory

Large Small Large Small Large Small

Annual Output per Unit

of Fixed Capital 0.81 4.8 0.58 3.6 1.6 4.2

Investment Capital (US $)

per Million on Bricks or

per Ton of Paper per Year 10,500 3,800 - - 360 100

Fixed Capital Investment

per Worker (US $) 1,500 190 4,600 600 6,700 1,600

Output Value (US $) per

Worker 1,100 900 2,600 2,300 10,000 7,000

Annual Profit as Percent

of Investment 16 63 21 40 33 140

Number of Years to

Recover Investment 6 1.5 5 2.5 3 0.7

Note: Large = more than 1,0 00 workers

Small = about 100 workers

The writer was able to observe at first hand the beginning of what

later became this strategy during the years 1947 through 1949, while

directing an operation to adapt and to develop manufacturing technologies

suitable to the conditions then prevailing in the interior of China. Metal

was introduced for the first time into a number of industries, mechanical

equipment which could be manufactured locally was designed for the textile

and paper industries, and a pilot port land cement plant using a vertical

kiln was designed, constructed and operated. The pilot cement plant

developed in 1948 had a production of 2 tons a day and employed 43. All

of the equipment was manufactured within China. The fixed capital investment including equipment, land and buildings was $33,000 (at 1948 prices).

Enjoying a monopoly in the local market, the cement sold at U.S. $32 per

ton—not high enough for the enterprise to show a profit at the low rate

of production. The production costs for a full scale plant of a similar

design with an output of 25-40 tons per day could have come within 10

percent of those from a plant in the same location using a large horizontal

kiln. A model of a similar vertical kiln cement plant designed for 25

tons a day from Mainland China was displayed at an industrial fair held in

New Dehli in early 19 60. The claim was made that 10,000 such plants were

by then in operation.

Normally the Chinese display reasonably modern machine tools in trade

fairs. However, the same exhibit in New Dehli included machine tools

obviously manufactured for local use and not for export. The designs were

archaic, the finish abominable and the castings pitted. However, they had

utility for manufacturing simple low quality metal products and for use in

49
repair shops'.

The following is a sampling of recent news releases on industrial

technologies from the London Office of Hsinhua News:

April 30, 1969. "The workers in a machine tool plant in Fukien

province have designed and manufactured a multi-purpose machine tool which

can perform the jobs of turning, grinding, milling, boring, drilling and

slotting." (Some years ago an English engineer designed and suggested the

manufacture in the U.K. (5) of a similar multi-purpose machine tool to

serve as a lathe, grinder and milling machine in less developed countries.)

May 1, 1969. "In Shantung province workers invested a new process

for small nitrogenous fertilizer plants. By 1968 one-third of the nitrogen

fertilizer capacity in China was provided by such plants. Eighteen small

plants were set up during 1967 and 1968. All of the equipment, it is

reported, was manufactured within China."

June 22, 19 69. "A design 'guided by Mao Tse Tung thought' has been

made for a new 2 0 horse-power light-weight diesel engine using a cast-iron

crankshaft." (In the U.S. during World War II diesel engines were manufactured with a special cast-iron crankshaft.)

6. Introducing More Appropriate Technologies

The need for more appropriate technologies in the developing world has

recently been attracting attention. An Indian engineer, a senior manager

in a large corporation, wrote recently: "To borrow technologies from abroad

and to rely largely on imported equipment, raw materials and, above all,

imported ideas, was the way to give a quick spurt to industrialization.

The rapid development of industry since Independence bears witness to the

value of this short cut. But now the heavy costs of this first stage are

also plain—idle machines; whole units dependent on raw materials which

are not readily available; expensive precision tools used for cheap

standard jobs; industry requiring skills and services which are only

available in a few metropolitan areas; and above all, a rise in industrial

output and employment too slow for the country's needs." (6)

In a similar sense a Pakistani administrator wrote: "In the last five

years about ten times as much money has gone into nuclear research as into

other fields of applied research, e.g. to develop an appropriate technology

for the production and manufacture of jute, or for the exploration of the

large resources of fisheries that Pakistan possesses." (7)

For the past decade the international organizations have been pointing

out the need to explore the possibilities of more appropriate technologies.

In 1964, the United Nations secretariat proposed that, "The attention of

engineers, scientists and technicians should be drawn to the possibilities

of selecting capital saving techniques for the core operations of the

technologically inflexible industries." (8) Recently the United Nations

Industrial Development Organization suggested a new approach:

"The search for greater technological flexibility, which is stimulated

by typical factor proportions in developing countries , need not

involve a return to primitive processes of production, to nineteenth

century designs of equipment or to hand-operated blast furnaces.

Rather, it requires a greater readiness to eschew unquestioned

adoption of the most up-to-date and most prestigious capitalintensive and integrated production processes, which have been

developed for use in countries where labour is particularly scarce,

and to seek out the efficient processes employed in those developed

countries where the relative abundance of capital and labour is

somewhat closer to the situation in many developing countries." (9)

50
Some action on these lines has already been taken. By 1968, the private

non-profit organization, Volunteers for International Technical Assistance

(VITA), had a roster of 6000 volunteers who during the year answered 2100

questions. The volunteers also adapt U.S. technologies and in some cases

develop new technologies appropriate to other economies. Recently, another

private, non-profit organization was established in London, the Intermediate

Technology Development Group Ltd. , to focus attention on and to undertake

studies leading to the use of more appropriate industrial technologies in

the developing countries. In the late fifties an agency of the Government

of India assisted by a foreign consultant designed simple machinery which

could be produced locally for lens grinding. The new "modern" equipment

is now in use in a few dozen lens-grinding factories at approximately half

the capital cost of imported equipment. This industry is currently being

introduced into Iran by the same foreign consultant.

Other examples can be given of equipment designed to meet the needs of

the developing countries. In the mid-fifties the Government of Burma asked

for assistance in the selection of equipment to extract the edible oil

from by-product rice bran. None of the equipment available from the industrial countries was found suitable. The Union of Burma Applied Research

Institute then designed a ten-ton-per-day plant using quite modern but

simple technologies and a minimum of imported equipment. By 1958 the first

commercial plant was in operation and by 1962 the technology had been

exported to India.

In 1961, N.V. Philips established at Utrecht a pilot plant for the

manufacture of radios under the economic conditions prevailing in the

developing countries. The pilot plant did not reproduce the techniques

used by Philips in previous decades but applied modern science and training

techniques to design a new plant using a minimum of capital and a maximum

of unskilled but trainable labor. A Philips-assisted electronics factory

in Accra which the writer visited in 1969 was demonstrating the success of

the earlier research.

Two Dow Chemical Company engineers have recently suggested that the

capital investment required in small chemical plants can be reduced. Their

design strategy starts with the most simple model of the plant, which is

modified only with those labor saving additions justified by the economics

of production in the country. In reviewing twelve small plants built

abroad they found it practical to use more detailed engineering design as

a substitute for considerable amounts of capital. (10)

Not all research of this type is successful. The General Engineering

Laboratory of the General Electric Company in Schenectady initiated a project

in 196 2 to design and test new electric power-generating devices suitable

for the rural areas of less developed countries. It had been hoped that

some of the new technologies developed by NASA could be adopted. The conclusion from the research was that the small diesel or gasoline engine was

still the best power-generating device. However, more recent research on

small steam power plants may justify a new evaluation.

The attraction of very simple technologies can lead engineers into

economic traps. Muscle power is so expensive that in the long run little

can be done without mechanical power. "Man power" harnessed to a machine

costs about a dollar per kilowatthour when a subsistence wage is paid.

Even in areas of high capital costs, small diesel units can produce at about

20 cents per kWh. Over a quarter of a million dollars were invested in

the attempt to electrify Indian villages by employing idle bullock power.

The increase in the fuel costs for "working" rather than "resting" were

more than for the equivalent amount of diesel oil. {The speed increaser

cost much more than the equivalent engine.]

In 1961+ an exploratory study was carried out at an Indian institution

51
for the manufacture of a simple agricultural implement—a hand operated

paddy weeder—by various technologies, with the results presented in Table

V. (6)

Table V - Comparison of Four Technologies for the

Manufacture of a Hand Operated Paddy Weeder (6)

Hand Operated Machinery Power Driven Machinery

Labor cost per unit

Material cost per unit

Overhead per unit

Total cost per unit

less profit

Capital equipment

Total employees

(single shift)

Production per month

(single shift)

Capital equipment

per worker

Capital equipment per

unit product per

month

(Existing

artisan

shop)

Rs. 3.50*

8.50

2.00

Rs. 14.00

Rs. 150

Rs.

25

150

Rs. 6.00

(Improved

factory)

Rs. 1.95

8.50

2.30

12.75

7 ,200

32

1,500

225

5.00

(Existing

factory)

Rs. 2.50

8.50

4.00

15.00

25 ,000

30

850

835

29.00

( Improved

factory)

Rs. 1.70

8.50

2.80

13.00

31,000

36

1,900

860

16.00

The conclusion was that improved engineering design could significantly

reduce the fixed capital requirement per unit product and also the total cost

of manufacturing each unit. Significant cost reductions were shown by giving the artisan better hand-operated tools and by converting his shop to a

factory. In the calculations hand tools were depreciated at 20 percent per

year and machinery at 15 percent. The artisan was assumed to earn Rs. 3.00

per day. Factory wages were: Rs. 4.50 per day for skilled workers in the

mechanized factories; Rs. 3.00 per day for skilled workers in the handoperated shops; Rs. 2.50 and Rs . 2.00 per day for semi-skilled workers and

Rs. 1.5 0 per day for unskilled workers. The managers of the three factory

units were each assumed to receive Rs. 400 per month and each manager was

assumed to have one assistant at Rs. 250 per month.

Numerous stories could be told of technologies improvised by entrepreneurs over the developing world: of the battery manufacturer in Bogota;

the wire screen manufacturer in Waranga ; the towel manufacturer in Pekalongan ; the wooden sandal manufacturer in Rangoon ; the skirt maker in

Kinshasa and the cement-plant manager in Padang. Their success, without

* Rs. 4.76 = U.S. $1.00 at the time of the study.

52
the benefit of foreign engineering assistance, suggest that more might be

done to design better for the developing world.

7. Further Actions Which Could be Taken

Industrial development will be pressing even harder on resources in the

future as attempts are made to carry the growth rate above the present low

average of 6 percent annually. Further interest in the saving of capital

is anticipated. The following are suggestions:

Education of Engineers

Engineers normally are instructed to "design a plant (or an item of

the equipment) to save labor by using additional capital as justified by

the saving in labor." For less developed countries the instructions might

be rewritten as follows: "design to save capital by using additional labor

as justified by the saving in capital."

A manufacturer of walking tractors in India, an engineer with a U.S.

degree, designed his plant with the assistance of foreign engineers. After

being alerted to the desirability of selecting more appropriate machinery,

he re-examined the design of the plant and made significant reductions in

the capital requirements.

Analyzing the Product and the Plant

Some products can be redesigned so that they can be manufactured by

capital saving technologies. Other products can be broken down into

components and each examined individually as to the optimum technology to

be employed. Many components can be manufactured more cheaply in lowlabor-cost areas by using capital saving technologies. Other components may

require an imported technology. One can imagine such an analysis leading

to an international division of labor in which those components able to

absorb large amounts of labor and requiring little capital equipment would

be manufactured, for example, in Java. Other components might be manufactured in Japan and the two areas might be linked by air transport. This

type of specialization has already started between the U.S. and Japan.

Industrial Research

International companies that sell equipment or use it in their own

plants in the less developed countries have a financial interest in supplying

more appropriate equipment. A U.S. Government agency could stimulate the

export from the U.S. of such equipment either by direct subsidies or tax

concessions. The first exporting companies to find new markets would

encourage other companies also to redesign their products. The Australian

Government since 19 6 7 has been matching the development costs for new export

products of all types with grants up to $50,000. (11) Similarly the less

developed countries might re-examine the objectives of their industrial

research institutes. The tendency persists for the staff members to continue

the research they did in a foreign graduate school. They tend to do work

on the problems of an industrial country even when living in the environment

of a less developed country. One of the objectives of industrial research

institutes in the less developed countries should be to design new technologies with built-in capital saving characteristics as well as to substitute

labor for capital in existing technologies.

The justification for research on more appropriate industrial technologies will increase as the developing countries spend larger sums for the

import of manufacturing equipment. A United Nations estimate places such

imports at $7,500 million for 1975 supplemented by $2,500 million of equipment manufactured domestically.

53
Prototype Commercial Plants

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization is experimenting

with a new program which designs, constructs, and finances a limited number

of prototype commercial plants. The objective is to prove that technologies

entirely new to the country or the region can be viable under local economic

and social conditions. Four such projects, all for small or medium-sized

plants, are at varying stages of implementation. An expansion of this

program will encourage the design and pilot-plant testing of new manufacturing technologies by both public and private research laboratories.

Transmitting Appropriate Technologies

Even if traditional habits in economic planning and investment decisionmaking were changed and if the research effort of the less developed countries

were directed to the saving of capital, we would still have the problem of

adequately transmitting information on more appropriate technologies.

The international consultant carries with him his own library supplemented by a link to the home office. This is sufficient for the limited range

of technologies in which the engineering company specializes. This is not

adequate, though, for the thousands of engineers who have no supporting

office in a highly developed country but require instant information on

a wide variety of available technologies. They require an international

information service for which they and the manufacturers of the equipment

covered would be willing to pay a fee. Sponsorship and an initial subsidy

might well come from an international organization working with national

associations of equipment exporters. Groups from other countries would follow

this example in order to maintain their competitive position.

Lessons from Agriculture

Experience, often bitter, has taught those responsible for the growth

of agriculture in the developing world that it is better to transmit the

science rather than the technology. Soon after World War II the theory was

advanced that seeds developed in one part of the world in a given climate

would thrive in another part with a similar climate. The seeds did not

respond as anticipated. Since then it has been the science of plant breeding

which is transmitted, while each area develops its own particular technology.

The most spectacular example of the success of this approach is the International Rice Research Institute established at Los Banos in the Philippines

through the joint efforts of the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations.

8. Conclusion

The introduction of more appropriate industrial technologies is one of

a number of factors influencing the rate of industrial growth. The factors

are interrelated and it is likely that a number of them will have to be

changed simultaneously before significant growth will result. For example,

a better designed technology can increase the return per unit of capital

invested, but so can an improvement in the skills of the manager—which can

bring about an average increase of as much as 50 percent without any change

whatsoever in the technology employed. The contribution of manufacturing

to national income in less developed countries is small. After a rapid

post-independence spurt, growth in industrial output is slowing down, yet

industrialization is now everywhere regarded as essential. The birth of

UNIDO is proof of this.

It will require many years to replace the labor saving technologies

borrowed from the industrial countries, and now generally used in the

developing countries, with more appropriate and newly designed capital

saving technologies. A start can be made, however, by introducing without

further delay a number of modest innovations of which the following are

54
typical.

Already over the world various manufacturers are giving thought to

alternate designs of capital equipment for use in the developing world.

These efforts should be given wide publicity so that more individuals in the

developing countries will become interested in and purchase such equipment.

An international information service which could identify such appropriate

technologies would justify an initial subsidy from international funds.

Where pilot-plant tests proved successful for a new capital saving

technology there would also be justification for using public funds to

construct the first prototype commercial plant in a developing country.

The judicious use of funds in this manner could accelerate the initial

dissemination and acceptance of new technologies which might be followed

later by commercial efforts.

References

(1) Government of India, Ministry of Industry, "Report of the International

Perspective Planning Team", Manager of Publications, Delhi, 196 3.

(2) J. E. Stepanek, unpublished memoranda.

(3) Eugene Staley and Richard Morse, Modern Small Industry for Developing

Countries , McGraw Hill Book Co. , New York, 1965

(4) Stanford Research Institute, "Notes on Small Industry and Handicraft

Development in Mainland China", Menlo Park, 1958.

(5) J.A.C. Atkins, "Equipment for Varied Demand - the Need of the Smaller

Company", British Institute of Management, North-West Management

Conference, London 19 55.

(6) R. N. Jai, "Appropriate Technologies for Indian Industry", SIET

Institute Hyderabad, 19 64.

(7) Mahbub ul Haq, "Planning Investment in Scientific Research",

Development Digest , Vol. IV, No. 4, AID, Washington, D. C. January

1967.

(8) United Nations Industrial Development Organization, "Technological

Possibilities for Labour Intensive Technologies", Industrialization

and Productivity , Bulletin 7, New York, 1964.

(9) United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Industrial

Development Survey Vol. 1 , United Nations, New York, 1969.

(10) E. F. Hensley and A. A. Mac Phail, "Minimizing Investment in Small

Scale Plants", Chemical Engineering Progress , Vol. 64, No. 9, New

York, September 1968.

(11) Jack Baranson, "Role of Science and Technology in Advancing Development

of Newly Industrializing States", unpublished, 1969.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

55

SESSION 2 - THE SOCIOLOGICAL, ECONOMIC, AND MANAGERIAL

ENVIRONMENT IN INDUSTRIALIZING COUNTRIES

Paper 2.4 - The Role of Technology in

Politics and Economics

Admiral (ret.) Geraldo N. S. Maia

Rio de Janeiro,

G B Brazil

This subject title taken by itself is quite vast. It narrows down as

we see it in the context of the objectives of this Seminar. First, the

aspects of technology of greater interest are metrology and standardization.

Further, the discussions should be aimed at less developed countries. Even

now, when so restricted, the subject is still vast and I will be able to

cover only some of those aspects that I rate as the most important.

The process that turns an underdeveloped nation into a developing

country requires a change in the economic and political structures. An

accelerated economic growth is necessary and generally the "take-off"

results from some kind of political revolution. So deep are the changes

involved that in normal situations it would be hard for it to take place.

Thus the developing country starts its upward travel towards the club of

the developed ones, with at least some instability in the political area.

This instability in subsequent stages has to be fought all the way.

The relationships between political stabilization and economic growth

are quite strong and present characteristics of a feedback system. A

nation needs political stabilization to be able to obtain the necessary

economic growth; and there is no better support to political stability

than a sufficiently rapid economic expansion.

The best characterization of the economic growth of a developing

country is the shift of a good part of the efforts and resources available

from the primary to the secondary sectors of the economy, the industrial

activities, and further on to the tertiary or service sectors. Productivity

is a very important factor and here technology comes into play. Econometric

theory includes technology as a factor in the production function, as for

example in the Cobb-Douglas equations, together with capital, manpower,

and natural resources.

Technology can be imported in the form of processes, equipment, and

the know-how that has to be taught to the men that will operate them. The

transfer of technology poses a delicate political problem. Such a transfer

has to be carefully done; the economic benefits to the receiving country

should not be nullified by the draft of economic resources in the form of

dividends and royalties sent to the technology-exporting nation.

When this transfer of technology is done through the establishment of

branches of multinational corporations, an additional sensibility appears.

It should be done in such a way as not to involve a loss of independence

to the country where they operate. This problem in more critical in the

heavy basic industries, such as steel, petroleum, petrochemicals, copper,

aluminum, etc. Some multinational corporations have managed to integrate

very well their branches into the national life, bringing a real contribution

to the growth of the developing country. Others have not had the same

success. One way to overcome this problem is to set up a joint venture

with native economic groups; this solution to be successful requires that

the receiving country has already reached a reasonable degree of development.

57
Another aspect related to the transfer of technology is that it should

develop in the industrializing country the capability of technology selfgeneration, if it is to produce desirable results in the long range.

Technology transfer that does not create this capability limits the

development of the country to a rather low stage.

A developing country when industrializing should plan very carefully.

It is true that a country starting its industrialization has the advantage,

as happened in the reconstruction of industrial areas in Europe destroyed

during the last World War, of choosing equipment incorporating the most

advanced technology. It need not be bound by the inertia of a vast

industrial plant with equipment that is less productive, but may be still

in good working condition and in many cases not yet completely depreciated.

However, the planners should not simply go ahead and buy the most advanced

equipment they can obtain. They should very carefully consider the social,

economic, and political environment of the region where the industrialization is to take place; otherwise, the results can fall far short from

the expected.

The Brazilian industrialization process offers a good example. We

have two quite distinct regions. The Southeast, which is the most developed

area in the country, with the highest ratio of skilled manpower, has no

social problems. The Northeast has one of the lowest per capita incomes,

and most of its manpower is unskilled. Serious social and political

problems arise due to a high density of population in a semi-arid land.

During the industrialization effort little regard was given to those

differences between the two regions. The results were quite distinct.

The Southeast showed an economic growth well above expectation. In the

Northeast region, on the contrary, the results were not good; after about

ten years of implementation, with many new industries in operation, the

industrial employment level decreased around ten percent. There the

political and social problems remained largely unchanged. To overcome

this situation the government has for a few years been increasing heavily

the investment in road construction, electrical generation and transmission,

irrigation and other infrastructure projects, all with a participation of

much manpower.

As a developing country starts its industrialization several problems

appear related to standardization. The existing local industries that

are supposed to furnish parts to the new industries may not be used to any

kind of standardization, either in types, specifications, preferred

numbers, level of quality, or tolerances. To make matters worse we find

components coming from countries where the standards are not compatible.

The problem starts with nuts and bolts and goes all the way up the range.

Let me give two examples of the Brazilian industrialization process, which

had the big take-off in the mid-fifties. It should be noted that at that

time Brazil had already some industry and a national standards organization

with some work done, and that the examples quoted come from the area of

highest industrialization, S. Paulo.

The first example is the automobile industry. The lack of standardized

specifications and the nonexistence of certification created a great problem

on the procurement of auto parts. This contributed not only to a slow

start and to a lower quality of the final product, but also to an increase

of the price of the car. A similar problem occurred with the electronic

equipment industry, in both the domestic appliance and the professional

sectors. The initial low quality and non-standardization of electronic

components manufactured in Brazil forced the equipment industry either to

import parts or to compromise with a lower quality product, in both cases

to the detriment of the consumer.

The problem was solved by a long and hard interaction between equipment

and parts industries. They have reached a compromise situation, but it is

58
by no means ideal. If we had had a national system of reasonable standardization and certification, the development of our industry would have been

faster and smoother. The manufactured products would be of a better quality

and be priced lower, with advantage to the domestic consumer and with a

better chance in the export market.

A protective tariff is a normal political instrument used by nations

to support an industrialization process. Although sometimes essential, it

can become a dangerous instrument if not applied properly. It can easily

become an incentive to a poor industry, with low quality and high prices,

rather than a factor producing healthy industrial growth. The fundamental

concept in a protective tariff policy is that of "similar products." A

correct definition of similar product requires similar specifications on

performance and quality, reasonable prices and availability to the consumer

in the quantity needed when needed. What constitutes a reasonable price

depends much on the importance of the product relative to the economic

development of the country. The more essential it is, the larger the

differential in price, relative to the imported similar product, that can

be accepted. The most important task and at the same time the hardest one

is to insure the similarity in specifications and quality between the

national product and the imported one. Only an efficient system of

standards and certification can guarantee compliance with this aspect of

similarity. Without it, the best protective tariff policy fails to produce

any positive results. It would then seem advisable that an industrializing

country should include in the earlier stages of its development plan, the

establishment of a national system of standards with a scheme for certification of compliance. The cost of such systems will be paid back by

faster industrial growth toward the desired level of quality. It will

also be repaid through the lessened economic burden put on the consumer,

be it another industry or a final consumer.

About two years ago a joint U. S. -Brazil group finished a study of

the standardization situation in Brazil. The results of this study are

being analyzed by the Brazilian authorities. However, it will be useful

to discuss its conclusions, because a rather complete review was made of

the Brazilian situation and of the experience of several countries with

different levels of development, taking into account among other aspects

the economic and political environment. It was concluded that all the

institutions involved in the maintenance of physical standards, the

production of norms, and the certification of compliance, should be

organized in a system. Although the institutions should be private, the

activities in the system should be coordinated by a federal government

officer. The components of the system suggested, illustrated in Figure

1 , are

(a) Systems Coordinator—a high level federal officer ranking just

below the Secretary of Industry and Commerce, until the Science

and Technology Department is created. There is not yet established such a position; the creation of it is proposed.

(b) National Council for Standardization—this Council, still to be

created, should assist the Coordinator mainly in the establishment

of the annual program.

(c) National Institute of Weights and Measures —responsible for the

maintenance of the measurement standards. The federal institute

already in existence (INPM) could do the job if better equipped.

(d) National Norms Association—this should be private and work under

the consensus principle, that all parties interested join in

approval of the norms. The existing association (ABNT) should be

used. It needs to have a much larger technical staff to assist

the several committees, including the preparation of drafts of

59
the norms. It needs also some financial support from system

funds, since the contributions of the associate members are

never enough to produce the required amount of work in time.

(e) National Service for Certification of Compliance —this Service

should be a federal government office to avoid any kind of economic

group pressure. It should not however, actually test products,

but merely supervise the compliance contracts, the designation

of laboratories to perform the tests , the award of the mark of

compliance and the publication of marks in good standing. There

is not an organization like this in operation; it would be

created along with the system proposed.

(f) Testing Laboratories Network—these laboratories could be either

private or governmental, but approved through an adequate

procedure by the Certification of Compliance Service for specific

areas of competence. Some of the existing laboratories could be

used if upgraded, but some new ones should be created by adequate

promotional activity.

(g) Reference Laboratories —few of the best government laboratories,

federal as well as state, should be appointed as Reference

Laboratories to execute the technical parts of the approval

procedures of the testing laboratories.

SYSTEM COORDINATOR

("coord. STAFF

DIRECTOR OF

GEN. SERV.

ADMINREPRESENTATIVE

OF LAB

NETWORK

DIRECTOR OF

INST. OF WEIGHTS

AND MEASURES

PRESIDENT

OF

AB NT

DIRECTOR OF

CERTIFICATION

SERVICE

PRESIDENT

OF NAT. FED.

OF INDUSTRIES

Gi>A

GOV ERNMT.

BUYING

AGENCIES

LABORATORY

NETWORK

REFERENCE

LABS

TESTING

LABS

I NPM

BASIC

STANDARDS

LEGAL

METROLOGY

ABNT CCS

INDUSTRIES

STATE

INDUSTRIES

OF waM

Figure 1

The funds to support the activities of the whole system would be the

revenues from the contracts of certification supplemented by federal government money. As the system operation proceeds, it is expected that consumers

will be increasingly aware of the benefits of certification, and less

60
government money will be required. Whether a break-even point would ever

be reached was considered to be a secondary question; with experience and

the accumulation of data, an answer would be expected. Also recognized was

the importance of federal government participation, not only in creating

and funding the system, but also as a large-scale user.

The establishment of a national system of standards and certification

in developing countries poses another problem of transfer of technology.

It cannot simply copy the system of a highly developed country because of

economic differences. The systems of the more advanced countries should

be analyzed very carefully. With the knowledge acquired, a special project

should be elaborated for the less developed country, taking into account

its specific conditions. An important aspect is the determination of

the adequate degree of government participation in the system, although

partial participation is mandatory by the very nature of the problem.

The United States, with its emphasis on private enterprise, has recognized

this fact. The degree of government participation must be determined by

the economic, social and political conditions of the country. Deviation

from an optimum level could make the implementation of the planned system

very difficult and lead to poor results.

To sum up this brief discussion I would point out that standardization

and certification procedures contribute to economic growth and political

stabilization, to the extent that they are basic for a better, faster, and

more workable industrialization process.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

61

SESSION 2 - THE SOCIOLOGICAL, ECONOMIC, AND MANAGERIAL

ENVIRONMENT IN INDUSTRIALIZING COUNTRIES

Discussion

Co-chairmen: A. N. Ghosh and Edward U. Condon

Dr. Condon :

One thing that has been running through my mind is that there are so

many countries in the world all going to do standardization work. Somebody

should standardize the standardizers . I think we ought to give some thought

to continuing machinery for keeping countries working together. That would

seem like a natural United Nations function. On commodity standards and

test method standards, the ISO is functioning, but we also need to look

forward to something like a world organization of the national standards

bodies so that they can exchange experience.

Too much of the talk about transfer of technology sounds as if it is

all from the so-called developed countries to the so-called LDC's. I

think the LDC's have many problems in common, and as they begin to discuss

not just general philosophy but more specialized questions so there arises

a horizontal transfer among them that can be very valuable.

Mr. Vannah :

If one industrialized nation has a certification program for products,

then would not other industrialized nations accept that certification and

use it, so that one would not necessarily need a complete certification

program in all industrializing nations? This could minimize expensive

duplication of product testing for certification.

Dr. Ghosh :

The question of recognition of certification marking by each of

several countries has been engaging the attention of the British Commonwealth Standards Conference for many years. We have been urging that

there should be this common recognition, but certification marking in

general is under statutory law. The legal procedures have so far delayed

agreement

There was also an ISO Committee Number 7 3 which was titled Certification

Marking. For many years Committee members struggled in vain. Again at the

Ankara meeting in 1970 a group was established under the ISO Council to

study the question of mutual recognition of certification marking. I have

very grave doubts whether the legal people will allow it to come to

fruition.

Adm. Maia :

I would like to add the comment that when the product is to be consumed

locally, there is no sense in having certification from outside. However,

all these national systems should be internationally compatible. They

should be born and grow as compatible systems.

Dr. Rohatgi :

Mr. Kalmanoff of the World Bank made some comments about difficulties

in import substitution or export promotion in the less developed countries.

Dr. Ghosh reminds me that the Government of India has set up industry63
oriented export promotion councils and federally controlled export inspection

councils to promote export of goods from India and to assure their quality.

The Export Promotion Council helps the industrialist who is a potential

exporter by giving him financial help and a license, and making him aware

of the markets. The Export Inspection Council inspects all the goods to

be exported and affixes an export-worthy seal. Perhaps NBS could help

by giving these councils information on standards used by importers in the

USA.

Mr. Peiser :

NBS maintains a rather good key-word-in-context of standards written

in the USA (Special Publication 329). We are not well indexed on standards

written in all other countries. However, we have copies, for instance,

of most Iranian standards, and perhaps half of the Indian standard documents.

Mr. French :

To what extent do industrializing nations accept as national standards

the work of the IEC and the ISO and how quickly are these adopted in

various developing countries?

Dr. Ghosh :

So far as India is concerned we have wide acceptance of the ISO and

the IEC standards, and I think perhaps Iran does likewise. However,

ISO and IEC are not international in the world-wide sense, but only in the

sense that they are multi-national.

Related questions have also been asked. Why should we have national

standards which take time to elaborate, and then coordinate them into

international standards, which takes still more time? With technology

advancing at the rate at which it is today, it is very difficult to have

an international understanding before the technology has made it obsolete.

Moreover, like it or not, the ISO and IEC standards are European and perhaps partly North American oriented, but the world consists of many other

peoples too. The tropical and sub-tropical regions have special problems,

characteristic categories of questions, specific development considerations,

special infrastructure modes suited to their industries, and so on. So

presently we have to take the international standards and adapt them to

our local needs.

Mr. Felleke :

The procedures adopted in the presentation and elaboration of standards

are quite closely associated with the overall situation of standardization.

If standards have to be prepared in an administrative way by a centralized

body then the presentation this afternoon concerning labor-intensive

programs would be useful in the choice that should be made. If, however,

standards are to be prepared through a committee program where interested

parties —producers and users —participate then that procedure raises the

question of whether there is a need to have a labor-intensive program. A

capital-intensive program might be preferable.

Mr. Cali :

In Dr. Stepanek's argument for the less developed countries to use

more labor-intensive devices, while the more developed countries use a

capital-intensive economy, are there not some moral or social implications

in that this difference in emphasis would tend to further fragment the

work? Is there any discussion going on among economists on this score?

64
Mr. Kalmanoff:

I think the fundamental issue is that of a trade-off between objectives.

In other words, if manufacturing in the LDC's is to be competitive with

manufacturing outside, there is a real question whether the latest kinds

of technologies, which usually tend to be capital-intensive, are not

essential to achieve the goal. However, there are other objectives in the

spectrum of the situation of the LDC's besides economic growth; one of

these objectives is the creation of employment opportunities for the labor

force. Some sort of a delicate balance has to be found between a maximization of efficiency and competitiveness on the one hand and the creation

of employment opportunities in the LDC's which is a burning socialpolitical issue that cannot be ignored. Of course, there are some

economists who might say, Concentrate on economic growth, it is only

through economic growth that you are going to be able to create employment

opportunities in the long run. That is fine, but I quote Keynes, "In

the long run, we are all dead.'" The LDC's, in my opinion at any rate, cannot go all-out for maximum efficiency and competitiveness without regard

to solutions of one sort or another for very serious unemployment problems

which they all have.

Dr. Sabato :

Your comment implies that maximum efficiency is always related to one

technology, the technology that is provided by, say, the USA or Europe.

It does not make sense from the point of view of the technologist, that

once you have developed one technology, you have the last word. In the

developed world as well as in the underdeveloped world there are many

examples of technologies that have been superseded by other technologies.

Because technology is born from science, and science has no limits, you

can in principle always optimize your factor condition, as economists say.

If you develop the technology you have prepared for those factors, it can

happen that the technology maximized for some factors are not the best

for others

The typical case is the automobile industry in the LDC's; it is one

of the crimes against rationality that has been committed in the last 10

or 15 years. The LDC's have imported technologies which are obsolete

and nonsensical from the point of view of local factors. For example,

we import the technology of drawing sheet metal parts for cars; this

technology was developed in Detroit, for a run of say, three or four million

units a year. This technology has been used in Argentina for 40 thousand

units, or in Brazil for 6 0 thousand, or in Mexico for 7 0 thousand. From

the point of view of the economy of every one of these countries this is a

crime, a real crime. We are paying a terrific price to import because we

have been importing the wrong technology. There is a kind of mirage in

the underdeveloped world that everything developed in the developed

world is by definition the best, but this is a mirage.

I remember another case in point —the manufacture of tanks to store

liquified gas. The technology used in this country or in Europe is the

technology developed for making say 500 tanks a week. If you use the same

technology in Argentina, you will make 50 tanks a month. Now, why do we

import that technology? Because it is the technology that we hear about,

and that then is regarded to be the best for us as it were by definition.

It is not the best from the economic point of view. What kind of technology

should you use to make the tanks? Well, we must use some other technology

such as explosive forming, used in the USA to manufacture rockets instead

of liquified gas tanks. The final goal is the same. My feeling is that

this does not involve fragmentation more than that which exists already.

I think the moral of the paper presented for Dr. Stepanek by Mr. Schmied

is valid. If you use your own brain you will discover many ways to arrive

to the same final product without necessarily losing efficiency.

65
Mr. Kalmanoff:

Well, certainly, Dr. Sabato, to the extent that there is no conflict

between efficiency and labor-intensiveness , there is no trade-off such as

the one I proposed and the problem is solved. Nevertheless, the general

attitude that seems to prevail with respect to the general possibilities of

substituting labor-intensive technologies with capital-intensive technologies is that this is more or less of a pipe dream. The only effective way

in which industrialization in a labor-intensive way can proceed in LDC's

is through the selection of particular industries which inherently are

more labor-intensive than others, that will do the twin job of creating

efficiency and employing labor. Now, I do not know whether this is really

true or not. One of the points that I attempted to make in my paper is

the paucity of either national or international efforts in exploring the

extent to which the technological requirements of LDC's may be unique.

The extent of such effort is minimal in relation to the total R S D

that goes on in the world. Now, I do not know anything about the situation

in Mainland China, but I have heard that there is a considerable amount of

labor-intensive technology in some of their industrialization. In terms

of volume of activity there is virtually nothing going on in the western

world along these lines that would elucidate the problem. Maybe this is the

big thrust that has to come in the future with respect to investigation of

technologies for LDC's, because the problem of unemployment in such countries

is daily growing more and more serious. Aside from the fact that we want

to correct this from a purely humanitarian point of view, it can have very

serious consequences of a political nature.

Mr. Arnold :

This has been a very interesting session and I am delighted to hear

the various comments. I was particularly glad to hear Admiral Maia talk

about the Brazilian attempt to set up an integrated standards organization.

From the AID point of view, we are very interested in hearing the actual

experiences of the countries that are represented here. Admiral Maia,

what has happened since the plan was set forth? I wonder if you might

make a few remarks about the status of the organization, and if it is

not working perfectly, what some of the major problems might be.

Adm. Maia :

The results of the study that I talked about are still only on paper.

The reason for it is the difficulty of changing. We have in Brazil a

national standards organization, ABNT, which has worked for a long time

without producing the results that the nation really needed. They

supported resistance to change yet they would fulfill only part of a needed

system instead of supplying the whole system. They had tried unsuccessfully

to do the entire work from the norms formulation up to the marks of quality.

Still, the men that were behind ABNT fought to keep the system, but fortunately time has weakened the strength of the resistance. We are now really

starting to implement the report. I told you about the results of our

study because I thought its main components should be part of any system

of this kind. The study also shows that all components should be combined

in the system and not be kept separate. This gave me the opportunity of

talking about the importance of having the system funded and promoted by

the federal government. That I believe is the only way a system like this

can be established. We cannot expect that the private sector by itself

would really fight hard to have a system like this until it is too late

to have it. There is a lot of vested interest involved. In Brazil from

the 1950 's when ABNT started, up to now, not much progress has been made

in the area of standardization and specification. The industries tried

to set up some kind of an arrangement between the producers of parts and

the firms that buy those parts, but otherwise we do not have any effort

for the general benefit of the consumer. Many products could not be

66
exported on account of poor quality. Another matter that I think is important is to recognize that the production of norms using only the work of

voluntary committees working on their free time is not enough. It takes

too long to produce a norm that way. We need professional people working

on a full time basis, to study what has been written around the world

on a specific product, and to develop a draft upon which a committee can

work. From my experience when we did that study and visited some USA

associations, this could be true even here. I heard a member of one of

those committees saying that sometimes he had only the night before

traveling to the committee meeting, drafted some notes for the discussion.

We could go to the other extreme of making the operation completely

governmental or completely professional without any committees involved,

but this could be the path to an ivory tower. So I think that the best

compromise would have some professional people writing the draft, with a

committee to discuss the numbers that should be in this draft. I cannot

say we are entirely right, on all proposals made, nor can I claim to have

some experience on the working of the system, but we hope that with your

help, we can start pretty soon putting to work a system at least similar

to the one I described.

Dr. Brady ;

It seems to me in trying to choose between capital-intensive and laborintensive industrialization that you are trying to optimize a function

that has different kinds of parameters in it. One kind relates to the

technological efficiency of the industry and another kind relates to the

social matters like the unemployment situation. How do you optimize a

function that depends on such different types of parameters?

Mr. Kalmanoff :

I suppose the only short answer is that you might have to sacrifice

some efficiency in order to get more employment. You may have to decide

on your objective —the most efficiency and economic growth, or some lesser

degree of economic efficiency and growth in order to achieve something

toward realization of the other objectives. The latter might give you

more employment that the former.

I would also like to tell this group about the development work of

the World Bank. It is, of course, a financing agency, but it is also a

development agency. The Bank management has been saying for some time

that it ought to do something to support on an international scale research

that may be related to serious fundamental development problems. Recently,

jointly with UNDP and FAO of the UN it called together a group of some 15

nations and a number of other regional financing institutions, for example,

the African, Asian, and American development banks, the European Development Fund (which is a financing arm for Africa), the DAC (which is a

development systems committee of the OECD), plus the Ford, Kellogg, and

Rockfeller Foundations, to see whether it would be worthwhile forming an

organization to pursue the matter of priorities for agricultural research

efforts of an international and regional type, and to exchange information

on the financing of those efforts. I guess this move was spurred by the

dramatic successes on new rice and wheat strains, in recent years, and the

feeling that maybe more could be achieved in other areas of agriculture.

This is a first step toward perhaps mounting a more ambitious international

effort in research on development problems. The first step has been taken

in agriculture, but it is not inconceivable that at some later date (and

obviously I am not implying any commitment of the World Bank) a comparable

effort might be started with respect to industry as it affects the less

developed countries.

67
Dr. Rohatgi :

I speak on behalf of the technology educators in less developed

countries on the point raised by Dr. Stepanek that students in such

countries read books written by technologists from developed countries

who preach labor saving techniques. I would appeal to the aid-giving

agencies to fund the production of textbooks written by educators in less

developed countries illustrated by examples from local industries. To

date most of the help has gone into the production of Asian editions of

books written by authors from developed countries, which does not solve

the problem of relevance to the students in less developed countries of

the region.

Dr. Ghosh :

We have found that the Indian standards , particularly the building

designs and the structural standards used in the universities, including

the IIT, have been based on British standards. For the last year or so,

we have been campaigning to show to the teachers themselves examples of

the useful properties of local materials, that could be relevant to the

design and building codes. In a national standards institution we cannot

undertake the task of educating a vast continent like India. What we are

trying to do is to educate the educators, giving them worked-out examples.

We do so in the metric system, not in the foot-pound system. This activity

has been gaining tremendous momentum.

Mr. Daneman:

Those familiar with the cost of equipment in the USA should appreciate

that it is not simply a question of adding import duties for arriving at

costs of equipment landed in a less developed country. One needs a multiplier of perhaps 1.4 to 1.9. It is not unusual to find that spares can

equal the cost of the hardware. On top of that, installation with U.S.

aid can be extremely expensive. When you talk about a capital investment

of a certain level here, you may have to consider a multiplier of four to

arrive at an equivalent cost somewhere else.

Mr. Lovejoy :

The United Nations Development Program is currently administering the

spending of around $250 million of international direct-grant aid funds

annually, through projects executed by specialized agencies of the UN

family in more than 100 countries and territories around the world. These

projects cover a wide range of technical aid and so-called pre-investment

activities; typically in resource development, training, agricultural

development, and infrastructure and institution building. In the latter

category are a variety of technological institutions many of which involve

standards and other technical support services to industry.

From the point of view of possible NBS interest I would highlight two

major kinds of aid activities. First, there is the technical support

kind of activity including industrial research, standardization, and

advisory services. Within the heading standardization, I would include

preparation of specifications and codes, metrology, calibration, product

testing, and quality control. This kind of industrial support service is

provided by central government laboratories , local or central Weights and

Measures administrations, commercial testing laboratories, specialized

testing laboratories (e.g. for high voltages), industrial research institutes, authorized calibration laboratories, and so on. Technical support

services have been assisted by the UNDP over the last ten years by major

projects in 30 or 40 countries and smaller projects elsewhere, involving

international consultants and specialists, overseas fellowships and seminars

for local nationals; also by supply of essential items of equipment. These

68
projects, although financed by UNDP, are mostly executed by the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) with headquarters in Vienna or by

UNESCO with headquarters in Paris.

NBS has extensive experience in many of these fields and might be

interested in providing short-term consultants (as it has already done in

some cases), longer term specialist missions, and in assisting the placement of fellowships. The main problem is that in many cases the levels of

sophistication and capability between NBS and the corresponding institutes

in developing countries might be mismatched. We have already heard from

Dr. Tabor of his reservations based on his own experience of reproducing

in Israel an NBS-type institute for whose services there has been relatively

little demand, especially in view of the revolution in commercially

available instrumental precision in the last decade.

Secondly, I would briefly draw your attention to a major industrial

technological problem facing many developing countries. This is the problem

of the appropriate technology (and the related question of intermediate

technology) for a particular need. In a number of industrial fields

including iron and steel, cement, pulp and paper, oil refining, petrochemicals, fertilizers, power production, farm implements, automobiles,

and some kinds of consumer products there are specific needs for factories

designed to specifications different from those needed in developed

countries. In particular the need is for relatively small scale production

units, corresponding to small markets, sometimes with unconventional raw

materials, and preferably labor-intensive rather than capital-intensive.

Parenthetically, I might emphasize that these considerations apply only to

factories producing for the local market. The export factories are likely

to be as large-scale, capital-intensive, and up-to-date as any in the

advanced countries.

Now in many advanced countries the small scale technology does not

exist—or has become obsolete. For example, a number of African countries

are interested in small-scale cement production in the range of 10,000

to 30,000 tons p. a. whereas the smallest rotary kilns commercially available

are for 100,000 tons p. a. Development work is now going on in some countries,

including Australia and India, to revive the vertical shaft kilns of earlier

times (and in one form still widely used in Germany), but adapted to

different raw materials such as less-than-pure-limestone , or oil or gas

instead of coal.

On the other hand, recent developments in iron and steel technology

such as pre-reduction and electro-smelting are of considerable interest to

both developing and industrially advanced countries. They hold promise

of small-scale, cheaper plants which can be located close to markets and

do not require metallurgical coke, which is in increasingly short supply.

These areas of industrial research and development have in certain

cases been supported by UNDP to a very limited extent, dictated by limited

funds. It may be that in some fields NBS, possibly in collaboration with

industrial or contract research laboratories , could perform a service to

developing countries.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

69

SESSION 3 - MAKING SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT MEANINGFUL

Paper J>.1 - Overview - The Economic Role of Metrology Capabilities

Edward U. Condon

Director, 1945-1951, U.S. National Bureau of Standards

Professor of Physics, Emeritus

University of Colorado

Boulder, Colorado 80 302

We are entering a period of active development of the countries of

Latin America, Asia, and Africa, many of which were long held back by their

colonial relationship to the major powers of Europe. It is fashionable

to refer to them as "developing" nations, to avoid the negative connotation

in describing their present condition as "underdeveloped" or "undeveloped."

I do not like the negative connotation, with the implication that the

advanced nations are "developed", if this connotes that they are no longer

developing; that their development has reached a kind of plateau above

which it will not rise much farther. I do not believe this needs to be or

ought to be the case. I believe that we in America have still a long way

to go in improving the quality of life by better utilization of labor and

natural resources for improved welfare of the entire population in the

development of instruments of national planning for the furtherance of this

goal, in making a better contribution to the agencies of international

cooperation of the United Nations, and in making progress in realizing the

futility of trying to prepare for military solutions of international

problems on which we alone have wasted more than a trillion ( 10^-2) dollars

since 1945. These are some directions in which the United States of

America needs to continue to be a developing nation. I hope that the U.S.

will not only continue to develop in the future, but will also increase

the level of assistance which it extends to the new countries whose

development is not as far along as is ours. I want to see the developing

nations develop, not only from a desire to see their peoples live better

lives, but also because, when they do so, their creative endeavors will add

to the total storehouse of human knowledge on which the future progress of

all of us depends.

By coincidence I have just spent the past two weeks in Vienna, at the

headquarters of UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization).

There a group of us were working on policy questions related to improving

the capability of that agency to foster the wide dissemination of technological information about modern factory processes , in order to assist

industrial enterprises , both actual and prospective , in the newly developing

countries. In our NBS/AID Seminar here this week we deal with a more

specialized part of this general question. Recognizing the dependence of

modern industry on institutions such as NBS, or the National Physical

Laboratory in London, or the Physikalische-Technische Bundesanstalt in

Germany, or the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures in France, or the

five standards laboratories and 129 calibration centers in Russia, one of

the prime essentials to industrial development of any new country is the

establishment of the technical basis for uniform standards of weights and

measures, including electrical measurements. This is a sine qua non without

which industrial development cannot occur. It is impossible therefore to

isolate it from the economy as a whole, or to try to put an economic value

on this portion of the national activity.

As contrasted with the Western European nations , the United States is

a recently developed country. The industrial revolution started in England

in the mid-eighteenth century. America consisted then of a few English

colonies in the East and of some Spanish colonies in the West, plus the

French colonies of Quebec and Louisiana. There was great interest in

European invention in colonial America , and some invention here. Most of the

early steps in the industrial revolution in America in the first half of the

71
nineteenth century were based on ideas imported from Europe.

Industrialization cannot happen simply through importation of technique

and capital. A necessary condition is that there be a revolution in agricultural production by which the people can be fed on a more adequate

nutritional basis than obtains in many countries at present, through the

efforts of a smaller fraction of the labor force. Figure 1 is a graph of

the fraction of the economically active population that is engaged in agriculture over recent decades, for various countries. Source: FAO Yearbook

of Production, 196 5.

1920 30 40 50 60 70 1980

Figure 1. Ordinates: Fraction of economically active population engaged in

agriculture. Abscissas: Years. Source: Food and Agriculture Organization

(UN), 1965 Yearbook of Production.

72
Of course, this fraction is a very crude index. It makes no allowance

for differences in the adequacy of nutritional standards in these countries^

for variations in the fraction of the product that is food instead of

textile fibers, or the fraction of the product exported or imported.

Nevertheless, some striking comparisons emerge:

(a) the absolute smallness of the USA of the fraction, and its recent

rapid three-fold decline;

(b) the rapid rate of decline, though from a higher absolute level,

in several well-developed countries of Europe, and in Japan;

(c) the very high absolute level and its lack of decrease so far in

India, which I presume is fairly representative of countries of

Asia and Africa that are at an early stage of development.

The planning bodies of every developing country should study this figure

carefully, and plot the corresponding figures for their own country on it,

working out supplementary measures of the nutritional adequacy of the

actual food output in relation to the needs of the population, and the

growth rates at which various populations are increasing.

In the developing countries in general there is an extremely low level

of agricultural technology. This is mostly due to the ignorance of the

farming population. Agricultural education on a large scale is needed.

Modern American agricultural education did not start until the midnineteenth century. A great step forward was the Morrill Act of 18 6 2

which made major federal land grants to encourage the states to set up

schools of agriculture and engineering; 69 such colleges were organized

under the act. The Hatch Act (1887) provided for federal aid to agricultural experiment stations, and the Smith-Lever Act (1914) provided for

agricultural extension services to spread the knowledge of farm technology

to rural areas. These things are old history, but lessons from the distant

past must be learned in order to understand why such a small part of our

labor force is required to feed our people.

Please do not think that I think our record is perfect in this matter.

There is in the USA a vast amount of poverty, malnutrition and illness, that

could all be ended in a few years if our policy makers were not so preoccupied with making war and preparations for war. Many U.S. citizens are

badly undernourished, while the Federal and State Governments, in 1969 for

example, paid out more that $3.7 billion to farmers for not raising certain

crops. This is to be compared with $2.5 billion spent by AID in 1969 on

economic assistance to other countries.

Another index is shown in Figure 2. Here the life expectancy at birth

in various countries is shown plotted against the date. Life expectancy

is one index of the general physical well-being of a population and hence

of the ability of its individuals to contribute to further improvement of

that well-being. By coincidence the USA in 1850 had the same low level,

(m,w) = (38,40), that the Congo had a century later in 1952. Here (m,w)

means the life expectancy in years for men and women respectively. The

data for the United Kingdom (not plotted) closely parallel those of the

USA. The slow, steady rise in these two developed countries partly

reflects the fact that medical knowledge was rather poor prior to 1850.

It would be useful to analyze how much the improvement in the USA and UK

might have been speeded up if the fullest social utilization of expanding

medical knowledge had been made during the first half of the 2 0th

century.

73
Figure 2. Ordinates: Life expectancy at various ages. The vertical bars

extend from the value for men (m) to the value for women (w) ; m < w in all

cases except Ceylon and India where m ^ w. Abscissas: Years. Source: UN

Demographic Yearbook, 1965.

What is striking and encouraging here is the rapid rise in life expectancy which has occurred in USSR, Japan and Ceylon in the last three or

four decades. Starting at roughly where we were in 1880, these countries

have made rapid strides, so that as of the mid-60»s, they were essentially

caught up with the USA. Starting at a very low figure in 19 50, India is

improving rapidly, and should be up to our present level before the end of

this century. Most remarkable is the progress made by Mauritius, going

from (32, 3U) in 1946 to (59 ,62) in 1962. The rate of progress in improving health conditions in developing countries as shown in Figure 2 should serve

as an inspiration to the planning officials of less developed countries.

74
Let us turn now to more specific consideration of the functions of

national standardizing laboratories in less developed countries. These may

be discussed under two major headings: (a) establishment of measurement

calibration services within a country which tie in with internationally

adopted units of measurement, and (b) development of standard specifications

for commodities and manufactured goods in international trade.

Again it is important to realize how recently the USA has become a

developed nation. Our NBS was not established until 1901. It was therefore

a half-century old in 1951, when I resigned as director, and it will be

just three-quarters of a century old in 1976 when the USA will celebrate

the bicentennial of its Declaration of Independence. All of you who are

concerned with development of such services in your own countries will

find it fascinating to read the history of NBS by Rexmond C. Cochrane. It

is called "Measures for Progress", and was published by the U.S. Department

of Commerce in 1966. I understand that copies are available for all our

guests. I am sure that reading about our early problems will stimulate

your thinking about and analysis of the problems you face.

There is something about human affairs that usually requires several

decades for major change. We are rightly impatient, and should try in

every way we can to speed up the process, but we must learn to expect that,

try as we will, major change cannot be effected in a year or two. I am

reminded of the story of two Scots, partners in an old line manufacturing

business, who employed a research chemist. About 11 a.m. of his first

day one partner said to the other, "Shall we go see whether that research

fellow has discovered anything yet?" The other replied, "No, let's wait

until after lunch!"

Research people seem slow at times. But I think that they are not

slower than politicians or business executives in taking up new ideas. In

fact, I would say that they are usually much faster. For example, research

people, the world over, use the Metric System. It is the legal basis for

the antiquated units of weights and measures to which we cling in the USA.

The British, Canadians, and Australians are, at last, launched on a program

to adopt the metric units for general use; but the USA is still studying this

matter: we will probably be the last nation in the world to do what we should

have done a century ago.'

Every year in this country a number of houses burn to the ground because

of the lack of standardization of screw threads on fire fighting equipment

and hydrants. I hope that you who here represent the less developed

countries will not allow this kind of free enterprise anarchy to get a

foothold in your countries. In many of these countries industrialization

can only go forward on the basis of national planning and centrally controlled

investment , so government will be able to require suitable standardization

of measures.

Industrial research and development on a large and well organized

scale is less than half a century old in America. Such an enormous

establishment is now available that it is hard to realize that before 19 2 0

only a handful of industries had their own research laboratories, and those

that they did have were only small beginnings. In that period, NBS likewise

small, played a stimulating role toward new industry in a way that was

rather different from that which it mostly plays today. Its role then was

more like that which your new standardizing laboratories will play in

countries where industrialization is just beginning. Although starting

later, I expect your rate of development will be faster than ours was, in

a way resembling the greater rate of increase of life expectancy that is

shown on Figure 2 for the countries whose modernization started relatively

recently.

We have now in America an enormous electronics industry. In the early

75
days NBS played a role of major importance in the development of radio. Its

Circular 7^, Radio Instruments and Measurements, published in March 1918,

was for many years the standard work from which all radio engineers learned

the subject.

Early American research on aerodynamics and aircraft flight was done

by NBS. In World War I, a new little agency called NACA, National Advisory

Committee for Aeronautics, was established by an Act passed by Congress.

This was a spin-off from NBS. NACA later got into the space business in

a big way so that most of you know it as NASA. You who are impatient to see

large things happen in the underdeveloped countries can see in what a small

way some things get started. This Act of 1917 outlined a vast array of

duties. They included everything to do with aviation, not merely flying,

but motor power, navigational aids, radio communication between planes, and

all that. Then they ended up by appropriating "$5,000 or such portion

thereof as may be necessary" to solve these problems I That is how, at

least in our country , the technical people get their feet in the door: there

may be a lesson in that for some of you who are just getting started.

One thing struck me for the first time this morning, when one speaker

was contrasting a free enterprise country and a centrally planned economy

like that of Soviet Russia. The difference is actually even bigger in some

respects than you might think, because this is a nation of 50 semiautonomous states. The USA is a kind of grown-up United Nations where the

central authority has gradually assumed more and more power. Younger

people looking at this nation now probably would not realize how much of

the thinking of older Americans is still influenced by the autonomy of the

states. We are a nation of 50 states, each of which has a great deal of

separate authority. So the points made by some speakers this morning that

NBS has always had to win acceptance for its viewpoints, had to win people

over by persuasion, as contrasted by exerting central dictatorial authority,

is a very genuine one. It lies deep in our system. It is an additional

point over and above the point that we have more private capitalism as

contrasted with governmental action. Even in the sphere of governmental

action, we are still a somewhat loose republic of states. Some might say

we are as ineffectual as the United Nations. Another way of looking at it,

if you think that we have evolved in a reasonably effectual way, having had

almost 200 years to do so, is to conclude that there is great hope for the

United Nations. I really think there is hope, but I also think one should

not be too impatient about it.

This need to persuade, I think, has influenced the way in which NBS

has worked with the agencies. It has been frustrating at times for us:

I am sure Allen Astin, who is sitting in the back of the room reminiscently

pulling on his pipe, knows that there are times when any head of a bureau

would rather have some dictatorial authority to ram things down peoples'

throats. But if you do not ram things down their throats, but win acceptance

by persuasion, even though it is a lot more trouble, in the end the result

is better.

One of the most encouraging things that I have experienced in a long

time is the development of an international dialogue of the sort that we have

in this Seminar and the sort that I had the pleasure of taking part in

last week in Vienna through UNIDO. Of course, the little conference that

I attended in Vienna was devoted to a rather narrow topic. It had to do

with the procedures and mechanisms by which UNIDO could most effectively

transmit industrial information to the less developed countries in areas

broader than metrology. One of the most disappointing features to me in

the discussion there which I also found reflected in some of the conversations here, is that the whole discussion was carried on quite as if there

were no universities in these countries. To this restricted view I object

very much. I happen to be a product of one of the western universities,

one of those we used to sneeringly call "cow colleges." What I found in

76
Vienna was a feeling on the part of some that many universities are the

twentieth century analogue of monasteries, not agents of progress and not

technically advanced and progressive, that they are isolated as ivory towers

without identification with progress within the country of which they are

a part. There is a tendency not to think of them as being instruments of

progress, of industrialization, of engineering development, and as fostering

new enterprises. I, myself, have never lived in anything that you would

call an underdeveloped country, unless you call the western part of the

United States underdeveloped, say New Mexico, my native state.

As a result of long discussions I became persuaded finally that it

really is an attribute of the universities in many of the countries in

question. If that is so, then that is one of the major problems; because

we are not going to achieve great development and great industrialization

before about two decades. This is the time we need to develop the right

kind of human product from the universities. If the universities of the

various developing countries are so backward, then what we need to do is

to supplement them with institutions that are more modern, progressive, and

technically oriented. I am not thinking now of engineering only, the same

is true of agriculture and the health professions, though our concern here

is mostly with the physical sciences and their engineering and manufacturing

applications

.

Earlier I mentioned the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862, that made

grants of public land, which later became quite valuable to the state

universities in return for their being committed to a program of engineering

and agricultural instruction. This commitment was not to the exclusion of

having professors of literature and philosophy and other such subjects but

primary emphasis was on subjects relevant to industrial development.

The universities were also given major financial support from the Federal

Government. If the universities in the newly developing countries are

too much like ivory towers, something must be done about it. It seems to

me that one of the great needs of the new countries is a thoroughly

developed set of institutions for training people, not entirely at the

highest research level, but at the level for technicians or junior

engineers, in all major fields —agricultural work, health work, industrial

manufacturing work, and so forth.

I would greatly appreciate your comments on a proposal that I am

trying to push with members of our Congress. As all of you know, a good

share of the post-war period has been characterized by an atmosphere of

military tension between the East and the West, meaning between the Soviet

Union and the United States. There have been big military expenditures

on both sides, a tremendous waste: two-hundred billion dollars a year is

now going into military expenditures by the countries of the world. All

that represents resources which might be used for the kinds of constructive

purposes that we here are interested in, but which are otherwise squandered.

The countries of the world carry big armaments because they fear each other,

and they fear each other because of the big armaments. The biggest problem

confronting the world today is how to reduce these tensions so that we

will not feel armaments to be necessary, so we will not waste money on

such things. Then these resources will become available for positive and

constructive development efforts which at present can only move at a snail's

pace

.

The suggestion that I would like to make is especially appropriate

before this group because it calls for cooperative action, not unilateral

action just by the USA, but cooperative action between citizens of this

and the people of other countries. In the past two decades we have invested

a tremendous amount of money in the physical properties of overseas military

bases. I do not know where they all are. I do not mean that they are

secret, it is hard to keep a base secret, but it is just that I do not

know where they all are. There is a nice one in Ethiopia. We gave up one

77
T

in Pakistan, the one from which Francis Gary Powers took off on his famous

U-2 flight. We were invited to leave one we held in Libya, and have

accepted that invitation. In the next few years we are going to see a

great pulling back from these bases. They are tremendously valuable physical

properties, I do not know the total investment; the bases we built in Spain

cost us over a billion dollars. The terms on which our country made lease

agreements with most of the host countries where they are located were

such that when we give them up for whatever reason, they revert as physical

property to the host country. The investment in the improvements is ours,

the investment in the land was theirs. They will get it all. A great

gain could be made for the various countries if, instead of having these

bases simply continue as great military installations, and hence become

a big drain on their resources, they would find the means to convert them

into technological training centers for training the vast numbers of

people that are going to be needed in order to carry on the kinds of development these countries are going to need. If we really face the question,

we must realize that the level of activity on development is really not

much more than a tenth of a percent of what it ought to be to achieve the

results we would like to see achieved, say in the rest of the present

century. So what we need is a new source of resources to develop such

things. This is a thing the United States cannot do alone because we are

committed to give these bases over to the various countries when the leases

expire. If the countries which find themselves coming into the possession

of such property do not do anything about it, the bases will just go to

their generals who will use them to enhance the prestige of generals.

However, if we can convert these properties into major educational institutions for a vast training program, including some research and some

education, I think that would be a great thing. Please tell me whether and

how this could be done in your countries.

That is the main point that I wanted to cover. I realize I have not

talked much about the specifics of the conference in Vienna. Some of the

participants proposed establishing enormous centers of documentation in

developing countries that would be as big as our Library of Congress, with

millions of documents; yet they should know very well that there are very

few people in these countries who are prepared to read the documents, or

are likely to read them. We had in this country closely related to the

university scheme of those cow colleges county extension agents, people

who were living in an individual county. They conveyed agricultural

knowledge to farmers and operated demonstration farms. No matter how

backward a farmer was , he had to admit that if he saw better crops growing

and better yields in the farm next door, there must be something in that

knowledge. This type of technique I think we need presently for the

transmission of technology, as contrasted with enormously great centers of

documentation; beautiful libraries that almost nobody uses.

There is a great deal of work to be done and it is very, very

encouraging that the work is being started, but it is sometimes discouraging

when one sees how much there is to be done in relation to the present

efforts that are being made. However, I am very happy to be here to take

part in this Seminar.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

78
SESSION 3 - MAKING SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT MEANINGFUL

Paper 3.2 - Needs for Measurement Controls

in Developing Industrialization

J. L. Hayes

Technical Director

U.S. Navy Metrology Engineering Center

Naval Plant Representative Office

Pomona, California 91766

1. Introduction

This presentation will emphasize the need for careful attention to the

application of metrology, the science of measurement systems, in a much

broader context than is normally ascribed to a metrologist. The objective

is to impress you with the fundamental need to control the entire process

of product testing or monitoring if economically sound products are to be

delivered at competitive prices to satisfied customers. It should also

become clear that the careful, rational, and controlled application of

metrology to all technical efforts, commencing with research measurements

and culminating in mass production product testing, is crucial both in

developing industrialization and in maintaining that industrialization,

once developed.

Because metrology is an integral part of research and development,

design evaluation, quality control, product certification, product tests,

and data feedback for product improvement, its careful control and application cannot be overemphasized. In the United States, too little attention

has been paid to the application of meaningful controls on measurement and

product testing. This has resulted in greater costs than are necessary

in the goods that we produce, through unnecessary rejection of good items

and undesirable acceptance of bad ones. Proper economic and technical

guidelines must be made available to minimize faulty testing products

without incurring excessive testing costs.

The only meaningful determination of product quality prior to product

consumption is that made by testing and measurement. Other quality detectors exist but the discovery usually comes too late to alleviate customer

dissatisfaction or soaring costs. However, managers may often rely

blindly on the reports turned in by their test personnel. Unless these

measurements are consistent and reliable over long periods of time, both

the manufacturer and the public suffer through higher costs. It is for this

reason that government and industry leaders must recognize the role that

measurements play in the financial health of companies and the economic

strength of nations.

2. The Need for Controlled Measurements

Applied metrology is the thread which ties together product development,

product manufacture, process monitoring and product testing, to insure that

the item actually delivered is reasonably similar to the prototype that

was developed and the item that was promised. "Product development"

refers to research, development, test, and evaluation leading up to the

construction or improvement of one of an item based on laboratory tests,

measurements, bread board layouts, etc. "Product manufacture" means the

production design, engineering proof testing, and factory equipment setup to build more than one of an item. "Process monitoring" means the

checking of the quantity production processes as they occur, so that proper

constituents are being mixed and proper controls are maintained on such

79
parameters as temperature, humidity and feedrate. "Testing" refers to the

evaluation of the finished products through inspection and physical measurement to confirm that they perform to desired specifications, and satisfy

the original design and development objectives.

Some items may not require testing, if the manufacturer is willing

to run the risk of customer complaints, in lieu of incurring testing

expense or if it is more economical to provide free replacement service when

the product is bad. Objects such as low-cost watches, cameras and radios

have been treated in this manner. On the other hand, the need for testing

is extremely critical where the product affects personal safety, as in

ground and air transportation equipment, communication systems, life

support systems, intensive care equipment for hospital wards, and national

security systems. In such situations it is essential that proper relationships exist among research and development measurements, design specifications, production control specifications and product tests. This requires

proper control of measurement errors during research, the careful writing

of testing specifications, the proper selection of measuring equipment and

measuring methods, and the assurance that the tolerances set are compatible

throughout all the stages of manufacture and use.

3. Effects of Measurements

Especially critical is the establishment of test tolerances in relation

to design or process tolerances. Large economic losses can and will occur

unless these tolerance relationships are controlled very carefully.

Based on studies performed in 1955, I have since applied the work of A. R.

Eagle described in his paper "A Method of Handling Errors in Testing and

Measuring" appearing in Industrial Quality Control , March 19 5U, and that of

F. E. Grubbs and H. J. Coon in their paper entitled "On Setting Test Limits

Relative to Specification Limits" appearing in the same issue of Industrial

Quality Control . Based on my experience and observations since then , J~

am convinced that those studies are still relevant and valid. They showed

that startling effects on the validity of tests occur when test tolerances

are varied in relation to design tolerances.

Take a hypothetical manufacturing process in which at least 95%

of the outgoing product is expected to be good, and up to 5% may be bad.

Assume that the probable errors of the measuring equipment used to test

the product are determined at two-sigma confidence limits. Assume that the

product will be tested using measuring equipment whose probable error is

one-fourth that of the original design specifications for the critical

parameters of the product. Figure 1 shows what happens when the testing

tolerance limits are shifted in relation to the design specification limits.

At the point labeled "Inside", the test tolerances have been located inside

the design specifications by an amount equal to the error of the test

equipment. The point labeled "Equal" depicts the case where the test

tolerances are located equal to the design specifications. The point labeled "Outside" shows the results of the test tolerances being located outside

of the design specifications by an amount equal to the error of the test

equipment. The solid line shows false rejections; i.e., products which are

really good, but which will be falsely tested by the very make-up of the

planned testing process. The dashed line shows false acceptances; i.e.,

bad products which the testing process falsely says are good. Thus we see that

at the "Inside" point, the false rejection of good products is 10% of

the total quantity of the product, but reduces sharply as the tolerance

relationship moves to the "Outside" point where only 0.05% of the product

will be falsely rejected. Meanwhile, false acceptance of bad products

will increase from a value of 0.02% at the "Inside" point to 3% at the

"Outside" point. This obviously has quite a significant effect on apparent

product quality and will have a serious effect on product costs and

management decisions. >

80
Having seen the effect of shifting the location of the test tolerances

relative to the design specification limits, let us now examine Figure 2 to see what happens if that relationship is held constant and if the

allowable error of the measuring equipment is varied. Assume that the test

tolerance is held constant and is equal to the design specification

tolerance

.

l/l 1/4 1/ 10

MEASUREMENT ERROR/ DESIGN TOLERANCE

Figure 1

Relative Location, Test Tolerance to Design Tolerance

81
Figure 2 shows what happens when we use three different measuring

systems; one whose error is equal to the test tolerance (1/1), another whose

error is one-fourth of the test tolerance (1/4) and yet another whose error

is one-tenth of the test tolerance (1/10). We find false rejections which

vary from 13% at 1/1, to 3% at 1/4, to 1% at 1/10; meanwhile, false acceptances go from 1.6% at 1/1, to 0.8% at 1/4, to 0.3% at 1/10. Again, drastic

changes occur when we use test equipment of varying degrees of accuracy to

test the same products. While it is evident that a 1/10 relationship

yields the lowest false acceptance and rejection levels, the added cost of

using higher accuracy test equipment over lower accuracy test equipment may

offset the gains involved. For every product some correct combination

exists. Control of these factors is absolutely essential to the validity

of the test, the quality of delivered products and the costs of production

and testing.

INSIDE EQUAL

RELATIVE LOCATION TEST TOLERANCE TO DESIGN TOLERANCE

Figure 2

Measurement Error/ Design Tolerance

82

OUTSIDE
Another concern of the metrologist is that the errors of measuring

equipment generally increase as a function of time, and must be periodically

tested or calibrated to insure that they retain acceptable accuracy. So,

all instruments must be referred periodically to common measurement standards. The need for this can be seen if a bearing is made at one plant, an

axle is made at another plant, and both parts are assembled onto a wheel

hub at still a third plant. Unless all three plants have measurement

compatibility assured by controlled reference of all measurements to

common standards with known and controlled errors, chaos in the assembly

process is bound to result. Future provision of spare parts when one of

the three components wears out will demand continued measurement control.

It is therefore essential that the design tolerances, test tolerances,

measuring instrument errors, and the standards used to test the production

measuring instruments are all linked together in a carefully controlled

network. This must involve common techniques of measurement as well as

common units of measurement.

Application of Controls

How can adequate control of test and measuring processes be achieved?

First, design tolerances must be realistic and economic. Design personnel

must be informed about the measuring equipment errors they will encounter

in production and test processes. Adequate guidelines must be given to

aid them in avoiding unrealistic design tolerances which cannot be applied

when the design subsequently becomes a product. Trained metrologists

should work on teams with design specialists. Both designs and test

plans should be devised at the same time to insure that products are not

too sophisticated for the state-of-the-art of measurement or for the

instruments that are available within economic limits. Carefully documented

testing procedures are needed so that relatively unskilled people can

perform the tests, following guidance provided by metrologists.

Next, it is necessary to insure that proper testing and process monitoring tolerances are established. Handbooks should be prepared to aid test

personnel in setting up consistent testing tolerances with a full awareness

of their effect on product quality and cost. Such a handbook should

include convenient nomographs , and sets of measurement tolerances related

to the errors to be expected in specific measurement processes. The

handbook should also include the effect of varying environment on the

measurement errors. The allowable test and measuring equipment errors

should be related to design tolerances, so that equipment can be selected

to meet the error requirements. The guidance handbook should also give

examples of the economic and quality tradeoffs to be considered in the

usage of test and measuring equipment of varying degrees of accuracy,

including the cost of a calibration structure to support those measurements.

A feedback system should be established to adjust the test and design

tolerances to compensate for state-of-the-art or economic limitations as

they are discovered. Where necessary, the product should be redesigned,

or its performance specifications altered, until an adequate balance of

economics, quality, marketability, and competitive position can be achieved.

Where it is proven that the performance limitation of test and measuring

equipment is affecting competitive position, effort should be focused on

developing new measuring equipment.

Finally, a suitable test and measurements structure must be set up to

refer all measurements to a common standard. For this, at least the following three steps are needed:

a. Select a minimum number of layers in the structure, consistent

with logistics, with prime attention focused on the basic layer

where research/development and production measurements take place.

Be sure these measurements are correct ; they are the most important

in the structure.

83
b. Second, establish a periodic calibration program for all test and

measuring equipment to insure that its precision remains within

prescribed error limits. Establish how often to test each item,

provide documents on how to test, specify what standards to use,

and arrange to test the standards themselves periodically. Insure

that a centralized point of reference is available to support the

accuracy of the entire measurement system.

c. Third, insure that trained measurement specialists are available

to develop and maintain guidelines for the test methods to be

used by others. The same specialists should be used to develop

new test and measuring equipment necessary to meet demonstrated

accuracy requirements. Training should include not only one of the

usual engineering or physics curricula, but should extend to a

working knowledge of statistics and its application to measurement.

Systems analysis, especially as it applies to the economic and

financial aspects of manufacturing and testing would be useful.

Design engineers also should receive formal training in measurement

techniques and practices so that they will appreciate the effect

of their tolerance selections on overall quality and cost.

5. Conclusion

Metrology represents an essential national resource. It is a key

element in every aspect of industrial development. Without it, technological

chaos results, and the required uniformity of material, methods and

dimensions cannot exist.

Adequate guidelines, coupled with the intelligent application of

measurement controls, will provide better quality products at reduced costs.

The accuracy of measurement instruments must be consistent with process

needs and the tolerances of design and test must likewise be consistent.

Too much accuracy can be as expensive as too little. The need for greater

accuracy in specific areas will create demands for new work on measurement

equipment and methods. However, a rational measurement control program

will properly identify where that need is , so that proper priorities in

applying limited resources can be employed.

It is my opinion that too little has been done to date to fulfill

the requisites of measurement control. Too few guidelines have been made

available to design and test personnel. The failure to adopt a rational

approach to establishing testing tolerances in appropriate relation to

design tolerances has created confusion, from the product test level through

the entire national measurement structure. This has resulted in excessive

accuracy in some measurement areas and deficient accuracies in others.

Metrology is a powerful technical tool in developing industrialization.

Lack of it will assuredly result in manufacturing chaos. Misuse of it

through ignorance will prove highly wasteful of national resources. If

it is to be used as a meaningful force to accelerate and maintain industrial

development, its value must be understood, it must be nurtured and it must

be controlled.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

84
SESSION 3 - MAKING SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT MEANINGFUL

Paper 3.3 - Problems in Establishing Accurate Measurements

in Industrializing Economies

A Case-Study of Basic Standards Activities in the Israel

NPL and Some Possible Lessons to be Learnt

H. Tabor and L. Farkas

National Physical Laboratory of Israel

Jerusalem, Israel

Background

The NPLI was conceived in 1947 and initiated in 1950 as a doublefunctioned government institution along the lines of similar institutions

abroad:

(a) to establish and maintain physical standards (for the purpose of

raising the precision of local industry and of meeting international needs), and

(b) to conduct applied research to advance the economy of the country.

For the purpose of this seminar, we limit ourselves to a discussion on the

first item. Furthermore, as the standardization of products and procedures

is the province of the Israel Standards Institution, the NPLI has concerned

itself with the standardization of measurement, i.e., physical standards,

metrology, calibration services, and occasionally, the evolution of special

measuring methods including the decision as to what measurements to make.

Upon short visits by the first author in 1949 to the NPL in

Teddington and the NBS in Washington, it must be recorded, the directors

and all the staff members were exceptionally helpful. Basic equipment was

ordered (mostly in the U.S. and Switzerland) for the setting up of a

basic standards facility on classical lines, with the accent on engineering

metrology, thermometry, and electrical units. A modicum of common sense

was (hopefully) applied in not attempting to duplicate all the primary

standards; secondary standards calibrated by the NBS or NPL were considered

more than adequate for most purposes, particularly as both these parent

laboratories provided basic standardization calibration services free as

a courtesy to new members of the growing family of national standardizing

laboratories

.

The first ten years (1950-1960) of the standards laboratory showed

little progress because of the difficulties in finding a suitable head of

the department. During this period most of the engineering metrology

equipment was passed over to the Standards Institution (SII) to operate

on behalf of the NPLI, since the SII, being in Tel Aviv, was nearer the

industrial center of gravity of the country. Some basic metrology was kept

in Jerusalem and recently added to--for example the master gage-block

interferometer and long gage-block comparator.

Since 1960 we have been fortunate in having an experimental physicist,

Mr. Dov Pelli, to head the standards laboratory, a man really dedicated to

precision measurement. Unfortunately it has been extremely difficult to

find additional suitable physicists to build up a viable standards division.

It has further been noted that the use made of the high quality facilities

and competence, by the industrial community, has been extremely disappointing.

85
The double difficulty of building up and keeping a good staff and the poor

use by industry has led us to take a fresh look at the whole question of

precision measurements in a developing country such as Israel. We all accept,

almost axiomatically , the belief that a developing nation must establish a

national standards laboratory if it wishes to build a successful "hightechnology" industrial base. In this paper we wish to examine—and possibly

question—this fundamental belief. Has the classical concept of a national

standards laboratory which sets up basic standards of length, mass,

temperature, electrical measurements, etc., become inappropriate for newly

developing countries?

We will first consider some data on the recent situation in the standards

division of the NPLI. We have compiled statistics of the work performed by

the standards division of the NPLI from January 1969 to June 1970, a period

of one and one-half years. On the basis of this data certain conclusions

will be drawn. However, we must point out that data are not available on

work which has been refused due to a lack of capability. Thus an argument

can be made that the work actually performed is not an adequate or sufficient

measure of the developing needs of the nation. In our opinion, this

argument, though somewhat valid, is relatively weak in light of the history

of work performed.

Table 1 represents a summary of individual calibration efforts performed by the standards division between January 1969 and June 1970. Note that

"Garage Work"* which was a significant part of the workload in early 1969

but which has been terminated as being inappropriate for our standards

division is not included in the figures. It is extremely difficult to

establish an "activity trend" on the basis of this history. Neglecting

for a moment November - December 1969 and February 1970, we see that on the

average two calibrations per month were performed by the standards division.

Investigating in greater detail the considerable increase in activity

during November - December 1969 and February 1970, we find that in

February, for example, the increase was due solely to the fact that a

single customer (Ministry of Defense) sent a variety of his instruments

(9) for calibration; similarly for November 1969.

Table 1

Summary of Standards Activities

January 19 6 9 - June 19 7 0

Individual Efforts

Month

Length (special)

Pressure

Volume

Mass

Optical

Temp

.

Mech.

Elect.

Total

n

1969

2 3 5

1

12 1 1111

"Garage Work"

1 111

1

1

2

10 11 12

3

3

1

1

1

23

1

2

1

1970

1 2 3 >4 5 6

1

3111

1 4

2 3

3 11 2 1 2

Total

1

2

8

9

8

17

53

This refers to tests on site of dynamometers and other equipment used in

garages in connection with the testing of automobiles.

86
In order to normalize the data for these "clean-up" periods by a single

large agency we have, in Table 2, displayed the number of different customers

per month rather than the individual efforts. We see that in this representation the averaging number of different customers per month has remained

at a relatively static average of two per month, with no significant

variation from this average.

Table 2

Summary of Standards Activities

January 1969 - June 19 7 0

Customers Served

1969 1970

Different

Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 Custoi

Length (special) 1 1

Pressure 2 2 Volume 1 1 1 1

Mass 1 1 2

Optical 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 6

Temp. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6

Mech. 1 1 1 2 4

Elect. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 8

Total 2 2 3 2 3 1 2 2 0 1 2 3 3 2 2 1 2 16

(Diff. Cust.)

Let us now try to rank the workload by technical areas. We obtain the

following rating in decreasing order of activity for the foremost active

areas

.

Table 3

Summary of Standards Activities January 1969-June 1970

Technical Area Individual Efforts Customers

Electrical 17 8

Temperature 9 6

Optical 8 6

Mechanical 8 4

An evaluation of the nature of the work performed in these areas can be

summarized as follows:

1. The bulk of the electrical work was done for the Ministry of Defense,

Israel Aircraft Industries (IAD and the calibration laboratory of

the Technion (Hebrew Institute of Technology).

2. Nearly all of the temperature measurements were done for the

universities; about half for Bar-Ilan University alone.

3. Optical work was distributed and over a relatively wide front.

4. Mechanical work was primarily for the Ministry of Defense and IAI.

5. The only conclusion which can be drawn relative to mass, volume,

and pressure measurements is a general lack of activity. For

87

452-533 O - 72 - 7
example, the only volume work performed was for the Hebrew

University. The only mass measurements were for the Ministry of

Defense and Israel Aircraft Industries.

In summary, a total number of 5 3 individual calibrations were performed

for a total of 16 different customers over a period of one and one-half

years. Fully half of this total workload was performed for two customers,

the Ministry of Defense and IAI.

In order to gain further insight into the need for a national basic

standards laboratory, several "high precision" industrial organization and

calibration laboratories were visited. When these "non-users" of the NPLI

Standards Division were pressed for their reasons of non-use the response

was uniformly a lack of need for external calibration services. Furthermore, these "non-users" cannot be accused of a lack of appreciation of the

need for standards. The Ormat turbine, for example, represents one of the

highest precision products produced in Israel. Yet Ormat has never felt

the need to use the calibration services of the NPLI. Similarly Rehovoth

Instruments also produces high precision components and in addition has

a significant electronics capability, yet has never felt the need for NPLI

calibration services.

A significantly different situation exists at IAI. IAI has established

its own calibration laboratory and this laboratory regularly sends its

equipment to the NPLI for calibration. This is precisely the desired

relationship between a national standards laboratory and an industrial

organization. However, even this ideal situation must be examined.

Equipment facilities and funds available to IAI, exceed those available

to a government laboratory. For example their frequency standards are far

superior to the NPLI standards and their electrical and mechanical calibration equipment is far more costly than the equipment at the NPLI. Yet

they are significant users of the NPLI Standards Division , accounting for

20% of the total number of "individual efforts." Investigation of this

point brought to light a specific requirement placed upon IAI by one of

their foreign customers—that equipment calibrations be traceable to a

recognized national standards laboratory such as the NBS, NPL, or the NPLI.

They are satisfying this contractual requirement for certification in

several ways. Precision general purpose electronic test equipment, for

example, can generally be returned to the manufacturer who possesses "house

standards" traceable to a national laboratory. Although this procedure may

take three to six months the calibration cycle of laboratory equipment

can be adjusted to fit this schedule. In the worst case, two sets of

equipment may be required by the IAI standards laboratory; the cost of

electronic calibration equipment does not make this prohibitive. (More

about this point later.) In certain instances and specifically for special

purpose equipment, it is more convenient for the IAI to obtain certification

of the NPLI and in those cases it attempts to use the services of the NPLI.

However, it is becoming increasingly easier for IAI to solve its certification problem by using its overseas offices to handle these activities.

Thus, it can be expected that the NPLI will be used more and more for

special purpose calibrations which the IAI standards laboratory cannot

handle and which cannot be sent overseas due to the non-standard nature of

the work.

What impact does this background have on plans for the future development of the NPLI Standards Division? In particular, let us first consider

the need for a classical standards laboratory in today's technology. A

national classical standards laboratory is (or was?) indeed mandatory, when

the maintenance of these standards within industrial organizations was

impractical. Thus, if a given standard was extremely difficult or very

costly to maintain, then the industrial organizations could only afford

to keep easier or cheaper secondary standards which would be periodically

88
checked by a national facility. However, if both the difficulty of maintaining high precision industrial standards is significantly decreased and so

also is the cost, then serious industrial organizations will have the

capability of easily acquiring, within their own facilities, standards which

previously had been restricted to a "national" level. It might be argued

that this procedure is wasteful or inefficient, but, if the success of

a given industrial organization depends upon high precision and suitable

instrumentation can conveniently be acquired, then the prudent industrialists

will establish an "in-house" capability rather than be dependent upon an

external agency. Thus, in modern technology, the accuracy requirements

placed upon a national laboratory are increased. Perhaps of even greater

significance is the impact on the workload placed upon the national laboratory under these conditions. An industrial organization maintaining its

own high precision standards will eventually desire to have its standards

calibrated. However, since its high precision standard is used so

infrequently, a long period will pass before this high precision standard

is even suspect. Consequently, although the national laboratory can have

a useful role, to fulfill, its workload can be unacceptably low. Furthermore,

coupled with this lowered workload is a requirement for a more competent

staff capable of handling the increased level of precision placed upon the

national laboratory. Thus, relative to the past, today we require a more

highly skilled specialist staff to handle the decreasing workload emanating

from serious precision industrial organizations. If the number of these

"precision" organizations is relatively small, as it is in Israel, then

the rational maintenance of a national facility becomes difficult. It

becomes far more economical to send the precision "in-house" standards back

to the manufacturer for calibration. On a purely economic basis in some

cases it may even be desirable to purchase regularly new "certified"

standards and relegate the high precision standards to daily use. Thus, we

must realize that, although a classical national standards laboratory can

play a useful role, its classical high precision workload will be extremely

limited until the industrial base has increased significantly. Under these

conditions the maintenance of a competent staff is nearly impossible.

In realization of this situation with respect to classical high precision work, what type of work should be performed by a national standards

laboratory under Israeli conditions? We see a shift in emphasis to two

distinctly different, and even opposing directions. First, increased

emphasis on "emerging" precision industrial organizations. These "emerging"

organizations realize that their equipment should be calibrated even though

they do not demand extremely high precision. They have not reached the

stage of justifying "in-house" standards and cannot conveniently deal with

overseas calibration services due to time, budget, and equipment limitations. (For example, they do not have "spares" of laboratory test equipment.) Strictly speaking, in the hierarchy of the standards world, their

requirements should be met at some level below the national level though

perhaps, under Israeli conditions it is a perfectly legitimate function of

the national facility. Note that off-the-shelf high-quality test equipment

is available to perform this lower level of calibration, and special facilities or airconditioning requirements are not necessary. Nearly all of the

work can be performed by skilled technicians under the supervision of one

or two professionally trained people. Thus, the national standards laboratory fulfills the same function to many small organizations as does the

Israel Aircraft Industries Standards Laboratory to the different laboratories

of IAI.

A second class of work exists which is diametrically opposed to the

above. Occasionally, as occurred recently at the NPLI, new techniques for

calibration and adjustment of precision equipment will be desired. In

certain processes it may be desired to make precision measurements during

the course of the process; for example, the dimensions of thin and thick films

in electronic component development. Another example could be techniques

for measurement of laser power output in operational systems. A fundamental

89
problem exists in attempting to maintain a standards group specializing in

non-standard work. By its very nature the workload is "unplannable" and

yet requires an extremely competent staff of individuals who specialize

in relatively narrow fields. Thus again we are faced with a workloadmanpower problem. Furthermore, individuals possessing the skills required

to execute properly the work will not tolerate long periods of idleness.

One possibility we are considering is that a national standards

laboratory should devote effort to the development of high-precision portable

and possibly single-use fixed points for calibration and checking of inhouse standards. In the same way as a relatively low cost standard cell

(or better, two or three such cells) can be used to check that a high

precision digital voltmeter (high input impedance type) has not wandered

far from its original calibration. Other fixed points —for example, oneshot melting point standards, or pressure generators, could be developed

that would be substantially free from experimental error when used in-house.

If an adequate definition of several such projects could be established,

then a group could evolve which could bridge the gap between the awareness

of the real somewhat lower precision needs of the bulk of Israeli industry,

and the capability of solving the many difficult non-standard precision

problems which arise

.

Another approach for attracting and keeping good scientists that is

being studied is to give them the opportunity to do research, recognizing

that the subject may be far removed from standards work. Herein lies a

difference between large and small countries. In the NBS there is a large

amount of pure research going on, yet most, if not all of it, is in some

way related to standards. There are new needs, developments in industry,

new technologies that require new data, new standard materials, etc.

In a small country there is likely to be much less scope so that, while

research subjects can be found for young scientists, they may have almost

nothing to do with standards. In other words, a high precision standards

activity becomes possible when one is prepared to "write-off" a part of

the staff's time to activities that are not directly connected with standards.

In conclusion, we can only state that at this stage the role of a

national standards laboratory in Israel has not yet been clarified. What

is clear is that history has shown that a developing nation cannot merely

emulate the nature of the major standards laboratories of the world. However, our analysis has led us to a difficult position. A national standards

laboratory which is responsive to industrial development needs in a

developing nation will operate primarily at a relatively low level in the

standard hierarchy. As such it will begin to approach a "testing institution" in character and not resemble closely a classical national standards

laboratory. Paradoxically, this may be a result of the technological

advances which have brought a high precision capability into the factory

itself. This entire issue is currently being examined in depth in Israel.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

90
SESSION 3 - MAKING SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT MEANINGFUL

Paper 3.4 - Instrument Problems in a Developing Economy*

L. Cintra do Prado

Sao Paulo, Brazil

1. Applied Metrology

It is needless to elaborate at this opportunity on the well-known role

of measuring instrumentation as an indispensable tool to foster and to

sustain development, especially industrialization. From a strictly

economic point of view, industrialized countries have to apply a metrology

a very refined and careful one—in order to keep up with technological

progress, to hold the impetus acquired by national industry, and particularly

for testing and monitoring the quality of their products. In a developing

economy, particular efforts on applied metrology are required to back any

raise in existing industrialization, and this raise means all possible

increase in quantity, quality, and variety of the items manufactured.

Nowhere can measuring instruments be absent, otherwise a highly

developed economy would deteriorate its standing, and a less developed area

would remain bound to its industrial limitations. Metrology, however, should

obviously not be the same in the latter case as in the former, for the

simple reason that instrumentation has to push beyond, and at the same time

to fit the existing stage of advancement in the country or area concerned.

Neither too much, nor too little metrology; measurements should be kept

consistent with quality and price of the products involved.

Without any intent to draw sharp boundaries, rather bearing in mind

recognized zones of overlapping, one could identify four fields for the

application of metrology, namely: commerce, industry, technology, and

science. The sophistication and the cost of measuring instrumentation

grow from commercial to scientific uses of metrology, with intermediate steps

at the industrial and technological levels.

Even in backward economies a minimum of metrological equipment for

trade must be available to engender confidence between sellers and buyers,

and to ensure correct transactions. On the other hand, research in the

science of measurements is a summit task that will be effective only in well

developed economies or in internationally supported institutions. Midway

between these extremes, any non-industrialized area, starting with purely

commercial metrology, will need more and more elaborate metrological

resources, as its economic activities gradually expand into industry,

technology (i.e., development of autonomous industry), and science.

Diversity in metrology denotes progress in development. When reaching

advanced stages of development, an industrialized economy will possess an

integrated metrology, covering the four fields: commerce, industry, technology, and science.

* Paper prepared for the NBS-AID Seminar on the Role of a National

Capability in Metrology and Standardization in Industrializing Economies - Airlie House, Warrenton, Va. , U.S.A., 1-5 February 1971. Not presented

because of author's illness.

91
2. Developing Economies

Developing regions of the world very often offer the contrast of some

areas with living standards which approach those of fully developed nations,

and other areas that are actually underdeveloped. Within this range,

various stages of development exist, and high rates of progress may be

detected here and there.

Wherever industry is young, having the shape of artisanship rather than

a structure for mass production, measuring instruments have to be imported

and are mostly intended for commerce. The chief monitoring activity

exercised on such instruments is periodic inspection and calibration, which

are performed either with physical devices or with standard reference materials, according to the category of each instrument. At this initial stage,

only secondary standards for basic units are necessary; they would come

from abroad and would be calibrated at some national laboratory in the

supplying country. Most standard reference materials should be procured

from external sources as well.

At a second stage, with the growth of industry (even when based on

imported know-how and burdened by royalties), some instruments will begin

to be produced in the area, to serve commerce and the growing industry

itself. Some kinds of these instruments will soon call for control by

public authorities, entailing the concepts of approved prototypes, initial

examinations, and periodic inspections. Little by little, national industry

tends to replace foreign industry, and will gradually produce a series of

measuring instruments and standards. For a long time, however, the more

refined and accurate instruments, as well as a number of special standards,

will depend on foreign supply.

3. Study of Problems

Let us now consider a selection of the problems likely to be encountered

in the procurement, calibration, and maintenance of measuring instruments in

a developing economy. Instrument problems of the kind which will now be

referred to might occur in economies whose degree of industrialization is

similar to that of some areas in Brazil right now or in recent decades.

In this country, several of the study cases among those to be described here

are already on the way to being resolved. Nevertheless, any experience

present or past, and extrapolations suggested by factual data, will certainly

serve the purpose of this Seminar, which is to explore possible links to

be strengthened between industrializing economies and great national or

international capabilities in metrology and standardization.

4 . On Procurement

Public organizations do not always possess enough financial resources

to purchase all measuring instruments required for their intended functions.

This is a problem that becomes significant when duplication of functions

occurs —and this has happened. The high cost of instruments will unjustifiably drain resources when these instruments are for identical purposes

purchased by two public organizations operative in the same field.

It is private industry which really needs measuring instruments , and

it has in fact enough budgetary resources. Paradoxically, industries do

not always purchase instrumentation; why? One possible reason is that

nobody endowed with technical authority has ventured to demonstrate the

advantages of instrumentation; alternatively, industry people do not really

believe that adequate instruments will help them to get better efficiency

in production operations, and to obtain final products of improved quality

at lower cost. Fortunately, in developing economies a number of industries

have gone beyond this threshold.

92
Some industries seldom utilize existing instruments of their own, for

lack of efficient maintenance, lack of trained personnel, or lack of standards. In other cases, available instrumentation remains unused because the

devices have been improperly selected for the intended purpose, or are of

poor quality. Both situations can result from inadequate guidance in making

the purchase. In one case which actually happened, obsolete components

electronic tubes of discontinued series —were being supplied as though they

were very special components!

5. On Calibration

Obvious difficulties arise from temporary lack of standard reference

materials, or from the non-existence of basic standards. The first situation is particularly unfavorable for chemical industry and for any other

industry that needs chemical or physico-chemical tests for the monitoring

of processes or from sample testing in mass production. Such industries

consume standard reference materials regularly; but for developing countries,

sources of supply are generally external. The availability of working standards for measurement units depends on specialized institutes which

produce and certify such standards ; industry is lost when these do not

exist in the country.

One serious problem to be faced is the shortage of personnel trained

in techniques of instrumental measurements. Another source of trouble

is the great diversity in specifications and test methods introduced by

foreign firms —a diversity very often not really significant for the

objectives in view.

6. On Maintenance

Scarcity of spare parts might be complicated by diversity among manufacturers and their national origins; such diversity in some areas is

enormous. In this connection, a curious aspect deserves comment: a variety

of instruments entails a small market for each manufacturing company; hence,

it is not rewarding for the manufacturer to invest in a large stock of

spare parts; lack of spare parts leads buyers to lose interest in the

products of that particular manufacturer. When he gradually loses the

market, then new manufacturers begin to produce a similar item, and the

final result is an even greater diversity.

Bureaucracy in departments that have charge of controlling external

trade, can hinder the importation of spare parts besides the ordinary

difficulties in licenses, duties, currency restrictions, credits, etc. As

a consequence, time and ex

r fort is wasted while instruments remain inactive

for long periods. Most developing countries lie on tropical zones or have

sub-tropical climates. Nevertheless, a number of manufacturers do not

"tropicalize" instruments for exportation, perhaps being unaware of the

destination for the equipment. However, a hot and humid environment

increases the probability of failures.

Maintenance and repair require not only skilled personnel, specially

trained for the job, but also blueprints, diagrams, sheets of recommendations,

instruction manuals, and other aids. Absence of these basic elements

makes it difficult to give prompt service. In some administrations, the

laboratory has a reasonable budget for the purchase of instruments, but no

adequate appropriation for maintenance. This leads to the absurd result that

it becomes easier to buy a new instrument than to mend the old one which

may need only a simple inexpensive repair.

7. Suggested Improvements

(a) Well equipped centers of instrumentation, at least one for each

geographical area of operation, would help to attain the following

93
goals

- to train operators and maintenance personnel;

- to give advice regarding acquisition of instruments;

- to supply secondary standards (each center would have primary

calibrated standards);

- to carry on measurements involving great responsibility;

- to operate a pilot laboratory to find solutions for special

problems in applied metrology; and

- to provide an emergency maintenance service in the area.

(b) Every metrological laboratory should set up a medium-term plan

for the purchase of instrumentation, with consideration of

diversity, avoidance of duplication, and appropriate quality.

(c) Governments should adopt an open policy relating to the import

of essential spare parts by the owner of measuring instruments.

(d) Manufacturers should exercise strict control of quality on

instruments destined for foreign trade with a view to minimizing

difficulties in maintenance.

(e) Extensive standardization is desirable for components commonly

used in measuring equipment, in order to permit wide-ranging

interchangeability of parts.

8. Desirable International Cooperation

(a) Any metrological coordinating service, either in advanced or in

industrializing areas, must keep informed on the activities of

the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), on

the recommendations by the International Committee of Weights and

Measures, and on the resolutions of the General Conferences of

Weights and Measures.

(b) International cooperation in metrology and standardization should

be shaped, wherever applicable, in accordance with the guidelines

approved by the UNIDO Symposium on Industrial Development (Athens,

1967).

(c) Great national institutions, experienced in metrology and standardization, should render advice and assistance to industrializing

economies, under contracts or agreements which might envisage

for instance: up-to-date information, revision of programs,

selection of new instrumentation, advice on management problems,

supplying of physical standards (both devices and materials),

local expertise, specializing fellowships, and other means.

The author would like to thank Messrs. Moacir Reis, Director General,

National Institute of Weights and Measures, Rio de Janeiro, A. A. Arantes

and R. Borges da Silva, both from the Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnologicas

,

Sao Paulo, for helpful suggestions on topics to be included in this paper.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

94
SESSION 3 - MAKING SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT MEANINGFUL

Paper 3.5 - Needs for Standard Reference Materials for

Calibration and Quality Control

J. Paul Cali

Chief, Office of Standard Reference Materials

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 20234

I . Introduction

The development and success of any highly industrialized society is

based to a large extent on the mass production of goods and services. But,

mass production without the strictest quality control of the means of

production leads to inordinate waste of both material, labor, and ultimately

to a state of extreme inefficiency of the economic system of that society.

In turn, quality control implies an ever-increasing compatibility in the

measurement process, the interchangability of parts, and stringent

performance criteria and the control of composition for the wide variety

of materials, including the starting raw materials, now required and used

to produce these goods.

The key to efficient and useful quality control is meaningful measurement. Measurement involves the assignment of a value or values on a number

scale to some defined property or characteristic of a body or material, and

the technique by which this assignment of values is accomplished is the

measuring process. The numerical result that emerges from the measurement

process should be expressed in units according to an accepted system such

as the units that form the basis of the Systeme International (SI). Thus,

to a specified property of a given material, a measuring process assigns

a value expressed in an accepted system of units. Measurements, to be

meaningful, must fulfill two conditions:

(1) Repeated application of the measuring process gives essentially the

same value, whether done in the same or in different laboratories.

This property of a measuring process is called precision.

(2) The value obtained by the measuring process should be essentially

the same as the value obtained by any other acceptable process

that aims to measure the same property under consideration.

Furthermore, this must be true of all the material under test

(lots, sub-lots, sub-samples, etc.) that belong to the class

covered by the measuring process. This second condition is called

accuracy.

One of the principal ways in which the National Bureau of Standards

assists science, technology, and industry in the achievement of meaningful

measurement—and thereby quality control—is through the production,

certification, and issuance of Standard Reference Materials (SRM's).

NBS defines a Standard Reference Material as: a well-characterized material,

produced in quantity, that calibrates a measurement system. Because SRM's

are materials, they are easily transported to the site of the user, where

the user himself may then perform the on-site calibration of his instrument

or measuring process. In cases where SRM's are available, it is no longer

necessary for the user to ship his instrument to a central standardizing

laboratory for calibration. Through this process, time and money are saved

and the possibility of damage to the instrument during shipping, or loss

of calibration due to rough handling and the like is minimized. This onsite calibration by which the values obtained in a measurement process in

95
Number of Types of Standard Reference Materials Available

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970

YEAR

Figure 1

96
widely separated industrial plants or laboratories, or between the producer

and consumer of goods or materials, may be referred to a common, widely

accepted base is certainly one of the major advantages in using SRM's.

Furthermore, because the properties of NBS-SRM's are measured and certified

by a central national laboratory of high technical competence and impartiality, these SRM's are widely accepted, both within the United States and

internationally, as primary standards with which the intercalibration and

measuring process may be undertaken with confidence.

As the SRM program has developed to fill the above needs, four primary

uses of SRM's have become apparent. These uses are:

(1) To provide better quality control of industrial and technological

production processes;

(2) To provide a smoother, controversy-free exchange of materials and

goods, both nationally and internationally;

(3) To provide a clear definition and basis of performance characteristics; and,

(4) To provide more meaningful and comprehensive measurement competence.

In the context of this Seminar, it will be useful to discuss these

uses as they apply to the problems of nations whose economies are in a

state of growing industrialization and this will be done in Section III,

below.

In the way of a bit of history concerning the NBS-SRM program, the first

SRM's were issued in 1905, shortly after NBS itself was established by an

Act of Congress. These were four cast-iron "standard samples" as they were

then called (the term Standard Reference Material being a relatively new

descriptive phrase) used in industrial laboratories to control the quality

of cast iron produced within the United States. It is interesting to note

that the need and use of one of these original cast-iron SRM's is still

current, and NBS has had to renew the original lot of material, long since

depleted of course, twelve times in the intervening 65 years. From that

modest beginning, the program has now grown (see Figure 1) until in 1970

more than 700 different SRM's are available. In the past year 33,000 units

valued at 1.2 million dollars were sold to over 13,000 companies, universities, and individual users. Of this volume, almost 30% was sent to countries

outside the U. S. In this country several major industries depend extensively on NBS-SRM's for the quality control of their production and processes

valued in the many tens of billions of dollars. A sampling of these are

shown in Figure 2

.

In the remainder of this paper will be discussed:

(1) How NBS-SRM's are produced, measured, and certified;

(2) The present and future SRM inventory and how these SRM's can be

used to meet the needs of industrializing countries; and,

(3) International cooperative efforts, past and present, and possibilities for the future.

97
SOME MAJOR U.S. INDUSTRIES USING NBS SRM's (1970)

1 Mfl 1 Ifk4|itl inaustry

SRM

Types

Available

Units

Sold

Iron and Steel 179 12246 Ibk 1 V

Rubber 19 2233

Ores I \J \r a Ceramics \S 1 \A fill W 24 1105

Non-ferrous • \^ II 1 I %tm %r metals III W % VH B 98 2511

Clinical laboratories 5 548

Nuclear (power) 21 1050

Paper i \a hj \s (tear \ v v4 i and v* i i vi fading) vi vi ill >^ / 5 385

Cements 6 920

Mptal In-nraanirc ( trancnnrtation^ IVICldMU UlgdlllLo \i\ dliopui IdllUlI/ 26 1864

Primary Chemicals (chemical industry; science) 12 2534

Figure 2

II. The Production and Certification of NBS-SRM's

The SRM program at NBS is conducted on a non-profit, yet self-supporting,

cost-recoverable basis with the full cooperation of the industrial and

scientific communities. In fiscal year 1971, the direct costs associated

with the program are 1.84 million dollars, although indirect costs associated

with supporting research and the cooperative efforts of U. S. industry are

at least twice that amount.

Before describing the steps followed in the production of an SRM, it

is beneficial to describe some of the general requirements that must be

met if an SRM is to be useful in fulfilling the needs listed in the

Introduction. Some of these are:

(1) The SRM must possess a high degree of homogeneity, so that all

portions of the material are essentially alike in all of the

pertinent properties measured and certified;

(2) Consistent with its intended use, the properties of interest must

have been determined with the necessary degree of precision and,

usually, accuracy; and,

(3) The certificate issued with the SRM must give not only the best

values for the properties certified, but also the limits of

uncertainty for those values.

98
In many instances, the desired high accuracy, in the sense of the above

definition, is impossible to achieve. This may occur for an SRM when,

for reasons beyond elucidation at the time of issuance, different methods

of measurement fail to give like values for some property. In this event,

the certificate must clearly state by what method its certified value has

been determined. The certified value then is not absolute, and refers only

to that specified measuring process. As long as the user is aware of this

situation, the practical usefulness of the SRM for the standardization of

a test method is generally not impaired.

The six major steps involved in the production of SRM's are:

(1) Planning and Setting of Specifications -

In this planning stage the following questions are raised and

answered: what properties are to be measured and certified; what

limit of accuracy is required for the intended use; is material

of the requisite purity, form, and composition readily available;

what measurement methods are to be used to test and assure the

homogeneity of the material and also to measure the properties

to be certified?

(2) Material Specification and Procurement -

NBS, in general, does not make or process the materials from

which SRM's are produced. U. S. industry cooperates fully in

supplying special lots of high-purity or materials specially

prepared to NBS specifications.

(3) Homogeneity Testing -

Typical lots of material range from several to 7000 kilograms or

more. To assure that the entire lot is homogeneous throughout,

especially with respect to the property or properties to be

certified, extensive testing is performed. This testing, in

general, relies heavily on such techniques as: optical emission

and x-ray fluorescence spectrometry, and spark-source mass

spectrometry. Other methods, e.g., the measurement of the

residual resistivity ratio, are used where such physical properties

can be used to assure homogeneity.

(4) Measurement of Properties -

It is in this area that the great skill and diversity of technical

competences within NBS is used to full advantage. Physical

properties measured and certified for SRM's range from micrometersized particle distributions, through density, viscosity, dielectric properties, and Mossbauer effect, to extremely complex

property measurement, e.g., thermal emittance or specular spectral

reflectance. Certification for chemical composition ranges from

simple steels where only the carbon content is measured, through

primary chemicals where accuracy of the order of a few parts in a

hundred thousand is required, to complex clinical chemicals, such

as bilirubin or cholesterol, to a very high-purity zinc where more

than 20 elements are measured, some at the parts per billion (10 9

) level. Fourteen technical divisions involving more than 200

distinct scientific competences, and over 300 skilled scientists

all contribute to this work. Figure 3 lists a sampling of these

specialities.

99
RESOURCES AVAILABLE FOR MEASUREMENT AND

CERTIFICATION OF STANDARD REFERENCE MATERIALS

TECHNICAL DIVISION

METROLOGY

MECHANICS

HEAT

CRYOGENICS

ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY

POLYMERS

METALLURGY

INORGANIC MATERIALS

PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY

PRODUCT EVALUATION

BUILDING RESEARCH

NUCLEAR RADIATION

INFORMATION PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY

APPLIED MATHEMATICS

EXAMPLES OF

TECHNICAL COMPETENCES

Thermal expansion; Phase transitions;

Colorimetry; Photogrammetry

Pressure measurements; Humidity;

Vacuum techniques

Thermodynamic properties measurements;

Calorimetry-heat of combustion, fusion,

solution, etc.

Residual resistivity ratio; Lowtemperature measurements

Trace element analysis; Electrochemistry;

Microchemistry; Gravimetry; Spectrophotometry

Molecular weight determiniation;

Dielectric properties; Viscosity

Electrolysis; Metal deposition; X-Ray

diffraction; Quantitative metallography

Crystallography; Solid-state physics

NMR; Thermochemistry; Mass Spectrometry;

Radiation chemistry

Physical properties of rubbers (viscosity,

stress strain)

Fire research; Materials durability and

analysis

Radioisotopes; Nuclear properties

Magnetic Tape Characterization

Statistics; Experimental design

Figure 3

(5) Certification -

In the definition of an SRM, the phrase "well-characterized" was

used. An SRM is well-characterized (for those properties that

are measured and certified) if the results of the measurement

process are obtained by one or more of the routes shown in Figure

4. The first route is the technique preferred over the others,

for, by definition, a referee or reference method is one of known

accuracy, and if the SRM is thus characterized it will then be

an SRM of known accuracy. The statistical evaluation is straightforward.

100
HOW THE ACCURACY OF AN SRM IS ESTABLISHED

Use reference method run independently by 2 or more analysts. (NBS)

-orUse 2 or more reliable and independent methods. (NBS) No reference method

available.

-orUse inter- laboratory comparison systems. Allow several independent methods.

(NBS plus cooperating laboratories)

Figure 4

The second route is used when referee or reference methods are

not available. This is often the case where new state-of-the-art

(e.g., very high purity metals) SRM's are to be certified. Note

the word "reliable" in reference to the analytical method. A

reliable method is one of high precision, but the systematic

biases of which have not been fully established. Inaccuracies

of such methods are usually estimated by the investigator, and

must be small relative to the accuracy requirement or goal set

for the SRM being characterized. Statistical evaluation here is

difficult, and, at times, a certain subjective weighing of the

inaccuracy statement must be allowed. In such instances at NBS,

a very conservative approach is followed.

The third route is used when many methods of analysis are available

and each cooperating laboratory, for pragmatic reasons that need

not be discussed here, wants to use its own method of choice.

Strictly speaking, no statistical evaluation of accuracy can be

done, as the inaccuracy of any given method is not usually stated

and each result is from a somewhat different measurement universe.

This route has validity because of the overwhelming weight of evidence based on a thorough knowledge of the competence of the

participating scientists and laboratories. Obviously, highly

accurate SRM's cannot be and are not certified by this route, but

a large number of industrial SRM's, where accuracy considerations

are not highly rigorous, are thus characterized.

Based then on the above measurement and statistical evaluation,

a Certificate or Certificate of Analysis is issued by NBS that

becomes an integral part of the SRM issued.

(6) Distribution -

Through the NBS Office of Standard Reference Materials (OSRM)

all SRM's produced and certified by NBS are distributed throughout

the U. S. and to other countries of the world. The OSRM maintains

the SRM inventory and issues a catalog and price list (ref. 1)

that describes each of the 718 SRM's presently available. The

OSRM technical staff is always available to answer inquiries

101
concerning the availability and use of SRM's and, in addition,

gathers data and information concerning the need for renewal and

new SRM's.

III. The Availability of SRM's to Meet Needs in Industrializing

Economies

While it is true that many of the SRM's were produced and issued by

NBS to meet the needs of the highly technological economy of the United

States, it is also a fact that many of them will have immediate utility in

some regard to meet the needs of countries whose economies are now in

varying degrees of technical sophistication. In the introductory section

four principal uses of SRM's were pointed out. In any economy where the

mass production of goods is underway or being planned, the quality control

of the means of production and the goods produced must always be a prime

consideration. As is evident from the previous discussion, SRM's provide

one mechanism for achieving this goal.

The trade of materials and goods between nations is the very essence

of economic growth and well-being. SRM's provide the mechanism whereby both

buyer and seller can be assured that specifications —be they of raw materials

such as ores, cements, minerals, and the like, or intermediate processed

materials, e.g., pig or cast iron, raw rubber or chemicals, or finished or

high-technology materials, e.g., glass, high-alloy metals, measuring

instruments, etc. —can be measured with a sufficient degree of accuracy,

and thereby with assurance, so that equity on both sides prevails. Furthermore, customs duties and various tariffs on raw materials are usually

assessed on the content of one or more of the chemical constituents of the

material being traded, and it certainly is in the interest of both exporter

and importer to know the true value of the composition with as much

assurance as possible. SRM's are invaluable in this regard.

Performance characteristics, especially of sophisticated instruments

and measuring devices, should be based on SRM's whenever available. The

accuracy of clinical measuring systems can now be checked using NBSclinical SRM's in procedures to test both the accuracy and precision of

the system to see if the manufacturer's claims are warranted and valid. Othe

SRM's to check basic metrology instruments, e.g., spectrophotometers,

balances, calorimeters, and a wide variety of instruments now essential to

developing technological economies, are also available.

Finally, SRM's introduced and used in a consistent manner in any

measuring process tend to increase, over a period of time, the accuracy and

precision of the measurements themselves, and perhaps more importantly, they

increase the competences of the scientist and raise his self-assurance

through the knowledge that he has available to him a source of material

through which errors are immediately exposed, thereby allowing immediate

remedial action on his part. This action-reaction time must be short if

inefficiency and waste are to be eliminated in the measurement process upon

which a large part of all industrial technology depends.

In the table that follows , the presently available NBS-SRM inventory

has been categorized under several major headings, all of which are

important in one way or another to nations whose economies are now moving

toward increased industrialization.

102
Table 1. NBS-SRM's Available to Meet Needs in

Industrializing Economies

Category

Raw Materials

ores

cements

minerals

refractories

sugars

Basic Industries

(compositional SRM's)

ferrous metals

non-ferrous metals

glass

rubber

transportation

chemical

nuclear

C. Metrology SRM's

mechanics

heat

optical and color

D. Health Related

clinical

botanical

E. Pollution Control

air

F. Direct Instrument

Calibration

NBS-SRM's

Available

10

6

6

5

6

191

101

14

19

25

60

75

82

20

76

7

4

16

33

Examples

iron, tin, zinc, uranium ores

Portland cements

limestone, feldspar, clays

chrome, silica

sucrose, dextrose

basic cast iron and steels to

high-temperature alloys

copper, zinc, lead alloys

lead-barium, opal, trace

elements

natural, butyl-, styrenebutadiene rubbers , rubber

compounding materials

metallo-organics for preventive maintenance procedure

plastics (polymers) , inorganic,

organics, pH, isotopes

uranium fuels, radioisotopes

metal coating thickness,

density, viscosity, particle

size

calorimetry, vapor pressure,

differential thermal analysis

phosphors , charts for color

matching, paint pigments

urea, cholesterol, bilirubin

orchard leaves, alfalfa

hydrocarbons, sulfur dioxide,

sulfur in oil

Mossbauer spectrometer, electron microprobe, spectrophotometer, resolving power of

cameras

All of the above SRM's are fully described in latest Catalog of

Standard Reference Materials (ref. 1).

103

452-533 O - 72 - 8
IV. Future Needs for SRM's

In the past five to six years, the NBS-SRM program has expanded sixfold in an attempt to anticipate future needs for SRM's, particularly in

fields related to areas of national concern, with special emphasis on

health and environmental needs. These are, of course, world-wide issues,

and indeed, industrializing societies have the opportunity to benefit from

the mistakes of present highly industrialized societies, especially with

regard to maintaining the integrity of the environment and its ecological

balance

.

NBS is now fully committed to a program to provide SRM' s to increase

the accuracy of results obtained in our nation's clinical laboratories.

SRM's are now available to control clinical measuring procedures for

cholesterol, urea, uric acid, creatinine, glucose, calcium, and bilirubin.

Soon to be available are SRM's for sodium, potassium, lithium, Cortisol,

and VMA; more will follow these. Glass and solution SRM's to calibrate

accurately spectrophotometers now widely used in the clinical laboratory

are well underway. NBS is also working actively with the pertinent professional societies to develop clinical referee methods, procedures of known

and proven accuracy, against which other clinical procedures for that

specific analysis may be tested to assess their systematic bias (or errors)

,

and thereby allow corrections or modifications to be made. Better health

care for all peoples should result, and industrializing nations are urged

to participate, to as great an extent as feasible, in this program.

Although NBS does not have the direct responsibility within the framework of U. S. agencies for restoring the quality of this nation's environment,

because of NBS expertise and long history in solving problems related to

the measurement process, NBS is heavily involved in providing SRM's

among other activities —so that the measurement of air and water quality

may be accurately accomplished. SRM's to calibrate instruments and procedures for the determination of hydrocarbons, sulfur dioxide, sulfur in fuel

oils, and carbon monoxide are now available. Now under investigation are

SRM's for sulfur in coal, nitrogen oxides, polycyclic aromatic compounds,

and trace elements, e.g., mercury, lead, and chromium, in both air and

water.

Other areas of interest include oceanography, bio-medicine and botany,

and agriculture. In view of the importance of agriculture to emergent

technological societies, it should be pointed out that within a year or

so, NBS will make available a series of botanical SRM's of orchard leaves,

citrus leaves, alfalfa, tomato leaves, pine needles, and aspen chips. These

are to be certified for the major elements, e.g., nitrogen, phosphorous,

potassium, and many minor elements, now known to be important for good

crop yields and healthy plants.

V. International SRM Cooperative Efforts

Traditionally, cooperative efforts between those nations having

substantial SRM programs have been carried out very informally, usually on

a scientist to scientist basis. In 1969, the first International SRM

Symposium was held in Gaithersburg , co-sponsored by NBS and the International

Committee of Weights and Measures (CIPM) . A synopsis of the results of

this conference is available (ref. 2). No full version of the proceedings

was published. The principal recommendation of the conference was to ask

the CIPM to establish under an international umbrella a mechanism to:

(1) gather information concerning the availability of SRM's;

(2) disseminate this information to all nations making inquiry;

(3) establish the needs and priorities for new SRM's; and

104
(4) investigate the feasibility and, if possible, establish an

international mechanism for the cooperative production and

certification of needed SRM's.

Unfortunately, the CIPM has unofficially reached the conclusion that

such an extensive program is not now feasible without additional financial

support from the member nations, and, further, that such support is not

forthcoming at this time. However, the CIPM has encouraged member nations,

through their national laboratories primarily, to embark on multilateral

cooperative efforts, especially with regards to SRM's of basic metrological

importance (e.g., a well characterized platinum for the realization of the

candela)

.

In the meantime, realizing that the above-mentioned effort spoke not at

all to the problem of SRM's for direct industrial use, NBS has embarked on

a small program of bilateral efforts with two countries and one international

organization to see if an effective cooperative program might yet be established. Since these efforts are still in the negotiating stages, further

details cannot be given at this time.

Another mechanism whereby international efforts are possible is through

the Special Foreign Currency Program (the so-called PL-480 Program) . NBS

has several specific projects underway in India, Israel, and Pakistan.

Others are planned for Yugoslavia, and, possibly, Poland. Among the

current projects are:

(1) The preparation and production of ferro-alloys;

(2) The analysis of NBS-SRM's containing trace elements;

(3) The use of nuclear analytical methods for characterizing NBS-SRM's;

and

(4) The preparative separation of optical isomers.

NBS through its Office of Standard Reference Materials is willing to

explore with the other nations of the world, and especially with those

in attendance at this Seminar , how we may cooperate and work together to

bring into existence additional SRM's useful to all.

References

[1] Nat. Bur. Stand. (U.S.), Spec. Publ. 260, (July 1970) and Supplement

to NBS Spec. Publ. 260 (January 1971).

[2] Astin, A. V. , Report on the Symposium on an International Standard

Reference Materials Program, Metrologia, 6_, No. 1, 33 (1970).

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

105
I

II

[I
SESSION 3 - MAKING SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT MEANINGFUL

Discussion

Co-chairmen: Phi Minh Tarn and Lawrence M. Kushner

Question to Mr. Cali :

Were they soil samples that you showed us?

Mr. Cali :

No, they are actually ground-up leaves, chips from bark, or pine

needles. We set aside an orchard that was grown under controlled conditions

and the leaves were carefully hand picked off the trees and then dried

and ground up. More and more agriculturists are moving into the automated

analytical systems such as I discussed. In order to calibrate accurately

the instrument and the method as a total system, it is important to have

typical material in order that the method be validated. What we certify

is the chemical composition. The orchard leaf has 2.76% nitrogen ± 0.02,

calcium 2.09 ± 0.03, potassium 1.U7 ± 0.03 and is certified for 5 other

minor and trace constituents. We know that trace elements are extremely

important in disease resistance. Zinc is needed for healthy pears, for

example.

Dr. Probine :

I support in general terms the remarks made by Dr. Tabor. It is well

known that as the accuracy of measurement is pushed higher, so too are

the difficulty and cost of making the measurement. I recall that in 19 5 3

a committee which was reevaluating the functions and responsibilities of

NBS concluded that it is not sufficient to have fairly good standards

measurements, fairly good methods of testing materials, mechanisms or

structures , or reasonably good determinations of important physical

constants. The standards, the measurements, the test procedures must be the

very best, the most accurate, the most reliable that can possibly be

achieved at any given time, limited only by the state-of-the-art at that

time. It is thus more than a play on words to say that the standards by

which NBS is judged must be the very highest there are. Now, I am sure that

while we all agree that this would be a worthy goal and one which we would

like to see the NBS attain, I think we must also recognize that in less

developed countries there is a limit to the resources which can be allocated

to this or any other field of science. No matter how laudable it might be

to strive for perfection, it may be necessary in the interest of common

sense and best utilization of resources to stop short of what can conceivably be achieved. This is certainly the policy we adopted in New Zealand,

with a population of only 2.8 million people and a government science budget

of 28 million dollars. We must adopt the policy of allocating priorities

to research expenditure. Therefore, we attempt to insure that our standards

are adequate to meet the needs of science and technology in the country at

any given time, but we do not attempt to push our measurement capability

to the limit of the state-of-the-art at that time. We leave this to bigger

and more highly industrialized countries, and we conserve our resources

for activities in other fields which are of special relevance to our

country's needs. Precision measurement is therefore regarded as a means

to an end, and not an end in itself. I am not indicating that there should

not be a national standardizing laboratory. Our own laboratory does

thousands of measurements a year for industry and for science. All I am

saying is that in our situation, there is no need to press on to the

ultimate. You tailor what you do to the needs of the country, but there

107
still is a very definite need for such a measurement facility in a smaller

country

.

Mr. Felleke :

I would like to commend Mr. Hayes for his emphasis on measurement

controls. You see, the situation with less developed countries is that

industrialization is a new feature in the development effort. Industry

might be functioning on a modern basis, or it might be working with

obsolete equipment, yet it is the demands of industries that dictate the

nature of the laboratories which should be maintained and serviced by the

government. My question would be whether the establishment of a metrology

capability in the laboratory should be examined in the light of an existing

industrial development plan, or should consider the needs of the future.

Mr. Hayes :

I reflect Dr. Tabor's comments here. I was trying to focus attention

on the fact that I feel that you should extend your measurement capabilities

only to the extent of your need. For one particular economy it may be

only a tape measure for the next five years. However, I think the needs

should also reflect the planning for future industrialization. This does

not mean you are going to have to have your own national metrology

laboratory capable of performing the standardizing functions for everything. I do believe there should be some centralized organization capable

of providing metrology engineering services ; perhaps they do not even have

to calibrate anything, but they should tell others how to measure or how to

test. They are logistic support centers which receive standard reference

materials from another country, and then there is a distribution point

which can pass these along to industry, together with a selection of

measurement information and documentation telling measurements people

where to obtain more. This is the concept on which I believe Navy metrology

is centered. We do not actually calibrate and we do not actually perform

standardization in my particular organization. We evaluate methods and

equipment, and then our job is to transmit information, to set up logistic

schemes so that others can use them for the needs of their particular

systems. These schemes vary all the way from automotive systems used in

the motor pools of the Navy to the most sophisticated self-landing aircraft

that may be under development. Now I believe that it is possible for a

reasonably low cost, to have people for this purpose. Dr. Tabor, I would

like to ask you, is there a strong feeling of national pride in your own

national standardizing laboratory?

Dr. Tabor :

No, the problem that we have is not related to national pride, but I

now have to face the psychological problems of the people involved. In

fact, one of my best section chiefs has written a paper saying that he

should go on doing what he has been doing, because he cannot get out of

this way of thinking. I think the question of how to use instruments is

important. We had a classical case of the industry that uses the best

gage blocks in the country. We tested them once, and we found they had

forgotten that if you have a scratch in a gage block, it has a burr on it.

Then when you put the blocks together you simply transfer the inaccuracy

through the whole assembly. Therefore, our function was to teach the

people how to use the blocks , and that was more important than actually

checking the length of the block. It was cheaper really to throw the blocks

out after two years and buy another set. I would like to teach people how

to use instruments, or even help them to buy the right instruments.

Mr. Woodington :

I have been hearing "quality control" being used in several presentations

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here. For the quality control process, are we really interested in

absolute accurate measurement, or merely in deviation from a norm? In

other words, perhaps measurements should be designed to detect a change,

even though it may start from some particular value which is not even known.

I would like to hear comments on that.

Mr. Hayes ;

In the design or the product evaluation stage, one could use existing

measuring instruments to ascertain the characteristics of the product in

relation to what was wanted. For that, relative measurements may be

adequate; that is, without referring your measuring instruments to a common

national reference. However, if there is to be some relation between the

product as it comes off the line and the product that was developed in the

laboratory, the measurements made six months earlier must themselves be

related to basic references. If, however, the final product works and

you measure it and use that as your reference, then I would say your final

product is the basic reference to which you are going to compare succeeding

products. Then you have a valid gage standard to which to refer.

Mr. Woodington :

Well, I submit that the standard reference material program is based

on the fact that the user is able to detect a change. The standard

reference material could be in error; who cares as long as everybody uses

the same standard reference material? You would still have a quality control

system because you started from a given point, and from then on you were

detecting a change from that point. Sensitivity in the measuring system

is more important to you than accuracy.

Mr. Cali ;

There are some standard reference materials which are as absolutely

accurate as we can make them. Among standards for metrology, I think

of benzoic acid, whose calorimetric value is known absolutely, and provides

then the accurate transfer of that measurement from one laboratory to

another. On the other hand, rubber being such a messy material, it is

impossible to put the rubber standard on an absolute basis, and therefore,

all the measurements made in the rubber industry are relative. We have

intermediate cases also so that SRM's really span the entire spectrum.

Mr. Woodington :

What I am really leading up to is the suggestion that the less

developed countries examine their situation to see whether they are really

interested in accuracy to control their quality, or whether all they really

want to know is whether they can build the same thing over and over again.

If they merely need to detect deviation from whatever they started with,

they might find that the cost of doing this is considerably less.

Mr. Cali :

Eventually, though, I think we have to say that accuracy is absolutely

essential. For example, the automatic analyzers now used in clinical

chemistry are very precise machines, and the methods are very precise. The

only trouble is that practically no analytical system being used in clinical

chemistry today has ever been studied for its systematic biases. That

is not a great practical problem at this stage because the normal range of

values in the human population is rather wide. As medicine begins to become

more scientific, especially in preventive medicine where you are interested

in very small changes in many interacting constituents within the human

chemical factory, it is going to be important to know absolute numbers.

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Dr. Rowen:

Standard reference materials for clinical medical laboratories in the

USA which use automated analyzers, and the laboratories themselves, are

now coming under federal license due to the Clinical Laboratory Improvement

Act of 196 7. These laboratories may be called upon to perform analyses for

over a hundred different substances. I believe you mentioned that seven

materials are now available. What are the determining factors that

influence the future availability of other materials? And would you comment

on how you chose the first seven?

Mr. Cali :

Let me answer your last question first. At the NBS we try not to set

priorities for an industry. We ask the industry to set their priorities

and then we use those as our guideline. In this instance the standards

committees of the American Association for Clinical Chemists and the College

of American Pathologists set the priority in which certain standard

reference materials were needed.

To answer the other part of your question, we are hoping within the

next two years to be in a position to control the 21 most important clinical

tests. Then we will pick off some of the harder ones. Serum albumin is

going to involve competences that are not now available at the NBS, and

there is some question whether the health agency which is helping to

support this program will fund us to go into that area. So there will be

many things that we just will not be able to do.

Dr. Rohatgi :

Dr. Condon remarked that at the recent UNIDO Conference the universities were not considered as instruments of change. Let me talk about the

institutions which produce technical people for industrialization. They

are different from agricultural types. In this country and in Western

Europe, these institutes have had considerable time in which to evolve

according to the needs. What has happened in less developed countries?

All of a sudden a country decides to set up an institute which is like

Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, or MIT without looking at the needs. This

is why there is a mismatch between the needs of the country and what the

university is doing.

Another unfortunate feature is that the lack of coupling between

universities and a country's economy increases with underdevelopment.

I am told that 50 years ago hardly any industry in the USA would hire an

industrial consultant from a university. It is only as industry has progressed that it has hired academic consultants. At the Indian Institute

of Technology we found that it was only the most advanced Indian industries

that called on us for help.

When we aim to set up one of the finest educational institutions in

the world, this policy puts much pressure on the faculty. They have no

time to look at the local problems. Professors at IIT, Kanpur, have a

dilemma: Should they stay at the Institute in the summer and write a

paper for the international journals, or should they go out and solve

important local problems?

Mr. Russek :

I will speak from an industry standpoint on the matter which Mr.

Woodington brought up as to whether you should emphasize accuracy or

deviation from a norm. Deviation from the norm is a statistical tool used

in error analysis and quality control applications. This is analogous to

the precision that Mr. Cali talked about. You have to have accuracy to

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establish what the norm was before deviation from the norm has meaning.

Dr. Astin :

I would like to come back to the question raised initially by Dr.

Tabor. I think it is a very fundamental one and I do not believe it has

been adequately resolved. What should be the capabilities of the less

developed nations for maintaining and providing calibration services with

respect to the basic standards? I think it is completely unnecessary, even

ridiculous, for all of the nations of the world to try to acquire such

capabilities. I would guess that the number of nations that have a

capability for reproducing the basic standards of the international system

of units to nearly the highest attainable accuracy is certainly fewer than

ten, probably no more than half a dozen, but I think this is sufficient

for the world's needs. Fortunately, we have an international organization,

the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), set up under the

terms of the Treaty of the Meter of 1875, which can provide very high

accuracy calibration services for nations that require them. As long as

the service is available, either through the framework of BIPM or through

bilateral arrangements with some of the countries that have the capability,

it is in my judgment just a waste of manpower and effort to try to set

up these extremely precise and accurate calibration capabilities with

respect to the basic standards. I would very much like to see BIPM

provide services to the less developed nations with respect to fundamental

calibrations, which they all need to some degree of accuracy. I would

think that BIPM might become more effective in providing such services if

less developed nations sent requests there rather than trying to establish

their own capability.

Mr. Peiser ;

Paul Cali has shown that he is selling SRM's to the world. Are you

satisfying the world's quantitative demand? Are you collaborating to the

extent that you want to collaborate with outside laboratories , both in the

U.S. and abroad, in trying to find an agreed evaluation of your characterizations? I have the impression that if some of the best university

laboratories did collaborate with you, this would help these universities

to reach a standard of excellence in certain techniques of analytical and

physical property measurements. It would show them how this is related

to industrial control and might bring the professor out of his ivory tower.

Even in underdeveloped countries these standard reference materials are

doing a useful job, and this aspect of the work of NBS is known well in

all countries of the world that I have ever visited.

Mr. Cali :

We have people complaining about the cost of SRM's. I tried to show

that the certification of complex SRM's is a very expensive process. We

are now trying to convince the Congress that this program should be

subsidized. It is in the public interest to do so, especially as we move

into matters of health and pollution and the like.

Your second question relative to collaboration, I think is much more

interesting. I wish I could have explored it in depth as I went through

the talk. In the world of science today, more and more black boxes are

being invented—very complicated, very difficult to calibrate in terms of

absolute accuracy. In our compositional standards we turn invariably to

the old tried and true methods of as much as fifty years ago. Now in many

of the universities in developing countries, quantitative chemistry is still

being taught the way I learned quantitative chemistry, with a beaker, a

pipet , and a buret. In the many years that these old methods have been

used, systematic errors have been investigated and worked out to a very

large degree, so that if you want to certify the composition of that piece

111

I
of paper I would recommend that you use the old methods. Now, at NBS we

are running out of this type of competence. It is not glamorous any more;

our young scientists like to turn to very complicated ways of making an

analysis. The less developed countries would certainly be welcome in

investigating with me and NBS the possibility of collaborative efforts

on SRM's that are needed in the less developed countries, more than in the

USA. I would welcome that collaboration.

Dr. Rowen :

Dr. Tabor has indicated a new approach to the problem of standardization for newly developing countries. Does he see some possible

cooperative program between them and the larger laboratories like NBS or

the NPL at Teddington, England?

Dr. Tabor :

I am sorry I cannot answer the question. I would say that there are

some areas, such as black boxes, where I think that our needs are no

different from anybody else's. If you can make a spot check to assure that

the black box is doing what it did when you bought it, this is a very

valuable thing. It is what the SRM's do for the composition of materials.

I do not know if you have standard viscosity materials, but to try to

calibrate a viscometer by any other means than by using a standard material

is murder, and yet a standard material is a very rapid method of doing it.

I could imagine that there are other areas where you could develop spot

checks, for example, in the measurement of pressure. Today you have to use

something like a piston gauge. Not everybody has an accurate one. Besides,

they wear out and there is a big argument as to the real dimension of the

piston. Now if you can just give a man a little device which is used only

once, he can put it on the machine to generate a standard pressure and then

he throws it away. If he used it a second time he might be in trouble.

I believe these spot checks should be developed for a range of instruments

and it would not make any difference whether it were done in a small

laboratory or a large laboratory. They would be equally useful in large

countries as in small countries.

Dr. Kushner :

I would like to tell Dr. Tabor that I endorse his plea for sanity and

realism in defining the metrological requirements of the less developed

countries. There is no point in paying for more than one really needs.

I am also delighted with your story concerning the demonstrated inadequacy

of the traditional methods of providing calibration services, and I am

certainly pleased with your endorsement of the concept of calibration and

measurement control through SRM's and similar devices. But now, as a

physical chemist who has become a metrologist, to a physicist who has become

a metrologist, I will put a question: Do you happen to have any independent

evidence that the laboratories that were not using the services offered by

your laboratory could in fact make the measurements as well as they thought

they were doing?

Dr. Tabor :

Probably the best answer, as to so many questions is, yes and no. I

think there are some measurements which these industrial laboratories could

make quite well because they had good equipment and their people may have

been trained in the use of such equipment abroad. Looking at it objectively

it does not make any difference whether their spiritual guidance came from

us or whether it came from Washington or Teddington. In that sense, I am

really not worried. One of the things that is mentioned in my paper is

the question of accuracy at much lower levels. In an underdeveloped economy

you have people who are just starting up small factories and workshops and

112
they are just beginning to reach the stage where they ought to know something about measurement. They might not even have a micrometer but they

have go/no-go gauges, and somebody has to guide them in the use and the

checking of these gauges. Now, in a highly developed country this would

not be the responsibility of the national laboratories; it would be the

responsibility of somebody in between. However, it may be that in a

developing country the national laboratory has no alternative but to

reach much lower down the chain of standardization measurements and help

these people out. I think this is one of the things that we have to do

in our country.

Mr. Hayes :

It is hard to find very much "how to" documentation in the USA on

calibrating gauges, for example. The most important point of measurement

is at the lowest level, and we have not properly communicated to whoever

is making the measurements there; it is usually a technician. I think

that is where all the careful work of the NBS and the other standardizing

laboratories of the nation go down the drain.

Dr. Probine :

Concerning the way in which measurements are transmitted from the

national standardizing laboratory to industry, it is my personal opinion

that this has been done most successfully in Australia, through an organization called the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA).

This is an organization that runs a voluntary registration scheme for

testing laboratories. Briefly the idea behind the services which NATA provides is that firms or institutions who are capable and willing to undertake

calibration work are first examined by assessors chosen for their knowledge

of the field, to see whether the firm has appropriate equipment, whether

it is installed in suitable premises, and whether the operators are

experienced in measurement and in reporting the results of the measurement.

If these and other conditions are fulfilled, then the laboratory will be

registered as a NATA-approved laboratory in the measurement field in

which it has the necessary skills. It has the right to use a standard

mark on its test reports, which guarantees to the industrial user of the

service that calibrations have been carried out by a laboratory which has

been judged to be competent in this particular field.

I think the system has a number of very significant advantages.

First of all, the standards on which the firm relies for its calibrations

are checked regularly in such a way that the calibrations can be traced

back to the national standard. I think Australian industry benefits from

the improvement which has taken place in laboratory practice , and from

the better testing which has led to better quality control and high quality

products. NATA-endorsed documents have become a reliable basis for

purchasers acceptance of suppliers' test results. This avoids unnecessary

duplication of test work and speeds acceptance of goods supplied under

contract. It also conserves scientific and technical manpower. NATA

assessment and reassessment provides management with an independent measure

of laboratory performance.

NATA provides a necessary and important link between those who have

the responsibility for the custody, maintenance, and development of national

standards, and those who need to make accurate and reproducible measurements in industry. There are about 750 registered laboratories in Australia

550 of which are industrial laboratories. In a country the size of Australi

the existence of 5 50 industrial laboratories of known competence is a

tremendous resource of measurement skill.

In New Zealand we are hoping to set up a similar organization to be

called the National Association of Registered Laboratories and we hope to

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follow the same standards of assessment and reassessment as NATA. It has

been agreed with NATA that, providing we do it in this way, the two

organizations will grant each other reciprocal recognition. This will mean

that so far as Australia and New Zealand are concerned, for tests carried

out in the registered laboratories within the two countries, we will know

exactly what this means in terms of measurement capabilities. Many

discussions have gone on and we have had Mr. Monahan, the Registrar of NATA,

across to New Zealand. The scheme has tremendous industrial support in New

Zealand and we are hoping to put through an empowering act in the next

session of our Parliament. I thought I would mention this because it seemed

to be relevant to the remark which Dr. Branscomb made this morning, that

it was not only necessary to have good instruments, good secondary standards,

but it was also necessary to insure that they were well and competently

used.

Mr. Lovejoy :

As a former metrologist in Canada, which some people have called the

richest less developed country in the world, I must comment that there is

a certain lack of industrial research going on there for very good and

well known reasons. It is probably true that the government sponsored

institute, the National Research Council, is motivated by the idea of

having somewhere in Canada, active research in progress. We also have

UNDP programs in Canada supporting various kinds of scientific technical

institutions —textile research institutes, metrology centers, standards

testing centers, high voltage testing centers, and so on. Perhaps we need

to find out the correct way of getting one's foot in the door in a developing country to provide a core of useful technical competence. Maybe it

is better to have something, even if it is somewhat irrelevant, than nothing

at all.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

114
SESSION 1+ - THE DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION

Paper 4.1 - Overview - The Role of Federal Information Activities

Melvin S. Day

Deputy Assistant Administrator

for Technology Utilization

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Washington, D. C. 20546

1. Introduction

The role of federal information activities covers a broad area and is

somewhat difficult to define because information has meaning only in the

context of its utility and the audience for whom it is intended. Briefly

put, the role of the federal information activities is to support the

mission and program responsibilities of the agencies themselves. Although

the information products and services they produce are tailored to the

mission needs of the agencies, these same information resources are also

made available to the general scientific and technological communities.

With the expenditures of U.S. Government research and development programs

in excess of $15 billion a year, there is a large volume of information and

data being produced and being made available. The U.S. Government desires

to share this valuable resource which is in reality the final product

of its research and development efforts. This morning I hope to clarify

the availability of this resource. In the course of our discussions we

shall:

(i) touch briefly upon the role of the two main branches of the

Government —legislative and executive —in the dissemination of

information

;

(ii) examine briefly how one obtains information about sources of

information

;

(iii) present an idea of the various media used by the federal agencies

for the processing, announcement, and dissemination of information

(iv) identify the principal sales outlets; and

(v) examine the dissemination of two special classes of data.

2. Role of the Legislative and Executive Branches

Let us begin our discussions by reviewing the roles of the two large

branches of the Federal Government here in the United States —the legislative and the executive branches.

A. Legislative Branch

The Legislative Branch originates enactments covering the information

area. Among the first such legislation was that contained in the Act of

Congress of May 15, 1862, establishing the Department of Agriculture. The

Department was directed by law "to acquire and diffuse useful information

on agricultural subjects in the most general and comprehensive sense."

Perhaps a unique information activity concerning information related to

science stems from the National Science Foundation Act of 1950. Two other

examples of specific provisions for federal agency responsibility for

release of information are contained in the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as

amended, and the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, as amended.

115
Both of these provide specific responsibilities for the dissemination of

information.

I have cited these examples to illustrate the interest and concern of

our Congress in the dissemination of the results of the U.S. Government

research and development programs. I should point out again, however, that

as a matter of both policy and practice, all U.S. Government agencies make

available to the public this type of information--even though there may

not be a statutory requirement in the agencies' enabling legislation.

B. Executive Branch

Within the Executive Branch of the Government, decision on national

policies that govern the release and dissemination of information ultimately

rests with the President. He is assisted and advised by members of his

staff, which include the various directors of the Executive Office of

the President, by the members of the Cabinet, heads of agencies, and by

such committees, commissions, task forces, and working groups as may be

needed either on a continuing or an ad hoc basis. An area of interest to

this Seminar, namely, scientific and technical information, will be

illustrative of the policy area activities.

Responsibility for advising and assisting the President on matters of

national policy in the area of scientific and technical information rests

with the Director of the Office of Science and Technology who is also the

President's Science Advisor. This Office was created in 1962 by President

Kennedy and is part of the Executive Office of the President. Under the

Director of the Office of Science and Technology are several instruments

for formulating and recommending policy. Among these are the Federal

Council for Science and Technology more commonly referred to as the Federal

Council, and its Committee on Scientific and Technical Information which

is known as COSATI.

The membership of the Federal Council is made up principally of heads

of the federal agencies. The role of the Federal Council is to determine

the state or "health" of specific areas of science and technology—primarily

through specific studies--and to recommend programs or courses of action

in those areas where redirected, additional or new effort is required.

After agreement is reached by the Council, recommendations are made on

which agency, or agencies, shall undertake the efforts and which shall

provide or share the funding support of the work effort.

Under the Federal Council, COSATI is given responsibility within its

charter for:

(i) development among the federal agencies of a coordinated scientific

and technical information system with the objective of improved

federal and national systems for handling scientific and technical

information

;

(ii) review of the adequacy and scope of present scientific and technical information programs of the federal agencies ; and

(iii) recommending management policies to improve the quality and vigor

of the information activities of the agencies.

My purpose for mentioning the Federal Council and COSATI is merely to

show that at the level of the Office of the President there is deep and

genuine concern with the information dissemination activities of the Federal

Government. With this background now let us briefly examine how one obtains

information about the information resources.

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3. Information about Sources of Information

If a person had no knowledge about federal information programs and

wished to find out the sources of information in the United States, the

first place he could go would be to the National Referral Center for

Science and Technology of the Library of Congress. The Center was establish

in 1962, with the support of the National Science Foundation, and given the

responsibility for identifying all significant information resources in the

fields of science and technology; acquiring data describing the specialized

capabilities of these resources; and providing guidance about their use.

It could be described as the "information desk" of the scientific

and technical community. It does not provide technical details in answer

to inquiries nor does it furnish bibliographic assistance. It functions

rather as an intermediary, directing those who have questions concerning

scientific and technical subjects to organizations or individuals who have

specialized knowledge in these fields and are willing to share this

knowledge with others.

In answer to requests for guidance and assistance, the Center provides

names, addresses, telephone numbers, and brief descriptions of appropriate

information resources. "Information resources" has been defined broadly

so as to include professional societies, university research bureaus and

institutes, federal and state agencies, industrial laboratories, museum

specimen collections, testing stations, and individual experts as well as

more traditional sources of information such as document centers , and

abstracting and indexing services.

Referral services are available without charge. No special forms are

required. Requests may be made by calling on the telephone (area code

202, 967-8265), by writing to the National Referral Center for Science and

Technology, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C. 20540, or by visiting

the Center on the fifth floor of the Library of Congress Annex, Second

Street and Independence Avenue, S.E., Washington, D. C.

An example of the products of the National Referral Center is "A

Directory of Information Resources in the United States" which is available

from the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office

(GPO), Washington, D. C. 20402, as LC 1. 31:D62-1967 . In this Directory are

represented all appropriate federal information resources, as well as

information resources sponsored in whole or part by the Federal Government.

It describes the areas of interest of the information resource, its holdings

types of information resources, addresses and phone numbers.

A second example of information about information sources is the

"Directory of Federally Supported Information Analysis Centers" prepared

under the auspices of COSATI. Incidentally, the COSATI panel that prepared

this directory is chaired by Dr. Edward Brady of NBS , who is here with us.

It is available from the National Technical Information Service, Springfield

Va. 22151 as PB 189300; so are many other such directories.

An information analysis center is a special type of information center.

It is a formally structured organizational unit specifically established

for the purpose of acquiring, selecting, storing, retrieving, evaluating,

analyzing, and synthesizing a body of information or data in a clearly

defined specialized field. Here the emphasis is on analyzing, evaluating,

synthesizing, and repackaging of information for the purpose of enabling

users to better assimilate the information. The Directory contains information on the

(a) name of the Center,

(b) its address and telephone number,

117
(c) names of the Director and staff,

(d) sponsor,

(e) year started,

(f) mission and scope description,

(g) services, and

(h) types of qualified users.

Examples of the type of nation-wide information analysis centers

covered by this Directory are:

(a) Thermophysical Properties Research Center

(b) Mechanical Properties Data Center

(c) Non-destructive Testing Information Analysis Center

(d) National Oceanographic Data Center.

To repeat, these Directories:

(i) A Directory of Information Resources in the United States;

(ii) Directory of Federally Supported Information Analysis Centers

are excellent reference tools and in terms of a first approach to USA

Federal information resources they are a "must."

Each federal agency is responsible for acquiring and providing information required for (a) carrying out its mission and responsibilities and

(b) documenting the results of its work. By examining the name of the

agency, the kinds of information which can be obtained from the agency

usually become apparent. For example, the Department of Commerce would

be the most likely place to go to obtain technical information required for

industrial activities, such as data on fireproof materials, building

materials, thermodynamic properties and microwave spectral data. The

National Aeronautics and Space Administration is responsible for information on aeronautics and astronautics; the Atomic Energy Commission is

responsible for information on nuclear energy and the submolecular structure

of matter; and the Office of Education would have knowledge of information

concerning the field of education.

Since we are talking about sources of information at this point, it

is well to remember that the agency itself may not provide a direct answer

to the request, but may refer the inquirer to the sales outlet where the

specific documents or data may be obtained; I will discuss these outlets

a little later.

4. Media for Processing, Announcement, and

Dissemination of Information

The federal agencies provide information in just about every media

that can be imagined. These include a full spectrum in the form of reports,

books, microforms (such as microfiche), aperture cards and film cartridges,

motion pictures, still pictures, charts and maps. Many agencies also

provide exhibits of work being performed by their subdivisions for use at

conventions, meetings, trade fairs, and many other types of public

gatherings

.

118
Informational media for the processing, announcement, and dissemination

of information which are available from the federal agencies include

abstract journals and publication lists. Let us describe some examples of

several types of these media:

A. Abstract Journals

U.S. Government Research and Development Reports , USGRDR , includes

federal publications and data files currently released by U.S. Government

departments and agencies for public sale through the National Technical

Information Service (NTIS). These publications and files, U.S. Governmentsponsored translations, and some foreign reports are all announced in

USGRDR . They are cited by 22 subject fields, each divided into subject

groups. The prices at which NTIS sells paper copy, microfiche, magnetic

tape, punched cards, microfilm, or facsimile, together with ordering

procedures, are described in the introduction to each issue. The semimonthly issues of USGRDR are sold by NTIS (Springfield, Virginia 22151) at

the annual subscription price of $30.00 ($37.50 foreign); single copies

$3.00. The corresponding, but separately issued, semi-monthly index

issues ( USGRDR-I ) , which comprise corporate author, subject, personal

author, contract number and accession/report number indexes, are sold on

subscription by NTIS at $22.00 a year ($27.50 foreign), with quarterly

and annual cumulations issued in several separately-priced volumes.

Nuclear Science Abstracts , NSA is a semi-monthly abstract journal

covering the international nuclear science literature. Approximately

53,000 items were abstracted in NSA during 1970. Subject, personal author,

corporate source, and report number indexes are included with each issue.

Annual and quarterly cumulative indexes are also published. NSA is available

from the Superintendent of Documents, GPO , as SD No. Y3.AT7:16. The

annual subscription rate for the semi-monthly issues is $42.00 ($52.50

foreign); single copies are priced at $1.75 ($2.19 foreign); and the

annual subscription rate for the annual cumulative indexes is $38.00

($47.50 foreign). NSA is also available on an exchange basis with universities, research institutes , industrial firms, and publishers of scientific

information, both domestic and foreign.

Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports, STAR (NASA) , is a comprehensive abstracting and indexing journal covering current worldwide report

literature on the science and technology of space and aeronautics. Publications abstracted in STAR include scientific and technical reports issued

by NASA and its contractors, other U.S. Government agencies, and by

corporations, universities, and research organizations throughout the

world. Pertinent theses, NASA-owned patents and patent applications,

translations and other separate documents are also abstracted. The citations

and abstracts in STAR are grouped in 34 subject categories for ease of

scanning. Six indexes are included in each issue: subject, personal

author, corporate source, contract number, report /accession number, and

accession/report number. Cumulative index volumes are published semiannually and annually. STAR , which is issued on the 8th and 2 3rd of each

month, is available to the public postpaid on subscription and in single

copy, as are the semi-annual and annual cumulative index volumes, from the

Superintendent of Documents, GPO, as SD No. NASI. 9/4. The annual subscription rate for the semi-monthly issues is $54.00 ($68.25 foreign); single

copies are priced at $2.25 (25% extra for foreign mailing); and the annual

subscription rate for the cumulative index issues is $30.00 ($35.00 foreign).

The price for single copies of the cumulative index issues will vary

according to the number of pages. STAR is also available on an exchange

basis with universities, research institutes , industrial firms, and

publishers of scientific information, both domestic and foreign.

Selected Water Resources Abstracts is a semi-monthly journal which

includes abstracts of current and earlier pertinent monographs, journal

119

452-533 O - 72 - 9
articles, reports and other publication formats. The contents of these

documents cover the water-related aspects of the life, physical, and social

sciences as well as related engineering and legal aspects of the characteristics, conservation, control, use, or management of water. Each abstract

includes a full bibliographical citation and a set of descriptors or

identifiers. Selected Water Resources Abstracts is published for the

Water Resources Information Center by NTIS. The annual subscription is

$22.00 ($27.00 foreign); the single copy price is $3.00.

Computer Program Abstracts , CPA (NASA) announces documented computer

programs that have been developed by or for NASA, the Department of Defense,

or the Atomic Energy Commission and have been released for public sale

through COSMIC (Computer Software Management and Information Center). The

announced programs are not limited to aerospace and nuclear engineering

but cover many topics in aeronautics, biosciences, chemistry, electronics,

geosciences, instrumentation, physics, structural mechanics, and thermodynamics. CPA is fully indexed by subject, originating source, and equipment requirements, and announces separately the prices for (i) the programs

(on 7-track tape at 556 bits per inch, card in image-card format unless

specified otherwise by the purchaser) and (ii) the documentation. CPA

is issued quarterly and is available on subscription from the Superintendent

of Documents, GPO , as SD No. NASI. 44, for $1.0 0 annually (25$ additional

for foreign mailing); 25C per single copy.

B. Publication Lists

In addition to abstract journals some government agencies issue

publication lists which I feel may be of interest to you. Let us look

at four quite different examples.

1. Monthly Catalog of Government Publications . This document is a

listing of government publications which are both printed and processed

by the Government Printing Office. The catalog gives a preview of documents

to be issued as well as those currently on sale. In addition, it gives

information on how to order publications, corrections for previous monthly

catalogs and a list of government authors. The document is issued by the

Superintendent of Documents, GPO, as SD No. GP3.8; the per-copy price is

75$ and the annual subscription price is $7.00 ($8.75 foreign).

2. Index of Federal Specifications and Standards (General Services

Administration) . This index is an annual consolidated listing of specifications, standards and handbooks used for the purchase of items by the

Federal Government. The Index contains an alphabetical listing by item,

a group listing arranged alphabetically (by title), and a numerical index

by specification number. The Index also gives the price for each individual

specification or standard. Except for military specifications, those that

are listed are available from the General Services Administration, Business

Service Center, 7th and D Streets, S.W. , Washington, D. C. 20407. Individual

unclassified Military Specifications are available from the Commanding

Officer, U.S. Naval Publications and Forms Center, (NPFC 103), 5801 Tabor

Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa. 19120. The Index of Federal Specifications and

Standards , issued monthly, is available from the Superintendent of Documents,

GPO, as SD No. GS2. 8/2:971 at $9.00 ($11.25 foreign).

3. Index of U.S. Voluntary Engineering Standards (NBS). Computerproduced and arranged by Key-Words-In-Context , this index lists more than

19,000 voluntary engineering and related standards, specifications, test

methods, and recommended practices published by some 360 technical societies,

professional organizations and trade associations in the U.S.A. It is sold

by the Superintendent of Documents, GPO, as SD No. C13.10:329, at $9.00

($11.25 foreign).

4. Annotated Accession List of Data Compilations . This publication

120
lists the documents acquired by NBS Office of Standard Reference Data on

significant world-wide reference data compilations and their abstracts.

The documents are grouped into the following categories: general collections

nuclear properties (including fundamental particles properties), atomic

and molecular properties, solid state properties, chemical kinetics,

colloid and surface properties, mechanical properties, and thermodynamic

and transport properties. Sources of availability for the listed publications are also provided. This annotated list is for sale by the

Superintendent of Documents, GPO, as SD No. 2 044.

C. Thesauri

Your Chairman suggested that I might mention briefly a basic tool used

by information organizations which may be of interest to those of you

setting up your own information programs. To assure uniform indexing

practice and maintain bibliographic control of information flowing into

any system for processing, announcement, storage, and retrieval, a subject

authority list called a Thesaurus is required. U.S. Government agencies

which have developed formally structured Thesauri for this purpose include:

1. The Department of Agriculture has produced the Agricultural/

Biological Vocabulary , a listing of thesaurus-structured subject headings

to be used by the Department of Agriculture to index and catalog both

published materials and research in progress. It contains approximately

12,000 terms; volume I at $2.50 is the categorized list, volume II at

$3.50 is the alphabetical list, and a supplement of 1967 is sold by the

Superintendent of Documents at $1.50.

2. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has produced the

NASA Thesaurus ; NASA SP-7030. It is a structured listing of terms authorized for indexing aerospace scientific and technical information in

NASA. It contains approximately 16,000 terms, with an alphabetical listing

of subject terms, a hierarchical display, a category term listing, a

permuted index, and postable terms. It is available from the Superintendent

of Documents, GPO, as SD No. NASI. 21:7030 at $8.50 ($10.65 foreign).

3. The Library of Congress has developed the Subject Headings Used

in the Dictionary Catalogs of the Library (Seventh Edition, 1966)7 A

listing of subject headings established for use on the catalog cards

prepared and sold by the Library of Congress. A conventional cross referenc

ing scheme (See, sa, x, xx) is used. The list is available at $15.00

from the Card Division, Library of Congress, Building 159, Navy Yard Annex,

Washington, D. C. 20541.

4. The Department of Defense has prepared the Thesaurus of Engineering

and Scientific Terms~ The thesaurus was developed jointly by Project LEX

(Office of Naval Research) and the Engineers Joint Council, for use by the

Department of Defense as a basic reference in information storage and

retrieval in the fields of engineering and science. It contains approximate

ly 23,00 0 terms, permuted index, subject category index, and a hierarchical

index. It is available at $19.50 from the Engineers Joint Council, 345

E. 47th Street, New York, New York 10 017.

5. Points of Availability--Sales Outlets

The four main sales outlets for federal agency information are

(a) the National Technical Information Service,

(b) the National Audiovisual Center,

(c) the Science Information Exchange, and

121
(d) the Office of the Superintendent of Documents, GPO.

Let us take a closer look at each one in turn.

(a) National Technical Information Service (NTIS), Department of Commerce , the successor to the Clearinghouse for Federal Scientific and Technical

Information, was established in 1970 to coordinate the Department of

Commerce's business and technical information activities and to serve as

the primary focal point within the Federal Government for the collection,

announcement, and dissemination of technical reports and economic data.

Documents are announced in its USGRDR , the abstract journal, and indexed

in the USGRDR-I , mentioned earlier. In its current awareness program

NTIS provides a "Fast Announcement Service" (FAS), organized into 57

subject categories. Selected Government research and development reports

are highlighted as soon as they are received by NTIS. The holdings of

NTIS may be purchased either in hard copy form at $3, $6, or $9 depending

on size, or as microfiche at 95C per fiche. Fast processing is assured by

a coupon ordering system. Subscription rates for the current awareness

and announcement services are based on a sliding scale which is dependent

upon the number of categories desired by the customer.

Other products include indexed information on production practices

,

microfilms on patent specifications, a "Listing of Federal Stock Numbers"

that relate to manufacturer's parts numbers of the Federal Supply Catalog,

AEC-NASA Tech Briefs, Joint Publications Research Service (JPRS)

translations, and the "Reports of NRL Programs", a monthly publication

produced by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory summarizing its research

work.

(b) The National Audiovisual Center (NAVC) of the National Archives and

Records Service, General Services Administration, Washington D. C. 2040'9~

was authorized in 1968, and began operation in July 1969. Its objective

is to achieve the most efficient use of Federal audiovisual materials

and to furnish information on Government sources of audiovisual materials.

It sells copies of motion pictures, filmstrips, slide sets, audio tapes,

video tapes, and special audiovisual kits and packages which are produced

by various Federal agencies and provided to NAVC. A loan service is provided

to Federal agencies. The Center provides several directories describing

its products and services , including a catalog of the motion pictures and

filmstrips which are for sale by the Center. Three catalogs are available

at no charge: U.S. Government Films , a Directory of U.S. Government Audiovisual Personnel , and a List of U.S. Government Medical and Dental 8mm

Films . Prices for the films are nominal and range from about $85.00 for

a 44-minute reel of film to 15$ per foot for replacement color footage with

a minimum of 100 feet of film. The films cover fields ranging from agriculture and medicine through science and technology to manufacturing and

shop techniques.

(c) The Science Information Exchange (SIE), Smithsonian Institution at

1730 M St., N.W., Washington, D. C. 20036 was established in 1949 under

sponsorship of a group of Federal agencies. Since 19 5 3 it has operated

under the aegis of the Smithsonian Institution, with partial support

provided by the National Science Foundation as a service to the national

research community. The SIE receives, organizes, and disseminates

information about current and completed research work in the life, physical,

and social sciences. Over 1000 research organizations, including the

Federal agencies, private foundations, universities, state and city governments, industry and foreign sources cooperate and/or participate, and over

100,000 records of research projects planned or in progress are registered

annually.

The mission of SIE is to assist the planning and management of research

activities supported by Government and non-Government agencies and

122
institutions, by promoting the exchange of information that concerns subject

matter, level of effort, and other data pertaining to current research in

the pre-publication stage. Its purpose is to assist directors and administrators to avoid unwarranted duplication. In addition it informs

individual investigators about others currently working on problems in

their special fields. It has records of who is doing what and where, but

it does not have data on the results of the research.

There are eight products provided by the SIE. First of all, six types

of computerized searches (including subject, administrative content,

investigator searches by name, accession number retrieval, and historical

and standard computer tabulations of projects). In addition, by special

negotiation it will prepare subject-field catalogs and special compilations.

The fees for the searches are based on the computer time for the search of

the records and not on the number of records retrieved.

(d) Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington,

D. C. 20402 , was created by Congressional Joint Resolution 25 on June 23,

1860. In addition to providing for printing of Government documents it

also makes provision for the sale of those documents which it prints.

The Superintendent of Documents is a subdivision of the Government Printing

Office (GPO) , which provides the sales outlet. It will supply the pamphlet

Price List of Government Publications , upon request. In addition, individual

announcements are made of unusual publications that may be of special

interest. To be placed on mailing rosters to receive these announcements,

one needs only request it by writing to the Superintendent of Documents.

Sale prices are based on the cost of operating the publication service.

A discount of 2 5 percent is allowed to book dealers and quantity purchasers

of 100 or more copies of a single title.

6. Conclusion

Let us now look briefly at what we have covered:

(i) First of all, we attempted to show the interest of both the

Congress and the Office of the President in making available the

information resulting from Government efforts.

(ii) Secondly, we mentioned how one can obtain information on information resources.

(iii) Thirdly, we covered the media for the processing, announcement,

and dissemination of information. Here we discussed Government

abstract journals and publication lists. We touched only briefly

on thesauri.

(iv) Lastly we discussed the sales outlets: the National Technical

Information Service, the National Audiovisual Center, the Science

Information Exchange and the Superintendent of Documents.

Now, there are still two special classes of information I have been

asked to mention:

Evaluated Physical Constants-Standard Reference Data .

The dissemination of evaluated and standard data is a main responsibility of NBS in coordinating a complex of data centers known as the National

Standard Reference Data System (NSRDS). The objective of NSRDS is to

provide to the U.S.A. scientific and technical community optimum access to

the quantitative data of physical science, critically evaluated and compiled

for convenience. The NSRDS was established in 1963. In 1968 Congress

endorsed and strengthened the program by passing the National Standard

Reference Data Act. A monthly Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference

123
Data will contain material prepared under the NSRDS program; it is to be

published by the American Institute of Physics and the American Chemical

Society. This continues the Annotated Accession List of Data Compilations

described under B4

.

Domestic and Foreign Economic Data .

Almost every agency of the U.S.A. Federal Government is involved in

some manner or other with domestic and foreign economic data. To provide

you with a feel for the wide variety of available data, we note several

of their publications.

(i) The U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Business Economics,

publishes the Survey of Current Business , a monthly journal

with text and charts on business trends, gross national product,

personal and farm income, balance of international payments. It

is available from the Superintendent of Documents, GPO , as

SD 73 at $9.00 ($12.00 foreign), which includes a weekly supplement , Business Statistics .

(ii) The U.S. Federal Power Commission, Bureau of Power, publishes

Electric Power Statistics , a monthly journal devoted to all aspects

of the production and consumption of electrical energy generated

by both private and public electric utilities. Subscription

price is $3.00 a year, available from the Superintendent of

Documents, GPO, as SD 99.

(iii) The U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Bureau of Economics (Division

of Financial Statistics), publishes the Quarterly Financial

Report for Manufacturing Corporations under a joint program with

the Securities and Exchange Commission. It provides a balance

sheet for U.S. industry made up of uniform statistics from a

sample of corporate manufacturers. Subscription price is $2.00

a year, available from the Superintendent of Documents, GPO, as

SD 132.

(iv) The National Science Foundation, Office of Economic Studies,

issues Federal Funds for Research, Development and Other

Scientific Activities on an annual basis, as a result of surveying

the federal departments and agencies to determine the funds they

provided or intend to provide in support of scientific activities

in the preceding, current, and next fiscal years. The data

covers the character of the work undertaken—basic research,

applied research, or development; the program and fields of

science that received support; and the types of organizations

that performed the work. The report (available from the Superintendent of Documents, GPO, at $2.50, as SD 2605) shows the

trend of overall funding of federal research; the distribution

by states of federal research and development funds; and compares

the pattern with earlier years.

International Information Exchange Agreements

As might be expected almost every Federal agency has information

exchange agreements with counterpart agencies abroad. These would include

the Department of Commerce; the National Bureau of Standards; the Library

of Congress; the Department of Agriculture; the Atomic Energy Commission;

the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; the Department of Health,

Education, and Welfare; and the Department of Labor. There are a great

many such agreements and it would be impossible to discuss them in any

detail in the time at my disposal. All of them are based on the exchange

of specific media and types of information.

124
I hope that I have given you sufficient useful leads to the wealth

of data and information that is available to you. Although I did mention

prices for many of the products and services , most are available on an

exchange basis. We encourage and solicit exchanges. It is the U.S.

Government's policy to share its information and its compilations of data.

The resulting dialogs and relationships benefit all.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

125

SESSION 4 - THE DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION

Paper 4.2 - Government Responsibility for Information for Industry

Alfredo Fontes

Organization of American States

Washington, D. C. 200 06

Before attempting to define the responsibility of government to provide

information for industry, it seems appropriate to establish the framework

in which industry operates in developing economies, its basic needs for

information and the way these needs are now met. In developing economies,

particularly in Latin America, industry operates under strong import

protection, and true competition between firms is lacking. Under these

circumstances, inefficient industries are able to prosper despite a very

low level of technological and managerial development. The existence of

monopolies, the lack of a true industrial mentality, and the limitations

imposed by the small size of the market are also important elements in the

existing social and economic structures. Within these structures industry

is developing but the rate is slow and far from that required for economic

and social goals. Nevertheless, new factories are being installed and

existing plants are being expanded through the introduction of new products

and processes, which are largely imported directly from the industrialized

countries

.

The available information for industrial expansion and especially for

the selection of technologies is, in almost all cases, fragmentary. It is

obtained mainly through foreign parent organizations, agreements with foreign

firms, visits of management to industrialized countries, local representatives

of equipment producers and sometimes through technical literature and

reports from technical institutions. These channels of information used by

industry have important limitations. First, they do not offer alternative

choices. Obtaining information for a given process from several sources

is an almost impossible task. Moreover, managerial decisions also require

technical and economic evaluation of the various technologies available.

Second, because these channels are open only to a few firms, they do

not satisfy the need for a dynamic transfer of technology at the national

level. Consequently a large number of inefficient firms may co-exist along

with a well equipped factory.

Third, these channels do not promote either the use or the development

of local technical capabilities generally, because they constitute a direct

link between firms. Due to the lack of adequate mechanisms, management does

not make use of scientific capabilities, and conversely scientists, who are

usually working in the universities , do not become involved in the problems

of industry. Technological research and standards organizations are in

general not developed enough to fill the gap. Therefore, technological

dependence is considerable. Fourth, the channels are not open enough to meet

the needs of the financial institutions and government agencies that play an

active role in the industrial development process by approving, rejecting

or orienting managerial decisions.

Quite frequently enterpreneurs decide to employ capital-intensive

technologies because in the short run they offer the best economic choice,

while national social goals are best met by the use of labor-intensive

alternatives. Let us explore the reasons for this conflict. Management

acts in the best interest of its enterprise; decisions are molded by existing structures. Financing for capital expenditures is relatively easy to

obtain through development banks , but loans to pay labor costs are almost

127
impossible to obtain. Moreover no penalty is paid for idle productive

capacity in economies where price is determined by adding a "reasonable"

profit percentage to actual cost, which includes depreciation for all

capital investment.

What is needed is a National Information System that can perform the

following functions:

(a) adoption of a national information policy within the framework of

industrial development, technological transfer, and scientific

and technological development policies;

(b) liaison with international information systems to obtain a constant

and adequate flow of information from abroad

;

(c) coordination of national technical capabilities to help them in

solving industrial problems through a well-oriented research and

development effort, which should include technical evaluation of

available technologies; and

(d) extension services and technical assistance to disseminate

information to industry, and allow for wider use of the technical

information sources that, are available in our libraries.

The main aspect we want to emphasize is that in less developed countries

the information system must include the selection and evaluation of technical

information, especially in relation to equipment and processes. The general

approach suggested is quite similar to the one followed by the standard

institutes in performing their specific function. Once the need for a new

standard is recognized, the initial effort is to obtain information about

existing standards at the international and national levels. These standards

are evaluated in terms of the technological capability of local industry to

meet them and in terms of the needs of consumers. A draft standard is

discussed with representatives from industry, government, and the technical

institutions. It is then published to give all affected parties the opportunity to make comments and observations. After final approval, a second

dissemination effort is made.

The government's responsibility for providing information to industry

in a less developed country is basically to organize such a National Information System. Organizing this system does not mean performing all the

functions required of the system. Proper and efficient coordination of

governmental, scientific, and technological institutions is a prerequisite

for a successful information network. The formulation of national information policy is clearly the responsibility of the central government. It

may not be expressed explicitly as a separate function, it can be defined

as part of other policies such as the industrial development policy, the

scientific and technological development policy, etc. In any case, it

should be coherent.

Some of the Latin American countries have been making interesting

progress through the creation of national scientific and technological

councils or similar bodies, which have stimulated a more organized effort

on the part of the national scientific and technological institutions and

a different attitude on the part of the government towards science and

technology. These councils are becoming interested in the field of

information as a tool for technological advancement, and some of them are

taking initial steps in the organization of national systems.

Since developing economies require that a major effort be made to put

an information system into operation, it seems advisable for them to have a

central coordinating agency to act mainly as a clearinghouse. According

to the findings of a recent OAS evaluation mission that visited eight Latin

128
American countries, there are three types of institutions which under

present plans are assuming or will assume the role of a central coordinating

body: a) national technological research institutes, b) national councils

for science and technology, and c) national technical assistance organizations. In all three cases the institution employed is an agency of the

government

.

Technological research institutes offer the advantage of having a

close relationship between sources of information and the disseminating

agency. If the research institute provides industry with technical assistance

such as on quality control, the liaison with small and medium size

enterprises will be facilitated. The national councils for science and

technology are closer to the scientific community than to industry. This

will not be a major difficulty if effective collaboration with the centers

for technical assistance to industry is created. Since the councils are

solidly established in the governmental machinery they have a convenient

relationship with the economic decision-making organizations. The technical

assistance organization, because of its strong contact with industry, offers

the advantage of orienting requests for information to the actual needs

of the users, but it is separated from the sources of scientific information,

and its leadership may not be accepted by the institutions that should make

up the system.

The National Information System should be made up in such a way that

special consideration is given to the best utilization of existing institutions. Each of the three alternatives has its advantages, and the final

selection should be based, in each country, on the best capability to fulfill

the task. The creation of new institutions should be avoided unless they

are clearly necessary. At the same time the system should be open to all

technical institutions, professional societies, government agencies, and

managerial and trade associations. All these should be encouraged by

every means to become part of the network. Where feasible, the establishment

of subsystems should be encouraged on the basis of the specialized capabilities possessed by trade associations or research organizations in

specific industrial branches, such as tin, steel, ceramics, wood products,

etc.

The first step in the operation should be a major promotional campaign.

Potential users should be made aware of the type and extent of the information services available. Intensive use of industrial extension services,

productivity centers , and standards organizations would be extremely useful

to reach both industrial management and labor unions. These institutions

are in close contact with industry, and they offer the possibility of

obtaining feedback to the central agency. The effectiveness of the system

can thus be measured in terms of meeting the real needs of the users.

Adjustments and improvements can be made in the service.

I have been stressing two aspects: the utilization of technical

capabilities and the efficient use of existing institutions. It has to

be recognized that in developing economies a major effort must be made to

foster the development of scientific and technological institutions.

Recently Latin American governments have started to adopt a more active role

in that direction, but stronger support still is needed if science and

technology is to play a major role in economic development. It has been

said, and it is worth repeating, that unless real scientific capability

is developed, there will be no real possibility of mastering either the

design or the selection of the technologies that are best adapted to

economic and social goals. This is also true with respect to services to

industry, including information services.

In highly developed countries there is a clear understanding of the

benefits derived from properly organized and operated information services.

There are several organizational approaches used in the various national

129
systems. The Russian system operates on the basis of a centralized information network. This includes processing, abstracting, bibliographic

services for national and foreign literature, and a unified reference and

information system based on a nationwide network of coordinated reference

collections. The Canadian Technical Information Service is a branch of

the National Research Council of Canada, a government agency which offers

to industry technical and industrial engineering services through field

officers who visit individual companies. It also offers a technological

development service which is designed to provide information to individual

firms on new research and technological developments of potential value to

them. This service involves the selection of suitable material by experienced engineers.

In the United States, the information system is highly decentralized.

In the private sector, there are a large number of professional societies,

universities, independent nonprofit and for-profit organizations. The

federal government plays a significant role through national libraries,

referral services, document depots and national networks. Among these

federal information resources, our host, the National Bureau of Standards,

merits special attention. A brief analysis of the annual report of NBS

for fiscal year 1969 shows that the basic responsibility of NBS since its

establishment in 19 01 has been to act as the U. S. central measurement

laboratory. This responsibility has been expanded as a result of the

continuous changes in the technological level of industry. A clear

indication of such expansion is that the NBS has been a leader in developing

new technology in the field of computers. The technical expertise achieved

by research in sophisticated measurement procedures has been used to solve

problems in other agencies of the government. A valuable information

service is provided for data in the physical sciences. Information is also

provided on materials and on new data useful in solving materials problems.

Another important aspect of the work of NBS is the development of standards

of measurement and the provision of more than 700 standard reference

materials to industry.

In summary, the NBS is a good example of how a government can meet

its responsibilities to provide a sound basis for furnishing assistance and

information to industry.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

130
SESSION 4 - THE DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION

Paper 4.3 - Publications; Documentation Indexes

William T. Knox, Director

National Technical Information Service

U. S. Department of Commerce

Washington, D. C. 20230

Our session, "The Dissemination of Information", naturally focuses

on the specific bits of information that are being transferred, but I

think it is important to remember that we are basically talking about the

transfer of some immaterial substance represented by those symbols and

put on those records. The handling of the records themselves is not the

main point of the exercise. After Dr. Condon's comments on the UNIDO

session he just attended, I want to express explicitly my caution against

any nation adopting as a preferred model for information dissemination a

system which is primarily under the control of professional information

specialists. Don't do it I Their preferred modus operandi is apt to be a

shotgun rather than a rifle; a broadcasting of information everywhere

hoping that some of it will find use; a system which pushes information onto

people rather than one which responds quickly and precisely to the needs of

an individual or a small group. We have a mixture of both types of systems

in the U. S. —both the rifle-shot system and the shotgun system—and it

seems to me that those systems which operate more directly in response to

individual needs do a better job with fewer resources. Since resources

management is always a problem in developing countries , I would strongly

recommend that they focus on the more individually tailored information

systems

.

Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Senor Fontes and also

the privilege of addressing a group from Latin America under AID-OAS

sponsorship where the entire seminar was on information. Today I will focus

on the use of information in areas of substantive concern to this group,

and discuss some of the barriers to effective use of information in

technology transfer. Mr. Day did a magnificent job of outlining in a very

broad way the various types of publications, indexes, and other records

that are available from within the U. S. Federal Government to help.

It is well for us to remember that although information is necessary

for technology transfer it is not sufficient. Other steps have to be taken,

some of which Senor Fontes mentioned in his paper. Other speakers today

will discuss some of the other factors that are necessary for technology

transfer. Let me define my use of the words "technology" and "technological

information." I use them broadly enough to cover the fields of economics,

education, or any of the more traditional hard sciences in engineering

fields, the social sciences, the art of managing, any of the areas where

the problem is to know how to do something. That is technology; applying

knowledge to useful social purposes of any kind.

In fact, I am sure the United States could learn from some of the

.countries represented here about the technology of managing inflation. Some

of them have had considerably more experience than we have had in living with

large doses of inflation, and I am sure that the technology that they have

painfully acquired would be helpful here. However, each nation has to

develop its own information transfer capabilities in accordance with its

national tradition. The system adopted by one country with one set of

traditions is not necessarily transferable to another country.

Now, let me mention very briefly some barriers to technological

131
information transfer. Most policy makers, most executives, most managers

assume that communication happens by itself without any explicit attention

from them. They assume that some (preferably) nonprofit organization, or

some of their own professional staff working as volunteers in a nonprofit

organization, will somehow arrange the literature in such a fashion that

it can then be used for management purposes. It happens that communication

is a very labor-intensive process; it requires a great deal of attention;

and it requires considerable resources. It does not happen by itself.

Top management must give specific recognition that they are aware that the

problem of the management and effective transfer of technological information

is worthy of their serious concern. I have spent some time considering the

relation between the total communication infrastructure within a nation

and the state of its industrial development. It is no accident, I believe,

that the two nations which have the most telephones per capita, the United

States and Sweden, happen to be leaders in high technology fields. The

telephone is a very valuable instrument for minimizing barriers to the

transfer of technical information.

Another barrier to effective information transfer is the simple

"explosion" of the literature in all fields. You are well aware of how

fast publications are expanding, both in the size of any individual volume,

as well as in the number of volumes. A new factor, too, in recent years

has been a more task-oriented use of the literature. Instead of simple

chemistry, it is now environmental protection, which has some chemistry

involved in it. The literature is used for more specific interdisciplinary

purposes.

Another barrier is, of course, language. My compliments to all the

people here whose native tongue is not English. I am very impressed with

the fact that the entire Seminar has proceeded effectively while using one

standard language, which happens to be English in this case. It is not

always true, and we have a long way to go before we are able to use language

effectively in our technical information transfer. This is especially so

when we consider the problem of transferring information at the technician

level, the lay level, and the non-scientist level. Any nation considering

its information system must make provision for some unit which effectively

translates from an international language to the native tongue, or from the

language of a scientist to the language of the practitioner. Senor Fontes

mentioned that technical assistance organizations have provided some of that

capability.

Another barrier to effective information transfer is the normal human

resistance to change. There has to be an open-mindedness on the part of

individuals in order for them to receive information. We are fortunate in

this country in that a substantial part of the population is accustomed to

the idea of change and is not disturbed by it. I am sure that in many

developing countries this is a very important barrier to effective information transfer.

Another barrier is the proprietary interest involved in some information.

The U. S. Government turns out a great deal of printed information, and all

of it is made available freely to the public. No one can appropriate the

information to his private purposes. This is a great resource in this

country. As we develop new forms of information records; as we market

computer tapes; and as we market microfilm; and as we market on-line access

by telecommunication lines to some central library, we are adding to this

resource. However, we must develop the proper balance between proprietary

interests on the one hand, which are necessary to promote private initiative

in information transfer, and on the other hand the long-term investment by

the public in what I would call adult education.

Another barrier to information transfer is the variation in documentation

procedures. This is a field of standardization which may not be your

132
specialty, but it is a most important field. Like all other standardization

efforts it is slow and painful, and progress seems to be measured in decades.

Federal agencies have worked under the leadership of COSATI, which Mr.

Day mentioned earlier, to develop certain standards for representation of

bibliographic information. They will make it easier for computers to

interchange information. COSATI continues the work of developing standards.

In addition, of course, outside groups —computer manufacturers, microfilm

manufacturers, professional societies, library groups, and others —are

continuing their efforts in cooperation with the Government to develop

standard documentation procedures.

A final barrier to effective information transfer is the lack of

standard mechanisms and devices to handle the new information products.

Books are universal tools; everybody can handle a book. All it takes is

a pair of hands and a pair of eyes. But not everyone can use some of the

new information technologies like microfiche, punched cards, or computer

magnetic tapes. It takes a certain standardized set of devices and tools

to use them.

Now let me turn to some additional information about the sources of

technological information within the U. S. Government. As Mr. Day pointed

out, the Department of Commerce has established within the last few months

the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) of which I am the director.

This service is based on an organization which has existed since 1950

called the Clearinghouse for Federal Scientific and Technical Information.

The earlier organization was instituted because of the Federal Government's

concern at the end of World War II that the technical advances made here

and abroad were shrouded in secrecy. It was concluded that some program

of making that information available to our citizens was necessary. Over

the course of the last twenty years , the Clearinghouse has assumed more and

more the central role of making publically available the reports produced

by federal agencies. It has, until recently, concentrated in the fields

of science and technology. Part of the reason for establishing NTIS was

to broaden the subject coverage. It is our clear intent to make available

through NTIS reports of all kinds—reports of interest especially to

commercial businesses and to manufacturing industries, both small and large.

They will cover the fields of economics and managerial science, operations

research, land management, transportation technology, and transportation

management.

NTIS is a very large operation already, and it will no doubt be even

larger when we take on these additional assignments. It has about 400

people who send all over the world about three-quarters of a million

reports each year. It handles about 5 0,000 new reports each year, and it

supplies those reports either in hard (printed) copy or in microfiche

form. It supplies about three million microfiche copies each year, again

all over the world. About 20 percent of our output goes abroad. The

service offered is of two general types: (1) we can supply material on

subscription, or (2) we can answer requests as they come in. We are trying

to make it simpler for people to send in requests by instituting a business

type order-and-billing system instead of insisting on payment in advance.

We have already begun to market computer tapes containing statistics on

economic, demographic, marketing, and production subjects. These tapes

are used by many of our more sophisticated manufacturing and marketing

firms, and will be available later this year to handle specific requests

from individuals around the country. We envision a network of field offices

through which this information will be available, much of it over telecommunication capabilities.

I want to mention two important libraries which Mr. Day did not cover,

the National Agricultural Library and the National Library of Medicine.

These are very important resources and are responsible for the production

of two very important indexes, the Bibliography of Agriculture and the

133
Index Medicus. Both are available on subscription, and both libraries

are willing to answer specific requests.

Let me summarize by saying that over the last 15 years, as a result

of a great deal of national soul-searching, vigorous federal effort,

federal support and encouragement of the private sector, and as a result of

some private entrepreneurs' efforts, we have now developed within this

country a rather complicated network of nonprofit government-operated,

privately-operated, and for-profit-operated information services. The

welding of these services into an effective system in which there is

relatively little duplication of effort will take a great many years. It

may never come to pass, but we will continue to work towards such a system.

In the meantime, NTIS will be glad to provide whatever help we can to any

of the less developed nations with regard to the organizational structure

of an information system, or on a specific request for technological

information know-how.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

134
SESSION 4 - THE DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION

Paper 4.4 - Extension/Productivity Services Via

A Developing Country Standards Institute

Phi Minh Tarn, Director

Vietnam Institute for Standardization

The Republic of Vietnam

and

Niels C. Beck, Deputy Assistant Director

Industry Division, Vietnam

U.S. Agency for International Development

I. Characteristics of Viet Nam Industry

The manufacturing industry in Vietnam has a rather short history.

While some industrial activity existed prior to 1954 when the country

regained its independence, the main producing facilities were used in the

processing of agricultural products for export, such as rubber and rice.

Few enterprises existed as public or private corporate entities. Other

small industrial units, individually owned and operated, established with

limited capital and utilizing mainly family labor, were more family undertakings than industrial enterprises.

From Family Undertakings to Small Industrial Enterprises :

After the French departure, people with small family undertakings left

with new opportunities for their technical and commercial skills, and with

some money to spare, began to add new machines and a few non-family

employees to their operations. This type of evolution was predominant in

the first years of industrial development. What these family enterprises

lacked in advanced manufacturing techniques and modern equipment, they

more than made up with low labor cost, quick delivery, and products that

satisfied the needs of individual consumers. They were willing to turn

their long laboring hours into small profits.

More profitable industrial projects required capital investment beyond

the financial capabilities of small family ownership. To encourage investment, incentives such as tax holidays, remission of import duties, financial

support, easy acquisition of land and provision of utilities in industrial

parks, and other privileges were planned and implemented by the government,

and reserved for the larger and growing corporate and partnership enterprises. As the last and most damaging blow to the small family undertakings,

the privilege of direct import of equipment and raw materials which up to

19 7 0 was accorded to all enterprises, was now reserved for corporate and

partnership enterprises. In place of the small family undertakings, there

now appear company enterprises, many owned by members of the big rich

families. The operations of these new enterprises have improved greatly

since the days of the small family undertakings. However, some of the

characteristics of the latter still persist, in that they substitute labor

for capital to the greatest extent possible, that they have working

conditions which are far from optimum, and that they lack of modern quality

and process controls. There are no accurate figures of the number of

existing small enterprises in the industrial picture of Vietnam; but an

intelligent guess would indicate something like 90 to 95% of the industrial

plants employing 100 or fewer workers.

135

452-533 O - 72 - 10
Lack of Quality Consciousness :

In these still early stages of industrialization while manufacturing

technology is underdeveloped, Vietnam faces many technical problems. To

develop and support its industry, Vietnam imports machines, materials,

manufacturing processes, and often manpower from many countries. The

United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Taiwan,

India, and Australia are some of the important suppliers. Machines and

materials are purchased from the suppliers with the lowest bids. Specifications of the product are mentioned in the contract, but checking for

conformation is not always required. Whether the materials meet the

specifications or not, the small manufacturers use them without rechecking,

relying mainly on the supplier's guarantees.

Although an appreciable number of manufacturers have the ability to

operate modern plants with process control, many do not feel the need for

specifications and quality control of their products, in an economy where

the demand by consumers far exceeds the supply of goods. Competition rarely

exists to the benefit of the consumers. This is not the consequence of

a monopoly system or of a protectionist policy, but merely that of early

development. The manufacturers prefer to invest their money in the more

profitable industries, or share advantageously a high demand market, than

to compete with others for markets where the demand is discriminating and

thus makes profits less attractive and the work harder. As a result of

the lack of controls, intermediate materials and final products, more often

than not, are variable in quality and price.

The Lack of Calibration and Testing Laboratories ;

To the individual consumers and even to the organizations buying in

large quantity, the testing of products may be impossible because the country

has no commercial testing laboratories. Some laboratories operated by

various government agencies and educational institutions have pieces of

equipment which can be used for testing purposes. However, without

calibration facilities, this equipment has never been checked or recalibrated

since the day of purchase, so that the measurements can hardly be called

meaningful. An attempt to use these scattered facilities to provide testing

services has brought only limited success, because the organizational

structure of these laboratories and their specialized purposes allowed

little room for deviation from their regular work.

To the small manufacturer desiring to improve his process or product,

testing the product may prove to be an expensive undertaking which cannot

be performed regularly and often. The laboratory, going out of its way to

provide the service, charges rather high fees. Sometimes no instruments

are available for the testing, and the product must be sent to a foreign

laboratory. Some large enterprises operate their own testing laboratories;

but, again, without calibration facilities being available, we have seen

testing equipment in plants gathering dust, while the quality of the product

deteriorates along with the process machinery and testing instruments.

With centralized control and testing facilities unavailable in the

country, the small enterprises have to rely heavily on the suppliers'

guarantees for quality and for technical services. There is, of course,

a danger in operating an industrial enterprise which relies on such biased

sources as suppliers whose main objective is to sell their products. The

consequences are often costly, not only because of the high cost of services

provided by foreign suppliers or their failure to make good the guarantees,

but also because process machinery may be tied up for weeks waiting for

a gage or meter to be recalibrated, or faulty equipment may continue to be

used while waiting for the result of analyses.

136
II. Industrial Extension and Productivity Services

From the colonial era Vietnam has inherited no properly staffed

institutions through which coordinated industrial development could be

implemented. The first agency in charge of industrial extension and

productivity services was created as late as 19 5 7 and for the last fourteen

years, the Industrial Development Center (IDC) has been the main instrument

of the government policy in industrial development.

Industrial Development and Reconstruction Loans :

Most of the small and medium scale industries in Vietnam are handicapped by an acute shortage of capital. In accordance with the government

policy to support the industrial investors , IDC makes loans directed towards

development of new industries and reconstruction of those damaged by war.

The interest rate over the years ranged from 3% per annum and did not

exceed 7.5%. The interest on IDC loans has recently been raised to

5-10%, while the rate of interest charged by commercial banks is now 24%.

In 1969, IDC loans amounted to 1,667 million piastres (U.S. $15 million).

Technical Services ;

To interested investors, IDC can give advice on the areas of profitable

investment, and according to the investor's need for assistance, may undertake a part of the project or make a complete study of a project and see to

its implementation. The project may involve a market survey for the

prospective product; a technical study on raw materials, utilities, manufacturing processes and equipment; the choice of plant site; a financial

study to estimate the capital requirements, capital structure, and rate

of return. When the investor has decided to go forward with the project,

IDC again can help draft the specifications for the required equipment,

organize an invitation to bid, and finally proceed to the selection of a

supplier. In 1969, IDC prepared 51 industrial projects and drafted 82

books of specifications for process equipment for the pharmaceutical,

animal feed, printing, detergent, monosodium glutamate, textile and other

industries. To manufacturers, in-plant services are also available. Upon

request, IDC can dispatch technicians to the plants to advise on various

aspects of production techniques, raw materials surveys, inventory control,

or quality control.

Management Training :

Since 1968, IDC has organized for the industrial and business communities a number of business management courses in conjunction with USAID,

the "Mission d'Aide Economique et Technique", and the United Nations

Development Program. Some courses were designed to disseminate modern

management techniques. Some were refresher courses for the top management

levels. The increasing participation in these courses as shown in Table

1 has confirmed a growing management and productivity consciousness in

Vietnam.

Table 1. Participation in IDC Management Training Program

Year

Number of

Participants

Number of

Certificates

Awarded

Number of

Firms

Joining

Cumulative

Number of

Firms

1968 316 176 64

1969 471 229 106 170

1970 295 165 41 211

137
III. The Viet Nam Institute for Standardization

Against this background, the Vietnam Institute for Standardization

(VIS) was established in April 1967 by a Prime Minister's Order, and

entrusted with the elaboration and implementation of national standards and

the testing of materials and products. As a department of the Ministry of

Industry (and now of the Ministry of Economy), VIS has been fully supported

by the national budget. VIS began its functions in the most difficult

conditions with no technical staff, with a meager budget, with a major

government sector still unaware of the benefits of standards, and with the

industrial sector suspicious of the new organization's good intentions.

VIS activities started hopefully in early 1968 with the recruitment of a

nucleus staff, to be followed by the government austerity measures allowing

no additional recruitment for expansion of facilities to carry on the

standardization program. Activities were almost frozen by the military

training requirements for VIS technical staff during 1969, while this

nation of 17 million people was mobilizing an army of 1 million soldiers.

As 19 70 began, with a special grant of 10 million piastres made by

IDC and contributions made by other organizations and local manufacturers,

VIS broke ground for the first module of a laboratory to provide basic

calibration and testing services for industry and to assist in the

elaboration of standards. USAID/Saigon through the Industry Division has

been working closely with VIS on this project and provides technical

assistance needed. The technical staff for the laboratory operation has

been trained in the U.S. and USAID provides funds for the purchase of

testing equipment and offshore materials. The progress made by VIS has

finally convinced the government to allow VIS to double its staff in 1971,

and to allocate a 12 million piaster (U.S. $100,000) budget for 1971,

more than half of which will be spent to finish the laboratory.

In the meantime, recognizing the limitations of regular government

agencies in Vietnam, coping with the problems and needs of industrial

standardization, VIS drafted a Standardization Law, based on a different

approach to the establishment of a standards organization. The draft,

approved by the government in late 1969, was submitted to the National

Assemblies for enactment. The Lower House passed the draft standardization

law in the closing days of 1970. It is hopeful that the Upper House will

consider it in the coming session. The Standardization Law will provide

for an expanded organizational structure and adequate budget for a National

Institute for Standardization of Vietnam (NIS) and will prescribe related

activities for certification marking and preshipment inspection for export

products

.

Basic Functions of NIS :

The basic functions of NIS can be summarized as follows:

a) to elaborate and publish national standards;

b) to promote standardization in agricultural, commercial, and industrial activities;

c) to inspect, sample, and test materials and products for evaluating

their quality and serviceability;

d) to calibrate and service scientific instruments;

e) to specify the standard certification mark to represent the standards and to issue and control licences for the use of the mark;

f) to hold custody of the national standards of weights and measures,

and to verify and certify measuring instruments ; and

138
g) to carry out all other activities relating to standardization.

The functions assigned to NIS cover many objectives which in other

countries may be looked after by separate institutions. Larger and more

highly developed countries may, for example, have parallel organizations to

deal with standardization, testing and analysis, quality control, export

and import inspection, and with regulatory control of weights and measures.

However, in the VN context of limited scales of operation and scarce financial and manpower resources, the grouping of many interdependent activities

under one multi-purpose institution eliminates conflicts and overlapping

and seems the best answer to our own immediate needs.

Organizational Structure of NIS :

While VIS is a department of the Ministry of Economy, NIS will be an

autonomous agency governed by an Executive Council (see Figure 1). While

many standards activities in industrialized nations are private organizations,

many in less developed countries are totally under government sponsorship.

In the case of Vietnam, experience has shown that a government department

in charge of standardization cannot respond to the best interest of growing

industry and therefore cannot secure the trust and cooperation of manufacturers. On the other hand, it is believed that a completely private

organization will lack funds and authority. The NIS Executive Council calls

for the collaboration of government and private sectors to provide the

optimum stimuli to the standardization program. The Council members will

be selected to represent not only the ministries concerned with standards,

but also manufacturers' associations, chambers of commerce, and scientific

and technical organizations. On technical matters, NIS will receive

guidance from the National Council for Standardization consisting of 40

to 50 members appointed by the Prime Minister to represent all interests

in any aspects of standards.

Executive Council

Nations I Council

For Standardization

"1

Director General Financial Control

Divisional

Committees

i

Technical

Committees

j

L_.

Figure 1. Organizational Chart of the National Institute for Standardization

of Vietnam.

139
Financial Arrangements :

NIS will have its own operational budget and will follow the rules of

accounting used by private enterprises. Its income will consist of sales

of publications, fees for inspection, calibration, testing and analysis,

and contributions from the private sector. However, the income from NIS

activities cannot be expected to balance the operational expenses. Financial support from the government will be needed through the years.

These financial arrangements place some part of the burden of raising

funds on the shoulders of NIS itself, but they also give NIS more flexibility in its operation to provide services for the immediate needs of the

industry, as well as for subsidized assistance to projects having an

impact on the national economy and the public welfare. Better working

conditions and incentive salary scales can be achieved, to attract capable

men to the pioneering frontier of standardization.

IV. Problems and the Future

So far our paper may leave too bright an impression of industrial

standards, and the productivity and extension activities in Vietnam. I

must therefore conclude with a brief look at problems and the future.

All activities have suffered substantially from VN's mobilization of a

million man army, but the draft peak is past and we can begin to look for

competent or, at least, trainable staff among men who are at the end of

some fixed term of duty. Further, with any luck at all, we can anticipate

military needs diminishing and a discharge rate that exceeds the draft

rate. Also, more can and will be done about the technical training and

employment of women in better and better jobs. Training is our greatest

need, training in countries more industrialized than our own (the industrial

contribution to our GNP is only 10%), or counterpart on-the-job type

training in Vietnam by foreign experts. IDC and VIS staff are woefully

short of the existing demand for industrial help and industry elsewhere is

moving at a rate that widens the gap.

Local conditions forced IDC to attempt to be everything to everybody,

but this is changing. A recent decision will shift emphasis in this

institution to mounting a development/ investment bank based on their

present staff and facilities, a bank that will become their core activity

with a "beefed up" techno-economic staff for pre-loan investment analysis.

This will shift the main burden for productivity/extension services to

our VIS, probably before we are ready to cover anything like the present

list of services offered by IDC. However, with operation beginning in

our own laboratory, we can begin to provide our industry's first and broadest

needs in industrial testing. The laboratory is also a back-stop for our

expanding technical information services, as well as a limited but useful

calibration facility which includes our small instrumental analysis section.

With additional trained staff, with additional training for present

staff, and with continuing foreign aid of the type both USAID and NBS can

provide, we can begin to offer more in-plant troubleshooting for quality

improvement in processes and products, and the quality controls to hold

these improvements at desirable volumes of production. There is so much

more to be done that we hardly dare look too long at the voids. The need

for technical and professional societies is one of these. Also, you may

wonder at our ad hoc emphasis on industrial development. What happened

to weights and measures? safety codes? infrastructure standards? etc.

Well, our preoccupation is turned toward the squeakiest wheel at this point

this may be lack of perspective or it may be just the way things do develop

in a growing economy. Certainly many countries, e.g. Korea, came a long

way along the path of industrialization before weights and measures,

standards of public health and welfare, pollution control, and other "fundamental" standards got much attention. In fact, until a nation has some

140
measure of real independence in its balance of payments (its closure of the

import-export gap), even its political stability is fragile, and it can

only stand and look hopefully at the future improvement of many "fundamental

standards.

I will close with an interesting example from home. For the past

decade , a small textile industry grew up alongside our burgeoning big "textile

mills." Some of the independent small weavers outgrew handcrafted methods,

the products of which had a limited but steady market, by purchasing cheap

low quality mechanized looms, the products of early ventures into capital

goods production by other somewhat more developed countries. The GVN

(Government of Vietnam) permitted them to import their own yarn and even

provided them with credit and tax privileges to favor "small industry."

As of today, their products are not worth even the low price they

bring on the domestic market. Their volume of production is low and their

costs are high. Continuing improvements in quality and increasing quantities of textiles produced by the big mills constitute impossible competition.

They have been unable to pay taxes of any kind, to say nothing of their

bills for imports. They have no credit for new and better looms. Very

recently the GVN cut off their import privileges, a sure death sentence,

but what lay ahead except a more painful demise at a future date? They

now have mounted a protest, to become another political headache to a

government that already has such major ones as war and inflation.

I think it was the great Lord Kelvin who said "things become useful,

only as they are measured." It seems that somewhere, someone overlooked

measuring the results of "helping" this small weavers' group in Vietnam.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

141

SESSION 4 - THE DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION

Paper 4.5 - Standardization in Africa: Problems and Programs

Zawdu Felleke

Acting General Manager

Ethiopian Standards Institution

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

I. Introduction

Standardization is not a modern invention. It has existed through

the ages in some form or another. It is perhaps industrial standardization

that has been most recently recognized as an important field of activity

for technological progress. Since standards reflect the latest achievements

in science and technology it is most reasonable to assume that the rate of

standardization characterizes the level of industrialization in a country.

Industrial development came late to the African countries and consequently

the need for national policy and structure for standardization is relatively

recent in the region. However, in most of the African countries both now

and during the period of colonial rule, the introduction of standards in

various fields of trade and production has taken place on an ad-hoc basis

wherever it was felt to be needed. Hence, standardization in the African

region has yet to be rationally adopted and developed. While universal

standards may be useful, it is essential for the African countries to

evolve their own independent standards suited to their special physical

requirements and national economic needs.

In the less developed countries of Africa, where industrial development

is often dependent on outside assistance, which is usually provided by

different foreign industrial groups , the standards used are generally

borrowed from more developed countries. Hence, production units tend to

adopt the pattern of standardization of different industrialized countries.

This creates certain difficulties. First, foreign standards may be

inadequate or unsuitable for the intended purpose. Secondly, the importation of know-how and equipment from different parts of the world results

in thousands of different types of products and standards, and may lead to

waste and confusion. Since countries which have already developed their

national standards have tended to develop independently of one another, they

have systematically contributed to the creation of "technical customs

barriers." These impede the circulation of goods because products intended

for a particular market do not meet the technical requirements of markets

in neighboring countries. African countries cannot presently afford to be

engaged in activities which would foster any such "technical customs

barriers", because most of the African countries are relatively small,

and the limited demand for each type of product makes it difficult, if not

impossible, to develop indigenous production. Consequently, industrial

development in Africa may be delayed or made impossible.

Hence, it is necessary for African countries to develop their own

national, sub-regional, and regional standards. These would help industrial

development from the earliest stages of planning and design of projects,

through erection, production, and distribution. Moreover, standardization

plays a crucial role in the vital business of export promotion and in

ensuring reasonably satisfactory prices. It is also essential for

conservation of scarce but available resources and for attaining a high

level of productivity, all of which are essential requirements for orderly

economic development in the African region.

143
II. Policy Issues

General Requirements :

The subject of standardization policy in the African countries needs

to be treated rationally with a view to obtaining the maximum benefit to

the economy of each country and to the region as a whole. In view of the

fact that the operation and coordination of standardization activities

involves the allocation of scarce financial resources, it is imperative

that standards should be developed only in fields and activities which are

of industrial and economic relevance at the moment, and in other fields

which are likely to be relevant during the period of existing industrial

development plans.

The need to develop and coordinate standardization in Africa and, in

particular, the preparation and adoption of standards applicable to weights,

measures, energy, transport, export products, manufactured goods, machinery,

and equipment have been, in general, clearly recognized. Such standardization is believed to benefit:

(i) domestic markets by improving the quality of national production

and facilitating its development;

(ii) inter-African trade by facilitating the interchangeability of

African products and providing thereby the development of

industries and infrastructure on a multinational, sub-regional,

and regional basis;

(iii) exports by providing uniform quality of African raw materials and

manufactured goods which will have to stand up to international

competition, and thereby facilitating a common market in these

commodities

;

(IV) imports by providing larger markets and thereby generating

competition among international suppliers of manufactured goods

and capital machinery, leading to lower costs of imported goods.

Standardization tasks pertinent to these policy considerations therefore depend upon a particular subject area and upon its influence on the

economic activity of the country or the region. Hence, the priority of

the task of formulating a particular standard and the level of the task

i.e. national or regional—must be determined by its contribution to the

national economy or to that of the region at large.

National Standards Bodies (NSB) :

The principal aim of standardization is to meet the national interest

by the stimulus it imparts to industrial development. Standardization

equally aims to protect the consumer's interest by virtue of the order it

introduces in national production and in national and international commerce.

Thus, there can be no doubt about the importance of organizing standards at

the national level. Industrial planning, which is accepted by less developed

countries as a necessary mechanism for ordered and rapid development of

industrial growth, presumes the existence of some standards.

The newer African countries, on the threshold of industrialization and

dependent on the export of primary products, have a great stake. The

governments of these nations will therefore have to play a major role in

standardization efforts. Government financing has mainly to be relied upon

for the launching and operation of viable NSB's. In brief, the main

functions of the NSB's could be outlined as follows:

(i) the preparation, publication, and implementation of national

144
standards

;

(ii) the centralization of standardization efforts in the country

through the collaboration of all interests concerned;

(iii) the cooperation with national standards bodies of other countries

and in particular its neighbors and countries of the region; and

(iv) the representation of the country in the ISO and IEC.

The physical requirements necessary to run a viable NSB must be

catered for right from the beginning. The NSB must be manned and operated

by a competent skeleton staff even in the initial stages. From the outset,

the staff will have to establish and maintain an up-to-date library.

Testing facilities are of fundamental importance to the NSB, since without

them the standards will be only "paper standards", and confidence in quality

and reliability, which is one of the main objects of introducing standards,

can not be built up. Conformity with standards needs to be verified.

Moreover, the NSB must be involved in quality assurance operations

through its certification marking schemes. The object of certification is

to provide an assurance that will satisfy the user, without further inspection and testing, that the products conform to valid standards that have

been defined as precisely as possible by the NSB. Certification marking is

of particular importance to the less developed countries of Africa since

it ensures a higher reputation for export products in international markets

,

and higher earnings in foreign exchange through better prices for such

export commodities. It also provides the opportunity to evaluate the

performance of import materials, in particular capital items, and to check

the suitability of their quality levels to the country's physical requirements and economic needs.

Since African countries in their development efforts are confronted

with the financing of many development projects which compete for limited

available resources, the establishment of priorities on standardization in

relation to the needs of the economy is indeed important. If the initial

projects are chosen carefully and dealt with so as to highlight the value

of standards, and at the same time establish the efficiency and impartiality of the NSB, both material and moral support will be forthcoming to

implement a wider program in succeeding years. The main criterion is

the economic effect of each project.

Based upon this general consideration, therefore, the standards that

need to be adopted and implemented on a priority basis will fall largely

into the following categories

(i) basic standards, i.e. quantities, units of measures, etc.;

(ii) standards for natural products and goods to be exported;

(iii) standards for locally manufactured goods, including food and

clothing

;

(iv) standard codes for construction, installation, and safety in

the operation of equipment

;

(v) standards for goods purchased from abroad, particularly capital

equipment including agricultural machinery, vehicles, etc.,

where the maintenance of a reasonable quality level is desirable.

There would, of course, be other standardization fields depending on

the economy of a country and its projected plans. The NSB should therefore

prepare its annual and short term programs of work after careful consider145
ation of the national needs for creating standards in particular products

,

processes, etc., and after careful evaluation of the possible benefits

accruing to the economy from introducing such standards.

Regional Standardization :

It is an inescapable responsibility of each African country to accelerate its economic and industrial development. In order to do this most

effectively, and since regional requirements mainly reflect the common

requirements of individual countries, sub-regional and regional cooperation

is nowadays becoming a very essential element. In the past, the metropolitan colonial countries imposed their own different national standards.

Thus , differences appeared in the systems of weights and measures , railway

gauges, voltage for power, traffic rules, etc. Most of the African countries

are now free to communicate and trade with each other. For this to be

possible, many joint facilities have to be created and some of the existing

ones have also to be shared. Furthermore, trade will only be possible

where commodities from one country could find market acceptability in

another. When such markets have been developed for various commodities

,

quality and in some cases design standards have to be maintained. Moreover, jointly created facilities and those to be shared will require to

be produced or adapted to joint specifications. Exports are a typical

field where joint efforts should be made in order to improve their position

in world markets. Hence, the need arises for standards to be also developed

no longer on the purely national but on a multi-national (sub-regional or

regional) basis. This activity may be also conceived and organized as the

coordination of national standards where they exist, in order to achieve their

sub-regional or regional harmonization.

The limited resources of technical people and funds available in most

of the African countries dictate that standardization activity be restricted

to the fields of immediate economic and industrial relevance and that

priorities at the multi-national level be established. Such a possible

multi-national standardization activity may be divided, on the basis of

their origin, into the following categories:

(i) based on international recommendations,

(ii) based on foreign national standards,

(iii) based on existing national standards developed by individual

African countries,

(iv) developed by the relevant multi-national (sub-regional or regional)

standards organization on the basis of the needs of membercountries when there are not any similar standards.

In such regional levels of standardization activities, priority areas

have to be analyzed and fixed at first for each country concerned, and

common priority areas belonging to the sub-region or region determined and

adopted. Due regard must be given to the degree of development reached by

each country, the main export commodities, existence of already more or

less established standardization activities, etc. Anyhow, considering that

individual countries will finally settle the problem associated with the

introduction of the S.I. units of weights and measures as a prerequisite

for common regional standardization activities in the other fields, the

following illustrative subject areas, for which several African countries

may have the same interest, could be indicated:

(i) semi-processed and processed staple food and other agricultural

products

,

(ii) road design and construction,

146
(iii) road traffic regulations and signs

,

(iv) postal and telecommunication systems,

(v) railway design, construction, and operation,

(vi) electric power supply systems,

(vii) sea port and harbor design and operation,

(viii) airport design and operation,

(ix) banking systems, and

(x) foreign trade documents.

III. Programs

Standards ;

African countries are presently either engaged in or are in the process

of undertaking the necessary ground work in order to pursue the task of

preparing and adopting their own national or multi-national standards.

Some of the countries such as the UAR, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Nigeria have

already established their individual NSB and are elaborating and implementing their own national standards. The other African countries are presently

in the process of establishing and strengthening their common standards

institutes whose tasks are primarily to prepare and elaborate standards for

implementation at national levels.

In the North African sub-region, the Maghreb countries established in

Libya their Maghreb Centre for Industrial Development and Research to service

the four Maghreb countries, among other things, in standardization activities

too. In Eastern Africa, the Governments of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania

agreed to set up the East African Economic Community under which an East

African Standards Institution is in the process of formation. In West

Africa, on the whole, standardization has not yet begun in an organized

fashion except in Ghana, Guinea, and Nigeria. So far no efforts have been

made in the direction of multi-national standardization activities. In the

Central African sub-region, there is a Union of Central African Countries

(UDEAC) which is intended also to participate and deal with some aspects

of standardization work.

Metrology ;

With regard to weights and measures, in particular, both the metric

and the British systems are in use in Africa. However, several of the

countries using the British system are presently changing and are going

metric. Most African countries run and operate their own departments or

offices for weights and measures. Such an activity essentially includes

inspection and verification of measures and measuring equipment against

adopted reference standards.

In a few countries such as the UAR and Ethiopia the NSB is engaged

in programs of metrology work including the legal aspect of verification

of measures and measuring instruments. Such a program in the main consists

of:

(i) conducting systematic and periodical calibration and verification

of measures and measuring instruments

;

(ii) training of inspectors, scientists, and technicians of different

laboratories as necessary for verification and metrology work;

147
(iii) establishing control laboratories and testing facilities for

standardization, consisting of: a national physical laboratory,

a control laboratory for metrology and material testing, district

laboratories, and inspectorate offices.

A quick look at the Ethiopian situation might perhaps provide a

characteristic example of introducing standardization, including a

metrological activity, in an underdeveloped country of Africa. The

Ethiopian Standards Institution (ESI) was created by an Order in September

of 19 7 0 as an autonomous body of the Imperial Ethiopian Government in order

to introduce and promote standardization and quality control in the

country. The Institution is, in particular, charged with the task of

preparing and publishing Ethiopian Standards (ES) relating to practices,

processes, materials, products, and commodities in the field of commerce

and industry and of enforcing the same. By a Proclamation enacted in 196 3,

the metric system of weights and measures was officially introduced in

Ethiopia. In 1967, a set of particular Regulations, which provide for the

inspection, calibration, verification, and certification of weights,

measures, and measuring instruments by the Inspectorate of Weights and

Measures, created pursuant to the Proclamation of 196 3, was promulgated.

However, the term metric does not directly prescribe the relevant units

which should belong to the system. It is therefore necessary to prepare

a series of Ethiopian Standards based on relevant ISO Recommendations

concerning quantities and units' of measure. Consequently, the Imperial

Ethiopian Government has already made the decision to transfer the

activities of the Inspectorate of Weights and Measures to the Ethiopian

Standards Institution in order to combine activities concerning standardization and metrology under the ESI.

IV. Problems and Possible Areas for Technical Assistance

Physical Requirements for Standardization :

'

From the foregoing discussion, it can be underscored here that the

establishment of NSB by African countries is, indeed, necessary. However,

certain outstanding features which would constitute constraints in creating

and operating a new NSB must be well recognized and be properly catered

for from the very outset. Without going into any further details, the

physical requirements essential, right from the initial stages, in order

for a new NSB to be engaged in standardization work, consist of: a

competent skeleton staff, a library, testing facilities, and office

premises. Moreover, the NSB must be in a position to effectively participate and provide sound representations in international standardization

activities. It is, indeed, important that the NSB influences the initiation

of new international standardization projects and, consequently, partakes

in the drafting of International Standards and Recommendations relevant

to the economic needs of the country concerned. Hence, there is a need for

foreign technical assistance in the form of experts, training facilities,

and arrangements proper for local staff engaged in standardization tasks.

Assistance in establishing new and/or in strengthening existing testing

facilities and aids in the establishment of libraries and other physical

facilities are henceforth also required in order to promote the efforts

of the less developed countries of Africa in their standardization tasks.

The magnitude and type of any such assistance will, of course, depend

upon the economic situation and the level of the standardization activity

already attained by each individual or member country of a sub-region.

Physical Requirements for Metrology :

Here again, the availability of competent staff, which would deal

with all the work related to metrology, calibration, and verification of

measures and measuring instruments, is essential. Other physical requirements such as Reference Standards, Physical Laboratories and Inspectorate

148
Offices must also be made available and be properly maintained. The

following are therefore areas where urgent foreign technical assistance

in metrology activities is required:

(i) training of local staff for skills in inspection and verification

of measures and measuring instruments

;

(ii) training of scientists and technicians of different laboratories

necessary for verification, calibration, and metrological work;

(iii) establishing national physical laboratories and other control

laboratories for metrology; and

(iv) establishing district laboratories and inspectorate offices.

V. Summary and Conclusions

In order to speed up their industrialization and development efforts,

African countries should evolve and develop their own independent national,

sub-regional, and regional standardization and metrology activities that

are suited to their special physical requirements and national economic

needs. Conscious and concerted efforts are presently being taken along

these lines by individual and by groups of African countries.

The new African countries on the threshold of industrialization and

dependent on the export of primary products have a greater task of

facilitating the development of the domestic as well as foreign market

outlets. In these efforts, therefore, the contributions of the NSB's

are indeed significant. In order to launch and operate a new viable NSB,

all essential physical requirements must be provided for right from the

initial stages. Since the developing countries of Africa are essentially

faced with limited available resources and technical personnel, foreign

technical assistance in metrology and standardization work is urgently

required.

In general, the need to develop and coordinate standardization in

Africa and, in particular, the preparation, adoption, and implementation

of standards applicable to weights, measures, energy, transport, export

products, manufactured goods, machinery, and equipment are recognized and

felt important. The NSB or the sub-regional standardization organization

must, however, carefully establish priorities with regard to subjects

requiring standards in relation to the needs of the country or group of

countries. The main criterion which has, perhaps, major significance to

African countries in choosing new standardization projects, is the

economic effect and value of each project.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

149
L
SESSION 4 - THE DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION

Discussion

Co-chairmen: Geraldo N.S. Maia and Ismael Escobar

Dr. Ghosh :

Many of the problems and the solutions sought by Mr. Felleke and Mr.

Tarn are similar to the problems that we have faced in India during the

course of 23 years of standardization work. The need for rapid industrialization and for catching up with economic development of the rest of the

world calls for foreign aid and foreign technology. This is a must, but

may I remind everybody with due respect and humility that foreign

technological know-how is a commodity of commerce. Therefore, the

country borrowing a technology selects it on a world-wide basis. It is a

competitive commodity and perhaps a country obtains the best technology

at which it thinks is the cheapest rate. However, there is always danger

in buying cheap. Apart from the quality and the nature of the technology

bought, it will happen that similar technologies are borrowed from

several countries. To remind you of India, our technology in steel came

from the USSR, from Germany, and from Great Britain. Unless care is taken

to develop a domestic standards institution, this results in the importation along with the technology of a diversity of standards for the same

materials, as used by different collaborative firms. Therefore, it is

at this juncture that a national body for standardization is most necessary;

yet it is more often than not conspicious by its absence at that time. I am very glad to see that Mr. Felleke has emphasized that point. We have

established an Asian Standards Advisory Committee to achieve a regional

approach to the problems of standardization. Our aim has not been so much

to develop regional standards but to give the effect of regional outlook

in the formulation of international standards. Perhaps it would be a good

idea to have regional approaches as Mr. Felleke has mentioned.

To Mr. Tarn I would suggest that it is a very good thing that the

Vietnam Institute for Standardization has developed into an autonomous

body, because in all countries, whether dictatorial or free enterprise,

standardization is developed by the consensus principle. Even in the USSR

there is a great deal of consultation before a standard is established.

Regarding training I would remind you that we in the Indian Standards

Institution have the facility of training foreign participants. We have

already trained 37 from as many as 12 countries in Asia and Africa, and

currently from the 11th of January, 14 more have begun our course.

Dr. Hiebert :

Let me comment on Dr. Ghosh's remarks concerning the nature of

technical assistance. We, at the National Science Foundation, are not in

an assistance-giving organization. We are, however, concerned with the

scientific community, particularly the academic scientific community, in

the USA. We also have an agreement with the AID through which we maintain

a small staff in India. We are concerned with the means of sharing know-how

and the means by which know-how is transferred from one country to another.

The technical communities of various countries have a great deal to gain

from interacting with each other, and really the sustaining force for

these interactions is not benevolence, but is rather the community of

interest and the mutual benefits that evolve from these interactions. I think the Indian Standards Institution profits by having trainees from

abroad, and I think every country profits from having foreign scientists

working in its various laboratories.

151

4S2-533 0 - 72 - 11
Dr. Brady :

Mr. Felleke has made a very clear analysis of the problems and needs

of standardization in the African states, and presented a definite program

for action. I should like to ask him what are the major obstacles to

following the action plan that he has outlined, and what sort of time-scale

he thinks will have to be followed to establish a well-coordinated regional

program in the African countries.

Mr. Felleke :

The policy issues are a matter for political decision. The major step

to be taken is the decision by the politicians that a national standards

body should be created. Once such a body is created, the provision of the

physical requirements and the financing needed for operation will be

controlled by the national budget. Some foreign technical assistance will

also be required. As far as regional cooperation is concerned, there is

a need to establish something like Dr. Ghosh suggested—an advisory committee

to investigate the regional requirements for standardization projects. Such

regional cooperation will essentially be a clearinghouse for projects

concerning standardization and for dissemination of information. In certain

instances , effort may be needed for elaborating standards at the subregional level for implementation at the national level. However, the big

decision has to be the political one —recognition of the standardization

effort and the establishment of a national standards organization. As far

as the time-scale is concerned, conscientious and concentrated efforts for

standardization progress are already being made in African countries.

Industrial development is a rapidly increasing sector of the economy; in

certain countries it is expanding at about 2 5% per year. To service this

activity you need standards, to plan it you need standards, from design

to distribution, so we should proceed with all urgency.

Mr. Arnold :

Let me comment that the regional approach seems logically to be the

inevitable approach for the reasons that Mr. Felleke has outlined, not only

in Africa, but in Latin America, both in the Andean group and in Central

America, and perhaps elsewhere. So this is a very important issue. How

do you make a regional approach work? We all know there could be many

expressions of political agreement that we should do this sort of thing,

but the real test comes when one has to support the activity with funding.

How are you funded? Is it totally from the government or is it partly

from other sources? Do you have a degree of independence from government

support such as Mr. Tarn talked about?

Mr. Felleke :

As far as financing is concerned, it is not clear what the purpose of

the regional standardization organization should be. Should it be only for

status, should it be a clearinghouse for projects or for the initiation of

standardization projects, or should it do research? We recently held an

ECA-UNIDO conference on standardization in Addis Ababa, and the recommendation of that seminar was to establish an advisory committee to survey the

African situation, and to seek the type of organization needed to support

such a program. This will be coming, I think; not fast, but it will be

coming. Once the membership supports an organization, I think a feasible

approach will be to create a sub-regional approach as an interim arrangement.

Perhaps for market requirements , we shall need the bigger base for industrial

development, and then the need to have regional cooperation becomes

inevitable.

152
Mr. Fontes

I believe that I could help to answer Mr. Arnold's question. The

Pan American Standards Committee (COPANT) is a private body supported by

all the national standards organizations in Latin America, and it is

operated with the objective of actually writing regional standards on the

basis of the contributions made by each national standards organization.

COPANT has put into operation a large number of committees integrated on a

voluntary basis. They actually prepare drafts of standards, circulate

them among the membership, and arrive at Pan American standard recommendations, when these are finally approved and signed by the members. In some

instances , contributors are private institutions , but money for this work

is provided by the government within the budget of the national institute.

The clear aim is to adjust individual national standards to a common

standard for all the countries who are members of COPANT. As another

example, we have the standardization organization known as the Central

American Research Institute for Industry (ICAITI) which performs the job for

all the countries that are members of that common market. Up to now it

has worked very well. ICAITI has already produced more than 250 original

standards with very active participation by these countries.

Dr. Ghosh :

This is another contribution to Mr. Arnold's question. Creation of

the Asian Standards Advisory Committee was accomplished with UNIDO/ECA

encouragement. This Committee has several objectives. First, to help

in the establishment of national standards bodies in countries where they

do not now exist. Secondly, to help augment the facilities for those which

have already been established but are not fully functioning, and thirdly,

to provide a means for consultation with one another. We have already

discussed five or six subjects in working groups, each with one of the

countries acting as leader. We took up the question of rubber, that of

rice, the question of tropical temperatures for testing, and several other

matters which were of general interest. Our objective was not so much to

prepare a general standard as to develop a general approach to the ISO

formulation of international standards. As I will explain in my paper, the

ISO recommendations are international, but there is very little contribution

to them from Asia, except from Japan, India, and Iran. We want our views

to be influential, too, in international discussion when they are topical,

dictated by tropical conditions, or by geographical position. In the case

of rubber, there is a Rubber Institute, but the grading has all been done

in the United Kingdom, where the user interest predominants . In consequence,

rubber grading is strongly oriented to the user and not to the producing

countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Ceylon, and India. We have

tried by correspondence to convey to the ISO a consultative regional view.

We have not talked about entering into regional standardization, and the

finances so far have come from the governments involved.

Mr. Felleke :

For the record, I would like to say that in the African region the

establishment of regional standardization organizations would not mean

doing away with national standards. We would still need national standards

bodies. The regional standardization organizations would only supplement

the activities of the national standards bodies.

Mr. Cali :

I direct this question to the delegates from the less developed countries —no one in particular. What, if anything, is being done in less

developed countries to encourage the formation of voluntary associations of

related industries to form organized groups to set methods of analysis,

establish test procedures, and to recommend specifications? I cite the

153
success of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) in the USA

in helping industry to advance in all areas of standardization. This

organization seems to point to a partial alternative to full or complete

standards activities by and through governmental process.

Dr. Ghosh :

So far as testing and materials are concerned, the work done here by

ASTM is done in India by the Indian Standards Institution, but we have

also been thinking about having a National Association of Testing Authorities

,

like the one described by Dr. Probine. We are trying to have testing so

coordinated that the testing authorities are recognized as the best people

to accomplish or advise on the tasks at hand. There is no separate body

like ASTM, nor is one contemplated in India.

Mr. Bayer :

I would like to add some details about the Central American Research

Institute for Industry (ICAITI). It offers several activities to industry

such as economic studies. It has industrial laboratories for testing and

quality control —all very modest of course. We have a geological division

and a standardization division. ICAITI is responsible for standardization

for the five Central American countries, and in this activity we operate

much as do other countries. We prepare a draft which is sent to each

country, to governmental and private enterprises, to industry, banks,

universities, and in fact, to all the people that have some known interest

in the standardization program. We in ICAITI are also a member of COPANT.

Its committees are located in one of the countries that are members of

COPANT, according to the facilities of the countries for work in the given

kinds of standards. Peru has some committees working on textiles and on

copper, Mexico has paper, and Central America has the vegetables and fruit

committee. We send drafts to all the countries for their comments, and

we attempt to include in our standards all their opinions and observations.

ICAITI is supported modestly by the five member countries. Only a part of

that support is going to the standardization program, because as I said

a few minutes ago, ICAITI has several activities. The same holds for

COPANT, which likewise has very modest contributions from each one of its

member countries, as explained by Mr. Fontes.

Adm. Maia :

I would like to add a comment to Mr. Cali's question, based on the

Brazilian experience with the problem of private standards associations.

We have a private national standard association that has worked for more

than thirty years. It has several associates both in industry and government. It has not yet done as much work as we really need, and the gap is

increasing. I would like to make clear that the work of producing norms

by such an organization is quite slow. I do not believe we can tolerate

that. We need professional standards writers. At the same time we must

not isolate them. So I think that a good half measure would be to have

these professionals work on drafts of the norms. They must be capable of

obtaining all the technical information from the rest of the world. Then

we can let the interested parties discuss the draft with the professional

standards writers. With this procedure we should be able to speed up the

production of norms. Funding depends a lot on the philosophy of the local

industries; if they have money enough to contribute voluntarily, that is

fine. If not, I think that the government has to step in and provide the

funds. The funds come from tax sources, anyway. I think that today

technology is changing so fast that there is no point in waiting for a

system that does not work.

Mr. Arnold :

I am glad to hear that the regional cooperation and the hope for

154
financial support are so good. The reason for my question really was the

basic reason for our meeting here this week, to try to learn from you in

which areas the AID program through NBS might be helpful. For instance,

which kind of people might benefit from some elaboration of the basic needs

for standards. I would ask you to consider not only the technical people,

but also the government planning people, those people who make the financial

decisions. Who are the people that would do a better job if they were

exposed to this kind of standards and quality control thinking?

Dr. Escobar :

There was a question sheet handed to most of the participants that

covers this matter and I am quite sure you will have much information

coming from that. (See Appendix 8.)

Dr. Probine :

I have a question that was raised in my mind by Mr. Felleke' s paper.

He stressed the importance of regional cooperation, and it seemed to me

that it would be a little easier to cooperate on a regional basis if there

was a good knowledge of the mutual situation in all of the countries that

were planning to cooperate. Let me therefore briefly mention the survey

which I am doing for UNESCO in Southeast Asia on precision measurement

facilities. (See also Appendix 4) It could be useful perhaps to tackle

this in other areas. UNESCO has asked me to look at precision measurement

facilities in the Philippines, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore,

and Indonesia. I prepared a questionnaire which I sent out 8 or 9 months

ago, and then, when most of the replies were in, I paid a personal visit

to the laboratories in the area. I am now prepared to return a draft

report to each country to see if it really does represent the situation

there, and then finally it will be published. Once published, it will be

basically a catalogue of what facilities exist in what countries , in what

institutions, and what those facilities are. The questionnaire covers

legislation for weights and measures ; the field that is covered by each

institution in the country; numbers of staff, professional, technical and

other; type of buildings that they have; and the type of equipment. I

did not want to limit this to facilities for national standards of length,

mass, temperature, and so on. I think you have to get a much finer subdivision than this, and I actually used the classification of the National

Association of Testing Authorities and of the British Calibration Service.

For example, in electrical standards, I asked for information on the range

over which a measurement could be made , the frequency where this was

appropriate, and the best measurement capability expressed as an uncertainty,

in the following areas: DC resistance, DC voltage, DC current, AC current,

AC voltage, AC power, capacity, and inductance; also the facilities for

calibrating voltage transformers, current transformers, and so on. I filled in a model reply for New Zealand to make sure that the questionnaire

was practical, and sent this out with the questionnaires so the people

who were answering it would have a model answer to go by. I have been

quite heartened by the amount of information which has come back from many

countries. I mention it here to suggest that if such information was

available for a number of countries in a region, then you would know what

was available where. This is the sort of information which can be used as

a basis for cooperation. I wonder whether Mr. Felleke would like to comment

on whether he thinks this sort of thing might be useful, say in Africa,

to facilitate the type of cooperation he spoke about.

Mr. Felleke :

Your experience, Dr. Probine, is really sound and I do not see any

reason why we should not benefit from such an undertaking. I think the

first step is to collect information. Based on that information, you can

plan for developing your activities. We should be grateful if you can

155
provide us with the questionnaire (See Appendix 4) so we can test it on our

own ground.

One other comment , Mr. Chairman, is based on the questions by Mr.

Arnold and Mr. Cali. A testing laboratory to fulfill the functions mentioned

might in the USA rely heavily on private institutions. As far as less

developed countries in this day are concerned, it is our ambition to

speed up our industrialization effort, and we will have to plan centrally.

For planning it is imperative that you have in your pocket the information

and the guidelines required. So, if industry is to be planned in consecutive

stages then you must provide guidelines for documentation; the standards

institution essentially provides these guidelines, so it has to be some type

of a government institution. We are interested in the speeding up of this

effort. We want to know what kinds of people, and what kinds of departments

and how many departments do you need to provide this action—perhaps a

ministry for planning, an institute for economics, and so on. The people

in Africa must be convinced that the industrialization effort provides the

necessary guidelines for rapid standardization.

Dr. Escobar :

We have been talking this morning about the financing for regional

standards or regional institutions. The Inter-American Development Bank is

a very successful regional institution, but I must offer a word of caution

about regional institutions from my experience in many years 1 work in the

central bank for the Central American countries. We have now an international

corporation for development and nevertheless we have not been very successful in implementing regionally operative institutions. The common market

in Central America has been put forward as an example of regional cooperation, but it is now having major difficulties. Our Bank finds it much

easier to help these countries on a national basis than on a regional basis.

I am speaking mainly of financing institutions. We have in Argentina the

only institution for integration for Latin America and we are supporting

it, but nevertheless I must warn our colleagues in Asia and Africa that

the path to regional integration as far as economics are concerned is a

very rough one. In a critical area like industry it can be very crucial,

and they are going to face that problem sooner or later.

Dr. Rohatgi :

It seems to me that information required by technologists and scientists

in different countries does not greatly depend upon climates as do other

commodities, so that it can be standardized and exchanged at savings to

everyone. Facing the explosion in technical knowledge with limited resources,

we at the universities have difficulty in keeping all of current research

at our finger tips. We would very much like to have an international

clearinghouse where we could send a subject title, and get at least a

listing of the information available on that subject. Does such a facility

exist in the U.S. information service to entertain requests from foreign

countries?

Mr. Knox :

I believe it is pertinent to the interests of the less developed

countries here that I should expand a bit on the services offered by the

National Technical Information Service (NTIS). It started as a vehicle for

government agencies in the USA to announce their technical reports. We

still publish the announcement journal that comes out every two weeks. It

has the abstracts of all of the reports that we collected during that twoweek period. A comparable volume is an index volume to all of those same

reports. Currently our announcement and collection efforts are being

expanded to cover other kinds of agencies, not necessarily U.S. Government

agencies. In the 50 states in our country, we have many economic development organizations. They are concerned, as the countries here are concerned,

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with promoting local industrial development. They need a common mechanism

for exchanging recorded information, so we are now working with the

association of state development agencies to act as their announcement

medium. Their reports then will be announced by NTIS under such topics as

urban planning, testing methods, test facilities, or similar topics of

interest to economic development. We also act as a vehicle to announce

reports generated by intergovernmental bodies. The OECD's road research

program reports for instance will be included in this journal before too

long. For some years now we have announced and made available the publications of the International Tariff Commission in Brussels, who asked this

because of the audience which receives our announcement journal. There

are about 8,000 subscribers to that journal, located all over the world.

They are primarily in business and in industry, and there are also some

academic institutions interested in economic development. If there is

some reason for NTIS to provide a similar announcement, indexing, and

report distribution function for the less developed countries, we would

certainly be willing to give it very serious consideration.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

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SESSION 5 - PROMOTING MORE EFFECTIVE USE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Paper 5.1 - Overview - The Role of NBS Capabilities

F. Karl Willenbrock, Director

Institute of Applied Technology

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 20234

I think I easily qualify as the most junior member of the NBS staff,

having been in my present role for all of two whole months. So when I

review the capabilities of NBS in front of several generations of the

Bureau's Directors, you know that I am really sticking my neck out. However,

since I have been given the overview role, what I would like to do is to

take the opportunity to impose upon this audience some of my own prejudices,

and some of my own definitions of terms, so that at least we will be using

terms which mean the same to all of us.

The major topic that I would like to address is the effective use of

science and technology. To make sure that we are all talking the same

language I shall concern myself mostly with the physical sciences. Also

I will be distinguishing between science, as an understanding of the natural

world, and technology which is more concerned with the actual and socially

useful applications of science. We are chiefly concerned about the civilian

sector and therefore with the civilian-oriented technologies. As soon as

we talk about technologies and talk about them in a civilian-oriented way,

we immediately come to the first significant point I'd like to make, and

that is that while science is independent of culture, technologies are not.

Therefore, when we talk about technologies in different countries, we are

really talking about different things. Technology is dependent upon the

society in which it is to be used, and therefore there is no such thing as

a single global technology. Technologies will differ among nations because

social usefulness is different in the various countries. Customs and

characteristics are not the same, and I would certainly hope that the more

widespread use of technology would not have the unfortunate side-effect of

homogenizing the cultures which exist in different countries. I do not

think that will happen, but the inappropriate wholesale transfer of technology to very different cultures could lead to that unfortunate result.

The rich varieties of culture which characterize the many nations of the

world should certainly be preserved. It would be most undesirable, in

making technology more available in different countries, if we just go to

the countries that have the most developed capability in a particular field

and say: "Let us reproduce these capabilities in other countries of the

world." I see the task as one that is a lot more creative than that, and

the real job is, how do you apply science and develop technology in a way

that satisfies the aspirations and the needs of the particular area with

which you are concerned.

This is not a simple task and it is not a static task. The needs and

aspirations of most peoples and of most countries vary with time; they are

very sensitive to the availability of new goods and new services. For

example, before World War II there were not many countries that had an identified need for large-scale computing capabilities, yet today this is

desired, demanded, and needed by all major industries and government

agencies. Of course, there was need for information handling, but this need

has taken on a different role and a different magnitude. I am sure you

realize that the procedures, the products, and the services of the organizations which have learned to use computing machines have been affected in

very fundamental ways. So with other technologies —not only are they

culture-sensitive, but they also have an impact on culture, and there is

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a mutual interaction between the cultures and the technology.

There are a number of technologies which I believe are important to all

countries. Clearly, a country needs workable communications systems, workable transportation systems, workable power systems. They also need adequate

housing. They need an ability to deliver health services. While these may

take different forms in different areas, there is a need for each one of them.

However, to look at some other technologies, it is not at all clear that every

country needs a space program. It is not at all clear that every country

even needs an automotive industry. So while there are technologies which

are clearly of importance in every country, there are other technologies

which I feel could be skipped by some countries because other nations are

putting a lot of time and effort into them.

I would like to discuss in detail a recent example of the development

of communication technology in an underdeveloped area. This took place in

Alaska, one of the newest of the 50 states. A program was undertaken by

the Technical Analysis Division of NBS which was very interesting because

it led to some rather significant results. The study was initiated in

part by the anticipated sale of the Alaskan communications system to a

private organization, and so the State of Alaska asked the Department of

Commerce to examine its telecommunication system and predict its future requirements with relation to its economic growth. This to me was an interesting example of the strong interplay between the technological development,

the economic pattern, and the geographic characteristics of the country.

In particular, the prospective plans on the part of the private organization

for making improvements in the system were to be evaluated in terms of the

needs of the people of the State. In Alaska, in addition to the relatively

well-developed centers of Anchorage and Fairbanks, there are also a number

of very small towns and villages in other parts of the State. Although

the small communities are relatively poor revenue producers for a communications system, there is certainly a crucial need for their inhabitants to

have adequate communications with other areas. It does not appear feasible

to use the types of systems which have been used in the 48 states having

contiguous boundaries. Several methodologies were developed in this study,

and I will mention them as an example of the type of thing which is needed

when a familiar technology is to be studied for a new area. A close look

was taken at the nature of the future demands for long-distance phone

services. This was based on historical data on the long-distance traffic

and its relationship to such variables as the population and its economic

status. These were projected forward, and a model was developed to make

some useful predictions about what kinds of facilities should be used.

From these considerations, a technique for judging peakload demand was

developed and the circuit requirements were estimated reasonably well'

The final package will recommend a telecommunications program for the State

of Alaska for the next ten years. As a result of this study, the purchaser

of the Alaskan system has proposed a combined satellite and land-line

communication system. The satellite component is intended to enhance the

flexibility for covering more of the social needs, such as educational television, and the opening of a ground station at Talkeetna is the first link

in the system. Part of this study was on the impact of the development of

the oil resources on the north shore. Special consideration was given to

that and there was also a specific recommendation for the relatively unexplored central region of the State.

I wanted to talk about this particular example because it illustrates

many points about a technological application to a relatively underdeveloped

area. There was the definition of a problem and the definition of

> a specific

objective to be reached. It required essentially a systems analysis approach.

The detailed knowledge of current hardware capabilities are coupled with

estimates of the future technology and of the needed software capability.

The study brought together a number of specialized areas of knowledge with

a number of specialized disciplines. This example typifies the approach that

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I feel would be most effective in the forward planning of developing

countries. In this approach one considers in a very direct way the social

and economic aspects as well as the technical aspects of the problem.

I would expect that NBS will undertake an increasing number of studies

which will assess technological needs and then assess means of meeting these

needs. There are quite a few capabilities in the NBS for doing this sort

of thing, and I think one of the jobs ahead of us is to learn how to do

such studies and how to do them well. NBS represents a wide gamut of

technical and scientific capabilities and if these can be effectively

married to the techniques of operations research and systems analysis,

then I think we can be very useful both in the United States and throughout

the world. I would like to recommend this approach for the application

of technologies in widely different circumstances.

A follow-on to this type of approach might be studies in what we call

technological forecasting. In many developing countries, as well as in the

United States, there is a strong need for a better ability to predict what

the technological future is apt to be like. This is clearly a speculative

task, but there is good indication that this type of effort can be of

significant value in forward planning. I would hope that this capability

could be made available to developing countries as they seek means to

develop their own resources, achieve a favorable export-import balance, and

acquire part of the world market. The job of forecasting in this area

requires a broad scope of knowledge, because the assessment of world markets

is by any measure very difficult, particularly where assessment of political

stability is required. I do not mean to imply that all these capabilities

reside in NBS, but I do indicate that there is the desire to develop them

and to see whether they can be applied in a systematic fashion to the needs

of less developed countries.

I would like now to mention some of the rather specific areas in which

technical assessment and technical forcasting of the type I have been

describing would be valuable. Many countries, including the U. S. A., are

concerned with how best to develop a national capability for achieving a

favorable economic condition. In the United States one of our major assets

is the uniformity of the everyday standards of weights and volumetric

measures used in the marketplace. In fact, the head of the Office of Weights

and Measures said to me a little while ago that the NBS is a spin-off from

this Office. However, NBS does not carry out the field inspections which

insure uniformity. This is done by the 50 state governments, each having

its own agency for that purpose. Officials of these agencies are given

much help and guidance through an annual conference hosted by NBS. Here

is a case where a fairly simple idea has made a very important contribution

to the economic health of the U. S. A. Since there is a uniform system of

weights and measures, there is a national market, and that is very important.

I have come to have a new appreciation for this after looking at the great

diversity of building codes and standards that regulate housing construction

in the United States. Here we have an example of the opposite situation,

where lack of uniformity has resulted in the inability to develop a national

market for new housing materials and new housing technologies. This results

in part from the division of responsibility among states and local communities for the regulatory function; there are something like 5000 jurisdictional

areas involved. I cite this example from the United States as one in which

I feel there is a great need for development. We hope that our Building

Research Division will make a direct contribution here through its work

on the criteria for structural performance and its evaluation of some 2 2 types of construction designed by private industry to meet those criteria.

There are many other activities in which NBS has developed procedures

and techniques which might serve as a model for providing technical assistance to industries in developing countries. You have heard from Dr.

Kushner about the measurement analysis program for mass and voltage. You

161
have heard about the standard reference materials program from Mr. Cali,

and about the standard reference data system from Dr. Kushner. Another

area in which NBS is starting to move is in the verification of the

capabilities of testing laboratories. The ASTM, represented at this seminar

by President Smith and Secretary Cavanaugh, has carried on this activity

for certain building materials for several years. However, in the very

important field of product safety and product performance, there will need

to be an expansion of existing laboratory capabilities. The examination of

their test procedures will be an important part of this development. NBS

has checked reference samples of both cementitious and bituminous materials

using its Research Associates to work with ASTM and with the Federal Highway

Program. Inspection systems have been set up, and there is a current

program to try to develop a valid process for evaluating laboratories and

their testing procedures.

Another area of NBS activity which could be of importance to developing

countries is its cooperation with the many professional and trade associations which write voluntary standards in this country. ASTM has already

been mentioned as one of these. Another organization, which serves chiefly

as a coordinator, is the American National Standards Institute. Voluntary

standards have played a very important role in the development of the

technology of this country. Both NBS and the standards writing organizations

might well explore ways in which their methods and documents could be made

more relevant to local economic geographic, and climatic conditions in

other parts of the world. Assistance of this kind could be extended to

developing new tests and new laboratory procedures.

I have been describing some directions in which I hope NBS will take

an increasingly effective role in making science and technology more effective within the U. S. A. Perhaps this seminar will leave you with the

impression that there are a number of specific areas in which standardization operations in the U. S. A. are well coordinated, and sound technologies are being built on this foundation. To me, it is of greater concern

that as a result of meetings and discussions at meetings of this type that

there could be new ways for developing the capabilities of NBS, not only for

doing work of this type in this country, but also in other countries.

There is much to be gained from transferring new science and technology and

applying them to a wide variety of circumstances. If NBS develops the

capabilities for working effectively with less developed countries, it

will have the very important side effect of helping NBS do a better job in

assisting the industries of the U. S. A.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

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SESSION 5 - PROMOTING MORE EFFECTIVE USE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Paper 5.2 - Applying the Computer

James P. Nigro

Center for Computer Science and Technology

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 20234

The first automatically internally programmed electronic computer

named SEAC (Standards Eastern Automatic Computer) was developed by NBS.

It became operational in 1950, when there were only five or six electronictype computers in existence in this country, and one or two in England.

Following its conception, fabrication and debugging, it fostered some of the

earlier applications of computer usage in solving some of the day's problems,

whether caused by technology or by man himself, or by his way of life.

Some of the early mathematical routines used in modern computer programs

were conceived on SEAC with only four thousand words of slow-speed memory.

Early work on lens design, skew rays and digitalization of pictures all

contributed to the basic foundation of present computer utilization. To

my knowledge, ours was the first application of a computer in the resource

management area for the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts of the United

States Navy.

The greatest factor responsible for the rapid growth of computers in

today's world was the introduction and economical availability of reliable

solid-state components in the late 1950 decade. In 1950 there were six or

eight computers. As of now, if you believe in the reporting system, which

is one of our great problems in managing a large resource such as this,

the United States Government operates 5000 computers. I do not believe we

have an accurate count of the computers in use in all segments of our

economy, but it is surely in excess of 30,000. This does not include the

new types of mini-computers which are being widely used in laboratories

and shops.

In 19 6 5 NBS was charged by the Congress to conduct a program aimed

at improving the utilization of automatic data processing (ADP) within

the Federal Government. When one starts a program such as this, he usually

begins a standardization effort, but a standard for ADP is altogether

different from one for measuring the volt or the kilogram. One of the

first standards developed was in response to the prevailing question asked

by Congress and various other agencies: How do you transfer information from

one activity to another without reworking it, since you may not even be

able to read the magnetic tape on which the information is placed? To

answer this question, we promulgated a standard code which is a binary

representation of the alphanumeric symbols and the control signals that one

uses in describing data and information for input to a computer system.

We have issued 14 or 15 standards to date, which are known as Federal

Information Processing Standards.

We do some research and development, but our main effort is in the

field of applied development. One recent interesting accomplishment was

the development of a computer-controlled scanning microscope which is in

use at the National Institutes of Health for cancer cell research. For

several years the Center has participated with various research groups in

the NBS laboratories in the interfacing of unique equipment with data

collection devices, to accelerate the speed, refine the accuracy, and improve the decision process depending on the measurement readings.

The ADP standards activity has been based upon developing a document

163
or a physical item for use in the factory to make sure that products produced

met the specifications. Performance measurement has been pursued by NBS for

some time. How do you measure the performance of a wall without specifying

material and construction techniques? Again, how do you measure the performance of a computer system? It is very important to obtain maximum utilization to tell whether your computer system is doing the job that it is

intended to do with the information you are trying to store and manipulate.

We have two programs underway in this area. One of them is to measure the

performance of time-sharing systems without inconveniencing the user at the

keyboard during the measurement process. The other program involves the

generation of a library of programs to test the performance of COBOL

(Common Business Oriented Language) offered by the suppliers. So far, we

have had fairly good results from the measurement of some time-shared

systems selected from those now available.

Teleprocessing is a subset of communications that employs a communication network to link computers and users together. It may use telephone

lines, satellites, or microwave propagation. In this emerging technology

we will find a new wealth of tools to manage the ecology, the natural

resources and the general welfare of a population. One example we are

studying is the quality and availability of medical information on a

demand-access basis, in other words, an immediate response to a request for

relevant information. Teleprocessing will eventually provide such services

to remotely located medical units, through a network of computers containing

medical histories, diagnostics and facts relating to the general health of

a nation's people.

What can the computer do for a country relying on electrical power

as its primary source of energy? It is obvious that as any country adopts

the beneficial features of technology it must acquire an electrical power

system. One can use a computer to simulate loads, make predictions, and

so forth. A few power companies do have a computer actually in the net

to do load switching, but by and large, this is just beginning. Computer

manufacturers will be fostering more automatic load-sharing and prediction.

Now, what can NBS do for countries in need of assistance, guidance,

and maybe direct hands-on experience with the computer? NBS has a guest

worker program wherein a country sends a scientist or technologist to us

for a predetermined length of time. The sponsoring country or an international organization or the AID pays his salary and his transportation,

and he becomes one of our staff, working side by side with our researchers

or analysists for a year or two. Then he returns to his country and

applies the knowledge gained during the association with us. This has been

a very successful program. The Center has had guest workers from both

France and Japan.

We at NBS have already participated and will in the future probably be

involved to a greater extent in what I call advisory visits to specific

foreign countries. NBS staff members have been to Brazil, Colombia, and

Greece within the last two years. In these three countries our main

activity has been in providing advice to the governments on the type of

computing facility or computer center in which they should invest. Our

recommendations have concerned two of the prime applications of a computer,

namely, a population census and resource management. These may be considered

the foundation upon which to build a more sophisticated system capable of

performing detailed analyses for industrialization and market expansion.

I heard one speaker this morning talk about laboratories. Some of

the smaller computers and related techniques can assist in improving

laboratory measurement programs to achieve more measurements per hour of

bench time. If you want to be visionary, you may in the future send

computerized information from your measurements laboratory through a communications system back to NBS in the matter of a few minutes. Included

164
in the results will be measurements on standards previously provided, which

permit the determination of deviations or errors in procedures. This is a new concept which NBS is investigating and is a possible way to insure

improved instrument calibration.

How do you go about obtaining a computer? First off, you should identify a specific task that you know can be accomplished and for which there

exists a valid need. The first problem you will face is what computer

should I get? We talk about generations of computers —first, second, third,

fourth; I think we are somewhere around three and one-half today. The

current generation computers are quite powerful machines , containing the

new monolithic circuitry in lieu of magnetic cores for storage, and

internal logic for parallel processing. You must specify the system

capabilities you require, then go to the computer industry. This is one of

the hardest steps in the system acquisition procedure. Manufacturers will

tend to indicate that they can meet your requirements if you will buy

certain trade-offs which may be on either the plus or the minus side. We

can provide guidance for writing a good procurement document for the

purchase or lease of computer systems.

Time-sharing operation permits a user in a remote location who has an

interactive terminal, consisting of a keyboard input and television tube

or hard copy output, to obtain access to the information in a computer

which may be several hundred miles away. If you are contemplating a system

to handle data on resources like those for agricultural production or

mineral reserves, should you go to the conventional batch operation with a roomful of tape transports, operators and card punchers, or should you go

the time-shared route? In certain cases, you might be better off to adopt

the network and remote computer concept, because once you invest heavily

in many man-hours of writing programs and organizing data into the format

required for the batch machine, you probably will have many problems to

solve when you want to convert to a time-shared system in the future.

Therefore, you should look at this concept, and I think the computer

community will be glad to discuss the pros and cons related to each of the

two approaches.

There are other applications of the computer in technology utilization,

such as education. This is an important field but it has a long way to go,

and for the moment I believe the use of educational TV at the proper level

fills the present need. In another three or four years we will see a

breakthrough in the use of teleprocessing in the educational process.

There are other areas where one can advantageously use the computer

in economic development, such as city planning, railroad locations, communications systems and highways. In this area there is a marriage between

the program analyst, the operations researcher and the computer engineer.

We provide the tool to carry out analyses and can produce fast valid answers

on models this group wants to test for various applications. I believe our

Center's knowledge of the field, coupled with the assistance of the Technical

Analysis Division in Dr. Willenbrock * s organization, can give any country

direct assistance in computer selection, data management, and the most

suitable type of software. Software consists of two basic languages,

COBOL, the business language, and FORTRAN, used in mathematics and science.

Also we can assist in advising you on what kinds of people you need, and

how you provide training for them when you acquire a system.

So to sum it up, when you decide to go the computer route, pick a well

defined project, select the most responsive supplier, make sure that he

provides good training, and above all, adequate service and spare parts.

There will be consternation unless you are assured of responsive and adequate

logistic support to prevent costly downtime until a replacement item is

received from the manufacturer.

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NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.
SESSION 5 - PROMOTING MORE EFFECTIVE USE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Paper 5.3 - Problems in Industrial and Technological

Research in Ghana

E. Lartey, Director

Institute of Standards and Industrial Research

Accra, Ghana

In the process of advancing from a developing economy to a developed

economy, a developing country goes through two noticeable stages. The

first is the stage when the industrial processing of its agricultural or

mineral raw materials is left to other countries and it imports the manufactured products it requires. The next stage is one in which it

endeavors to put a growing proportion of its own labor into the commodities

which it exports and, at the same time, meets a growing proportion of its

own needs for manufactured products by means of local industry. A developing country endeavoring to improve its economy cannot successfully do so

if it neglects the technical aspects of economic independence. It has been

generally recognized that sound industrialization must proceed simultaneously with agricultural expansion. Indeed, industrialization has come to be

considered almost as an unfailing panacea for the economic problems of

developing countries. The late Pandit Nehru is quoted as having said in a

speech in March 19 53 that "real economic progress must depend on industrialization." Professor Gunnar Myrdal, the famous Swedish economist, says in

his book "An International Economy" that "industrialization and the growth

of that part of the working population that is engaged in industry,

constitute a means of raising national income per capita."

Economic thought within the last decade has identified technological

innovation as the single most dynamic factor in the growth of modern

economies. True independence of a country, in the present day world,

requires a national technological capability sufficient to allow it to

exploit effectively all its available resources. To make productive use of

the world's technological knowledge, a nation must equip itself with the

necessary structures, institutions, and policies. In Ghana, a program of

industrialization has therefore been embarked upon with a view to solving,

in particular, the country's foreign exchange problems. Two main areas of

activity that have been broadly identified in this regard are the

production of import substitutes and the manufacture of products for export.

Industrialization needs three basic elements, namely, studies and

research (technological and socio-economic), decisions from a proper

authority (public or private sector), and implementation of these decisions.

Research, scientific, technological, or socio-economic, is an essential

instrument in developing the human and material resources of a nation. In

particular, industrial research is of basic significance in laying the

foundation for a sound industrial base and in accelerating the economic

growth of developing countries. It is an effective tool for obtaining and

maintaining a high level of economic development. Technological innovation

is imperative if a nation is to raise its standard of living and keep

moving its relative position in a technologically advancing world, and it

is on industrial research that innovation in industry depends. It is only

when industry recognizes this role of research, and begins to use research,

that it will be able to grow rapidly and contribute effectively to overall

national economic growth. The basic purpose of industrial research is to

provide industry with a technology which is responsive to local factors

of production and to the peculiarities of the market. Industrial research

is therefore vital for sound industrial development. It enables industries

to do better at what they are already engaged on, and it provides information

167

452-533 O - 72 - 12
for embarking on new activities.

A brief statement in general terms on the functions of industrial

research will facilitate the appreciation of the problems involved. The

functions of industrial research and development include discovery of new

products; prospecting for and utilization of raw materials; development,

improvement, or adaptation of production methods, techniques, processes or

equipment; pilot-plant trials; formulation of standards; quality control;

market research; feasibility studies; design studies; and productivity

studies. Industrial research should cater for all types of industry,

regardless of size, public as well as private, using such different methods

of approach as are necessary. It should develop technologies best suited

to local needs and conditions.

Attention should also be paid to the whole range of activities by which

scientific, technical, and economic knowledge may be transferred into

industrial practice to bridge the gap between industrial research and

development, and the actual utilization of the results thereof. Often

the rate at which research results are applied by industry is slow. This

may be due to several reasons, among which are the lack of effective

communication between research and industry; the lack of technical manpower;

and economic as well as procedural difficulties. With a view to the

speedy application of its results , industrial research should not be

conducted in isolation, but in relation to the practical needs and requirements of industrial development. The research organization can only meet

its responsibilities towards the nation by being fully associated with

national industrial development objectives. An important function is

therefore to provide close contact between the problems of commercial

production and the conduct of industrial research, and to promote the

closest cooperation between research groups all the way from laboratory to

pilot-plant operation and on to commercial production.

During the past decade a series of symposia, both regional and interregional, have been held under United Nations sponsorship on the subject of

industrial research and development. Notable among these are the InterRegional Seminar on Industrial Research and Development Institutes in

Developing Countries (Beirut, Lebanon, November-December 1964), Symposium

on Industrial Development in Africa (Cairo, January-February 1966),

Conference on Industrial Development in Arab Countries (Kuwait, March 1966),

Latin American Symposium on Industrial Development (Santiago, March 1966),

and the Workshop for Managers of Industrial Research Institutes (Athens,

July 1967). Throughout all these seminars it was recognized that most

of the industrialization of the developed countries could be traced back

to technological research; and it was generally agreed that for successful

industrialization it is essential that even a small nation have at least one

institute with laboratories designed to serve industry in general. Ghana

has one such institute within its Council for Scientific and Industrial

Research, CSIR, namely, the Institute of Standards and Industrial Research,

ISIR. This Institute works in three of the four main areas that usually

characterize industrial research institutions —namely engineering sciences,

physical sciences and techno-economic sciences.

The more significant problems that have been encountered in the

execution of industrial and technological research in Ghana may be listed

under finance, manpower, and equipment. Finance is the most dominant, and

has an impact on all the other problems. The main sources of funds are

government and industry. In the circumstances of developing countries at

virtually the initial stages of industrialization, it can readily be

appreciated that industrial and technological research cannot expect much

financing from industry. In all the UN-sponsored symposia mentioned

earlier, it was the consensus that in all less developed countries, governments should accept the responsibility of providing adequate financial

support on a long-term basis to their industrial research institutes , so

as to ensure continuity in their work and to permit them to fulfill their

168
basic objectives. The acceptance by government of this responsibility

will no doubt stem from a recognition by government of the important role

of industrial and technological research in the economy of the nation.

Earlier in this paper it has been shown that industrial and technological

research is a prerequisite for sound industrialization. The role of

industrialization in raising the living standards of the people, increasing

productivity and ensuring stability in the national economy has also been

stated. It has been shown that real economic progress depends in a large

measure on industrialization. It can therefore be said that the benefits

of industrial and technological research to the nation are clear, and

government might not find it difficult to recognize this. I would indeed

say that investment in industrial research is in fact a sound investment

in industry and even in the future of the nation.

As to manpower, these industrial and technological research and

development institutes must be staffed with the most highly qualified

personnel at all levels. An institute cannot function successfully with

a staff inferior to that of the enterprises it expects to advise. Skilled

manpower is in short supply. In Ghana, as is common in developing countries,

skilled manpower is needed both for the adaptation of imported technologies,

and for the establishment and operation of local technologies.

Here I might mention a fact that is not often appreciated. Foreign

technology may be abundant. But the form of the technology used in richer

and more technologically advanced countries —with their better supplies of

administrative, scientific and technical manpower and capital—is often

inappropriate. Much foreign technology requires adaptation to suit local

environment--a fact which clearly illustrates the need for on-the-spot

organized research and development.*

To keep the correct emphasis in research and development institutes it

is wise to employ not only scientists and engineers to supply basic information and to do technical development, but also social scientists to

analyze costs and markets and to find appropriate means of selling the

research and development outputs. Applying science for growth requires

attention to the two faces of innovation—technical and social.

Closely associated with the manpower problem is the lack of technological

"know-how" and industrial experience. A number of steps are usually taken

towards solving the problem posed by manpower shortage and its associated

difficulties. These include accelerated training programs for indigenous

personnel and the importation of qualified foreign staff. In the importation

of foreign staff, difficulties are sometimes experienced in obtaining

experts of the type and with the qualifications and experience required, or

in obtaining them within a reasonable time to meet the demands of the

program. Direct recruitment in this regard is hampered further by reason

of unattractive remuneration and other service conditions. Several schemes

of bilateral and international technical assistance have been launched

with varying degrees of success. In these schemes emphasis has been laid

on assistance in the initial organizational stages, counterpart training,

and the provision of individual specialists for specific work. The great

value of external technical aid is appreciated. It should, however, be

recognized that external technical aid can not be a substitute for the

development of local staff. Serious attention should therefore be paid to

training programs both internal and external for indigenous personnel. Such

training programs are of extreme importance and should be strengthened

where necessary.

Stanley Teele of Harvard University (Division of Research) in his

* Editor's Footnote: See Paper 2.4 for a fuller treatment of this topic.

169
publication entitled "Technological Planning on the Corporate Level" states:

"I think that the premium on imagination, on flexibility, on the capacity

to deal with questions that have never been asked before, will be very much

more substantial than it has been in the past. I think that the capacity

to deal with new knowledge effectively, new knowledge that is piling up at

a rate that is hard to exaggerate, is of utmost consequence. It demands

the capacity not only to acquire and use knowledge, but also to discriminate

carefully with respect to what does not need to be acquired and what

should be avoided." The manpower for industrial and technological research

should possess these qualities, and it would be wrong to assume that any

science graduate is automatically a potential research man. The type of

scientist acceptable for research would be an honors graduate in those

disciplines most required, namely, chemistry, engineering, or physics, with

a post-graduate degree (or training by research in an applied scientific

field) and at least one to two years in an industry of specified specialization or in an industrial research institute. It is necessary that the

applied scientist should have had prior university training in research

methods and techniques. It is also necessary that as soon as practicable

after the acquired background in a university atmosphere he should be

exposed to the industrial disciplines of time, money and reward.

Problems of equipment are those of finance, procedural delays associated

with purchase, selection of the right type of equipment, adaptation of

equipment and local instrumentation and improvisation. In the equipping

of laboratories and the setting-up of facilities for research and development, it is also necessary to include adequate repair and maintenance

facilities, workshops, and skilled technicians. These pose additional

problems of availability of spares both in quantity and in time. The

experience of similar research institutions in countries with reasonably

similar industrial conditions can be useful in solving some of the selection

and adaptation problems connected with laboratory equipment and facilities.

The proven benefits of standardizing in plant and machinery can also be

brought to play on the problems of variety and availability of spares.

A real problem, however, exists in various laboratories with regard

to the maintenance, repair, and replacement of scientific equipment. This

is due to two main reasons: the difficulty of obtaining spare parts

quickly (due to shortage of foreign exchange) and the paucity of instrument

technicians. Serious attention is therefore invited to the need for local

instrumentation and improvisation. The habit of pursuing the line of leastresistance, by studying all available manufacturers' brochures or shopping

all round the manufacturing world in order to select and purchase even the

simplest requirement in laboratory equipment, needs to be drastically

modified. I have in mind the needs in Ghana of the Glass Blowing Unit within

the CSIR; there is also the Instrument Calibration Unit in the ISIR

also within the CSIR; there is the Science Workshop at Legon. A recent

survey has shown a few other facilities elsewhere. A determined effort

should be made to weave these into an "Instrumentation Service" with a

central point for receipt and administration of requests. This will provide

services in research apparatus manufacture, the design and manufacture of

prototype scientific apparatus, the training of instrument technicians, and

instrument repair. There can be no doubt that this will be of practical

benefit to science and technology in the country.

In conclusion I would like to refer to the Inter- Regional Seminar on

Industrial Research and Development Institutes in Developing Countries

organized by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)

in Beirut, Lebanon, November-December 1964, which I attended, and to

invite active attention to the recommendations made by that Seminar, which

I quote hereunder:

"1. Developing countries should take the necessary steps as soon as

possible to establish appropriate industrial research and develop170
ment facilities or to strengthen existing ones on lines most

applicable to the practical requirements and national development

goals

;

"2. With due recognition of the importance of basic research, the

emphasis of these research institutes should be upon applied

research and development programmes fully oriented toward the

needs of industry;

"3. Industrial research and development institutes should be given

the greatest possible autonomy to enable them to function in the

most efficient manner; without the inhibitive influence of ordinary

government procedures and restrictions which are generally

incompatible with the needs of successful research operation;

"4. Personnel engaged in research and development should be rewarded

on a scale that will at all times enable the research institutes

to engage and retain the best personnel to be found and to ensure

their complete devotion to the work;

"5. Government of developing countries should be called upon to accept

full responsibility for the provision of adequate financial support

on a long-term basis to their industrial research institutes to

ensure continuity in their work and to enable them to fulfill

their basic objectives;

"6. Equipment and supplies of all kinds needed for industrial research

should be exempted from customs duties and taxes, should not be

subject to import restrictions or licence, and should be allocated

adequate foreign exchange in all cases

;

"7. The United Nations should enlarge its programme to assist

developing countries ' directly in (a) on-the-spot studies of

industrial research and development organizations or needs in

individual countries with a view to establishing and/or strengthening such institutions and their operating links with industry,

(b) the implementation of such studies, including the establishment,

equipping and operating of such institutions and the training of

industrial research personnel;

"8. The United Nations should study, keep under review, and disseminate

information on the organizational aspects, functioning and programmes of the various industrial research and development institutes

and similar organizations or departments, with a view to facilitating the interchange of such information between different countries.

The United Nations should also assist in the interchange of visits

between industrial research personnel in different countries."

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

171

SESSION 5 - PROMOTING MORE EFFECTIVE USE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Paper 5.4 - Implementing Metrology through Operations

Analysis and Systems Engineering

S. E. Russek, Jr.

Program Manager

Calibration Programs

Hughes Aircraft Company

Field Service and Support Division

If we accept that metrology is the art or science of precision measurements, then do we have a term for injecting metrology into the functional

world? I think we do in the one word, "calibration."

A calibration system is an orderly set of rules and procedures that

provide the assurance that metrology is being properly implemented and tests

are certifiable through higher levels of accuracy to your national standards.

I will assume we are all aware of the need for national standards.

Now that we have a term for implementing metrology, what is the

significance of operations analysis and systems engineering? When we

calibrate, we are accomplishing a test to validate the performance of the

unit under test. This can be done as a separate check, or as a regular step

for controlled maintenance. However, no matter how it is done we want top

accuracy at lowest cost, i.e., an optimum system. One widely accepted

approach to problem solving is known as "system engineering." The idea is

to look at the whole system at the same time one is looking at each element

of which it is composed and at those with which it interacts. This

system engineering approach has in recent technological times allowed us

to achieve optimum solutions to highly complex and involved situations. The

other tool is operations analysis , which scientifically and/or mathematically

is addressed to the needs or goals of the problem in context with all of the

elements that are contributing to or detracting from these goals.

How do these techniques pertain to metrology and to calibration? The

United States has a highly developed national standards system. It also

has a number of very complex and extensive calibration systems to bring the

national measurement references to the user. Our national standards and the

related calibration systems have evolved with user technology advances , and

were built piece by piece as needs arose. The system engineering approach

was not used, as such, from the outset. However, we do call upon operations

analysis from time to time in an attempt to look at the picture with

optimization as a goal.

Now, let us return to the theme of this symposium, which pertains to

metrology related to less developed nations. Here we have a situation where

technologies have been developed by the industrialized nations, and a less

developed nation is trying to enter this advanced world. There is little

time to evolve a system. An emerging nation already has definite metrology

needs since it is probably operating jet aircraft, manufacturing complex

electronics, involved in extensive trade with the world, and maintaining an

effective military establishment with modern weapons. We at Hughes Aircraft

Company, who are involved with calibration programs, think that such a

situation demands the operations analysis and systems engineering approach.

We feel that this approach not only achieves the desired results earlier,

but saves money and provides for efficient expansion as new technological

demands are imposed on the system.

Let us discuss some specifics of this approach. The key to optimization

173
is a detailed analysis of the working level needs. These realistic needs

are traced through various levels of a conceptual calibration system to the

national standards. At each level of support in the conceptual system,

an optimizing process takes place so that when the process is complete, the

entire system is structured in an optimum manner. All of the working level

needs will be satisfied with a minimum of equipment and personnel, and

measurements will be certifiable regarding traceability to the national

standards

.

In performing this task, systems engineering techniques must be

employed to consider such things as geographical densities, facilities,

equipment, spare parts, repairs, procedures, controls, organization, workload

scheduling, recall system and many many others.

One consideration, which lies on the periphery of systems engineering,

is an optimum implementation schedule. For reasons stated before, a newly

developing nation emerges relatively rapidly and the potential for waste and

loss of efficiency is great. Precision measuring equipment is expensive,

and one or two bad purchases that do not materially contribute to the workload will waste limited funds. Also, trained personnel are scarce, and if

not properly utilized they also will be wasted resources. For example, you

could establish a beautiful set of national standards comparable to the

best in the world, but you might not have a real basis to determine where

the reflected measurements will be ultimately used; or we might establish

very sophisticated and expensive measurement instrumentation today in a location where the practical requirement for its inherent accuracy will

not exist for 10 years. Only an economic analysis of the needs and costs can

determine the wisdom of the decisions. Operations analysis provides the

required visibility.

System engineering techniques will provide answers to many other

questions such as: What level of training can we expect to achieve with

local personnel? Will this level of training affect any equipment selection

decision? If we identify the level of training, what is the overall

level of competence that we can project and are test procedures written to

this level? If the level of competence is lower than similar countries or

systems, can we select different equipment, or can we implement handling,

processing, or test procedures which will compensate and thereby achieve

the same results? Will the level of competence allow the same person to

repair and test? Does the workload distribution lend itself to this mode

of operation? Can we accomplish repair if spare parts are not readily

available at the location under study? If not, should we test only at

that station and repair at another operational level?

These questions go on and on; however, as a result of systems

engineering, the interaction which is apparent above is systematically and

efficiently optimized for the concerned nation. We believe that there is no

one metrology/calibration system that is good for all people or nations.

Each nation has different goals, requirements, constraints, and financial

status, so that a metrology/calibration structure for each must be optimized

to these differences.

The last major facet to which this paper is addressed is the means and

resources necessary to accomplish the operations analysis and systems

engineering. First, and absolutely necessary, is a total awareness and

knowledge by the performing organization of test and measurement equipment

support characteristics and requirements, from metrology to repair. Second,

the specific staffing for the job. We find the best combination of personnel

to be a staff of calibration specialists working with operations analysis

and systems engineering experts. The operations analysis and systems engineering experts apply proven techniques to the problem-solving task. The

calibration specialists, using these techniques, apply their nearinstinctive knowledge of measurement systems, requirements, and equipment

174
to the workload requirements data and arrive at practical answers in a far

more efficient manner than by any other techniques we have explored.

Very few people are really up to speed in these concepts and the

expert staffs necessary to efficiently perform calibration system development are hard to find. However, the concepts are sound and should not be

ignored in the process of developing optimum metrology/calibration structures

for the nations of the world.

The vital points of this paper are again stated for emphasis. We

must keep in mind, throughout the whole process of developing a system,

that the users' needs are to be met so that we do not establish a fine

standards laboratory with no meaningful connection to the real workload.

We wish to minimize costs, yet meet the needs. We must assure proper staffing and management of the system to keep it functioning. We need a totally

optimized metrology/calibration system consisting of many diverse yet interacting components. The most effective tools to accomplish the task are the

principles and techniques of operations analysis and systems engineering.

When these are executed with diligence and experience they will yield the

desired results to provide another firm foothold on the ladder of industrialization and emergence into the technological world.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

175

SESSION 5 - PROMOTING MORE EFFECTIVE USE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Paper 5.5 - Product Development and Market Research

Seymour Marshak

Manager of Marketing Research

Ford Motor Company

Dearborn, Michigan 48121

At Ford Motor Company I am responsible for coordinating a worldwide marketing research effort that encompasses inputs to our distribution

planning, market planning, marketing planning (advertising and sales

promotion), and product planning efforts. The latter item includes new

as well as improved product offerings.

To start with, you might say that the elements that precipitate or

that underlie product development are to a great extent socio-economic

changes. These generally create changes in needs, wants, and life styles

of the people. Usually this type of information is sought from government

sources. The kinds of information we seek are:

Economic data such as: total national income, TNI per capita, gross

national product, GNP per capita, GNP average annual growth, and

consumer price index.

Demographic data such as: population, births per 1000, infant mortality,

life expectancy at birth, annual rate of population increase, population

growth by age segments, percent male versus percent female, average size

of family, distribution of population by geographic areas and by city

size, population density, working age of population, workers in manufacturing or other employment statistics, rate of unemployment,

income distribution, education levels of population, and percent

illiteracy.

Language and religion such as: religious distribution and ethnolinguistic distribution.

Consumer expenditure information such as: total expenditures, food,

beverages, tobacco, clothing and personal effects, household furnishings, personal care, health, transportation and communication, and

fixed capital formation.

If we can actually get all of this information we normally find that

the nation is not just emerging, but has emerged. Many times we fall far

short of this goal and have to resort to our own data collection and educated

guesses by our own personnel and by such groups as the Economists Intelligence Unit.

One must always remember that before you have a market you need: people

who have a need either expressed or latent, who have money to buy, and who

have a desire to buy. You have got to think about the market first (the

user and his needs), then decide if the product you want to offer is unique,

salable, and provides a benefit at lower cost. Because the risks in marketing new products, whether in the United States or elsewhere in the world,

is so great, marketing research is needed in an effort to reduce the risks

involved

.

As a result of reviewing all of the available socio-economic data for

the market involved, our product and market planners attempt to decide what

products we have available, and what products that we can develop would have

177
high potential for acceptance in the particular market. Sometimes we can

do this from existing data and on other occasions we find it necessary to

generate our own data by way of a representative cross-section sample

survey. Assuming for the moment that sufficient data exists, we attempt

through our research to determine as much as possible about the potential

market for our product class, such as:

(i) How big it is in terms of volume; initial market, and long range

market

.

(ii) Who would be the market--sex, age, marital status, education,

income, home ownership, etc.

(iii) Where might this market probably be--region, city size, urban/

rural, city versus suburbs.

(iv) What are the present buying habits, usage habits, and attitudes

regarding products similar or comparable to the new product

who will buy it?

(v) What do customers like and dislike about the generic type of

product or whatever they currently use?

(vi) How can improvements be made in generic types of product or what

they are currently using?

(vii) What are their purchasing habits of similar type products, if

such products exist—where purchased, how often, how many each

time, price paid, etc? What are usage patterns—purposes used,

amount used, and when used (seasonal patterns)?

(viii) What is the competition for the new product?

(ix) What habits or patterns must be changed, if we are to gain

acceptance for a product such as we could produce?

If the potential appears to be large enough to warrant further investment we then proceed to develop ideas that will meet the market's needs.

When these ideas are developed our management committees screen them and

those that survive are then subjected to pre-testing. Remember these may

be, in some instances, just rough ideas or broad concepts. This pre-testing

of new ideas can be done by presenting the ideas or concepts to the company's

own marketing and sales personnel and to other knowledgeable people who

have some general feel of the market. However, whenever possible it is

preferred that concepts be tested among potential customers. In testing

a concept, the potential customer should clearly understand the functions,

uses, and possible situations for the product and, wherever possible, aids

should be used that will graphically illustrate the product. The product

should be compared with other existing products that are currently performing

the same or similar types of functions, and the price or price range for

the product should be clearly understood.

This type of product concept testing enables the product planners to

make easy judgments before too much is spent, to reduce the number of

concepts that are to be refined or improved upon, and in many instances,

may even lead to new ideas. Early concept test results should be treated

as tentative and inconclusive. After this type of research is conducted,

the concept may be rejected, may be accepted, or may be accepted pending

further refinements. If the concept warrants further development then it

may go to the stage of prototype testing which involves actually building

the product and putting it into a limited or full-scale use test. This

latter type of research provides the manufacturer and the prospect an

opportunity to evaluate the product under actual operating conditions.

178
Weaknesses may be discovered that can lead to redesign or else clues may

be uncovered that will lead to better marketing, distribution, and servicing

opportunities and requirements. These types of tests are normally conducted

on a rather broad scale among a cross section of potential users. The

methods employed in the survey technique are personal interviews, telephone

interviews where and when available, mail questionaires where and when

available, and focus-group interaction sessions. The latter technique

is one where groups of people sit around a table and have an opportunity

to discuss the product and all of its ramifications. It is recognized that

many of these techniques are not available for use in the emerging nations.

However, to the extent that they are available, they are recommended for

use

.

In terms of product development one should also consider the importance

of the name of a product since a name can act either as a deterrent or as

a positive communication. A name that is meaningful, that sounds well and

that communicates well creates an expectation by its imagery. It should

look good in print. It should sound good when said, and it should be

suitable for the product it is going to grace.

Research should be conducted also on the package or the design of the

product since these, too, are communicators of what the product is and can

do. The package should be both attractive and functional for the many uses

to which the product will be put. The shape of the package, the color of

the package, the package material, and the labels all play a very important

part in selling the product. These, too, can be tested by the survey

method.

Once a product is decided upon and introduced, continuous follow-up

research should be conducted so that management may decide the extent to

which success has been achieved. This research may take the form of sales

analysis and further surveys of the market. What we attempt to discover

here is: the volume achieved, share of market, user characteristics,

consumer opinions of our products and competitors, repurchase rates,

dealers' opinions of our products, how product is being used, and advertising

and sales promotion effectiveness.

Lest I have made the marketing research process appear too simple,

let me state that it would be foolhardy for me to attempt to teach all of

the techniques in a fifteen minute period. These techniques usually employ

many refined statistical techniques in sample design and analysis, the

know-how of the psychologists and sociologists in the design of the

questionaire and the use of various scaling techniques, the expertise of

the computer people in ordering and tabulating data, and the knowledge of

marketing experts and economists in the analysis of the report. These

skills are sometimes to be found in the emerging nations, but most often

are brought in from the outside.

The problems faced in doing market research in the emerging nations

may have to do with: lack of research facilities, little sophistication in

techniques, cultural differences, high levels of illiteracy, lack of

census data from which to draw samples, economic differences —high proportions

at subsistence levels and difficulty of finding middle or upper income

families, heterogeneity of population and difficulty of reaching all,

multiple languages and dialects, and geographical differences.

Although there are many problems to overcome, there is no doubt that

the use of market research in emerging nations is on the increase. I

cannot help but believe that the trend will continue, because of the vital

role that it plays in bridging the gap between those who constitute the

market for products, and those who wish to capitalize the unfulfilled needs

and wants of people.

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NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countri

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.
SESSION 5 - PROMOTING MORE EFFECTIVE USE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Discussion

Co-chairmen: Rene Schmied and William T. Cavanaugh

Mr. Nigro (In response to a question raised by Dr. Branscomb):

A smaller country, or one that does not have the sophisticated communication system that we have here, will with the advent of teleprocessing be

better able to utilize computation facilities. To have a good teleprocessing

system, you need several computers located in different geographic areas.

One of them may store financial and economic data, another might have demographic data, another might handle scientific work in problem solving or

analysis. Each one should have a group of people trained in such specific

types of programming. A good communication system would link together the

network of computers with the terminals giving the user access to the entire

network. I believe such a system will be the coming thing. I think that

certain areas right now could probably benefit by starting out on a small

scale. That is what I meant when I compared the large batch type operation

in one location where everybody brings their cards, with the on-line timesharing system which implies teleprocessing. I think the second question

was, can we in the NBS Center for Computer Science and Technology provide

any meaningful assistance? The answer is, yes.

Dr. Branscomb :

I wonder whether the uses of computers which are most attractive to us

are in fact totally irrelevant to countries where capital is short and labor

is plentiful. The replacement of clerical workers, for example, which is a

common objective in this country, may not be useful in other places. I

would be happy to have somebody in the audience tell us how they think

data processing technology can be used effectively in the less developed

countries

.

Mr. Lovejoy :

About a year ago I was talking to the Director of the Computer Science

Institute in New Delhi. They then had about 20 0 computers in India and they

were using them about 20% of the time. What they were proposing to do was

not exactly teleprocessing, perhaps because the network Mr. Nigro mentioned was

not developed. They were setting up five or six regional centers based

on regular pickup collection of punched cards for computer entry, which for

most purposes would be quite adequate.

In answer to Dr. Branscomb 's second question, I am afraid it is pretty

much as he said, that maybe the 50,000 clerical workers processing financial

or economic data would be put out of work by the introduction of a computer,

adding to what is already an unemployment problem.

Mr. Nigro :

Just because you bring a computer into operation does not mean that you

lay off workers. In fact, if you look over the situation in this country

you will find that with the advent of the computer we have developed a whole

spectrum of new talents. We have also raised some people from the unmeaningful tasks of sweeping the floors or grubbing in the cotton fields to fairly

respectable social positions such as systems operators, journeymen programmers, and as Mr. Lovejoy says, card punchers and messengers. In general,

a computer does quite often raise the level of employment.

181
Adm. Mai a:

NCI in Brazil has been using computers since 1960 and we have now

around 600 computers installed. As always happens, in the first year we

had a lot of idle time, but just before I left home I saw a survey which

showed the range of utilization was from 20 0 to 500 hours a month, which

is not too bad. This development has brought a lot of help in the management of enterprise , and is as important as the technological aspects of

industry. I think that no serious unemployment was brought about by the

computer installations. We relocated the people. Teleprocessing is a

problem with us, but not because of the communication lines between cities,

but mostly because of the local lines.

Mr. Cali (to Mr. Marshak)

How does market research take into account questions of the social

concerns and expectations of a given country? Is this considered as

given? Do you ask questions to determine what the concerns or expectations

may in fact be?

Mr. Marshak ;

We are definitely concerned with the social goals and we do ask

questions. These are part of the studies that we do in all the countries

that we enter.

Dr. Tabor :

When Parkinson produced his famous law, a lot of people seemed to

think that he had his tongue in his cheek. My own view is that he is

probably the most perspicacious person in this century--you all know his

famous edict about work expanding to fill the time available for its

execution. Since then there have been many copiers of his style and one of

the recent ones says that traffic expands to fill the space available for

it. I believe that this is very true in relation to the traffic of telecommunications. I know that Israel recently installed a submarine cable

to Europe with a certain capacity for calls , and now half a year later it

is already overloaded and has to be rebuilt. The reason I mention this is

two-fold. In the first place, I think it is a warning to Dr. Willenbrock

in connection with his technological forecasting. You can look at the rates

of growth of a particular activity and project it for another two years,

assuming the same rate or a slightly higher rate or a lower rate, but if

you do not take into account Parkinson's law you are going to get into

real trouble. In the less developed countries there is a teleprocessing

bottleneck in the communication network. If you introduce teleprocessing

you will without a doubt overload any telecommunications system that is

currently available.

Dr. Ghosh :

In India the question of computers is connected with unhappy labor

unions. They say: No computer because it means unemployment for several

thousand people ; we are no longer interested in any argument ; if you have

computers, face a labor strike.

Dr. Rohatgi :

Computers certainly are helping in scientific research institutions,

although as Dr. Ghosh points out their introduction may cause unemployment

in business organizations. In a scientific research organization you are

not displacing anybody; the student had to do his calculation anyhow. The

Indian Institute of Technology of Kanpur provides service to a number of

cities nearby, and many people come and stay at the Institute for a couple

182
of days to punch the cards and obtain their outputs. In India the pace of

life is reasonably slow and telephone communication is not the best. It

is easier for them to come and stay at Kanpur to do their computer work

and then to go home

.

Mr. Cavanaugh :

The conversation about displacement of people sounds much like many

discussions in which I used to participate 16 years ago. Let me report

the fact that in the most computerized nation in the world, we have the

greatest shortage of clerical personnel of all sorts right now. The logic

of displacement has not worked here at all, and apparently it is not working

in Brazil either.

Mr. Arnold :

It strikes me that we must once again recognize the spectrum of

development, and that general remarks are always inappropriate from one

end of the spectrum or the other. With regard to one end of the spectrum,

if a country has neither a calibration laboratory nor a computer, I have

a hard time seeing that they would place the priority on a computer. If

they are concerned with a product, an operation, or a process the first

priority should be the calibration facility. As Mr. Nigro said, they should

start out small, pick a specific area where a computer can solve the problem

more efficiently, acquire information as needed for planning, and try to

make jobs for people that are going to be operating the computer.

Mr. Felleke :

I am somewhat confused by the observation presented last night by Dr.

Tabor and also by Mr. Russek concerning the need for a precision capability

for metrology work. In the Ethiopian Standards Institution we are engaged

in legal metrology, and we have to support such an activity as precision

measurements, but it seems that in the recent discussion such a capability

is being called unnecessary.

Mr. Russek :

How far must you go to be legal? If your legal people want to have

99.9999% accuracy then you have a problem. I think you must revise some

of the legal definitions. There has to be some acceptability as to what

level the application requires. I call it optimization.

Mr. Cali :

May I make a further comment on exactly this point? We have a law

on the books that says that customs duty on fluorspar imported into the

USA will be assessed at 97.0% and there is no definition in the law of

plus or minus anything. Within the past five years this has cost fiftythree million dollars in litigation. I would urge all of you to make sure

that your statisticians sit down with your legal people.

Dr. Brans comb :

I think it is essential that one look at metrological requirements from

a completely utilitarian point of view. It is necessary that legal restraints

follow that analysis and not precede it. Industry needs metrology only to

the extent that it is absolutely necessary to ensure the production line

functions and for the product to meet the marketing specifications. In

that sense I see a close relationship between measurements standards and

engineering standards. If there exists a good set of specifications which

prescribe the performance of a product, and you can meet that standard,

then your products can be welcome in any marketplace. It is only necessary

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452-533 O - 72 - 13
that you and your customers have confidence that your quality control

procedures do in fact satisfy those specifications. So it is not sufficient that you have accurate instruments. It is not sufficient to have a

good standards laboratory. What is necessary is that the product does

what you say it does. Quality control is a means of assuring that the

measurement actually made in the factory is as accurate as it is supposed

to be. That is why I started this meeting with the warning that it is not

at all obvious that the kind of organization which NBS provides, is the

right thing for other societies and countries.

I would like to ask Mr. Lartey about another problem which I would

think might be important in a less developed country, and indeed in a

country as well developed as Canada. How do you handle your metrological

problems when a part of your industrialization is based on foreign

technology which uses the measurement capability of the originating country,

while you also have some developing indigenous industries which depend

upon local technological resources? I would think there might be opportunity for some innovative arrangements for quality control and metrological

assurance that would draw upon the technology of the imported industries

to assist the indigenous industry.

Mr. Lartey :

I agree entirely with you that we have to work back from the imported

metrology.

Mr. Nigro :

I was most interested in the comments from India about the unions and

their resistance to computers. I think they are concerned with the banking

process and general stock inventories. They might have some justification

for their fear in these fields, but you should still use the computer for

some of your planning purposes, where the man and the typewriter can no

longer plan for a whole city or a network of transportation. This is the

aspect of computers on which I would like to see more discussions. We

would really need another session where we talk about nothing but the use

of the computer.

Mr. Felleke:

To remark on Dr. Branscomb's last comment, I see a problem if the

imported industry comes from different countries. They have different

standards, and to harmonize their production you need a national standards

capability.

Adm. Maia:

I can say to Dr. Branscomb that we have several examples of foreign

industries that have been established in Brazil. They help the local

factories on their quality control procedures until they reach the level

required. We find that in the automobile industry, in the electronic

industry, and the chemical industry.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

184
SESSION 6 - ADDITIONAL CASE HISTORIES

Paper 6.1 - Effect of Local Government Policies

on Transfer of Technology

Glenn E. Pratt

Technology Director for Latin America

Monsanto Company

St. Louis, Mo. 63166

Agricultural development , use of natural resources , industrial growth

and exports are the major objectives of all developing countries. To

accomplish these objectives in a relatively short time, the countries must

rely on technology input from outside sources, until such time as the

nationals gain industrial experience, and the local industries, universities

and governmental institutions can support research programs.

In this paper, we will discuss only technology input through private

industry. Such input comes about either by licensing or by foreign company

participation and management.

Licensing

Licensing implies outright purchase of technology, and normally

includes process details, equipment description, operating manuals, training

of national technicians and startup assistance. It may also include the

checking of detailed engineering drawings and assembly, depending on the

contractural terms. Payment can be in the form of a fixed licensing fee

and/or royalties. Generally, licensing presents no major problems in the

transfer of technology to the more industrialized nations —certain European

countries, United States, Japan—because of the availability of well

trained and experienced personnel. In the less developed countries,

however, licensing must be done with care. Although a process seems

simple in terms of process details and flowsheet, it may require several

years of operating experience before the plant and process are thoroughly

understood. I know of several costly cases where plants were operated

improperly and inefficiently because of lack of experience and know-how.

Results of this are lost sales; and usually additional investment to replace

equipment, to redesign, and even to rebuild.

Foreign Company Participation and Management

The trend today is toward formation of a national company in which

a foreign industrial manufacturer participates with local government

corporations and/or local private interests. The foreign partner brings

the technology to the party and is actively involved in the detailed

engineering, equipment selection, construction, training, startup and

operation of the plant, and even in marketing. One of the major contributions

of the foreign partner is the training of personnel. The importance of

training cannot be stressed enough. Not only in reference to technical

people, but in the training of workers —equipment operators, process operators, mechanics, welders, electricians, instrumentmen , etc. At the worker

level is where the real technology transfer takes place.

Foreign participation may offer the advantage of marketing for export.

Usually, the foreign interest is an international company, already knowledgable and participating in foreign markets. Foreign participation helps

insure that the new installation will be built, that the plant will remain

in operation, and that it will be operated efficiently. This is not only

important to the success of the new company, but will also benefit the host

185
country if the product is to be produced at lowest cost and if there is a

possibility to compete in export markets.

What Constitutes a Good Project?

Any new venture involving foreign participation must be of benefit to

the host country and to the supplier company. It should include:

1. A positive net balance to the host country, when it considers

substitution (or reduction in total value) of imports, generation

of exports, equipment imports, profit and royalty remittances,

taxation, duty income, etc.

2. New employment opportunities.

3. Technical training of personnel at all levels.

4. Consumption of locally manufactured equipment and parts (provided

equipment meets requirements), raw materials and services.

5. Reasonable return to the company.

6. Lower local consumer prices.

7. High product quality.

The project is ideal if the product can be competitive in cost and

quality for export markets. However, this is often difficult because of

inadequacy of scale. In the Latin American area for example, the competitive cost is very difficult to meet in highly technical, low labor intensive

industries, such as the petrochemicals, because of small plant volumes and

high raw material costs. Exports of this type of product can normally only

succeed through agreements between two countries on common product, with

tariff protection against third countries.

Governmental Policies and the Effects

on Technology Transfer

The following comments are not meant to be critical per se, but rather

to point out some of the problems associated with developing industrial

projects. Hopefully, they will lead to some objective actions both by

foreign investors and by local governments with the aim of improving the

transfer of technology.

Some of the limitations that may be placed on a foreign company

participating in a new project concern (a) amount of foreign ownership,

(b) payment or equity position for technology, (c) royalties, (d) dividend

remittances, (e) repatriation of capital, and (f) management control.

These items are vital to all parties concerned and must be resolved fairly

to have a good project. However, in most developing countries, there is a

trend to increase these limitations. This, plus the time and expense

incurred to negotiate with the various governmental agencies involved before

a project is finally approved, are discouraging new investments. In Peru,

Bolivia and Chile, where there are strong nationalistic movements, it has

become a "wait and see what develops" situation. Foreign companies cannot

risk losing vital technology and investments in this type of environment.

Some Experiences

1. In one country we spent one year putting a project together with

the government development corporation and its subsidiary, the national

petrochemical company. Each was part owner, along with some other national

interests. We were to be 50% owner. The project was a good one —improved

186
foreign exchange, prices lower than imported material, highly technical

process, new job opportunities, trained personnel at all levels, reasonable

profits, and a new use of local raw material. Our company management

approved the appropriation for our share of the investment. Process

engineering design and equipment description were started, and our research

division started investigations of process changes and raw material qualities to adapt the process to local conditions. The signing of agreements

and company by-laws was delayed another eight months until the conditions

of dividend and royalty remittances and repatriation of capital were

defined. (Royalty remittances are still not known.) During this period,

the government requested that the plant size be increased 50% for export

business, and they also notified us that the plant location would have to

be in a promotional area to realize lower duties on imported equipment.

All of this was done, yet there is still no assurance of the export business

It took fifteen months to obtain final approvals from local city, provincial

and federal government agencies to purchase the selected plant site. This

site had already been declared industrial land and the owner was ready to

sell when first contacted. The general manager, supplied by us and approved

by all board members, was moved to the country. His efforts have been

directed toward approvals required for company formation, detailed

engineering, approvals of land purchase, land preparation, and ordering

structural steel.

Total time lapse on this project—three years to date; two years since

our management approved. We have invested considerable money in process

design, research, and equipment selection. The new company now exists

and local detailed engineering and construction work was under way. A

new government has been elected, and the new policies adopted toward

foreign investment have forced us to stop all expenditures. There have

been political changes in the top management of our government partners

,

and we have discussed the future of the project with them. We have not

abandoned the project, but we must "wait and see" what policies will be

forthcoming which assure us of a safe investment.

I must say that the length of time taken to develop this project was

partly our own fault. We were novices, but we feel we have learned a

great deal from the negotiations with the governmental agencies.

2. In another country, a group of businessmen received a government

permit to develop a project. The product is presently imported, and we

supply the major portion of the market through a local sales office. We

were approached by this group offering us a minor equity position for

technology. This offer was made to several foreign producers. By decree,

the governmental industrial development corporation is also to be a

partner in this project and one of the major objectives is to export the

product. The offer per se was unattractive to us as well as to the other

major foreign producers. The risk is too great to take a small minority

position (with no management control) involving a process which requires

considerable experience and technical know-how to produce and market a

high quality product. We studied the manufacturing and marketing (including

exports) and made a proposal to the development institute. Just before the

proposal was submitted, the business group and the development institute

formed a 50/50 company to continue developing the project and to participate

equally in the company. They will each exchange a small part of their

shares to the supplier of technology. Also, they are insistent on locating

the plant in a province which is far from the market (the business group is

from this province and its members are politically strong). We will

probably not negotiate this project any further for the following reasons:

(1) Location will result in higher construction costs, freight and

market price disadvantages. Higher price may cause users to

change to other material.

187
(2) Offer of low equity position is too small for the risk and expense

of transferring this technology.

(3) They will not give the foreign interest satisfactory management

controls on manufacturing or marketing, which we consider

necessary for a successful operation—at least for the first years

until nationals are adequately trained.

The local company is now planning to use technology of a small noninternational producer. The quality of his major product is inferior to

the present imported product. What will be the reception in the local

market as to price and quality? What will be the company's export

possibilities? What will be the success of this new company? We feel that

the project as it now stands is not a good one; and if it proceeds will be

unlikely to be successful.

3. In a third country, we started looking at a project three years

ago. A proposal for a 50/50 partnership with the government was submitted

to the development corporation after market and feasibility studies were

completed. Negotiations proceeded satisfactorily until approvals from

two other government agencies were needed for import licenses and for

foreign investment. We ran into some disagreements on the project bases

from these agencies. Requested changes were negotiated to a satisfactory

conclusion; but at about the time approvals were to be granted, departmental

directors were changed. There have been a total of five changes in

departmental directors since we started negotiations. Three of these

occurred after recent elections. We still feel confident this project will

go. At least we hope so, because we feel it is a good project and of

benefit to all interests.

We must face the fact that the trend is toward increased nationalism

(in many cases a form of socialism), and that foreign companies will have

to include local partners, either private or governmental, in future

projects. In two of the aforementioned examples, we feel that the results

of the negotiations on agreements and company by-laws were fair to all

parties. Our only real problem was the delays involved in obtaining approvals. This was also a problem to the development corporations because they

were just as anxious to have the projects moving along to get the plants

built and into operation. However, the governmental partnership approach

with foreign interests is relatively new, and it will take some planning,

reorganization, and reassignment of responsibilities to clean out the

bureaucracy which has developed.

Some Suggestions for Improving Technology

Transfer and Industrial Growth

1. Clearly defined governmental procedures for negotiating and developing projects. Each country should publish the procedures and

priorities of approvals necessary to obtain an approved project

and the establishment of a new company.

2. The development corporation be the governmental negotiating agent

and have the responsibility of guiding the project through the

agencies involved (planning, foreign commerce, and any other

approval agencies).

3. A broader use of open bids in developing projects. Limited time

span for performance by the selected company without endless

extensions

.

Recognition of and mechanism for a reasonable payment for the

technology; possibly establishment of a reputable committee to

place a value on the technology.

188
5. Recognition of the benefits to all parties in having the foreign

company provide the management for some mutually agreeable time for

the purpose of detailed training of the nationals. I want to reemphasize that the key issue is management of the technology. In

many cases, this makes the difference in whether or not a project

is successful.

6. Maintain an open mind to plant locations, considering economics

and market aspects.

7. Foreign companies should consider projects which are better

balanced as to mutual benefits.

8. Foreign companies must be realistic in assigning values on the

technology.

9. Personnel who represent the foreign companies should be of the

highest caliber, sensitive to the country and the people.

10. Foreign companies should be of assistance in locating debt capital

when necessary.

In summary, the development of a new project should be a joint effort

with all partners contributing!

Future

Looking into the 19 7 0's, we can see the following trends:

1. Increased pressures and policies to nationalize industry. Foreign

companies in new ventures will be forced to participate with local

government corporations and/or local private and public interests.

There will also be increased pressures on the foreign company to

accept a lower equity position and less managerial control.

2. Closer scrutiny of payment or equity position for technology and

know-how, royalty fees, remittances of profits and royalties,

repatriation of capital, price controls, reduced foreign

participation capital, or complete nationalization after specified

years of operation.

These trends are forcing foreign companies to think twice before

investing in a developing country. Somewhere, somehow, there has to be

developed a system for balancing all of these considerations so that the

country realizes its development goals, and the foreign investor is justly

compensated for the transfer of technology.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

189

SESSION 6 - ADDITIONAL CASE HISTORIES

Discussion on Paper 6.1 - Effect of Local Government Policies

on Transfer of Technology

Co-chairmen: Zawdu Felleke and Newman A. Hall

Dr. Sabato :

First of all, I would like to congratulate Mr. Pratt on his most

realistic paper. It has a number of interesting features. Some of them,

however, seem to me to be somewhat biased about situations in what I

suppose was Latin America. Perhaps the author forgets that he accepts a

situation in the USA but is not willing to accept similar situations in

Latin America. For example, the change of mind on the part of government.

Recalling the case of the supersonic transport, I would like to listen to

a speech by an officer of the Boeing Corporation about the SST and how

unstable is the government of the USA. Another example is the well-known

plane, the C-5, built by the Lockheed Corporation. Lockheed seems to have

so many difficulties with the Pentagon about who is going to pay the bill

for that fantastic plane, that really when I read in the newspaper about

the discussion between them, I sometimes think that the Pentagon is the

Pentagon of a Latin American state instead of being of the USA. Perhaps

three years is a lot of time for a discussion of one project, but three

years is nothing in the history of the C-5 project.

The author made some comments about location. He is critical because

the government institution in charge of development discovered one day that

some other province was the best place to put the project. I remind you

that, when Senator Kerr was chairman of one of the committees in the Senate,

one of the big rocket centers was put in Oklahoma on land that by coincidence

belonged to him.

Mr. Pratt makes some comments about technology transfer that I consider

very proper. Dr. Ghosh today used a phrase that I consider very important.

"Technology know-how is a commodity of commerce." Transfer is really a

misleading word. What we are talking about is technology commerce. This

is more than a semantic point, it is a realistic point, because "transfer"

seems to have a philosophical implication, something like good will.

However, you are going to sell; we are going to buy. If Mr. Pratt would

just say "technology commerce" I would absolutely agree with him, and I

will say that with technology commerce you can really arrive at better

deals than the deals you get today.

A final point that I think is also important to emphasize is that

personnel of the highest caliber should be guaranteed in this kind of transaction. Many companies have been using second or third-rate personnel.

My own country, Argentina, dealt with two big American companies, one of

which was subject to much pressure from nationalists, and another which

was free from this sort of pressure. Once I was asked by the manager of

the first company why his company was so much under pressure. My answer

was very simple, If you compare the management of your company with the

management of the other company, you will have the answer.

Dr. Tabor :

I cannot speak for all of the developing countries and what I say does

not necessarily apply to Israel, but one of the things that I have noticed

about foreign firms operating in less developed countries is that they

keep for themselves the sales networks in the outside world. I agree with

191
Mr. Pratt that the foreign company should have control of the management of

the new enterprise if this is for technical purposes. I can well understand the reluctance on the part of the recipient government to agree to

control, particularly when the sale of the product is in the hands of the

parent company. One of the reasons why new industries in less developed

countries often do not succeed is because we do not have good marketing

facilities. When a company sets up a new plant in a developing country

and maintains for itself the sales of the product in the outside world,

there is always the suspicion that most of the profitability is in the selling process, not in the manufacturing process, and I think this is the

reason why the governments in question insist that they should have a

strong share in management. The foreign company must understand this in

the negotiating stage. I agree that from the purely technological point

of view it is desirable that the foreign company should have the management.

Dr. Cushen :

If I hear Dr. Sabato correctly he says, I do not know what you mean

by technology transfer; what I wish to buy is technology as though it were

goods or a service. Can you tell me what you mean by a package you would

call technology that you would be willing to buy?

Dr. Sabato :

What I tried to emphasize was that when a company goes to a country,

say to invest capital or to advise a local firm, there is something like

goods in the transaction called technology or know-how. Sometimes it is

called good-will. It depends on the tradition of the company, or on the

way this transaction is made. You have a real commodity of commerce being

transacted between the two partners. You buy and he sells.

Dr. Cushen :

Can you separate the part of the package that is called technology

from the rest of the thing that you are buying?

Dr. Sabato :

Due to the fact that the underdeveloped countries are ignorant, not

always is a good separation made. I will give you two examples for you to

understand what I mean. My first example is this: you buy a pharmaceutical

recipe, and you pay for example 3% of the net sales as a royalty. You

suppose that all you are paying is 3%, but then the contract says that you

must buy some of the constituents of such products from the foreign

company, which may be in America, Germany, France, or England. You are

paying not only the visible 3%, but you are paying a lot more for constituents.

In your ignorance, you take all the package together, and this is called

nowadays the iceberg effect. The 3% is the part you see, but there may be

another 40% you do not see.

Dr. Cushen :

Why don't you raise the price and say all I want to buy is the tip of

the iceberg?

Dr. Sabato :

Because we are ignorant. This is why, and this is the definition of

underdevelopment

.

Dr. Cushen :

I was operating under the impression that we were not talking about

ignorance but rather about inability to pay.

192
Dr. Sabato:

No, we pay completely. That is a true example, which I am not

inventing. Another example which has been published has now been penalized

by law in Colombia. Colombia conducted some very interesting research in

two industries, electronics and pharmaceutical products. Still there was

an iceberg effect which was discovered and proved, unfortunately only after

a contract had been signed.

Suppose instead of using the phrase "transfer of technology" we used

the phrase "technology commerce." This would clarify things because you

will not be under the impression that you are getting something for nothing.

You never get something for nothing. You always pay for it. Unfortunately,

transfer of technology has the wrong connotation, I would say, a romantic

connotation. It is in a way connected with the scientist who is creating

the knowledge that is creating the know-how that is creating the product,

but when you go into selling and buying things the scientist has disappeared.

Dr. Cushen :

How about if we created a separate cost center inside of a corporation,

and call it capital investment in technology. You capitalize your RED

and then you sell the RED service which goes back to restore this capital.

Would you be willing to buy from the account that is labeled technology,

provided a fair price were established for that?

Dr. Sabato :

Surely; this is what is happening now. I am willing to buy ideas,

and operators, and manuals —all of the package, but the important thing

is to know what is in the package. In the case of Colombia and now in the

case of Argentina, the law requires that everything must be identified

how much know-how, how much personnel, how much RED, how much good will,

how much advertising, and how much public relations.

Mr. Birch :

I would just like to mention that the United Nations Trade and Development Board at its recent meeting in Geneva fought very hard over a resolution to set up some institutional form for technology transfer. The result

was to set up a group of experts who are going to try to thrash out this

whole problem.

Mr. Daneman :

Dr. Sabato made an impassioned rebuttal to the paper by Mr. Pratt

which I read in the author's unexpected absence through illness. I feel

compelled to make a very short defense. First, Leeds and Northrup (the

speaker's employing company) has five foreign partnerships. Workers in these

plants are nationals of their countries. The technical people are nationals

of these countries and the managers are nationals of these countries. We

do not export people from the USA to these plants. On the other hand, the

manager of one of these foreign plants became our vice-president of

international operations.

With regard to management control, we make a contract with our

partners and have every reason to believe they live up to the contract,

which specifies the quality control that we require if the product has our

name on it. It specifies that the components should be interchangeable,

but locally procured wherever possible. It also specifies that the performance claims on these products be neither enhanced nor diminished from

the original product.

There is some research done locally, for products which are not only

193
for local markets but for export and not necessarily to the USA. We do

not ask for these products, and we make no commitment that we will buy

them. When a production run is completed, the product is evaluated. If

our domestic marketing division thinks it will sell here, they buy it.

Finally, I offer a comment with regard to licensing—lump sum arrangement versus royalties. At the time such a company starts up, lump sum

payment is difficult. There are better uses for the capital. It seems

better that the payment be a fraction of whatever sales result when sales

do come about. However, unless a new design replaces the older designs,

the royalty payment diminishes within a reasonable interval.

Dr. Sabato :

You mentioned the intermediate solution that you receive a royalty

only for a certain period, so perhaps after five years you would receive

none. This is a good compromise, and let us hope that within that time

you have your return a few times over. Governments of recipient countries

are being very careful because some bought technology 2 0 years ago for

which they have been continuously paying until now. One example was the

manufacture of tennis balls, which has been going on now for 30 or 40

years and the agreement says the royalty will be on sales.

Mr. Felleke :

It is really a necessity to transfer technology, but we can also invent

technologies adapted to our particular economic needs and physical requirements. The national standards institute should be geared to the proper

allocation of national resources.

Dr. Rohatgi :

Some seemingly recriminating dialogue has gone into the record on

the sale of technology transfer between private enterprises. This kind of

dialogue would fit better were there more representatives from private

companies. Apparently most of the people here are from aid-giving institutions which are good-will oriented. We in the less developed countries

do appreciate the help we receive on the basis of good-will. I am trying

to soften the dialogue. So I want to make a distinction. There is a lot

of good-will to benefit our technological development; we do appreciate

it; not all of it is commercial. I hope my colleagues will agree.

Dr. Sabato :

I do not agree because it is a semantic misunderstanding. Good-will

is part of the transaction, and you pay for it when you sign a contract

for a license.

Mr. Daneman (responding to comments about the quality of the technology

after transfer)

Our company, as some of you know, manufactures recorders and we think

we know all about them. However, two of our foreign partners in different

countries had the audacity to get together to design what they thought

was a better recorder than we had ever built. They did it, we buy it, and

it is good. Without question, they had the technology to do it.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

194
SESSION 6 - ADDITIONAL CASE HISTORIES

Paper 6.2 - The Sale of Instrument Manufacturing Technology

to Small Private Industries in Developing Economies

Pradeep K. Rohatgi*

Bethlehem Steel Corporation

Bethlehem, Pa. 18016

The trade in technology between different countries presents many

additional problems as compared to the trade in technology within a country.

Mr. G. E. Pratt has identified some of the problems encountered in the sale

of large-scale technology to developing countries, including government

intervention, undue delays, questions about managerial control and

repatriation of profits. I wish to discuss the sale of small-scale technology to small-scale private enterprises in industrializing economies. My

remarks will be based on India as an example of an industrializing economy,

and the manufacture of instruments and scientific apparatus as a possible

technology to be traded. To illustrate a few points, I have included a

case study based on my personal experience.

1. Some Opportunities for Easier Technology Trade

The small-scale private industries in developing economies are attractive customers for technology sale because the bureaucracy within them is

smaller than with the large private customers or the governments. The

responsibility of obtaining government approval can be totally left to the

customers, who know their way through their respective governments. The

most attractive form of payment for the technology sale is in the form

of a lump-sum licensing fee or a short-term royalty payment. This eliminates

both the problems of managerial control and the need for policing the fairness of customers in paying long term royalties. In fact, governments in

industrializing economies generally do not permit arrangements involving

indefinite-term royalty payments, especially if they are to be made in hard

currencies. The know-how for labor-intensive industries finds a market far

more easily in industrializing economies as compared to capital-intensive

industries. The industrializing economies then have a chance to export

the products of their labor-intensive industries to developed economies

where the labor costs are higher; the government approval for such

industries also are given more easily since they promise more employment

opportunities. In fact the vendors of technology in developed countries

should look for customers who are already exporting products to developed

countries, since these customers can pay fees or royalties in hard currencies. I will now specifically discuss small scale private industries in

India as potential customers of instruments and scientific apparatus

manufacturing technology.

2. Potential Market for Instrumentation and Scientific

Apparatus Technology in India

In India the government is encouraging small-scale industries —those

which by definition have a capital investment of less than $100,000 in

plant and machinery. The government has reserved certain items to be

exclusively produced by the small industries to protect them from competition

by larger industries. Statistics collected for the year 1968 showed that

small-scale industries constituted close to ninety percent of all the

*Formerly Visiting Faculty Member, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur,

India

195
production units in India, and they produced goods worth more than $3200

million dollars per year. The small-scale industries produced both consumer

items and industrial components for larger industries. These small-scale

industries represent a very attractive market for the sale of technology

from the industrialized countries even though the revenues involved in

individual transactions are likely to be small. Recently the Development

Commissioner for small industries in India identified opportunities for

several industries which had good prospects. Some of the items identified

were: (a) optical and scientific instruments including telescopes, binoculars,

microscopes, projectors, spectroscopic instruments, surveying instruments,

cameras, medical instruments such as X-ray diascopes, length measuring

machines, optimeters , polarimeters ; (b) electrical measuring instruments

including flux meters, resistance bridges, power factor meters, impedance

bridges, vacuum tube voltmeters, oscilloscopes, sound level meters and

attenuators. This list indicates that the manufacture of scientific

apparatus and measuring instruments will be done primarily by small-scale

industries in India, and therefore the technology vendors in these areas

should concentrate their attention on small entrepreneurs. Moreover,

the Ministry of Industrial Development and Internal Trade in India has

identified several areas in which it will permit investors to seek foreign

collaboration; the list includes scientific instruments and precision

measuring tools. This implies that the purchase of foreign technology in

these areas will be approved without undue delays.

3. A Case Study in the Sale of Technology

to Industrializing Countries

In this example I will present some of the difficulties encountered,

and some of the solutions found, in the transfer of technology from a small

private industry in the United States to a small private company in India.

Such difficulties are likely to be encountered in any technology transfer

transaction between two countries. I hope the representatives of American

private industries and the delegates from the developing countries present

at this seminar will work toward eliminating such obstacles so that more

technology transfer can take place.

The particular case I will discuss involved making precision castings

by a ceramic molding process. Precision castings are very attractive for

developing countries, since they reduce the use of complex machining equipment and the loss of material as a result of machining. Moreover, precision

casting is a labor-intensive process since it cannot be automated easily.

A small American company had developed proprietary know-how on the particular

type of ceramic powder and the liquid chemicals which were most suited for

making molds for making precision castings. This American company was

already licensing its process to manufacturers in the United States, Europe,

and Japan. The company also offers to sell the chemicals and the ceramic

powder to its licensees. The company had received some inquiries from

Indian companies who had come to know about the process through technical

papers in international journals. The company was therefore interested in

potential markets in India and other Southeast Asian countries.

Acting as a technical representative of this American company during

my trip to India, I presented a technical paper on the process at the

annual meeting of the Indian Institute of Foundrymen. In addition to the

details of the process I described the availability of the know-how for

Indian customers and the potential markets for the products in India. The

oral presentation generated a great deal of interest and many questions

followed from the audience. Most of the questions dealt with the conditions

of licensing, availability of raw materials in India, mechanism of transferring the know-how and the technical merits of the process. As a followup, the written version of the paper was published in the Journal of the

Institute of Indian Foundrymen with an appendix containing the questions

raised and the answers given. The American company then received inquiries

196
from about thirty potential Indian customers who were seriously interested

in buying the technology. These serious customers were now asking questions

about licensing fees for the process and its technical viability in

producing the specific products they wanted to manufacture for Indian markets.

The two messages of the story up to this point are: (a) traveling scientists

can be used as an instrument of technology sale between small private

industries at relatively little cost to the parties selling or buying the

technology, and (b) oral and written presentation in the professional

societies in developing countries is a very effective means of advertising

technology for sale in that country.

Now let me come to the problems encountered in technology transfer,

despite having an interested vendor and interested customers in two

different countries

1. The American company wanted the licensing fees in dollars and the

Indian company could not give the fees in dollars without the government

of India approving the collaboration and granting the foreign exchange.

The government of India took about a year and finally approved the scheme

with the condition that the licensing fees be paid in a lump sum, instead

of as a royalty continuing as a certain fraction of profits or sales

indefinitely. The lessons are: (a) the American vendors should think of

means of getting the price of their know-how in currencies other than

dollars and preferably ask for a lump-sum price, (b) the developing countries

should reduce the time they take in examining a collaboration proposal, and

(c) the American companies must understand that obtaining government approval

for foreign collaboration in developing countries takes at least a few

months

.

2. The Indian customers were worried about the continuous availability

of the ceramic powder and liquid chemical needed to make the molds within

India, since importing materials from the United States would not be allowed

by the government of India due to balance-of-payment problems with dollars.

In this case we were able to identify a manufacturer of refractories in

India who agreed to supply the ceramic powder to the specifications of the

American company. The problem of importing the liquid chemical still

remained; the chemical cannot be economically manufactured in India on the

small scale required for the ceramic mold industry at this time. This

problem is being solved by arranging the import of the chemical from Japan.

Importing from Japan is easier since India exports to Japan a large

quantity of raw materials, including iron ore. Furthermore, in order to

reduce the amount of yen needed as foreign exchange to buy the liquid

chemical, we are in the process of arranging the export of the ceramic

powder from India to Japan. As I mentioned earlier, the American company

had licensees in Japan who were importing the ceramic powder from the

United States while using the process. To buy the ceramic powder from India

will be cheaper due to lower labor costs , than it is from the United

States. Thus, the yen needed to buy the liquid chemical will be obtained

by exporting ceramic powder from India to Japan. The messages here are:

(a) the American company should thoroughly investigate and arrange beforehand the availability of the required raw materials and supporting infrastructure in the developing country before advertising the process, and

(b) the American company should look for ingenious means of getting labor

or raw material exported out of the developing countries in return for the

know-how or the goods that have to be imported. A country like India with

cheap labor can be used as a manufacturing site for American goods to be

exported to other countries including Japan, Australia, and Southeast Asia.

4. Conclusions

1. Small scale private industries in developing economies are a large

group of potential customers of small scale technology with prospects of

easy trade. Technologies that are labor-intensive and have been approved

197
for foreign collaboration in the developing economies find markets

relatively easily; instrument-manufacturing technology fits this criterion

in the case of India.

2. The vendors should try to get the price of their technology in

lump-sum licensing fees or limited term royalties preferably in softer

currencies. The most attractive situation is where the vendors can accept

labor and raw materials from developing countries in return for the technology.

3. The use of traveling scientists, who expose the technology through

talks or written papers in local trade or professional societies in

developing economies, is a very effective and inexpensive means of advertising the technology available for sale.

H. The technology vendors should ensure the availability of infrastructure and the necessary materials for the operation of the technology

in a developing economy before advertising it for sale.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

198
SESSION 6 - ADDITIONAL CASE HISTORIES

Paper 6.3 - The Iranian Institute of Standards

and Industrial Research

Harold K. Work*

Fairfax, Va. 22030

A few months ago I came back from Iran after two years there and was

asked by your Program Committee to discuss the work of the Institute of

Standards and Industrial Research, ISRI. In the UN lineup I was listed as

advisor in industrial research; the standards advisor was Dr. Sen from

India. Dr. Ghosh has persuaded him to go back to India and become his

successor at the Indian Standards Institute, and I want to say that India

has contributed a great deal to the standardization work of Iran.

There was one question we discussed yesterday—whether you start your

industrial program from the scientific end or from the industrial end. In

Iran they did the latter. ISRI in 1960 had seven engineers; now the total

number of employees is somewhere between 800 and 1000.

It may help to have a few comments on the parameters of the country,

because in discussing these matters I think there are two vital items. One,

how big is the country and how much research can it stand? For instance

in Luxembourg they find they cannot have a big research program; they have

to import all their technology. The population of Iran is 30 million and

it is increasing by 3% per year, which is quite high. The area is 1,000,783

square kilometers. The gross national product is running at about seven

billion dollars. The annual growth rate has been running 9% or more for

the past eight years, and that has been corrected for inflation which has

been running between 1 and 1^% . This is a pretty good record, and emphasizes

my belief that developing nations must relate their programs to their needs

and resources, not blindly pattern themselves on the industrial giants of

the world. A description of ISRI is given in the last issue of Quality

Progress published by the, American Society for Quality Control.

In the first stages of development, it is necessary to imitate older

technologies—call the process adaptive research, since you do have to

modify slightly what is brought in. In subsequent stages, there are

seven items which I consider essential elements of the anatomy of an

industrializing economy:

1. An enlightened, strong and interested government.

2. Investment capital.

3. Industry complete with technology.

A society adaptable to change, which can produce the necessary

industrial skills.

5. Competent planning.

6. Entrepreneurs.

7. An education program.

* Formerly research advisor to the Institute of Standards and Industrial

Research, Iran.

199

452-533 O - 72 - 14
These are all vital organs of the anatomy. Their significance and importance

will shift with the industrialization of the economy. For example, at the

beginning government should have a strong and beneficent effect to set the

pattern and hold all elements accountable for their performance. It will be

the principal force determining whether the program will produce a viable

industry, or merely a series of status symbols. Investment capital will be

essential, even though a developing economy favors labor intensive rather

than capital intensive technology. Industry complete with technology is so

expressed to reinforce the idea that in this relationship science and

technology are dependent on industry. The importance of a receptive society

cannot be over-emphasized. Programs can fail because of the people.

Competent planning is always necessary to an effective industrialization,

as are the entrepreneurs to make that program move. Finally, there must be

education, for the critical ingredient is personnel. This presents special

difficulties. It takes about forty years, from graduation to retirement, to

produce the cadre of scientists, engineers, and technologists who staff the

industries. Assuming that these people are being trained as rapidly as

possible only about 2.5% per year can be expected to have the abilities

and inclination to be channeled into these fields. There must be inducements

to bring them directly into industry, and to defer activities which do not

make a prompt contribution to the economy. Where the shortage is acute,

employees, advisers and consultants must be imported with the technology.

Industrializing economies would do well to transfer to themselves the

technology of the already industrialized countries. This is based on the

premise that it is quicker and cheaper to obtain it in this way than to

develop it locally.

In preparation for a UNIDO assignment in Iran, I collected publications

about that country from the U.S. State Department and the Department of

Commerce. These bulletins were useful and informative. Yet, nowhere in

the 58 pages of close print do I recall the words science, technology,

engineering, standardization, or quality control. The subject matter

concerned mainly economic values and legal arrangements. The technical

aspects were, I assume, taken for granted as part of the total package.

Here are a few examples of how technology can be transferred to fit a

particular situation:

The oil industry of Iran is operated by a consortium of Western oil

companies under contract. Practically all the technology is currently

imported, although the National Iranian Oil Company does operate a small

but promising research laboratory.

The automobile industry is somewhat different. Several makes of cars

are assembled in Iran. One of these, the Hillman Hunter, is produced by

the Iran National Company, which is Iranian owned. It is called the Paikan

car. In this instance there is ample evidence that the technology is being

made available to Iran. The question is how long it will take to assimilate

it.

A third instance involves modernizing and introducing new technology

to an already existing industry. Natural dyes such as madder, tea, walnut,

etc. have been traditionally used in making Persian carpets for hundreds

of years. It is claimed that they are superior in durability to modern

synthetic dyes, but lack variety and are not uniform. To study the natural

dyes, an Iranian engineer, with experience in the USA, was assigned to the

project. He began applying the extraction, distillation, fermentation, and

separation techniques of the pharmaceutical industry to produce successfully

new colors and shades of colors unobtainable in the past.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

200
SESSION 6 - ADDITIONAL CASE HISTORIES

Paper 6.4 - Institutes for Engineering Education as a Source

of Metrology, Standardization and Quality Control

in Industrializing Economies

Pradeep K. Rohatgi*

Bethlehem Steel Corporation

Bethlehem, Pa. 18016

1. Introduction

Institutes for Engineering Education can be an important source of

standardization and metrology in industrializing economies. Often they have

the best technologically trained minds with the best equipment at their

disposal in the regions where they are located. These institutes can

therefore play a very significant role in catalyzing industrial activity,

in addition to teaching and research. This paper will be based primarily

on the experiences at the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur, India.

The discussion of this particular institute has special relevance to this

Seminar because the major portion of the funds for its establishment were

provided by the USA Agency for International Development, and the NBS

sponsors a considerable amount of research there. IIT, Kanpur represents

a teaching institution comparable to the best in the world, located in

one of the poorest states of India (Uttar Pradesh).

Presently the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, has approximately

1400 undergraduates, 500 graduate students, and a faculty of 250. It

offers bachelors degrees in aeronautical, chemical, civil, electrical,

mechanical, and metallurgical engineering. The graduate degrees include

physics, chemistry, mathematics, humanities and social sciences in addition

to all the above fields of engineering. The USAID funds for IIT are administered by an Educational Development Corporation. The American assistance has matured into the Kanpur Indo-American Program (KIAP) , a consortium

of nine U.S. Institutions —California Institute of Technology, Carnegie

Mellon University, Case Western Reserve University, Massachusetts Institute

of Technology, Ohio State University, Princeton University, Purdue University, University of California at Berkeley, and University of Michigan.

Several American faculty members from these institutions have been at IIT

on a visiting basis to assist in its development. In this sense the IIT

represents a case of technology software transfer which is one of the

topics of this Seminar.

2. Standardization and Metrology in India

Currently in India, it is the Indian Standards Institution in New

Delhi which lays down the standard specifications for industrial goods

and the codes for industrial practices. Dr. A. N. Ghosh discusses the

Indian Standards Institution (ISI) in his paper. The specifications for

some of the small scale industry products not covered by the ISI are drawn

up by local bodies, such as the Director of Industries for that particular

state or the Small Scale Industries Service Institute. For instance, in

the state of Uttar Pradesh a Quality Mark scheme has been pioneered, under

which the products meeting certain specifications are stamped with the

symbol "Q" to certify the product. There are inspection stations set up

* Formerly Visiting Faculty Member, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur,

India.

201
across the state to police the proper use of the symbol "Q". Metrology

standards in India are maintained by the National Physical Laboratory in

New Delhi. Despite these efforts by the governmental bodies in metrology

and standardization, the state of quality control in India remains far from

satisfactory, and it is reflected in the relatively poor performance of

the manufactured products. As we have heard from other delegates, this

appears to be a common problem in most industrializing economies.

Some of the reasons for the unsatisfactory quality of goods manufactured in India are

i) a sellers' market and lack of competition,

ii) lack of proper equipment and trained personnel for measurement and

quality control,

iii) lack of funds and equipment to enforce the standard specifications

prescribed by the government bodies , and

iv) lack of quality consciousness amongst the masses of the people.

The last obstacle is probably going to be the most formidable one in

the long run; the agrarian population in the process of changing into a

technological society has difficulty in comprehending the complex and rigid

requirements of industrial components. The fact that a single substandard

component like a nut or a bolt can bring down vast structures, and can

trigger a chain of events undesirably affecting the lives of a great many

people, has to be impressed on individual minds. Cultivation of an industrial attitude including respect for specifications, precision, and quality

is not an easy task in a population more than half of which is illiterate.

Quality control requires the methods and the will, in addition to the

availability of hardware for metrology and standardization.

The production of equipment for controlling the quality of the various

goods is also far from sufficient in India because of the need for the very

special technology required in their manufacture. In view of this the

government has decided to permit foreign collaboration for the instrument

industry. Private industry does not readily undertake the manufacture of

these items since their markets are not as large as for some of the

consumer items. In the state of Uttar Pradesh the state government has set

up a factory to manufacture instruments. The central government has also

set up a Central Scientific Instruments Corporation to look into the

production of instruments. In India a large percentage of goods are produced by small-scale industries who cannot afford their own testing

equipment and cannot produce standardized products unless some services

are available. For instance there were small foundries in the Kanpur

area which could not afford their own chemical analysis laboratory,

microscopes, and mechanical testing equipment. They needed the services

of the IIT to perform these tests and obtain necessary certification.

3. Interaction Between the Institute and the Industries

The IIT at Kanpur has taken the following steps to participate directly

in the industrialization of India, in addition to the most important role

of training technical manpower:

(i) IIT arranges summer jobs for the faculty with the various industries in India. This brings the faculty in touch with the industrial problems specific to the Indian scene, and the industry

obtains a feel for the services of a highly qualified person

without a large investment. In a few instances the faculty

members were permanently hired by the industries after the summer

employment. Very often the faculty continued to work on the same

202
problem at the Institute even after returning there.

(ii) The students are required to spend a minimum of ten weeks with an

industry as a trainee as a part of the undergraduate curriculum.

IIT has taken the lead to convert the unpaid traineeships into

paid summer employments for some students. The latter results

in improved benefits for both the students and the industry

due to a definite commitment. It is hoped that the students will

bring back industrial problems for their thesis work as a result

of summer employment and that some of them will be hired permanently after graduation.

(iii) IIT arranges several conferences and short courses on industrial

subjects each year, which brings the industrialists to the

Institute. This gives them a chance to discuss their problems

with the academic community and obtain a first-hand look at the

facilities of the Institute.

(iv) IIT has started a Student Placement Office which arranges campus

interviews and plays host to the visiting industrialists. The

Placement Office in 1968 arranged a seminar on "How to Start

Your Own Industries" to promote self employment amongst the

students through entrepreneurship (copies of the proceedings of

this seminar can be obtained from H. S. Peiser, National Bureau

of Standards, Washington, D. C. 2 0234). The proceedings contain

case studies of Indian engineering graduates who have started

their own industries, information on the help available from

Indian government to engineers for starting their own industries,

and some opportunities for starting new industries. The object

of the proceedings is to stimulate the students into starting

their own production units after graduation instead of looking

for jobs elsewhere or taking up research. Presently in India

there is a surplus of engineering graduates and it is difficult

to find a job.

(v) IIT undertakes applied research which is of potential use to

industry; some of this research is sponsored by industry and the

rest is funded by government agencies.

(vi) IIT encourages the faculty to consult with the industries and to

make use of the equipment and the services of the Institute,

after making suitable arrangements with the research administration.

(vii) The computer center of IIT provides service work to local industries and other institutions in the area.

I would now like to point out some of the difficulties faced by an

Institute like IIT in interacting with industries in less developed

economies. In the USA and Western Europe the educational institutions have

evolved over a long period of two centuries in accordance with the needs of

industrializing society, and therefore have a better chance of being

relevant to their surroundings; but even then we hear questions about their

relevance to society. In newly industrializing countries most of the

institutes for engineering education have been set up recently. They

emulate the curricula of the best institutes in the industrialized countries

and, therefore, a relevance gap is inevitable. Furthermore, it is an

unfortunate paradox that, the less technically competent an industry is,

the less it interacts with educational institutions. This had been the

case in the USA where the industry-institute interactions increased only in

the last thirty years with the sophistication of industry. We, too, have

found that the more advanced of the Indian industries , who already have

technically qualified people, have interacted well with IIT. This implies

203
that the task of university-industry interaction is most difficult during

the initial stages of industrialization, just when it is most needed in

developing economies.

There are other questions that are being asked at IIT, Kanpur, about

assistance for industrialization: Can IIT, which already has to struggle

very hard with its limited facilities to maintain international standards

of excellence in teaching and research, afford to channel some of its

energy to the solving of local problems? Should relevance be given priority

over international competition in generation of scientific knowledge?

Should the professor or the student who solves a local industrial problem

be rewarded more than those who contribute to international scientific

knowledge? What should be the distribution between basic and applied

research? Despite these dilemmas IIT is interacting with Indian industry

and participating in the economic development of India at an accelerating

pace every day.

4. Promotion of Metrology, Standardization, and

Quality Control by the Institute

We see that the institutes for engineering education in an industrializing economy can be at the crossroads of a considerable amount of industrial

traffic. An institute like IIT, Kanpur, can therefore very effectively

promote standardization ,• metrology and quality control in industrializing

economies in the following ways:

(i) The institute can introduce courses in metrology, instrumentation,

and quality control in its curriculum and encourage the students

to take up careers in these fields after graduation.

(ii) The institute can develop a sophisticated instrumentation and

measurement laboratory to provide measurement, calibration, and

repair services to the local industries. The investment in extra

manpower and equipment might be recovered by the income from

these services. It is likely that the technicians from the

institute laboratory would be hired away by the industries and

the institute will thus serve as a source for technicians trained

in metrology. Presently IIT, Kanpur, has an excellent instrumentation laboratory which is air-conditioned and dust-proof.

It is difficult for local industries to provide this type of

facility, which is necessary for the proper repair of sensitive

instruments

.

(iii) All the other laboratories of the institute, such as those for

chemical analysis and materials characterization, could provide

these services to the local industries at suitable charges. The

institute will have to develop enough competence so that its

certification will be recognized by the appropriate standardization authorities. The institute can hire additional technicians

who can use available equipment for providing outside services

when it is not in use for teaching or research. The idle time of

the equipment should be reduced to a minimum in industrializing

economies

.

(iv) The institute could encourage the students to build from locally

available materials the measuring instruments needed to maintain

standardization and quality control in local industries, as a

part of their project and thesis work. The know-how generated

could then be turned over to local industries.

(v) The institute should encourage the faculty and the students to

identify the problems in maintaining standards and controlling

the quality under local labor and climatic conditions and conduct

204
research in solving these problems. One of the areas of research

could be developing quick methods of calibration with locally

manufactured gadgets, as pointed out by Dr. Harry Tabor in his

paper.

(vi) The institute could encourage the students to measure the

properties of locally available raw materials or locally produced

industrial goods as a part of their laboratory exercises.

(vii) The institute could develop inexpensive textbooks for students

and technicians in local languages in the fields of metrology

and standardization. The institute could arrange trips for

visitors, especially high school students, through its instrumentation and metrology laboratories, coupled with movies showing

the economic losses and other undesirable consequences resulting

from the lack of standardization and quality control. This would

help to increase the awareness among the population about standardization and quality control. An individual raised in a highly

industrialized society has a very good chance of automatically

developing the industrial attitude, but in industrializing

societies the individuals will have to be educated into acquiring

an industrial attitude.

5. Conclusion

The IIT, Kanpur, is already beginning to take some of the abovementioned steps, and similar institutes for engineering education have a

great potential in promoting standardization and quality control as a

catalyst in industrializing economies. The NBS and USAID can help in

tapping this potential by specifically allocating their funds for

standardization and quality control efforts at these institutes.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

205
SESSION 6 - ADDITIONAL CASE HISTORIES

Paper 6.5 - Design and Development Through Metrology (Abstract)

Prem Prakash

National Physical Laboratory

New Delhi, India

The National Physical Laboratory of India, in implementing the 1956

Standards of Weights and Measures Act, adjusted and calibrated mass standards

of 50 to 10" 6 kg for 250 State Laboratories. Most of the 5000 balances

needed by Inspectors were designed and fabricated by four commercial

manufacturers in India, with specifications, technician training, and

performance testing supplied by NPL. With this experience, two manufacturers

designed and fabricated the higher precision balances for District-level

laboratories. The technique is recommended to developing countries faced

with similar projects.

* From NBS SP 335, Innovative Metrology - Key to Progress.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

206
SESSION 6 - ADDITIONAL CASE HISTORIES

Paper 6.6 - Nondestructive Testing

H. Steffen Peiser

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 20234

The organizers of the Seminar have been particularly keen to avoid giving

undue emphasis to the work of the NBS, so I have chosen some work which has

no connection with NBS. For that I had to go back to my activities before

1957 when I came to this country. The reasons for wishing to describe such

old work is that I want to make the point that the technical infrastructure

in a less developed country often should be technique-oriented. You do not

want to rely entirely on mission-oriented people, because there are many

techniques of science which are specialized yet useful in diverse applications. To avoid each kind of industry having separate laboratories with

all kinds of techniques the national capability should provide certain

technique-oriented groups. They can be very small groups and they can

serve for all relevant applications. However, as was pointed out in the

discussion on the first session, you must not expect people in industry to

come and ask to use these facilities because they cannot appreciate the

potentialities. I also want to point out that sometimes several completely

different techniques can be applied to solve a particular problem. The

most characteristic feature of industry in the USA is that it has people who

are inventive and who are able to solve their problems by using any of a

number of effective techniques according to personal experience and inclination .

The technique I am going to talk about is nondestructive testing, and

radiography in particular. There is not a single country I have ever visited

where I could not have put up existing medical radiographic equipment to

solve most industrial problems suitable for radiographic techniques.

You can use radiography to see what is inside a black box which cannot

be opened. This feature is very useful for the repair of instruments. In a

related type of application, you can monitor a process inside a container,

such as the evaporation of liquid oxygen in a Dewar cylinder. Next you can

look at the quality of a weld. I believe that no welder can possibly be

trained without looking at radiographs of his welds. So you can use radiography as a very important teaching technique. We heard earlier in Dr.

Kushner's remarks about corrosion type cracking, that can cause disastrous

failures of engineering structures. Incipient cracks can easily be detected

by a number of nondestructive techniques, and can be seen radiographically

long before the piece fails. A completely different application is the

development of optimum foundry techniques for large or high-duty casting.

The pouring of the liquid metal, the temperature gradients, and the rate

of cooling are controlled so that liquid metal is never engulfed by solidified metal. You can guide radiographically the development of the foundry

technique so that there are also no voids or trapped gases in the final

casting.

The use of gamma radiographic equipment is also simple using a cobalt60 source which can be transported anywhere in a lead container. In Malaya

I radiographed chains of 200 elevator buckets each weighing about 200 kg

and carrying about a cubic metre of tin-bearing sludge. The pull on these

buckets is about 300 tons. When they fail, the whole chain drops into

the "pool", and it is a very expensive business to fish them out from 50

feet below the surface. What one wants to do is to make sure that these

buckets are not going to fail. This is achieved by radiographing the known

207
danger zone where the eye at the top of one bucket is pinned to the adjoining

bucket. For the undercarriage of airplanes, the use of castings which save

a great deal of machining costs would be extremely hazardous without radiographic inspection.

Turbine and compressor blades of jet engines such as those made by

the lost-wax investment process of precision casting can be radiographically

inspected in large numbers. Blade failures due to vibrational resonances

can be avoided by assuring the presence of large crystals. They will have

different natural frequencies, so the engine assembly will not be prone to

pronounced resonances. Their production is readily controlled by a high

voltage x-ray diffraction method using radiographic equipment.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

208
SESSION 6 - ADDITIONAL CASE HISTORIES

Paper 6.7 - Problems and Attitudes in Operating and Maintaining a

National Standards Laboratory in a Small Developing Country*

D. Pelli

Head, Standards Division

National Physical Laboratory of Israel

1. Origin of the Standards Laboratory

The National Standards Laboratory in Israel was established first in

1950 as a part of the National Physical Laboratory of Israel (NPLI), for

the purpose of:

(i) Maintaining basic physical standards,

(ii) Helping industry by giving service and precision measurements,

and

(iii) Encouraging new industries in the field of precision instrumentation.

After a few years of activity, the working staff dispersed and the

Standards Division stopped functioning. The Engineering Metrology Section

was transferred to the Standards Institution of Israel (SID, which issues

standards specifications, and tests products for conformance with these

standards. The Standards Division started to function again in 1960 when

the author of this paper was appointed as the Head of this Division. In

1964, the author visited National Standards Laboratories in England (NPL)

and in France (Laboratoire National D'Essais). A small budget (about

$10,000) and a second technician were then allowed for the Division. Since

then there has been a continuous increase of activity.

2. Growth of the Standards Division

This paper attempts to explain the process of development of the

Standards Division, the problems encountered, and the characteristic

features of a standards division in small developing countries in general,

and in Israel in particular. The first major problem which was encountered

was the lack of understanding of the subject by industry. The main reasons

for this were:

(i) The absence of competition faced by industry in the local market,

which is a "seller's market."

(ii) The fact that industry was at an early stage of development, most

of its products being simple, with no problem of interchangeability.

(iii) Industry had not reached the stages of automation or quality

control

.

A survey of the situation in industry was undertaken in 19 6 2 as a

* Paper presented for discussion at the NBS/AID Seminar, February 1-4, 1971,

on "The Role of a National Capability in Metrology and Standardisation

in Industrializing Economies." See also Paper 3.3

209
part of the background material for the visit of the late UN metrology

expert, Mr. R. Cohen from France, who was asked to advise the NPLI on this

subject. He found that there was an "inverted pyramid" in Israel in the

sense that institutions like the University and the Technion were highly

developed for research work, while industry lagged far behind in its

development. He discerned some signs of quality control, and expressed

his opinion that the need for precision measurements would grow. Indeed,

an increasing pressure of demand was felt by the Division before the end of

1962 .

The phenomenon of the "inverted pyramid" was clearly reflected in the

years 1963-1965 in the proportion of precision tests demanded by scientific

institutions to the total demand. That the pyramid turned right-side-up

between the years 1966-1970 to stand firmly on a wide base of industrial

activity can be seen from the following table:

Years 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970

Percentage for

demands for

tests by scientific insti- 71% 75 69 41 14 15 28 17

tutions to

the total

demand

This change apparently has resulted from the fact that Israel is a

small country which absorbed immigrants and refugees from highly developed

countries. They found work in the scientific institutions, but there was

no basic layer of developed industry to absorb them, and they could not

start industries because of their lack of financial means.

What Israel has in common with other less developed countries is the

gradual development of industry and the resulting mounting demand for

precision work and testing. During the years 1963-1970 the total requests

for testing at the Laboratory more than trebled. During the same period,

the number of different organizations needing test services rose from about

5 a year to 18 a year, and some made requests more than once in the year.

In the last five years in Israel both precision measuring facilities

and the service rendered by the Standards Division have increased. This

progress came about with the founding of standards laboratories in

institutions and industries which serve satellite organizations. A

prominent example is the Israel Aviation Industry (IAI) which established

a standards laboratory that serves different companies in the IAI, but

tests its own instruments at the Standards Division of the NPLI.

This development was precipitated by foreign companies seeking

contracts with IAI and the IAI ' s consequent need for proof of the adequacy

of the existing facilities for precision measurement in Israel. For

instance, the Federal Aviation Administration of the USA sent a delegation

to examine these facilities in Israel, and visited the Standards Division

of the NPLI to check the Division's capability to certify the IAI 1 s instrumentation. As a result, Israel was recognized as an authorized

manufacturer of aircraft for the USA market.

Israel has manpower of a high professional level, out of all proportion

to its population. A large amount of technical assistance is extended by

Israeli experts to less developed countries, although Israel, herself a

developing country, still requires advice and assistance in various fields.

210
3. Metrology Vs. Research

The NPLI has two main areas of activity. One is metrology and the other is applied

research. The greater part of the budget and manpower at the NPLI goes to research and

only about 10% goes to the Standards Division. Last year (1970) this 10% came to

around IL 100,000—i.e. about $30,000.

The rate of industrial development in Israel creates a demand for skilled manpower

which sometimes exceeds the supply in scientific and technical fields, although now and

then periods of slack in the economy result in an oversupply. This fluctuation is unfortunate for metrology, which requires people with special kinds of talents. They need

to be patient , to pay attention to small details , and to perform delicate experimental

work. People like this are not easily found in a small country and it takes at least two

years to train them adequately. They should be given reasonable remuneration, otherwise

they are liable to seek more profitable employment, leaving work interrupted or even

paralyzed.

Research institutions are accustomed to dealing with their staffs on the basis that

their work is temporary. When the project is completed, the work terminates. This

approach is obviously unsuited to workers in metrology. This approach contributed perhaps

to the fact that after some time the Standards Division found itself without the necessary

staff to operate. In a small country like Israel an erroneous approach to work conditions

may influence professionals in scientific and industrial fields, so that it becomes more

and more difficult to find new staff. A solution that was suggested to solve the manpower

problem, was to change the functions of the Standards Division. Active laboratory service

for the aid of industry should be abandoned, it was felt, and the Division should turn

into a research and advisory department, not necessarily related to metrology at all. To

this author, that solution appears to be like the proverbial throwing away of the baby

with the bath water.

4. The Achievement of Accuracy

The swift advance in the world as a whole (and in Israel on a smaller scale) of

modern technology, with its profound effect upon industry, has caused an increase in the

number of high precision instruments which are sent for testing to the Standards

Laboratory. Some people in scientific institutions not directly concerned with metrology

believe that since instruments of high accuracy and stability can be readily purchased,

there is little need for a Standards Division to do testing and calibrating.

Advocates of this view find support for their opinion in the fact that instruments

in the Standards Division such as the gauge-block interferometer or the level comparator,

which are used to achieve high order accuracy, are not often used. Therefore the

profitability of the work is low, since these high-accuracy instruments are the most

expensive kind. What is overlooked is the essential role of these instruments in the

testing hierarchy.

It is these misconceptions which have led to the conclusion that the basic problems

are shortage of manpower and lack of cost return for metrological work. This argument

in turn led to the view that testing, when necessary, should be done abroad. Apart from

the expense involved, what is overlooked is the growing demand within Israel's developing

economy for services such as those of the Standards Division, and the inadvisability or

impossibility of sending delicate instruments abroad for examination. These problems and

indeed the whole future of the Standards Division in NPLI are at present under study.

BS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

he Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies,

roceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

211

SESSION 7 - PROMOTING ECONOMIC STRENGTH AND COMMERCIAL EQUITY

Paper 7.1 - Overview - The Spread of Standardization

Frank L. LaQue

President, International Organization for Standardization

14 30 Broadway

New York, N. Y. 10018

1. Introduction

My assignment for this Seminar is to discuss a broad spectrum of

standardization activities with particular concern for the contributions

that standardization can make to advances in less developed countries.

Since this Seminar is concerned primarily with industrializing economies,

this discussion will concentrate on what are called engineering and commodity

standards needed by industry, without directing attention to equally important

standards needed to protect the safety and general welfare of people, both

as individual consumers and in their daily lives in general.

To avoid possible confusion, the terms used in this discussion of

standardization are defined in an appendix. These are the definitions of

the Department of Commerce Panel on Engineering and Commodity Standards,

1965.

2. Benefits of Standards

As we progress through the range from intra-company , inter-company,

intra-industry , national, sub-regional, and regional to international

standards, the number of people involved and the special interests that

must be reconciled increase greatly. Whatever type of standard is involved

the proper aim should be to increase efficiency and economics in production

and promote trade involving individuals, companies, and nations. Use of

standards to restrict competition or to serve as non-tariff barriers to

trade contravenes the proper purpose of standards.

Standards will lower costs of production and make goods more readily

acceptable in other countries. Thereby, they will improve the competitive

position of developing countries in export markets and thus lead to substantial increases in the purchasing power and general welfare of the

people. They will also provide a means of defense against the dumping of

sub-standard products unacceptable elsewhere. There are collateral benefits from standardization activities which are likely to be especially

important in developing countries. These benefits flow to industry and

agriculture through the advances in science and technology required for

the development of standards. Furthermore, those affected by the standards

are stimulated to greater cooperation in their common interests.

A standard or a specification in which a standard is referenced become

a part of an inseparable combination which must include methods of test

and a competent laboratory in which the required tests are carried out.

Standards are an essential component of the language of business. There

must be maximum precision in describing, by reference to an appropriate

standard, what the buyer expects to receive and what the seller agrees to

furnish. There must also be precision in the description of how compliance

with stipulated requirements is to be determined, so that the buyer can

confirm that he got what he expected, and so that the seller can be sure

that what he furnished is likely to meet the tests that will be applied

by the buyer.

213
This contribution of standards in facilitating and promoting trade

extends through the whole spectrum of standardization, from negotiations

between individuals or single companies to international trade in raw

materials and industrial products. Standards will serve as a guide to

developing countries in taking steps to insure that whatever raw materials

or manufactured products they wish to export will have the qualities that

are required and defined by the standards by which goods are purchased in

international markets.

While the contribution of standards to increasing exports of raw

materials from "developing" nations is important, users of the term

"developing" generally have in mind an increase in industrial activity in

the manufacture of goods both for internal consumption and also for

export, with consequent improvement in the balance of trade figures. The

key to success in this area as shown by experience in highly developed

nations and in regional common markets is "mass production." Standards

provide an essential basis for mass production. They enable components to

be interchangeable in regular production and for replacement when this is

needed. They permit manufacture for stock and for a multitude of customers

instead of requiring dependence on a number of individual or special orders.

They reduce the need for large inventories. Thus they lower the cost of

production and the selling price and thereby assist in raising living

standards

.

3. Organization of Standardization

The facilities required for programs in standardization will naturally

vary from what is needed for an intra-company standardization effort to

the more complex requirements of national and international standardization.

In large corporations the intra-company attention to standardization is

put in the hands of specialists who may be called professional standards

engineers. These engineers develop, choose and monitor standards used

solely within the corporation. They participate in the work of outside

organizations in the development of intra-industry , national, and international standards to insure that the products of the corporation will be

able to comply with external standards under which they may be purchased.

They also guide the purchase of materials by developing specifications in

which appropriate standards and methods of determining compliance are

referenced, to insure the level of quality that is needed and to take

advantage of the lower cost of standard as compared with special items.

Standards engineers must work closely with others responsible for quality

control within a plant through proper programming of processing, sampling,

and inspection to insure that the products will meet internal standards

previously established or specified by the purchaser.

Smaller companies are not likely to employ standards engineers defined

as such. However, responsibility for attention to standards activities

should be specifically assigned under the continuing scrutiny of management

at a high level. Even in the smaller company, the importance of standardization should be recognized by top level management, and defined as a

specific area of activity rather than something that can be dealt with at

a low priority without direct assignment. Those assigned responsibility

for standardization should report directly to top management, whatever the

size of the company.

External standards used by a company should be regarded as an essential

company resource. The sources of such standards should be supported by

making technical personnel available for the development of standards that

reflect the interest and needs of the company. Also, financial support

through dues or by other means must be provided to the national and international organizations in which standards are developed so as to insure that

the administration of the activity will be competent, efficient, and

continuous

.

214
There is a need also for government support of standardization

organizations, particularly in connection with international standardization

in which there is an overall national interest and in which it is not

practical to identify the interest of individual companies or trade associations for enlisting the necessary support. It is necessary for government

agencies to make their reservoir of scientific and engineering personnel

available to standards development organizations so as to insure that the

total competence of both the government and the private sectors is brought

to bear on the development of standards to serve the nation's needs. A

prime example of government personnel contributions to the development of

standards is provided by the U.S. National Bureau of Standards. A recent

survey disclosed that currently more than four hundred members of the NBS

staff are serving on committees of private-sector standards organizations

in the United States. We must also utilize another source of contributions

to the development of standards, the educational institutions, which can

provide standards development committees with experts having a general and

independent interest and approach different from that of producers and users.

4. Intra-industry Standards

Intra-industry standards are the product of the activities of trade

associations, many of which have evolved from old-time guilds. They are

composed of corporate and individual members brought together by a common

interest. They often include distributors as well as manufacturers. Such

groups provide the most effective means for the recognition of need and the

development of the engineering and commodity standards required by a

particular industry. These standards can define either a manufacturing

process or a product.

Trade associations are able to combine the talents and experience

of their several members and bring to bear the viewpoints of producers,

distributors, and users. They can assemble the funds required for the

necessary work on standards, and by combining resources can give each

company member the full benefit of the results at only a small fraction of

its cost. Standardization activities of trade associations are frequently

devoted to matters of prime concern only within an industry, e.g. simplified

practices in listing product lines, codes for the identification of

products, or the handling and conditions of storage of some basic commodity

purchased for further processing. Another example would be a standard for

yarn quality used within the textile industry.

5. Standardization in Developing Countries

Intra-industry standards will be needed in developing countries for

the purposes that have been described. However, there is a major difference

between standardization activities in developing countries and those of

highly developed countries. This difference is the role likely to be

played by government. Outside the communist area in which standards

development and promulgation is largely, if not exclusively, a government

activity, the role of the government varies through rather wide limits.

In the United States the development of engineering and commodity

standards is initiated almost completely within the private sectors , but

with participation by government personnel in the work of the committees

of organizations in the private sector. Coordination of this activity and

recognition of such standards as national standards is undertaken by the

American National Standards Institute, acting as a confederation of the

16 0 standards-developing organizations which are members of ANSI.

In most other countries , development of national standards is in the

hands of national standards bodies which organize committees from both

private-sector and government sources to develop the needed standards.

Financial support comes from both industry and government in varying

215

452-533 O - 72 - 15
proportions

.

In some developing countries there are native technical societies and

trade associations able to develop standards for eventual recognition as

national standards. Where such organizations do not exist, the initiative

for the creation of a national standardization body and provision for its

financing can be expected to come from the government rather than from the

private sector, at least until these responsibilities can be undertaken

to an increasing extent within the private sector. Since much, if not most,

of the non- government competence required for standardization activities

will be found in industry and educational institutions, the organization

of a national standards body must provide for participation from these

elements of the private sector in partnership with government, for both

national and international categories of an overall standardization effort.

Appropriate models of effective national standardization bodies can

be found among the several members of the International Organization for

Standardization (ISO). Those likely to be most appropriate to developing

countries can be expected to be found among those country members of ISO

in the same general category. Examples include the standards bodies of

such countries as Colombia, India, Iran, Israel, and Turkey, listed here

alphabetically.

Assistance in the organization of standards bodies of less developed

countries has been provided by the United Nations. In Latin America,

invaluable help has come from personnel from the U.S. National Bureau of

Standards, as illustrated, for example, in Colombia. Here, members of the

NBS staff played a major role in setting up the Colombian standards body,

ICONTEC. Assistance in training programs was also provided by NBS through

the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID), with additional help

from the Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Navy. Through the Agency

for International Development, the National Bureau of Standards set up a

Weights and Measures Laboratory in Bogota for the use of all Latin

American countries. Other types of assistance in Latin America have been

provided by the Organization of American States and the Alliance for

Progress. The Ford Foundation has also given financial assistance to the

Pan American Standards Commission (COPANT).

6 . Training Programs

Opportunities for training in standardization have been made available

by the standards bodies of several highly developed countries. Assistance

to standards organizations in Latin America has included the organization,

financing, and staffing of seminars for the training of personnel in

standards development practices. The NBS has provided experts in the

products dealt with in these seminars. Training is being dealt with in ISO

through its standing committee for the study of Scientific and Technical

Information on standardization (INFCO). This committee is currently

compiling a "list of existing specialized educational courses for standardization and a survey of the training facilities at undergraduate and postgraduate levels." Responsibility for this compilation is in the hands of

the Polish standards committee.

The United States can provide training programs. These should involve

time to be spent at NBS and in such major standards-developing organizations

as the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) , the Society of

Automotive Engineers (SAE) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers

(ASME). Visits should be made to such representative trade associations

as the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), the American Petroleum

Institute (API), and the Copper Development Association.

The operations of a national standards body would be covered in time

spent at the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Intra-company

216
standardization programs could be examined with the cooperation of appropriate

large companies which have highly organized standards departments. Organization of such a training program in the United States should be undertaken

jointly by NBS and ANSI in collaboration with the other organizations that

will be involved including especially AID.

7. Financing

The financing of a national standards body in a less developed country

is likely to be the prime responsibility of the government, using funds

derived from the private sector by some appropriate means of taxation or

assessment. The extent of financing required should be related appropriately

to the level of national activity in which standards are important. One

measure of such activity could be the Gross National Product (GNP) of the

nation. Costs will be affected also by the extent of other activities of

the national standards body outside the area of standards for which that

body may be made responsible. For example, the body could undertake

industrial research as well as standardization and product certification.

In developing countries where the national standards body, at least

in its early stages, is likely to be responsible for practically all of

the work on standards, on certification, and on testing, plus a good deal

of industrial research, an annual budget of from $300 to $400 per million

dollars of GNP appears to be appropriate. Lower figures would be expected

where exports of foods and other raw materials make up a large percentage

of the GNP. Lower figures apply also to highly industrialized nations

where much of the standards development work and industrial research is

done outside the national standards body. In such cases the figures could

range from $2 to $6 0 per million of GNP.

However a national standards body is organized and financed, it must

be able to act as the focal point to identify standards needs, organize

the competence to fulfill the needs, independently determine whether standards in fact have national recognition and acceptance—national consensus—

and, finally, promote industrial as well as governmental adoption and use

of such standards. It must also serve as the official representative

of the nation in regional standards organizations such as COPANT and international bodies such as the International Organization for Standardization

(ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

8. Use of Existing Standards

The national standards body of a less developed country can be most

effective, especially in its early stages, by taking advantage of what is

already available in the vast store of existing national and international

standards developed within the more highly developed nations. Included are

the food standards covered by the Codex Alimentarius of the FAO and the ECE,

which supplement the activities of ISO in this field. In addition to

their specific usefulness as standards documents, the existing standards

provide a most effective means for transfer" of technology in an immediately

useable form.

In the international field there are already over 2000 international

recommendations from ISO and IEC to draw upon. In the national field there

are as many as 20,000 standards in a single country, many of which will

eventually be succeeded by international standards but which in the interim

are available for guidance. An appropriate first step would be to prepare

a list of standards for which the need is most urgent, arrange these in a

proper order of priority, and then make a choice from those available that

are judged to be most appropriate for local use. Necessary modifications

may be made to deal with special circumstances and capabilities of compliance. Currently ISO is engaged in cataloguing available standards

as a guide to less developed countries and others as to what is immediately

217
available. This will supplement similar catalogues maintained by the

national standards bodies of several countries , one being a computerized

catalogue established by NBS.

Development of unique national standards from scratch in less developed

countries should ordinarily represent a minor portion of the total activity.

It should be undertaken only with competent advice and assistance and in

response to special needs that cannot be dealt with by the use of available

standards from external sources with such modification as may be appropriate.

The standards bodies of less developed countries should become members of

regional and international standards organizations and participate in their

standards development activities at least as observers, so as to insure

that their special interests will be taken into account in the development

of international standards with which the products of these countries may

be required to comply in international trade.

International standardization, on at least a regional level, must be

recognized as an essential component of any program leading to the establishment of a regional common market. This will be necessary to insure that

incompatible national standards will not contravene the objectives of

unobstructed trade among participating countries which is the principal

goal of any common market. The organization of sub-regional standards

organizations may be desirable as a step in the progression from national

standards to international standards. ICAITI in Central America provides

a good example. However, a sub-regional organization should cooperate with

an existing regional standardization body and not become competitive with

it. This would represent undesirable dilution of the total effort for

which technical resources and financial support may be limited.

The ultimate goal for all nations, whether less or highly developed,

should be eventual substitution of international standards for national

standards, realizing this as a major contribution to the promotion of

trade, interdependence, and peace among all the nations of the world.

Appendix

Definitions from the Report of the Panel on Engineering and Commodity

Standards of the Commerce Technical Advisory Board, PB16 6 811A&B, National

Technical Information Service, Springfield, Virginia 22151.

Standard -

A document or an object for physical comparison to define properties,

processes, materials, relationships, concepts, nomenclature or test

methods. When used as an adjective, distinguishes something that is

common and regularly available from something that is special or that

is "made to order."

Specification -

A document setting forth in detail pertinent defining characteristics

of a product such as performance, chemical composition, physical

properties, dimensions, color, etc., giving or referencing the

standards by which the correspondence to the defined characteristics

is to be measured; and prepared for use in, or to form the basis for,

an agreement between negotiating parties.

Code -

A document setting forth requirements based on certain considerations,

frequently health and safety, and the criteria and standards against

218
which compliance with the requirements is to be measured.

Consensus -

In standardization practice a consensus is achieved when substantial

agreement is reached by concerned interests according to the judgment

of a duly appointed and recognized authority. A principal function of

a national standardization body is to provide a means "as the

recognized authority" for achieving a consensus, taking into account

a balanced interest through expression of views of all likely to be

affected including producers, users and those having a general interest.

Simplified Practice -

This refers to the process of reducing the number of types of products

made (or called for) within a definite range. This generally involves

more than one firm and is often adopted within an industry or major

section of one.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

219

SESSION 7 - PROMOTING ECONOMIC STRENGTH AND COMMERCIAL EQUITY

Paper 7.2 - Overview - The Role of Standardization in

Industrializing Economies

A. N. Ghosh

Indian Standards Institution

New Delhi (India)

1. Introduction

In presenting this overall review of the role of standardization in

industrializing economy, I have made only passing reference to the work

on metrology —fundamental standards of weights and measures —since in

India the work on standardization like that done by the National Bureau

of Standards (NBS) is carried out by two different organizations. The

National Physical Laboratory (NPL) concerns itself with maintaining fundamental standards of measurement , and work on industrial standardization is

undertaken by the Indian Standards Institution (ISI).

Standardization is not a modern invention. It expresses a basic human

instinct to create order out of chaos. The development of language for

communication among human beings is an example of standardization from the

earliest times. As civilization advanced, man discovered methods of

measuring distance, weight, and time, and instruments for these. He

produced tools and utensils designed for specific uses. He has developed

trade by exchanging goods and services and established methods to judge

their quality and price. All these are aspects of what we call standardization today. The essential difference between the standards of the past

and of the modern industrial era lies not so much in their nature as in the

highly organized pattern that standards work has assumed in this century.

Today the rate of industrial progress and the tremendous upsurge in international trade make it essential to plan the development and application

of standards both at the national and international levels.

Standards deal with all the characteristics of products, services and

manufacturing processes on which it is essential to reach national agreement

in the interests of improved productivity. They may be grouped into:

(i) Basic Standards - Terminology, units, symbols, methods of measurement^ preferred numbers, documentation, classification and coding.

(ii) Applied Standards - Dimensions, product, quality and "fitness for

purpose"; physical, mechanical, and chemical methods of test;

methods of sampling and quality control; acceptance tests; safety

standards; codes of good practice for building, installation,

and maintenance.

All these standards are essential tools for designer, manufacturer,

buyer and research worker.

2. Principles of Standardization

The basic principles and purpose of standardization remain the same

whether standardization is introduced in a more or a less developed country.

The following definitions accepted by the International Organization for

Standardization (ISO) make this point evident:

a) Standardization - Standardization is the process of formulating

and applying rules for an orderly approach to a specific activity

221
for the benefit and with the cooperation of all concerned, and in

particular, for the promotion of optimum overall economy taking due

account of functional conditions and safety requirements.

It is based on the consolidated results of science, technology

and experience. It determines not only the basis for present but

also for future development, and it should keep pace with advances.

Some particular applications:

i) units of measurement;

ii) terminology and symbolic representation;

iii) safety of persons and goods.

b) Standard - A standard is the result of a particular standardization

effort, approved by a recognized authority. It may take the form

of:

i) a document cont^^ing a set of conditions to be fulfilled;

ii) a fundamental unit or physical constant—examples : ampere,

absolute zero (kelvin)

;

iii) an object for physical comparison—example : a metre bar.

In case of a fundamental unit or physical constant or an object for

physical comparison like the metre, the task of this sort of standardization in India is shared by the ISI and the NPL. The NPL is the custodian

of the metrological standards which in this country come under the purview

of the NBS. The responsibility of the ISI, like the British Standards

Institution, is confined to the preparation of standards for weights and

measures used in commercial transactions. The custodian of the primary

weights is the NPL.

During its work of preparation of national standards, ISI has been

responsible for the preparation of a large number of standards on weights

and measures including the balances which are given in Annexure II. In

case of instruments which fall under various engineering disciplines

tackled by the ISI, standards have been prepared for precision and performance, and these are also listed in Annexure II. Belonging as I do to

the ISI, I would refrain from talking to this informed audience any

more about the work of metrology carried out by the NPL. The association

of the NPL (India) with NBS has been so close as to require no repetition

on this forum.

The field of standardization is represented in Figure 1 by a

hypothetical standardization space. The three dimensions of this space

are "subject", "aspect", and "level."

222
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INTERNATIONAL

NATIONALASSOCIATIONCOMPANYo

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SUBJECT

-NOMENCLATURE

-SPECIFICATION

-SAMPLING AND INSPECTION

-TESTS AND ANALYSES

-LIMITATION OF VARIETY

-GRADING

-CODE OF PRACTICE

-PACKAGING, CONSERVATION, TRANSPORT

Figure 1

Diagrammatic Representation of Standardization Space

X) Standardization Subject - Standardization subjects are material

things, abstract notions, formal symbols, etc., which are suitable

for being standardized. Some examples of standardization domains

are: engineering, transport, housing and building, food, agriculture, forestry, textiles, chemicals, industry, commerce, science,

and education. Since there are many standardization subjects for

each standardization domain, for the sake of convenience only

the domains are indicated on the X-axis of Figure 1.

Y) Standardization Aspect - Examples of standardization aspects

are

i) a set of nomenclatures or definitions of terms;

ii) a scheme for limitation of variety or sizes, shapes, grades

or other parameters designed to meet most economically the

needs of the consumer (also including dimensional freezing

of component designs to ensure interchangeability)

;

iii) construction details;

iv) a specification for quality, composition or performance of

223
a material , an instrument , a machine or a structure

;

v) a method of sampling or inspection to determine conformity

to a specified requirement of a large batch or lot of

material or products by inspection of sample;

vi) a method of test or analysis to evaluate specified characteristics of a material or chemical;

vii) a method of grading and grade definitions for natural

products, such as timber, minerals, etc;

viii) a code of practice dealing with design, construction,

operation, safety, maintenance of a building, an installation, or a machine;

ix) a code of practice for packing, conservation or transportation of materials and products.

Z) Standardization Level - A standardization level defines a group

of persons who are to use the standard. Standards corresponding

to the more important levels occurring in contemporary practice

may be classified as follows:

i) a company standard, prepared by common agreement between

various departments of a company or production unit for

guiding its purchase, manufacture, sales, and other operations ;

ii) an association or trade standard prepared by a group of

related interests in a given industry or within a given

profession

;

iii) a national standard promulgated after consulting all

interests concerned, however remotely, with the subject

in a country, through a national standards organization

which may be a governmental, a non-governmental, or a

quasi-governmental body;

iv) an international recommendation or standard, such as those

of the ISO and the International Electrotechnical Commission

(IEC), resulting from an international agreement between

independent sovereign nations having common interests.

For a given standardization problem, it is possible to establish the

specific aims of standardization by determining its position in the

standardization space. However, the ultimate aims of standardization are

applicable to all levels, though a distinct functional character may be

ascribed to standard at each specific level.

The aims of standardization in general, applicable to all levels,

are to achieve: (a) overall economy, (b) protection of consumers' interests,

and (c) safety and protection of health and life.

a) Overall Economy - comprises economy of human effort, materials and

machines, power and energy, on the one hand, and the combined

economy of the producer and the consumer on the other. The

attainment of overall economy creates maximum productivity for the

country as a whole , though the economy of each individual unit

or component of production may not be at an optimum level. For

example, greatest economy in material may preclude greatest economy

in labor. The pursuit of overall economy results in simplification

and reduction of variety of products and components , and elimination

224
of avoidable wastage during handling of materials, processing,

transport, and in general exchange of goods and services. Sometimes,

it involves saving of essential materials by substitution with more

readily available materials which may or may not lead to immediate

or apparent saving in cost or human effort, but which, in the

national economy, may be essential for other important reasons.

b) Protection of Consumers ' Interest - is ensured through adequate

and consistent quality of goods and services. The notion of

quality of service covers not only material services such as the

attainment of higher quality or performance or functional interchangeability of consumer articles, but also non-material services

and conveniences, such as ready availability of standard goods from

stock, simplicity coupled with serviceability of consumer equipment, and generally such things as make man's life and work easier,

more effective, and pleasant.

c) Safety and Protection of Health and Life - may concern goods in

general use or material or processes during production. Examples

are standards for limiting impurities in foodstuffs, standards for

storage of radioactive materials, and regulations for earthing

(grounding) of electrical wiring and equipment.

To achieve these aims is, in a way, to introduce order into industry,

trade and commerce, and in human relationships generally. An eminent

Indian thinker said that standardization is to industry and commerce what

culture is to society. In other words, just as rules of civilized behavior

regulate the social intercourse of man and his appreciation of cultural

values, so does standardization help to regulate the conduct of commerce

and trade in a smooth and efficient manner, and assist in improving productivity and efficiency of man and machine.

3. Applicability of Standardization in Developing Economies

The creation of a dynamic society from limited resources and often under

severe population pressure usually involves national planning, direction,

and control to an extent hardly compatible with the laissez-faire economy

of the last century. It is in the context of such planned development that

the role of standardization in a developing economy has to be evaluated.

Standards come into play whenever there is transition from production

to consumption, since they establish a link between the two. The transition

from production to consumption occurs not only at the ultimate point of

use, but also at a number of intermediary stages, both in industry and trade.

The growth of industry in any country is marked by a corresponding rise

in the interdependence of the different productive sectors. Each has to

look to others for the supply of raw materials, machinery, components, and

services; and each, in turn, provides similar facilities to others. The

resulting complex relationship cannot be sustained unless adequate understanding of the products and processes involved is achieved at the innumerable contact points at which products pass from one plant to another, or

from store to householder, or for that matter from one country to another.

One of the main functions of standards is to facilitate the flow of products

through these transition points.

Apart from helping commercial movement and industrial exchanges in

this manner, standards, as has been pointed out earlier, also conserve

productive effort by reducing unnecessary variety, by ensuring interchangeability and making mass production possible. Thus, standards lead

to the best utilization of the human and material resources of a country.

For a developing country, the conservation of resources and achievement

of a high level of productivity are of obvious importance. So is the need

to expand exports to earn foreign exchange with which to provide for the

225
growing necessity for importing capital equipment, so essential at the

initial stages of development.

In a developing economy, industrial development is often dependent on

outside assistance in the form of technical personnel, industrial know-how,

capital equipment, and so on, which may be extended by different industrial

groups in different countries. Thus, production units in a developing country may tend to adopt and follow the pattern of standardization of the

different collaborating organizations abroad. This is the time when national

standards are most urgently needed and when, more often than not, they are

conspicuous by their absence. Hence the prime need for a developing country

is to bring into being a system of national standards, which would help

industries from the earliest stage of planning and design, through erection,

production, and distribution. It is through such an approach that the

usually. limited financial resources of a developing country and its

indigenous materials and manpower could most effectively be put to work.

4. Planning in Standardization

In industrializing economies it would be extremely useful to have

standards before industrialization begins or even during the early period

of industrialization. The value of pre-planning in standardization is

illustrated in an Indian example. The ISI was established in 1947 when

the country did not have many industries. Later industrial development

took place on a planned basis from 1950 onwards but before then the ISI

had already done most of the spadework required for laying a foundation

for a strong industrial base. As the country went from plan to plan, ISI

had its own Five-Year Plans dovetailed with the national plans so that

it was possible to meet the demand for standards in accordance with the

priorities of the plan. Today the ISI is in a position not only to guide

existing industries in their efforts to rationalize their production and

institute quality control, but also to help in planning future industries

and in organizing export promotion measures.

As an example of the value of pre-planning of standardization,

experience of the Steel Economy Project of the ISI may be cited. The aim

of this project was to achieve economy in the use of structural steel by

adopting standards from the stage of production of structurals through

designing, fabricating and erecting to the maintenance of structures. In

production, considerable emphasis was laid on rationalization of shapes

and sizes of sections, although these designs had been frozen years ago.

The development of new standard sections by the ISI permitted saving about

10 percent on steel. All new mills installed in recent years in India

or to be installed in the future are to produce these new sections. Coldformed sections made from strip are now being standardized; it is estimated

that this will permit saving up to 40 percent of the material. Standards

for welding equipment and accessories and codes for welding practices

have been developed to provide further economies on steel by eliminating

the wasteful process of fabrication involved in riveting. Similarly,

improved design codes for steel structures now enable Indian engineers to

use more rational safety factors and loading criteria and permit the use

of more economical and up-to-date formulae for design.

It is conservatively estimated that about 20 percent of steel might

be saved if all similar measures now available to the engineer were fully

implemented. In the context of a production of steel of ten million tons

a year, an appreciable quantity of which is used for structural purposes,

a reduction of even one million tons per year would yield a recurring

saving of well over 100 million dollars, let alone all the investments,

costs, and efforts involved in the production of this extra quantity.

A part of the steel economy project was concerned with the rationalization of the varieties of alloy and special steels required for miscellaneous industrial uses. The import to India of equipment and expert

226
knowledge from all parts of the world had generated a demand for well over

one thousand types of alloy and special steels, including tool steels.

This was not only wasteful but also precluded the possibility of developing indigenous production, which would be extremely uneconomical in view

of the limited demand for each type of steel. After an extensive study,

it proved possible to reduce varieties to some 130 types, to minimize the

use of imported alloying elements, such as nickel and molybdenum, and to

encourage the use of indigenously available alloying elements such as

manganese and chromium. The project made it possible to plan the establishment of several new alloy steel plants, a number of which are currently

under construction.

The question may be raised why national standards should be developed

instead of adopting international standards or those evolved in other

countries. Before answering this question, it should be pointed out that

standards, whether at a national or other level, should be developed only

if they serve a common need and are likely to contribute to the overall

economy of the nation or other group or sector concerned. Once this

condition is fulfilled, the answer to the question becomes obvious,

namely, if an available international standard or one developed in

another country may serve the interest of a particular nation, then there

should be no hesitation in adopting that standard, for in the long run

it is going to facilitate international coordination of standards and save

a great deal of unnecessary duplication of effort. However, in adopting an

outside standard, it may become necessary to make one or more minor or

major changes dictated by the special conditions under which the national

economy concerned operates. There are many cases in which neither national

nor overseas standards exist and other instances in which they do exist,

but must be considered inadequate for the intended purpose. Under both

circumstances, it becomes necessary to evolve independent national standards

This point may be illustrated by a few examples from the Indian

experience. Before the ISI came into being, the prevailing industrial

practices in certain well-established industries such as cement, steel, and

non-ferrous metals, were largely based on British standards. Though by and

large the British standards covered India's needs, it became apparent

that these standards should be amended in order to meet certain specific

needs of the country, in particular in respect to indigenous raw material

resources. Thus, in the case of steel used for statically loaded structures

the content of sulphur and phosphorus impurities had to be relaxed so that,

given the available resources of coking coal, production of steel in the

country could be stepped up to meet the ever-increasing demand. In the case

of Portland cement, the existing specifications had to be liberalized in

respect of magnesia content so that a large number of limestone deposits in

the country could be economically exploited for the manufacture of cement.

Before these decisions were taken, experimental investigations and a search

of overseas standards were undertaken to ensure that such liberalizations

would not in any way affect the basic qualities required in the products.

5. Needs of Less Developed Countries

The extent and content of national standards are a characteristic of

the development of industry in a country. Well organized standardization

is an indicator of industrial efficiency and productivity. The store of

concentrated and carefully collated knowledge and experience expressed in

any standard specification, indigenous or foreign, is of great value to

emerging countries in planning their economic development at a fast pace

and with the least wastage. For their domestic production, the developing

countries often give priority to standards for primary products and industrial raw materials since these form the basis of their production. Less

developed countries, however, are also large purchasers of equipment from

those technically advanced countries with whose collaboration they often

set up industrial plants. The recommendations published by ISO and IEC

should enable the less developed countries to start their standardization

227
organizations in improving the quality of their production and in general

attaining the economic advantages that accrue from such effort. However,

the recommendations of ISO and IEC should be so formulated to be truly

international in the sense that their coverage is world-wide. I may recall

to your minds the ISO's own definition of standardization: it is "for the

benefit of all and with the cooperation of all concerned for the promotion

of optimum overall economy...." At the present time not all the nations

of the world participate in the world standards preparation nor does the

mechanism exist for them to do so. Like it or not, ISO and IEC recommendations are oriented toward the more highly developed countries and hardly

take full consideration of conditions—environmental, technological and

economic —that are prevalent in the large areas of the world inhabited

by underdeveloped and backward countries.

A little-developed country has to safeguard its interests in international standardization as much as any other country. Special requirements,

to suit its state of industrial development, climatic conditions, material

resources and so on, need to be built into industrial recommendations

through the action of the relevant committees. An example is provided

in the tropical and sub-tropical standard atmosphere for testing, so often

used for conditioning samples of materials prior to the specification

tests applied for proving their compliance. In the beginning the

atmospheres considered for adoption by ISO and IEC were those widely used

in Europe and the USA. These were unsuitable for tropical and sub-tropical

regions where temperatures are much higher during most of the year. If

European standards were adopted in these regions, testing laboratories

would have to maintain costly installations for air-conditioning. On a

proposal by ISI, a third atmosphere for tropical conditions has been accepted by ISO and IEC. This step is of importance to many developing countries

in the tropical region since it enables all materials and commodities for

tropical use and export from the tropics to be tested in all countries

under the most suitable internationally recognized set of atmospheric

conditions

.

Many similar problems of the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the

world as well as primary raw material production industries of the developing areas have to be given more consideration in the ISO and IEC work than

has been done hitherto. In this task the major role has to be played by

the less developed countries themselves through their national standards

bodies, which have to be established with foreign help.

6. Problems of Less Developed Countries

The nature and type of assistance required for developing countries

may be expected to vary according to the stage of development which a country has reached. There are certain countries in early stages of

development where little has been done for planning of standardization

activity; there are others where the value of starting a standardization

movement has been recognized and some great steps taken. There are yet

others where very significant progress has been made towards industrialization and standardization. While different kinds of help would be

required for each of these organizations, I could say, speaking on behalf

of India, that she could render help in an urgently needed international

effort for training standards personnel. There is a shortage of scientists

and engineers in most of the developing countries , and standardization being

a new discipline has not yet found a place in the curricula of technical

institutions. In order to tide over the difficulties faced in India for

getting the right type of personnel, the ISI initiated in 1957 a two-year

training program for its own newly recruited technical personnel. This

consisted of 2 to 4 months of induction, 4 to 5 months of lectures and

discussions, 5 to 6 months of factory visits and in-plant training, and

11 to 12 months of on-the-job practical training within the Secretariat

of the standardization committees of the Institution. This program was

228
regularly repeated once in two years, but more recently its duration has

been reduced to one year. Initially, these training programs suitably

abridged were offered to participants from a number of developing countries.

ISI training efforts in standardization are summarized in Annexure I.

There is another program exclusively for foreign participants which

has been organized from 11 January this year in which 14 trainees from the

following countries are taking part: Aden, Ceylon, Ghana, Kenya, Malaysia,

Nigeria, Philippines, Egypt, and Zambia.

In order to help the developing countries better, the Indian Government

has sent a proposal to the United Nations asking financial assistance for

strengthening the training course. This proposal has not yet matured but

this would be one of the areas in which the United States Government's

help would be useful to the less developed countries. This should be on

the basis of a matching grant to be provided by the ISI.

Another way in which less developed countries could be helped would be

by providing fellowships of suitable amounts for training in standardization

in more highly developed countries such as the USA, India, Japan or Germany.

Such fellowships could be offered to eligible standards engineers from

less developed countries so that on their return to their countries, they

could utilize the knowledge gained. This could cover all disciplines

including mechanical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering,

instrumentation technology, and so on.

Another important problem facing less developed countries is the lack

of testing facilities for products manufactured by small scale industrialists. Unless the standards that are prepared could be utilized by the

industry concerned, and the know-how made available and the testing facilities provided at all important centers, it is not possible for small

industries to come up to the standards. Forty percent of the industries

in our country for instance are in the small-scale sector. In times to

come there are bound to be more of them and this has great employment

potential. It is felt that the NBS could organize the help for establishing

test houses on a self-help-cum-aid basis in less developed countries. These

funds could be advanced through an appropriate organization such as the

national standards bodies.

Standardization is predominantly a cooperative venture, whether on the

company, association, national, or international level. In the international field cooperation must be sought and obtained from all the nations. To

give that cooperation all nations of the world must be guided and helped

to take interest in the standardization movement—first at the national

level, then at the international level. Here I would like to appeal to

progressive nations in the world to lead the way and help less developed

countries to progress.

USA is today the world's most advanced nation and this position she

owes to the American pioneering Pilgrim fathers. The Pilgrim fathers always

looked forward and never rested, but kept on widening their frontiers

step by step. Today the whole world looks to you to take the rest of the

world forward. Let me end this dissertation by quoting to you, members of

a new nation, from the scriptures of one of the oldest--India—the message

of the need for forward motion:

Those who sit, their fortune sits;

They that stand up, their fortune gets up;

The sleepers, fortune also sleeps,

Those who move, their fortune also leaps forward.

So keep moving, be dynamic.

229
Annexure I

Training Programs In Standardization Organized by ISI

Program

in

Year

1958

1959

1961

1964

Participants

ISI Officers

39

28

16

30

1965

1966 48

1968

1969

1970

Overseas

Philippines 2 Singapore 3

Thailand 2

Ceylon 2

Philippines 3

Thailand 2 UAR 3

Philippines 2 Thailand 1

Burma 2 Ceylon 1

Philippines 1

South Yemen 1

UAR 4

Ceylon 1

Kenya 1

Malaysia 1

Thailand 1

UAR 4

Duration

of

Program

2 years

2 years

2 years

2 years

(16 weeks for

overseas partici

pants

)

8 weeks

2 years

(16 weeks for

overseas partici

pants

)

15 weeks

15 weeks

15 weeks

161 37

Annexure II

List of Indian National Standards

Optical and Mathematical Instruments

IS:

98 8-19 59 General requirements for optical components

1360-1963 Engineers' pattern tee-squares

1399-1959 Glossary of terms used in optical technology

1480- 1960 Metric scales for general purposes

1481- 1961 Metric steel scales for engineers

1482- 1960 Metric scales for use with drafting machines

1491-1959 Metric scales for architectural purposes

1492- 1959 Metric surveying chains

1561-1962 Set-squares for use of drawing offices

230
1562- 1962 Metric diagonal scales (Cartographers, surveyors and engineers)

1563- 1963 Protractors for use of drawing offices

1632-1960 Bubbles

1764-1961 Trough compass

1779-1961 4-Metre, levelling staff, folding type

1955-1961 Prismatic compass, liquid

1957-1961 Prismatic compasses, non-liquid

2233-1962 Straight-edges for drawing office use

2286-1963 Pantograph

2352-1963 Procedure for basic climatic and durability tests for optical

instruments

2466-1963 Beam compasses

2533-1963 Geometry boxes

2539-1963 Plane tables

2666-1963 Slide rules (linear type)

2754-1964 General requirements for optical instruments

2976-1964 Optical theodolite

2988-1965 Vernier theodolite

3099-1965 Slides and cover slips for microscopes

3113-1965 Prismatic binoculars for common use

3135-1965 Cathetometer

3206- 1965 Engineers' drawing instruments, dividers

3207- 1965 Engineers' drawing instruments, rotating compasses

3208- 1965 Engineers' drawing instruments, half set of compasses

3209- 1965 Engineers' drawing instruments, spring bow compasses

3283-1968 Parallel rulers, 150 mm (link type)

3602-1966 Recommendations for the design of scales and indexes for indicating instruments for scales of 1 to 2 percent resolution

3686-1966 Student type microscope

4328- 1967 Monocular dissecting microscope

4329- 1967 Measuring (travelling) microscope

4380- 1967 Abney level

4381-1967 Pathological microscope

4590-1967 Engineers' levels

5153-1969 Proportional compasses - 150 mm, 200 mm and 300 mm

5148-1969 Hand magnifiers: 50 mm, 75 mm, and 100 mm

5146- 1969 Sounding sextant

5147- 1969 Examination lamp with bull's eye condenser (floor model)

5204- 1969 Research microscope

5205- 1969 Drawing pins

5213-1969 French curves for drawing office use

5415-1969 Code of practice for packing and packaging of optical and

mathematical instruments and components

5694- 1970 Engineers' drawing instruments, dotting pens

5695- 1970 Spectacle lenses

Tangent clinometer

Engineers' drawing instruments, curve pens

Engineers ' drawing instruments , bordering pens

Sigmoidoscopes

Cystoscope

Recommendations for the preparation of drawings for optical

elements and systems

Spirit levels for use in precision engineering

Industrial Instruments

IS:

3624-1966 Bourdon-tube pressure and vacuum gauges

3944-1966 Flow cups

Meteorological Instruments

IS:

4849-1968 Rain measures

231

452-533 O - 72 - 16
5225-1969 Rain gauge, non-recording

5235-1969 Rain gauge, recording

Whirling psychrometers

Thermometer screens

Pan evaporimeter

Thermograph, bimetallic

Aneroid barometers

Hair hygrograph

Barograph, aneroid

Anemometer, cup counter

Windvane

Mercury barometer

Clock mechanisms and drum for meteorological instruments

Charts for recording meteorological instruments

Laboratory Apparatus for Dairy Products

IS:

1183-1965 Density hydrometers for use in milk (revised)

1223-1958 Apparatus for the determination of fat in whole milk, evaporated

(unsweetened) milk, separated milk, skim milk, butter-milk and

cream by the. Gerber method

2311-1962 Fat extraction apparatus for milk and milk products

2803-1964 Capillary pipette for direct microscopic count of milk

3864-1966 Mobile kit for testing milk

Laboratory Glassware and Related Apparatus

IS:

878-1956 Graduated measuring cylinders

915-1958 One-mark graduated flasks

1117-1958 One-mark pipettes

1381-1959 Boiling flasks (narrow-necked)

1388-1959 Reagent bottles

1541-1959 Glass filter funnels

1574- 1960 Glass weighing bottles

1575- 1960 Separating funnels

1590-1960 Glass filter flasks

1672-1967 Floating dairy thermometers (first revision)

1996- 1962 Glass stopcocks

1997- 1967 Burettes (first revision)

248 0-1964 General purpose glass thermometers

2618- 1963 Test tubes

2619- 1963 Glass beakers

2620- 1963 Distilling flasks

2626- 1963 Petri dishes

2627- 1963 Glossary of terms relating to liquid-in-glass thermometers

3055-1965 Clinical thermometers

3104-1965 Density hydrometers

3608-1966 Glass alcoholometers

4161- 1967 Nessler cylinders

4162- 1967 Graduated pipettes

4426-1967 Methods of sampling laboratory glassware and medical glass

instruments

4529-1968 Glass tubes for medical thermometers

4825-1968 Laboratory and reference thermometers

4849-1968 Rain measures

4610-1968 Glass tubes for general purpose and reference thermometers

Interchangeable conical ground glass joints

Dry and wet bulb hygrometer and curometer

Tables for calibration and methods of verification of volumetric

glassware

232
Electronic Equipment

IS:

2711-1966 Direct reading pH meters (revised)

3437-1966 General requirements for electronic voltmeter (pointer indicator

type

)

4309-1967 Methods of measurements on direct reading pH meters

Acoustics

IS:

3931- 1966 Sound level meters for the measurement of noise emitted by motor

vehicles

3932- 1966 Sound level meters for general purpose use

4482-1967 Specification for hearing aids

Cinematographic Equipment

IS:

4495- 1968 Methods of measurement of light output of cinematograph projectors

(for narrow gauge film)

4496- 1968 Screen luminance for projection of 16 mm film by incandescent

lamps

4497- 1968 16mm portable sound-and-picture cinematograph projectors

Integrating Electrical Meters

IS:

722 (Part D-1962 AC electricity meters; Part I general requirements

(revised)

722(Part ID-1962 AC electricity meters: Part II single-phase 2-wire

whole-current watt-hour meters (revised)

722(Part IID-1966 AC electricity meters: Part III three-phase wholecurrent and transformer-operated meters, and singlephase two-wire transformer-operated meters (revised)

722 (Part IV)-1966 AC electricity meters: Part IV three-phase watt-hour

meters with maximum demand indicator (revised)

722(Part V)-1965 AC electricity meters: Part V voltampere-hour meters

for restricted power-factor range

722 (Part VD-1968 AC electricity meters: Part VI, Var-hour meters

7766-1961 Time switches

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

233

SESSION 7 - PROMOTING ECONOMIC STRENGTH AND COMMERCIAL EQUITY

Paper 7.3 - Weights and Measures Standards:

Laws, Inspection, Enforcement

Mahmoud Salama

Secretary General

Arab Organization for Standardization and Metrology

(ASMO)

It is an honor and privilege for me to be one of the speakers at this

important seminar. I sincerely hope that my contribution will positively

serve its theme and valuable aims. Having worked in the fields of standardi

zation and metrology during the last two decades, I may be able to point

out for the distinguished participants some of the basic problems and

difficulties encountered by developing countries, especially those whom I am now serving in the framework of the Arab Organization for Standardization

and Metrology (ASMO). This organization was established three years ago

as a specialized agency of the League of Arab States.

I. Evolution and Aspects of Metrology

Many countries are now striving to develop their metrology systems,

so as to keep pace with recent advancements and developments. Some of

these countries were considered in ancient days as pioneers in this field.

This has been clearly proved by various ancient Egyptian, Sumarian,

Babylonian and Phoenician sculptures and writings, as well as by many

phrases in the Holy Books.

On such historical evidence, the objective of establishing and maintain

ing standards for measurement is as ancient as the art of measurement

itself, which is already very old. When the problem of establishing a measuring system first arose, the primary standard was taken as a magnitude

of nature itself. Later it became clear that nearly everything in nature

is subject to changes, and natural standards cannot conveniently be used

in direct measurements. Thus, it was found necessary to make copies of the

natural standards. To overcome the problem of deviation, the most accurate

copy of a primary standard was chosen and kept in the Temple of the State

as a holy measure for reference. Hence, natural standards were discarded

gradually, and their copies replaced them everywhere.

Through successive ages, a diversity of standards and systems of

measurement developed. Then, with the advance of the industrial revolution,

the growth of science and technology and the complexity of commercial

relations, the fundamental necessity for organizing the chaos in such an

important field became more and more evident. Successful efforts in that

direction resulted in the adoption of the foot-pound system by many

countries, then the metric system followed and later the SI system.

The evolution and recent development of metrology has provided mankind

with an elaborate science and technique for measurement. It became possible

for weights and measures to be much more precisely based, conforming to

greater exigencies of accuracy and reproducibility, which are essential for

modern technology and the ramifications of industry and commerce.

The fundamental functions and applications of scientific applied and

legal metrology have also proved the basic importance of metrology in the

promotion and development of both national and world economy. It has also

become quite evident that the future level of advancement in any country

depends on the scope and thoroughness of metrology arrangements. Hence,

235
in practically every country the state takes the responsibility of making

the necessary basic provisions to enable exact measurements to be carried

out in all activities where measurement is needed. Starting from welldefined principles and recognized standards, these provisions and arrangements include the establishment or realization, the custody and maintenance

of primary standards of fundamental physical units such as those for

length, mass, time, temperature, etc. These standards must meet the highest

national levels and must be properly linked scientifically on the international level. These responsibilities are entrusted in advanced and in

some developing countries to a central government laboratory or other

authorized institute well equipped for scientific metrology. The second

aspect of such arrangements is concerned with the application of the

various units of weights and measures through relatively simple instruments

of measurement, and by other appropriate means, to all the different everyday requirements of commerce and production. For the marketplace, and in

manufacture and repair, there is need for utilization of weights and

measures whose values have been certified. There is also need for practical

methods of measurement which are rapid and simple but whose reliability is

certified, though at lower levels of accuracy. The range of this so-called

applied metrology is however very wide, because it can extend from quite

highly sophisticated industrial and technological measurements down to

weights and measures used in the village shop.

In most countries, the state endeavors to insure that weights and

measures and methods of measurement used in industry and trade are derived

and properly related to the national standards, and that they are within

prescribed limits of error. For these purposes regulations are required

for the control of exported or locally produced weights and measures,

for instruments and for their primary and periodic calibration under law.

Such applied metrology, being practiced under law, is usually called

legal metrology. This paper deals mainly with the most important problems

which usually face developing countries when either starting or developing

legal metrology activities.

II. Main Problems Encountered by Developing Countries

in the Field of Legal Metrology

The progress of developing countries and the fulfillment of their hopes

depends largely on rapid economic growth, which in turn is rarely attainable

by the marketing of raw materials or agricultural products alone. Most

developing countries are fully aware that rapid industrialization is a

prerequisite for achieving development through the manufacture of goods both

for domestic consumption and, wherever possible, for export. To face

competition in world markets, it is essential that the locally produced

goods conform to defined standards of quality and uniformity. Quality

control is thus very much an urgent governmental concern. It implies

accurate reference to a well-defined measurement system, which is also

essential for production itself. Furthermore, a workable arrangement for

weights and measures control is necessary for industry and commerce in all

countries. Effective machinery for weights and measures control, based on

well-defined units, legislation and standardized methods of measurement is

therefore an urgent necessity.

The establishment of such a machinery and its efficient running in

developing countries is usually faced by some problems. Probably the

most important problem faced by many of these countries is the lack of

a uniform system of basic units. Instead, there exists, in some of them,

a diversity of types of weights and measures. The units and their denominations may also differ for different products and in different parts of

the country. Often the units vary from locality to locality. Thus, there

coexists a variety of units with different values, causing difficulties

and confusion.

236
The establishment of a single uniform system, and the conversion to

the metric or SI system have been and still are being experienced by many

of these countries. What is required is technical assistance, to those

countries which need it, for planning and organizing a conversion to or

implementation of a single unified system where none exists already. This

technical assistance should cover any or all of the aspects, from preparing

the preliminary overall plan, estimating the cost of the changeover, finalizing of a firmly phased orderly program, providing of conversion tables

and other literature, training of personnel, providing material, advice,

and assistance during the legislation and implementation phase, and so on.

The exact scope of assistance should be determined after ascertaining

the needs of the particular country, its stage of development, and its

available potentialities. That is why this important task was given first

priority in the work program of ASMO. A comprehensive survey of the existing potentialities as well as the urgent requirements of its member Arab

States in the field of legal metrology began a few months ago with the

assistance of both UNIDO and UNESCO. The analysis and assessment of the

survey results is expected to serve in formulating suitable development

programs on either a national or regional basis, and also in defining the

technical assistance required from either specialized international bodies

or advanced national institutes.

The second problem is mainly that of lack of facilities for the manufacture and repair of scientific instruments, including measuring instruments,

except the very simple ones, required for metrology. Fortunately some of

the routine instruments required in large quantities for legal metrology

are relatively simple; their manufacture could be established by the

indigenous industry of most less developed countries, provided specifications

and approved prototypes are made available. Requirements of other instruments will have to be met by import for some time. Technical assistance

for both purposes is greatly needed either for promoting local measuring

instruments industries, or for the development of repair and maintenance

facilities.

The third problem is related to the establishment of an adequate legal

framework for the national measurement system and for the regulation of

weights and measures in commerce and industry. In many developing countries

there exists no comprehensive well-defined law which governs such activities,

and the control of weights and measures is usually left to some vague

articles or items included in the ordinances or regulations relating to

fraud and consumer protection.

To help those Arab countries which have not yet developed such

comprehensive legal framework, ASMO has, in collaboration with the International Organization for Legal Metrology (OIML), formulated a model

ordinance for the establishment and enforcement of a national legal metrology

system.

It should be emphasized here that the mere drawing up of regulations

and establishment of the machinery for verification of weights, measures,

and measuring instruments for daily use in commerce and industry does not

solve the problem completely.

The existence of an authority to promulgate technical regulations and

organize and supervise their enforcement is a necessity for the efficient

and effective administration of a weights and measures program. Some of

the regulatory requirements are too technical to be included in the basic

ordinance, and in many countries the amendment of an ordinance is lengthy

and tedious. Hence, it is usually recommended that the ordinance deal

only with the basic principles, leaving the technical requirements and

enforcement details to regulations issued by the local authority concerned.

Thus, it would be easier to react without delay to changes in measurement

237
technology, marketing patterns and practices, etc.

An elaborate authorized national body for legal metrology would carry

such responsibilities, provide leadership in the establishment and

maintenance of the national standards and measurement system, supervise

quantity determination and quantity presentations in commerce and industry,

and provide consumer services and protection from economic frauds. In

order to build such an efficient and effective organization, a country needs

stationary and mobile laboratory facilities with adequate instrumentation

as well as sufficient reliable staff of qualified and well trained personnel.

To determine the necessary laboratory facilities, both stationary or mobile,

it is important to define first the appropriate activities to be organized

or developed in the country, as related to the types of standards to be

maintained, the areas of measurement and calibration or verification, the

levels of accuracy and the levels of application, etc.

As the realization and maintenance of primary standards is an expensive

task and presents a problem for most developing countries, the national

primary or reference standards should be specified according to the actual

needs and available capabilities. They should also be appropriately

correlated directly to international standards, or to primary standards

maintained in another country or in a regional body serving a group of

countries. The possibility of regional cooperation in this direction is now

under consideration by ASMO, so as to obtain access to the primary

standards, which are available at the National Physical Laboratory for

Metrology in Cairo, for calibration of other national primary or reference

standards in the region. Thus the expenditure of large amounts of money

for obtaining prototypes could be avoided until each of the Arab countries

concerned finds it possible to obtain and establish its own prototypes of

highest accuracy.

As regards qualified and trained personnel, it can be said that their

shortage or inadequacy is a general and crucial problem which hinders the

advance of many developing countries. Such problems are aggravated

particularly in the field of legal metrology, as it necessitates the

recruitment of various levels of qualified and trained personnel in the

fields of science, technology and technical administration, as well as a

reasonable number of metrologists , field inspectors, technicians, shop

foremen and scientific assistants. Comprehensive training as related to

metrology usually takes a long time, and needs certain experience and

facilities which may not be available in developing countries. Technical

assistance, both from experienced metrology centers and international

specialized agencies, is much needed so that it would be possible for a

developing country to start selection and training of the necessary staff

in advance of the expected time for the commencement of its national legal

metrology activities.

In conclusion, it is hoped that through discussion and exchange of views

this seminar will help in formulating a positive procedure to solve the

problems which have been touched upon or omitted from this paper. Needless

to say, it would be for the benefit of all concerned if the advanced

experience of more developed countries would find an easy way to the

developing countries. This would help greatly in narrowing the existing

scientific and technological gap and in accelerating the rate of world

economic growth for the benefit and welfare of all mankind.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

238
SESSION 7 - PROMOTING ECONOMIC STRENGTH AND COMMERCIAL EQUITY

Paper 7 . 4 - The Value of Engineering Standards in Assisting

Industrialization in a Less-Developed Country

R. B. Smith

President, American Society for Testing and Materials

Director, Engineering Standards

Reynolds Metals Company

Richmond, Va. 23218

My assignment this morning is to share with you a few thoughts on the

value of engineering standards in assisting industrialization in a lessdeveloped country. As director of engineering standards for a large metals

producer, and president of the organization that serves as this nation's

largest producer of nationally recognized standards, I suppose I run the

danger of overestimating the value of standards to our society. But it

seems to me that no modern industrial society can exist without them.

If standards are necessary to sustain the good health of an already

industrialized country, they are equally indispensable in any program to

industrialize a less-developed country. And the list of benefits is the

same in both cases. There is one benefit in particular, however, of which

I should like to speak, at more length later, that may be especially significant in any effort to achieve what is commonly referred to as technology

transfer.

First, by "standard" I mean any broadly accepted rule of behavior. A

standard tells us how to engage in a certain activity. When applied to

the characteristics of materials and products of industry, the word

standard often becomes an adjective. That is to say, we speak of standard

definitions of terms, standard test methods for measuring physical or

performance characteristics, and standard specifications for stipulating the

characteristics of a material or product to be bought or sold. The activity

that is standardized in each of these three examples is that of talking

about the product, of measuring its characteristics, and of specifying the

characteristics we desire.

I suppose it is possible to envision a society in which commerce takes

place without the benefit of standards. In such a society, it would be

necessary for the buyer and seller in every commercial transaction to sit

down together and, through negotiation, reach a mutually agreed description

of the product that is to change hands. To form the basis of the transaction, they would define together the terms to be used in describing the

product, the methods to be used in measuring its characteristics, and the

set of requirements to be satisfied by the product. Such a society would

have as much chance of becoming industrialized, in the modern sense, as

each of us would have of owning a modern automobile if we had to make it

with our own hands

.

Therefore I believe it is no exaggeration to say that, just as human

communication would be impossible without standard definitions for the words

we use, so would human commerce in materials and products be impossible

without standards to measure and define their characteristics. Further,

the use of nationally recognized and accepted standards enables us to

manufacture, buy, and sell on a scale that we associate with that of a

modern industrial state.

Let us list now the commonly accepted benefits of standards, which

make them so necessary to the development of modern industry:

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(a) Standards enhance communication between buyer and seller.

(b) Standards give the buyer greater confidence in the product.

(c) Standards give the buyer a better understanding of how to use the

product

.

(d) Standards increase safety in the use of the product.

(e) Standards promote better quality control in the manufacturing

process

.

(f) By eliminating redundant designs, or grades, standards make it

possible for both buyer and seller to reduce inventories.

(g) By enabling the seller to keep standard stocks in inventory,

standards result in earlier delivery of an order.

(h) By reducing the need for negotiation, and streamlining inspection

and testing procedures, standards provide better performance at

a lower price.

(i) Finally, by providing a rational basis for competitive bidding,

standards help to reduce prices.

Engineering standards can be prepared in many different ways, and as

we look at the standardization systems of the industrialized nations of

the world we see a spectrum. At one extreme is a system in which the

standards are developed by governmental employees and issued for mandatory

use. At the other extreme is a system in which the standards are developed

by volunteer groups comprising a balanced representation of all parties at

interest, and issued for voluntary use by whoever might wish to take

advantage of their benefits. Such standards-developing groups would include

representatives from the three primary centers of interest: manufacturers,

consumers, and government. Standards issuing from such groups are a

compromise among what the manufacturer can economically produce, what the

consumer wants and can afford to buy, and what the government feels is in

the public interest.

The latter system, which is usually characterized as a "voluntary" or

"consensus" system, is the kind that--outside some specialized areas

involving public health and safety —now prevails in the United States. It

seems to me that the voluntary, consensus system carries with it certain

benefits above and beyond those which we have just listed, benefits that

can accrue alike to so-called developed, as well as developing nations.

Before I list these additional benefits, let me take a moment to

describe in slightly more detail the mechanics of such a system. I shall

take as an example, only because I am most familiar with it, Committee B-7

on Light Metals and Alloys of the American Society for Testing and Materials.

This committee develops standards for aluminum and magnesium alloys. Its

membership totals some 80 or 90 persons, about 40 percent of whom represent

producers, such as Kaiser, Alcoa, Reynolds, and so on. Of the other 60

percent, about half are consumers and the other half are so-called "general

interests." The consumers include people from the automotive, aerospace,

and communications industries, and other industrial users of aluminum and

magnesium alloys. The general-interest representatives are from consulting

organizations, governmental agencies, and several professional societies.

The point of all this is that the people who are there are knowledgeable.

Standards written in a vacuum can be worse than no standards at all. However, when all interests are represented, then you have the greatest chance

of writing good, useful, authoritative standards. And by "all interests"

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I mean to include not only the technological know-how, but also the economic

know-how—the expertise of the marketplace.

I said a moment ago that standardization by the voluntary, consensus

procedures provides benefits that are unique to that system. These

benefits stem from the fact that all parties at interest are represented

on the standards-writing team. These benefits are five in number:

(i) When all voices are heard in the standards forum, the resulting

standard is most likely to be unbiased. Objectivity is a very

difficult thing to achieve, with even the best of intentions.

The theory of the democratic way is that the greatest good for

the greatest number grows out of give-and-take among all competing

interests. But in this evolution it is imperative that no single

interest be permitted to dominate. A balance of interests must

be maintained.

(ii) A balanced-interest group is most likely to produce standards

that are authoritative. No one can know the problems of the

producer quite as well as the producer himself. No one can

appreciate the needs of the consumer quite as well as the consumer

himself—only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches. And no

one can express the public interest quite as well as those who are

appointed to guard it. With all these interests present in the

committee room where the standard is being written, we have the

greatest chance of producing a standard that knows what it is

talking about.

(iii) A standard for which all interests feel some responsibility is

most likely to be kept up to date. Engineering standards for

the materials and products of technology must evolve at the same

rate as that technology. Standards are not developed and cast in

concrete: once they are born, they must continue to grow and change

along with the rest of the world. Unless some group accepts a

continuing responsibility to feed the results of advancing technology into the bloodstream of the standard, the world soon passes

it by. If that responsible group comprises the people at the

forefront of the producing, consuming, and public-interest sectors,

then we can rest assured that the signals denoting the need for

change are raised at the earliest possible moment.

(iv) A standard written by representatives from all affected segments

of society is more likely to be used, rather than to be merely

an academic exercise. None of the many benefits of standards that

we have listed here at such great length can materialize unless

the standards are actually used day-by-day in defining, measuring,

and specifying the characteristics of materials and products in

the laboratory, on the drawing board, on the assembly line, and

on the purchase requisition. And if the laboratory technician,

the manufacturing engineer, the designer, and the purchasing agent

all had a hand in writing the standards , chances are they will

use them.

(v) Finally, the voluntary standards system serves as a great educational institution. I look upon this as being the single most

important by-product of the system. To a developing country,

this could prove to be as great an asset as the standard itself.

The scientist or engineer who works with a standards committee is

exposed to a continuing education that he can get nowhere else

neither in the classroom nor on his job.

Transfer of technology from one nation to a less-developed nation must

entail a great deal more than the simple shipment of a manufacturing plant

241
across a border. What must be transferred is knowledge, skills--even , if

you will, a cast of mind that approaches problems in a certain way. And

the transfer cannot take root and flourish unless there can be developed,

in the recipient country, what I might call—to borrow a term from governmentese—a technological infrastructure. By that I mean a widely disseminated number of people with the knowledge, skills, and cast of mind that

alone can provide the proper conditions for a successful transfer. Transfer

of technology must take place from one human mind to another. The day-today operations of voluntary standards system is an excellent catalyst

for such a transfer.

The idea of the voluntary standards community as an educational

institution can most easily be understood by looking at our nation's

foremost example: The American Society for Testing and Materials. In ASTM

are about 20,000 men and women who form the hundred or so technical committees in which the actual standards development takes place. I doubt

that any day goes by on which some ASTM activity could not be observed. To

borrow from another source, I might say that the sun never sets on ASTM

standards work. Committee members are making literature searches, organizing

interlaboratory research projects, meeting to discuss results, drafting

specifications and test methods, corresponding with one another, and so on.

Since all this work is pointed toward a standard that embodies the

best that technology can produce at the moment, the ASTM committee includes

men who are the leaders in their fields, who are working at the frontiers of

their areas of technology. A young engineer joining such a committee enjoys

the opportunity to work alongside these men on problems that are industrywide and that demand no less than the best that can be brought to bear.

Through his association with these leaders, the young engineer is able to

broaden his outlook beyond the boundaries of what he sees in his own

organization. In committee meetings he exchanges ideas with his counterparts

in competitive organizations. If he is a manufacturer, he discusses mutual

problems with men and women who represent his customers. His education

is the most effective that can be conceived: elbow-to-elbow and eyeball-toeyeball .

Nor is his education solely technical. If he is willing to take on

increasing responsibilities for organizing and administering the work of the

committee, the young engineer acquires the skills of give-and-take and the

qualities of leadership that are no less important to the success of

standards development than are the purely technical attributes.

To summarize: it seems to me that the value of engineering standards

in assisting industrialization in a less-developed country is realized in

at least two general ways. First, the standards themselves are an indispensable ingredient for a rational marketplace—without them, commerce

would be chaotic. Second, the process of developing the standards, if

organized in such a way as to broadly involve the industrial and governmental communities, can at the same time help to develop the human capacities

upon which any successful industrialized society must be based.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

242
SESSION 7 - PROMOTING ECONOMIC STRENGTH AND COMMERCIAL EQUITY

Paper 7.5 - The Colombia Government Faces the Problem of Quality Control*

Hernando Fernandez F.

Superintendent of Industry and Commerce

Bogota, Colombia

It is not in vain that the press and authoritative spokesmen for

industry, for commerce, and for the consumer, as well as various bodies

connected with the Colombia Government, have been expressing in increasingly

vigorous terms their concern over the quality of our products and that of

many imported ones also, and over what this means to our economic development. Not long ago the distinguished president of the National Federation

of Merchants called attention to the difficulty encountered by merchants

in facing the reactions of local buyers. He also pointed out in urgent

terms the risk to which we are subjecting our sellers of exports, all

because of the poor quality of our products. Responsible commentators in

the press have echoed over and over again this same concern, and they have

singled out the responsibility of the government in this matter as if the

solution of the problem depended on the imposition of an official system

of strict, universal quality control.

Thus a consensus of all sectors has been arrived at, demanding that the

problem of the quality of our products be solved by the government. If

indeed it is true that the government has an inherent and non-delegatable

responsibility to intervene in the matter of quality control, the scope

of such intervention still needs to be scrutinized at more length. We

must ask ourselves, in the first place, if the adoption of an official

control policy alone would suffice to bring about a solution, either short

or long-term. What would be the result of a stringent government action

to withdraw from production and consumption certain specified articles whose

quality was found not to be in complete conformity with established norms?

What would happen in practice if such controls were imposed without first

providing for the production sector to adjust its procedures, its quality

standards, its own internal control systems and the capabilities of its

personnel to hypothetical high levels that the government might demand?

Beyond doubt the mere asking of these questions implies the necessity

of recognizing that this business of quality is a field in which neither

government action alone nor private initiative by itself can accomplish

what the common good requires. On the contrary, it constitutes one of

the most appropriate territories in which to try out a permanent system of

collaboration between the government, the production sector, and the university, as befits one of our great national objectives.

In such a system of collaboration, the participation of the government

would naturally have to be permanent, directed on the one hand toward the

protection of the local consumer, especially in regard to everything touching

his life, health, and personal well-being, and on the other hand toward

protecting the reputation of the country in international markets. In this

latter area, the efforts we have made, especially in the last few years,

have often been jeopardized by the action of one single manufacturer,

since in the international sphere the same unjust generalization occurs

which we noted in the domestic market. Many times the mistakes of a single

member of the production complex have served to characterize the whole.

ft A talk before a Seminar on the National Program for the Advancement and

Implementation of Quality Control, Bogota, October, 1970.

243
The intervention of the government, although permanent, would have to

be conceived of as in a complementary and supplementary relationship to

private enterprise. It is first and foremost incumbent upon our entrepreneurs to make a firm decision to acknowledge and assume the responsibility which their position as suppliers of goods and services places upon

them in relation to the consumer, who, in the very act of buying, places

his trust in them. This applies also to the foreign buyer, except that in

his case the good standing and the prosperity of the whole country are

at stake. Without this assumption of conscience on the part of producers,

the efforts of the government and the control policies which will ultimately

be established, no matter how well-worked-out and advanced they may be,

will be lost, and instead of contributing to our economic development they

will represent only a tremendous waste.

It is well that the state should take an active and dynamic part in

the solution of the problem. Using all the facilities and tools at its

disposal, it should take the initiative, and once its systems are set up

it should maintain its supervisory bodies in a way to make them constantly

more thorough and fool-proof. Nevertheless, without an accord with the

private sector, all governmental efforts will fall into a vacuum, much

more so if the production sectors do not decide to take on their share of

the job. They cannot continue to be oriented simply toward the goal of

immediate gain.

These seminars which we have initiated in the city of Bogota, and

which in the near future we shall extend to the four most industrialized

cities of the country, and later on to others, are specifically aimed at

creating in the production sectors the consciousness of responsibility of

which we have been speaking. We hope that the result will be an understanding between government and producer so that each will contribute a share

toward an adequate answer to the question of whether or not our nation will

be able to participate in the necessary competition for international markets,

and whether, in the face of the existence of the integration agreement, our

products and services will be able to compete in quantity, quality, and

price with international products, even within our own territory. It is

our belief that this sort of agreement would be the best response of the

private sector to the efforts of the government, which, without losing

sight of its function of supervision and control, has been willing to move

out into the area of complementing and supplementing, in an experiment which

fits in very well with a style of permanent dialogue and open doors.

In a national crusade of this sort we have sought and obtained a

broad and effective collaboration among various government agencies, such

as the Export Promotion Fund, the Interamerican Center of Export Promotion,

and the National Apprenticeship Service. Also collaborating are foreign

governments, the Colombian Institute of Technical Standards (a pioneer in

Colombia in everything pertaining to the problem of quality) and the

university, in whose province lies the creating of specialists and the

general guidance which every future director of any enterprise must receive.

Directing ourselves specifically now to the role the government should

play, we will say that it should be concerned with three fundamental

aspects, namely, that of legislation, that of the official control of

quality, and finally that of promotion and assistance. Beginning with the

year 1959, when Law 155 authorized the government to supervise the quality

of products, various decrees have established rules for this supervision,

some of them mutually contradictory, with no continuity among the schemes,

much less any definite orientation with respect to the extent of the supervision or the means of exercising it. The very existence of various legal

measures, invalidated or partially altered one by another, makes it urgent

to draw up a statute that will serve in a permanent manner for the government and for private institutions, to direct and define their respective

responsibilities in the field of technical standardization and in that of

244
control and certification of quality. A statute of this nature should, to

our way of thinking, begin by defining the system under which we must carry

on in the future. Should our technical standards originate exclusively

with the government, based on adapting international norms to our country,

and taking into account simply the points of view of the government itself,

the international objectives of the country, or our own internal needs?

The alternative is for the private sector to keep on playing a vital role

in the process. Consequently, any standards projected should then find

their origin in accords between producers and consumers in a process whose

culmination would be their adoption by the government as official standards.

Perhaps the first of these two suggested plans may offer attractions

to a country like ours faced with a whole series of phenomena typical of a

less developed nation. We could count on greater rapidity in the process of

adoption of the standards, a feature which would certainly be useful in

adopting a means of control with the necessary expediency. At the same time

we would be giving the government great initiative in proceeding either

with regard to national interest alone, internally, or with regard to export

markets--all of which presupposes complete autonomy, a thing of great

importance when it is a matter of coordinating so vital an aspect of economic

life into the whole complex of the public interest. Nevertheless, this

good solution to the problem might not be so good after all if the production

sector, being as it is a preponderant factor, should withdraw from participating in the process. Without public discussion of the norms, without

previous understanding between producers and consumers, the standards

adopted would certainly run the risk of being maladapted to our own economic

reality.

Of course, we cannot forget that in the face of growing international

competition, in which technical quality and condition play a decisive part,

technical standards must constitute a stimulus, a sort of challenge and

goal for our production, without becoming, on the other hand, a form of

asphyxia for an industry that is still in its infancy. Certainly, then,

we shall have to inaugurate a formula of our own, one which considers our

special and peculiar circumstances. It must permit us adequate freedom of

action, both in the procedure of adopting standards and in the actual practice

of quality control. It must enable the state in every case to count on

the private participation and counsel most appropriate to the interests

of the nation, at the same time assuring that the government can preserve

the autonomy and independence of judgment which naturally belong to it, both

to intervene, in any conflict of interest, in behalf of the common good,

and in any case to decide independently. Finally, it will be necessary

for the government to have sufficient powers to take the initiative which

our present stage of development requires, an initiative to be exercised

in two areas: that of deciding on periodic programs of standardization, and

that of adopting temporary emergency norms.

Programs of standardization, then, should respond to the entire complex

of plans for the development of the country. They should present an answer

to the problems we see springing up in respect to production for home

consumption and for foreign markets alike. They should, furthermore,

observe an order of priorities so as to protect first of all the interests

that touch the lives of individuals most closely—their health and safety

and in the second place the interests that relate to the objectives of the

country as a whole—its security, its international image, the strength

of its economy, etc. Lastly, they should concern themselves with the interests of the private economy.

If these conditions respecting the government are duly assured, namely,

its autonomy and independence, its initiative in planning programs and

adopting emergency norms, and its power to make final decisions, nothing

would be more appropriate than to provide by law that the process of working

out technical standards, insofar as it concerns feeling out public opinion,

245
promoting accords between producers and consumers and studying international

standards, be entrusted to a private organization. Nothing can be of more

assistance to the government than an organization which, by reason of being

representative of all the sectors of production, of agriculture and of

industry, can make sure that accords with the consumer are comprehensive

and universal enough that the government, when adopting a norm, can have a

sure basis upon which to evaluate its social and economic implications.

Such an organization can assure at the same time, through use of the most

adequate and effective media for public information, that the projects under

study will be well known to consumers, with the result that their interests

will be duly considered and guarded. This body would have an efficient

internal organization, as regards the number and qualifications of its

personnel, so that standards will be formulated under an exacting technique,

guided mainly by the criterion of advantage to the nation, and with the

speed and expediency consistent with bringing the personnel up to date in

a field in which we are undeniably behind competing countries in experience

and technical knowledge.

Assuming the conditions we have stated on the part of the government

and those we have just suggested for the organizations which will function

for the private sector, it would be well worth while to undertake a steppedup and result-getting team effort to effect and bring to completion the

process of adopting standards, with a final conference in which the government bodies concerned with each project would take part, so that, in case

a projected standard were officially adopted it would be assured of the

acceptance necessary to guarantee its enforcement by the government itself

and by its subsidiary agencies.

Let this be the moment to render due credit to the Colombian Institute

of Technical Standards, a body representative of the private sector of our

country. The CITS has been serving the government honestly and efficiently

as an advisory body in matters related to technical standardization since

19 64. Certainly when we were listing the conditions that the private

sector ought to fulfill, we were giving tacit recognition to some that this

organization is already fulfilling, and we were also indicating goals whose

attainment would not be far away if various sectors of production would

decide to offer it better and more determined support.

At the beginning we suggested a second field of action for the government, that of control, and in the case of some products, the official

certification, of quality. We do not believe it necessary to give arguments

here for the intervention of the government in this area. The interests

which find themselves affected by poor or careless quality in our products

are so numerous and varied that this matter is, as we pointed out before,

one of the few on which a sort of consensus has been reached in this

country. Our international good name, our future economy, and even in

some cases our lives and personal safety are seen to be jeopardized. One

of the officials of the Fondo de Promocion de Exportacione (PROEXPO) told

us a short time ago that on a recent foreign tour, three out of every four

of Colombia's customers had complained to him about the quality of our

goods. And we could go on interminably calling to mind the string of

instances that are coming out in the press and in our daily contacts that

support and justify a determined and effectual governmental intervention.

Nevertheless, it would be unfair if we were to resort to generalizations

to condemn in a wholesale manner the quality of all our products, or to

explain the entire problem on the basis of a single case. However, it would

be illusory to suppose that government action alone, the establishment of

control by policing, could automatically solve the problem.

Dr. Rodolfo Martinez Tono, director of the Servicio Nacional de

Aprendizaje (SENA), pointed out to us not long ago the necessity of duly

distinguishing between two situations: that of the long established manufacturer who, although capable of making products of acceptable quality,

246
is negligent about it because he is concerned only with immediate gain and

is not infrequently protected from international competition or by a lack

of domestic competition; and that of the manufacturer who, because of lack

of technical means and know-how, is unable to produce goods of adequate or

uniform quality. Certainly these two situations require two different

approaches of the government. In the first case, quality control must take

on more the nature of a policing tactic and be directed toward the protection

of the consumer. In the second case the state would have to direct its

efforts more toward aid and assistance.

In every case, the final aim of the government must be to foment in

Colombian management the firm acceptance of the idea of the responsibility

which rests upon them, in their capacity as producers, toward the country

and toward the local consumer, so that official quality control will be more

a matter of bolstering the capability of the manufacturer to control his

own production effectively than of controlling the products themselves.

In the same way, in the case of those products for which various factors

make it advisable, we ought to talk about an official certification of

quality and not of an official guarantee. In this way, the manufacturers

retain all the responsibility toward the consumer that is rightfully his, and

the consumer will make his claims against the manufacturer himself and not

against the government.

We have touched very briefly and superficially on some of the implications that arise upon considering a possible governmental position on

the problems of technical standardization and the control and certification

of quality. It has also been our wish, above all else, to lay before you

a pattern of projects rather than a list of accomplishments. The carrying

out of these projects will undoubtedly require that the government upgrade

some of its organizations and acquire the technical means to enable them

not only to reach a greater capacity in reviewing and deciding but also

to improve the qualifications of the responsible officials in the different

aspects of technical standardization and quality control. It will be surely

necessary to call on the technical assistance and experience of nations

with a longer tradition than ours. We are already working on this. Our

deepest wishes are that this dialogue which we have opened today with such

a distinguished group of representatives of the private sector may continue

and that from it we may realize marvelous results for the good of our

country.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

452-533 O - 72 - 17 247

SESSION 7 - PROMOTING ECONOMIC STRENGTH AND COMMERCIAL EQUITY

Paper 7.6 - Quality Control and Product Certification

Ing. Susana Le Roux C.

Technological Industrial Research and Standards Institute

Lima, Peru

As everyone knows, standards and specifications are the tools with

which a product or process is examined so as to permit it to be classified

as "good" or "bad." This judgment must be based on specifications or

quality standards rather than on a subjective opinion. As the inspection

process can vary from one manufacturer to another, or from one state to

another, it is necessary to establish a common rule, a sampling standard,

concerning the number of pieces in a given lot which are to be examined

and how many defective pieces can be tolerated. In the same way and for

the same reasons the test methods must be standardized too.

When these standards: quality, sampling, and test methods are established it is easier, at least in theory, to carry on a quality control

program and to be certain that the results obtained can be fairly compared.

After an effective quality control program is established and the products

are tested regularly for compliance by selected laboratories, a National

Institute of Standards will be able to certify that the product complies

with such standards, provided that the testing process used by the selected

laboratories has been found to be uniform and valid. This certification

from the institute which can be indicated by the use of an institute mark

is a warrant that will serve to assure the consumer that the product he

is buying will meet his needs and will serve the producer by telling his

customers that his product is good.

This certification mark will help to introduce a product in the

national market and it is essential for selling the product in the international market. If the quality standards are set too low or if the

facilities of the standards institute are not adequate to assure the

quality of the product, then the product cannot be introduced into other

countries. Even if a manufacturer succeeds in selling an inferior product

once, the country's market for that product may be lost forever, and other

products may suffer because the reputation of the standards institute has

been lost. That is why the standards institute must make the necessary

provisions to be absolutely certain that the mark will warrant a competitive

product not only in the domestic market but with much more reason in the

international one.

Many less developed countries lack laboratories and test facilities,

and that must be remedied before a certification mark program can be

launched. In almost all Latin American countries, including Peru, it is

necessary to establish first of all a metrology laboratory as a basis for

standards and for all the other laboratories. Latin American countries

are trying after a number of years, to establish a common market that will

permit an industrialization compatible with the capabilities of each

country. That is why the Pan American Standards Commission (COPANT) has

been created. It has already established some 2 00 recommendations and we

are trying to accelerate this process.

There was recently established a common market and industry allocation

agreement among five Latin American countries in the so-called Andean

Group. It is intended that within the next 10 years, every product of the

zone will be commercially available throughout the zone, with no customs

barriers. To do this it is necessary for these countries to establish

249
common standards and adopt the use of accepted certification marks. Of

these five countries, three already have their own standards institutes

and 'the other two are creating them. In Peru, the Standards Institute

began to work in 1961. At this moment there are about 400 recognized

standards documents and we are currently working on a similar number.

Since last year, a new law has authorized this institute to develop

a certification mark and to do technological industrial research as well

as standards work. This same law provides that each firm must use at

least 2% of its income for scientific and technological research. If

industry does not use itself or through private or universities laboratories, this 2% must go to the institute to improve its facilities and to

permit it to do the research according to carefully selected priorities.

These new factors have resulted in a revised idea of what our

Standards Institute should do. As a consequence, it has been necessary

first to reorganize the institute and second, to look for foreign assistance in the form of experts, training facilities and equipment, as well

as financial support, so as to improve the existing laboratories and to

establish new capabilities.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

250
SESSION 7 - PROMOTING ECONOMIC STRENGTH AND COMMERCIAL EQUITY

Discussion

Co-chairmen: Inyong Ham and Henry A. Arnold

Mr. Woodington :

I would appreciate comment from any one or all of the speakers this

morning on their opinion of the value of quality control as related to the

national standards institutes.

Dr. LaQue :

A mechanism for quality control would be absolutely essential to anyone presuming regularly to produce something in conformance with a standard

Quality control becomes particularly necessary when standardization is

supplemented by certification of compliance. To be able to certify

compliance, particularly of items produced in large quantities, there must

be a highly organized system of sampling and quality control. This assures

that, on the average at least, all the products that are supposed to meet

the standard will in fact do so. The importance of quality control is

underlined by the special meeting of the European Organization on Quality

Control (EOQC) to be held in Moscow in June, sponsored by the USSR Ministry

of Standardization.

Dr. Salama :

When the Egyptian Organization for Standardization started standardization work we believed that quality control must go parallel with standard

zation. Therefore, in the structure of the Organization itself there was

a department for quality control, and its work has developed the quality

mark. There are courses available for training in in-plant quality control

so as to insure that in all the steps of production specifications are

applied. The Egyptian Organization for Standardization also adhered

to the membership of the EOQC so as to obtain experience and information

and seminar training. Then when we expanded this sub-regional organization

to other states by creating ASMO , it was agreed that quality control should

be an important element. That is why ASMO adhered as an institutional

member to EOQC, participating in all its activities and conferences. Last

month we held a seminar and the EOQC secretary gave a very useful paper

about the inter-relation between standardization and quality control in

less developed countries. He also described the stages that keep these

activities parallel with each other.

Dr. Ghosh ;

As Dr. Salama has said, quality control and standardization go hand

in hand, and in India we also work with certification marking. When we

agree to allow certification marking by an agency, we see to it that he has

the quality control system ingrained in his production line.

Mr. Felleke :

The Ethiopian Standards Institution is in the process of developing

a standards mark, and I fear that in order to implement the certification

we shall probably need an army of officials for inspection. Will Dr. Ghosh

please discuss their experiences in this situation?

251
Dr. Ghosh:

First of all, to dispel your fears, sir; we do not believe in having

a police force stationed at the licensees' office to control his work. We

believe in trusting the quality control done by the manufacturer himself,

but we have a small staff to do a "technical audit", just as a company

would have its books examined occasionally by an independent auditor.

Certification marking is voluntary, but the ISI Certification Marks Act

is an Act of Parliament , which means that if you volunteer to be a licensee

for that year you are under the provisions of that Act. If you misbehave,

there are penalties under the Act but after year-end you could equally

voluntarily withdraw from the scheme.

To enforce this Act, there must first be an Indian standard. However,

we have found that many of these are inadequate because evaluation procedures

were defective or necessary equipment was lacking. Therefore we are reexamining them all. Recently, we found a manufacturer who wanted a

certification mark on a product for which we have not produced an Indian

standard, but there was a British standard. So we have taken the modus

operandi of immediately recognizing such a standard by giving it an IS

number and immediately giving the certification marking on that number.

Of course, we see to it that the company is able to produce continuously,

and to check continuously against this standard. Simultaneously, I ask

the standards-writing committee to decide within six months whether this

standard could be adopted, adapted, or amended, so that the licensee can

then be guided by a real Indian standard. We have issued more than 2000

licenses for certification marking. The entire production in organized

sectors like cables and conductors, steel, and so on are completely covered

by certification markings. There is no question of enforcement, but the

law is there and the licensing is under the law. There is a small certification marking fee.

Mr. Wilson :

I would warn about taking too much for granted in the application of

standards and test procedures once they are given to a less developed

country. I was assigned to a country to set up a testing laboratory for

soils, materials, and hydraulics and I made a survey of field projects. I

went to a concrete barrage type dam under construction and asked to see

the quality control records on the concrete. The engineer showed me a

beautiful ledger covering the testing for the amount of material that had

been placed and it seemed a very commendable control record. Then we went

on a tour of the facility. Outside the laboratory were two auxiliary

buildings which were built out of unbroken concrete cubes. They said, those

are the test cubes for the concrete control. It turned out that there

never had been a testing machine on the site. They had determined their

breaking strengths from a theoretical curve based on the density of the

material. So they had excellent quality control by the ledger, but

virtually none in practice. I think that this type of problem arises all

too frequently; if we do not supervise down to the lowest technical levels.

Mr. Tarn :

I would like to ask Dr. LaQue whether the International Organization

for Standardization encourages less developed countries to participate in

the work of ISO. If so, what are the criteria for this participation? I

ask this question because we did send in a letter to ask for information,

and later an application, and we did put aside some budget for that

participation. The Government of Vietnam has become very impatient in the

last three years, because we have never received an answer from ISO.

Dr. LaQue :

I must first say that I have been President of ISO for only about a

252
month, and obviously I have inherited some problems, but you have registered

your complaint and I will look into it as soon as I possibly can.

To answer more broadly the general question you have raised, there

always have been handicaps of distance, since committee members generally

come from Western Europe. This is a situation we hope eventually to

correct by distributing the meetings more widely geographically. However,

even when you may not be able to participate directly in committee meetings,

there is provision for corresponding memberships, but which you are kept

informed, and can register your views by correspondence.

Dr. Ghosh ;

It is necessary for the Secretary General of ISO to find out whether

the Vietnam Standards Organization is the national body for standardization.

In several countries there is more than one body and that raises a little

difficulty.

Mrs. LeRoux :

I want to give you an example of one of the many problems encountered

in technology transfer and standardization in less developed countries.

We have in the Peruvian Institute about 60 committees and almost half of

them have problems like this one. The committee on electrical cables is

now trying to write standards on cables for the automobile industry. We

have in Peru five automobile manufacturers, one is British, the others are

from the USA, Germany, and Japan. We have three electrical cable

manufacturers, one European, one from the USA, and one Peruvian. Here are

different technologies, all with different specifications, using different

metals. Which one can we use? Trying to prepare national standards in

a less developed country has the same problems as preparing international

standards. I do not know if someone can give a solution for this kind of

problem.

Dr. Ghosh :

The best solution that I can suggest is to follow the IEC standard

for cables and conductors. Britain, the USA, and Japan have all contributed

in preparing these standards. You can certainly expect them to be adhered

to.

Mrs. LeRoux :

This was only one example. There are many other problems like the one

I quoted due to technology transfer from quite different sources.

Dr. Ghosh :

If we have these problems spelled out to us we shall certainly try

to give you our experience if that is of any help to you.

Dr. Rohatgi :

I have three quick questions for Mr. Smith: What is the source of

finances for the ASTM? What is the annual budget? How is the consumer

represented in ASTM committees?

Mr. Smith :

For industrial type standards, we have industrial consumers in mind.

When you are talking about the ultimate consumer, there is a problem which

we have not yet solved. The annual budget of ASTM is about four million

dollars. Revenue is obtained from sustaining memberships of industrial

253
concerns, government agencies, and so forth, at $200 a year. A high

percentage of our participants are individuals paying $25 per year. The

greater part of our income and our expenses come from the sale of the

books of standards and other publications. A membership entitles you to

a discount effectively equal to the cost of the membership.

Mr. Lartey :

The experience of the Ghana Standards Institution may be useful to

Mr. Felleke on the question of how to operate a certification mark scheme

effectively. Rather than setting up an army of inspectors, we have found

that we can quietly use the consumer to insure success. We have sponsored

a Ghana Consumer Association which is rapidly becoming a very powerful

organization

.

Dr. Astin ;

Let me take issue with Dr. LaQue on one small point in his very

excellent paper, where he used the budget of ANSI as an index of financial

investment within the USA for standards development activities. That is

just the tip of the iceberg. Virtually all of the individuals who work

on the ANSI, ASTM, and other committees involved in the development of

standards have their salaries and travel expenses paid by their supporting

organizations. As a matter of fact, NBS alone invests more in supporting

standards development activities in the private organizations than the

total ANSI budget. I would venture to say that the total USA investment

for the development of standards is maybe 5 0 times the ANSI budget.

Dr. LaQue ;

I must say that I agree completely with Dr. Astin.

The possible use of standards as a basis for certification or quality

control must be kept in mind when standards are written. ISO has instructed

its staff in preparing new guidelines for the development of international

standards to include a warning that they are likely to be used for

certification and quality control.

In response to the question raised by Mrs. LeRoux, I have made a rough

plot of the production of ISO standards from 1951 until 1969. If I have

drawn it correctly it should reflect the fact that as many international

Recommendations were developed in the last 2 years as in the whole preceding

history of ISO. We have now reached a saturation level, and the procedures

currently used cannot produce standards at any higher rate. Since there

are as many as 2 0,0 00 national standards in use in some countries, and only

2,000 international Recommendations in existence, it seems quite evident

that we cannot go on at the present rate to deal with the world's needs

for the next 10 or 15 years. A change in mechanism and procedures seems

to be imperative. It is also imperative that priorities in the ISO work

must be established. If the less developed countries want to be sure that

the priorities reflect their needs, they have to become involved directly.

Prof. Ham :

The Chair would like to recognize Dr. Work and Dr. Ghosh. Would you

please confine your comments to the budget questions that Dr. LaQue raised.

Dr. Work :

In Iran only about 22% of the work of the testing laboratory of ISIRI

is directly associated with standards. There is industrial research,

weights and measures activities, the hall-marking of precious metals, the

training activities, and the certifying of exports. ISIRI also operates

254
a scheme for the insurance of exports ; there is a tax of half of one percent

on all exports. If a damage claim is sustained ISIRI must pay it. Then

they have the quality control work, although the quality control itself

is done in the factories, and of course metrology is part of the total

operation.

Dr. Ghosh :

The latest figure for the Indian Standards Institution is about 12

million rupees. It would be about one and one-half million dollars. The

government contribution is only 5 million out of the 12 million rupees.

Mr. Felleke :

National standardization is relevant because of social and economic

implications, and in a shrinking world, international standardization has

also its place; but does not the direct link between them obscure the

task for regional standardization?

Dr. LaQue ;

Particularly for less developed countries, regional bodies do have a

place and a function, because at the rate at which international standards

are being developed we cannot expect that the special needs of different

regions will be dealt with on a timely basis. As for developed countries,

a European organization called CEN, a group of the European free trade

area and the common market countries , have not been able to wait for ISO

to provide what they need. The regional bodies have gone ahead and made

some regional agreements in advance of international ones.

Dr. Ghosh :

Of course there is a need for regional standardization, but may I

sound a warning also. I had a rather bad experience with the European

committee at one of the IEC meetings in Israel, when in advance of the

meeting someone got up and said, Next month we are going to have a meeting

of the Economic Commission for Europe Standards Division, and we are going

to agree on certain principles. The IEC committee may be very well

advised to adopt this, or else.... So I have to say that certainly if

good technical work is done elsewhere there should be no objection to

adopting it. However, too much regionalization may cause retardation

because preconceived opinion would have a harmful effect on the ultimate

evolution of international understanding.

Dr. Salama :

From my experience on the joint commission between WHO and FAO for

food standards, I note that they have organized separate regional committees

for Africa, Europe, and Asia. The nature and markets of some foods are

such that regional standardization is almost a necessity.

Mrs. LeRoux :

For less developed countries on this side of the world it is difficult

to attend meetings of ISO, that are always in Europe. Besides, in Peru

20% of our budget is to pay ISO dues. After that we have to pay dues to

the Andean Group and to assist the FAO. After that we have little money for

work at home

.

Dr. LaQue :

I assure you that this has been bothering me as well. We have

instituted a study of the whole rate structure of ISO, hoping that we can

255
introduce a better distribution of the burden between the highly

and the less developed countries.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

256
SESSION 8 - GUIDANCE FOR NBS TECHNOLOGICAL ASSISTANCE EFFORT

Paper 8.1 - A Systems Approach to a Conference Synthesis

W. E. Cushen

Chief, Technical Analysis Division

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 20234

In attempting to use the techniques of operations research in

achieving a conference synthesis, I have provided a six-page handout that

I would like to pace through with you. The tone of the conversation will

change rather markedly as we try to summarize what I think the members of

this workshop have been saying in the previous seven sessions. The purpose

of my paper is to try to tie these assertions together in some kind of

logical pattern and to drive toward a conclusion. The paper c aid not be

written before your deliberations took place and therefore could not have

had the benefit of prior review. Any defects in its inherent logic

should be laid to me for not hearing right, or to you for not spying it

right , or to both of us

.

For the handout I have used the following outline:

I. Seminar Purposes:

A. what is the role of standards in an industrializing economy?

B. what are the detailed requirements?

. types of standards needed

. levels —minimum or more

. organization of infrastructure

. resources of time, money, facilities, people

C. recommendations for a future NBS program

II. The logic of analysis

A. general process diagram

B. parties at interest

C. facts

D. criteria

E. alternatives

F. an alternatives/criteria matrix

In Section 1,1 have listed what I understand to be the threefold

purpose of this seminar. Next I shall try to take the material that you

have so eloquently delivered and put it together by the logic of Section II.

I have traced the logic for you so that you can tell me if I have reached

erroneous conclusions.

Under IIA, I call your attention to the fact that we wish to be bold

and say: There is a standards system; there is an industrializing system.

We play bridge 13 plays ahead. We play life 4 plays ahead, but we sometimes

play the management of our affairs only one play ahead. I hear a lot of

257
one-play links being discussed here with some estimates as to what the next

play might involve. Let us put all these links together and see what

happens if they fit.

IIB - I assume that we are having a workshop to solve a problem, and

that there is a problem because there are parties at interest who have

conflicting purposes. Otherwise the problem would be simply that of overcoming nature. So I would like to draw attention then to what I believe

you have either said or implied their conflicting objectives are.

IIC - You have provided me with many facts which I have sought to take

into account.

IID - I have tried to list explicitly the criteria by which a choice

as to recommendations might be made. If we aim to give standards a role in

the industrializing process then surely what we should do will have to come

out on the basis of those criteria.

HE - Making recommendations for a future NBS program implies that we

get some choices to select from, and thos-e possible choices I am going to

call alternatives.

IIF - Finally, I will compare those alternatives with the criteria

in what I have called an alternative-criterion matrix, copying from an

inspired notion that Dr. Huntoon applied to one of the early stages of the

metric study.

Now, if you will turn to Figure 1 you will see a very, very simplified

flow chart. Do not read it from left to right; read it from right to left.

TECHNOLOGIES AND

NEEDS

Economics

Understanding

Finances

Capital

Processes

Capital

Data

Teaching

Standards

Data

Teaching

Product

Capital

Data

Teaching

Market

Management

Data

Teaching

TO GAIN. .

.

Lower Prices

Better Products

Better Services

Bigger Market

I WANT TO INDUSTRIALIZE...

For benefit of individuals

/ /Personal income

/ Standard of living

For benefit of businesses

\ ^/Growth in profitabil

For the public good

National stature (power,

immortality)

Economic independence

A piece of the action

Competitive advantage

Promote the general welfare

Secure liberty for citizens

A national development plan

Figure 1 - The attitude of any developing country at varying stages of evolution—with different patterns of distribution, with varying goals and attitudes,

258
if

The flow chart says: I, a developing nation, want to industrialize. I want

to industrialize to serve three types of parties at interest. I have put

the benefit of the individual, the customer, the citizen, at the top of the

list as being the ultimate base of power for decision. I hear us saying

we want to improve per capita personal income, as well as the individual

standard of living. Also in this country we have created a legal person

called a business or a corporation, and this has many of the attributes of

a natural person. I hear it being said here that so far as the newly

developing nation is concerned those businesses would like to enhance their

profitability by enlarging their share of the market. Lastly, we have a

public institution, really many, because in the U.S.A. there are 80,000

units of administration because we have a decentralized form of government.

These institutions of government , in our nation as well as in yours

,

operate on behalf of the public good. I now try to project myself into the

personality of a newly developing country. For that country I want national

stature; this means power, and in a very real sense, immortality. I do

not wish to lose my sovereignty, I do not wish my bureaucracy to disappear,

I wish to have economic independence. I wish, thank you very kindly, to

have a piece of the action, as you say in the U.S.A. these days. I wish

to have competitive advantage on a world market, I wish to promote the

general welfare of my people, I wish to secure liberty for my citizens, and

I have a national development plan. Now that is why I want to industrialize.

If I am to see benefit in the industrialization process, it will be

because it contributes variously to these goals. If I ask what should I

do in standards in order to assist the industrializing process, I look for

the answer in the marginal contribution of having a standards activity

contributing to the industrializing process or contributing directly to the

satisfaction of these goals. When I can tell what that benefit is, then

I can tell what kind of standards role I wish to play in the industrializing

process. At the NBS one of our economists has looked at bits and pieces

and has concluded that the public investment in developing steel standard

reference materials provided a handsome benefit/cost ratio in terms of the

public interest, but that is only a piece of the problem. What else got

involved in the industrial process that also had to be paid for? What could

have been done instead of that? This is the kind of logic that is not yet

complete.

In the next column to the left, I hear you saying that the purpose of

industrializing is to produce lower prices, better products, better services,

and a bigger market. Moving again to the left, we find many technologies

involved. We have concentrated this week on the standards technology, the

process technology, and the product technology. I have shown intertwining

wiring diagrams to suggest that all of these technologies combine to provide

joint inputs that create these other joint outputs on the right. On those

isolated occasions when I heard a developing nation identify things that

were needed, I wrote it down. That forms the left-hand column. With

respect to economics, I heard you saying: I do not understand the nature of

economic phenomena. My response to that is: Neither do we. On financial

technology, I hear you saying: I need money. On process technology, I hear you saying: I need capital, I would like to have information, and I

would like to have you teach. On standards, I hear you saying: I would like

to have information and I would like to have you teach. On product technology

I hear you saying: I would like to have money, I would like to have information, and I would like to have you teach. I did not hear you say very

much about what you would like to have on market technology, but on management technology I hear you saying: I want information and I would like to

have you teach. Now this is a grossly simplified chart for a number of

reasons. Each nation stands at a different stage of development. I would

like to suggest that this may not be an evolutionary chain, but perhaps a

cycle. The U.S.A. is beginning to ask the question: What is the public

good? So we may be starting at the bottom again on the way up. The chart

is simplified because in any nation there are different patterns of

distribution, and each nation has its own goals and attitudes. Part of the

259
problem is that there are pockets of high technology activity while other

areas have nothing of that sort.

Now, if we list a similar set of needs specific to the U.S.A., it

would look something like this:

U. S. Business Needs:

growth in profitability

stability

maintenance of competitive advantage

lower prices

better products

better services

bigger markets

U. S. National Needs:

U. S. national interest

political neutrality or favorability of other nations

elimination of threats to peace

vigorous trade

balance of payments

avoid adverse effects of serious proportions on U. S. industries

better standard of living

secure liberty for citizens

achieve national goals

assure equity

assist other nations to realize their goals

I hear you all saying that we, too, want growth and profitability. I

hear U. S. business saying something which surprises me a bit—that

stability is one of the factors. In helping other countries, we want to

maintain our own competitive advantage as well, and then we want advantageous

prices, products, services and markets just as you do. From the U. S.

Government viewpoint, we look out for the country's national interest, and

I hear us asking very much the same things on behalf of the public good

that you do. We wish not to have other nations to be hostile to us. We

do not want to have a world war, we do not want other lesser threats to

the peace. We, too, want vigorous trade, but we have got a balance of

payment problem, and it is part of the public interest to make sure that

the industrial sector of the American free enterprise system is not

assassinated in the process. In a sense, there is a public good in protecting against very severe adverse effects on our nation's business. We want

to achieve the same things for the citizens that you do. We have a special

problem with respect to equity for people who are black and poor both within

and outside the U.S.A. We wish to help other nations realize their goals.

So in the U.S.A. we, too, have three parties at interest, and we see now

that the real dilemma is how to assist developing nations without displacing

our own markets. Evidently the problem requires a bigger synthesis than

we had before, and this realization will help to focus our discussion.

Now I said that what we want to do is to hunt for a recommended NBS

program. For this there are criteria. These criteria come in part from

the UNIDO Monograph 20 and since you have seen them before, I merely

list them now but we will come back to them:

Criteria (in part from UNIDO Monograph 20, Industrialization of

Developing Countries: Problems and Prospects)

raise standard of living

accelerate rate of development (volume, rate of growth, share of

GNP)

260
develop economic independence

use economies of scale

maximize the use of regions

develop in areas of political priority

achieve public/private balance

balance of payments

improved distribution

make financing available

training

raise product quality, value added, capacity utilization

Next we have a page and a half of possible things that the NBS or

somebody else ought to do. These are listed in order of their chronological

appearance at this seminar, beginning with the ad hoc solutions proposed

by Mr. Dennison from VITA (see Appendix 1). I had to stop appending

alternatives to this when Dr. Salama finished last night, because the list

had to be typed and reproduced, so I have not yet added the inspired

summaries that were given by this morning's speakers. Nonetheless this is

what I see now as things that have been suggested as what we might do.

Alternatives (in order of appearance) ( sometimes standards, sometimes

technology, sometimes both)

provide ad hoc solutions (fibreglass boats, village technology)

volunteer efforts

disseminate information

provide management assistance

develop and distribute self-help manuals

survey opportunities

respond to requests

adapt high technology to evolving needs

help set up an infrastructure for the standards process

assist in changing the potential to the actual

develop a planning technology

education technicians, managers, financiers

develop a cadre of available scientists

make international comparison of activities possible

assist in developing regulations

find out what the problems are

develop industry rather than metrology

develop metrology rather than industry

get over the dilemma that if we buy technology, there are resource

constraints that limit other need satisfactions

mass produce housing overseas

find labor-intensive technologies

help us eliminate government inefficiency

urge foreign direct investments

stay away from extractive industries; they will be nationalized

find out what is common and unique among LDC's

get some bright scientists to work in standards

stop selling space technology; it can't be used

follow the NBS Weights and Measures procedures

bring the technical people together in national or regional

institutes

find multipliers —things that can have multiple uses, not single

application ad hoc bits

help small countries band together in regionalized units

make technical people available as rental consultants

set up a mechanism to encourage lateral contributions among LDC's

make experts available for export and import certification councils

find technologies that are suitable for markets an order of

magnitude smaller than yours

do not try to compress lead times that are incompressible

261
make the universities more applied

set up an analog of the land grant college system

procure standards off the shelf rather than develop your own

do a systems analysis of what is needed

teach people how to use equipment

teach people how to procure equipment

get your industries to rent the labor of LDC's

make SRM's for LDC's

make a "World Center for Peace Technology"

develop data systems

set up information networks

set up standards on product safety and product performance that

can be used

deliver and show how to use minicomputers

show how to set up communications networks

set up standards for food and agricultural products, road design,

traffic regulations and signs, postal and telecommunication

systems, railway design and operation, electric power supply

systems, seaport design and operation, airport design and

operation, banking systems, and foreign trade documents

help us write requirements specifications

help us set up educational TV

speed up the research-applications interface

concentrate on rural development

assess technologies

make forecasts

find technologies that do not displace labor

sell technology as a commodity

Now we have followed the logic, we have listed possible alternatives,

and we have set up criteria. Turn to Figure 2, which suggests that while

it would be interesting to evaluate each of those simple alternatives by

themselves, how marvelous if we could combine them in some way. These

package suggestions then are now labeled alternatives and are numbered one

through nine. Number one is: Suppose we do not do anything, but leave life

as is, or as Dr. Huntoon would say, adopt the non-intervention alternative.

So on down through a consulting program, data information networks program,

a major concentrated training effort to include going to your place and

teaching, having your people come here and learn, developing handbooks,

translating literature, and so on. Number five: Before you try solving all

these problems , why do not you figure out what the problem is and where the

real needs are? We have looked at the total system and I have to comment

that this assessment involves spending money and losing time even if the

answer might be a bit better than you would have had before. Number six:

Concentrate on what has been called in the U.S.A., technology utilization

bring space back to earth. Number seven: Simply act as a godfather to the

creation of an intrastructure , an organization, or a set of standards for

the less developed countries. Number eight: Why does the NBS not recognize

that creating this kind of effect involves contributions from all the

partners that we normally work with—ANSI, ISO, IEC, trade associations,

other agencies of government? Number nine: Assist in creating the International Development Institute that was mentioned as being one of President

Nixon's proposals to the Congress.

So those are package alternatives, although obviously any one of them

could be elaborated, subtracted from, or combined in other ways. I next

suggest that these alternatives could be assessed against the criteria

listed earlier, which are laid across the top of the figure. Would this

really raise the standard of living significantly, would this really

affect your balance of payments, would it really affect our balance of

payments, would it really accomplish training or is it just make-believe,

would it really change your competitive advantage or is it likely to be

262
merely a gesture? We have allocated these criteria and objectives to the

less developed countries, to industry, and to the Government of the USA,

and to the NBS. I observe that the effects would be a function of time,

because delay times are different. As Dr. Condon says, we must not try to

compress a decade into a microsecond, because it will not squeeze.

We then have the audacity to suggest that we could put symbols into

these columns by way of value judgments. A plus means, sure it would

help in a big way. A zero means, I do not think this really will have an

effect on that criterion. A zero with a plus means, it probably will not

help but it might have a positive effect. A minus sign means, that is

not good, it works in the opposite direction. I tried to enter some of

these as I heard things said on behalf of the less developed nations. A

question mark means that is something we should find out. I did not write

things down about U.S.A. industry because I do not know much about U.S.A.

industry. I did start filling out some columns on behalf of the U.S.A.

Government and I did have the temerity to offer some suggestions as to

NBS feasibility and compatibility with current policy.

In those last columns you see some dollar signs, a t for time, and a

partial derivative sign to indicate a step function. I was guessing there.

I think the laissez-faire attitude is not consistent with NBS goals. The

differential sign by number four suggests that if we went into a major

training program, this would involve some minor modification to the goals,

structures, and operations of the NBS the way it is now. For number six,

translating highly sophisticated technology to the needs of the less

developed countries, should have a great big partial derivative sign,

because fitting high technology into a low technology environment is a

big problem that nobody has solved yet.

Maybe I have shown some prejudices in filling out this chart, but

if we laid it out collectively, we could discuss various points and we

could very quickly eliminate those things that nobody really cared about.

We could get down to those cells in the matrix that really make a difference

to somebody, and we could start working toward the solution of those

problems. The kinds of inferences that I see are that because there are

so many minuses in everyone's column for number one, the recommendation to

let things stand the way they are is not in anybody's interest. The fact

that there are so many zeros and question marks on the consulting program

leads me to believe that the effectiveness may be slightly positive but

that program does not really tackle the major problem. Number four seems

to have a strong population of pluses , and my assessment that dollars

and time would not be really significant, and that a change in tone at NBS

could well accomplish it, lead me to believe that maybe we ought to do that

kind of thing. That is what I hear us all saying, that is what we all come

back to as involving the least compromise of anyone's goals.

Personally I am still troubled by my flow chart, by the value judgments,

and by the prescription as to what it is that really needs to be done.

I have not bothered to fill out a lot of the other columns here, partly

because I think the inferences are relatively apparent. However, number

six, translating the high technology that the less developed countries need,

sounds like a pretty good thing to do too. The difficulty is that it is

fantastically expensive and we do not quite know how to do it. There were

some suggestions yesterday from Mr. Daneman that, in fact, this translation

might take place relatively smoothly at the level of an individual country,

and he cited some examples.

I will conclude by observing that what we have tried to do was to say

that this was a working seminar and we were supposed to get some answers.

One of the questions was, what is the role of standards in the industrializing process. The answer I hear consists of a lot of assertions with some

case study documentation. We have been behaving as badly as the archeologist

263

452-533 O - 72 - 18
who digs up pieces of pottery and cannot decide what the civilization

looked like, or the political scientist who deals with case histories and

is afraid to put measures on the course of a nation. We do not know what

the role of standards is in an industrializing economy. We tackle the

standards process piecemeal. We have saluted the right flags, but we have

not really answered, I think, the question of what, in fact, is the role of

a standard in an industrializing economy. We know some of the mechanisms

qualitatively, but we do not know the quantitative coefficients. On

question B, what do you need, we again have a lot of vague prescriptions.

On C, I come to the conclusion that the NBS should assemble a major training

program and make this available to the newly developing countries. That

may be the best initial contribution toward reaching the goals that we all

are trying to realize.

Criteria And Objectives

Package

Alternatives

Less Developed Countries US Industry US Government NBS

Raises

9td.

of

living

Accelerates

rate

of

dev.

Develops

econ.

independ.'

Uses

economies

of

scale

1

Maximizes

use

of

reg.

Political

priority

Public/private

balance

Balance

of

payments

Distribution

Makes

financing

avail.

Trains

personnel

Raises

product

quality

Raises

national

stature

A

piece

of

the

action

Competitive

advantage

Promotes

general

welfare

Secures

liberty

Econ.

development

plan

Profitability

1

Stability

1

Competitive

advantage

Lower

prices

1

Better

products

|

Better

services

Bigger

markets

1

Feasibility

US

national

interest

1

Political

neutrality

Ellm.

threat

to

peace

Vigorous

trade

Balance

of

payments

Avoids

adverse

effects

Better

std.

of

living

Secures

liberty

US

national

goals

Assures

equity

Assists

other

nations

Feasibility

;

Goal

consistency

j

1. Laissez-faire 0

04 0 0 0 — 9 + ?

9 9 *•

2. Consulting program

0 4

0+ 0 0 ? 1 0 9? 0 + 1

0+ ?

9 9 4 0 0

04 0 0

3. Data network

program

04 + ? 0

04 ? 10+ 4

•> 0 4

04 4 4

04 9 4 9 4 9 04

04 ? +

4. Major training program + 4 4

0+ 9 ? ? ? 404 4 4 4 4 4

04 9 4 4 4 0 ? 0

$

t

3

5. Assess total needs

of LDC's

Time lag before

subsequent ac

effects;

tion required 4 0 0 4 4

5

t

t

6. Translate high

technol to LDC needs

4 + 4

0+ 0 4 4 4 1 4 4 ? d

7. Godfather to LDC infrastructure 004 40+ 9 4 ?04 4 4 4

04 h f

8. Focus US govt - industry help ? 4 ? 4 4 $ 4

9. Help set up IDI 4 ? 4

Figure 2 Matching Some Package Alternatives to Criteria and Objectives

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

264
SESSION 8 - GUIDANCE FOR NBS TECHNOLOGICAL ASSISTANCE EFFORT

Paper 8.2 - Using National Measurement Standards

Robert D. Huntoon

Consultant

National Bureau of Standards

St. Petersburg, Florida 33709

My assignment for this conference boils down to this: listen to the

points of view expressed during the conference, devoting particular attention

to Session 3 on Making Scientific and Technological Measurement Meaningful;

summarize them and point out expressed needs ; present a program of actions

that NBS might undertake to assist the developing nations in reaching their

goals for industrialization. An additional constraint was imposed. The

discussion was to be limited to the aspects of assistance related to the

use of national measurement standards. Dr. Astin unexpectedly covered the

entire subject with his informal comment that it is unnecessary and perhaps

even ridiculous for the developing nations to undertake the duplication of

prototype standards for the SI system. He pointed out that prototype

standards are already being produced and are being improved energetically and

at great expense in several of the major national standardizing laboratories.

Their work probably represents sufficient effort on that undertaking. Other

establishments should apply their limited resources to other more immediate

needs. I agree with this point of view. My allotted subject areas therefore

approach zero and I am left with nothing appropriate to say. I am prepared

to stop now if you wish. On the other hand, you should know that the

program committee has helpfully relaxed the constraints. They will allow

me to cover all aspects related to physical measurements and standards,

leaving engineering standards (norms) to others.

Thus, since there is no outcry for me to desist, I turn attention to

the broader subject —what NBS may do in the realm of physical measurements

to help the developing nations, based upon what has been said here. However, it seems inappropriate that I should undertake to prescribe a program

for NBS action. It seems better to present a plan in the guise of suggestions to NBS which the members of the conference may accept, reject, or

modify. The members may then indicate the extent of their concurrence and

express to NBS the wishes of the conference. With this understanding, we

can proceed.

Unfortunately, Dr. Cushen's excellent synthesis of the needs as he

heard them expressed here became available too late for me to give it the

careful attention it truly deserves. It would have been a big help in

structuring this presentation. However, as a limited substitute, please

consider these excerpts from his paper:

A. From the list of alternatives we select the following which seem

germane

(1) Disseminate information

(2) Produce and distribute self-help manuals

(3) Adapt high technology to evolving needs

(4) Set up and extend the infrastructure for the measurement

standards process

(5) Develop industry rather than metrology

265
(6

(7

(8

(9

(10

(11

(12

(13

(14

B. In

(2

(3

(4

(6

(7

Develop metrology rather than industry

Work on common LDC problems

Follow NBS procedures

Provide consultants

Use existing engineering standards instead of pushing for

new ones

Make Standard Reference Materials available to LCD's

Develop data systems

Use labor-intensive instead of capital-intensive technology

Speed up the applications of science

the action column we find the appropriate entries:

Consultation services

Data programs

Training programs

Translate high technology to LDC needs

Lead in the development of the measurement infrastructure

At the conclusion of my paper it will be helpful for us to check its

proposals against these lists to see if they exhibit adequate accuracy, i.e.,

do they cluster on the true target?

We begin the analysis by noting that the excellent presentations of Drs.

Tabor and Salama have given us a scholarly picture of the relationship

between physical measurements and engineering standards. They bring us to

a common realization that physical measurement is but one part of an interacting system comprised of units, measurement configuration standards,

performance standards, quality control, and product certification. Measurement provides a necessary but not a sufficient quantitative basis for

consistency and coherence in the integrated function of the whole aggregate.

My emphasis on the measurement component to the exclusion of the others arises

from practical considerations of time limits and program constraints, not

from any desire to minimize the other components.

Mr. Cali as a part of his presentation gave us a unifying picture of

the relation between accuracy, precision, and meaningfulness in measurement.

To understand fully what I wish to propose, it will be necessary to extend

Mr. Cali's picture by adding a fourth component of effective practical

measurement—compatibility, which I am sure Mr. Cali omitted only in the

interest of brevity. Table 1 briefly characterizes the four components:

266
Table 1 - Components of Effective Measurement

1. PRECISION

Reproducibility for

Design, Production, Quality Control

2. COMPATIBILITY

Pseudo-Accuracy

Transfer Accuracy

Internal

External

3 . ACCURACY

Necessary for Barrier-Jumping

Sufficient but not Necessary for Compatibility

4. MEANINGFULNESS

In Specific Situations

Precision relates to the self-reproducibility of measurements. It

shows how well the measurements cluster around a common center. It is an

essential ingredient in design, production and quality control.

Compatibility is a sort of pseudo-accuracy. It shows how well different

groups within the system, making apparently identical measurements, agree

with one another; i.e. , it shows if they are measuring the same thing and it

is a measure of their mutual agreement.

I submit that the purpose of measurement, aside from the pleasure it

gives the metrologist, is to provide compatibility between measuring groups

so that if one outfit puts out a product it will be compatible with similar

or mating products elsewhere in the structure, be it within the nation,

outside the nation, or among nations. It is a transfer accuracy to insure

interchangeability of parts in a mass-production economy. Thinking in

terms of the scatter targets Mr. Cali used, we note that a tight group of

hits wherever they may be on the target, represents precision measurement.

Two marksmen may have comparable scatter-patterns located in different

parts of the target. We say they are equally precise, but not compatible.

If adjustment brings their scatter-patterns into coincidence, they are said

to be both precise and compatible. If they are equally precise, are compatible, and center on the bulls-eye, they are also accurate.

Accuracy is a measure of how well hits group around the bulls-eye

the correct answer, which may be known before-hand or inferred from

a group of precise measurements judged to be free from bias.

Clearly, if two marksmen are accurate they are also compatible. But

they can be compatible while still inaccurate. Thus accuracy automatically

insures compatibility—one important advantage of accuracy. It also follows

that if one set of measurements is accurate, all sets compatible with it

are also accurate. Compatibility propagates accuracy—an important advantage of compatibility.

It happens commonly in metrology that compatible measurements are much

easier to come by than accurate ones, and often they are quite good enough.

Consider electrical quantities as an example. The accuracy of electrical

measurements at the top of the art is from 2 to 4 parts per million.

267
Compatibility within the U. S. is about 0.1 ppm. Other nations demonstrate

similar capability. If each proceeds independently, their compatibility

when they compare results will be about that of the top accuracy. This

comparison of results takes place in the international forum of BIPM and

harmonization (compatibility) is brought about by assigning correction

factors to each nation's standards.

The internal U. S. compatibility is expressed by stating that instruments are calibrated to within 10" 7 compatibility "in terms of standards as

maintained at NBS." Reading the fine print shows that the accuracy of these

national standards is 2 to 4 ppm. Standard cells which have been calibrated

in France and also in the U. S. have shown differences in excess of the

expected drifts in the cells and in excess of the two national compatibilities. Resolution of the differences emerged as soon as it was realized that

each nation was calibrating in terms of its own standards. Application

of BIPM corrections brought the measurements into full compatibility.

Because compatibility propagates accuracy, any improvement in the

state of the art in any standards laboratory is felt immediately throughout

the system. This justifies large expenditures of effort to attain accuracy

in a few places. In the meantime the advantages of compatibility can be

enjoyed without waiting. for accuracy. Why then do we seek accuracy at all?

Products made with precise compatible measurements will mate, perform, and

become fully interchangeable. This is true, but it no longer holds when

one crosses boundary lines in fields of science. If, for example, electrical

measurements are used to check out thermal or mechanical devices, then true

accuracy plays the major role and compatibility is not sufficient. To

provide the coherent measurement system necessary for jumping the barriers

between various realms of science and engineering, accuracy is essential.

However, to manufacture interchangeable products for the marketplace, only

the pseudo-accuracy of compatibility is needed. This has often been forgotten, and as a result extensive resources have been wasted in an unnecessary quest for that expensive luxury--true accuracy. Since compatibility

propagates accuracy, any establishment whose measurements are compatible

with those of some other establishment which has traceable compatibility

with a central laboratory will also have traceable compatibility, and

associated with it all the accuracy characteristic of the measurement

infrastructure. It is only necessary to tie into the structure at one

place to be compatible with all of it.

It appears, therefore, that small establishments, in the U. S. as

well as in the LDC's, can be content with compatibility of the selfevaluation variety and can take advantage of the fact that comparative or

differential measurements are usually much easier, much cheaper, and less

capital-intensive than absolute measurements. Of course, some large

establishments may consider that they need true accuracy primarily as an

image-building status symbol, and this pose is not limited to LDC's

J

Meaningful measurement. We can leave this component with the passing

observation that it relates to really measuring what you think you are

measuring in a practical environment—such as the temperature of a red-hot

strip of steel shooting through the roll stands in the mill. The problems

are many, complex, challenging, important, and as varied as the applications

of measurement. However, since considering them will not aid our present

discussion, we reluctantly pass them by.

We should by now have focused our attention and come to agreement on

the fact that the primary need of any establishment is a traceable,

compatible coupling to the measurement infrastructure at whatever precision

levels and ranges are adequate to its requirements. We turn attention to

how establishments with limited resources, whether within or outside the

United States, can obtain this coupling, and how NBS can move to help them.

While listening to the other speakers I have been reviewing mentally the

268
developments of the last couple of decades which may offer promise for what

we seek to achieve. The thought-provoking comments by Dr. Condon started

my train of thought. He pointed out that social change is generally slow,

and that even revolutionary change comes about with a time-constant of a

decade or two. When I view current measurement developments with this in

mind I can see that we are in the early phase of what appears to be a

revolutionary change in the measurement infrastructure and the means of

coupling to it. Most of these developments have been mentioned already in

this conference—some only in passing. When they are examined explicitly

together with their mutual interactions and implications, they comprise

an important aggregate well worthy of our attention. In fact, I think we

should shine a spotlight on them, jump up and down and yell "AchtungI"*

Their potential for progress signals a revolution in the making.

In Table 2 we see grouped together four main accomplishments under

the heading—milestones. The first refers to the fact that the basic SI

units, with the one exception of mass, are now defined in an independently

reproducible manner. This extremely important development of the last

decade has hardly been mentioned here —I suppose because we already take

it for granted. But observe the significance: physical standards are no

longer artifacts. They have become, in the words of Dr. Branscomb, an

algorithm, a recipe for an experiment which can be performed in any laboratory equipped to undertake it. In this country, for example, there are two

main realizations of the second which have demonstrated compatibility of

about 5 parts in 10^, and some twenty realizations of the length standard

with compatibility approaching one part in 10 7 or better.

Table 2 - Milestones

1. Independently Reproducible Standards

a. Basic SI Units

b. Tie-Points

2. Standard Reference Data

. Quality Control of Data

3. SRM's for Metrology

H. Self Calibration

. Calibration Mythology

. Traceability Morass

. MAP, Pilot, A Way Out

The significance for us here is not that more and more laboratories can

and do undertake these experiments , but rather that the principle can be

extended to the easier job of fixing tie-points along the range where the

compatibility requirements are less stringent. It can also be extended to

the SI derived units for all non-basic quantities in a way which provides

compatibility and propagates coherence. Thus it becomes possible to have a

series of tie-points, interface connections to the measurement infrastructure,

which can be used independently by any laboratory. As we shall see, this

can be done in what is called self-evaluation mode. The extension of this

principle of independence rests upon accomplishments indicated as 2, 3, and

^ in Table 2. All three are involved in an integrated, cooperative manner.

We start with item which displays the fundamentals.

Exclamation in German language signifying: "take careful note."

269
An inherent mythology which tends to gloss over important deficiencies

has grown up around the very principles upon which the achievement of

compatibility-by-calibration rests, and around the whole traditional

hierarchical structure of the system based on these principles. The general

and widely acknowledged purpose of measurement is to arrive at productcompatible measurements by a process involving instruments , people

(hopefully metrologists )

, and procedures. The mythology is this: If the

instruments are calibrated by a parent establishment against instruments at

a higher echelon of accuracy the result will be compatible measurements.

The fallacy is obvious--there is no guarantee that the instruments stayed

calibrated, that the people used them correctly, that the procedures are

suitable, or that the whole process is in a state of control. This mythology

reached a peak of fantasy when certain military agencies introduced in some

of their contracts a legal requirement for "traceability . " The idea of

traceability is a pious one, full of benefits; it is a step in the pursuit

of a wonderful goal. But the ongoing mythology quickly limited it to

traceability of calibration, which in turn has led us into a morass of

complications, contradictions, and meaningless props. This is because the

contractual specification of the associated processes lies beyond the scope

of a system founded on the calibration concept.

The NBS Measurement Analysis Program (MAP in Table 2, item 4) mentioned

earlier in the conference affords a way out of the morass. I find it

convenient to use the term self-evaluation (S.E.) to describe it. The

fundamental idea is beautifully simple. Send the metrologist something to

measure (an S.E. device) instead of having him send you his instruments for

calibration. Give him also the correct answer for the measurement of the

device. He can then make repeated measurements of that S.E. device until

the precision of the instrument-people-procedures aggregate becomes clear.

If the center of his scatter-pattern agrees with the right answer, his whole

process is in control, his measurements are compatible, and his accuracy

relative to that of the parent source will be shown by the width of his

scatter-pattern. If the answer does not agree he can correct his instruments, in effect, calibrate them himself, and repeat the procedure to get

a new answer. This process goes on until the answers do agree. Note in

passing—if you do not trust the integrity of the metrologist, do not send

him the correct answer. Have him send you his scatter-diagram. Send back

to him a correction factor and a figure of merit for his process.

The compatibility, accuracy, and traceability acquired this way are

meaningful. Their continuity can be assured by interleaving measurements

of the S.E. device day after day with measurement of the industrial products

for which the whole process was established. Extended continuity can be

provided by arranging the parent laboratory to keep a supply of S.E. devices

flowing regularly. A most important property of S.E. emerges here. No

longer needed is the chain of calibrations through several echelons from the

central laboratory. The S.E. device provides a one-shot horizontal transfer

from central laboratory direct to user. The demands for extension of toplevel capability are reduced, and effort can be devoted to the accuracy

truly needed at the most crucial spots in the system, instead of being

dissipated in losses at intermediate calibration echelons. Moreover, the

metrologist can no longer cheat himself in the way described by one of our

earlier speakers, by putting his beautiful traceable calibrated instruments

on the shelf, and taking them down only for submission up the line in

evidence of his traceability.

A little reflection then shows that S.E. has accomplished:

1. Compatible measurement

2. Precision suited to local needs

3. Transfer of accuracy

270
4 . Unambiguous, continuous traceability

5. Verification of statistical validity of local processes

6. Calibration of local instrumentation

7. Elimination of the calibration hierarchy

8. Pressures to keep the metrologist honest and on his toes.

This S.E. process has been used for many years, with gauge blocks,

for example. Then, what is new? A realization that this is a fundamental

principle applicable to other quantities. Applications to mass measurements are described in NBS documents available at this meeting. Extension

to voltage and temperature is now under way at NBS.

By now it has probably occurred to you, as it did to me, that there

may not need to be a flow of S.E. devices from the infrastructure to the

using establishment. A supply of correct answers is ready at hand, in

the form of Standard Reference Data (SRD, item 2 in Table 2). Perhaps it

would be better to say, a supply could be at hand if there were enough SRD.

SRD provide precise, accurate, reliable information on the properties of

well characterized matter and materials. "Well characterized" means that

the description of the material is adequate to insure the user that his

material, if it fits the description, will give the same answers, when

measured, as those in the published literature of SRD. When such data are

available, a central laboratory meets its obligation to S.E. either by

calling attention to the data or by publishing the data and characterization

of the material. A metrologist desiring S.E. need only get some of the

material, or perhaps produce it for himself in terms of the given characterization. He then measures it and compares his results with the published

values. He then proceeds in the usual S.E. manner. He should select only

those substances for which the precision, compatibility, and availability

meet his needs

.

An illustrative story is helpful at this point. A few years ago I visited the physics department of a university of moderate size. This

establishment had need for access to the measurement infrastructure, had

limited resources, and no standards laboratory. I sought and received

permission to interview every member of the faculty (of that department)

and their graduate students about their measurement procedures. In each

interview I asked the respondent how he satisfied himself that the measurements he made and subsequently published were in fact accurate and compatible

with the measurement infrastructure of physical science. The immediate

response was consistently "Huh?", indicating no recent explicit consideration

of the matter. This was followed after a little discussion and reflection

with one or both of two responses:

(a) "I accepted the manufacturer's calibration of my instruments."

(b) "I measured the of (say, melting point of butter) as

published by Dr. Zilch and adjusted my apparatus until I got his

answer. I then proceeded with additional similar measurements."

Here we see first an acceptance of the calibration mythology. Also, we

see an intuitive use of the SRD-SE process.

Again we note that reference data are nothing new. The International

Critical Tables have for years been a familiar and trusted source. Using

SRD for S.E. calibration is not new, either, as we have seen. The new,

encouraging aspects of more recent origin are:

(1) The idea, backed by a national program, to make a systematic

271
evaluation of all published data, to arrive at "best values"

having stated accuracy and reliability.

(2) As a result of the undertaking, a recognition that a large

fraction of existing data is not evaluable, and therefore not

traceable, because of the absence of essential information about

procedures used and sources of subsidiary information.

(3) Stemming from (2), a recognition of the need for and initial

undertakings to develop and promote the use of proper quality

control criteria for the production of reliable compatible data.

These new features should do much to bring to availability a much-improved

body of SRD.

You may well be wondering where SRM's fit into this picture. The

need for them in the measurement process is very clear and real. In many

cases it is difficult or impossible to characterize a material sufficiently

well for someone else to reproduce it. In others the characterization

process is so complex that it lies beyond the capability of the user or is

so costly that the process is uneconomical. In still others the necessary

starting materials may not be available to the small establishment. In

this case, the parent laboratory producing SRM's says, in effect: "I

know that for one reason or another you cannot reproduce my material. I have

lots of it. I will sell you a small portion of mine. If you measure it

correctly you will get my answer which I will give you with the sample.

You can use it for your S.E. process."

This is the basis for those SRM's supplied by NBS and intended primarily

for calibration purposes. As you well know, SRM's are not new. The new

features are:

(1) Realization of the capabilities of SRM's for traceable compatible

measurement

.

(2) Explosive expansion of the variety of SRM's purposes.

(3) Rapidly increasing use of SRM's for S.E. purposes.

The nature of an assistance program now begins to take form. The four

items shown on Table 2 provide a stable of capabilities which can help any

metro logist to accomplish S.E. and become traceably compatible in his own

house. Action is required to extend this capability to meet existing and

reasonably foreseeable needs , and to do so at points of range and levels

of compatibility suited to the needs of developing establishments wherever

they may be. The needs throughout these United States are great enough to

justify the effort. One need not rely solely upon pressure from the LDC 1 s to bring it forth.

I think you will agree with me that it is not enough to make the

general recommendation, which we can and do give here, to press forward on

S.E. devices, SRD's and SRM's, and independently reproducible definitions

of units. Something more explicit regarding focus and distribution of effort

should be added. This focus can be achieved with the aid of a diagram

generally and loosely called an "accuracy chart." An idealized one is shown

in Figure 1. One such chart can be used for each measurement quantity such

as length, mass, voltage, current. The abscissa displays the range of

measurement, from 10" x to 10 x times the unit quantity. This indicates that

measurements ranging from fractions of unity to multiples of unity must be

available and must be connected by a chain of measurement to the standard

representing the physical realization of unity. In length, for example,

this chain extends from the meter downward to subnuclear dimensions and upward to hypergalact ic dimensions. The ordinate represents precision,

272
accuracy, or compatibility, as the case may be, expressed as one part in

10, 100, 1000 ... ioy.

®R

io-*«- RANGE -*io+ *

Figure 1 - Idealized Accuracy Chart

The solid curve^an idealized case, shows the best available "accuracy"

of measurement at the range indicated on the abscissa. Point P on the curve,

for example, indicates that at point 100 on the range scale an "accuracy" of

1 part in 1000 is available. A point such as Q represents a typical measurement requirement for which less than top-of-the-art accuracy is needed. A

point such as R represents a requirement beyond the state of the art. The

general falling off of the solid curve as the extremes of range are approached

reflects the common experience that accuracy suffers as the chain of measurement extends outward from the standard at unity. In a situation more

realistic than that indicated by the solid line, measurement capability is

most fully developed at isolated spots or segments along the range axis. At

these selected positions, accuracy approaches that of the solid curve,

while between them the accuracy falls off. The dashed curve is representative of some cases.

Points such as P, Q, R can also be used to represent what we may call

tie-points into the infrastructure. Suppose a metrological laboratory

needs measurement capability indicated by Q. The metrologist needs to know

where and how to tap the infrastructure to acquire capability Q. A more

detailed picture of such situations is depicted roughly in Figure 2. As

shown here the circles represent only my guess as to what might be expected.

With a little effort a realistic picture of this kind could be made. Then

the circles would represent the availability of tie-points into the infrastructure. Those marked with an X would represent tie-points at which

S.E. service is available. The squares indicate established needs for which

capability does not yet exist. Every metrological establishment, be it shop,

laboratory, factory, industry, university, college, or high school—not

only in LDC's but in this nation and others —needs to tap these tie-points.

273
There should be available also the knowledge and procedures on how to

develop in an S.E. manner the compatible, traceable measurements suited to

the local needs.

O

O ®

o o

<8> ®

RANGE

Figure 2 - A Detailed Accuracy Chart. Open Circles Show

Tie-Points; Crossed Circles Show Self-Evaluation

Aids ; Squares Show Unmet Needs

A more specific proposal can now be addressed to the conference and

to NBS. The proposal takes the form of a sequence of suggestions grouped

into phases.

Phase I

(1) Arrange for the production and continuous updating of a real

chart like Figure 2 showing available tie-points and needs.

(2) Insert X's as appropriate.

(3) Append to each X a subscript SRM, SRD, or MAP indicating the

availability of such services.

(4) Arrange for publication and dissemination of these charts.

Phase II

To be truly useful, the numerical value available at any tie-point

should be accompanied by "how-to" documentation which explains the procedure

needed to make effective use of the service available at that tie-point.

In this regard NBS can:

o

CO

o

01

Q_

O

<8>

O

O

o

<2> <g>

274
(a) Describe its procedures for those tie-points for which it provides

services

.

(b) Add to the Phase I charts the additional subscript DOC on the X's

to indicate that how-to documentation is available.

Phase III

Completion of Phases I and II will indicate where the gaps lie, and the

squares will show where unmet needs lie. NBS can undertake to meet some

of the needs which call for its unique capabilities. Phase III will require

some modification of the ongoing program.

Phase IV

This phase goes far beyond what any national standards laboratory can

do for its national measurement system. It calls upon each national laboratory to exert its leadership to stimulate and encourage the metrology

infrastructure to lift itself by its own bootstraps. Each tie-point such

as Q —which requires less than top-of-the-art capability, but which is no

less important because of that —presents an opportunity to some establishment

in the infrastructure. A metrologist can survey the situation and find a

combination of MAP, SRD, SRM which will enable him to develop as a research

project the required S.E. capability characteristic of that point. Then,

he can check it out with a parent laboratory, if necessary, and then publish

the how-to documentation as a contribution to the infrastructure while also

meeting his own needs. In Phase IV NBS can:

(a) Encourage other national standards laboratories to collaborate

in the process of infrastructure extension.

(b) Encourage all establishments with which it has contact to make

such contributions.

(c) Keep updated charts of the status of tie-points.

(d) Invite guest workers to come to NBS to work out specific tiepoints .

(e) Arrange to pay some metrologists from abroad to work at NBS in

making similar contributions.

(f) Place contracts in LDC ' s with regular or counterpart funds, as

appropriate, to develop, in-house, identified tie-points.

Conclusions

Suggestions emerge as a sequence of things that can be done throughout

the metrology infrastructure to help it grow by itself. NBS has a part to

play. Other national laboratories can contribute similarly. More importantly, the national laboratories can encourage and support the network of

using establishments to make specific additions. Every element in the

structure becomes a possible contributor. The contributions can be laborintensive or equipment-intensive, depending upon the facilities of the

individual establishment.

Hopefully, when a metrologist turns to a tie-point, he will find

documents prepared by others on how to develop an S.E. -type of capability

which is fully traceable and compatible at appropriate levels.

The horizontal-transfer characteristics of the S.E. process can relieve

the upward pressure at the top of a calibration hierarchy—brought about

by too many calibration echelons —and can put the calibration capability in

275
proper perspective. Increased accuracies need be developed only where the

need is real and is not merely the result of multiple echelons of calibration.

Someone mentioned earlier that the practices of NBS, a father-figure

in this business, might not be appropriate to the needs of LDC's. I claim

that the impending revolution in measurement indicates that existing

calibration practices are not necessarily appropriate to NBS either.

We leave it as an exercise for the reader-listener, first, to determine

how well these suggestions meet the needs we listed earlier, and then to

express their points of view to NBS. The concept of a cooperative structure

with built-in feedback, triggered by leadership and continually improving

itself, is a truly exciting one.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

276
SESSION 8 - GUIDANCE FOR NBS TECHNOLOGICAL ASSISTANCE EFFORT

Paper 8.3 - Preparing Product Specifications

Newman A. Hall

Executive Director

Commission on Education

National Academy of Engineering

Washington, D. C. 20418

In contemplating this joint NBS-AID Seminar, I have been particularly

interested in the interaction between our experience in this country, the

objectives of AID, and the needs of the less developed countries of the

world. It is with this combination of concerns and viewpoints that I would

like to review some of the things which I have observed during my short

period here. I would like to set the stage for some fairly specific

recommendations which will cover a wide range , but at the same time may

focus attention on the needs which have been expressed particularly by

our visitors from abroad.

I was asked to summarize the discussion here as it pertains to preparing product specifications. Our overall Seminar has concerned itself with

industrialization. I regard industrialization as the production of goods

and services according to a specification; thus, specification is intrinsic.

We are, furthermore, concerned at this meeting with the role of metrology

and standardization. Someone remarked this morning that it is extremely

important for us to recognize the distinction between standardization and

specification. Too often there is a tendency to bypass specification and

merely use standards. This is inadequate. It is important to recognize

that standards are used in preparing specifications, which are in effect

a description of product in terms of quantitative standards. Thus, industrialization, if you accept my definition, cannot develop without accepted

practices of metrology and standardization. These are inevitably coupled

together. If you have this coupling you can then begin to talk meaningfully

about product quality because you have some way of measuring what you mean

by quality. We might think of quality in terms of durability, maintainability, reliability, safety, usefulness for the public and general public

well-being, but in fact, quality really depends on meeting the specifications

which are set up in order to meet market requirements. Consequently, as

has been pointed out at this meeting, quality control is an essential followup to specifications.

As we look at industrialization of developing economies, I think it is

useful to review the evolution and growth and sophistication of markets.

Almost any economy depends basically on goods for local consumption.

People have to eat, have clothing, have housing, have the simple tools with

which to earn their livelihood. At this level, even in the most unsophisticated environment, there appears some evidence of quantitative description.

Thus, there exist the first rudiments of specification and there is a start towards utilization of standards. As a local community expands its

market and begins to deal in a regional domain, it becomes concerned with

those fabricated products which enter into regional trade. Once this begins

to happen, the need for adequate quantitative identification, which then

means specification, becomes more insistent. Such public requirements may

be derived from customs or from a community or regional consensus. Especially if these are informal, they will depend very greatly upon the

confidence which the consumer has in the producer, and in the effective

specifications which the producer uses. Whether or not these are formally

stated, the need for confidence must be understood at the outset.

277
As we consider an industrialized economy or one that is becoming

industrialized, a whole pattern of specifications must be set up, in order

that raw materials can be properly used, in order that components can be

transferred from one fabricator to another, and in order that there will

be general acceptance of the goods to be sold in the market. At this

stage (and several people here have pointed this out) in many of the less

developed countries it is extremely important to recognize the necessity

to accommodate to the realities of limited economic resources and limited

skilled manpower. Thus, while we might suppose that a sophisticated

standards program was desirable and necessary in order to have adequate

specification, the realities of the situation may make this quite difficult

Nevertheless, there eventually arises a situation where the establishment

of sound specification practices is quite essential. First, consider the

matter of interaction in foreign markets. It is practically impossible

and certainly undesirable for any country to endeavor to participate in

foreign markets without a system of specification based on sound standards.

There might be temporary advantages, but ultimately critical disadvantages

will appear. The other reason, pointed out by Dr. Ghosh this morning, is

service in the public interest. It is well recognized that proper use of

standards and specifications does result in production efficiency. It

results in far greater and more effective use of products and natural

resources as well as manpower. In addition it results in better protection

of the public and better service to the public. So as any country evolves

in its industrialization, these points should be recognized and the proper

steps be taken in its own interest.

As we look at the situation in the underdeveloped countries, we realiz

that almost any market in the world is concerned with the simpler sorts of

measurement, even if merely counting or weighing. However, the sophistication that can be acquired in any environment is critically dependent on

what instrumentation is available. As has been pointed out on a number of

occasions yesterday and today, the development of an adequate system for

developing good specifications is frequently handicapped by inadequate

instrumentation and inadequate testing facilities.

Standardization and specification are evolving concepts, beginning

with the most common quantitative identification with regard to goods and

services. Anyone who wants to buy something has to know something quantitatively about what it is that he is buying. Consequently there evolves

a pattern of quantitative identification. The specifications are dependent

in each case upon the market to be served, and the standardization which is

required will depend very much on the particular market pattern—the structure of that market, the goods and services that are found there. They

will differ substantially from one market to another. The unique

characteristics of these market domains as they reflect through specifications on the standardization are factors that need more adequate

clarification

.

One of the things which has been mentioned over and over again is the

development of a standardization program for the developing countries.

This takes good manpower, usually in short supply, and that forces a tradeoff between the economic and public advantage on the one hand and on the

other the difficulty of satisfying adequately the national needs. There

has been discussion regarding the evolution of standardization and specification systems from the simplest labor-intensive work to a sophisticated

industrialization. In this evolution you encounter the problem of enforcement and public acceptance. Shall control be in the hands of a government

agency, an industrial or trade association, or a consumer organization?

If you are going to have meaningful measurement , there needs to be some

mechanism for control and some means by which quality control practices

can, in fact, be made effective.

With this background then, what are some of the services which might

278
be developed to help a developing country toward better product specification, better standards, and better metrology practices? First of all, the

basic need is for education. The development of quality control awareness,

the training of standards engineers and technicians—the whole pattern of

how to go about writing specifications and utilizing standards—needs to

be handled much better than it is now. While this is not too specialized

an art, the educational resources in many of the underdeveloped countries

appear to be inadequate. Consequently, I propose a thorough study of how

these resources can be provided by other parts of the world, particularly

by this country. In general, the technological and engineering education

system in the USA has not been designed to serve effectively the requirements of a less developed country. Too often bright young men come to this

country to study engineering, but end up by being scientists, with no

interest in quality control at home. I might mention that the Academy of

Sciences and the Academy of Engineering are working with AID right now on

a study of what might be done. It will consider not only ways to improve

our own educational system for the foreign student's needs, but to offer

service to foreign universities in their educational programs. Both aspects

require attention. I might also mention that we ought to give a great

deal more attention to the transfer of packages of education. While NBS

can put on a seminar or a whole course in metrology or standardization, it

is impossible for most individuals in other parts of the world to come here.

It seems to me that such a course might well be packaged and sent abroad.

It should be designed for use in the country to which it is going, in

recognition of the specific needs of that country. I am convinced that this

can be done extremely well; it would provide an interesting and exciting

approach to many parts of the world.

Another specific concern that was mentioned a number of times is the

need for testing facilities. You cannot maintain adequate quality control

unless you have a testing facility appropriate to the market in the

country with which you are dealing. A great deal of attention needs to

be given to the know-how required to establish the testing facility, its

equipment and instrumentation, and its compatibility with that country's

manpower resources and economic resources. Financial assistance alone is

not enough. It is never easy and not always possible, for underdeveloped

countries to identify their requirements. There needs to be help from

some agency in the design and development of the facilities which will serve

their needs best.

I find it surprising that there is no readily available source which

describes adequately the diversity of specification practices in different

market areas of the world. It seems to me that it would be extremely

useful, particularly for the less developed countries, to be able to define

their own market, compare it with another market in another part of the

world, and then use recorded information to see what practices on specifications and standardization had been adequately developed for that country.

There is a need for an adequate reconciliation of these different practices,

because something set up here might take a different form in another part

of the world. How do you develop in a small local market a pattern which

will be adequate for a much larger and a much broader international

market? There needs to be better information on the various formal

mechanisms for achieving standardization, including both national and

regional systems. How do these relate to one another and to the ISO pattern

Let me suggest the need for the development, perhaps through ISO, of what

might be called prototypes for national standards for developing countries.

The ISO standards themselves are not designed for that purpose, and something might be designed which would better serve the interests and needs of

less developed countries.

Another area of interest is the standard reference data and the standard reference materials provided for use in this country by NBS. Could

these services be expanded with AID assistance, for example, to serve

279

452-533 O - 72 - 19
specific market needs in other parts of the world? These market needs

may be quite different from those in this country. This could be a most

useful service for those developing countries which cannot yet develop a

standard reference data or standard reference material program.

Finally, there is the important question, discussed at length this

morning, of the role of the ISO in relation to the needs of the developing

countries. The ISO serves usefully in the highly industrialized economies

in the world. It has been pointed out that the standards set up must

perforce be focused on the requirements of these countries, primarily the

countries of Western Europe. How can you establish and finance a program

which will in fact provide direct service to less developed countries?

There is also the question, as was pointed out this morning, whether you

should consider the possibilities of a regional market. This is very

important for the less developed countries. If their standardization

practices are not coordinated with their neighbors and in some way with

international standards, they may very well establish standards which late

will have to be changed drastically with loss to all concerned. However,

the developing countries may be forced to follow such an unsatisfactory

course if they are not given enough help.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

280
6^

SESSION 8 - GUIDANCE FOR NBS TECHNOLOGICAL ASSISTANCE EFFORT

Paper 8.4 - Disseminating Information

Edward L. Brady

Associate Director for Information Programs

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 20234

This whole Seminar has been concerned with the communication of information. We need now to investigate how best to continue that communication.

We also need to analyze the information that we have received from each

other and use that information to reach decisions on what to do next. In

an article about management that I read recently, I found a definition of

the management process that I would like to quote. It states: "management

is the conversion of information into action." That is what we want to

do as a result of this Seminar. We intend to convert the information

that we have gathered during this week into some sort of action; at this

moment we are not sure what that action will be.

Cushen's analysis reported to us earlier today can be used to show

the significance of information gathering. I counted the number of

alternative actions listed in his analysis; there are 59. All of them to

some extent have an information content, but of these 14 are concerned

primarily with information gathering and dissemination. This large number

of especially information-oriented alternatives is an indication of the

significance of the concept of information handling to the subject of this

Seminar.

In developing an action program, we need to ask two questions. First,

what are the needs of the less developed countries for information on

standards and metrology—in the general context of needs for information

on technology and science and their application to economic development?

Second, how can NBS help to satisfy those needs for information?

First, I shall address the first question, emphasizing that technical

information is not documents. You heard a great deal yesterday from

Melvin Day formerly of NASA, presently at NSF, about sources of documents

in the United States Government. He described the National Technical

Information Service, the activities of NASA, AEC , the Government Printing

Office and a number of other agencies of the government. The NTIS estimates

that approximately 100,000 official government documents of the type that

contain information of interest to its user community are produced each

year. Does any developing country need all those documents? The answer

is "Certainly not." Does any single agency in the United States need all

those documents? The answer again is "Certainly not."

I want to repeat and to emphasize one bit of advice given yesterday

by William Knox, the director of NTIS. He said, "Don't put your information

system in the hands of a documentalist . " That is good advice for all the

countries of the world, including the United States. A corollary of this

advice is his additional statement, "Don't use a shotgun approach to

information, use a rifle; aim for exactly the information that is needed

rather than trying to bag all of it and then make sense out of the whole

lot."

For standards and metrology work one needs information on the following

subjects: (a) national standards adopted by other nations; (b) standards

adopted by international bodies; (c) measurement techniques and characteristics and behavior of measuring instruments; (d) relevant legal requirements

281
of otherNqp&ntries and of international bodies; (e) organizational

practices; and (f) standards-making procedures. For example, everyone

would probably want to study the standards-making procedures of the

United States so you can be sure to avoid what we do wrong.

For the total process of industrialization, other types of information

are needed. Some may be obtained from outside sources, because it is

characteristic of the basic properties of materials and manufacturing

procedures. Some is necessarily internal, because it is characteristic of

the particular organization that uses the information or the country in

which it is being used. To illustrate, I will mention a few of the many

types of information needed. Information is needed about products, manufacturing processes, and the availability and prices of the materials used

in manufacturing. Information is needed about the availability and cost of

capital, about customs, export regulations, and other non-technical matters.

If you set out to do the marketing studies that we heard about yesterday

from the Ford Motor Company, your information gathering needs seem enormous

indeed.

The multiplicity of U. S. sources and the difficulty of maintaining

current awareness of new developments suggest that the collection of

information from United States sources might best be handled by a centralized

mechanism located in the United States, probably in Washington. Collection

of information can be an expensive operation, although non-collection can

be even more expensive. Efficiency demands that information gathering be

carried out on a reasonably large scale, which means probably that there

must be cooperative effort. Regional or multi-national cooperation in

sharing the resources and the effort is probably quite essential for an

effective operation. I would recommend further that any center established

for gathering information not be just a transmittal agency for picking up

documents and passing them on, but that it be an information analysis center

in which knowledgeable scientists and engineers would select appropriate

information from the documents and interpret it in the light of conditions

in the country in which it is to be used. This means that the people in

the center must be knowledgeable in various fields of science, technology,

economics, and law, rather than librarians.

However, preliminary analysis in Washington needs to be supplemented

by further review, interpretation, and analysis on the scene where the

information is to be used. A possible instrument for that purpose is the

local university network and the system of government laboratories. In

this way local universities can make an important and major contribution.

Another important function that a center in Washington might carry out for

the people on the scene abroad is to help to confirm their local analyses

and interpretations by drawing upon expertise in universities and other

centers of competence in the United States. When people feel that they are

a great distance away from centers of information and action, they are

sometimes unsure whether they have taken into account all the important

considerations. Thus, the center in the United States can help to give

assurance that something important has not been overlooked. This form of

moral support is considered to be quite important by people who have had

experience in developing countries.

When I mentioned connections with United States universities or

laboratories that might participate in the information gathering and

interpretation function, I had in mind institutions such as Battelle Memorial

Institute, which has had a great deal of experience in this area. Let us

immediately include the National Bureau of Standards in the list of laboratories capable of providing such assistance to the less developed countries

and interested in doing so.

Now, let us turn to NBS and consider what information activities we

might undertake in cooperation with and supported by AID. NBS is a major

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national resource, with a broad mission to strengthen science and technology

in the United States. We are trying to understand in detail how best to

carry out that mission. We are analyzing our activities, and shall continue

to do so, in order to find out exactly what our role is in the economy of

the country and how our services strengthen the technology upon which much

of our economy is based. For that reason, Dr. Branscomb has told me that

he wants especially to encourage a program with AID that would not only

aid the less developed countries but would help also to contribute to our

intellectual understanding of the development process generally and the role

that we play in the developing economy of the United States. In designing

our program, we shall keep this injunction in mind at all times. We shall

want to help the developing countries formulate questions about their own

needs and the activities that might be undertaken to help to satisfy those

needs. We might, for example, analyze the needs for standards and metrological capabilities in the areas in which our capabilities mesh well with

the needs identified by some of the earlier speakers in this Seminar.

Some current activities at NBS seem immediately applicable to needs

that have been expressed. We shall be especially interested in the advice

that we shall receive from the Seminar participants in the written statements that we have requested (see Appendix 2). The comments received so

far are very thoughtful; I consider them to be of very great value indeed

in guiding us in the future.

Now, I would like to give some examples of activities that might be

undertaken quite readily. We might, for example, select a library of

standards and metrological literature needed in the standards laboratories

of the participating countries, and we might also help in the procurement

of that library. We could provide information from the active information

centers at NBS. You may recall that one of the slides used by Dr. Kushner

listed those information centers. Copies of his slides are available so

that you can get an idea of the technical areas in which these information

centers are working. We can distribute our NBS publications to any laboratories that wish them. We might organize workshops on specific topics of

interest in the metrological and standards field, consulting the countries

participating in the workshop to decide on the content of the program.

We might receive AID-supported participants in the precision measurement

courses run by NBS every year. Typical examples of recent courses are

"Technology of High Precision Measurements in High Frequency Electrical

Measurements" and "The Statistical Design of Experiments." These courses

last several days each and are normally operated for U. S. industrial

participants for a fee. We might prepare a movie for educational purposes

on a selected topic in standards or metrology. We might also aid in the

evaluation of the technical quality of the testing and development laboratories found throughout the countries participating in the program. We

are engaged in that exercise now in the United States, not as yet in evaluating laboratories, but in deciding how to evaluate them.

The list I just presented is not intended to be a shopping list from

which anyone can check off the items they want. It is intended as an

illustrative list to indicate the types of activities that we might undertake

in our program of cooperation with AID and the less developed countries.

We look forward to receiving from all of the people here at this meeting

further guidance to help us develop a continuing program.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

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SESSION 8 - GUIDANCE FOR NBS TECHNOLOGICAL ASSISTANCE EFFORT

Discussion

Co-chairmen, Part A: Mahmoud Salama and Allen V. As tin

Dr. Ghosh ;

I should like to reiterate certain of the suggestions that have already

been made by Dr. Hall. There should be some help given for the establishment of an international training center. In India we have been working

with the United Nations on this idea. Hopefully, the UN may decide three

years from now to set up this training center for standardization. Here

I mean standardization for industry, not metrology. We are offering

various countries Institute Fellowships , but the funding given them is

inadequate to attract the best of personnel.

Send to underdeveloped nations experts who can impress the authorities

concerned with the necessity for instituting standardization bodies.

Standardization is a management responsibility and it is often very difficult for local people to convince the ministries that measurement science

and product specifications are effective tools.

Again, to help in establishing calibration centers for engineering

and measuring instruments such as gauges, experts should be sent from the

USA to the less developed countries, and from the less developed countries

to this country, to exchange ideas and information. The need for this

work is very extensive in a continent like India, yet we have not enough

capacity to give these services to a lower echelon of metrology. Greater

collaboration should exist between NBS and the metrology and instrumentation

departments of other countries. Hold training courses in the less developed

countries as has been suggested by Dr. Hall. The faculty members could go

from here , which arrangement has the advantage that they would obtain an

idea of the problems that exist in the less developed countries. Otherwise,

there is always the likelihood that the training might be a little over

the heads of the participants who come from less developed countries.

There should also be testing facilities augmented for industrial work as

well as training in the fundamentals of metrology.

Mr. Tarn :

Without referring to any particular paper I have a comment. Many

of the speakers have emphasized the importance and the readiness to assist

less developed countries in setting up facilities for measurement standards.

Now this is certainly justified in the sense that measurement standards

are the backbone for technological progress. However, under the conditions

and for the needs of a country in the early stages of development , what

is needed may not be so much the capability to make precise and accurate

measurements of the basic quantities, but rather the capability to make

reasonably good measurements of the properties of materials and products

which will satisfy immediate needs. Measurement standards are relevant to

industrial development only when they are used to support the implementation

of engineering standards. Laboratories for measurement standards introduced in an early stage of development will have few customers, and I am

afraid will serve merely as a showplace. Therefore I would like to advise

NBS and other organizations in this country to spend their effort on

programs to help developing countries set up industrial standards, product

specifications, and test facilities, as Dr. Hall just said, to satisfy

the needs of the market. This should come parallel to or even before the

introduction of measurement standards.

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Co-chairmen, Part B: Harry R. Tabor and Frank L. LaQue

Dr. Tabor ;

While the Seminar talks were developing various ideas , I became more

and more confused as to what part the NBS could play in advancing metrology

and standardization in the less developed countries. This probably echoes

the feelings of some of the other foreign delegates, but as this Session

draws to its close, I begin to see light at the end of the tunnel. I

must confess that I speak from the viewpoint of one concerned with metrology--precision measurements and calibration—rather than as one concerned

with standardization, where I believe the situation may be far easier.

In the field of metrology the problem stems from the very large

technological gap between NBS capabilities and obligations, and the metrological needs of a less developed country. The gap is so large that in most

cases no useful dialogue is possible despite good will on both sides.

This same technological gap, which of course we understand to be economic,

logistic, and ecological and not intellectual, also exists between the NPL

in Teddington and the less developed countries, but in Britain there is a

difference. The British Calibration Service, exists as a group of laboratories, one step lower than the NPL, yet directly supervised by the NPL.

These laboratories do not make re-evaluations of the basic constants of

physics, but their measurements are more than adequate for the vast majority

of industrial and even scientific needs in Britain. They would be

certainly more than adequate for needs in developing economies. A fatherson relationship between the British Calibration Service and a metrology

laboratory in a less developed country seems to me far more realistic than

a grandfather-grandson connection with the NPL itself. To the best of my

knowledge there exists no real USA equivalent to the BCS, even though there

is the National Conference of Standards Laboratories as well as many

private testing organizations. In this sense the NBS is at a disadvantage,

which as I see it makes the initiation of this Seminar all the more

commendable

.

The execution of very high precision measurement costs roughly the

same whether it is done in Gaithersburg, Jerusalem, or Accra. However, as

the GNP of Israel or Ghana is between 1% and 0.1% that of the USA, it means

that relatively speaking such measurements in the less developed countries

are 100 or 1000 times more expensive. We therefore take it as axiomatic

at this stage of the discussion that such high precision measurements

should not be carried out in the less developed and smaller countries. As

Dr. Astin pointed out, there are probably ten high precision national

laboratories in the world. That is all that is needed.

In applying system analysis to our own situation in Israel we determined that it would be far cheaper for us to have primary or even secondary

standards and etalons calibrated at the NPL or the NBS than to do it ourselves , and that one of the useful functions of the Israel NPL should be

to act as "postman" for the local companies that might not have the machinery

for packaging, exporting, and importing their standards.

My general conclusion, therefore, is that in the area of basic

standards and precision calibration, the link should be between the less

developed countries and some bodies at a lower level than the NBS, for

example, the British Calibration Service, if they will agree. Fortunately,

this does not leave the NBS out in the cold, for there are other areas

where the technological gap is smaller. Consider for example legal metrology (i.e. weights and measures). In the same way that NBS provides

instruction and supervision to the weights and measures offices of the 50

States of the Union, the less developed countries could be granted

"honorary membership" in the Union for this purpose. It is probable that

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the needs and the technological competence of the local personnel of the

less developed countries are not very different from those of some of the

less developed States of the Union. Thus, one suggestion for what NBS and

AID can do is to give the opportunity for personnel from the less developed

countries to participate in the courses organized by the NBS for the

individual States. Indeed, I can well imagine that NBS has already had

such participants from abroad.

In the area of standards-writing and standardizing procedures, I believe that a great deal of assistance could be given by NBS, but as this

is not an area of my competence I leave the point to others.

I have mentioned elsewhere the extension of the standard reference

materials concept to that of one-shot fixed point calibrated standards

to be used in-house in industry. I think this can be an interesting area

for research in less developed countries —where the purpose of the research

amongst other things is to keep the scientific staff stimulated—but

clearly NBS could become involved in this , particularly following the

success of the SRM program. (It is an area of activity that could benefit

industry in the USA just as much as it might benefit the less developed

countries.) I can even conceive of cases where projects could be carried

out jointly either in the laboratories at each end or by temporary transfer

of staff members. This proposal is virtually identical to that made by

Dr. Huntoon earlier this afternoon.

Mr. Russek's paper calling for a systems approach and operation analysis to determine what tests to do and what equipment to set up in a less

developed country was in my view most apt for this discussion. However,

I am extremely doubtful if in most of the less developed countries you will

find either the systems analyst or the calibration expert who are suggested

as a team of two to carry out the analysis. I therefore suggest that this

would be one area in which NBS and AID could help less developed countries

in the metrology field. Presumably NBS could provide the experts and AID

the finances to cover the cost of such a team visiting a given country.

The savings on inappropriate purchases may more than offset the cost of

the analysis team. Treasury officials in the developing countries would

probably not accept this thesis in advance, and the scheme in practice

would only operate if AID covered the major part of the cost.

Dr. Branscomb :

First, let me say that the NBS would be most pleased to see the British

Calibration Service take a vigorous step forward to assist less developed

countries. We would not feel left out in the cold at all. We are not

looking for work at the expense of the less developed countries. We have

plenty of work to do, but if you need our help we would like to figure out

whether we are capable of helping. We certainly would like others to

help too. Indeed, maybe we could send some of our State officials to

the British Calibration Service to learn how to do their jobs better, using

as you suggested a reciprocal arrangement.

I would like to take that point of departure to emphasize that because

as we advise our own States on the establishment of metrological services,

we believe we can help other people establish metrological services. The

most valuable feature we have to offer comes from the fact that we are the

NBS and not the British Calibration Service. NBS has a deep and active

concern for the economic development of the USA through the strength of its

useful technology. That is our job; it is not, in my view, simply measurement standards or industrial standards , and we are not as competent as we

would like to be in those areas. Although we have only recently acquired

our systems analysis capability, that is the direction in which we are going.

We will be helpful to you if we simply avoid foisting off on you some set

of metrological functions that we may have undertaken in the past, thinking

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it a legal obligation without understanding what we were trying to do. We

are struggling with the question, but I do believe that we might be helpful

in a cooperative and collaborative way in institute building—perhaps most

of all in the analysis of what kinds of institutional functions are really

needed, and in assisting a country to determine for itself what is the

appropriate institution in that country to provide those functions. I

would hope that our people would contribute a rather strong bias toward

a very flexible outlook on the institutional structure. There is the danger

that metrological and standardization services if adopted too hastily

or administered too rigidly can be a serious impediment to innovation.

I am exceedingly grateful for Dr. Huntoon's remarks because I found

them very stimulating. I would like to emphasize something he said. He

noted that the traditional metrological laboratory has instruments calibrated

externally in order to provide accuracy control. We also have at the NBS

a program called the collaborative reference program for certain materials.

This is analogous to the external control of the measurement analysis

program which deals with the measurement of a physical quantity like voltage,

length, or time. We measure an industrially relevant property like gloss

on paper by sending standard gloss papers out to industry laboratories.

They measure them and send us the data back.

In Dr. Huntoon's description of a measurement quantity for which you

chart accuracy in one dimension and range in the other, you recognize that

along the abscissa lie values of relatively low accuracy for which selfcalibration may be used. Suppose you change the label on such a chart from

voltage, current, length, or mass to gloss, hardness, brittleness, or any

other industrial property that is important to your product. Suppose you

provide, not standard reference materials, but product reference materials

in order to fill in the X*s on that chart. Then you have a continuous

system which includes both the physical measurement and the realization

of whether or not you have achieved the quality control implied in an

industrial standard for that product.

In this way the two worlds of industrial standards and metrology come

together. That leaves one with the obvious thought that if this is a good

idea, the standards-writing bodies like ASTM, ANSI, and ISO should give

very serious consideration to specifying in the standard more than just the

level of performance and a test method calibrated by external control that

can be used to realize it. They should try to provide at least an option

of quality assurance through a product reference material or standard

reference data or some other effective means for self-calibration. I

think this is an exciting idea. It clearly has a requirement for adaptation to a local situation, because each country could indeed make its own

set of such charts, choosing the accuracies and the range points and the

reference materials to suit its own requirements. This is a national

service. If the economy of a country rests on a particular commodity or

product for which quality control is particularly important, then it

should provide a central system for self-evaluation through product

reference materials or analogous schemes. It might seek external aid or

do it without external aid. The suggestion is worth further pursuit.

Dr. Probine :

I would like to refer very briefly to the afore-mentioned gap between

the capabilities of NBS and that of the corresponding institutions in less

developed countries. A friend of mine is a very successful designer of

household refrigerators and deep-freeze cabinets. So successful is he that

New Zealand has been able to export these products overseas and compete

with other much more industrialized countries. I asked him once, what was

his secret. He said it was careful selection of materials, rationalization

of design, selection of production methods which were both efficient and

suitable for the country and the use of the KISS principle. I asked him

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what the KISS principle was. He said, Well, when I am sitting down to

design something I keep saying to myself: Keep It Simple, Stupid. The

NBS staff taps a great repository of technological virtuosity and I

would hope that in planning any program to assist underdeveloped countries,

particularly those at a very early stage of industrialization, they will

in fact remember to keep it simple.

Dr. LaQue :

One reference by Dr. Brady was to the system for cataloging information,

particularly with respect to national and international standards. In

recent meetings on the ISO program in this field, there were representatives

of a number of nations who have embarked or are about to embark on similar

systems of cataloging. The objective is to make all of them compatible with

each other so that they can be interconnected. The NBS has been very helpful to ISO in planning their cataloging program, so that I am sure this

program will be tied in with the NBS computerized system.

Finally, I note Dr. Tabor's reference to the difficulties of metrology,

and I would like to say that if in fact the problems of metrology are more

difficult than those of industrial standardization, I offer my most sincere

sympathy to the metrologists

.

Mrs. LeRoux :

Gentlemen, I just want to thank NBS and AID for the opportunity given

to us to sit in this Seminar. I am sure it has served its purpose. Let

me thank also all you gentlemen for your patience in listening to our

problems and in trying to understand them.

Dr. Ghosh :

On behalf of India, I would like to join Madam in thanking our hosts

for the excellent arrangements that have been made.

Mr. Felleke :

When I was commissioned to come here and attend this Seminar, my

instructions were to tell what our problems were in order to enlist some

assistance in alleviating them. When I say our problems, I am speaking

for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the African region,

and also for my own Ethiopian Standards Institute. I now have to submit

a report to my organization and I hope I will match my problems with the

answers that I have been able to obtain here. Let me say at once that we

shall want to evaluate any assistance that might be channeled to us,

rather than to accept the gift unquestioningly . Any program will have to

be rationalized and tailored to our requirements. I hope I have identified

my problems clearly, and I certainly want to express the thanks of our

people to you who have been kind enough to invite me to attend here.

Dr. Salama :

If you will allow me, on behalf of the secretariat of the Arab

Organization for Standardization and Metrology, I would like to express

deepest gratitude to both NBS and AID for the invitation which has given me

the valuable opportunity to participate in this distinguished forum. We

have all enjoyed very much the generous hospitality of our hosts and benefitted both from the constructive discussion and exchange of views during

the various sessions, and from the enlightening information about the

various capabilities of the NBS. I have personally admired the wise understanding of Dr. Branscomb and his colleagues and have been deeply touched

by their sincerity and willingness to render assistance in the spirit of

cooperation. I will be happy to convey such personal feelings to the

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national members of ASMO , with the hope that the encouragement which I

have received here will soon be translated into positive actions and

fruitful steps.

Dr. Tabor ;

Dr. Astin, may I ask you please to sum up this Seminar?

Dr. As tin ;

In one sentence, it has been a good and productive Seminar. I have

been greatly impressed by the interest shown here and I am sure that there

is a lot of material for planning and action both by AID and by NBS. I

sense a great diversity of problems, even though there is a common theme

of meeting national needs for greater competence in basic standards and

their dissemination, in testing, in quality control, in standards development, and so on. One point I would like to make is that while we can help

you to acquire increased skills in these areas through training, we cannot

in my judgment tell you how to organize to carry them out. Let me call to

your attention the great diversity in the organizations for basic metrology

and engineering standards which exist among the most highly developed

nations of the world. The NBS organization has no exact counterpart in

any other nation. It is most closely paralleled perhaps in Germany by

the PTB—a result of the fact that NBS patterned itself in its early days

after the PTB. However, the organizational structure in Germany, in France,

in England, in Japan, and in the USSR differs widely from that of the NBS.

The organization and the programs both have evolved to try to meet our

national needs and I think each of the developing countries has to evolve

in structure to meet its own needs. We can help in training and information

which will help you better to plan your organization, help you better to

identify the programs and the measurement competences that you need. To

develop the test methods most applicable to your local community is

fundamentally your job, I think. There is much material here for planning

and action on our part , but I think there is also much material for

planning and action on your part. I would hope that this Seminar is just

a beginning, that you will follow Dr. Brady's suggestion and give these

matters further thought, discuss the problems with your colleagues, and

continue to send us suggestions as to how we can work better as an international family of nations to reap the benefits of technology more widely

for all of us.

Dr. Tabor :

Thank you, Dr. Astin. Now I ask Henry Arnold to close the Seminar.

Mr. Arnold ;

I shall be brief, but I cannot let you go without saying that from the

AID point of view we certainly have received from the developing countries

,

from the experts in this country, and from other friends abroad, a great

many ideas which we will sift in the formulation of some action programs.

In the next sixty days we will be working very hard in making some of these

decisions. Experiments do not always turn out as one expects when he

starts the experiment. Personally, I was quite down in the dumps yesterday.

I did not think we were getting very far with the Seminar at all. Today

I feel very good about the answers to the two primary questions which AID

has been asking.

I think that Dr. Branscomb and his group have been given some comments

and suggestions as to introspection of their own operations which they

may find interesting, and perhaps useful. I am sure that we from the USA

have, despite our intentions not to do so, given you from the less

developed countries a great deal of advice. You may find some of it

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useful, but most importantly, I think we have opened some channels of

communication which, as several people have said, we should all try to

keep open.

I want to tell our guests from abroad that we appreciate your filling

out that little informal questionnaire. I can give you some quick results.

The first question was, is there a major need for a program, and the

answer is unanimously "Yes." The second question was, what priorities

would you assign to: first, training technical specialists; secondly,

indoctrinating managers, planners and financial people; thirdly, assisting

in surveys of potential benefits from standards programs in less developed

countries; fourth, responding to requests for follow-up technical assistance.

I need Dr. Cushen's help to analyze these results accurately, but at a

quick pass they come out almost even, although everyone has strong ideas.

Finally, on the question as to what kinds of persons should be involved in

training programs, there were three categories that were mentioned more

often than others —scientists, technologists, and government leaders.

Let me close by expressing my appreciation to Dr. Branscomb and his

staff and the alumni of the NBS who have contributed so much to our meeting.

I would especially like to thank Steffen Peiser and Henry Mason who have

been working so very hard on all the arrangements. I would like to express

once more my appreciation to all of our visitors from abroad who have

contributed frank comments and exhibited a patience above and beyond the

call of duty, and finally to our summarizers who have done such a good

job.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

291

APPENDIX 1 - PROLOGUE SESSION

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER WITHIN DEVELOPING AREAS

Edward S. Dennison

Executive Secretary

Volunteers for International Technical Assistance

Schenectady, N. Y. 12308

It certainly is a pleasure for us at VITA to be asked to speak to this

group. VITA has had considerable contact with the National Bureau of

Standards through the years, particularly when we have needed some kind

of technical information which NBS has been able to provide. We have dealt

a great deal with the developing world, although our emphasis now is almost

evenly divided between working in developing countries overseas and in

developing areas in the United States.

Let me begin by describing some situations which are characteristic, I think, of the scope and the range of the technical assistance VITA has been

engaged in very recently. It certainly is not representative of the total

range of problems on which we have worked through the years, but will give

you some feeling of what we are doing now. I will go through a few of

these current situations and then give you some of the background on VITA

and some information on the broad programs in which we are presently

engaged.

In response to a request from the Ministry of Public Health of

Botswana in Southern Africa, a team of chemical engineering professors and

students at Rutgers University designs a baby incubator which uses kerosene

fuel. It is intended for areas where there is no electricity available.

The prototype has been designed and is now being constructed.

A rice expert working in Ceylon travels to New Guinea as a result of a request that came from there to VITA and helps set up a series of farmer

workshops in order to introduce rice as a new crop to that area. They will

use strains developed in the Philippines at the International Rice Research

Institute

.

A marine architect is called upon through VITA to respond to a request

from the Government of East Pakistan to advise on the construction of

fiberglass fishing boats in order to replace those that were lost in the

recent storm and flood.

A team of vocational education specialists from the United States

spent the last year and probably will spend another year on periodic visits

in advising the Government of British Honduras, particularly the Belen

Vocational Training Center, on the establishment of trade standards and the

improvement of the curricula of the vocational training center itself.

An industrial engineer in the United States suggests appropriate

machinery for a rubber tire reclaiming plant in Thailand. A VITA volunteer

expert in Washington who has some experience with federal grantsmanship

acts as advisor to an organization in this country made up of former youth

gangs, to help them obtain federal grants for establishing minority businesses in ghetto areas

.

In response to a request from the U. N. Economic Commission for Africa,

a team of experts produces model schemes for soap-making industries in

several African countries.

These are some examples of the work which VITA is doing with volunteer

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consultants. Now, what is VITA? VITA was established in 1960 on the

initiative of a handful of scientists and engineers, some of whom at that

time were associated with the General Electric Company in Schenectady, New

York. From that very modest beginning VITA has grown into an organization

which today uses about 7,000 technical and professional consultants. They

come not only from the fields of technology, but also from the social

sciences and education—they are not only Americans, but nationals of 70

different countries, who are called upon by VITA as a result of requests

that we receive from overseas and from developing areas of this country.

To date, VITA has responded to about 20,000 separate requests for technical

and professional assistance. We are currently operating at a level of

about 2500 requests a year in international fields, and another 700 or

800 requests a year from areas here in the United States. VITA is unique

in the sense that it combines two characteristics which are not uniquely

American by any means, but certainly representative of America. One of these

is the spirit of volunteerism, the idea of giving your time freely in the

support of community benefit; the other is the use of the technology which

the United States has developed since its pioneer days.

What we call volunteerism in VITA is a bit different from the traditional reputation that volunteerism has had both here and abroad. We found,

for instance , that when we started our domestic program a couple of years

ago, people in ghetto areas particularly did not want to have volunteers

coming in and doing good. They remembered people who at Christmas-time

came around and passed out food baskets and they did not like that kind of

volunteer service. While it was a nice gesture and probably did something

to salve the consciences of the white middle-class people who were the

volunteers, it really did not do very much to improve the economic conditions

of the people that they were supposedly helping. But VITA is a very different kind of volunteerism. It is much more in the spirit of the Peace Corps

(which it predates); VISTA, another domestic U. S. program (which it also

predates); and some others which have been started since VITA began some

11 years ago.

I might describe briefly the process by which we provide technical

assistance. As I said before, we receive requests from all over the world.

We are a responding organization in the sense that we do not design and

field our own projects overseas. We respond to those which are started by

other people, be they host country nationals or acting for governments of

overseas countries. The initiative may come from institutions operating on

a multinational or national basis, or from individuals such as missionaries,

Peace Corps, or VISTA volunteers here. Once a request is received at our

headquarters, it is logged in and classified as to the kind of assistance

required. We make a decision right off on whether we can provide information

by mail from our own library, from our own publication series, or from some

previously answered problem on which we have worked in the past. If that

is the case, we go ahead and send out the information within a few days

after the request is received. Most often, however, the request has unique

or special characteristics so that we need to go beyond our own in-house

technical resources, and this usually involves going to our roster of

volunteers. Our roster is cross-indexed; in fact, one of our plans for the

coming year is to computerize our roster so that we have much faster access

to the various skills represented. We begin by corresponding or telephoning

some of our volunteer consultants. Then, in some cases, particularly in

our domestic program and increasingly in our international program, a shortterm consultant needs to visit the requester and the assistance may begin

by helping the requester define his problem better. We sometimes find it

necessary to narrow a request down to specific kinds of technical or

professional input. In general, we provide assistance on management as well

as on hardware technology.

Sometimes the question comes up, particularly when I mention short-term

consultants, as to how we differ from a private consulting firm, such as

294
Stanford Research Institute or A. D. Little. One main difference is that

we do not charge anything, although we do try to provide some transportation

and living costs for our volunteers when they go overseas, but as far as

any normal fees are concerned, we ask our volunteers to waive these. If

one works for a large company we try to get the company to continue his

salary while he takes a paid leave of absence. If he is self-employed it

means a greater sacrifice on his part, because we ask him to take time

away from his normal job, and if he is a consultant who normally demands

$150 to $200 a day this represents a pretty significant contribution on

his part.

The other main difference between our assistance in short-term

consulting and that of a private profit-making firm is that we offer not

only the man and his expertise but the backup of our whole organization in

terms of follow-up in a continuing kind of assistance if that is needed.

It may be, for instance, that all our consultant does when he is overseas is

to establish the fact that certain other kinds of technical information are

required. In that case, he has no financial interest in continuing his own

involvement if his expertise is not required beyond that first visit. So

he is not in a position of selling himself to the requester, but he may ask

VITA to continue providing help by mail or by visits of other consultants

with other kinds of expertise.

VITA has probably reached a critical stage for the organization. We

began rather modestly, and we still operate at a fairly modest level. Our

total budget for both international and domestic operations for 1971 is

approximately one million dollars which sum reflects almost exclusively

our administrative costs. If you were to put a price tag on the value of the

technical assistance which we offer I would imagine that it is probably four

or five times that amount. However, there certainly is no question about

the need for much more effort in the area of technology transfer. I think

we have established that VITA, by involving individuals in development assistance through a private organization, can usefully grow. Our approach can

be extended overseas. So our plans for the future are fairly ambitious.

What we hope to do in the future is to establish what we call counterpart

organizations in developing countries and in the United States. The idea

here is to identify people in local areas who have technical and professional

skills and who are willing to lend those skills on a volunteer basis, and

then to build up a skills bank which can respond to local requests for

assistance. We have already begun to do this in Washington, D. C. , Boston,

Houston, and San Francisco, and in three developing countries, the Philippines, Ceylon, and as of March 19 71, in the Dominican Republic. We have

plans in the next year or so to expand the counterpart program overseas

in three more Latin American countries, in Asia, and possibly even in

Africa.

We recognize that when these organizations get started they are probably

not going to be self-sufficient, either financially or in terms of the range

of skills which they are able to mobilize on a local basis. So, we are

prepared to lend them staff assistance and advice in getting started,

technical backup to keep them going, and in some cases financial assistance.

A good example, I think, is our counterpart organization in the Philippines

which has now been operating for two years. It has now about 400 Philippino

volunteers who are working on problems at the rate of about 2 5 a month.

Some 10% of those problems they refer to us for help, because they call for

skills which are not locally available or, at least, not yet locally

identified. In the long range we hope that VITA will become recognized not

as an American-based organization, but as an international one, or better

yet, as a series of national organizations which are mobilizing technical

resources and transferring technology within the developing areas themselves.

A further element in the counterpart program to be encouraged is the

use of shared information within a region. Our Philippines counterpart

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452-533 O - 72 - 20
is already responding to requests from Thailand, Ceylon, and some other

Asian countries and does not even call on us in many areas of expertise,

such as rice production. In Latin America we fully expect there will be

an exchange of technical expertise between our Latin America counterparts.

I think that a good many of the requests that we presently receive in

Schenectady represent technological information which is already available

in the country from which the request came. The problem is that the

requester does not know how to put his finger on it. In many cases we also

may not be aware of it right now, but we have a greater chance of helping

him obtain that type of information from his own country by fostering the

establishment of an organization in his own country in touch with the major

sources of local technical information. So this is the direction along

which we hope to go, although certainly there will continue to be a need

for some kind of coordinating function and technical backup from our own

headquarters operation in the United States.

In closing, let me quote from the 17th century English philosopher

Thomas Hobbes : "Life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." I

think all of us here have the obligation of trying to alleviate those

intolerable human conditions. VITA is only one approach, but one which I

think has a very large role to play, particularly in view of the fact that

our own Government is pulling back from direct foreign aid and encouraging

the private sector to play a larger role.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

296
APPENDIX 1 CONTINUED

Prologue Session Discussion

Chairman: Lewis M. Branscomb

Dr. Branscomb :

I am sure Mr. Dennison would be happy to answer questions or to join

in a general discussion.

Mr. Dennison :

I forgot to mention our major publications effort, the Village

Technology Handbook. This was printed several years ago under a grant from

AID and was distributed by AID in a two-volume edition. Last year we

revised it considerably and reissued it in a one-volume edition. I understand that there will be copies available for sale here. I invite you to

take a look at it. It aims at village level technology in terms of the

basic needs of village life. A large section deals with water-transfer

devices, pumps, irrigation devices, and the like. There are plans for

village tools to make everything, from building fences to adapting bicycles

as power plants , a whole range of things that make use of materials which

are likely to be available in most developing areas. This is not a book

designed for sophisticated industrial development. We had in mind the

rural village with a population of under 5,000 in an underdeveloped

country. There are comparable villages here in the USA. VITA is probably

the chief source of technical assistance for all the "hippy" communes

in the USA. We receive almost daily requests for this book from various

communal groups in this country.

Questions from the floor :

Can you indicate when and how the transition of VITA took place from

a small group of volunteers with no budget to an organization that has

a million dollars to spend? What are the sources of funds, and how do you

collect the money?

Mr. Dennison :

Our president would say, "I'm glad you asked that question." VITA took

a substantial jump in size around 1964, as a result of several foundation

grants which permitted VITA to hire a full-time staff, rather than to

depend on local people who came in one or two days a week to type letters

and take care of the inquiry service. Another very significant event in

VITA's history was in 1969 when we began our domestic work. That is

funded by the Office of Economic Opportunity through a no-strings grant

to VITA to provide technical assistance to all forms of anti-poverty efforts

in this country, not just those sponsored by the government or even by 0E0.

This was a major condition which VITA placed on receiving government money,

and that grant was significant in size in terms of our own programs in the

past. We are now beginning to do fund-raising from private sources for the

domestic program in the same way that we have done through the years for

our international program. We receive about one-third of our total international funds from AID through an annual grant with no strings attached.

The other two-thirds comes from several large foundation grants and from a

number of private corporations. So right now our international program is

mostly privately funded and our domestic program is almost all government

funded.

297
Question

Have you a policy about requests?

Reply :

If we are convinced that the requester is able to pay for consulting

assistance from a commercial enterprise, then we will probably suggest

that he do so. Of course, it is very difficult to establish that fact

by mail, and we almost always give the person the benefit of the doubt if

we are not sure. It is a little easier in our domestic program, where we

have telephone contact or face-to-face contact. We have not yet received

any request from Mainland China, but we do not have any policies that would

preclude it if we felt it was appropriate to development.

Questions :

Do you have medical and legal experts among your wide range of volunteers? How does one become a VITA volunteer?

Mr. Dennison:

The answer to your first question is yes, we do accept requests in

both medical and legal fields. Usually the medical fields are those of

public health or public health services. In the legal field we have

accepted requests from people who essentially needed technical and legal

advice in order to win a case. An example is a group which was trying to

prevent the construction of a freeway through a particular neighborhood

in Boston. We did not testify on their behalf; we simply gave them

information which they could use in making their argument.

Comment :

That, of course, suggests that your organization might respond to

requests from developing countries to assist them in avoiding development.

Has that ever happened? The question is not entirely facetious because

I believe that one of the problems in technical assistance is the preservation of social and cultural values which will be impacted by the rapid

introduction of technology foreign to the culture. That must surely be a

problem, yet one to which most Americans can contribute exceedingly little.

Mr. Dennison :

I am afraid I cannot give you an example of that having happened. It

may well be that we have encountered something like that.

The previous question about how one becomes a VITA volunteer is an

easy one to answer. We have a resume form which is fairly easy to fill

out. I would invite all of you to do so. There is no obligation in becoming a VITA volunteer. You are free to reject for any reason, any assignment which we ask you to undertake. The people in this room have the kind

of expertise which we need and which we are constantly seeking. VITA

has grown from zero to 7,000 volunteers without a single recruiting

campaign. I am sure that we could expand our ranks even more if we were

to receive more requests than our volunteers could handle. Most of our

new volunteers are added through having learned of VITA and its work, or

else as a result of our approaching organizations or individuals to ask

for some specific skill which we found we did not have represented on our

roster.

Questions :

Apparently, VITA has been in existence for approximately 10 years, and

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the range of activities in which you are involved is extremely broad. Is

it possible to generalize on the basis of experience you have had to date

with respect to the kind of expertise in which you have rendered assistance and the kinds of organizations that have requested such assistance?

If one eliminates requests from sources in a position to defray the expenses

of consultant services, what source of organizations are left in the

industrial field?

Mr, Dennison :

There has been a shift through the years, I think, from agricultural

requests toward requests related to industrial development. There has also

been a shift away from hardware technology as we have done more and more

face-to-face consulting on management, marketing, business skills, and

social science education training skills.

In the international program we are just beginning to talk to organizations like AID to encourage them to support some of the assignments which

we would like to undertake in the industrial field. We are also in touch

with some of our friends at UNIDO , particularly Joseph Stepanek, and we

hope to be able to provide some industrial consulting services through

UNIDO. We already respond to several hundred requests a year which come

from the UNIDO Industrial Inquiry Service. We also respond to mail requests

from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris,

from other UN agencies such as UNDP, and from some of the regional economic

commissions such as ECA. We provide short-term consulting services to the

Peace Corps, which does provide for transportation and per diem, and we

receive some foundation support for covering the travel and per diem

expenses of other assignments. So the money for that comes from a variety

of sources right now.

Question :

Do you have any relationship with the International Executive Service

Corps?

Mr. Dennison :

Yes, we do. In the case of IESC some people have asked us if we overlap at all, and I think in almost every case the answer is no. We help

the businessman who probably could not afford even the modest honorarium

which IESC volunteers require. IESC, I believe, asks the requesting

business to pay something like $50 a day and then IESC covers the transportation and the living expenses, but we usually help people who could

not even afford $50 a day. We receive a lot of requests referred to us by

IESC country directors overseas and our relationship with them is a very

good one.

Question :

What standards do you have for the quality of the technical assistance

provided?

Mr. Dennison ;

We ask and in fact demand of our volunteers to give the same quality

service that they would provide as paid professional consultants, yet

we are conscious of the attitude to volunteer help as second rate.

Question :

Do you maintain any overseas staff, and do you have any on-site

independent reviews of performance?

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Mr. Dennison:

We do not have overseas any paid staff from the USA. If it is in a

country where we have established a counterpart organization, then we ask

them to perform that role. If we are dealing through a sponsoring institution sueh as UNDP or UNIDO , we ask that institution to evaluate the

quality of the service that we are providing. What we try to do is limit

our consulting activities to institutional relationships so that we are

not just helping somebody on a one-to-one basis. We want to have a multiplier effect whenever possible. If we act through an institutional program

we have a much greater chance of achieving such an effect. Then we also

have the advantage of receiving an evaluation of the quality of our service.

Questions :

Have there been any problems of liability? What safeguards do you

have? Suppose you have somebody design a bridge and it falls apart.

Have there been any instances where there has been a question of liability

on account of faulty advice?

Mr. Dennison :

To date there have not. We asked ourselves these questions particularly in regard to our domestic program, because of the very real possibility

of someone attempting to sue us for having given advice in a situation

which did not turn out just right. It has not happened yet. I do not

know what our legal liability in that case would be. Overseas, there has

been no instance that I know of where we have been found guilty of giving

inappropriate advice that resulted in injury.

We have made some mistakes, one of which I think is characteristic of

the earlier days of VITA. It is easy to fool yourself into thinking that

you can solve people's problems from your own basement workshop when they

may be six or seven thousand miles away. Several of our people were

really excited about developing solar cookers for underdeveloped areas,

particularly where there is a lot of sunlight throughout the year.

One of our VITA volunteers was a UN technician who was going to be stationed

in Morocco. He decided to introduce solar cookers to Morocco where there

is a shortage of fuel. He worked a year and a half. The venture just

did not work out, mainly because the Moroccan women cook their evening meal

after sundown. We did not realize that when we launched the program.

Questions :

Have you had any problems with political opposition from recipient

countries? Have you had any questions about motivation, as did the Peace

Corps?

Mr. Dennison :

Fortunately, no. VITA is the personification of what people in AID

these days call a low-profile-presence overseas. Even though we are

identified as being largely an operation from the USA, we still are not

directly connected with any USA agency overseas and as far as I know we

have no background which has given us a black eye in any particular area,

as did the Asia Foundation which at one point was receiving CIA money.

One test occurred fairly recently in Ceylon. I was there about a year ago.

Our group which had just formed itself in Ceylon was not at all sure

whether they would continue functioning after the elections, especially if

Mrs. Bandaranaike won; which she did. As it turned out, several of the

people who were elected to our board of directors in Ceylon are now in

prominent positions in the new government. Our group in Ceylon is on even

better footing officially than it was before, because it was recognized

300
as primarily a Ceylonese operation. It was local people who were working

together on local problems. As long as we continue organizing on that

basis, we expect no major difficulty.

Question :

Are you able to respond to all the requests you receive?

Mr. Dennison :

There are really two answers to that question. One is that there are

obviously a lot of things which VITA is not equipped to respond to in an

effective way. We cannot, for instance, field a volunteer for a long

period of time, unless we find that rare individual who is himself independently wealthy and wants to devote a piece of his life to volunteer

service. For the most part, the kind of people who are on our roster

cannot leave their homes for more than two or three weeks or at most a

month. If a continuing input from a man on the spot is required we simply

cannot respond. However, to long-term programs which need technical

assistance from VITA on a periodic basis, either from the same volunteer

or from a series of volunteers with different skills appropriate for each

step, we can generally respond, and do so very effectively. This is what

we are doing for the Belize Vocational Training Center in British Honduras.

Our volunteers are down there every three or four months for a couple of

weeks at a time. They have been going for over a year and probably will

continue to do so for at least another year. Incidentally, this is also

the case for the baby incubator for the government of Botswana. The

project is part of Botswana's five-year plan in their Ministry of Public

Health. It has already taken us about eight months and will probably

stretch out in the testing and field application stages for another couple

of years. In this way, VITA as an organization can stay involved on a

continuing basis.

Comment :

I am curious about your measures of success, the criteria you use,

and the impact you achieve.

Mr. Dennison :

Well, let me admit our measurement techniques, especially in our

international program, are very crude. The only regular feedback that we

get is a form which we send out to the requester which is returned to us

in about 2 0% of the cases. They do not provide very useful information.

Almost anybody who receives something free is going to be grateful,

yet gratitude is often the only expression recorded. That does not really

tell us whether the information we gave the person was appropriate and

whether it really had an impact. We do occasionally receive much more

detailed information. Our own volunteers who travel overseas for business

or pleasure check with us frequently. We tell them about the problems on

which we would like follow-up information. We get some feedback that way,

or we receive it through people such as Peace Corps volunteers, missionaries,

or UN personnel.

Our USA program has been a little easier to handle because we can

send out researchers to talk to requesters. Then we really learn whether

we had any impact, particularly in the cases where one can measure economic

impact. We have a study that was completed last fall on a USA program in

which we have actually been able to point to jobs that we have helped

create; people have been moved off the welfare rolls; and we could compute

savings in tax dollars.

301
Question

You said that many of the requests for assistance came to VITA from

organizations like UNIDO. Were those requests made directly from UNIDO or

did UNIDO refer them to you?

Mr. Dennison :

With UNIDO inquiries what usually happens is that people write to the

Industrial Inquiry Service of UNIDO; UNIDO then decides where they are

most likely to receive the appropriate information. Perhaps VITA just

happens to be the major source of that information within the USA. So

UNIDO forwards the request to us, and then we correspond directly with

the original requester. That is usually the first time he becomes aware

that there is an organization called VITA.

Question :

How do you make the organization known to people in foreign countries?

Mr. Dennison :

Word of mouth accomplishes a lot. We have a newsletter which we send

out to all our volunteers around the world. Periodically, we also put out

information about VITA, and tell how people can make a request through the

embassies of the USA in various countries around the world. Private

organizations such as CARE and various missionary services often mention

VITA in their own publications.

Question :

Since you do deal in industrial matters and there are a very large

number of Americans overseas engaged in business activities, do you ever

call upon them to serve as your volunteers and, if so, what do you do

about the possible appearance of conflict of interest on their part?

Mr. Dennison :

If we know that there is an American overseas who has the skill we

are looking for, and he happens to be nearer to the requester than someone

here in the USA, we would probably call on him. If there is a possible

conflict of interest, it is usually one which is against his interest and

therefore we usually rely on his judgment to make that decision. A

request for example came in this last year from Korea in regard to processing canned peas. It happened that we referred the requester to the Green

Giant Company, who were in direct competition with the company which

initiated the request. So the Green Giant Company simply declined to

respond. I think the greatest potential difficulty arises from offers of

assistance to a requester who could have paid for it. We could receive a

letter from a consultant in the country from which the request came,

accusing us of trying to cut in on his legitimate business.

Dr. Rohatgi :

My feeling is that for really effective use of VITA there will have

to be counterpart organizations in each of the countries who are working

with you. I might mention that a group of students at the State University

of New York found that there were a number of people in this country who

were interested in the economic development in India, so they formed an

organization called the Front for Rapid Economic Advancement of India

(FREAI). It had to learn that it needed chapters within India before

progress could be made. I do work with FREAI. If there are any people in

the audience who want to volunteer for FREAI I would be very happy to pass

302
on their names. Collaboration between your VITA and others like FREAI could

really create an effective international network of volunteers.

Mr. Dennison :

I appreciate your comment because I could not agree with you more.

That is certainly the direction in which we have to move, not only because

it will help to get the word out about the kind of help that VITA can

give but also because it will mean sharing the burden of technology

transfer with the developing world. I do not think that we or anybody else

should be fostering a continuing dependence upon the highly developed

world for technology which is in a large part probably already available

in less developed contries. Incidentally, we have worked with a number

of people who are associated with FREAI, and the organization has been

mentioned to me many times.

Question ;

Do you attempt to manage entire projects?

Mr. Dennison :

Most of our work is in specific technical inputs to a larger effort,

not in managing the entire effort. When we are involved in medium or large

scale industrial development it is not in any kind of total project

management. It would be in response to a specific technical need, say

locating sources of equipment for the canning industry, or providing

accounting assistance or plant layout or something quite specific. On

a somewhat smaller scale we may act as intermediaries. Recently on a

request from Vietnam, we went to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and

conned them into designing a duck-processing plant for killing the ducks,

cleaning, storing, packaging, and marketing them. The work was done by

the Department of Agriculture. The plans were referred to us and we sent

them on to Vietnam.

Question :

You were speaking of a vocational school in Belize to which you have

different people going for a few weeks at a time. Is there any contact

between these people? How do they find out what has been done by their

predecessors?

Mr. Dennison :

In the case of Belize, it has been the same people each timej when we

have to switch people we have to be sure that the experience gained is

shared.

Questions :

Has the Village Technology Handbook been translated into appropriate

languages? Should it not be translated into as many languages spoken

in underdeveloped countries as possible?

Mr. Dennison :

We are now in contact with ARTAC in Mexico City, a regional translating

and printing facility sponsored by AID, in order to translate this edition

into Spanish. We hope also to make it available in Portuguese, and French

eventually. I think that probably the book is of more use to an intermediary, say a UN technician, than to a farmer in an Indian village.

303
Comment

It would seem that probably the next logical step would be to develop

a self-help type of book in local languages so that the farmer can read

it himself. This could be published by some international organization.

Mr. Dennison ;

I think this is one of the things that the counterpart concept would

handle perfectly. I think it would be presumptuous for us here in the

USA to develop a self-help manual for use in any particular country; but

a counterpart organization using local technical people with local experience could do a very good job of producing just such a publication.

Question :

I understand that the current interest in technical assistance programs,

particularly those under multilateral auspices, is to establish some sort

of priority with respect to the virtually endless technical assistance

requests that could conceivably come. Under UNDP and UNIDO auspices there

is an effort going on now to emphasize those things which might be of

most strategic importance. Is there any thought being given in your organization to the establishment of priorities?

Mr. Dennison ;

Our priorities in a sense are established by those organizations with

which we deal. To the extent that there is some commonalty among development organizations in priorities, we simply follow through on those goals.

We have made an effort to increase our capability in the area of industrial

development of small business, but that is really the only trend we have

established as a kind of priority.

Mr. Lovejoy :

To clarify the status of UNDP, let me say that the UN has two main

funding agencies, the World Bank and the UN Development Program. The actual

aid programs are carried out by the technical agencies of the UN including

the UN Industrial Development Organization, UNIDO, and about 15 others.

UNIDO may be of prime interest at this Seminar, but one must not omit

UNESCO which has the jurisdiction for some kinds of standards, metrology,

and so on. The UN itself is primarily a political body, but through the

Economic and Social Affairs Council it acts as a technical arm in certain

fields, namely natural resources and transportation.

About priorities, it is true that UNDP is now going over to what is

called a country programming basis, in which the country itself will

identify over a period of five years its own internal priorities which can

be satisfied by UN aid. This arrangement is very different from identifying priorities in technical aid in terms of industry or agriculture, or

public health, or education. In the new setup due to become operational

in the next two or three months, we will have a policy planning staff

which however is still budgeted on a very small scale. I think you can

safely say that the programming, as we call it, is little more than an

identification by individual countries of things that they think that the

UN can do for them in the next five years.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

304
APPENDIX 2

RESPONSES TO NBS/AID QUESTIONNAIRE BY SEMINAR PARTICIPANTS ASSOCIATED

WITH ORGANIZATIONS ABROAD

To help NBS and AID evaluate the results of the Industrialization

Seminar and chart the future course of the program, the participants

were requested to answer a few questions regarding the nature of assistance

in metrology and standardization they would like to be considered for

incorporation in the program. Below are stated the questions asked,

together with the responses submitted by the participants. (Responses

are arranged alphabetically by country, followed by those from international

organizations.

)

Question 1 . Is there a major need for an NBS/AID program with the less

developed countries?

Geraldo N. S. Maia - Brazil:

Yes. An NBS/AID program could be of help to Brazil in the area of

standardization. Such a program should include:

(a) Selling the idea of the need and advantages of a system of

norms, standards and certification that really works, to government

high officials, industry and financial leaders.

(b) A system such as this should provide the following functions: — To produce the norms for the different materials, parts, products

and services including performance standards and test methods.

The existing association (ABNT) should be used for this purpose,

but it should be upgraded greatly. It should work in a more

professional way, with a competent staff of full-time standards

engineers. This association should concentrate on the production

of norms; it is a giant job if the backlog is to be overcome in

a reasonable time. This staff should do the drafts, leaving

discussion and approval to the committee members. It needs

funding from government, as associates' fees will never reach

the needed level. — To offer the basic standards capabilities, including calibration

of instruments. We have the INPM (Instituto Nacional de Peros e Medidas) but it needs to be greatly upgraded. — To offer certification of compliance service. This should

include a certification office (federal) and a network of testing

laboratories. These laboratories can be either private or

official. Some of the existing laboratories can be used if

upgraded in some special areas ; some new specialized laboratories

will have to be created.

It looks to me that it is important to have a system approach to the

problem; it is important also that the coordinator of the system be a high

federal officer (just one rank below a ministry), so that he can assure the

needed leadership, also the use of the system by government itself which

is a large consumer. The system should be funded mainly in two ways:

federal government money and revenues of certification services.

Zawdu Felleke - Ethiopia:

There is no doubt in my mind jas well as in the minds of those

305
organizations whom I represent in this Seminar that the developing countries

do have major and very significant needs for NBS/AID action programs

concerning standardization and metrology.

Emmanuel Lartey - Ghana:

Yes.

J. Joaquin Bayer S. - ICAITI , Guatemala:

It is a pleasure to answer questions presented about the Industrialization Seminar, including some additional ideas which I think are important

for the Central American area.

A well planned program between NBS/AID and the less developed countries

should be of a great value for such countries because of their need for

much technological and financial assistance in their several programs in

standardization, quality control, metrology and research.

A. N. Ghosh - India:

I will speak in favor of help for standardization directly and for

metrology indirectly:

(i) For establishment of standards-engineers training institute

currently under consideration by UN/UNIDO/UNDP. This will be

needed in case UN project fails to materialize.

(ii) For calibration services for engineering measurement hardware

like gauges, etc. A large number of centers for servicing the

industry will be urgently needed. (On this subject I shall write

to you in detail after I have consulted the NPL and Director of

Weights and Measures at home.)

Pradeep K. Rohatgi - India:

Yes, very much.

H. K. Work - Iran:

Yes, include National Technical Information Service for elemental

technology.

Inyong Ham - Korea:

Yes.

Mahmoud Salama - League of Arab States

Needless to say, yes. Member countries of the Arab Organization for

Standardization (January 1971) are Jordan, Sudan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria,

Libya, United Arab Republic, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, AB Dhabi.

Mervyn C. Probine - New Zealand:

Undoubtedly there is such a need. Countries within my own experience

which could benefit greatly are Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines.

This is not meant to exclude other countries —but in the countries

mentioned the need is very great. Malaysia could also benefit from help,

but the need is less pressing.

I believe that in order to help a country adequately one must understand the social environment in which aid recommendations will be

306
implemented. For example, Indonesia and the Philippines have very poorly

organized government services. Helping them, it seems to me, is a very

different problem from helping a country like Singapore which has a good

civil service and where the government can exercise a high degree of social

discipline

.

Metrology services are a means to an end—not an end in themselves.

The services one organizes should be designed to meet a real need in the

country. I seem to be speaking as an expert, but my total experience in

this field is a three-week tour of Southeast Asia. This helps put what I have said in perspective.

Susana Le Roux C. - Peru:

Yes, there is a major need for an NBS/AID program with the less

developed countries.

Phi Minh Tarn - Vietnam:

Yes. The programs through which NBS/AID can channel technical

assistance to developing countries need be developed or strengthened. I believe that the transfer of technology can be best achieved with the

establishment and sound operation of national standards bodies.

Ismael Escobar - Inter-American Bank:

Yes.

Derek Love joy - United Nations Development Program:

Yes ; see details under question 2

.

Edward U. Condon - UNIDO:

Yes, unquestionably. The needs are so great that all possible should

be done. I would strongly urge that such a program be carried out in close

coordination with UNIDO, UNESCO, or other appropriate UN agency. This is

important not only because the UN is good in itself, but it is also symbolic

and our presence or absence is noted by all. At UNIDO I learned that Moscow

runs a special school for training people through UNIDO channels in the

field of industry information sources. My comment does not preclude USA

having a direct program of its own but this ought not to be done at the

price of neglecting UN cooperation.

I am keenly interested in furthering the kind of activity represented

by the Seminar and would be willing to devote some time to assisting

further developments along this line.

Question 2 . What type of program would you consider of high priority for

the country (or countries) of principal interest to you such

as

(a) training technical specialists from the developing

countries

;

(b) indoctrinating managers, planners, and financial people

responsible for developing the standards infrastructure;

(c) assisting in surveys of potential benefits from standards

programs in developing countries;

(d) responding to requests for follow-on technical assistance,

including possible participation in adaptive or

307
operational research to identify and prove out locally

suitable methods?

Geraldo N. S. Maia - Brazil:

Training programs would be very important; I believe that the order of

priority is:

(a) indoctrination of managers, planners and financial people

(official and private) that should have interest or responsibility

for standards infrastructure.

(b) training technical specialists for production of norms, performance of tests, maintenance of standards and calibration of

instruments

.

Zawdu Felleke - Ethiopia:

The following are priority areas of interest to me and to other less

developed countries of the African region requiring urgent technical

assistance programs:

(a) training of standards engineers, scientists and local technical

staff engaged in metrology work, in particular, in legal metrology

activity

(b) assistance in establishing physical requirements for

(i) libraries and office premises,

(ii) testing facilities and physical laboratories, and

(iii) District Control Laboratories and Official Inspectorates

for legal metrology work

(c) responding to requests concerning the follow-up of technical

assistance, including active participation in operational research

to identify and prove out locally suitable methods.

Emmanuel Lartey - Ghana:

Specific projects in (a) and (d); omit (b) and (c):

(i) Metrology:

NBS to assist the Institute of Standards and Industrial Research

in establishing an "Instrument Calibration Unit" for Ghana.

(ii) Industrial Research:

NBS to assist above Institute by providing technologists in

the fields of metallurgical engineering, ceramics and petrochemical

engineering.

(iii) Standardization:

NBS to assist the National Standards Board of Ghana by providing

technologists for quality control on leather and rubber.

J. Joaquin Bayer S. - ICAITI, Guatemala:

Priorities for the developing countries:

(i) training technical specialists for the developing countries in

such fields as: standardization, metrology, quality control and

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research

,

(ii) promotion of these services in each one of the countries,

indoctrinating managers, planners, and financial people responsible

for developing the standards and metrology infrastructure,

(iii) assistance in surveys of potential benefits from standards

programs in the developing countries,

(iv) setting up a metrology laboratory for the Central American region,

for verification and calibration of weights, volumes, and measuring instruments used by technical and research entities, commerce

and industry,

(v) to find sources of financing to maintain the organization for

elaboration of standards, as well as the metrology and quality

control laboratories, and

(vi) responding to requests for follow-on technical assistance,

including possible participation in adaptive or operational

research to identify and prove out locally suitable methods.

A. N. Ghosh - India:

(a) top priority.

(b) low priority to India, but higher for developing countries of

ECAFE

.

(c) need to convince top policy makers about need for support for

standards activity and industry establishment of NBS.

(d) I would suggest fruitful exchange not only of trainees from

developing countries (including India) to USA (NBS or elsewhere

in companies having strong standards activity), but also of

experts from India to USA and vice versa on a mutual basis.

Pradeep K. Rohatgi - India:

To question 2, I would assign priority to help in setting up instrument

manufacturing companies in developing countries; after that to:

(b) managers, students

(a) technical specialists

(d) follow-on assistance

(c) benefit surveys.

In addition to direct help as listed above, I feel the NBS/AID programs

can help greatly in overcoming the psychological barriers and in increasing

awareness of metrology and standardization. The help of NBS/AID in

demonstrating the catastrophic effects of lack of standardization—such as

failure of bridges or the burning of houses because the couplings did not

match, or in showing the economic benefits of standardization, would have

a big impact. NBS/AID should earmark help to universities specifically for

setting up standardization and metrology laboratories, developing courses

in these areas, and developing cheap textbooks in these areas. The children,

the students and the managers of industry should be exposed to the importance

of precision, standardization and quality control.

309
H. K. Work - Iran:

(a) technical specialists

(c) informal ratings of progress

Inyong Ham - Korea:

Depends upon specific needs; for Korea, (a) and (d).

Mahmoud Salama - League of Arab States:

For the members of ASMO, (a), (c), and (d).

Mervyn C. Probine - New Zealand:

(a) I believe that the best help is "on the spot" help over an

extended period. The kind of aid where the donor "sticks $100,000 under

the door and goes fishing" is not very useful. Nor is the occasional

flying visit of a technical expert. The long term effort in Thailand

leading to the setting up of the Applied Scientific Research Corporation of

Thailand in Bangkok is an example of the best type of aid. The organization

can evolve slowly with the needs of the country; people who will ultimately

take over can be adequately trained and the experts can guide the program

with a good knowledge of what is really needed.

The Instrument Repair and Calibration Centers set up in a number of

countries are playing a valuable role in the field covered by this Seminar;

and NBS/AID could do a lot worse than strengthen these existing centers.

Strengthening these centers might involve:

(i) Making available suitable equipment.

(ii) Training staff in procedures and use of this equipment. This

would include training people in bench skills such as instrument

making, glass blowing, tool making, etc., as well as in measurement .

(iii) Key staff might be brought to NBS for special training—care

must be taken, however, to ensure that such people do not spend

long periods in the USA—so that they do not become dissatisfied

with life in their own countries.

Some institutions (for example, in Indonesia) have completely inadequate

funds available for "maintenance." In one institution in Indonesia with a

staff of 25 people, the funds available for maintenance amount to only

$100 USA per year. In these circumstances it is impossible to meet the

cost of transporting instruments to foreign countries for recalibration--even

if the recalibration is carried out by the foreign laboratory free of

charge. In these circumstances the full cost of recalibration, from laboratory back to laboratory, may have to be met from US/AID funds.

Very few laboratories in Asia engaged in calibration work are adequately housed, in the sense of having adequate temperature and humidity control,

vibration-free mountings, dust -free atmosphere, good electrical supply,

etc. Some assistance with the provision of suitable housing for this type

of activity could be very useful.

(b) The various countries I have visited have widely different problems —but one thing which they seem to lack in common is good scientific

management (obviously there are some institutions which are an exception).

I believe therefore that a useful job can be done in giving some training

to senior scientists, engaged in administration, in the principles of

310
administration. The principles on which such people should be selected

might include:

(i) Very careful selection of the person to be trained based on

personal knowledge of his personality and ability--not selection

because of his administrative position.

(ii) Although it might appear to be inconsistent with (i) above, one

should as far as is possible select people next in line for

the top job —subject to fulfilling the requirements of personality

and ability.

By training in administration I do not suggest a very advanced

course such as one might receive at the Harvard Business School;

but simple training in management, communication, organization,

planning and control, financial control, etc. The principle

behind this suggestion is that it is better to train people to

manage their own affairs than to do the job for them.

(c) Assisting in surveys of facilities would be useful in revealing

gaps in coverage. Surveys of potential benefits would be more difficult

I am personally uncertain about the benefit of such surveys unless they are

done by people who really understand the country.

(d) Follow-on technical assistance is absolutely vital. I believe

I made this clear in the answer to question 1. I do not know what the

second part of (d) means —but if it covers the type of thing suggested by

Dr. Tabor (see Paper 3.3) I agree.

Susana Le Roux C. - Peru:

First priority should be (d) : Responding to request for following-on

technical assistance, including possible participation in adaptive or

operational research to identify and prove out locally suitable methods.

Nevertheless, the programs, (c), (b), (a) in that order, are very important

too and would be of great interest.

Phi Minh Tarn - Vietnam:

For Vietnam, the program should involve all the points mentioned in

this order: (b), (c), (a), and (d).

Ismael Escobar - Inter-American Bank:

For Latin America, I suggest the order (b), (a), (d), (c).

Derek Love joy - United Nations Development Program:

I believe that NBS could be of assistance in the following areas:

(i) Telephoned inquiries on specific technical problems,

(ii) Providing consultants for missions of 2 or 3 weeks duration in

connection with project appraisal, design, and evaluation,

(iii) Working through the UN technical agencies which execute projects,

in provision of experts for missions of 1 month to 2 years, and

placing of trainees at NBS,

(iv) Possibly, in conjunction with UN technical agencies, arranging

seminars, or speakers for seminars.

Programs 2(b), 2(c), and 2(d) may be of interest particularly in more

311

452-533 O - 72 - 21
sophisticated countries, and might at the present time more easily be funded

through USAID than through UNDP.

By way of explanation on these comments, my responsibilities at UNDP

cover project request appraisal, project design, and subsequent project

evaluation (to the extent which somewhat limited resources makes possible)

in the broad field of assistance to institutions in the physical and

engineering fields. These activities are carried out in collaboration with

the requesting governments and the relevant UN technical agencies (UNIDO,

UNESCO, etc.) and in many cases with outside consultants.

Specifically, and related to NBS interests, I have covered in the last

four years some 50 projects on requests in 30 countries involving:

(i) Standards testing

(ii) Metrology centers

(iii) Industrial research institutes

(iv) Instrument repair, design, and calibration centers

(v) Textile technology institutes

(vi) Metalworking industry institutes

(vii) Building materials institutes

(viii) High voltage testing facilities, and in addition another 50 or

so projects in a variety of scientific and technological fields including

air and water pollution, desalination, and computer applications.

Edward U. Condon - UNIDO:

All of the things listed under 2 are being undertaken by UNIDO with

inadequate resources. I would like to see the NBS/AID program start by

working with UNIDO, especially the part headed by Dr. Joseph Stepanek,

who is already quite aware of specific needs. My personal interest runs

more to (a) and (d). I think (c) is not needed, in the sense that the

benefits are so clear that further study of benefits is not essential; the

job is to go at once to the actual development of a standards infrastructure.

As to (a) I think the training should be done largely by developing

regional training institutes instead of bringing the trainees here to

America. The advanced trainees who are already professionally placed

could be brought to America, but the initial trainees should get their

training nearer home. With regard to (d) we want to make sure that the

technical assistance is given with regard to appropriate technologies,

rather than merely trying to spread American practice which is not always

appropriate to the conditions in LDC's.

There are great opportunities available to us to assist in the founding

of a world chain of standards and metrology training institutes by proper

utilization of surplus military property overseas, both as real property in

bases whose military use is being discontinued, but also in the vast

amount of machine tools and electronic servicing equipment which is overseas, and which it will not be worthwhile to ship back home. These bases

also have medical equipment which could be of great value for training

schools in health techniques. I would suppose that the Department of

Defense would welcome arrangements for effective AID use of these properties

when they no longer have a military role to play. It ought to be possible

for these to be turned over by DOD to AID or IDI for use in technical aid

programs of the kind here being discussed.

Question 3. What kinds of persons should be involved in training, exchange,

demonstration or working visits to NBS - scientists, technologists, technicians, entrepreneurs, business men, economists,

government leaders, or financiers?

312
Geraldo N. S. Maia - Brazil:

I believe that the only program of visits to NBS that would be of use

is for managers, planners and financial people.

Zawdu Felleke - Ethiopia:

As far as training and exchange of staff are concerned, the following

are suggested to serve as guidelines:

(a) Providing or making available NBS scientists and experts as

advisors in the standardization and metrology work and efforts

of the developing countries.

(b) Providing exchange programs between NBS scientists and those in

the developing countries engaged in standardization and metrology

work.

(c) Providing fellowships to technologists and technicians of

developing countries engaged in standardization and metrology

activities

.

Emmanuel Lartey - Ghana:

Technologists, scientists, technicians, economists.

J. Joaquin Bayer S. - ICAITI, Guatemala:

The persons involved in the program should be scientists, technologists,

technicians and government leaders, preferably with a background in

engineering, chemistry or physics.

A. N. Ghosh - India:

Scientists and engineers engaged in weights and measures departments

of NBS or states. Sometimes government leaders from developing countries

for short term indoctrination to U.S.

Pradeep K. Rohatgi - India:

Involve technologists, entrepreneurs, business men, government leaders,

technology educators. The U.S. Department of Commerce should set up U.S.

patent libraries (containing listing of U.S. patents, with a few examples

of actual patents) at the universities to stimulate students to innovate.

Patents, more than technical papers, contain innovations and the awareness

of innovation in the form of patents is greatly lacking among engineering

students in developing countries.

H. K. Work - Iran:

Scientists and technologists.

Inyong Ham - Korea:

All of them would be benefited, depending upon the needs, status of

development, etc. in the country. For Korea, NBS made a specific recommendation in regard to ROK National Standard Institute in 1968. (See the 1970

report submitted by Mr. Peiser.) This item will be one of the agenda of

the meeting between Secretary of Commerce (USA) and Minister of Commerce

and Industry (ROK) at the end of February in Washington, D. C.

Mahmoud Salama - League of Arab States:

Scientists, technologists, technicians, government leaders.

313
Mervyn C. Probine - New Zealand:

Without wishing to appear rude, I think that the USA labors under

something of a disadvantage in assisting less developed countries. While

the financial and technological resources of this country are superb, its

technological virtuosity may blind it to the simpler requirements of many

of the very underdeveloped countries. In selecting people to help in

this area, it is therefore extremely important to use those people who

well and truly have their feet on the ground.

Without wishing to give the impression of believing I know it all—

I

would like to suggest that the principle be KEEP IT SIMPLE! With this in

mind I believe that technologists and technicians can play a valuable role

at least in the initial stages of development. Later, as the country

develops, much more sophisticated help can be given by a very wide variety

of people--such as was given by the Battelle Memorial Institute to the

Korean Institute of Science and Technology. Incidentally the sister

institute arrangement which was adopted in this latter case could be a

useful pattern for NBS to follow.

Susana Le Roux C. - Peru:

Technologists, scientists, technicians and government leaders

primarily, but I think that you could also organize visits for people in

different groups.

Phi Minh Tarn - Vietnam:

It is difficult to specify special persons for training because all

are involved in the working of standards. However, a choice can probably

be made in this order: government leaders, scientists, and technicians.

I mention government leaders in the first instance because they have to

be convinced of the benefits of standardization; they have to make the

decisions before any standardization programs can be implemented successfully.

Ismael Escobar - Inter-American Bank

Top scientists and engineers.

Edward U. Condon - UNIDO:

I would suppose NBS would pretty much confine itself to working with

scientists, technologists, and technicians although the total UN and USA

programs need to cover the latter categories in the list.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

314
APPENDIX 3

THE ETHIOPIAN STANDARDS INSTITUTION (ESI):

ITS TASKS AND AREAS FOR TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

Zawdu Felleke

Acting General Manager ESI

Addis Ababa

1 . Introduction

Industrial development is a very recent factor in Ethiopia's national economy but is

rapidly increasing in importance. While industry represents only a small percentage of

the gross domestic product, it is growing at the rate of 13 percent per annum and is one of the fastest developing sectors of the country's economy. Moreover, Ethiopia's foreign

trade — exports and imports — also constitute an important activity in order to meet

foreign exchange requirements and, consequently, properly steer the development programs

of the country. The need for the development of a centralized system of standards is

therefore clearly apparent. The existence of standards governing the different

commodities and services produced and transacted in the country would be of prime

importance to promote production as well as domestic and foreign trade. Hence, the

preliminary discussion in this direction was held in 1963 and the first attempt to

prepare the legal basis for standardization in Ethiopia was made in 1964. It was not,

however, until 14 July of 1970 that the Draft Order which provides for the establishment

of the ESI was adopted by the Council of Ministers. Finally, upon approval by His

Imperial Majesty, the Order was published in the Negarit Gazeta on 29 September of 1970.

Thus, the legal basis which provides for the establishment of the ESI has been created.

Besides its basic function of preparing and publishing compulsory as well as optional

standards relating to practices , processes , materials , products , and commodities ; and

of enforcing the same, the ESI has also other important functions such as promoting

standardization and quality control in the Empire, developing and implementing the

Standards Mark, and establishing cooperation with other national, regional, and international standards bodies.

2. Present Activities

Standards Activities

The following are the different documents which have been prepared by the ESI

Secretariat and discussed and approved to date by the Standards Board, which is the

governing organ of the Institution:

(i) Paper on "Basic Concepts of Standardization, Its Aims,

Benefits and Recent Developments"

(ii) Rules of Procedure Concerning the Work of the Standards Board

(iii) Duties and Functions of the ESI and Its Organizational Set-up

(iv) Rules on the Working Procedure of the ESI in Preparing and

Publishing Ethiopian Standards (ES)

(v) Rules on the Establishment and Working Procedure of Technical Committees (TC)

(vi) Guide for the Presentation and Formulation of ES

(vii) Rules on System of Classifying and Numbering ES.

315
The ESI Secretariat has also prepared and submitted for approval of the Standards

Board the following Draft Regulations and other documents:

(viii) Ethiopian Standards Publication Regulations

(ix) Standards Mark Regulations

(x) Principal Working Fields and General Programme of Work

(xi) Programme of Work 1970/71

(xii) Administrative Manual.

Moreover, the first set of standard proposals have been prepared in the three

priority fields of basic standards , agriculture , and building materials . These standard

proposals will be shortly submitted for discussion by the relevant Technical Committees.

3. Metrological Activities

By a Proclamation enacted in 19 6 3 , the metric system of weights and measures was officially introduced in Ethiopia. In 1967, particular Regulations, which provide for the

inspection, calibration, verification, and certification of weights, measures, and

measuring instruments by the Inspectorate of Weights and Measures created pursuant to said

Proclamation of 1963, were promulgated. However, the term "metric" does not unequivocally

reflect the relevant units which should belong to the system. It is therefore necessary

to prepare a series of Ethiopian Standards based on relevant ISO Recommendations concerning quantities and units of measure. Consequently, the Imperial Ethiopian Government has

already made the decision to transfer the activities of the Inspectorate of Weights and

Measures to the Ethiopian Standards Institution in order to combine activities concerning

standardization and metrology under the ESI.

4-. Future Plans

The immediate future plans of the ESI in the field of standardization are as follows

(i) to prepare and develop standards in other industrial branches

such as mechanical, civil, and electrotechnical engineering,

chemistry, and textiles, as well as those concerning safety

to be embodied in codes of practice

,

(ii) to implement the Standards Mark and certify products,

materials , and commodities which conform to valid

Ethiopian Standards

,

(iii) to establish a more active cooperation with the ISO and

IEC in fields which are relevant to the country's

economic needs.

Immediate plans as regards metrology are:

(i) in the field of legal metrology, to strengthen the central

office of the Inspectorate of Weights and Measures and

gradually expand its activities concerning inspection,

verification, and calibration of weights, measures, and

measuring instruments to other regions of the country,

outside of Addis Ababa and Asmara,

(ii) to set up a Physical Laboratory and other District

Control Laboratories for metrology.

316
5. Areas for Technical Assistance

Since Ethiopia, like other developing countries, is faced with limited available

resources and technical personnel, foreign technical assistance in metrology and

standardization work is urgently required. In order to properly operate the new ESI

all the essential physical requirements must be provided right from the initial stages.

Without going into any extended details , the requirements essential for the ESI in its

standardization work consist of:

(i) training of local technical staff engaged in standardization work

(ii) establishment of materials testing facilities

(iii) assistance in constructing office premises for the ESI.

The following are particular areas in which urgent foreign technical assistance is

required by the ESI in its efforts concerning metrology work:

(i) provision of an expert in weights and measures

(ii) training of local technical staff engaged in inspection,

verification, and calibration of weights, measures, and

measuring instruments in the Empire

(iii) provision of reference and working standard instruments

and the establishment of a National Physical Laboratory

(iv) assistance in establishing District Control Laboratories

for Metrology and Inspectorate Offices.

6. Conclusions

In order to further promote industrial development, which is already rapidly

increasing in Ethiopia, the importance of introducing standardization and quality control

in the country has been fully recognized. Consequently, ESI has been established as an

autonomous and the only official standardizing body in the Empire. The Institution is

charged with the task of preparing, publishing, and implementing Ethiopian Standards

relating to practices , processes , materials , products , and commodities in the field of commerce and industry. Activities concerning weights and measures have also been transferred to the ESI and , thus , the responsibilities and tasks of the Institution have been

expanded to include metrological work. Faced with limited available resources and

technical personnel, the ESI has an urgent need for foreign technical assistance in order

to enable the proper and efficient execution of its tasks concerning metrology and

standardization

.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

317

APPENDIX 4

UNESCO QUESTIONNAIRE ON THE FACILITIES FOR BASIC PHYSICAL STANDARDS

OF WEIGHTS AND MEASUREMENT (METROLOGY) IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

Introduction

Dr. M. C. Probine, Director of the Physics and Engineering Laboratory

of New Zealand's Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, prepared

a questionnaire on the "Facilities for Basic Physical Standards of Weights

and Measures (Metrology)" in connection with a survey he made for UNESCO

on such facilities in the following South East Asian countries: Indonesia,

Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. He

also completed the questionnaire for New Zealand, as an example supplied for

initial guidance to the countries concerned. The full and most useful

information which he received from countries of the South East Asia region

was obtained because of the example which Dr. Probine had himself worked

out so carefully.

The questionnaire with the New Zealand responses is here reproduced

by very generous permission of Dr. Probine. Similar metrological surveys

in other regions may be judged desirable and could be patterned on Dr.

Probine 's UNESCO questionnaire. (For some further comments by Dr. Probine,

see discussion on Session 4.)

The Questionnaire as Completed for New Zealand

Country: New Zealand Date: 14 May 7 0

Completed by: Dr. M. C. Probine

1. NATIONAL STANDARDS OF MEASUREMENT

1.1 DOES THE COUNTRY HAVE A WEIGHTS S MEASURES ACT (OR, ANY OTHER ACT)

WHICH ASSIGNS TO ANY INDIVIDUAL, OR BODY, RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE

CUSTODY, MAINTENANCE, AND DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONAL STANDARDS OF

MEASUREMENT, AND FOR THE PROVISION OF MEANS AND METHODS, OF MAKING

MEASUREMENTS CONSISTENT WITH THOSE STANDARDS?

New Zealand's principal Weights and Measures Act dates back to

1925, and bears a fairly close resemblance of that of Great Britain;

indeed some of the Sections were lifted from the Weights and Measures

Act 1878 (Imperial). Other Sections in the 1925 Act had their counterparts in the legislation of New South Wales and South Africa.

By Section 6 of the 19 2 5 Act, the principle standard measures

were regarded as being in the custody of the Minister of Labour. By

a 19 3 3 Amendment, the Minister in charge of the Department of Scientific

and Industrial Research was to procure copies of the Imperial Standard

Pound and Yard, and, on a date to be fixed by him by notice in the

Gazette, these copies were to become standard weights and measures in

New Zealand. Section 6 of the 19 2 5 Act was then deemed to be repealed.

The Scientific and Industrial Research Amendment Act, 1945,

consolidated the situation so far as National Standards were concerned

and the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research was charged

with the following functions, namely:

(a) to maintain all principal standard measures for the time

being in the custody of the Minister;

319
(b) to compare principal standard measures with corresponding

standard measures outside New Zealand by such methods and at

such intervals as may from time to time be prescribed by any

Act or Regulations or (subject to any such Act or Regulations

so far as they do not extend) as may be directed or approved

by the Minister;

(c) to compare with principal standard measures, and to certify,

such copies thereof and such secondary standard measures or

denominations derived therefrom as may from time to time be

required.

Power was given to make regulations for all or any of the following

purposes

(a) Describing methods of comparison and certification of copies

of the principal standard measures and of standard measures

derived from principal standard measures;

(b) Prescribing the nature, form, and derivation of New Zealand

standards of measurement, not being standards which are

prescribed by or under any other Act or which there is power

to prescribe under any other Act.

To summarize, therefore, the responsibility for administering

Weights and Measures Legislation as it relates to "Weights and Measures"

used in Trade is placed with the Department of Labour. The responsibility for "National- Standards of Measurement" is placed with the

Minister in Charge of the Department of Scientific and Industrial

Research. In practice, the Physical Standards for New Zealand are

maintained by the Physics and Engineering Laboratory of the Department

of Scientific and Industrial Research.

1.2 IF THERE IS SUCH AN ACT, FROM WHICH YEAR DOES IT DATE, AND IN

WHICH YEAR WAS THE LAST REVISION?

See above - 1.1

1.3 ARE THERE ADEQUATE FACILITIES FOR MAINTAINING AND DEVELOPING THE

NATIONAL STANDARDS OF MEASUREMENT, AND FOR CARRYING OUT PRECISION

MEASUREMENT AND CALIBRATION, TO MEET THE NEEDS OF THE COUNTRY IN

THE FOLLOWING AREAS:

1.3.1 SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION?

1.3.2 ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING?

1.3.3 COMMERCE AND TRADE?

1.3.4 EDUCATION?

In general, the answer to all of these sections is "Yes." Our

capability in the field of physical standards and associated calibration

fields is continually under review, and, as a general policy, we try to

stay ahead of the measurement and calibration needs of the country in

all fields. New Zealand is a small country (population 2,800,000) and

there is therefore a limit to the resources which can be allocated to

this, and, indeed, to any other field of science. So far, however, we

have been able to meet the needs of the country; but because N.Z.

is developing its industrial capability very rapidly, it is necessary

to be constantly improving our facilities.

There are, however, some special areas in which we are weak; for

example, in the area of Engineering Metrology there are no facilities

for gear measurement. Some improvement in the field of electrical

measurements at radio frequencies is also required.

320
However, New Zealand does not have a well co-ordinated testing

and calibration service in the sense that there is no "Laboratory

Approval Scheme" in this country to ensure that measurements made in

industry are made by qualified staff using recognised procedures, and

"working standards", whose calibration can be traced back to the

national standards. This matter is under review at the present time;

and it is hoped that a scheme similar to the "National Association of

Testing Authorities" in Australia, will be set up shortly in New

Zealand.

1.4 IF THE ANSWER TO ALL, OR ANY, OF THE SUBSECTIONS IN 1.3 IS "NO",

IN WHAT WAY ARE THE FACILITIES CONSIDERED TO BE INADEQUATE?

See above - 1.3

1.5 ARE THERE ANY FIRM PLANS FOR MAKING GOOD DEFICIENCIES WHICH EXIST

AT PRESENT?

See above - 1.3

1.6 PLEASE OUTLINE BRIEFLY HOW EACH OF THE PRINCIPAL STANDARD MEASURES

IN THE FOLLOWING LIST IS DERIVED (I.E., WHETHER DERIVED:

(a) INDEPENDENTLY,

(b) BY REFERENCE TO A HIGHER QUALITY STANDARD AT ANOTHER

NATIONAL LABORATORY: OR AT THE INTERNATIONAL BUREAU OF

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.)

1.6.1 LENGTH

1.6.2 MASS

1.6.3 TIME

1.6.4 CURRENT (OR, ELECTROMOTIVE FORCE AND RESISTANCE)

1.6.5 TEMPERATURE

1.6.6 LUMINOUS INTENSITY

1.6.1: Length

Length can be derived independently by interferometry ; but our

interferometer is of rather simple design and further improvement here

is desirable. Present accuracy is one part in one million, or better.

We also have "calibration grade" Slip Gauges which have been calibrated

at the National Physical Laboratory in England.

1.6.2: Mass

The primary standard of Mass is the kilogramme. The Laboratory

holds three austenitic, non-magnetic stainless steel one-kilogramme

weights, the values of which are known to be better than one part in

ten millions. These weights are calibrated periodically at the National

Physical Laboratory in England.

1.6.3: Time

The responsibility for measurement of time lies with the Geophysics

Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

Frequency is, however, maintained by the Physics and Engineering

Laboratory. The maintenance of frequency involves a continuous study

of four precision crystal oscillators which collectively constitute the

N.Z. National Standard. These are continuously intercompared with

overseas standard frequency transmissions by monitoring WWVL, Boulder,

U.S.A., and G.B.R. , Rugby.

The present best measurement capability is 1 to 2 parts in 10 10 .

321
It is hoped to purchase a Caesium Beam Oscillator later this year, and

it is anticipated that the best measurement capability will then be 1

to 2 parts in loll. A Standard Frequency Transmission is made from

ZLFS at P.E.L. at a frequency of 2.5 MHz on one afternoon per week.

1.6.4: Current

Current is not derived independently. Voltage is derived by using

a group of six standard cells calibrated by the National Physical

Laboratory. We believe the accuracy of the volt is + 1 microvolt (but

we claim only ± 3 microvolts). The last intercomparison with N.P.L.

was in 1967.

Resistance is derived by using four 1-ohm standard resistances

which have been calibrated at the National Physical Laboratory. Two

of these are extremely stable having, in past, held their calibration

to 1 part in 1 million for 2 5 years. The accuracy of resistance is

believed to be 1 part in 1 million (but we claim only ± 3 parts in

1 million). Plans are in hand to derive resistance from a Thompson/

Lampard type calculable capacitor.

1.6.5; Temperature

The International Practical Temperature Scale of 19 6 8 can be

derived independently from 0°C to 630.74°C, by the use of platinum

resistance thermometers constructed to conform with the requirements

of IPTS-68, and by using the fixed points and procedures laid down.

Standard platinum resistance thermometers are also calibrated periodically on our behalf by the National Physical Laboratory in England as a

check on our realization of the scale, and to extend our calibration

range from 0°C to -182.962°C (Oxygen point). The scale can also be

derived independently from 630.74°C to 1064. 43°C (Gold point) using

approved thermocouple materials and procedures. Above the Gold point

the scale is maintained using tungsten ribbon filament lamps up to

3000°C calibrated at the National Physical Laboratory, England.

1.6.6: Luminous Intensity

Luminous Intensity is derived from standard tungsten filament lamps

calibrated at the National Physical Laboratory in England. The range

of the standards held at present is from 24 to 1400 candelas, with

accuracies ranging from + 0.25% to ± 1.0%

1.7 WHERE, AND HOW OFTEN, ARE THE PRINCIPAL STANDARD MEASURES INTERCOMPARED INTERNATIONALLY?

See 1.6 - above

COMMERCE AND TRADE

2.1 IS THERE AN ACT (OR ACTS) TO PROVIDE FOR THE REGULATION, ADMINISTRATION, CONTROL AND USE OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES USED IN COMMERCE AND

TRADE?

Yes - see 1.1 above

2.2 ARE THERE LEGAL SANCTIONS TO MAKE THE ACT (OR ACTS), REFERRED TO

IN 2.1, EFFECTIVE?

Yes

2.3 IS THERE AN ORGANISATION OF "WEIGHTS S MEASURES" INSPECTORS TO

ENSURE THAT THE PROVISIONS IN THE ACT ARE ADEQUATELY POLICED?

322
Yes

2.4 ARE THE STANDARD MEASURES USED BY THE "WEIGHTS S MEASURES"

' INSPECTORS REGULARLY OR PERIODICALLY VERIFIED?

Yes

2.5 IS THERE AN APPROVED SYSTEM OF CHECKING THE STANDARD MEASURES, USED

BY WEIGHTS 6 MEASURES INSPECTORS, AGAINST MEASURES OF HIGHER

QUALITY, UP TO THE LEVEL AT WHICH THE HIGHER QUALITY MEASURE IS

THE ACCEPTED NATIONAL STANDARD?

Yes. It is true, however, that intercomparisons between the

National Standards and the working standards has not been carried out

as frequently in the past as is desirable, and this question is

receiving attention at present.

2.6 WHAT IS THE PREVAILING SYSTEM OF WEIGHTS S MEASURES IN THE COUNTRY?

Imperial System

2.7 IF THE METRIC SYSTEM IS NOT YET THE OFFICIAL SYSTEM OF WEIGHTS & MEASURES, WHAT IS THE GOVERNMENT'S PROGRAM AND POLICY FOR INTRODUCING IT AND OVER WHAT PERIOD IS IT TO BE INTRODUCED?

On the 29th February 1969, the Minister of Industries and Commerce

announced that "Government has accepted in principle that New Zealand

will sooner or later adopt the metric system of weights and measures.

Government accepts the necessity of assisting metrication in New

Zealand, and to this end it accepts the recommendation of Officials

that a representative Advisory Board be set up to encourage, assist

and advise on the progressive voluntary adoption within New Zealand

of the metric system. The process of metric change in Britain is being

programmed to be completed by the end of 1975. This will affect New

Zealand progressively and should set the pace of change here."

A Metric Advisory Board has now been set up to co-ordinate the

change and it is envisaged that the change to the metric system will

be largely completed by the end of 1976. 1976 is not a firm inflexible

date and some sectors will convert before this date, while in other

cases the change will be delayed beyond 1976.

3. INSTITUTIONS FOR BASIC METROLOGY AND ASSOCIATED STANDARDIZATION

3.1 NAME OF INSTITUTION (DEPARTMENT, AGENCY, UNIVERSITY, OR RESEARCH

INSTITUTE) FOR WHICH THIS QUESTIONNAIRE IS COMPLETED?

Physics and Engineering Laboratory (P.E.L.)

3.2 ADDRESS ( INCLUDING CABLE ADDRESS)?

Private Bag,

Lower Hutt

,

New Zealand.

3.3 DATE OF FOUNDING?

1939

3.4 DIRECTOR OF INSTITUTION (ACADEMIC DEGREES, MEMBERSHIP IN SOCIETIES,

ETC. )?

Mervyn C. Probine, M.Sc.CN.Z.); Ph.D. (Leeds) ; F.R.S.N.Z.; F.Inst. P.

( London

)

323
3.5 OTHER TITLES AND FUNCTIONS OF DIRECTOR?

No other formal functions.

3.6 IS THE INSTITUTION THE CENTRAL INSTITUTE FOR METROLOGY AND

ASSOCIATED STANDARDIZATION IN THE COUNTRY?

Yes

3.7 PRIMARY AIM, OBJECTIVE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE INSTITUTION (PREFERABLY

QUOTED FROM ITS CHARTER OR INFORMATION BROCHURE) AS FAR AS

STANDARDIZATION ACTIVITIES ARE CONCERNED?

The Laboratory's functions include :-

Basic and applied research in physics and engineering; the

statutory function of maintaining national standards of physical

quantities such as length, mass, temperature, light, electrical

quantities, frequency, etc.; provision of a calibration service for a wide range of physical measuring equipment; introduction and development

for new technology suited to New Zealand's requirements and promotion

of its effective use in industry; industrial development using the

Laboratory's resources of staff and equipment; and maintenance of a

workshop giving industry access to specialised machine tools and new

machining techniques.

3.8 IS THE INSTITUTION:

(a) A DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT? (IF "YES", WHAT IS THE NAME OF

THE DEPARTMENT?)

(b) AUTONOMOUS AND SUPPORTED BY THE GOVERNMENT?

(c) AUTONOMOUS AND NOT SUPPORTED BY THE GOVERNMENT?

A department of Government. Department of Scientific and

Industrial Research (D.S.I.R.).

3.9 WHAT IS THE TOTAL ANNUAL BUDGET OF THE INSTITUTION?

$NZ 819,000 (Year Ended 31st March 1969)

3.10 WHAT IS THE ANNUAL BUDGET FOR BASIC METROLOGY AND ASSOCIATED

STANDARDIZATION ACTIVITIES?

$NZ 104,000

3.11 WHAT IS THE NUMBER OF STAFF EMPLOYED IN THE FIELD OF BASIC METROLOGY AND ON PRECISION MEASUREMENT AND CALIBRATION?

PROFESSIONAL STAFF 6

TECHNICIANS (SUB-PROFESSIONALS) 11

OFFICE WORK* 3

OTHERS* 3

TOTAL 2 3

* It is difficult to specify "others", as the Standards staff

share workshop, library, stores and general administration with other

laboratory groups. The number of Professionals and Technicians listed

324
is the number employed full-time on "standards" work. Those listed

under "office" and "other" are "notional" staff on standards work;

i.e. a proportion of the clerical and other staff allocated from total

staff on a pro rata basis.

MANAGEMENT, STAFF AND TRAINING

4.1 IS THERE ANY FORM OF TRAINING SCHEME FOR TECHNICAL STAFF?

Technical staff are, in general, recruited as Technical Trainees

in the fields of physics and of mechanical engineering. They are

regarded as supernumeraries for two years. During this time their

practical on- job training is done by a planned system of job-rotation

around different sections of the laboratory and, in their second year,

around other relevant divisions of D.S.I.R. in the Wellington area.

Concurrent off-job training is provided by attendance at

Polytechnic classes for study leading eventually to a N.Z. certificate

in Science or in Engineering. Study leave on full pay up to 8 hours

per week plus reasonable travelling time is granted.

The annual intake of Technical Trainees is 5 , making 10 under

training at any given time during the two year training period. The

majority of technicians produced by this scheme remain at P.E.L.,

but some end up as physics technicians in other divisions of D.S.I.R.

which are primarily concerned with biology or chemistry.

4.2 IS THE ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE LABORATORY DEFINED AND

KNOWN TO ALL CONCERNED (I.E., CHAIN OF COMMAND, AND AREA AND LEVEL

OF RESPONSIBILITY)?

Yes

4.3 ARE THERE WRITTEN CALIBRATION PROCEDURES FOR EACH TYPE OF INSTRUMENT

TO BE CALIBRATED, AND ARE THEY USED REGULARLY?

No

4.4 ARE COMPLETE CALIBRATION RECORDS KEPT IN A RETRIEVABLE MANNER ON

ALL INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE CALIBRATED?

Yes

4.5 ARE THERE COMPLETE CALIBRATION RECORDS FOR THE LABORATORIES'

OWN CALIBRATION EQUIPMENT, AND IS THE STATE OF CALIBRATION OF

SUCH EQUIPMENT REGULARLY REVIEWED?

Yes

4.6 ARE ALL WORKING STANDARDS AND MEASURING EQUIPMENT RECALIBRATED

AT SPECIFIED INTERVALS IN TERMS OF STANDARDS TRACEABLE TO THE

PRINCIPAL STANDARD MEASURES (NATIONAL STANDARDS)?

Yes

4.7 WHAT ACCURACY RATIO IS MAINTAINED BETWEEN THE CLIENT'S INSTRUMENT

AND THE STANDARD USED FOR CALIBRATING THE CUSTOMER'S INSTRUMENT?

1:4

4.8 DOES THE LABORATORY PROVIDE FOR MAINTENANCE AND/OR REPAIR SERVICES

IN CONJUNCTION WITH ITS CALIBRATION EFFORT?

325
The Laboratory is very well equipped in every way to maintain and

repair instruments ; but as a matter of policy we do not do repairs

on instruments sent in for calibration.

4.9 ARE THERE FACILITIES IN THE COUNTRY FOR TRAINING FELLOWS FROM

ABROAD? IF "YES", WHERE ARE THEY LOCATED?

We are happy to train a limited number of people at the Physics

and Engineering Laboratory, providing they work on problems in which

we have the necessary skill and interest.

4.10 TO WHICH COUNTRIES AND INSTITUTIONS ABROAD ARE FELLOWS SENT FOR

SPECIALISED TRAINING IN PRECISION MEASUREMENT AND CALIBRATION

TECHNIQUES?

National Physical Laboratory, England.

National Standards Laboratory, Australia.

We also hope to send people to the National Bureau of Standards

,

U.S.A., in the future.

ENVIRONMENT

To assist people answer this section we have set out a number of

requirements which we feel are "desirable" for "environmental control"

of a standards laboratory. If these can be met it is merely necessary

to answer "Yes." If the answer is "No", it would be useful to have

an indication of how the control falls short of what is "desirable."

(A lower level of environmental control may be satisfactory for some

work; but the requirements below should, we feel, be what is aimed at.)

Temperature Control

5.1 TEMPERATURE CONTROL OF GENERAL LABORATORY AREA

20°C ± 1°C? YES NO

5.2 MAXIMUM RATES OF CHANGE OF TEMPERATURE LESS

THAN 2°C PER HOUR? YES NO

5.3 TEMPERATURE OF LABORATORY SPACE CONTINUOUSLY

RECORDED? YES NO

5.4 LABORATORY SPACE FREE FROM STAGNANT AIR

POCKETS AND "HOT" OR "COLD" SPOTS? YES NO

Humidity

5.5 RELATIVE

35% TO 65%

HUMIDITY WITHIN THE LIMITS OF

YES NO

Vibration

5.6 IS THE LEVEL OF VIBRATION AND SHOCK SUCH THAT

IT IS NOT LIKELY TO BE DETRIMENTAL TO THE

OPERATION OF SENSITIVE INSTRUMENTS? YES NO

Acoustic Noise Level

5.7 IS THE ACOUSTIC NOISE LEVEL IN THE LABORATORY

HIGHER THAN THAT OF A QUIET OFFICE? YES NO

326
Dust

5.8 IS A HIGH DEGREE OF LOCAL CLEANLINESS

MAINTAINED BY MEANS OF REGULARLY SERVICED AIR

FILTERS, GOOD ACCESS CONTROL, AND GOOD

HOUSEKEEPING? YES NO

Electrical Measurement Requirements

5.9 ARE MEANS OF MEASURING WAVEFORM DISTORTION

AVAILABLE? YES NO

5.10 WHERE PURITY OF WAVEFORM IS IMPORTANT, IS

POWER SUPPLY DERIVED FROM AN OSCILLATOR AND

AMPLIFIER SUITABLY SCREENED TO ELIMINATE MAINS

INTERFERENCE? YES NO

5.11 ARE VOLTAGE STABILIZERS AVAILABLE WHERE

NECESSARY? YES NO

5.12 IS AN EFFECTIVE MAINS EARTHING SYSTEM

AVAILABLE? YES NO

5.13 ARE PRECAUTIONS TAKEN TO GUARD AGAINST THE

PRESENCE OF UNWANTED MAGNETIC FIELDS FROM

TRANSFORMERS, WIRING, ETC.? YES NO

Lighting

5.14 IS THE MINIMUM ILLUMINATION AT LEAST

100 LUMENS/ SQ.FT. IN THE WORKING PLANE

(EXCEPT WHERE A LOWER LEVEL OF LIGHTING

IS REQUIRED FOR READING ILLUMINATED SCALES)? YES NO

( 50 —

lumens/

sq. ft .

)

CALIBRATION FACILITIES

In this section, information is requested on measurement areas

in which calibrations can be performed. Please, therefore, as a

minimum indicate with a tick, for each of the classes of measurement

listed below, whether calibrations can be carried out. It would be

very valuable , however, if, for each class, more complete information

could be given under the following headings

(a) RANGE OVER WHICH MEASUREMENT CAN BE MADE:

(b) FREQUENCY (WHERE APPROPRIATE FOR ELECTRICAL MEASUREMENT):

(c) BEST MEASUREMENT CAPABILITY EXPRESSED AS AN UNCERTAINTY.

MINIMUM FORM OF REPLY (FULL REPLY ATTACHED) :-

6.1 ELECTRICAL STANDARDS

/6. 1.1 D.C. Resistance

/6. 1.2 D.C. Voltage

/6. 1.3 D.C. Current

/6. 1.4 A.C. Current

/6. 1.5 A.C. Voltage

/6. 1.6 A.C. Power

/6. 1.7 Capacity

/6. 1.8 Inductance

/6. 1.9 Voltage Transformers

452-533 O - 72 - 22 327
/6 . 1 . 10 Current Transformers

/6.1.11 Frequency

6.2 ENGINEERING METROLOGY

Length and Angle Standards

/6.2.1 Slip Gauges and Accessories

/6.2.2 Length Bars and Accessories

/6.2.3 Cylindrical Standards; internal and external

/6.2.1+ Spherical Standards

/6.2.5 Thread Measuring Cylinders

/6.2.6 Linear Scales

x6.2.7 Surveying tapes

x6 . 2 . 8 Screw Pitch Measuring Standards

/6 . 2 . 9 Angle Gauges

/6.2.10 Polygons

/6.2.11 Circular Scales

/6.2.12 Engineers Squares

/6.2.13 Engineers Spirit Levels

/6.2.14 Vernier Calipers

/6.2.15 Vernier Height Gauges

/6.2.16 Dial Gauges

/6.2.17 Sieves

/6.2.18 Survey Levelling Staffs

Form

/6.2.19 Surface Texture

/6.2.20 Roundness

/6.2.21 Straightness

Engineers Limit Gauges

/6. 2. 22 Plain Plug Gauges

/6. 2. 23 Plain Ring Gauges

/6. 2. 24 Plain Gap Gauges

/6. 2. 25 Parallel Screw Plug Gauges

/6. 2. 26 Parallel Screw Ring Gauges

/6. 2. 27 Taper Screw Plug Gauges

/6. 2. 28 Taper Screw Ring Gauges

/6. 2. 29 Limit Gauges

/6. 2. 30 Profile Gauges

Miscellaneous

X6.2.31 Hardness Blocks

Z6.2.32 Testing or Alignment of Machine Tools

x6.2.3 3 Stopwatches

Z6.2.34 Anemometers

Z6.2.3 5 Flow Meters

x6.2.36 Gear Measurement

6.3 MASS AND VOLUME

/6.3.1 Mass

/6.3.2 Knife-edge Balances

/6.3.3 Volumetric Glassware

/6.3.M- Density of Solids

/6.3.5 Density of Liquids

/6 . 3 . 6 Hydrometers

6.4 PRESSURE

/6.4.1 Mercury Barometers

328
/6.U.2 Aneroid Barometers

/6.4.3 Altimeters

S&.^.k Barographs

/6.4.5 Manometers

/6.4.6 Pressure Gauges

/6.4.7 Vacuum Gauges

6.5 FORCE

/6.5.1 Materials Testing Machines

x6.5.2 Hardness Testers

x6 . 5 . 3 Impact Testers

/6.5.1+ Elastic Force Measuring Devices, for normal use

x6 . 5 . 5 Elastic Force Measuring Devices, for calibration use

6 . 6 HEAT

/6 . 6 . 1 Laboratory Thermometers

/6.6.2 Thermocouples and Thermocouple Material

/6.6.3 Resistance Thermometers

/6.6.4 Optical Pyrometers

/6.6.5 Ribbon Filament Lamps

/6.6.6 Thermal Conductivity

6 . 7 PHOTOMETRY

/6.7.1 Luminous Intensity

/6 . 7 . 2 Luminous Flux

/6.7.3 Colour Temperature

/6.7.4 Total Radiation

SUMMARY STATEMENT

THE ABOVE QUESTIONS HAVE BEEN DESIGNED TO FIND OUT WHAT ARE THE

AREAS OF STRENGTH, AND IN WHAT AREAS FURTHER WORK NEEDS TO BE DONE

(BASIC NEEDS FOR STRENGTHENING AND EXPANSION).

IF YOU WISH YOU MIGHT LIKE TO MAKE A SHORT SUMMARY STATEMENT ON

THE CONDITION OF AVAILABLE FACILITIES AND GIVE SUGGESTIONS FOR

IMPROVEMENT.

In general our facilities are adequate, at present, for the job

we have to do (except in the areas specified in 1.3); but as New Zealand

develops industrially, we will have to increase the range and accuracy

of all of our standards. The change to the metric system will require

a special grant to meet the cost of providing for metric measuring

equipment—particularly in the Engineering Metrology field. Our chief

difficulty at the present time is shortage of 'air conditioned 1 space.

The space we have is well controlled, but is very crowded.

329
Questionnaire on the Facilities for Basic Physical Standards

of Weights and Measurement (Metrology) in South East Asia

Country: New Zealand Date: IH May 7 0

Completed by: Dr. M.C. Probine

(ALTERNATIVE ANSWER TO SECTION 6)

6. CALIBRATION FACILITIES

In this Section, information is requested on measurement areas in

which calibrations can be performed. Please, therefore, as a minimum

indicate with a tick, for each of the classes of measurement listed

below, whether calibrations can be carried out. It would be very

valuable , however, if, for each class, more complete information could

be given under the following headings:

(a) RANGE OVER WHICH MEASUREMENT CAN BE MADE;

(b) FREQUENCY (WHERE APPROPRIATE FOR ELECTRICAL MEASUREMENT);

(c) BEST MEASUREMENT CAPABILITY EXPRESSED AS AN UNCERTAINTY.

6.1 ELECTRICAL STANDARDS

QUANTITY FREQUENCY ACCURACY REMARKS

6. 1. 1 D.C. Resistance

lOOyft - lOmft

lOrnO. - 1000ft

1000ft - 5Mft

5Mft - lOOMft

lOOMft - lTft

1, 10, 100,

1000, 10,000ft

0.01%

0.003%

0.01%

0.05%

1%

0.0005%

0.001%

Only with 10 volts

potential difference

Precision type only

6. 1. 2 D.C. Voltage

lOpV - lOOuV

lOOyV - ImV

ImV - 180mV

180mV - 1.8V

1.8V - 1.2kV

lOpV

lyV

0.3yV

3y V

0.05%

Lower precision if

output resistance

high

6. 1. 3 D.C. Current

lOpA - lOnA

lOnA - 500nA

5 00nA - 1mA

1mA - 100A

100A - 2kA

0 .05%

2%

+ 2pA

0.01%

0.003%

0.01%

6. 1. 4 A.C. Current

10mA - 5A

5A - 6kA

10mA - 5A

20 - 150Hz

50Hz

150Hz - 1kHz

0

0

0

.01%

.05%

.1%

- 0.0 5%

- 0.1%

- 0.2%

Current supply only

3kA

330
QUANTITY FREQUENCY ACCURACY REMARKS

6.1.5 A.C. Voltage

2.5V -

1 kV - 6.6kV - 95 V -

1 V -

lkV

6.6kV

33kV

105V

95V

6.1.6 A.C. Power

25W - 5kW

5kW - 528kW

500kW - 198MW

6.1.7 Capacity

lOpF - lyF

lyF - lOyF

lOpF - 10yF

6.1.8 Inductance

lyH - lOOyH

lOOyH - 1 H

6.1.9 Voltage

Transformers

Standard

Ratios

6.1.10 Current

Transformers

Standard

Ratios

20 -

10

10

150Hz

50Hz

50Hz

10kHz

10kHz

20 - 150Hz

50Hz

50Hz

1kHz

1kHz

400Hz - 2kHz

1kHz

1kHz

50Hz

0.01% - 0.05%

0.05% - 0.1%

0.1% - 0.2%

0.01%

0.02%

0.02% - 0.1%

0.05% - 0.2%

0.3%

0.01% or %pF

0.1%

0.1% or 5pF

0.5%

0.02% - 0.1%

0.1% and 2

minutes

50Hz

0.02% and 1

minute

A known variable

voltage of this

precision can be

presented to a device of high input

impedance. The

precision decreases

as the input impedance decreases.

Higher voltages in

this range can be

measured but the

precision will depend upon the voltage to be measured.

The upper limit of

voltage will depend

upon the frequency.

V < 1 kV I < 1A

V < 6.6kV I <80A

V <33 kV I < 6kA

Appropriate supply

for high powers not

available

Whichever is greater

Conservative

331
QUANTITY FREQUENCY ACCURACY REMARKS

6.1.11 Frequency

100kHz - 5 MHz

Up to 30MHz

30MHz -100MHz

100MHz - 4GHz

4GHz - 12GHz

2xlO" 10 -5xlO"10

1x10 -7

lxlO" 7 -2x10 -6

2xl0~ 5 -2x10

-4

2xl0" 4 -2x10 -3

Working Standards

Laboratory

Instruments

6.2 ENGINEERING METROLOGY

QUANTITY/OR

DEVICE RANGE

BEST MEASUREMENT

CAPABILITY EXPRESSED

AS AN UNCERTAINTY

Length and Angle Standards

6.2.1 Slip gauges and

accessories

6.2.2 Length bars and

accessories

6.2.3 Cylindrical

standards

,

internal £

external

6.2.4 Spherical

standards

6.2.5 Thread measuring

cylinders

6.2.6 Linear scales

6.2.7 Surveying tapes

6.2.8 Screw pitch

measuring

standards

6.2.9 Angle gauges

6.2.10 Polygons

6.2.11 Circular scales

6.2.12 Engineers squares

6.2.13 Engineers spirit

levels

6.2.14 Vernier calipers

6.2.15 Vernier height

gauges

6.2.16 Dial gauges

6.2.17 Sieves

6.2.18 Survey levelling

staffs

Up to Inspection grade

Up to 3 6 inch

Up to 12 inch

Up to 1 inch

Up to 10 feet

No

No

Up to 12 inch blade

Up to 12 inch

Up to 12 inch

Up to 10 feet

± 0.000003 inch

Inspection grade BS

1790

0.1 to 2"± 0.00002 inch

+ 0.00002 inch

+ 0.00002 inch

± 0.003 inch

+ 5 seconds of arc

± 2 seconds of arc

± 5 seconds of arc

± 0.0002 inch

+ 2 seconds of arc

+ 0.001 inch

+ 0.001 inch

1 revolution ± 0.00015 inch

BS Requirements

± 0.003 inch

332
QUANTITY/OR BEST MEASUREMENT

DEVICE RANGE CAPABILITY EXPRESSED

AS AN UNCERTAINTY

Form

6.2.19 Surface Texture Talysurf 0.00 00 01 inch

6.2.20 Roundness Talyrond - Up to 14" 0.000002 inch

6.2.21 Straightness Talylin - Up to 4" 0.00001 inch

Engineers Limit Gauges

6.2.22 Plain plug

gauges Ud to 12 inch + 0.00 01 inch

6.2.23 Plain ring gauges Ud to 12 inch ± 0.0 0 01 inch

6.2.24 Plain gap gauges Up to 16 inch Small sizes ± 0.0001

inch

6.2.25 Parallel screw plug

gauges Up to 8 inch + 0.0 001 inch

6.2.26 Parallel screw ring

gauges Up to 8 inch + 0.0 001 inch

6.2.27 Taper screw plug

gauges Up to 8 inch ± 0.0 00 2 inch

6.2.28 Taper screw ring

gauges Up to 8 inch ± 0.0002 inch

6.2.29 Limit gauges ) Depends on type

6.2.30 Profile gauges / of gauge

Miscellaneous

6.2.31 Hardness blocks

(Force) No

6.2.32 Testing or alignment of Machine

Tools (Engineering Metrology) Yes DeDends on tVDe of

machine

6.2.33 Stopwatches (Time) No

6.2.34 Anemometers 10 F.P.M. or 5%

(Air Flow) 50 to 3500 F.P.M. whichever greater

6.2.35 Flow Meters

(Fluid Flow) No

6.2.36 Gear measurement

(Engineering No special gear measMetrology) uring equipment

6.3 MASS AND VOLUME

6.3.1 Mass 100kg 1 Dart in 1.000.000

6.3.2 Knife-edge

balances Not for Clients

6.3.3 Volumetric

glassware BS Requirements

6.3.4 Density of solids 1 part in 100,000

6.3.5 Density of

liquids 1 part in 100,000

6.3.6 Hydrometers 0.0001 g/cm 3

333
QUANTITY/ OR BEST MEASUREMENT

DEVICE RANGE J. til CAPABILITY EXPRESSED

AS AN UNCERTAINTY

6

.

i+ PRESSURE

6

.

1 40 to 900 mm Hg +— 0U o mU JL mmJlUll 6

.

2 Aneroid barometers 40 to 9 00 mm Hg + 0.01 mm

6

.

3 Al"time"ter><:

! 20,000 m 0 15 m

6

.

n. 4 BarosraDhs 40 to 900 mm Hg + 0.01 mm

6. 4. 5 Manometers 40 to 900 mm Hg ± 0.01 mm

6

.

n. 6 Pressure cauees o to 27,000 P.S.I. 0.25%

6. 4. 7 Vacuum gauges Up to 30 inch Hg 0.25%

6

.

5 FORCE

6 5 1 Materials testing up to 100 ton tension

machines g 200 ton compression 0.5%

6. 5

.

2 Hardness testers No

6. 5. 3 Impact testers No

6. 5. 4 Elastic force Up to 50 ton 0.1%,

measuring devices Up to 100 ton above 0.3%

Note : -

Accuracies and ranges greater than those listed above can be achieved

for special jobs. The ranges and accuracies given above are those

that can be achieved routinely, without resorting to special procedures

or 1 set-ups '

.

334
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335
NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.
APPENDIX 5

STANDARDS LABORATORIES ASSISTANCE TO DEVELOPING INDUSTRY

F. J. Lehany

Chief, Applied Physics Division

National Standards Laboratory

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization

Chippendale, NSW 2008 Australia

The following brief extracts*, taken from a submission to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works, Australia, may be of interest

to the NBS/AID Seminar as showing some of the services to industry of a

national standards laboratory. The last extract deals with the research

program. Table 1 lists the NSL fields of work, and Table 2 allots the

floor space in the present and the proposed new buildings.

1. Advice and Assistance to Industry

The National Standards Laboratory of CSIRO provides advice and assistance to industry in a wide variety of technical problems but more

particularly in relation to measurement. Some examples can be quoted to

indicate the kinds of problems dealt with.

(i) A firm manufacturing sheet material by a continuous process was

assisted with control of measurement at the stage of manufacture

where the material is soft. The Laboratory developed a pneumatic

gauge specifically for this application so that measurements

could be made without direct physical contact with the soft

material

.

(ii) A manufacturer of spark plugs who was losing a high proportion of

plugs through cracking of the ceramic insulators during firing

was given assistance to determine the correct thermal conditions.

(iii) High quality weights for laboratory use are now commercially

produced in Australia by a firm which was given substantial

assistance in the project by officers of NSL.

(iv) The loan of semi-automatic equipment for measuring relative

humidity, developed in NSL, enabled a company heat-treating

transformer steel in large stacks to determine the cause of

problems which had led to the loss of several charges each valued

at about $10,000.

(v) Several firms have been assisted in the development of rooms

screened so as to prevent electrical interference from outside

sources

.

(vi) Electric supply authorities have been able to make more efficient

use of some transmission lines through application of findings

from research at NSL on the heating effects of the current carried.

(vii) During World War 2, the resources of the Laboratory, then much

less developed than they are at present, were fully devoted to

Communicated by Dr. H. C. Webster, Scientific Counsellor, Embassy of

Australia, Washington, D. C. 20036.

337
dealing with problems of wartime production. The laboratory

would again be a vital factor in permitting manufacturing industry

to meet new demands quickly should an emergency arise.

Several years ago a unit was installed at a Sydney manufacturing plant

for the testing of helicopter gear boxes. The unit was designed to provide

for long-duration tests on gear boxes under loads similar to those

involved in normal operation. For successful operation it was essential

that the component parts of the test rig, which is 2 8 feet high and 12 feet

wide, should be placed with an accuracy of a few thousandths of an inch.

Officers of NSL devised a special method of ensuring that this was accomplished .

Assistance has been given recently to those concerned with the measurement of volumes in the exploitation of petroleum from Australian fields.

Continuous volume-measuring equipment of very high capacity is being used

and the Laboratory in addition to providing the basic calibrations

necessary has been able to advise on the most satisfactory methods of

measurement for routine use.

The group concerned with measurements of light and other forms of

radiant energy has been able to assist a large number of research workers

concerned with investigations on primary-industry problems. These have

included investigations relating to crop and pasture growth, the cold

storage of meat and the development of fisheries. The group has also been

able to assist the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO

Division of Meteorological Physics by calibrating equipment used in the

measurement and study of solar radiation. The group has also been able to

give advice in connection with many secondary-industry problems and has

advised traffic authorities and manufacturers in relation to road marking

lines, road signs and reflecting materials.

The Thermometry Group is often called on for help with industrial

temperature measurement and related problems ; a typical case was one in

which a manufacturer was experiencing difficulty in the continuous waterproofing of woven nylon material. Initially the problem was to achieve

a uniform product. In addition, it was found necessary to install a new

machine but until uniformity could be achieved on the first machine

specifications could not be determined for the new one. NSL officers were

able to develop methods for measuring the temperature of the moving sheet

with sufficient accuracy. This made it possible both to correct the performance of the first machine and to determine the requirements for the

new machine.

These are examples taken from a very large number. Assistance of this

kind to industry continues to be a most important part of the work of the

Laboratory. Besides its direct value to industry it is one means of keeping

officers of the laboratory informed about current trends in industry and

thus assists in the planning of research activities.

2. Physical Research Program

Section 9 of the Science and Industry Research Act 1949-68 makes CSIRO

responsible, among other things, for "the initiation and carrying out of

scientific researches and investigations in connection with ... primary or

secondary industries in the Commonwealth...." The research responsibilities

of NSL are interpreted by the Executive of CSIRO and the Chiefs of the two

Divisions as covering:

(i) areas which may lead directly to improved accuracy in establishing

standards of physical measurement;

(ii) natural phenomena and the properties of materials or the laws of

338
nature which it considers likely to be of benefit to primary or

secondary industry in the Commonwealth; and

(iii) areas where the specialized knowledge and techniques of the

Laboratory may be exploited either for the benefit of industry or

the advancement of knowledge.

Such research keeps staff alert to possible new means of establishing

standards of measurement using new techniques or newly discovered scientific

laws. The main fields of research are closely allied to standards of

measurement

.

Solid State Physics

This involves measuring and understanding the physical properties of

solid materials under widely differing conditions of temperature or

pressure. Three separate groups are engaged in such activities.

(i) A group allied to temperature standards is concerned particularly

with properties which are temperature-sensitive, both at extremely

low and high temperatures. These include the conductivities of

heat and electricity, thermal expansion, compressibility, and

others, which are all of scientific interest and increasing

technical importance in industries based on metallurgy, aerospace,

liquefaction of natural gases, electronics, and nuclear power.

(ii) Dielectric and magnetic properties of solids are studied by the

group which is responsible for dielectric and magnetic standards

,

such properties being of prime importance to industry and science.

(iii) A third group is concerned with paramagnetic resonance properties

of solids , which enable one to understand better the roles of

impurities and small concentrations of other elements, on which

the properties of many solids are vitally dependent.

Fluid State Physics

The Fluid Physics Group, concerned with standards of viscosity and

humidity, has a major interest in the basic properties of liquids at high

pressures. This includes also a study of gases at pressures so high that

their densities may approximate those of their liquid forms. Research in

this field has resulted incidentally in new methods of measuring high

pressures

.

Solar Physics

Solar astronomy has provided an excellent opportunity for exploiting

the Laboratory's expertise in optical instrumentation. In turn, this has

led, among other things, to the development of a new kind of optical

component now known widely as the "active optical element."

The Laboratory maintains a solar observatory at Culgoora, near Narrabri

,

northwestern N.S.W., for basic research on the sun's outer layers. Astronomers have their base at NSL but go to Culgoora, where there is a resident

maintenance staff, on rosters. The space requirements for solar physics

within the present and proposed NSL buildings are therefore relatively

light.

Production Engineering

A group is concerned with the machinability of metals and the geometric

analysis of engineering designs, both of which can be very important factors

in production efficiency.

339
3 . Environmental Requirements

A wide variety of special facilities have been developed by NSL to

establish the basic standards of measurement and provide the extensive

calibration service necessary to relate measurement throughout the community

to these standards. Much of the proposed laboratory space is to be used to

house these facilities adequately as permanent installations, and the

closely controlled environment that has been specified is necessary to

achieve the high technical performance required. Recent dramatic improvements in the sensitivity and accuracy of measuring techniques have been such

that at NSL level the main limitations in many instances are now environmental. Temperature and humidity variations and mechanical vibration are

serious limitations in many fields, and there is no feasible way of controlling these to the necessary extent in the present building.

In planning the new laboratories, our approach to this problem has been

to seek the best possible conditions that are available commercially at

reasonable cost. This has resulted in an air-conditioning specification

with tolerances of ± 1°F in temperature and ± 5% in relative humidity.

From our discussions with the Department of Works it is apparent that

the only reasonably economic way of achieving low levels of vibration is to

have floors resting wholly on the ground. Approximately one third of our

space requires low vibration levels and the tendency is for this fraction

to increase. This is the main factor which has limited the proposed

development to two stories.

With all of the laboratory space controlled to these conditions and

with half of the floor space with low vibration, it will be possible to

install much of our equipment without additional treatment. Some apparatus,

however, will still have to be immersed in closely controlled oil baths

(0.001°C) and some will have to be mounted on air bags or other special

anti-vibration mountings.

In the present accommodation some of these problems of environment

have had to be solved in a makeshift and inefficient manner and in others

research work has been put aside until an improved environment is available.

Accommodation Requirements

Individually, many of the facilities of NSL do not require particularly

large floor areas for their accommodation. Accordingly most of the laboratory space has been provided in General Purpose Laboratories with the aim

of having maximum flexibility to meet future needs and changes. Approximately 15% of the proposed General Purpose Laboratory space is available either

for expansion of the work of existing groups or for new groups which do

not have special architectural requirements and whose work would be compatible. New activities such as acoustics would require a special building.

As far as the calibration service is concerned, once facilities are

permanently set up there will be spare capacity to meet an increased

calibration demand in most fields of measurement.

Special buildings and architectural arrangements have had to be

provided for the following sections shown in Table 2 : High Voltage

Laboratory, Standard of Force, Geodetic Base, and Photometry/Radiometry/

Optics

.

340
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APPENDIX 6

PROMOTION OF EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

BY THE INTER -AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

Ismael Escobar

Chief, Education, Science and Technology Section

Inter-American Development Bank

Washington, D. C. 20577

1. Background

The Inter-American Development Bank is an intergovernmental agency set

up to help speed the process of economic development, both individual and

collective, in its member countries. The Bank does this by financing

projects throughout the region in different fields of social and economic

development, using its own capital, funds which it raises in the money

markets, and resources which it administers on behalf of others. IDB

began operations on October 1, 1960, and authorized its first loan early

in February 19 61.

The Bank has from the outset devoted priority attention to education as

a sector of vital importance for the development of Latin America; its

first loans to this sector were approved in 1962. Ever since then its

operating policy on loans to education has been under constant and systematic

review so as to adapt it to the changing needs of the Bank's member countries.

2. Fields of Action

The principal aim of the Bank's activities in the field of education

is to support the efforts of its members in the following areas:

(i) Higher education

(ii) Technical and vocational education

(iii) Scientific and technological development.

In the field of higher education preference is given to programs that are

closely connected with economic and social development plans. Encouragement

is given to programs involving the technological and agricultural sciences,

and in particular to the teaching of the basic sciences as they form the

academic backbone of all educational programs. Also eligible are programs

to further the teaching of the applied social sciences (economics, sociology,

etc.), pedagogics, public administration, business management and public

health, including medical sciences, etc.

In the case of technical and vocational education the Bank helps to

finance programs designed to train medium-level technicians for work in

agriculture, industry and business and to train and upgrade skilled operatives and personnel for a variety of jobs and services.

In the scientific and technological sector the Bank supports research

programs at universities and other specialized institutes in order to increase basic knowledge in the natural and social sciences and of their

technological application. It helps to develop standards institutes; map,

geological, topographical, meteorological, hydrological and other services;

and informational and scientific infrastructure services. It also sponsors

the establishment or strengthening of councils, foundations, societies and

other organizations for planning and coordinating scientific and technological

345
policy.

Loan contracts sometimes include provisions that permit borrowers to

erect research laboratories, if the size of the project so warrants, or

to retain the services of consultants or of technological research

institutes to improve existing or introduce new systems and methods.

3. Amount and Purpose of Loans

Between 1962 and January 1971, the IDB made 59 loans totaling the equivalent of US $202,410,000 to educational establishments in almost every

country of the region. These loans helped finance projects with a total

cost of US $417,076,800 which represents a very substantial effort in

mobilizing local resources for investment in education.

Loans to education are generally intended to create the right kind

of conditions for expanding and improving educational and scientific and

technological research institutes. Most of IDB's contribution has gone

into strengthening institutional development programs and improving the

teaching of and research into basic and applied sciences (agriculture and

engineering). Funds have also been made available for intermediate-level

technical education programs, the teaching of medicine and social sciences,

and teacher education and training.

The loan funds have for the most part been invested in the construction

of buildings, the purchase of equipment for teaching or research laboratories,

the purchase of bibliographical material, the training and upgrading of

teaching and research staff, and technical assistance programs.

4. Resources Used

In carrying out its educational programs IDB at first used the resources

of the Social Progress Trust Fund established under an agreement with the

United States Government as part of the Alliance for Progress program.

By 1966 these trust funds had been fully committed and the Bank began

to finance educational loans by drawing on its Expanded Fund for Special

Operations. The change in source of financing gave the Bank an opportunity

to modify its policy in this sector by including medical sciences among the

eligible fields at the university level and technical and vocational education

at the non-university level, as well as support to independent research

institutes not directly connected with education. Although the Bank has

been drawing on the Fund for Special Operations to finance its most recent

loan operations, it has also made use of resources from the Canadian Fund

and may possibly mobilize Bank-administered funds from other sources. Its

lending terms can vary depending on the source of the loan funds.

5. Technical Assistance

IDB provides national and regional institutions with technical assistance in preparing and executing development plans and projects, as well as

in training the personnel needed to carry them out. Such assistance can

take the form of a grant or a reimbursable advance, depending on the kind

of operation involved.

Some loans for educational purposes have included reimbursable amounts

for technical assistance. Moreover, technical assistance operations of both

kinds have been authorized to finance surveys connected with institutional

development, identification and preparation of educational projects, and

assessment of financing needs for the expansion of scientific and technological research.

346
6. Training and Other Activities

The Bank sponsors advanced training for professional personnel in the

Latin American countries through courses and seminars which it organizes

itself or jointly with specialized agencies in the region or in each country.

In addition, many fellowships have been awarded for these courses, and funds

have been made available for organizing studies, lecture series, meetings,

publication of papers, etc. Some of these activities took place at universities and other institutions offering regular programs of higher education.

One of the surveys conducted was on the status of agricultural education,

research and extension in a number of Latin American countries. These and

other similar studies have been completed or are being carried out in

collaboration with other international agencies or agencies belonging to the

inter-American system.

Concerned at the lack of specialized reference texts and works in

Spanish in the countries of the hemisphere, IDB decided to sponsor the

preparation and publication of a collection of 2 00 books on economics in

collaboration with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

and the Latin American Center for Monetary Studies (CEMIA). The collections

were distributed as gifts among higher education, governmental, financial

and other institutions engaged in this field of activity. This collection

met with such a response that supplies are now virtually exhausted.

In the field of integration another Bank effort being carried out

through the Institute for Latin American Integration (INTAL) in cooperation

with CEMIA, is the compilation of 200 collections of 50 books and documents

on the subject of Latin American integration.

7. Main Features of the Projects

In the fields of education, science and technology IDB's loans tend

to be at long term and low interest. They are made to both public and private

institutions provided that the applications have been approved by the government concerned and are backed up by a project embodying clearly defined

objectives to be achieved in a given period of time. A description is

given below of some of the features which are considered typical of projects

in the fields of education, science and technology.

8. Academic and Institutional Development

In the three fields under consideration the Bank prefers to assist

projects aimed at the overall development of institutions, in terms not only

of improving the academic standards of their teaching and research activities

but also of expanding them and adapting them to meet the current economic,

social and cultural development needs of the country and the region.

The projects should define specific measures, which can be implemented

during the loan disbursement period, to reform the institutional structure

with a view to achieving more efficient use of resources, updating the

curriculum and introducing more effective teaching methods, adopting research

programs in the case of universities, strengthening meaningful ties between

the institutions and the communities they serve, and modernizing administrative and accounting systems and procedures.

The Bank lends its full support to initiatives on the part of institutions or groups of institutions to bring about the regional integration of

Latin America. It also sponsors projects designed to further the overall

and balanced growth of scientific, technological and humanistic knowledge,

by supporting efforts to train the leading teams in the fields concerned.

Capital expenditures under the projects must be clearly connected with

347
the plans for institutional, academic and administrative reform, mentioned

above, and serve to facilitate their implementation.

9. Training of Teaching and Research Staff

The success of any institutional reform or development effort lies in

the caliber of the personnel responsible for carrying it out. IDB considers

it to be of fundamental importance that educational, scientific and technological projects should include provision for a program to train members of the

teaching and research staffs by means of specialized courses of study in

their own countries or abroad. These systematic training programs are

rounded out by the introduction of full-time teaching careers in all

disciplines where teaching and research are full-time occupations.

The Bank appreciates how important it is to help students from the

lower income brackets to continue their education, to allow them to devote

themselves full-time to their studies and practical work, and to participate

without outside restrictions in all the activities that are part and parcel

of a worthwhile professional training. Accordingly, it supports projects

that provide for fellowships, student loans, or other forms of economic

assistance to students.

To encourage systematic planning in educational and scientific and

technological research institutions the Bank provides technical and financial

assistance when needed to formulate an investment project, but it also tries

to ensure that the projects include programs aimed at institutionalizing

planning activities.

As a rule, projects intended to finance the programs of independent

research institutes should possess the following features:

(i) The institute must be in a position to provide suitable employment

to enough high-trade scientists to permit effective work to be

done that will be of potential influence both nationally and

regionally.

(ii) The research program should be designed preferentially to meet

the needs of the top priority sectors as far as the development

of the country or region is concerned, and a survey should have

been conducted to gauge the potential demand for the institute's

services

.

(iii) Arrangements must be made to ensure that research and other

technological data arising out of the institute's activities are

distributed efficiently among prospective interested parties.

(iv) The institute should charge suitable rates to recoup the cost

of its services.

(v) The institute should cultivate close relations with university

research centers, other technological research organizations in

its particular field and the principal foreign research centers

engaged in areas related to its own.

10. Student Assistance

11. Planning

12. Scientific and Technological Research

13. Other Projects

Other independent agencies are eligible for assistance under this

348
program provided that their proposed activities are aimed at:

(i) Standard institutes:

(a) establishing a system of weights and measures

(b) calibrating instruments and equipment

(c) setting measurement and quality standards for products

(d) promoting efficient quality control systems

(ii) Other scientific and technological services:

(a) agricultural research and related extension services

(b) cartography, geology and topographic surveys

(c) programs for the conservation and rational use of basic

natural resources

(d) meteorological and hydrological services

(e) systems for compiling and disseminating reports

(iii) National scientific organizations:

(a) national research councils, academies of sciences, and

similar organizations dedicated to pursuing or initiating

a national policy aimed at coordinating and encouraging the

country's scientific and technological development

(b) organizations that administer fellowship programs and train

manpower for science and technology

(c) organizations for promoting scientific research, provided

that there is a suitable balance between basic and applied or

technological research, that the national and regional

research efforts are properly coordinated, and that sufficient

administrative and technical capacity exists for selecting

and executing projects.

(iv) Multinational or regional institutions:

(a) support for national "centers of excellence" whose influence

is felt throughout the region or whose geographical location

makes them "natural laboratories"

(b) regional programs in which the efforts of the different

national centers are pooled

(c) establishing multinational institutions provided that they

meet an important need which cannot be met by existing or

planned national organizations

(d) joint programs agreed upon by laboratories and universities

in different countries.

14 . Loan Requirements and Conditions

General Requirements

A project must comply with the following conditions in order to merit

consideration by the IDB

(i) It must be intended to promote the improvement of university

education, of technical education at its various levels, or of

scientific and technical research, with a view to perfecting the

quality and efficiency of these activities.

(ii) It must specify the concrete measures which the institution has

adopted, or proposes to adopt, to effect the integration of its

teaching and research activities, raise the academic quality of

its staff and ensure a dynamic relationship between its activities

349
and the needs of the community.

(iii) It must meet clearly identified needs of the educational, scientific

and technological sectors, in terms of the needs of the economic

and social development planning of a country or region.

(iv) It must be part of a national development plan and must have been

approved by the government , with a high priority within the program

of external financing.

The following must be assured for a loan application to be processed:

(v) The applicant organism will have the resources necessary to

executing the project, to contributing to financing an adequate

part of the project, and to covering major operating costs

deriving from execution of the project.

(vi) The requested financing will be used for special capital

investments by expansion of physical facilities, equipping

laboratories and shops, scientific instrumentation, library

materials, advanced training of teaching and research staff and

contracting for temporary technical assistance in the introduction

of academic or administrative reforms.

(vii) The organism responsible for execution of the project must have

the organization, ability and technical experience necessary to

comply efficiently with the proposed program.

Principal Contractual Conditions

Loans granted by the IDB for educational, scientific and technological

development are subject to financial conditions which are applied in a

general manner, but which are subject to minor readjustments in each case,

depending on the characteristics of the project, the potential of the borrower and the use of the various funds which the Bank administers. Following

are some of the contractual conditions established for operations financed

by the Fund for Special Operations:

(i) Its constituent agreement empowers the Bank to make loans to

public and private sector organisms of its member countries.

(ii) Terms established by the IDB for the reimbursement of loans vary

in accordance with the characteristics of each project. The

minimum term is generally 15 years.

(iii) Interest is at the rate of 2.25 percent on disbursements made,

payable in the same currency as disbursements.

(iv) A service charge of 0.75 percent a year is made on disbursements

effected.

(v) A charge of 0.50 percent is made on the undisbursed portion of

loans

.

(vi) The Bank generally grants a sufficiently long grace period to

ensure efficient functioning of the project. The duration of

this period will be fixed by mutual agreement and will not be

shorter than the period for execution of the project.

(vii) Disbursements may be made in any of the currencies constituting

the capital of the IDB. Repayment may be made in the currency of

the debtor country.

350
(viii) Loans to governments and certain government agencies have been

made on the basis of the general responsibility of the borrower;

in other loans the Bank has obtained specific guarantees of another

type.

(ix) In all projects financed by the Bank the borrower must agree to

make an investment from his own resources, the amount of which

varies, among other reasons, on the basis of his economic

possibilities, the size of the loan and the kind of project.

Application of Loan Funds

Resources of loans granted by the IDB for educational, scientific or

technological development may be invested in financing any of the items

enumerated above, with the exception of land purchase, contracting fulltime teachers, maintenance costs and financial costs. Resources of an IDB

loan may not be utilized to refinance debts or for normal operating costs

of the borrower institution.

Goods and services financed from the Fund for Special Operations may

be acquired in the borrower country or in the United States, and, with the

express authorization of the Bank, in any other member country of the IDB.

15. Guide for Preparing Project Requests

The Bank, for the study of each project, requires an organized body

of information which will permit it to evaluate the merits of the project;

its technical, administrative and financial feasibility, and its effects

on the economic and social development of the country. This information

must be presented in accordance with an extended questionnaire which is

obtainable (in Spanish or English) from the author.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

351

APPENDIX 7

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

NBS/AID SEMINAR ON INDUSTRIALIZATION

Participants from Other Countries

Argentina

Sabato, Dr. Jorge A.

Presidente

Servicios Electricos del

Gran Buenos Aires S.A.

Balcarce 184

Buenos Aires , Argentina

Brazil

Maia, Admiral (ret.) Geraldo N. S.

Barata Ribeiro 19 3 APT 301

Rio de Janeiro, GB Brazil

do Prado, Dr. Luiz Cintra

1347, rua Bela Cintra

Sao Paulo 5, SP.

Brazil

Colombia

Fernandez F. , Hernando

Formerly Superintendente de Industria y Commercio

Ministerio de Desarrollo Economico

Bogota, Colombia

Ethiopia

Felleke, Zawdu

Acting General Manager

Ethiopian Standards Institution

P. 0. Box 1769

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Ghana

Lartey, Emmanuel

Director

Institute of Standards and Industrial Research

Accra, Ghana

Guatemala

Bayer S. , J. Joaquin

Chief, Standardization Division

Instituto Centroamericano de Investigacion

y Technologia Industrial (ICAITI)

Apartado Postal 15 52

Avenida La Reforma 4-47, Zona 10

Guatemala, Central America

353
India

Ghosh, Dr. A. N.

Director (ret.)

Indian Standards Institution

"Manak Bhavan", 9 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg

New Delhi-1, India

Rohatgi, Dr. Pradeep K.

Formerly Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Homer Research Laboratories

Bethlehem Steel Company

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18016

Iran

Work, Dr. Harold K.

Formerly Adviser to Institute of Standards and

Industrial Research of Iran

9106 Court ley Court

Fairfax, Virginia 22030

Israel

Tabor, Dr. Harry

Director

National Physical Laboratory

Hebrew University Campus

Jerusalem, Israel

Korea

Ham, Prof. Inyong

Formerly Adviser, Republic of Korea

Department of Industrial Engineering

Pennsylvania State University

University Park, Pennsylvania 16802

League of Arab States

Salama, Dr. Mahmoud

Secretary General

Arab Organization for Standardization and Metrology (ASMO)

11, Mohamed Marashly St. Zamalek

P. 0. Box 690 Cairo

United Arab Republic

New Zealand

Probine , Dr. Mervyn C.

Director, Physics and Engineering Laboratory

Department of Scientific and Industrial Research

Lower Hutt, New Zealand

Peru

Ing. Susana Le Roux C.

Chief, Standards Preparation Unit

Instituto de Investigacion Tecnologica

Industrial y de Normas Tecnicas

Apartado 145

Republica de Chile 698

Lima , Peru

354
Tarn, Phi Minh

Director

Vietnam Institute for Standardization

Saigon, Republic of Vietnam

Participants Associated with International Organizations

Salama, Dr. Mahmoud

Secretary General

Arab Organization for Standardization and Metrology

11, Mohamed Marashly St. Zamalek

P. 0. Box 690 Cairo

United Arab Republic

Inter-American Bank

Escobar, Dr. Ismael

Chief, Education, Science and Technology Section

Inter-American Development Bank

808 17th St. NW

Washington, D. C. 20577

IFAC

Mason, Dr. Henry Lea

Vice-Chairman , Terminology Committee

International Federation for Automatic Control

70 08 Meadow Lane

Washington, D. C. 20015

ISO

LaQue, Dr. Frank L.

President, International Organization for Standardization

c/o American National Standards Institute

1430 Broadway

New York, New York 10017

OAS

Fontes , Alfredo

Chief, Technology Development Unit

Department of Scientific Affairs

Organization of American States

Washington, D. C. 20006

Perkinson, Dr. Jesse D.

Director, Department of Scientific Affairs

Organization of American States

Washington, D. C. 2 0006

UNESCO

Probine, Dr. Mervyn C.

Adviser for Southeast Asia

Lower Hutt , New Zealand

355
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

Felleke, Zawdu

Acting General Manager

Ethiopian Standards Institution

P. 0. Box 1769

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

United Nations Development Programme

Lovejoy, Derek

United Nations Plaza

New York, New York 10017

United Nations Industrial Development Organization

Condon, Dr. Edward U.

Consultant on Information Processes

7 61 Cascade Avenue

Boulder, Colorado 80 302

Schmied, Rene"

Chief, Industrial Institutions Section

UNIDO, Rathausplatz 2

A-1010 Vienna, Austria

Stepanek, Dr. Joseph E.

Director, Industrial Services and Institutions Division

UNIDO, Rathausplatz 2

A-1010 Vienna, Austria

World Bank

Kalmanoff, George

Deputy Director

Industrial Projects Department

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

1818 H Street, NW

Washington, D. C. 20433

United States of America

Industry Participants

Daneman, H. L.

Regional Manager, International Operations

Leeds and Northrup Company

Sumneytown Pike

North Wales, Pennsylvania 19454

French, James E.

Executive Secretary, Laboratory Apparatus Section

Scientific Apparatus Makers Association

1140 Connecticut Avenue, NW

Washington, D. C. 20036

Fulling, Roger W.

Eastern Area Representative

Hughes Aircraft Company

1515 Wilson Boulevard

Arlington, Virginia 22209

356
Gray, Arthur I.

Supervisor, Materials and Standards Engineering

Honeywell Industrial Division

1100 Virginia Drive

Fort Washington, Pennsylvania 19 034

Marshak , Seymour

Manager of Marketing Research

Ford Motor Company

American Road

Dearborn, Michigan 48121

Pratt, Glenn E.

Manufacturing and Technology Director for Latin America

Monsanto Company

800 North Lindbergh

St. Louis, Missouri 63166

Riederer, J. R.

Hughes Aircraft Company

P. 0. Box 90515

Los Angeles, California 90009

Russek, Simon E.

Manager, Calibration Programs

Hughes Aircraft Company

P. 0. Box 90515

Los Angeles, California 90009

Shrieve, Edward 0.

Corning Glass Works

Corning, New York 14830

Smith, Raymond B.

Director, Engineering Standards

Reynolds Metals Company

Richmond, Virginia 2 3218

Vannah, William E.

Corporate Program Director

The Foxboro Company

Foxboro, Massachusetts 02035

Ween, Sidney

President

Ever Ready Thermometer Company, Inc.

New York, N. Y. 10012

Woodington, Andrew J.

Chief, Standards and Calibration Laboratories

General Dynamics /Convair Aerospace Division

P. 0. Box 1128

San Diego, California 92112

357
Industry hosts on the plant tour February 4-11 arranged by James E. French,

Scientific Apparatus Makers Association

Fisher Scientific Company

5 2 Fadem Road

Springfield, N. J. 07081

Mr. A. L. Abbitt

The Foxboro Company

Neponset Avenue

Foxboro, MA 020 35

Mr. William E. Vannah

General Radio Company

Concord, MA 01781

Mr. W. R. Thurston

Instrumentation Laboratory, Inc.

113 Hartwell Avenue

Lexington, MA 02173

Dr. Arthur Malenfant

Perkin-Elmer Corporation

Main Avenue

Norwalk, CT 06852

W. J. R. Hargrave

Non-Government Organizations Participants

Cavanaugh, William T.

Managing Director

American Society for Testing and Materials

1916 Race Street

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103

Dennison, Edward S.

Assistant Executive Director

Volunteers for International Technical Assistance

Union College Campus

Schenectady, New York 12 308

Hall, Dr. Newman A.

Executive Director, Commission on Education

National Academy of Engineering

2101 Constitution Avenue

Washington, D. C. 20037

358
Green, John C.

Washington Representative

American Society for Testing and Materials

15th and New York Avenue, NW

Washington, D. C. 20005

Hayes, Jerry L.

President

National Conference of Standards Laboratories

c/o NBS , Office of Measurement Services

Washington, D. C. 20234

Shrieve, Edward 0.

Vice-Chairman , Metrology Committee

American Society for Quality Control

161 W. Wisconsin Avenue

Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53 20 3

Smith, Raymond B.

President

American Society for Testing and Materials

1916 Race Street

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103

Vannah, William E.

Chairman, Standardization Committee

Scientific Apparatus Makers Association

370 Lexington Avenue

New York, New York 10017

Woodington , Andrew J.

Chairman Metrology Committee

American Society for Quality Control

161 W. Wisconsin Avenue

Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53203

United States Government Agencies Participants

Anderson, Engr. Wendell

Central Engineering Office

Agency for International Development

Department of State

Washington, D. C. 205 20

Arnold, Henry A.

Deputy Director

Office of Science and Technology

Agency for International Development

Department of State

Washington, D. C. 20523

As tin, Dr. Allen V.

Director Emeritus

National Bureau of Standards

500 8 Battery Lane

Bethesda, Maryland 20014

Bernstein, Joel

Assistant Administrator

Bureau for Technical Assistance

Agency for International Development

Department of State

Washington, D. C. 20520

359

452-533 O - 72 - 24
Birch, John A.

Office of the Assistant Secretary for

Science and Technology

Department of Commerce

Washington, D. C. 20230

Brady, Dr. Edward L.

Associate Director for Information Programs

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 20234

Branscomb, Dr. Lewis M.

Director, National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 20234

Bullman, Mrs. Fritzi M.

Administrative Assistant

Office of International Relations

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 202 34

Cali, J. Paul

Chief, Office of Standard Reference Materials

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 202 34

Cushen, Dr. W. E.

Chief, Technical Analysis Division

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 20234

Day, Melvin S.

Deputy Assistant Administrator for Technology Utilization

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Code K, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW

Washington, D. C. 20546

Hayes, Jerry L.

Technical Director

U.S. Navy Metrology Engineering Center

P. 0. Box 2505

Pomona, California 91766

Hiebert, Dr. Gordon

Program Director, India Program

National Science Foundation

1800 G Street, NW

Washington, D. C. 20550

Huntoon , Dr. Robert D.

Consultant, National Bureau of Standards

13904 Blair Stone Lane

Silver Spring, Maryland 20906

Keasbey, William P. Jr.

Office of International Trade Policy

Department of State

Washington, D. C. 20520

Knox, William T.

Director, National Technical Information Service

U. S. Department of Commerce

Washington, D. C. 20230

360
Kushner, Dr. Lawrence M.

Deputy Director

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 20234

Mahaffey, Charles T.

Building Research Division

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 20234

Mansfield, J. Kenneth

Bureau of International Scientific and Technological Affairs

Department of State

Washington, D. C. 20520

Mason, Dr. Henry Lea

Consultant, Office of International Relations

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 20234

Newman, Dr. Sanford B.

Senior Program Analyst

Office of the Associate Director for Programs

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 20234

Nichols, Dr. George C.

Senior Economist

Technical Analysis Division

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 20234

Nigro, James P.

Chief, Information Processing Technology Division

Center for Computer Sciences and Technology

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 20234

Pasta, Dr. John R.

Head, Office of Computing Activities

National Science Foundation

1800 G Street, NW

Washington, D. C. 20550

Peiser, H. Steffen

Chief, Office of International Relations

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 20 2 34

Richmond, Addison E.

Bureau of International Scientific and Technological Affairs

Department of State

Washington, D. C. 20520

Rowen, Dr. John W.

Operations Research Analyst

Technical Analysis Division

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 202 34

361
Schubert, Chris tof N.

Office of Computer Activities

National Science Foundation

1800 G Street, NW

Washington, D. C. 20550

Schweitzer, Dr. Glenn E.

Director, Office of Science and Technology

Agency for International Development

Department of State

Washington, D. C. 20523

Shriver, Glenn K. Jr.

Office of Technical Information

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 20234

Stabler, Thomas M.

Chief, Office of Weights and Measures

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 20234

Willenbrock, Dr. F. Karl

Director, Institute for Applied Technology

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D. C. 20234

Wilson, David M.

Chief Engineer, Development Resources

Agency for International Development

Department of State

Washington, D. C. 20523

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

362
APPENDIX 8

BIODATA OF SEMINAR AUTHORS

Beck, Niels C.

Born 1912 in Denver, Colorado; educated in chemistry, geophysics, and

law. Dean of Park College, Denver, Colorado, 1946-1953. Armour Research

Foundation, 1953-1956. Director Industrial Center, then Industry Advisor

AID/Korea, 1956-1967. Deputy Assistant Director for Industry, then Chief

Industrial Advisory and Promotion Branch, AID/Vietnam, 1967- . Author,

"The Threshold of Industrial Development."

Bernstein, Joel

Dr. Bernstein received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He

is an economist, foreign affairs specialist, and AID administrator.

AID program since Marshall Plan, 1948. He served 16 years in field

service in Europe, Africa, and East Asia. Mission Director Nigeria and

Korea, then Director of Program Evaluation of AID, 1959-1967. From 1969

to the present he has been Assistant Administrator for Technical Assistance,

AID.

Brady, Edward L.

Born Charleston, South Carolina, 1919. Undergraduate work at University of California at Los Angeles and Ph.D. in physical chemistry at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 194 8. Nuclear power plant

experience with General Electric Company and Gulf General Atomic. U. S.

Atomic Energy Commission representative, London, England, 1956-1958.

Senior Advisor, U. S. Mission to the International Atomic Energy Agency,

Vienna, Austria, 1959-1961. At NBS , Chief of Office of Standard Reference

Data, 1963-1968; Associate Director for Information Programs since 1968.

Bran s comb , Lewis M.

Dr. Branscomb, a physicist, was appointed as Director of the National

Bureau of Standards by President Nixon in September 1969. He was born in

North Carolina in 1926, educated at Duke University and Harvard University

(Ph.D. 1949). Serving on the NBS staff since 1951, he was a Fellow at

University College, London, 1957. He is a member of the National Academy

of Sciences , and served on the Panel on International Technical Cooperation

and Assistance, of the President's Science Advisory Committee. Most

recently he was a member of the President's Task Force to plan for the

proposed International Development Institute. He is the scientific

representative of the U.S.A. in the International Conference of Weights

and Measures (CGPM) and the Committee on Data for Science and Technology

(CODATA) of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU).

Cali, J. Paul

Mr. Cali is Chief, Office of Standard Reference Materials at the

National Bureau of Standards. He received a B.A. in chemistry from Brown

University in 1949; graduate studies in astronomy, radio chemistry and

instrumental methods of analysis. He worked for the U.S. Atomic Energy

Commission 1949-1950; U.S. Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories, 1951-

1966, and has been at NBS since 1966. He has contributed more than 20

papers and one book in the field of nuclear methods of analysis, especially

for trace constituents.

363
Condon, Edward U.

Dr. Condon was the fourth Director of the National Bureau of Standards,

serving from 1945-1951; he has the distinction of having recruited the

present (sixth) director when the latter was a graduate student at Harvard.

He left NBS to become director of research and development for Corning

Glass Works. Later he was Chairman of the Department of Physics of

Washington University, St. Louis.

He joined the faculty of the University of Colorado in 19 6 3 as

professor of physics and fellow of the Joint (Colorado University plus

NBS) Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics there. He became Emeritus

Professor and Fellow in July 1970. He is notorious for having headed the

Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects sponsored by the U.S. Air

Force in 1967-1968.

Cushen , W. Edward

Born Hagerstown, Maryland, 1925; undergraduate work at Western Maryland

College; Ph.D. in logic and metaphysics, University of Edinburgh, Scotland,

1951; D.Sc. Western Maryland, 1966. Computer programmer on Bell Relay

Computer, ORDVAC , and UNIVAC I. Operations research project leader at

Army's Operations Research Office, 1952-1961. Associate Professor of

Operations Research, Case Institute of Technology, 1961-1963. Staff

member at Institute for Defense Analyses , working on analysis of political

games under conditions of disarmament proposals, 1963-1964.

Dr. Cushen came to NBS in 1964, where he is Chief of the Technical

Analysis Division, whose purpose is to help agencies of civil government

to use the systems approach in a productive way. In 1970, he was elected

President of the Operations Research Society of America.

Day, Melvin S.

Educated as a chemist, Mr. Day worked on the Manhattan Project in

1943. He joined the technical information program of the U.S.A.E.C. in

1946, moving up to become its Director. In 1960, he transferred to the

National Aeronautics and Space Administration as Director of the Scientific

and Technical Information Division, and became Deputy Assistant Administrator

for Technology Utilization in 196 5.

Escobar V. , Ismael

Dr. Escobar was born in Bolivia in 1918, and educated in Spain, with

a doctorate in mathematics and physics from the University of Barcelona.

He has studied aerology in France, and held a Guggenheim fellowship in

physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He founded the

Meteorological Service of Bolivia in 1942, and was Professor of Physics and

Executive Director of the National Commission of Nuclear Energy in La Paz

until he joined the Inter-American Development Bank in 1963. As research

associate and visiting professor he has served several universities in the

U.S.A., and has presented papers at numerous conferences in Latin America

and Europe.

Felleke, Zawdu

Mr. Felleke was born in Dessye, Ethiopia in 1941. He received a B.Sc.

from Haile Selassie I University in 19 6 3 and a M.Sc. from Michigan State

University in 1966. He is presently Acting General Manager of the

Ethiopian Standards Institution.

364
Fontes , Alfredo

Mr. Fontes was born in Uruguay. He holds a chemical engineering

degree from the University of Uruguay, and has done post-graduate work

at American University. He has been with the Organization of American

States since 1961, and is presently Chief, Unit for Technological Development, Department of Science and Technology.

Ghosh, A. N.

Born in 1911, Dr. Ghosh earned the M.Sc. degree in Calcutta University

in Inorganic Chemistry, 19 35. He then proceeded to Germany and received

the Doctorate of Natural Sciences in 1939. On return to India Dr. Ghosh

has been Lecturer at the University of Calcutta, Deputy Chief Assayer to

the Mint in Bombay, 1940-1946, Director of National Government Test House

in Calcutta 1953-1956. He was Deputy Director General of the Indian

Standards Institution 1956-1966, and its Director General, 1966-1971.

In 1946-1948 he was Research Metallurgist to the Indian Standard Metal

Company, Bombay, and in 1948-1953, Director of Metallurgical Research and

Planning to the Government of Burma. He has long been active in both the

International Standards Organization and the International Organization for

Legal Metrology.

Hall, Newman A.

Born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania in 1913, Dr. Hall received his Ph.D.

(Mathematics) in 1938 from the California Institute of Technology. During

World War II he was an engineer with United Aircraft Corporation and head

of the thermodynamics group in the Research Department. He was Professor

and Chairman, Mechanical Engineering, Yale University, 1956-1964, and is

now with the National Academy of Engineering as Executive Secretary in the

Office of the Foreign Secretary. He has been active in both U.S.A. and

international standardization programs for over twenty-five years.

Hayes, Jerry L.

Mr. Hayes is a Mechanical and Electronic Engineer, educated at the

University of California, Berkeley. He is Technical Director of the U.S.

Navy Metrology Engineering Center--a technological center providing

guidance, equipment, training, and support to a network of 400 Navy

calibration laboratories. He is also President of the National Conference

of Standards Laboratories and Chairman of the U.S. Department of Defense

Calibration Coordination Group.

Huntoon, Robert D.

Dr. Huntoon was born in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1909. He received a B.A.

from Iowa State Teachers College in 1932; M.S. ana Ph.D. in nuclear

physics from State University of Iowa in 1938. He was an Instructor in

Physics, New York University in 1940; a Research Physicist with Sylvania

Electric Products in 1941. He came to the National Bureau of Standards in

1941, serving in Electronic Ordnance, in the Atomic Physics Division, as

Associate Director of Physics; as Deputy Director; and from 1964 until

his retirement in 1968, as Director of the Institute for Basic Standards.

Kalmanoff, George

Mr. Kalmanoff, born in New York City in 1917, is Deputy Director of

the Industrial Projects Department of the World Bank, and has been with

that agency for the past five years . His earlier career included some

ten years of service in the U.S. Government; three years with the U.N. ; six years as an economic advisor in residence in Bogota, Colombia; and

seven years at Columbia University co-directing research projects and

365
co-authoring books on Joint International Business Ventures and International

Financial Aid. He was educated at the College of the City of New York

and at American University in Washington, D. C.

Knox, William T.

Mr. Knox, a research chemist and chemical engineer with ESSO Research

and Engineering Company from 19 3 8 to 1957, was later Director of its

Technical Information Division and Manager of Corporate Planning. In

1964 he joined the Office of Science and Technology in the Executive

Offices of the President, with responsibilities for scientific and

technical information. From OST he went to McGraw-Hill, Inc. as Corporate

Vice-President for Information Systems. In 1970 he joined the Department

of Commerce as Director of the newly-created National Technical Information

Service

.

Kushner, Lawrence M.

Dr. Kushner was born in New York City in 1924, received a B.S. in

Chemistry from Queens College, New York and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry

from Princeton University in 1949. Dr. Kushner has been at the National

Bureau of Standards since 1948, engaged in research and administration in

the areas of metallurgy and colloid chemistry. Currently he is the Deputy

Director of NBS and Chairman of the Scientific Research Society of America.

LaQue , Frank L.

Dr. LaQue was born in Ontario, Canada in 19 04, and graduated from

Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario in 19 27. He has worked for the

International Nickel Company since 1927 retiring as Vice-President in

1969, and continuing as a consultant. He served as President of the

American National Standards Institute in 1969-1970, as President of the

American Society for Testing and Materials in 1959, and is now Senior

Lecturer, Scripps Institution for Oceanography, La Jolla, California. He

is currently President of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and Vice-President of the Pan American Standards Commission

(COPANT)

.

Lartey , Emmanuel

Mr. Lartey, born in Ghana in 1921, holds the academic degrees of

B.Sc. in Engineering from London University, and M.S. from Northwestern

University, Evanston, Illinois, and the professional degrees of FICE in

U.K. and MASCE in U.S.A. After some years as Engineer-in-Chief , Public

Works Department, Ghana, he is now Director of the Institute of Standards

and Industrial Research.

LeRoux C, Susana

Mrs. LeRoux, a Chemical Engineer, graduated from the National

University of Engineers at Lima, Peru, in 1949. She has worked at the

Ministry of Public Works and in private industry. During 1957-1958, she

was at the French Standards Association (AFNOR). Since 1961, she has been

Chief of the Standardization Division at the National Standards Institute

in Peru, now called the Technological Industrial Research and Standards

Institute (ITINTEC).

Maia, Geraldo N.S.

Born in Rio de Janiero, and educated in the Naval Academy there,

Admiral Maia served in the Brazilian Navy in 1968, was Deputy Director of

the Navy Research Institute, and retired to become a private consultant.

His graduate work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology earned him

366
both an M.S. and an M.Eng. In 1967-1968, he was a member of the National

Research Council of Brazil, and participated in its joint study with the

National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A., looking to a system of national

scope covering governmental and private activities able to meet Brazil's

requirements in the areas of standardization and compliance tests.

Marshak , Seymour

With a B.S. from Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in

1948 and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan Graduate School in

1949, Dr. Marshak began teaching at the University of Detroit, and

subsequently earned the Ph.D. at the New York University Graduate School

of Business. He taught Marketing at Rider College and de Paul University,

and from 1957-1961 was Vice-President of National Analysts, Inc. of

Philadelphia. Since 1961 he has been Marketing Research Manager for the

Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Michigan. His professional activities

include service on the National Industrial Conference Board.

Nigro , James P.

Mr. Nigro was educated at the University of Maryland and the Georgia

School of Technology. He served in the U.S. Navy as an aviator and

completed his duty as a Section Chief in the Office of Naval Research,

Special Device Division, responsible for the design and procurement of

flight simulators. He joined the National Bureau of Standards in 1947

and has participated in guided missile development, automated production

of electronic assemblies, and in "Tinkertoy" and computer development.

He is currently Chief of the Information Processing Technology Division,

Center for Computer Sciences and Technology.

Peiser, H. Steffen

Born near Berlin, Germany in 1917, Mr. Peiser became a citizen of

the U.S.A. in 1963. He attended St. Paul's School in London, and took

his B.A. and M.A. at Cambridge University. During 1941-1947 he worked

for Imperial Chemical Industries, the Atomic Energy Research Establishment,

and the Nuffield Cement Research Laboratory. After teaching at London

University, he became head of metal physics research at Hadfields Ltd, and

principal scientist at the Aeronautical Inspection Directorate's Test

House

.

In 1957 he joined NBS , and after heading first the Mass and Scale

Section and later the Crystal Chemistry Section, became Chief of the Office

of International Relations and Manager of the NBS Foreign Currency Program.

Diverse scientific missions have taken him to Malaya, Japan, China, Korea,

Vietnam, India, and Israel. Basically he is an x-ray crystallographer

,

and is Secretary of the IUPAC Commission on Atomic Weights.

Perkinson, Jesse D.

Dr. Perkinson was born in Etowah, Tennessee in 1914, and earned a

B.S. at the University of Tennessee. His Ph.D. in biochemistry came from

the University of Rochester in 1943. He was a senior scientist at the

Oak Ridge Institute for Nuclear Studies 1949-1952, taught at the University

of Tennessee Medical School 1952-1957, worked for the U.S.A. Atomic Energy

Commission 1957-1958. Since 1958 he has been with the Organization of

American States as Director of the Department of Science and Technology,

and Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Nuclear Energy Commission.

do Prado, Luiz Cintra

Professor do Prado was born in Amparo, Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1904,

and educated at Universidade de Sao Paulo and Universite de Paris. He has

367
taught in the polytechnic school, Universidade de Sao Paulo and the

school of philosophy Sedes Sapientiae since 1939. He has represented

Brazil in the International Committee for Weights and Measures, having been

active in the Instituto Eletrote"cnica , Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnologicas

,

Instituto da Organisacao Racional do Trabalho, and the Academia Brasileira

de Ciencias.

Pratt, Glenn E.

Mr. Pratt graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in

chemical engineering. Before joining the Monsanto Company 15 years ago,

he held supervisory positions in the plant manufacturing and operating

activities of the duPont Company in Texas and Ohio. He began his career

with Monsanto at Texas City, Texas, and then was assigned overseas as

plant manager and director of engineering in Monzon, Spain, and later to

Barcelona, where he was director of manufacturing with a Monsantoaffiliated company there. Mr. Pratt is now Director of Manufacturing and

Technology for Latin America at the Monsanto Company world headquarters

in St. Louis.

Probine, Mervyn C.

Dr. Probine was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1924, took undergraduate work at Auckland and Wellington Universities, and earned a Ph.D.

in Physics at the University of Leeds, England. He is a Fellow of the

Royal Society of New Zealand, the author of some 20 scientific papers,

and currently the Director of the Physics and Engineering Laboratory of

the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. In

1970 he completed a major assignment for UNESCO by compiling a detailed

list of the facilities for basic physical standards of weights and

measurement in South East Asia.

Rohatgi, Pradeep K.

Dr. Rohatgi was born in Kanpur, India in 194 3. He received his

undergraduate degree in India and the doctorate in metallurgy from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S.A. He was a research

metallurgist with the International Nickel Company for four years and

then spent one year as a visiting faculty member at the Indian Institute

of Technology at Kanpur, India. Presently he is with the Homer Research

Laboratories of the Bethlehem Steel Company. He has authored about twenty

technical papers in the field of metal solidification and foundry technology.

The American Foundrymen ' s Society gave him the award for the "best work

in 1969" in the area of light and reactive metals, for developing cast

composite alloys.

Russek, S. E. Jr.

Mr. Russek holds a B.S. in Engineering from the University of California

at Los Angeles, where he majored in systems engineering. With 17 years

in the Aerospace Group at Hughes Aircraft Company, he now manages a

section involved in the sale and performance of test equipment, notably

in support of the metrology and calibration activities of the Department

of Defense.

Sabato, Jorge A.

Dr. Sabato of Buenos Aires was Director of Research, G. Decker S.A.

1952-1954, Director Investigaciones Metalrugicas 1955-1956, and Head,

Metallurgy Division, Argentine National Atomic Energy Commission, 1956-

1970. He has taught at the University of California at Berkeley and at

other colleges in the U.S.A. Currently he is Presidente, Servicios

Electricos del Gran Buenos Aires, S.A.

368
Salama, Mahmoud

Dr. Salama was born in Cairo in 1915; received a B.Sc. (Hons)

in 1937 and Ph.D. (analytical chemistry) in 1944 from Cairo University.

As Undersecretary of State for Industry in the United Arab Republic and

Chairman of the Egyptian Organization for Standardization, he added

significantly to international councils in metrology through the International Organization for Legal Metrology. As Secretary General for the

Arab Organization for Standardization and Metrology (ASMO) , he must be

congratulated to have achieved a truly international metrological

organization on a regional basis.

Smith, Raymond B.

Mr. Smith, a native of Dayton, Ohio, received his B.S. in chemical

engineering from Purdue University in 1936. He has been employed as a

process engineer, as a foreman of heat treating, as a metallurgist, and

as a standards engineer. Since 1951 he has held the position of Director

of Engineering Standards for Reynolds Metals Company. He has been active

in ASTM since 1945, and in 1963 received the ASTM Award of Merit for his

work in the field of light metals. Since 196 3 he has been chairman of the

U.S.A. National Committee for IS0/TC79 and has headed the U.S.A. delegation

to the international meetings.

Stepanek, Joseph E.

After having served as a consultant to the petroleum industry and as

an Associate Professor of Engineering, Dr. Stepanek joined the United Nations

(UNRRA) staff in Shanghai, China in 1947 as Associate Director of the

Agricultural Industry Service. This service adapted modern technologies

for the special needs of manufacturing and processing companies in China.

After leaving China in late 1949 and through 1967 he led industrial

development teams or served as a consultant on industrial development

problems in over 20 countries in Asia, Latin America, Africa and the

Middle East, under programs financed by the United Nations, the Ford

Foundation, or the U.S. Government. During 1957-1958 he was a consultant

on the staff of the United Nations Bureau of Economic Affairs in New

York and for an additional year worked with an industrial research group

at Stanford Research Institute. In 1968 he joined the United Nations

Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in Vienna as a Special

Technical Adviser to the Executive Director and since 1970 has been

Director of the Industrial Services and Institutions Division of UNIDO.

Tabor, Harry

Dr. Tabor, a physicist, received his B.Sc. from London University and

his Ph.D. at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was involved in

research and development in instrumentation up to 1949, then went to

Israel where he joined the National Research Council and set up the National

Physical Laboratory of Israel which he directs. His own field of research

is in energy conversion, in which field he has an international reputation

having advised to UNESCO, ECOSOC, ECA, WMO , and the governments of several

developing countries.

Tarn, Phi Minh

Mr. Phi Minh Tarn is a graduate of the New York State University

College of Forestry at Syracuse. He did his graduate study in chemical

engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but he was recalled

by his government to serve in war-torn Vietnam which badly needs men and

women with his kind of training. Appointed Chief of the Chemical Industry

Section of the Industrial Development Center he helped elaborate and

evaluate industrial projects and assisted in the implementation of many of

369
the existing manufacturing plants. In 1967, Mr. Tam was commissioned by

the Ministry of Industry to organize and head the newly erected Vietnam

Institute for Standardization. Recently ground was broken for the construction of a testing laboratory with the contributions of local manufacturing and technical associations, and Mr. Tam expects his Institute

to begin to provide testing and calibration services to the industrial

sector at the beginning of 1972.

Willenbrock, F. Karl

Educated at Brown and Harvard Universities (Ph.D. in electron physics

1950), Dr. Willenbrock served at Harvard as faculty member 1950-1967,

Director of Laboratories 1960-1963, and Associate Dean of Engineering and

Applied Physics 1960-1967. In 1962 he was given the Distinguished

Engineering Award of Brown University. While Provost of the State

University of New York at Buffalo, he served as President of the Institute

of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (1969). He headed a delegation

of engineers to the Soviet Union, and represented the U.S.A. at the

World Federation of Engineering Organizations in Paris. His appointment

as Director of the NBS Institute of Applied Technology came in 1970.

Work, Harold K.

Dr. Work was born in Connecticut in 1901, and took his A.B. and Ch.E.

from Columbia University in 1925, and his Ph.D. in chemical engineering

from the University of Pittsburgh in 1929. He was employed by the

Aluminum Company of America 1929-19 34, was Manager of Research and Development for Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation 19 36-1949, and was Director

of the Research Division of the New York University College of Engineering

1949-1966. In 1964, he became Secretary of the National Academy of

Engineering, and in 19 6 8 he went to Iran for the UN as research advisor

to the Institute for Standards and Industrial Research.

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

370
APPENDIX 9

AUTHOR INDEX

Page

Beck, Niels C 135

Bernstein, Joel 1

Brady, Edward L 281

Brans comb Lewis M 5

Cali, J. Paul 95

Condon, Edward U 71

Cushen, W. Edward 257

Day, Melvin S 115

Dennison, Edward S 293

Escobar, Ismael 345

Farkas, Leonard R 85

Felleke, Zawdu 143,315

Fernandez F. , Hernando 243

Fontes, Alfredo 127

Ghosh, A. N 221

Hall, Newman A 277

Hayes, Jerry L 79

Huntoon, Robert D 265

Kalmanoff , George 31

Knox, William T 131

Kushner, Lawrence M 15

LaQue, Frank L 213

Lartey, Emmanuel 167

Page

Lehany, F. J 337

LeRoux C. , Susana 249

Maia, Geraldo N.S 57

Marshak, Seymour 177

Nigro, James P 163

Peiser, H. Steffen 207

Pelli, D 209

Perkinson, Jesse D 9

Prado, Luiz Cintra do 91

Prakash, Prem 206

Pratt, Glenn E 185

Probine, Mervyn C 319

Rohatgi, Pradeep K 195,201

Russek, Simon E 173

Sabato, Jorge A 37

Salama, Mahmoud 235

Smith, Raymond B 239

Stepanek, Joseph E 43

Tabor, Harry 85

Tarn, Phi Minh 135

Willenbrock, F. Karl 159

Work, Harold K 199

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

371

APPENDIX 10

SUBJECT INDEX

ABNT (Brazil), 59,66,305

accuracy

charts, 273,274

interrelating science, 267,268

for quality control, 107,109

agriculture

education in USA, 73

food standards, WHO/FAO, 255

improved by science, 54

needs revolution, 72

research study, 67

AID (USA)

assistance by NBS , 2

objectives, 1

questionnaire, 305,307,313

training, Vietnam, 137

ANSI (USA), 162,254

Africa

East African Economic

Community, 14 7 ECA/UNIDO conference, 152,317

ESI, Ethiopia, 315

foreign standards, 14 3

functions of NSB's, 144

Mahgreb countries, 14 7 metrology, 147

multinational interests, 146,147

national standards, 143,147

NSB, Nigeria, 147

policy issues, 144

quality and certification, 145

priority of categories, 145

regional approach, 152,154,155

standardization benefits, 144

technical assistance needs, 148

Union of Central African

Countries, 147

Andean Group, 249,250,255

Asia

Standards Advisory Committee,

153

UNESCO survey in, 155,319

ASMO (Arab League)

and OIML, 2 37

established, 235

membership, 2 89,30 6

survey, 237

assistance proposals, for NBS/AID

alternative actions, 261,262

Bayer, Central America,

306,308,313

Brady, NBS, 28 3 caution on, 314

Condon, USA, 307,312,314

criteria for, 260,264

Cushen, NBS, 263,264

Escobar, IDB, 307,311,314

Felleke, Ethiopia, 305,308,313

Ghosh, India, 229,306,309,313

Hall, USA, 279

Ham, Korea, 306,310,313

Huntoon, NBS, 265,274,268

Lartey, Ghana, 306,308,313

LeRoux, Peru, 307,311,314

Lovejoy, UNDP, 307,311,314

Maia, Brazil, 305,308,313

objectives of, 264

Probine, New Zealand, 306,310,

314

questionnaire, 305

Rohatgi, India, 306,309,313

Salama, Arab League, 306,310,314

Tabor, Israel, 286

Tarn, Vietnam, 307,311,314

value judgements on, 26 3

Work, Iran, 306,310,313

assistance, technical

by CSIRO to industry, 337

by Inter-American Bank, 346

by National Science Foundation,

USA, 151

by UNDP, 6 8

by VITA, 293

elements of, 2 follow-on need, 309,310

for Africa, 148,313

for Ethiopia, 317

for Ghana, 308

for manufacturing, 3 5 on information, 12 8,2 81

on specific problems, 311

seminars, 170,311

up to 2 years, 311

ASTM (USA)

finances, 253

industrial consumers, 2 53

laboratory evaluation, 162

voluntary standards, 154

author index, 371

373
Battelle Memorial Institute

help to Korea, 314

• information analysis by, 282

BIPM (Paris)

contact with, 98

services, 7,111

Brazil

ABNT, 66

standardization study, 59

British Calibration Service

for LDC's, 287

for State officials, USA, 288

in Britain, 287

building standards

coordination, local codes,

22,26,161

fire resistance, 26

of performance, 21,161

calibration

at fixed points, 287

centers, 93,285,310

chain not needed, 270

compatibility for, 268

controls needed, 7 9

defined, 173

electrical, USA, 268

etalons , for India, 306

horizontal transfer of, 275

in Australia, 113

in Israel, 86,89,211,286

in New Zealand, 113,321,325,

327,330,335

in Vietnam, 136

on-site, 95,211,269

questionnaire, 327

revolution in, 269

structure, 8 3

unit for Ghana, 30 8

workload, 89

Canada, 114

case histories

Argentina, 37,40,65

balances, India, 206

chemical industry, 186,187,188

engineering education, 201

Georgia, USA, 9

industries, Iran, 199

instrument manufacture, 19 3,194

instruments, India, 19 5

Japan, 48

Leeds and Northrup Co. , 19 3

mainland China, 4 8

Monsanto Co., 185

non-destructive tests, 207

standards, Israel, 209

certification

consumer enforced, 2 54

in Brazil, 305

in Colombia, 2 46

in Egypt, 2 51

in India, 201,252

in Israel, 210

in Peru, 249

inter-country, 6 3,112

ISO standards used, 254

of SRM's, 100,111

unsupervised, 252

changes take decades, 75

CIPM

laboratory (BIPM), 7

principal members , 7

CITS (Colombia), 246

COBOL performance tests, 164

compatibility

by self-evaluation, 268

chart for, 2 74

electrical quantities, 267

in measurement, 266,267

competition

incentive, 36

lacking, 127,247

computers

advisory service, 164

and unemployment, 181,182,183

batch vs. time-shared, 165,181

early use by NBS, 16 3

FIPS for, NBS, 16 3

for modeling, 20,22,165,184

guest workers at NBS, 164

in Brazil, 182

in India, 181,182

in laboratories, 163,164

in teleprocessing, 164,181,182

performance, 164

procurement, 16 5

regional centers, 181

use in government, 21

consultants

See technical specialists

consumer

enforces certification, Ghana,

254

expenditures, 159

interest in standards, 225

representation, ASTM, 2 54

COPANT (Pan America)

and ICAITI, 154

operations, 15 3

purpose of, 249

374
COSATI (USA)

Directory of Information

Analysis Centers, 117

responsibilities, 116

standard documentation, 13 3

CSIRO (Australia), 337

data

demographic detail, 177

standard reference, 19,2 6

development

by adaptive research, 191

continues, 71

corporations abroad, 188

levels vary in LDC's, 35

of mass standards, 206

of precision balances, 206

only recent, 75

process study, 283

project bids, 188

symposia, international, 168

work by World Bank, 67

deviation from norm, 109,110

discussions

session 1. 25

session 2, 63

session 3, 107

session 4, 151

session 5, 181

session 6, 191

session 7, 251

session 8, 285

economic

aim in standardization, 224

and political stability, 57

data on markets, 177

development, 29

environment , LDC ' s , 35

factors , 2

growth as goal, 2

library for Latin America, 347

planning, 111

publications (USA), 124

specialists activity, 313

theory , 5 7

economic data, USA publications

Current Business, 124

Electric Power Statistics, 124

Federal Funds for Research, 124

Financial Manufacturing, 124

electrical quantities

calibration, New Zealand, 330

compatibility, USA, 268

engineering education

faculty, 2 02

for standards, 200,279

IIT, Kanpur, 2 01

NAS and NAE , USA, 2 79

entrepreneur

essential, 196,244

family, 35

successful, 52

EOQC meeting, 2 51

equipment

capital-saving, 52

designed for export, 5 3

import costs, 6 8

labor-saving, 46

tolerances, 80

ESI (Ethiopia), 158,315,317

export

insurance, ISIRI, 255

markets open, 18 5

promotion, 64

extension services for information,

128

exchange visits, 312,313,314

Federal Council for Science and

Technology (USA), 116

fellowships

for standards engineers, 229

for technologists, 313

in New Zealand, 326

films and filmstrips available, USA,

122,283

financing

by IDC, Vietnam, 137

by Inter-American Bank, 156,345

by World Bank, 67

debt capital, 44,199,203

for Central America, 30 9

in Brazil, 305

in COPANT, 153

in India, 255

in New Zealand, 324

manufacturing, 34

on regional basis, 152,156

standards bodies, 60,217

with soft currencies, 19 8

flow chart of industrialization, 258

food production vs. population, 72

452-533 O - 72 - 25 375
foreign

exchange, 31

investment, India, 196

participation, 186

scientist visits, 198

technology, 50,65,152

FORTRAN for science, 165

FREAI (New York/India), 302

government

assistance, 66,200

difficulties with, 186,191

institutions, 36,156

leaders visit USA, 313,314

limitations by LDC, 186

negotiations, 195,198

participation, 61,188

policy effects, 36,185

purchase of technology, 193

IAI (Israel), 8 8

ICAITI (Central America), 154,308

iceberg effect, 19 3

ICONTEC (Colombia) 244

IDC (Vietnam), 137

IDI (USA) proposed, 1

IEC (International Electrotechnical

Commission)

cable standards, 253

European influence, 255

work adopted, 64

IESC (International Executive

Service Corps), 2 99

IIT, Kanpur, 201,204

import substitution, 32,64

India

develops instruments, 206

KIAP program, 201

National Standards list, 2 30

private industry, 196

Standards Institution, 2 21

training for LDC's, 2 30,306

indoctrination

for ECAFE countries, 309

of managers and financiers,

308 ,309

industrializing

advantages of, 31

alternative actions, 261

assistance in, 34

constraints, 31

criteria for, 260

disadvantages of, 32

essentials before, 199

flow chart of, 2 58

in Brazil, 5 8

in Japan, 29

parties at interest, 259

policies, 32

purposes of, 259

role of standards in, 26 3

strategies, 32,199

technologies in, 259

time scale in, 2 5

industries

automobile, Brazil, 58

machine tool, USA, 28

metallurgical, Argentina, 38

nuclear, Argentina, 40

optical, USA, 28

radiography in foundry, 207

small-scale, India, 195

textile, Vietnam, 141

using SRM's, 98

industry

automobile, Argentina, 65

automobile, Iran, 200

aviation, in Israel, 88,210

building, 22

carpet dyes, Iran, 200

cement, 69

history of, Vietnam, 135

IIT students in, 203

import protection, 127

in Israel, 1962-1970, 88,209

lacks technical information, 127

leadership, 28

management improvement, 54

metallurgy, Argentina, 38,40

petroleum, Iran, 200

precision casting, India, 196

precision standards, 89

problems, Australia, 341

protype plants for, 53,54

relations, NBS, 16

skills for development, 200

soap-making, Africa, 293

stages in development of, 96

starting your own, 2 03

vs. science, 28,210

information

barriers to transfer, 132

Canada, 130

catalogs, ISO, 289

institutions to provide, 129,283

local evaluation, 128,282

376
information (continued)

on simplified equipment, 55

reasons for inadequacy, 127

request specific, 281

subjects needed, 281,282

system functions, 128

information from USA

analysis centers, 117,282

existing sources, 117,118,122

indexes and notices, 118,120,133

via NBS, 130,283

via NTIS, 122,133,156

infrastructure

cooperative, 275

defined, 15,242

services to, by NBS, 15,22

technique-oriented, 207

tie-points to, 273

instrument

areas of uses, 191

calibration, 84,93,102,104,211

centers, 9 3

components standardized, 9 3

facilities needed, 94,237,310

international cooperation on, 94

maintenance, 93,94,170,310,325

manufacture, India, 102,19 6,

202,309

procurement, 9 2,94

repair, 93,237,310

tolerances, 8 3

Inter-American Development Bank

loan conditions, 349

support of education, 345,346

support of regional integration,

347

support of research, 348

support of training, 347

INPM (Brazil), 60,305

ISI (India), 221,226

ISIR (Ghana), 168

ISO (International Standards

Organization)

and Peru, 2 55

and Vietnam, 252,253

Asian influence, 153

catalog, 218

European influence, 64

INFCO training, 216

in tropics, 228

output, 217

priorities and procedures, 2 54

production rates, 254

rate structure, 255

work adopted, 38

work for LDC 1 s , 2 80

ISRI (Iran), 199,254

KISS principle, 288,314

KIST (Korea), 314

laboratory

accreditation, 23,113,283,286

buildings, 308,310,344

equipment, 310

environmental controls, 326,340

expansion, Australia, 344

functions, New Zealand, 324

libraries and offices, 308

performance, 19

laser for metrology, 2 7

less developed countries

See LDC's

life expectancy, 7 3

licensing

of technology, 185

lump-sum fee, 198

paid from sales, 194

precision casting, India, 196

manpower

limited, 85,278

programs, Ghana, 169

manufacture

by corporate branches, 6 3

by foreign partners, 185,19 3

managerial control of, 185,192,

193

of cement, 69

of gas tanks, Argentina, 65

of precision balances, 206

of structural steel, 226

rationale for, 31

responsibility for quality, 247

manufacturing

benefits mutual, 189

disadvantages to LDC's, 34

foreign, limitations on, 186,187

growth rates, 3 3

plant design for, 54,69

requirements, 34

small-scale, 186

vs. agriculture, 32,33

market

comparisons, 279

characterization, 178,278

377
market (continued)

export, 185,191,278

for SRM's, 280

limited size, 127

local and regional, 156,277,280

research, 17 7,179

materials

ceramic powder, Japan, 197

collaborative reference, 288

self-calibration for, 288

standard reference (SRM's),

20,95

testing in LDC's, 154

measurement

accuracy in, 91,109,267

achieving control of, 8 3

analysis program, NBS, 19,269

as system component, 266

assistance to industry,

Australia, 337,338

capability for USA, 16,27,10 8

capability in Israel, 85,112

capability, transfer of NBS, 19

compatibility in, 267

conditions for meaningful,

95,268

electrical, New Zealand, 327

electrical, USA, 267

facilities, New Zealand, 320

facilities, UNESCO survey,

155,319

improving NBS standards for, 19

instruction, 83,108,113,283

precision, 83,267,285

revolution in, 269

metrology

applied, 73,91

applied dimensional, 27

assistance needed, 91

engineering services, 108,287

for Ghana, 308

history of, 2 35

imported, 183

in Africa, 148

in Arab League, 2 37, 2 38

in Britain, 286

in Central America, 309

in Ethiopia, 316

in Israel, 85,112

in New Zealand, 107,320,332

legal aspects, 182,236,237,

308,319

promotion, I IT Kanpur, 204

services by NBS, 15

standards for, 2 69

systems analysis for, 174,287

military bases, use of, 77

ministries, convincing, 285

NATA (Australia), 113,321

National Referral Center (USA) , 117

nationalization, 188,189

NBS (USA)

and ADP in USA, 16 3

and AID overseas , 6

broad concerns, 16

Building Codes and Standards,

22

computer technology, 21

evolution of, 5

failures of, 26

goal and objectives, 7,17

in CIPM, 7

industry relations, 16

in early 1900»s, 25,28

influenced Argentina, 38,41

in Latin America, 6

laboratory evaluation, 2 3,162

materials properties, 2 0

noise studies, 21

no enforcement authority, 7,16

philosophy useful, 41

pollution concerns, 20

psychophysics program, 21

programs, 6,17,30

reference data, 19

resources, 17,30

safety concerns, 20,22

Seminar hopes, 7,162

standards dissemination, 19

structures performance, 21

weights and measures, 6,21

National Conference of Standards

Laboratories (USA), 286

needs

business, USA, 260

national, USA, 260

stated by LDC's, 260

NIS (Vietnam)

financing, 140

functions, 13 8

future plans, 140

organization, 139

training, 140

norms

See standards , engineering

NPLM (Cairo), 2 38

NTIS (USA), 133,134,156

NPL (India), 206,221

NPLI (Israel), 86,211

378
NSL (Australia), 337

operations analysis, 160,173,257,

308 ,309 ,311

participants

list of, 353

responses to questionnaire, 305

personnel

a major problem, 200,238

exchange visits for, 313

for management training, 311

for work abroad, 189,191,314

technical background of, 313

planning, 11,170,200,226

product

acceptance, 179

certification, 246

concept testing, 17 8

development for market, 177

export of, 246

measurements on, 79

quality control, 184

radiographic inspection of, 208

rationalization of, 2 26

redesign for capital saving,

53

reference materials, 288

publications, lists of (USA)

Federal Specifications Index,

120

Government Publications, 120

Journal of Chemical and

Physical Data, 123

Reference Data Compilations,

120

Voluntary Engineering Standards

,

120

publication sales (USA)

Audiovisual Center, 122

Science Information Exchange

,

122

Superintendent of Documents,

123

Technical Information Service,

122

quality consciousness

need, India, 202,309

need, Vietnam, 136

promotion, I IT Kanpur, 204

quality control

accuracy vs. precision, 109

administration, 278

by ledger only, 2 52

by reference product, 2 88

by x-ray, 207

European Organization for, 2 51

from specifications, 277

government role, 244

in Brazil, 184

in Colombia, 2 43

in Egypt, 2 51

in India, 252

in Peru, 249

initiates research, 39

is essential, 251

via consumer, Ghana, 2 54

questionnaire

for Southeast Asia, 154,319

responses to AID, 291,305,307,

313

Recommendations (of IEC , ISO),

227,228

research

basic vs. applied, 10,28,39

by metrology staff, 29,89,211

early, in USA, 15,40,75

in Australia, 338,341

in Canada, 114

in Central America, 154

in Ghana, 16 7

in Iran, 199

in Israel, 88,211

in metrology, 9 5,111

in progress, USA, 122

in Thailand, 310

on compatibility tie-points, 275

on fixed-point standards, 89,

287

projects, Australia, 341

reports, USA, 12 2

societal effectiveness, 26

starting with quality control,

29,39

royalties, 19 8

science

apparatus, India, 196

coupling to technology, 37

government interest, 10

not industrialization, 16

research essential, 10

self-evaluation, 270

379
Seminar, NBS/AID 1971

discussions, 25,63,107,151,

181,191,251,285

logic in analysis of, 257

objectives, 1,29,257

questions for discussion, 3,12

SI (Systeme International

de Unites)

conversion to, 237

prototypes not needed, 265

rational quantities , 18

SII (Israel), 85,209

speakers' biodata, 36 3

societal

adaptability, 200

data for marketing, 177

effectiveness, 26

expectations, 18 2 innovation, 16 9

staff

See personnel

standard reference data

evaluated physical constants,

123

for self-evaluation , 271

Journal of Chemical and

Physical Data, 12 3

national system, USA, 26,123

standard reference materials (SRM's)

accuracy of, 101

agricultural, 107

clinical, 104,109,110

collaboration on, 104,105,112

competence for, 10 0

defined, 9 5 environmental, 104

financing, 9 8

for self-evaluation , 272

history, 97

industries using, 98

primary uses, 97

requirements on, 98,109

steps in producing, 99

types available, 103

types for future, 104

standardization

and management, 214

aspect; level; subject, 223

assistance in, 98

benefits of, 213

by law, 25

definitions in, 5,218,221

financing, USA, 254

food, WHO/FAO, 255

government initiative in, 245

standardization (continued)

industrial, in USA, 27

in Ethiopia, 315

investment in, USA, 2 54

private industry responsibility,

245

objectives of, 224

promotion, I IT Kanpur, 204

regional, Africa, 15 2 regional, Central America, 154

regional, Europe, 255

structural steel, India, 226

time-scale, Africa, 152

Standards Institute

financing a, 217

function analysis, 288

functions, in Africa, 144

needed early, 2,285

private, in Brazil, 154

of Arab League, 2 35

of Colombia, 246

of Ethiopia, 148,289

of Ghana, 168

of India, 221,226

of Iran, 199,254

of Israel, 85,90,209

of Peru, 250

of Vietnam, 138,151,307

organizing a, 216

standards, engineering (norms)

ASTM committees, 242

basic and applied, 221

British in India, 227

benefits of, 213,225,239

by consensus, 6,241

defined, 5,218,222,239

electrical cables, 253

for computers, 16 3

for tropical countries, 162,228

from multiple sources, 184,226,

253

in Brazil, 305

index of voluntary (USA), 120

international preferred, 218

intra-industry , 215

national needed, 153,215,226,

227,245

not enforced by NBS, 16,12 5 of performance, 21

organizations, 6 3

personnel, 214,228

preparation of, 66,154,240

regional, 152,153,218

specification is intrinsic,

277

standards of measurement

basic SI, 321

defined, 5 electrical quantities, 154,267

frequency, USA, 18

380
standards of measurement

(continued)

independently reproducible,

269

in New Zealand, 319,320,322

laboratory strategy for, 38

prototypes for LDC's, 279

regional, 12,2 38

tolerances on, 8 0

standards of performance

,

5,21,161

States of USA

autonomy of, 76

development agencies in, 156

field inspection by, 161

surveys

of facilities, 311

of potential benefit, 309

of progress, 310

of Southeast Asia, 311

systems engineering

defined, 173

for metrology, 174

staff required, 174

technical specialists

for Central America, 30 9

for Ghana, 308

for Iran, 311

government and industry, 16

India/USA exchange, 310

sell technology, 198

visiting LDC's, 69,311

technology

Alaskan study, 160

application in USA, 16

archaic, 43

capital-saving, 35,43,50,53,

66,69

commerce in, 151,191,192,193,

195

choice of, 12,52,53,65

defined broadly, 131

evaluation of, 128

forecasting, 161,182

foreign, 35,151,169,185

improving transfer of, 188

in Japan, 29

labor-saving, 33,44,45,54,127

management of, 185,192

payment for, 18 5,188,189,192,

194,198

small-scale, 69,186,195

third-country sale, 198

transfer of, 29,63,185,198,242

test facilities

a local problem, 2 90

evaluation of, 283

in Australia, 113

in Central America, 154

in New Zealand, 321

in Vietnam, 136

needed, 229,279

non-destructive, 207

tolerances in, 80

textbooks for LDC's, 6 8

thesauri (USA)

Aeronautics and Space, 121

Agriculture/Biology, 121

Engineering and Scientific

Terms, 121

Library of Congress Cards, 121

traceability myth, 270

trade associations, USA, 216

training

assistance for, 84,185,216,229

at Bogota, 216

at Moscow, 307

in Brazil, 308

in India, 228,230,285,306,309

in Latin America, 347

in New Zealand, 325

in USA, 216,309

international needed, 2 85

NBS program advised, 264

of management, 137,310,313

of technical specialists,

77,185,188,285,310

regional institutes, 312

using military bases, 312

unemployment

absent, Japan and China, 48

computer related, 181

persistent, 33

serious, 66

vs. economic growth, 65,67

UNIDO (Vienna)

Asian standards, 15 3

Athens symposium 1967, 94

Beirut seminar 1964, 170

conference on information 1971,

71,76

contacts, VITA, 299

Iran assignment, 200

prototype plants, 54

United Nations

and NBS/AID, 307

381
United Nations (continued)

study of technology transfer,

193

UNESCO, 154,304,319

UNDP, 68,137,304,312

See also UNIDO

university

faculty involvement, 68,110

information analysis, 282

patent libraries, 303

stimulation, 77,309

testing laboratories, 12

VITA (Volunteers for International

Technical Assistance)

and AID, 297, 299, 303

and IESC, 299

and UNIDO, 300, 302

and USDA, 30 3

charges, 295,298

conflict of interest, 302

counterpart plans, 295,302,304

follow-up, 295,301,303

VITA (continued)

funding, 297

history, 294,297,304

legal liability, 300

opposition, 300

performance evaluation, 299,301

response to requests, 294,297,

301

typical services, 293,298,299,

303

Village Handbook, 297,303

volunteering for, 29 8

weights and measures

assistance from NBS, 286,313

for commerce, New Zealand, 322

inspection in USA, 22

legislation, New Zealand, 155,

321

regulation, ASMO, 237

training in India, 228

training for States, USA,

161

uniformity in USA, 22

NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 359 - Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:

The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies.

Proceedings of a Seminar, 1971.

382
[form NBS-114A (1-71)

U.S. DEPT. of comm. 1 . PU B LIC AT ION OR RE PORT NO. 2. Gov't Accession

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA „__ No- SHEET NBS-SP 359

3. Recipient's Accession No.

4. TITLE * ND SUBTITLE

Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed

Countries: The Role of a National Capability for

Industrializing Economies

5. Publication Date December, 1971

6. Performing Organization Code

7. AUTHOR(S)

Mason, H. L. and Peiser, H. S.

8. Performing Organization

9. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME AND ADDRESS

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20234

10. Project/Task/Work Unit No. 1560950

11. Contract/Grant No. PASA TA(CE) 5-71

12. Sponsoring Organization Name and Address

Department of State

Agency for International Development

Washington, D.C. 20523

13. Type of Report & Period

Covered

Final

14. Sponsoring Agency Code

15. supplementary notes Proceedings of a Seminar organized by the National Bureau of

Standards and the Agency for International Development with the cooperation

of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.

16. ABSTRACT (A 200-word or less factual summary of most significant information. If document includes a significant

bibliography or literature survey, mention it here.) The National Bureau of Standards held a 4-day

Seminar in an effort to learn how its experience in metrology and

standardization for the science and technology of U.S.A. might be used

most effectively for less developed countries. With financial support

of the Agency for International Development, participants came from

Argentina, Brazil, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Israel, League

of Arab States, New Zealand, Peru, and Vietnam; from several international

agencies; and from industries, professional societies, and government

in U.S.A. The papers presented and the informal discussions were

organized around the session titles:

Perspective

The Sociological, Economic, and Managerial Environment in

Industrializing Countries

Making Scientific and Technological Measurement Meaningful

The Dissemination of Information

Promoting More Effective Use of Science and Technology

Additional Case Histories

Promoting Economic Strength and Commercial Equity

Guidance for NBS Technological Assistance Effort

It was concluded that industrializing economies would benefit from NBS

activities in these fields, and- specific suggestions were offered to that end.

17. KEY WORDS (Alphabetical order, separated by semicolons) Africa; Asia; engineering Standards;

industrialization; Latin America; less developed countries; measurement

standards; NBS; quality control; U.S. AID

18. AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

|~%] UNLIMITED.

FOR OFFICIAL DISTRIBUTION. DO NOT RELEASE

TO NTIS.

19. SECURITY CLASS

(THIS REPORT)

UNCL ASSIFIED

21. NO. OF PAGES

390

20. SECURITY CLASS

(THIS PAGE)

UNCLASSIFIED

22. Price

USCOMM-DC 66244-P71