Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-09

Far out on the top of one of the hills
toward Chevy Chase the national bureau
of standards is Just getting comfortably
settled In its new quarters and is doing
the work that has been needed In this
country for the past hundred years. In
one way the two buildings that are now
completed are among the greatest show
places that scientific Washington has to
offer. In another way the place would
hardly repay the trouble Of the long trip
out there. The two buildings are both OF
the newest construction and they are filed
from end to end with the most beautitul
physical and chemical laboratory appa-
ratus. There are dynamos and storage bat
teries and machine tools of all sorts;
scales that look as little like scales as
they look like anything, yet which Will
weigh a lead pencil mark on sheet or
paper; testing machines that will tear
bar of inch square steel in half like putty.
meters that will measure the flow of water,
gas and electricity to the minutest fraction
and instruments that will tell to the least
shade of a candle power how much light IS
coming from an electric lamp.
To the scientist the place is delight I'M
speakable. To the average citizen 1t Is
simply a hopeless maze of polished brass
and steel machines and queer shaped glass
bottles. 1t takes the explanation of one Of
the scientists to make plain what the
various wonderful instruments will do. And
the scientists as a rule are too busy to
stop for visitors. The bureau of standards
is the latest of all the scientific depart
ments in the field, and everyone is busy
catching up with the work that Is await
Ing 1t.
The new bureau in it's new home Is bet
ter equipped to do fine scientific work than
any similar establishment in the world eX-
cept. perhaps, the famous German relch-
sanstalt, and even that may be equaled'
8 Cd &c In
mine the length of the standard yard stick
to the 5O-1OOOth part of an inch. or the
weight of a standard pound TO decimal
of five places. Yet the first question from
the man on the trolley car will be- What
Is the use: how does it pay?"
The average citizen. lie he ever so mean,
would not stand out for such accuracy in
buyiug a yard of calico or pound of
sugar But a mistake in a steel scale or
pair of talipers used in building loco
motive might mount In the aggregate to
flaw that would pile up that same citizen In
a railroad wreck or n nurse with q clinical
thermometer might easily make a mistake
that would land him in typhoid grave.
Yes the highly refined work of the bureau
has its practical uses even in everyday
life.
In the Engine Room.
The bureau is now in two buildings on
the old Pierce Mill road, just off the car
line TO Chevy Chase. The buildings only
cost the ABOUT SObu,pvO lO-
gethcr, but they house a collection of in
struments of precision worth now over
$GOoOOO and the work that they are doing
Is worth many times their cost to the
country every year. The smaller house of
the two is sort of magnified Queen Ann
cottage in brick and stone. 1t contains the
engine and boiler rooms. the electric gen.
erat ting plant, one of the most beautiful in
StallationS in existence.
The new engine room and its adjoining
sections would be the first to interest the
casual visitor, because it is the part easiest
to understand. Clean as most engine rooms
are with their polished steel and brass. they
are neglected attics compared to this new
creation with It's white glazed tiled walls,
spotless rubber mating in front of it's
giant marble switch board and its smooth
working, almost noiseless engine, each
mounted on a white brick base and looking
rs though an oil can was a dissertation
that never approached it. The switch
board is a marvel. fifty-seven feet long
and studded with brass vulcanite switches.
electric meters, plug holes and other mys-
terious adjuncts. Its back is seemingly a
tangled maze of useless wires, but each one
of them Is for definite use and each Is
known to the engineer like the pockets of
his own overalls
1t is not a place where you need to wear
oVeralls but all the engine room staff do
and they look like a new species of we'll
creased blue denim uniform. There are
visitor. elevators that come to you at the
and stop without the aid of an elevator