Evening star., 1922-01-15

technical problems.
The division Of simplifed practice is taking
up first two sections of the work-nomencla-
ture and dimensional standards
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The division of housing and the division Of
simplifed practice are both under the general
direction of DR.. s. w. Stratton, chief Of the
bureau of standards The division of simpli-
fed practice is in charge of w. A. Durgin.
who is an engineer with broad commercial
experience as assistant to the vice president
of the Commonwealth Edison Company IN
Chicago Mr. Durgin is undertaking to
organize the relations of the department.
particularly with regard to the program oi
elimination Of excess variety. OF standaroiza
ton of dimensional sizes and questiohs oi
nomenclature.
Excellent illustrations of the opportunity
t si,np,ifed nractice is found in the work
already done by several national industries.
The National Paving Brick Manufacturers
Association brought to the department VI
Commerce the need for simplifying the num-
ber and sizes of paving brick They estima'eu
that there about thirty sizes anu
varieties After a preliminary conference WIN
the department they undertook IN the name
of the department an exact survey OF tne
field, and found that instead OF thirty 'here
were sixty-six sizes and varieties of paving
Al a result of that survey Secretary Hoover
c,,,ed a conference of the manufacturers.
municipal engineers. various. associations IN
the ceramic industry representing engineers
architects and buyers as well as the manu-
facturers of bricks. In one day meeting
thirty representatives of organizations reduced
the sizes and styles of paving brick by mutual
concent from sxty-six to eleven and nave
recommended that these sizes be adopted by
standard sizes in the paving brick INDUSTRY.
X X X
Similar opportunities for Standardization in
demensonal size and varieties exist in hum
dreds Of lines, and the Department of Com
merce has under way preliminary work for I'm
mediate surveys of beds and mattresses auto
mobile starting and lighting batteries
electrical connection plugs, sewer pipes,
group OF commodities suggested by the
plumbing committee of the division Of hous-
ing. and many others. These examples are
taken at random from very large group and
suggestions are coming in from the industries
themselves and not the department. in ac-
cordance with the announced general policy
of the department to take up work initiated
by an industry rather than initiating work
for industry.
The ramihcations of this scheme OF stand
ardizaton are we'll illustrated in the mat
tress, wood bed and metal bed industries. The
mattress manufacturers brought UP the ques-
tion because. while in general there are trade .
Sizes they vary so much in actual dimensions
that it is impossible to make mattresses in
large quantities. The metal bed industry has
carried forward an independent program for
Standardization of sizes and the Department
of Commerce in this case will act not only
in heading up program for dimensional
Standardization in the mattress and bed trade.
but will bring together manufacturers of
metal and wood beds on a common argeement.
X k*
These requests for action by the Department
of Commerce come from all branches of the
trade. In some cases programs for simpli-
fcation come from groups of retailers, and
others made by the manufacturers In
general. these programs will make it possible
to reduce the amount of capital tied up in
inventories by both manufacturers and re-
tailers, will reduce the unit cost of manu-
facture by making it possible to introduce
mass production methods. and to make more
effective use Of material and equipment and
machinery by Standardization of the work 60
ing through the plant 1t tends automatically,
also. to open up new opportunities for small
manufacturers, because one of the interesting
things about this program Of smplification
and Standardization Is that 1t Immediately
suggests an endless field Of specialization in
various lines. The large manufacturers by
meeting the general needs in the standard
lied field by mass production. automa tically
introduce the small manufacturers in diff
ferent areas of the market which, ITSELF in
turn. will call for simpifcation and standards
cation time wears on.
So that Standardization instead Of granting
a monopoly to the big manufacturers really
creates competition-and this is shown in con-
ferences of the manufacturers with the De-
partment of Commerce