The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1934-12-07

France, Germany, and England
founded such laboratories. In Amer.
ica It was the National Bureau Of
Standards. As custodian Of the STAN
dards the bureau certifies the STAN
dards used In science and industry,
bringing ! new order Of accuracy 1T
It's Source-the standards room Of the
factory. How this was 80 well done
Is now history. Research programs
were involved. These were 80 fruit.
full that within . quarter Of q cen
fury some 1.620 industrial research
laboratories were established IN this
country.
On = 56-acre site in the northwest
suburbs Of the national capital Is this
city Of science set on Z hill. Twenty
buildings are connected BY tunnels
supplying complex servicee-as vac
uum, compressed air. freezing brine.
Precise time service too IS wired into
any room from Z master clock-true
to fifth Of Z second per month. Here
too are instrument shops, glass shops,
wind tunnel, 400-foot tank, Z plumb
Ing tower, radio towers, = foundry and
rolling mill, clay kilns, and other ex-
perimental plants for making prod
ucts under measured control. The
low-temperature laboratory i equip
ped to uquefy any known gas and to
solidtfy I'll except helium.
Preperations for the Future
An impressive sight Is the giant
testing machine which has : pulling
power Of . million pounds and Z
crushing power Of Z thousand tons
. Titan able to crush to destruction
huge structural columns or tear apart
steel shafts five inches in diameter.
With this can be measured crushing
force up to . thousand tons. or 20
small Is barely to crush an egeshell
Another machine four times more
powerful bears the enormous stresses
used to test sections Of great bridges
and other structures. The strength
Of Orders Of great modern bridges
have been measured here to make
sure that they have strength to bear
expected service loads.
Tho union Of radio and aviation, I
fruitful combination, Is shown in two
outstanding discoveries. The radio
direction finder, developed at the bu-
reau, found its use In the radio bea-
con. A radio beam, In effect, lays
. track In the trackless air. The pilot
sees his pointer Or hears signal tell
ing whether he Is on course, or II off
course, by how much. A multiple
beacon will permit arrival at On air.
port from any direction.
The latest achievement. Of uncanny
ingenuity and utmost utility. IS the
blind landing system, originated by
the bureau Of standards. With the
new system, guided only by indicators
% his switchboard, the pilot need
see nothing outside his cockpit. A
remarkable combination Of circuits
and beacons announces hts arrival ut
the airport and the pilot, keeping his
index In q prescribed position, may
safely glide down an unseen curved
beacon to : happy landing. This for
all time establishes the possibility Of
continuous air flight and unbroken
schedules In dark or densest fog.
The bureau Of standards Is laying
9 basis for its great work In the future
in ways unknown to the public. In
an underground laboratory Is IN TIM
proved ultramicrometer, q thousand
times more sensitive than the preci-
sion gage makers apparatus. This
instrument measures length changes
8 small Is the billionth Of IN inch,
nnd II - far ahead ~ Y1sncfica1 ,,aAs