Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-09-21
City Expected 10 Lose
Money in Disposal Of
Road Testing Lab

How much the equipment in the
ill-starred District Highway Depart
ment's testing laboratory will bring
when sold by the War Assets Ad-
ministration is a question only the
sale can answer. The laboratory is
being dismantled on order of Con-
gress.
District taxpayers have an in
vestment of about 100000 in the
laboratory. That represents space
in the highway departments build
ing at Second and Bryant streets
NV, which can be used for other
purposes; the equipment costing be-
tween $4,000 and $4,000, installa-
ton costs and other items.
The equipment is being turned
over to the WAA for sale as surplus
in response to an act by the 18th
Congress. The WAA said the usual
highway testing equipment is de-
signed to test concrete, asphalt and
soil. Test sets costing the Govern
ment from 81 900 to 81 200 have been
sold in the past for sums ranging
from 5000 to $3.50, 1t was said at
WAA.
U. s. Agencies Have First Choice.
The chief market Is with contrac-
tors, it was pointed out, but Federal
agencies will have first chance to
buy the Districts equipment
The sale, the date of which has
not been set, will be handled by TIE
WAS regional Office in Richmond
The equipment will be advertised,
and it may be sold under bids or at
fixed price. After Federal agencies,
priorities for purchase will 60, in
order, to veterans, cities and towns
and educational institutions.
The cost of installing some of the
machinery in the laboratory was
high. Even if the District were to
get the full purchase price for such
equipment, it would lose the install
lation cost.
For example, the inventor of the
equipment lists universal COM
preston machine with a l0-inch
Whittemore strain gauge. Its cost
was $500, but in addition the
District spent 81 $50 setting the ma
chine in a concrete base. Now it
will have to be dug out.
All Costs Not Given.
No cost is given in the inventory
for some items. Some of the equip
ment was in use even before the
building at Second and Bryant
streets N. w. was opened at about
the beginning of 1881. Before that
the laboratory was in the District
Building.
The inventory, 10 pages long, lists
items ranging from cast iron balls
used in abrasion tests and costing
20 cents each, to the big compress
sion machine. Other major items
are saw to cut concrete, costing
Still; platinum used IN heat tests,
which cost the District $685.; a
stone testing machine, $420; a set
Of bending test tools, $3.50, and a
rotating screen sieving machine,
$429.
AS has been the practice since the
laboratory was ordered closed, the
District Highway Department will
continue to have its tests made at
the National Bureau of Standards.
Capt. H. c. Whitehurst, director of
highways, has estimated that in the
first II years the departments labor
atory was closed the District paid
the Bureau of Standards $313,631.
He also estimated that running the
Districts own laboratory in those
years and doing the tests there
would have cost $165,000.
Closed to Save Money.
The laboratory was closed orig
inally in the economy drive of 1888
to save money. It was assumed, err
roneously, that the Bureau of
Standards would make the District
no charge for the tests.
Capt. Whitehurst tried to correct
this impression, but his efforts were
IN vain. As result a rider was put
on the District appropriation bill
providing that none of the appro-
priations should be used for the
testing laboratory.
That rider was placed on every
appropriation bill afterwards up to
last year, when Congress went far
Their and directed that the labora-
tory be dismantled.
Why the rider was mounted on
the bill year after year has been
mystery. One clew is the clash
between Representative Cannon,
Democrat. Of Missouri, and Capt.
Whitehurst when the District Sub
committee Of the House Appropria-
tons Committee was holding a hear
ing in December 1894. Mr.. Cannon
then was chairman of the subcom-
mittee and later, until the Repub-
licans won q House Majority, was