which is currently looking into simplification and standardization in the electronic tube field. Electronic tubes are an example of those scientific marvels which have been translated into basic components of many consumer products and into the heart and fibre of highly classified pieces of military equipment.

The initiative of the electronics industry in taking this approach is deserving of commendation.

One matter must not be overlooked in the development of programs of this type by industry groups. That is the "antitrust" angle. Nothing in the present emergency legislation or program exists which nullifies or cancels the antitrust legislation. The Department of Justice is charged with the implementation of that legislation and they do not contemplate going out of business for the duration. Hence, may I caution industry groups who plan to sit down together and work out standardization and simplification programs to give full cognizance to the antitrust interpretation of their activities. I think I can say that the Department of Justice is sympathetic to the problem, but they are not going to overlook violations because they are undertaken during the present emergency.

tions, Simplification, and Substitution. Our work in this field has been greatly expedited and facilitated by our membership in the Interdepartmental Standards Council. This is a body set up in December 1949, to coordinate and direct the standardizing activities of all government agencies, military and civil, and to prevent duplication and discrepancy.

A Broad Range

The deliberations of the Council cover a broad range of standards, from those strictly within the provinces of government agencies to those of international character. A subject which is having earnest and continuous consideration is one that interests deeply the National Security Resources Board. That is, standards of drawings and drafting room practices. I do not need to tell you how much time was lost, how many millions of dollars were spent, and how many skilled manhours were wasted during World War II because of the lack of such standards. It is my earnest hope that ASA Committee Z14, which is charged with the rsponsibility under ASME sponsorship of developing such standards, will lend its fullest aid to the work that the Standards Agency of the Munitions Board is now doing in this all-impor

tant area.

It is this Standards Agency that provides the machinery for developing military standards. It is in effect. a little ASA, for it has no authority or personnel to develop the standards which the three divisions of the Department of Defense may call for. The province of its chairman, A. E. Michelson, is restricted to the certifi cation of the individual project, the delegation of the work to a committee chosen from the military establishment, and the approval of the standard when it is completed. The fact that 1,000 standards were completed and approved in the first eight months of the existence of the Munitions Board Standards Agency indicates the rapidity with which this work is moving. Conservation specialists are working closely with this

agency.

Another undertaking of tremen

dous import to the member-bodies of ASA and to industry as a whole is the development of the Munition Board's Supply Catalog. Those of us who were associated with the War Production Board realize how desperately such a catalog was needed during World War II. The items presently included in government procurement total more than five million. Of these, 312 million are estimated to be within the area of military requirements. The other 112 million are included in the systems of the Federal civilian agencies.

The present undertaking is the joint responsibility of the Munitions Board and the Federal Supply Service. Authority for the coordination program has been delegated to the Munitions Board Cataloging Agency, of which Captain DeKay is Chief. The conservation specialists have been working closely with Captain DeKay and his associates. Our principal concern has been to bring industry closely into the picture, and, as far as possible, to reflect industrial practices in the Cataloging Agency's item descriptions. Close cooperation has been developed between the Agency and the principal trade associations so that Catalog Agency representatives can explain the program and techniques of cataloging and can obtain the advice and assistance of association members.

Works at High Speed

Already the number of items to be cataloged has been reduced from five million to three million and the prospects are of still further reduction. The Agency with its limited force is working at high speed to carry out a mandate of former Defense Secretary Louis Johnson, that within a year from September 1950 the cataloging be completed in certain selected categories that contribute most significantly to national defense. It is estimated that from 75 to 80 percent of the items of military supply fall within these categories. To date, more than a million items have been described and indexed.

One more conservation activity for which I hold great hope is the "rein(Continued on page 29)

FOUR

are:

YOUR industrial executives representing the fields of insurance, machine tool manufacture, and railroad car building are beginning first terms as members of the Board of Directors of the American Standards Association. Announcement of their election was made at the opening session of the National Standardization Conference. These newly elected ASA policy-makers George Bruce Butterfield, secretary of the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Co (nominated by the National Safety Council); H. S. Sizer, assistant to the director of design, Brown and Sharpe Manufacturing Co (nominated by the National Machine Tool Builders Association); Charles E. Hodges, president, American Mutual Liability (nominated by the National Association of Mutual Casualty Companies); and, Charles W. Bryan, Jr, president of the PullmanStandard Car Manufacturing Co (nominated by the American Society of Civil Engineers).

1951 Officers Elected

Vice Admiral G. F. Hussey, Jr, USN (ret), Managing Director of the American Standards Association, made the election announcements at the opening session of the conference which was held in the Wedgwood Room of the Waldorf-Astoria.

this time Admiral Hussey also officially noted the reelection of officers

H. S. Sizer

of the American Standards Association and the reelection of two members of the Board of Directors. Thomas D. Jolly, vice-president of the Aluminum Company of America, will continue in office, his third oneyear term as president of ASA. Harold S. Osborne, chief engineer of the American Telephone and Telegraph Co, will continue as vice-president of ASA; and Walter C. Wagner, Philadelphia Electric Co, has been reelected as chairman of the ASA Standards Council. J. R. Townsend, materials engineer with the Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc, was reelected as vice-chairman of the Standards Council.

Two New Board Members The two members reelected to the ASA Board of Directors are:

Lester S. Corey, president and general manager of the Utah Construction Co, member-at-large, and Earl H. Eacker, president of the Boston Consolidated Gas Co (nominated by the American Gas Association).

The four men elected to first terms as members of the ASA Board of Directors bring with them respected knowledge of standardization within their fields and provide further industry-wide representation among members of the Board.

George Bruce Butterfield has been with the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Co since 1926. He is a di

Charles W. Bryan, Jr

O

N his seventieth birthday, a large group of his friends met

at dinner to honor Eugene C. Crittenden, a man who has made outtanding contributions to standardiation. He has been closely associted with the ASA almost from its eginning. The dinner, which also narks the retirement of Dr Crittenlen as Associate Director of the Naional Bureau of Standards, took lace at the Wardman Park Hotel in Vashington on December 19.

As Section Chief, Division Chief, and Associate Director, he has had great influence in the development of olicies and of administration in the Bureau over a period of 40 years. Likewise, as chairman of the Standrds Council, and member of the Board of Directors of the American Standards Association, he brought wise leadership to the deliberations of both bodies. His contributions to he ASA have been great.

Crittenden has attained the status of elder statesman in scientific research and in broad fields of standards. He has made important contributions to the science and art of illumination in revising and improving the units and standards for elec

1

་

trical and photometric measurements; in the development of national and international standards organizations; and in the industrial application of standards.

One of his most notable achievements has been in the development and adoption of the new fundamental unit of candle power. Starting with the Waidner-Burgess proposal for basing the unit on the light emitted from a square centimeter of platinum at its melting point, he has been a leader in the research and development work, and in negotiations leading to the adoption of this unit by the leading industrial countries, including the USA. In Europe the new unit is known as the "candela."

An Important Role

Likewise, he has played an important role in the improvement of the electric and magnetic units and of the fundamental standards through , which they are realized in practice. This applies equally to the research phase, and to the negotiations, national and international, leading to their adoption.

As a member of the ASA top committee on electrical standards, he has

played a leading role in the planning and supervision of the electrical standards work. His ability to pour oil on troubled waters has been particularly effective in this committee, which has often been the scene of strenuous controversy.

As a government man, he has shown a sympathetic understanding of industrial problems and points of view, and a striking ability to bring about teamwork between government and industry.

International recognition and a host of friends have come to him through his work in the International Commission on Illumination, International Electrotechnical Commission, International Committee on Weights and Measures, and in the international conferences which set up the International Organization for Standardization.

All those who work with Crittenden find that when one goes to him for help on a problem, he does not bypass or treat the request nominally, he actually digs in and gives real help.

In retirement, he remains an elder statesman!

P. G. Agnew

t

a

HE Ford Motor Company wi save several hundreds of tho V sands of dollars and get a be ter product for the job as a result its standardization program on su supply items as brooms, wrenche files, flashlights, and pliers, Mr Ri told the Procurement Session. Has described the significant advantag sa of in to the Purchasing Department standardization program in a larg pa

ard

7

"From the point of view of mu no tiple sources of supply, availability pro and cost there are increasing advancia S tages in changing from standard which are company wide to stand hel ards which are in use throughout pri industry or a nation," he said. He cha told how his own company is study or ing the idea of changing special tool in to industry standard tools. A change pur from a 21⁄2 in. special length drill to and a 1% in. standard length drill for us S in converting Rod Operations has reava sulted in a longer tool life and a sa of ing of $3,500 a year. New possibili perf

These papers are abbreviated ersions of the addresses delivred at the National Standardcation Conference. They are eing published in full in a ook to be entitled Standards -Spearhead of Industrial Mo-ilization. Copies can be orered from the American Standards Association, 70 E. 45 Street, New York 17, N. Y., at $1.00 each.

for savings are constantly being estigated. Tests are being made on form tools, drills, reamers, s, broaches, and grinding wheels. Rice cited examples of savings outlined the procedures used by Ford Motor Company. (This paby Mr Rice will be published in orthcoming issue of STANDARDIZAN.)

e Purchasing Department's Responsibility or the Promotion of Standardization by V. deP. Goubeau

e President in Charge of Materials Radio Corporation of America, RCA Victor Division

A

NTICIPATORY

Standard

ization" is the procurement

tool that will be our greatest set in years to come, Mr Goubeau id. That term represents foresight planning standards, active particition in the organization of standds and in promotion of standards, t merely taking up a standard oject when necessary because speal items are no longer available. Standards go a long way toward lping to meet the four cardinal inciples of procurement-purase of commodities, components, equipment in the proper quantity, the best available quality for the irpose, at the lowest price possible, id at the time needed.

Specials introduce problems of vailability, higher costs, uniformity quality, and lack of adequate field erformance data.

"Do we not then have an obligation to play an active part in the pursuit of further progress in standardization?" Mr Goubeau asked. He answered his question in the affirmative. "A procurement manager who does not acknowledge this obligation is lacking in assuming his responsibility in the business picture."

In RCA, a Policy Committee guides standardizing activities. Members are the Manager of the Standardizing Section, the Assitant Direc tor of Engineering of the Company, the Manager of the General Purchasing Division, and the Chief Engineer and Plant Manager of each of RCA's four businesses. The Manager of the General Purchasing Division coordinates the standardizing activities of these businesses operated by RCA. In addition, engineering and purchasing personnel are constantly having discussions with tthe Division Standardizing Group made up of engineers.

RCA is a company engaged in the design of products calling for very extensive engineering. Any materials or components which the purchasing people wish to buy must first be approved by the engineers. Substitutes also have to be approved by engineering.