Report of the Panel on Engineering and Commodity Standards of the Commerce Technical Advisory Board to the Assistant Secretary for Science and Technology, U. S. Department of Commerce. Section B

摘要

Late in 1958 the National Academy of Sciences established an ad hoc committee to evaluate the operations and functions of the Department of Commerce in the fields of science and technology. Among the areas studied were the Commodity Standards Division of the Office of Technical Services and its relationship to the over-all standards activities in the United States, including the American Standards Association and its supporting member-bodies. The committee's report was submitted in March 1960. With reference to standards activities, the report concluded that there are so many groups issuing and promulgating standards that the United States, in reality, has no national standards program. The report-recommended specifically 'that the Secretary of Commerce take the leadership in initiating another study of standardization in the United States by an appropriately constituted body for the purpose of strengthening and unifying the standards and simplified practices program of the nation'. Acting on the recommendation of the Kelly Committee, Assistant Secretary of Commerce, J. Herbert Hollomon, established a new ad hoc committee to further examine the problems and make recommendations for a national standards program.