Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 104, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 May 1916 — BUREAU'S TASK IS TO FIX STANDARD FOR ALL SORTS OF THINGS [ARTICLE]

BUREAU'S TASK IS TO FIX STANDARD FOR ALL SORTS OF THINGS

Not Only Weights and Measures, but About Every Detail of Every Public Utility Passed Upon by Federal Bureau of Standards— Idea Is to Present Well-Tested Methods Which Will Commend Themselves to All States.

Washington.—Ever since the advent of the new year the bureau of standards of the department of commerce has been deluged with inquiries from all corners of the country concerning standards of everything from electric and gaslight brilliance to the strength of a water pipe. And most of these requests are pouring in from public service corporations and their old enemies, the public utilities commissions. Primarily the bureau of standards was charged with the duty of testing and determining standards exact measurements of every kind and nature. A steel yardstick which may be a yard long in June will be something less than a yard in cold December, and it is the bureau’s task to find out what constitutes a real yard under all conditions. Naturally, in pursuing this chase for elusive constants, the bureau branched off, more or less, into ipeasuring things other than yardsticks, and among other details it became interested in learning what amount* of electricity should go into an electric light. As this was only a step from learning what constitutes a real gaslight candle power, the bureau learned that also. Several years ago, it appears, those who planned for the future of the bureau anticipated that eventually they would be called upon to referee the constant clashes between public service corporations arid those state and municipal commissions appointed to regulate the corporations. They felt that the day would come when the word of the bureau of standards must settle such controversies, and they set to work to rig up their administrative plant to provide for it. And Just as they planned the need arose, and they were prepared. For a while the public utility experiments and decisions of the bureau were carried along as a rather unclassified portion of its administrative burden, bbt as the demand for information increased along public utility lines it was finally decided to set aside a certain part of the bureau’s force into separate quarters and put them to the task of working out the destiny of those corporations which serve the public. Some Knotty Problems. Electric light and gas companies and street railways furnish most of the knotty problems the bureau is called upon to solve in .th.e__publlc utilities field, and perhaps no problem has given the bureau more study and trouble than the process of electrolysis of underground pipes in cities where the streets are honeycombed by pipes of all sorts.

Most of the street railways are operated on the single, overhead trolley plan, with the electric current passing through the car into the track, via the wheels, after it has passed through the Car motors. Most of the current is properly conducted back to the generating stations, but some of it escapes and menaces gas and water pipes in the vicinity. These stray currents produce what is known as electrolysis, which eats away the pipes. This leads to constant wrangling between the street railway companies and the corporations whose pipes have been injured. While it has so far been almost impossible to completely prevent the corroding of pipes thus exposed, the bureau has been able to advise public utilities commissions howj to compel the various corporations involved to mitigate this current wastage and the consequent evil effects. As a result of tests made during the past year at St. Louis, Springfield, Mass., and Springfield, 0., the bureau has been enabled to-lay down some definite rules which will prevent a great deal of damage from this agency. Bonding of the joints of-rails to give greater conductivity to the rails, was one plan. Another was embodied in radical roadbed changes, to lessen the connections between the earth and the rails. At present the bureau is conducting tests to show the extent of electrolytic action on pipes of all kinds and this is expected to throw additionSl light on the question, 1. The bureau gets every assistance from the gas and electric companies and from . municipalities, while the street railway companies usually give but scant attention to the matter. The reason is obvious, as the results of the work tend to increase the coßt to the railway companies through the necessary installation of safeguards, whereas railways themselves are not concerned in the matter of damaged pipes owned by other parties, unless a lawsuit results, and the courts have been able to get very little action here. Gas Service Standards. determining service standards of gas, both for heating and illuminating, Is another factor in the work of the bureau. Most city and state utility commissions rule rather uniformly on the matter of meters, meter testing, heating value and candle power of the gas product, degree of chemical purity and amount of pressure required, but the bureau -experts have been able to formulate a set of uniform regulations. It is the aim of -the bureau to make the gas requirements of San Francisco as near\those of New York as possible. A fairly/ uniform meter regulation, for instance, would remove a great ob-

stacle to meter manufacturers. At present a meter acceptable in San Francisco might not do at all in New York. The bureau, thanks to the experts, could furnish at this moment a set of rules for the government of public utilities anywhere, which, with possibly a few minor alterations, could be put into effect with marked benefit to the community and without serious hardship to the corporations affected. For instance, three sets of model electric ordinances have been prepared—one for large cities, one for mediumsized cities, and one for smaller cities and towns. Big-city requirements are inclined to be more stringent than those applicable to smaller communities, and to enforce these requirements upon electric power companies in small towns would be more or less of a hardship. Then there is a different set of model regulations, suitable for adoption by state utilities commissidns, which strike a happy medium between the stricter regulations of the large cities and the laxer rules applicable to the smaller communities. In formulating these tables of measurements the bureau has received support not only from utilities commissions throughout the country but from electric companies as well. It frequently happens that representatives of the bureau are asked by public utilities commissions to attend hearings on matters of more than usual importance. In such case an expert is sent, and usually he supplies data of vast benefit in enabling those interested to reach a definite conclusion. Safety Codes. One important phase of the bureau’s work is its plan to formulate and have adopted a national gas and electric safety code for the protection of both workers and consumers. The idea is to have the code uniform throughout all states. This work, however, is not completed. Sometime this year a conference will be held in Washington to consider the bureau’s national electric code, and if adopted by the convention its adoption by the state legislatures will be urged. The same method has been followed In the preparation of a gas safety code for all the states. To investigate the telephone as a public utility it has been necessary to make some survey of telephone transmitting and receiving apparatus; as well as switchboard equipment. So far this work has been slight, but from now on the bureau will devote itself more energetically to this task. In the opinion of the bureau telephone standards are in sore nefed of fixing. Public service commissions throughout the country are noting increasing frequency of petitions for permission for connections between telephone systems under different ownerships and the question is constantly arising as to whether an Impairment of service would result.