THIRD SESSION (MORNING OF TUESDAY, MAY 25, 1920).

The conference reassembled at 10.30 o'clock a. m. at the Bureau of Standards, Dr. S. W. Stratton, chairman, presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. The meeting will please come to order.

We are very fortunate in having with us this morning the Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Alexander. Those of you who have been with us before remember how Secretary Redfield opened our meetings and took great interest in our work. Secretary Alexander is equally interested. He is not yet, of course, as familiar with the farreaching nature of the work of this conference, but he is thoroughly interested in all the work of the Bureau of Standards and is giving us very able support. I am very glad, indeed, that he found it possible to be with us this morning and that we are to have the opportunity of meeting him. Secretary Alexander.

ADDRESS BY THE HON. JOSHUA W. ALEXANDER, SECRETARY OF COMMERCE.

Mr. Chairman, ladies, and gentlemen, I am very much pleased to have the invitation to be present this morning. While my time is quite fully occupied and I have many duties requiring a very wide scope of activities, yet I take a very great interest in the activities of the Bureau of Standards. I have never gotten into all of its secrets yet. While I have been out here two or three times, I have hardly scratched the surface, but hope in the months to come to become more familiar with the various divisions of this bureau and their activities, because I regard it as very valuable to the interest of the country.

This is the great laboratory of the Nation, and I doubt if all our Government officials, including Members of Congress, fully appreiate the value of this bureau, not only to the Government but to the ountry at large, and I am quite sure that the country does not realize what we have with us-the extent of this plant, the different activities of the various divisions of the bureau, and the splendid personnel of the bureau, the technical men, the scientific men who are employed here, and who are accomplishing so much of interest to the country. I do not know of any better way to stimulate the public interest in the activities of this bureau and to give the country a proper idea of its value or its worth than a conference of this sort.

I understand the first conference was held in 1905 and that the attendance then was limited to a few States. I believe there were eight States represented and only two States with official representation, Massachusetts and Virginia; and I am glad to know that these conferences are growing in interest each year. I am told that at the conference last year 28 States and 64 cities and counties were represented, and the hope has been expressed that the representation this year will be quite as large and as representative as it was last year.

Of course, during the period of the war the activities of these conferences were suspended; but this, I believe, is the thirteenth conference, and judging from those present this morning I have reason to believe the representation will be as great this year, if not greater, than in any previous conference-already I have met one representative from the State of Minnesota and one from the State of California. Well, if Minnesota and California can spare the men and pay their expenses to attend conferences like this there is no excuse why the States in the Mississippi Valley and along the eastern seaboard might not all be represented in these conferences.

I understand the objects of these conferences are to bring about uniformity in the standards throughout the United States as well as a standardization of methods of inspection, and to secure uniform legislation in the States. It is an anomaly that it is necessary to do this. Now, the Constitution of the United States rests in the Congress the power to fix standards of weights and measures, and why that power has not been exercised long ago is not easily comprehended, because it is manifest to the most casual thinker that we should have uniform weights and measures applicable to all the States of the Union. We have 48 different States, and their relations are becoming more intimate every year. Our commerce is interstate and it is of the utmost importance that we should have uniform standards of weights and measures; and as the Congress has been vested with that power I hope this conference will give the question serious consideration, with a view of having Congress in the near future exercise the power that will simplify this question and provide uniform standards to be observed by all the States.

In the meantime you are rendering a very great service, because in these conferences you are undertaking to frame a uniform law to be adopted by the several States of the Union. That you are attempting in this way to bring about the uniformity which could be established by an act of Congress-not only standards for States but for municipalities-proves the value you place upon uniform standards, and if you accomplish this you will accomplish a great work in the interest of the public, because each year it becomes more important for us to have these uniform standards.

In industry it is important. Manufacturers should know what these standards are, and they should be required to conform to these standards. The public has the right to know what the standards are, and the interests affected shall conform to them; and now that the cost of commodities has increased to such an extent it is important that the public should be assured in purchasing that they are purchasing according to approved standards and are getting what they pay for.

Now, I understand this conference in the past has formulated and agreed upon a uniform law; that it has been introduced in the legislatures of the several States, and has been enacted into law by a number of the States; and that a standard of weights and measures for municipalities, formulated by you, has been adopted by many of our cities. Well, of course, this is going at the matter in detail, and involves great labor and no little expense. It grows out of the complex organizations of our Government, the fact that we have 48 States and a great many cities, and in the absence of the exercise of

the power vested in Congress it is necessary to get at this problem in this way. Every year it becomes manifest that we need greater uniformity in our laws in the several States.

I believe they are suggesting now that we ought to have uniform divorce laws and that Congress ought to fix the standard, not only in the District of Columbia, but throughout the country.

We see numerous gasoline stations scattered over our cities. Well, since gasoline has increased from about 6 cents to 30 cents and up per gallon it is of interest for the public to know that these various devices are accurate in measuring gasoline. I do not know how many of them are uniform and accurate; you do not know how many there are that are uniform and accurate. I understand one of the purposes of this conference is to consider that question, and with a view to fixing a standard of accuracy and requiring the manufacturers of these pumps to conform to that standard.

Just before coming to the hall I was in conversation with representatives of a prominent mail-order house. They are here and they are interested in having certain standards fixed.

But I only wish to emphasize in a few words that I am expressing here the thought-the importance of the very great work you are doing and the very great service it will be to the country; and it shows that the States you represent, the communities you represent, have a proper appreciation of this service, and I am very glad to know that you enter into the spirit of the service, realizing that you are performing a service of the greatest benefit to the public. It is only in this way, by voluntary service, having in view the public welfare, that we can accomplish so much for our several communities and for our States and for the Government; I certainly hope that your deliberations will be profitable, and that you will achieve substantial results, and that your stay in this beautiful city will be full of pleasure, and that you will be amply repaid for the expenditure of time and money in coming to Washington.

GASOLINE PUMPS FROM THE STANDPOINT OF SAFETY, BY A. R. SMALL, VICE PRESIDENT, UNDERWRITERS' LABORATORIES.

Mr. President, ladies, and members of the conference, perhaps it is just as well that Mr. Alexander has left the room before I have started to say what I have to say to you. Had he not gone, Mr. President, I would have been glad, while not a member of the conference, to speak for a moment expressing to him the entire confidence the engineering people and the fire insurance fraternity have in the excellent character of the establishment and the staff of the Bureau of Standards. The Underwriters' Laboratories performs a work on a small scale not unlike the work which the Bureau of Standards performs on a large scale. Our work is limited in its scope to the matter of fire prevention and to the matter of the prevention of accidents. The work of the Bureau of Standards affects the work of every one of us, affects the work of every person in this country, and of many people in many countries. Through 5, 6, 8, and 10 years' close personal association with many members of the staff of the Bureau of Standards, and through a like period of opportunity of observing the wonderful way in which your president, Director Stratton, has conducted the work of his organization, I feel sure that

Mr. Alexander need not take the time, if he is too busy, to come out here to investigate what is going on, but can stay down town and rest assured that everything is being done that can humanly be done to carry forward the great mission of this institution.

I will now return to the subject of my paper, "Gasoline pumps from the standpoint of safety," assigned for this period of your

program.

This subject is possibly misleading. Therefore, it is my purpose at the very outset of these remarks to remove, so far as possible, any misunderstanding which may exist regarding the safety significance of such equipment. The word "safety," as now very largely used in industrial and engineering circles, refers to the personal accident hazard. Many of us are well acquainted with the very active and effective part which our host of to-day, the staff of the Bureau of Standards, is taking in devising and promoting measures designed to mitigate the personal accident hazard, or, in other words, to promote "safety.

Gasoline pumps bear upon the safety cause, the personal accident hazard, only as a by-product of another and quite as active hazard, namely, the fire and explosion hazard. With this eliminated, the demands of safety are fully met, perhaps, to as great a degree as with any utilization equipment found in our modern and extremely busy

life.

There is no need to explain nor perhaps even to state the hazards either from fire or from explosion or both combined which are ever present where gasoline is involved. Even with the modern product, perhaps misnamed gasoline and more properly called "motor fuel," the explosion and fire hazard or danger is imminently present, otherwise it would fail in its intended function as a motor fuel. This being so, it naturally follows that with its very general distribution and practically universal use there exists in every community a fire or explosion hazard of potential greatness possibly exceeding that from any other single source-a hazard of a capacity to destroy by fire industrial, commercial, mercantile, and dwelling properties singly or combined to a greater value in any one of numerous exposures than is the value of all the gasoline consumed in any season throughout the Nation. Nor may the secondary or by-product hazard of such a catastrophe, or the secondary or by-product hazard of the multiple minor manifestations of this potential catastrophe resulting in personal injuries and therefore bearing upon the safety cause be entirely ignored.

Fortunately, there is another side to this picture. The potential hazard, the calamity pictured, is safeguarded, in the main, effectually. Generally speaking, gasoline in bulk is handled only by those well trained in the necessary precautions for controlling its powers of violence and disaster. In its transportation and distribution Federal, State, and municipal authorities find the industry which handles it providing equipment and observing practices generally well designed to take into account its inherent fire and explosion hazards; otherwise the industry would destroy itself. In the retail handling similar fortunate conditions prevail to a very large degree. The gasoline pump with its underground storage tank has and continues to perform well the gigantic task of confining the fire and explosion

dangers of gasoline, to the end that we are not obliged to drive out into country places for our supplies, but find them as readily available for prompt delivery as are other commodities in daily demand and use.

Alike with other prevention movements, the statistics of this accomplishment can not be compiled; to prove by cold figures the property losses prevented, the accidents avoided, and lives saved because of the widespread use of gasoline pumps is impossible. This condition is perhaps not unlike one probably existing in the field in which most of you are active. Data as to the actual losses on shortages which the public would suffer were your work to be abandoned can not be other than estimated. You are unable to prove to what extreme any particular industry or business might go in the use of short weights and measures were your activities to be cut short. We in the fire-prevention work and those in the safety engineering field must be satisfied with the knowledge that our work is effective and with the negative fashion by means of which our results must be demonstrated. With all these limitations in mind, I nevertheless have no hesitation in going on record as of the fixed opinion that the very general use of gasoline pumps in the retail distribution of gasoline has made possible the present-day development of the automobile. I further state, without fear of contradiction from anyone informed as to general causes of fire and explosion losses, that this very modest appliance and the modest industry which produces it have effected, assuming a similar general use of gasoline without the safeguards they now provide, an annual saving of loss of property from fire and explosion equal to the present annual fire loss from all other causes combined. In other words, an annual saving of $250,000,000, an amount sufficient to pay the interest upon the fourth Liberty loan, accrues to this country because of the widespread installation and use of this device.

So much regarding "gasoline pumps from the standpoint of safety." Your efforts I must assume are in no way opposed to the conservation which I have declared has been and now is secured from their use. I must assume also that you are ready to take notice, if you have not now done so, of the principles involved in this equipment which are paramount in making possible a record of service such as has been claimed. The secret of the success of the gasoline pump in securing the measure of safety claimed for it is not a secret to those who have given even the briefest study to the hazardous properties of gasoline.

The chief principle is the underground storage of the supply of gasoline, which it is the function of the pump to deliver. This principle more than any or all others must not be ignored in any efforts which you may make to have pumps function as accurate measuring devices. The next principle of importance is the confinement of gasoline during the operation of its delivery from the place. of storage of main supply to the receptacle of use. The property of evaporation at atmospheric temperatures and pressures is the important factor in the hazard of having gasoline about. Otherwise, it would rate as to hazard with kerosene and other petroleum products of high gravity and flash point. Designs providing substantial strength, materials of proven durability, workmanship of the best