Metrology and Standardization to Assist Industrializing Economies
In1971,reprentatives from16countries,from 16international and national organizations,and from 5industrial companies came to a conference center in Northern Virginia to meet with reprentatives from the Agency for International Development(AID)of the U.S.Department of State and the National Bureau of Standards.They came to discuss how NBS promotes productivity growth and innovation in the United States and how the economies of developing countries might benefit from collaboration with NBS[1].As raw materi-als prices sagged worldwide,the countries looked to industrialization as a source of growth.But where would they turn for help in developing their basic infrastructure?
导数题Such countries were generally well accustomed to international discussions such as are provided by the United Nations,and to government-to-government negotiations.They appreciated economic assistance from the U.S.AID.However,AID claimed no primary responsibility and only limited experti in commercial technology.NBS,with its extensive links to private industry,was the agency best positioned to help the countries understand how the U.S.industrial develop-ment system works.T o fulfill the dreams of industrializ-ing economies(IEs),Glenn Schweitzer,head of AID’s Office of Science and T echnology,in cooperation with Edward L.Brady at NBS,developed the idea of co-sponsorship of this Seminar.The goal was to determine to what extent the IEs(this label became preferred over“Les
s Developed Country,”or“LDC”)could be given access to the knowledge and experience NBS had with measurement and documentary standards,as well as to constructive contacts with industry that were mutually beneficial.Industry is the primary source of experti in technology in which IEs wanted to share and advance in a lf-reliant way.
摧枯拉朽之势After experience in both rearch and diplomacy, Edward Brady had been brought to NBS in1963to establish the Standard Reference Data Program.Brady knew well that NBS had no clear Congressional mandate to assist IEs.Thus NBS,at this Seminar, wanted to listen to IEs needs and then to judge whether it was possible to devi projects that could tackle goals that were in the common interest of NBS and some IEs. The recommendations from the Seminar were strongly positive and very hopeful.The respon by Lewis M.Branscomb,who had just been confirmed as NBS Director,and two former NBS Directors,Allen V.Astin and Edward U.Condon(reprenting UNIDO the United Nations Industrial Development Organization), were realistically encouraging.T o a few voices at NBS who doubted whether the activities related strongly to the NBS mission,Branscomb suggested that the NBS staff,by guiding IEs,could better understand its own relationships with industry,standards associations,and the public[1,p.7].
The activities that were taken in respon to the Seminar received a general evaluation after ven y
ears [2];it strongly favored continuation of the projects that had been started.During the remaining years of the20th century,assistance to IEs grew rapidly and became a significant and flourishing operational feature of NBS and NIST,which now publishes biennially a volume summarizing the International Activities[3]. Generally,since1971,NBS/NIST has been the only technical institution in the U.S.Government that IEs could look to for guidance on technology-bad It is an unheralded but highly significant role with the result that NBS/NIST is much better known in foreign capitals than in our own.
Among the topics in which assistance was given, pride of place belongs to measurement standards and their u in measurement science(metrology).In the United States,NBS/NIST has a primary responsibility in this field,including ensuring international confor-mance under the Convention of the Meter,a treaty adopted by the United States and42other signatories. The International Bureau of W eights and Measures [4]operates under that Convention as the technical laboratory that enables national metrology laboratories to intercompare their national measurement standards. At the time of the Seminar[1],BIPM was engaged in the dynamic process of refining and introducing
the International System of Units(SI).NBS helped many IEs to follow and understand the mathematically beautiful,but really quite complex,recommendations of BIPM.NBS/NIST style calibrati
ons link measurements in a chain of comparisons with BIPM standards. Through familiarity with the technical rigor of NBS metrology,the concept of lf-evaluation with lf-assurance of measurement quality spread to many IE laboratories.
黑眼圈的形成However,the highest levels of metrological technol-ogy,required for international comparisons of measure-ment standards reprenting the ba units,does little to ensure equity in the retail markets of IEs or to bring credibility to their international trade.Nevertheless,the posssion of a platinum-iridium kilogram standard,or an interferometer that compares wavelengths of lar emissions directly with a national meter bar,received undue attention in many of the least developed countries. The problems were addresd during an NBS arranged minar in Korea[5]with the title:“Metrology in Industry and Government:How to Find Out Who Needs What Services.”
Another topic in which NBS/IE collaboration has been very strong is that of documentary standards for health,safety,the environment,products,buildings,etc. Most such standards are not published by NBS,but by the hundred or so important national and international standards-writing organizations.They often look to NBS to provide experti,technical experimentation,and a reference collection.In the early1970s,NBS technical staff members rved as unbiad technical experts on some1500voluntary technical standards committees.
A part of this work was devoted to dismination of standards information,and a portion of that played in the international arena through many joint minars such as tho cosponsored with the International Organization for Standardization(ISO).The first of the had the title of“T echnological Knowledge Ba for Industrializing Countries”[6].It had the dual purpo of helping to prepare the U.S.for the UN Conference on Science and T echnology for Development(UNCSTD)in Vienna, with the benefit of constructive input from IE repren-tatives who had experience of NBS assistance.Former NBS Director Lewis M.Branscomb was a member of the U.S.delegation to the UNDP conference in Vienna.
A special feature of the NBS/NIST influence,with which many IEs were initially uncomfortable,is the American preference,wherever possible,for voluntary instead of mandatory standards.Experience has shown that connsus is more easily achieved when voluntary standards are developed.Furthermore,they are then better understood and adhered to by industry and the public.T ort law acts to compel compliance with well established voluntary,as well as mandatory,standards. The Standard Reference Materials program has been another topic for strong collaboration[1,p.95-105]. Standard Reference Materials(SRMs)bring great benefits to industries.Measurements on materials are needed for raw material lection,process control,and quality assurance.By virtue of S
RMs,good measure-ments are no longer simply the prerogative of the highly industrialized nations with primary metrological labora-tories.High-quality measurements can now be made locally in IEs just as they are made in manufacturing centers of highly industrialized countries.One or more of the material properties of SRMs are determined by NBS/NIST with high,generally certified,accuracy. SRMs can then be ud for calibration of measuring equipment or direct comparison with cloly similar local materials.NBS is the world leader in the supply of reference materials.The optimization of lected SRM candidates,their manufacture,and their introduction are demanding.Assistance from physicists and chemists from IEs who help to certify and u the materials continues to be significant.
Esntial to industry is also the availability of evalu-ated data,especially on material properties.Through the National Standard Reference Data System,NSRDS, Congress gave NBS a leadership role.T o evaluate such data from the primary literature and make them avail-able in a ur friendly mode is a task for which NBS has received help not only from scientists throughout the United States and other industrialized countries,but from IE specialists as well.China,for instance,has taken a significant part,first on a bilateral basis with NIST and,more recently,through membership in CODA T A,under the International Council of Scientific Unions,in which Lewis Bransc
omb,David Lide,and John Rumble of NBS/NIST have successively taken leadership positions.
T o understand how yet another aspect of IEs’collabo-ration has benefited both NBS and the IEs,we should turn back in the history to former NBS Director G.K. Burgess[7],who instituted the innovative Guest W orker Program almost75years ago.After the Seminar[1],L. M.Branscomb permitted the Guest W orker Program to be extended to include staff members of counterpart IE institutions,provided their stay at NBS/NIST was at least six months and provided they worked on NBS’own projects and,initially,provided the cost was not borne by NBS.After their return home,the visitors often introduced projects in their own institutions that were similar to their assigned NBS studies.Both NBS and the IE institutions benefited from this more efficient
u of scarce scientific talent.In the ten years following the Seminar,guest scientists came to NBS from43 countries.Since then that program has expanded.T oday, about one fifth of the NIST technical staff are guest workers,many of them from IE countries,sharing the commitment to accuracy,reliability,and quiet confidence in rvice to the United States and to their home institutions.
Even before the Seminar[1],in1967,President Lyndon Johnson,on a visit to Korea and T aiwan,called for NBS to nd an advisory team on measurement and standardization.A small team under Forest
瞬间记忆力
K.Harris responded by brief visits to both countries.On consider-ation of the reports by the team,AID wondered whether similar studies,that is surveys of standardization and measurement rvices,were potentially helpful to a wide range of IEs,while also in the interests of NBS and the United States.That possibility came up again during the Seminar[1]and found a strong affirmative respon. Eventually,10countries were so“surveyed”(one per year until1980)with respect to their individual standardization and measurement rvice needs.In quential order,the countries were:Korea,Ecuador, Turkey,Bolivia,The Philippines,Thailand,Guyana, Indonesia,Pakistan,and The Sudan.The survey events followed a general pattern t at NBS’request:The government of the target country requested the survey and committed itlf to all in-country expens for the NBS team and its own counterpart team.The target-country team leader also became committed to be avail-able,on request by NBS,for one or more similar future surveys of other countries in a different part of the world.An NBS team member then visited the country to meet with the counterpart team leader.Jointly they identified the most important needs and outlined a team itinerary.The NBS team leader identified the most suitable team members from NBS or other agencies and reprentatives from other target countries.The entire multi-country team asmbled at NBS for a week’s workshop to examine critically and debate NBS measurement and standardization rvices,with empha-sis on voluntary standards,calibration programs, certified reference materials,standard reference data man
agement,and NBS relations in support of industry. The team was then ready to spend two weeks in the country with a full program of visits and discussions. With target country approval,a detailed final report was issued on the results achieved.In subquent years, evaluation and follow-up programs were commonly requested and executed.Literature references exist for the10survey reports,the respective preliminary work-shops,and any follow-up minars.
It was a special feature of the original Seminar[1] that,at the invitation of the Scientific Apparatus Makers Association,the delegates from abroad were given the opportunity to remain at NBS for an additional week when the IE visitors could obrve NBS operations and visit a number of scientific instrument manufacturers. The workshops have been so well appreciated by AID and the IEs themlves that they have become with little change,but with suitably updated content,a regular, continuing feature at NIST.
Whereas most of the above projects are esntially bilateral,a significant portion of continuing AID/NBS assistance to IEs is aimed at multilateral collaboration. An early example is the Seminar in Bolivia on“A System of Standardization and Metrology for Latin America”with advisors from Turkey,Thailand,and Korea.[8].From this modest beginning the Interameri-can Metrology System(SIM)evolved with34member countries.It celebrated its20th anniversary in1999.A regional
minar that focud on a more specific prob-lem was that in Singapore on“T esting and Certification for Export Products in Industrializing Countries”[9]. South-East Asia is another region which has since instituted strong contact with NIST.Being unable to maintain active bilateral relations with the many countries of Africa,NIST has started regional mecha-nisms in South Africa,Kenya,Ghana,and Egypt. NBS collaboration in the Middle East has a long history that precedes the original Seminar[1]to the time when the Congressional PL480Program was estab-lished.It freed certain non-convertible local currency asts for u in science rearch of interest to U.S. federal agencies.During the1970s,NBS received such funds in Israel,Y ugoslavia,India,Pakistan,Egypt,and Tunisia[10].This NBS program had67rearch projects and was particularly successful in Israel,where it led to a continuing binational agreement for industrial rearch cooperation.After about1979,most of the remaining PL480projects naturally melted into the regional IE cooperations.With India,for example, projects are continued under the U.S.-India Forum in Science and T echnology and received strong support from an initially independent effort by Peter Heydemann of NBS/NIST.
Heydemann had been a member of the NBS/AID team survey of Pakistan’s standardization and measure-ment rvices(e above).Subquently he arranged minars and training cours in Pak
吃饭打嗝istan and India.His many contacts in India prompted the Department of State to appoint him as Science Counlor at the U.S.Embassy in India(1988-1993),resulting in expanded collaborations between U.S.and Indian
高考地理
technical organizations.At the same time,Heydemann had the opportunity to collaborate with panies trading with India,with a focus on standards and measurement problems.After Heydemann’s return to NIST as Director of T echnology Services,he established a Standards in Trade Program to assist panies to overcome technical barriers in foreign countries. From this program’s initial activities in Saudi Arabia,it expanded to countries in the Middle East,Europe,and Latin America.Five NIST standards experts placed in foreign markets,together with the staff of the Global Standards Program in the Office of Standards Services, have been credited with adding almost one billion dollars per year in ports.V ery recently,the Secretary of Commerce confirmed the policy of NIST’s support for international trade by making a special award to the NBS Director for International and Academic Affairs, B.Stephen Carpenter,“...an ambassador of goodwill for asurement capabili-ties all around the globe.”
Among other projects that NBS carried out with AID support was a successful3-year interlaboratory collaboration across national boundaries with Instituto de Pesquisas T ecno´logicas of Sa˜o Paulo,Br
azil. Although relevant notes exist,this NBS/IPT program is not well documented,partly becau Brady hoped after retirement to write a small book on that experience.The time was no longer given to him.
Generally,since1971,NBS/NIST has been the only technical institution in the vernment that IEs could look to for guidance on technology-bad develop-ment strategies.Not only the directors,but virtually all nior staff members of NBS/NIST have actively partic-ipated in the IE projects.It is an unheralded but highly significant role with the result that NBS/NIST is much better known in foreign capitals than in our own. Edward L.Brady(1919-1987)received a BA and an MA from the University of California at Los Angeles and a Ph.D.at the Massachutts Institute of T echnol-ogy,under the guidance of Martin Deutsch.His thesis on angular correlations between successive nuclear gamma rays is still regarded as an important contribu-tion.In1942he joined the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago.Later he was assigned to the Clinton Laboratories in Oak Ridge and the GE Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in Schenectady.Brady enjoyed work in international relations,where,in addition to his scientific knowledge and experience,his human qualities and tact made him outstanding.He rved as U.S.Atomic Energy Commission Reprenta-tive to the United Kingdom and as Advisor to the U.S. Mission to the International Atomic Energy Age
ncy in Vienna.He came to NBS in1963as the first Director of the Standard Reference Data program and later became NBS Associate Director for Information Programs. Brady was a man of compassion,dignity,culture,and grace.His life’s early end occurred after a struggle with cancer which his wife,Evelyn,associated with expo-sures to radiation during his work on atomic-energy projects.
Prepared by Lewis M.Branscomb.
References
[1]H.L.Mason and H.S.Peir(eds.,with Foreword by L.M.
Branscomb),Metrology and Standardization in Less-Developed Countries:The Role of a National Capability for Industrializing Economies,Proceedings of a Seminar Held at Airlie Hou, W arrenton,V A,February1-4,1971;NBS Special Publication 359,National Bureau of Standards,W ashington,DC(1971).
[2]H.Steffen Peir and John A.Birch(eds.),Standardization in
Support of Development,NBS Special Publication507,National Bureau of Standards,W ashington,DC(1978).
[3]Marian F.McCurley(ed.),NIST International and Academic
Activities for FY1997/1998,NIST Special Publication940, National Institute of Standards and T echnology,Gaithersburg, MD(1999).
[4]Chester H.Page and Paul Vigoureux(eds.),The International
Bureau of W eights and Measures,1875-1975:Translation of the BIPM Centennial V olume,NBS Special Publication420, National Bureau of Standards,W ashington,DC(1975).
5g路由器[5]H.Steffen Peir,Raymond C.Sangster,and Wun Jung,Metrol-
ogy in Industry and Government:How to Find out Who Needs What Services,Proceedings of a Regional Seminar held at the Korea Standards Rearch Institute,Dae Jeon,Korea,1978, NBS Special Publication539,National Bureau of Standards, W ashington,DC(1979).
[6]Raymond C.Sangster(ed.),The T echnological Knowledge Ba
for Industrializing Countries,NBS Special Publication543, National Bureau of Standards,W ashington,DC(1979).
[7]G.K.Burgess,Rearch Associates at the Bureau of Standards,医院财务制度
NBS Circular296,National Bureau of Standards,W ashington, DC(1925).
[8]H.Steffen Peir and Robert S.Marvin(eds.),Regional Seminar
on a System of Standardization and Metrology for Latin America, NBS Interagency Report76-988,National Bureau of Standards, W ashington,DC(1976).
[9]H.Steffen Peir and Robert S.Marvin,T esting and Certi-
fication for Export Products in Industrializing Countries, NBS Special Publication438,National Bureau of Standards, W ashington,DC(1976).
[10]H.S.Peir,Recalling the PL-480Program at NBS,NBS/NIST
SAA Newsletter,13-14December,1998.
