Spectrographic Standards

While the Manhattan Project work occupied many in our expanded group, another problem became important. With the growth of production in war industries, spectroscopy became essential to speed up control analysis especially in the production of steel. Rapid team operations had been developed to provide spectrographic analysis within a few minutes, thus permitting correction of the steel composition, if necessary, before casting. However, this new procedure required analyzed reference materials in rod electrode form for calibration and, naturally, production laboratories looked to the NBS for help. 

For the chemical analysis of steel in the past, 538 Standard Samples, as they were called, had been prepared in the form of chips milled from bars of steel for a variety of compositions. The chips provided a convenient form for preparing solutions for chemical analysis. Stored in the attic of the Chemistry Building were many cores remaining after milling the samples. Possibly these cores (four feet long by two inches in diameter) could be used in spectrographic analysis if prepared in the appropriate electrode forms. When the idea was proposed to Dr. G.E.F. Lundell, Chief of the Chemistry Division, he gave his approval, and we embarked on the new standards program. 

At this time I was secretary of Committee E-2 on Spectrographic Analysis of the American Society for Testing Materials and enlisted their help. The Committee supported the effort and two electrode rod sizes (7/32 in. and 1/2 in. in diameter) were adopted. Fabrication of the rods (at no cost to the Bureau) was arranged by Committee member Paul Irish of the Bethlehem Steel Company, and the NBS cores were transported to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania for processing. On July 21, 1942 I was privileged to observe the rolling and drawing procedures, which were all accomplished in one day. Like a scene from the futuristic movie Metropolis the plant floor was a lively and noisy place as the fifty cores of steels were heated, rolled and drawn, requiring careful handling to maintain identity and avoid losses. Men with pyrometers checked temperatures as others moved the hot bars and adjusted the machines. The resulting rods were later centerless ground to final sizes. 

At the NBS we had to check the homogeneity of the rods and to demonstrate their applicability to the analysis of stee1s. Once when our fellows were manipulating the long rods in our laboratory, Mr. Frederick Bates now Chief of the Optics Division was present. It became clearly evident to him, as he dodged a rod, that we needed more space.  With his influence he arranged to have the standards work moved to the recently vacated white Telephone Building located across the road from the Chemistry Building. The rapidly growing spectrographic standard sample program, headed by Chares H. Corliss, now had its own building. 

     The standards work proved successful, with the first set of 12 steel standards, in the form of short rod sections, being issued by the NBS with the Certificate of Analysis early in 1943. The laboratory continued the development of standard samples and was engaged in related research, e.g. “The Spectrographic Determination of Boron in Steel” published by Corliss and Scribner in 1946.