Discover

Share

Download

Features

/

Article

Office of Technical Services of the Department of Commerce

DEC 01, 1951

The Commerce Department is obliged by law to accumulate technical information of all sorts and to make it available to the public. Its Office of Technical Services has been assigned these responsibilities. A brief picture of the OTS in action is provided in the following article.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3067100

Dwight E. Gray

Is my invention for disintegrating army tanks at several hundred yards any good? What is the best adhesive to use in laminating leather to glass when the product is to be used in a warm, humid climate? What technical reports are available on the refractive indices of transparent plastics? These particular queries, as far as I know, are imaginary, but they serve to illustrate the kinds of questions to which J. Horace Taxpayer can obtain answers from the Office of Technical Services (OTS) of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Before discussing these services separately, let us look briefly at the genealogy and present organization of the OTS.

More about the Authors

Dwight E. Gray. Library of Congress.

© 1951. American Institute of Physics

This Content Appeared In

Volume 4, Number 12

Related content

Features

/

Article

Landing a job in the private sector

Technical knowledge and skills are only some of the considerations that managers have when hiring physical scientists. Soft skills, in particular communication, are also high on the list.

October 17, 2025 11:20 AM

Features

/

Article

A home base for your career

Professional societies can foster a sense of belonging and offer early-career scientists opportunities to give back to their community.

October 16, 2025 10:13 AM

Features

/

Article

What can physicists do?

Interviews offer a glimpse of how physicists get into—and thrive in—myriad nonacademic careers.

October 02, 2025 05:20 PM

Features

/

Article

The successes and challenges of US–Soviet scientific communication

Research exchanges between US and Soviet scientists during the second half of the 20th century may be instructive for navigating today’s debates on scientific collaboration.

October 01, 2025 12:00 AM

Get PT in your inbox

Physics Today - The Week in Physics

The Week in Physics" is likely a reference to the regular updates or summaries of new physics research, such as those found in publications like Physics Today from AIP Publishing or on news aggregators like Phys.org.

Physics Today - Table of Contents

Physics Today - Whitepapers & Webinars