Standards of temperature

As a result of the increasing need for reliable temperature measurements at both very high and very low temperatures, the National Bureau of Standards is extending its temperature standardization and research program toward the extremes of the temperature scale. While the accurate measurement of temperature has long been of interest to the research scientist, its importance, particularly at the extreme ends of the scale, has greatly increased with the rapid technical developments of recent years. During this period, many improvements in industrial processes for the manufacture of products such as steel, glass, gasoline, and other important commodities have resulted from the increased precision that is being attained in the measurement and control of temperature. In aeronautics there are new temperature problems in connection with the use of jet propulsion and the operation of aircraft at high altitudes and in polar regions. To attain the desired performance in jet engines, fundamental research is required to develop methods of measuring temperatures of flames and to develop temperature‐sensitive devices for indicating performance and controlling operation. For use at jet‐engine temperatures as well as in arctic cold, mechanical parts must be specially designed using materials capable of withstanding these extremes in order to function satisfactorily. Likewise, as a result of the applications of atomic energy, it has become necessary to learn more about the heat‐transfer properties of a variety of materials at increasingly high temperatures. For effective research in these fields, temperatures must be accurately measured, and the results of one laboratory must be comparable with those of another.