dies, Straits Settlements, Australia, India, and West, South, and East African ports. (4) Passenger and Mails Division, dealing with the corporation's passenger services, including booking of passengers; maintaining contact with the Post Office Department in the interest of procurement of mails for the corporation's vessels. (5) Claims Division, for the handling and settlement of traffic (6) District offices at Boston, New York, Baltimore, Savannah, (7) Inland Offices Division, charged with the promotion of con- (b) Advertising Department.-Charged with supervision of all advertising of the Fleet Corporation services. Offices maintained at New York and London. (c) Chartering Department.-Charters tankers available for commercial business after the requirements of the Fuel Department have been met, and negotiates bulk cargoes moving in general cargo steamers under charter parties. Offices located at New York. F. Department of Ship Sales.-Manager.-Has cognizance of negotiations for the sale of all vessel property under the jurisdiction of the Shipping Board, and is charged with responsibility for the custody and preservation of laid up vessels. The Department consists of the Department of Ship Sales proper, attending to matters relating to the sale of vessels, and a unit within the Department known as Laid-Up Fleet Division, having supervisory charge over the maintenance of the Laid-Up Fleets in accordance with rules and regulations established by the Department of Ship Sales. The Laid-Up Fleet Division has district administrative headquarters at New York, Philadelphia, Norfolk, New Orleans, and San Francisco. Under the supervision of such district headquarters are the actual fleet organizations, aboard the Laid-Up Fleets, executing the duties allotted them. Sales are governed by sections 5, 6, and 7 of the Merchant Marine Act. Annual Omnibus Advertisement is usually published in the spring of each year, soliciting bids for the purchase of any vessels in the Board's Fleet. 4. Rules of Practice 2 Act June 5, 1920 (41 Stat. 988 [Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1923, §§ 81461⁄4aaa-81461⁄4d]). See Eighth Annual Report of United States Shipping Board, p. 94. 1. Mission CHAPTER 69 NATIONAL SCREW THREAD COMMISSION To ascertain and establish standards for screw threads, to be submitted to the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Secretary of Commerce for their acceptance and approval.1 2. History "The initial accomplishment in the standardization of screw threads in the United States was the report, under date of December 15, 1864, of the special committee appointed by the Franklin Institute on April 21, 1861, for the investigation of a proper system of screw threads, bolt heads, and nuts, to be recommended by the institute for adoption and general use by American engineers. "In its report this committee recommended a thread system designed by William Sellers. This thread system specified a single series of pitches for certain diameters from one-fourth inch to six inches, inclusive. The threads had an included angle of 60 degrees and a flat at the crest and root equal to oneeighth of the pitch. This system came into general use and was known as the Franklin Institute thread, the Sellers thread, and commonly as the United States thread. "The accomplishments realized in the adoption of the Franklin Institute, or United States standard thread, in 1864, were brought about largely by the great need of standard threads by American railroads for the development of their lines and equipment. In May, 1868, this thread was adopted by the United States Navy. "In recent years numerous organizations have carried forward the standardization of screw threads. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Society of Automotive Engineers, the Bureau of Standards, and prominent manufacturers of specialized threaded products have been the chief influences in standardization of screw threads in this country. In England the standardization of screw threads began with the efforts of Sir Joseph Whitworth in ascertaining shop practice in the manufacture of screw threads, resulting in the standardization and adoption of the Whitworth thread system, which found extensive use in England. This work has been carried forward by the British Engineering Standards Association, an organization formed in 1901. "While the United States standard thread system fulfilled a great need in the period of the development of our great railway systems, it did not fully meet the requirements of modern manufacture, because of the need for additional standard sizes and pitches developed in other industries, and especially because of the need for definitely specified limiting sizes of threaded parts. To fulfill the first of these needs, a thread system having finer pitches than the United 1 Act July 18, 1918 (40 Stat. 912). States standard system was recommended by the Society of Automotive Engineers, and a machine screw thread series, which provided smaller sizes of screws than the United States standard threads, was recommended by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The progress of machine design and manufacture has established an extensive use of these fine thread series. "With the great extension of quantity production in this and other countries, particularly during the World War, the need for national standard limiting dimensions was emphasized, as one of the prerequisites of quantity production is standardization of form and dimensions of parts, in order that interchangeability may be established. This is especially important in the matter of screw thread parts, since there are two mating parts that must fit, and these parts in many cases are made in different places. Standardization of screw threads is important to both the manufacturer and the user of a machine, as the user should be able to buy locally a screw or nut for replacement in case of breakage or wear." 2 Through the efforts of several of the engineering societies, the Bureau of Standards, and prominent manufacturers of screw thread products, Congress authorized the creation of the National Screw Thread Commission in 1918.1 Prior to the expiration of the original term of six months, to which the commission was limited by the organic act, it became apparent that it could not fully accomplish the purposes for which it was created, and Congress extended its life, as it has by later acts, so that it is assured of continuance until March 21, 1927. 3 The first meeting of the commission was held September 12, 1918. In July, 1919, the commission represented by several of its members conferred with British and French engineers and manufacturers of screw thread products, for the purpose of discussing the tentative report prepared by the commission with reference to its suitability to serve as a basis for international standardization of screw threads. 3. Activities The commission has, from time to time, resolved itself into the following subcommittees, with authority to call to their aid one or more experts for counsel, which subcommittees were responsible for compiling and auditing data pertaining to the subject of each committee, and for compiling reports for presentation to the commission as a whole, for the action of the commission: (a) Pitches, systems, and forms of thread. (b) Classification and tolerances. (c) Terminology. (d) Gages and methods of test. (e) Order of business. (f) Research. 1 Act July 18, 1918 (40 Stat. 912). 2 Report of the National Screw Thread Commission (Revised 1924) pp. 4, 5. 3 Act March 3, 1919 (40 Stat. 1291 [Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1919, §§ 8907uu-8907x]). 4 Joint Resolutions of March 23, 1920 (41 Stat. 536), and March 21, 1922 (42 Stat. 469 [Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1923, § 8907y]). (a) Section 1 of the original act provided for nine commissioners, one to be the Director of the Bureau of Standards, who was to act as Chairman of the Commission, two commissioned officers from the Army, two from the Navy, and four to be appointed by the Secretary of Commerce from nominees of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Society of Automotive Engineers. (b) Secretary. (c) Address: National Screw Thread Commission, Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. C. * Report of the National Screw Thread Commission (Revised 1924) pp. 4, 5. 711 1. Mission CHAPTER 70 UNITED STATES BUREAU OF EFFICIENCY The duties of the Bureau of Efficiency are to establish and maintain a system of efficiency ratings for the executive departments in the District of Columbia; to investigate the needs of the several executive departments and independent establishments with respect to personnel; to investigate duplication of statistical and other work and methods of business in the various branches of the government service; and to aid the Personnel Classification Board in the classification of positions in the departmental service. 2. History The Bureau of Efficiency was evolved from the Division of Efficiency of the Civil Service Commission, which division was established in 19131 by an act granting $15,000 to the Civil Service Commission for establishing and maintaining a system of efficiency ratings and for investigating "the administrative needs of the service relating to personnel in the several executive departments and independent establishments in the District of Columbia." The appropriation was increased, and was granted to the Division of Efficiency by name, with broadened authority of the division to include "the investigation of duplication of statistical and other work and methods of business in the various branches of the government service," and provided that the chief of the division should be appointed by the President, and should report to Congress through the President the nature and progress of the work undertaken by the division, and make a detailed statement of expenditures showing the persons employed, their duties, and the compensation paid to each: The Act approved February 28, 1916, changed the designation of the organization to "Bureau of Efficiency," and made it an independent establishment.4 As a result of the bureau's recommendations, the subtreasuries were abolished, which resulted in a saving of nearly half a million dollars a year in administrative expenses, and according to Assistant Secretary Leffingwell, of the Treasury Department, in a saving of about $2,000,000 a year in interest on the Public Debt. It has installed a system of efficiency ratings for the employees in the Post Office Department. It has made actuarial valuations of the cost of the various pension plans which from time to time were proposed for retiring superannuated employees. It has installed an accounting system in the Indian Service. For about three years it co-operated with the Bureau of Internal Revenue in solving the immense problems which confronted that bureau in collecting the 1 Act March 4, 1913 (37 Stat. 750 [Comp. St. § 3286]). 2 Act July 16, 1914 (38 Stat. 465). 3 Act March 4, 1915 (38 Stat. 1007, 1008 [Comp. St. § 3286b]). 4 39 Stat. 15 (Comp. St. § 3286c). 5 Statement of the Chief of the Bureau of Efficiency before the Monday Lunch Club of the National Association of Manufacturers of the United States, Sept. 13, 1920. |