Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 79.djvu/220

216 mucilage alone amount to an annual total of about 2,000 samples. These chemical analyses and conjoint physical tests furnish a scientific basis for more definite specifications for future purchases.

A demand has developed for certified samples of iron and steel of definite composition; also for samples of sugar of the highest purity. Many hundreds of these are sent out annually. They are highly important

to encourage the growing tendency to apply pure science to commercial processes in place of haphazard traditional methods.

The engineering section of the bureau is one of the later ones established. It has already much more than justified itself. In addition to the work in Washington, designed to secure fundamental data for engineers, it carries on investigations at Pittsburgh in the building turned over by the Geological Survey by direction of the last congress. The