In addition to policing established standards, the Bureau of Standards conducted some research on how to improve consumer products. This work received a good amount of positive publicity and was commended and given support by various organizations. In 1924, for example, the American Automobile Association (a service member organization founded in 1902, known more commonly by its acronym, AAA) urged Congress to increase funding of the automative section of the Bureau of Standards. The AAA argued that the research activities of the bureau were “of greater value to automobile owners of the country than any other activity of government on behalf of motorists.”14 In particular, the AAA cited work done by the bureau that had doubled the life of brake linings, at no additional expense to the consumer.15 In the same year, perhaps to promote its activities, the Bureau of Standards conducted well-publicized tests of golf balls, using a purpose-built machine, in order to encourage the golfing industry to adopt a standardized ball. According to one newspaper report, the bureau’s golf ball testing machine “demonstrated that whereas [prestandardized] balls left the tee with a velocity of 156 feet a second, the new balls of standard manufacture had a speed of nearly 175 feet a second.”16
Product Testing and Product Regularization
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