{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","title":"Time for Things Labor, Leisure, and the Rise of Mass Consumption","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9780674250529","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","id":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","uuid":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","title":"Time for Things Labor, Leisure, and the Rise of Mass Consumption","normalized_title":"timeforthingslaborleisureandtheriseofmassconsumption","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9780674250529","isbns":["9780674250529","9780674250536","9780674979512"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":355,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Time%20for%20Things%20Labor%2C%20Leisure%2C%20and%20the%20Rise%20of%20Mass%20Consumption","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/search"},"page":{"printed_page":201,"pdf_page":209,"physical_index":209,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"e1d1db6c92a65f6093470aae277cbb4b0909e58e2ec9a868daba27e5fd3a9fcc"},"chapter":"FOR","content":"Even before independent consumer organizations began testing products, the NBS had been engaged in similar activities. Early testing conducted by the bureau was meant primarily for engineers and product specialists work ing in industry and so focused on industrial materials and processes rather than consumer products. But this early orientation toward industry was seen within the bureau as a shortcoming, precisely because it excluded the end user of industrial products—the consumer. As a corrective, in 1915 the bureau began to publish circulars written expressly for the general public. The first of these, circular no. 55, focused on appliances and was entitled Measurements for the Household. It enumerated its purposes in the introduction as: “(1) to give information as to units, methods, and instruments of measurement useful in household activities (2) to describe the available means of assuring correct quantity in articles bought by weight and measure, and (3) to give other facts of interest which would awaken an appreciation of the role of measurement in daily life” (National Bureau of Standards (1915), p. 7). The publication proved much more popular with the public than had been expected. While the usual print runs for circulars were two hundred to three hundred, demand for circular no. 55 was such that ten thousand copies were printed within three months of publication. By 1917, thirty-three thousand copies had been sold. Measurements for Households was followed, in 1917, by NBS circular no. 70, a 259-page manual entitled Materials for the Household. The pamphlet described its aim as “practical,” listing its objectives as follows: “(1) to stimulate the interest in household materials (2) to explain the nature of their desirable properties (3) to aid in their intelligent selection (4) to promote their efective use and preservation” (p. 9). Fifteen thousand copies of Measurements for Households were sold in the year of its publication. The goal of both circulars, according to the bureau, was “to make scientific results available for those with little or no technical training” (quoted in Cochrane 1966, p. 137). Circular nos. 55 and 70 would become templates for the pioneering consumer movement publications Consumer Bulletin and Consumer Reports. Indeed, Schlink and Chase argued that there was a need for an organization equivalent to the NBS, able to perform “impartial tests” in order to enforce “impartial standards,” only entirely devoted to the testing of consumer products. For, they complained, unlike items purchased by the government, “the great bulk of the things which we consumers buy are never reviewed by any impartial testing body.”9\n\nProduct Testing and Product Regularization\n\n201","previous_page":200,"next_page":202}