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STANDARDIZATION
ADDRESS BY HENRY D. HUBBARD, SECRETARY, U. S. NATIONAL
BUREAU OE STANDARDS, BEFORE THE SOCIETY OF
MOTION PICTURE ENGINEERS, AT ITS WASHING.
TON MEETING, MONDAY, JULY 24, 1916
Your appreciation of standardization is evident since you give it first place on your program. Standardization is too big a theme to be lightly regarded, and its possibilities have already aroused an enduring interest among engineers everywhere. For fifteen years your National Bureau of Standards has seen the rapid rise of this subject in so many lines that a list would be too long to read here. I may here touch only upon a few thoughts of appreciation of your work and the application of the theme to the motion picture field, — a subject which stimulates our imagination and kindles our enthusiasm.
Standardization is a big word, almost as broad as civilization, for our manners and customs are merely accepted standards of conduct, our laws aim to standardize human relations, and daily life is governed by standards approved by common consent. Standardization is more than a passing fancy of efficiency experts. It thrives everywhere, often against efforts to prevent. Our daily life has its time schedule. Work and recreation are run by the clock, and if we would be efficient we must fit nicely into the standardized time schedules. Diet experts standardize the food requirement for proper growth, activity, and repair of our body. We may judge by comparison with normal body size and weight whether we need development, and from our respiration, heart beat, and temperature whether vitality is normal. These things are so standardized that they are the foundation of physical diagnosis.
Coinage, weights and measures, and time are standard. Business organization is being standardized. So, too, is transportation, manufacturing, and machinery. The motions of the workers are being studied in order to standardize his movements along the lines of least effort. In this personal motion economy with its possibilities for human welfare the motion picture is the indispensable means of research.
Everywhere we feel the urge for standardization. It calls for normal regime, normal equipment, normal efficiency. Our clothing is standardized, and though no law prevents, we would not care, for example, to come here this morning without a necktie, for society enforces its standardization by social pressure stronger than law. Our every garment is standard in size and cut, and we must fit into the staple sizes or pay made-to-order prices. Our streets, houses, and rooms are of standard types, as are our furniture, utensils.