Between 1920 and 1930 the number of cars registered in the United States leaped from 9 to 26.5 million. Post-WWI Bureau of Standards research on the automobile was in large part a conservation effort. The Bureau hoped that better knowledge of fuels, ignition, lubrication, and carburation could assist in lowering the gasoline consumption of automobiles and therefore represent a savings to the country. Automobile safety was also a Bureau concern. To help establish safe driving speeds, NBS investigated brakes, the braking ability of cars, and the reaction time of drivers in applying brakes. Automobile research at NIST - sometimes focused on conservation, sometimes on safety, and sometimes on environmental impact -continued throughout the twentieth century.

Captured German transport vehicles brought to the Bureau of Standards
after World War I for study  -NIST Photographic Collection, Automobile
Research



This car, rigged with two pistols, was used at the Bureau of Standards
to measure a motorist's reaction time in applying brakes (ca. 1924).
-NIST Photographic Collection, Automobile Research

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Last Update: November 2, 2004

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