SECTION 3

STANDARDS, NOMENCLATURE, ABBREVIATIONS,

AND SYMBOLS
Among the hundred or more national professional and trade organiza-
tions engaged in standardization
1
in the United States, at least four
2
sponsor
this work as their major activity. These co-operate with many other
groups active in special fields, such as the Illuminating Engineering Society,
and with state and 1 jderal governments. Their activities are reported in
the monthly, Industrial Standardization, which is published by the Ameri-
can Standards Association. New lighting practices appear in Illuminating
Engineering, the monthly publication of the Illuminating Engineering
Society.
When a recommended practice or standard code
3
proposed by a profes-
sional group involvwithe safety or welfare of the general public, it is some-
times incorpor
o+ -"
>y
the state legislatures in the state law. (See the
index or Sev hrough 16 of the Application Division for condensed
forms of the
x
es recommended by the Illuminating Engineering
Society.)
Because of Amei._an membership in various international groups, which
comprise representatives of different nations, standardization in the United
States is given international significance. The International Commission
on Illumination, I.C.I. {Commission Internationale de VEclairage, CLE.),
is the international organization concerned with illumination.
1. Referent dards
The ability easure physical quantities accuiately is essential to
progress in all ph&^s of science and engineering. A fundamental step in
developing this ability is the establishment of reference standards against
which practical measuring tools may be calibrated.
When such standards are physical objects, they are customarily pre-
served at the National Bureau of Standards in Washington. An example
is the set of carbon-filament lamps which has served as the American
candlepower standard since 1909. Whenever possible, it is present prac-
tice to replace such arbitrary physical objects, which might never be exactly
duplicated if destroyed, with standards suited to convenient and accurate
reproduction in
'
oratories throughout the world.
Standard. A nary standard is one by which a unit of measurement is
established and L n which the values of other standards are derived. A
satisfactory primary standard must be reproducible from specifications.
A secondary standard is calibrated by comparison with a primary
standard.
A working standard is any calibrated tool fcT daily use in measure-
ment work.
Note: References are listed at the end of each section.
1