Canal Commission, the Quartermaster-General’s Department of the Army,
the Life Saving Service, the Reclamation Service, and other branches of
the Government. About 300 samples are examined each month, requiring an
average of 12 determinations per sample, or about 3,600 determinations
per month.

The chemical laboratory for testing Government purchases of structural
materials is equipped with the necessary apparatus for making the
requisite physical and chemical tests. For the physical tests of cement,
there are a tensile test machine, briquette moulds, a pat tank for
boiling tests to determine soundness, water tanks for the storage of
briquettes, a moist oven, apparatus to determine specific gravity,
fineness of grinding, etc.

The chemical laboratory at Washington is equipped with the necessary
analytical balances, steam ovens, baths, blast lamps, stills, etc.,
required in the routine chemical analysis of cement, plaster, clay,
bricks and terra cotta, mineral paints and pigments, roofing material,
tern plate and asphaltic compounds, water-proofing materials, iron and
steel alloys, etc.

At present, materials which require investigative tests as a basis for
the preparation of suitable specifications, tests not connected with the
immediate determination as to whether or not the purchases are in
accordance with the specifications, are referred to the chemical
laboratories attached to the Structural Materials Division, at
Pittsburg.

The inspection and tests of cement purchased in large quantities, such
as the larger purchases on behalf of public-building construction under