Samuel Stratton — NIST’s first director 1901-1902

Samuel W. Stratton — NIST’s first director,
1901-1902
Born on a farm outside Litchfield, Illinois, in 1861, Samuel W. Stratton gravitated not toward animal husbandry, but to farm machinery and new mechanical devices to facilitate farm work.

In 1880, young Stratton sold a colt he had raised to finance his first year of college. He graduated from the University of Illinois in 1884 with a degree in mechanical engineering and was appointed instructor of mathematics and physics. In 1889, he became assistant professor of physics and electrical engineering.

In 1892, he joined the new University of Chicago and in 1900 became a full professor. Stratton eventually received six honorary doctorates. Part of his research included a new form of harmonic analysis, a device for high-precision measurement of electrical frequencies.

Commissioned in the Illinois naval militia unit, he served during 1898 as a Navy lieutenant in the Spanish-American War.

Stratton was brought to Washington to help write legislation for the establishment of the National Bureau of Standards, predecessor to NIST, and head of the Office of Weights and Measures in the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. He appointed NBS' first director when Congress established the laboratory in 1901.

Known rather formally as Dr. Stratton to his friends, he quickly became the "Old Man" to the young scientists on his staff. He was said to be outgoing and accessible without a trace of affectation. A great champion of technology and research, in 1902 Stratton told a House committee: "If we are to advance, we have to create original things."

After heading NIST for 21 years, Stratton became president of MIT in 1923. There, he expanded research in engineering and industrial processes, pure science and new fields of applied science.

In 1926, he returned for NIST’s 25th anniversary celebration. Asked to recall the greatest accomplishments under his direction, he cited "the influence upon manufacturing of the introduction of scientific methods of measurement and methods of research."

Still apparently hale at age 70, Samuel Stratton died suddenly of a coronary occlusion in 1931.

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