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AD-X2

AD-X2 Resources

Source material

Extensive research was conducted prior to undertaking this project. Below are links to a handful of those sources:

NBS Director Allen V. Astin's Statement before the Select Committee on Small Business, U.S. Senate, June 23, 1953
Secretary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks Statement before the Select Committee on Small Business, U.S. Senate, March 31, 1953
NBS Director Allen V. Astin's Invited Address Before American Physical Society (1953)
Allen V. Astin: Oral History (Columbia University)
NBS Circular 504 on Battery Additives (1951)
NBS Letter Circular 302 on Battery Additives (1931)
Chapter about AD-X2 from the "Gauging the Nation: Samuel Wesley Stratton and the Invention of the National Bureau of Standards," a doctoral dissertation by interviewee Nelson Kellogg
"Standardizing the Bureau: The Battery Additive Controversy and the Reorganization of the National Bureau of Standards" by Nelson R. Kellogg (1987). Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5.

Press Materials

NIST Colloquium with John and Sandy Astin

Allen V. Astin, A Legacy of Integrity — In 1930, a young Ph.D. physicist named Allen V. Astin secured his first position at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), now known as NIST. By 1951, he had risen through the ranks to become the director of NBS. It was Astin’s leadership of the bureau through the tumultuous AD-X2 battery additive scandal that solidified his and NIST’s reputation for honesty and integrity. Hear his sons, John Astin and Alexander W. Astin, share their stories about NBS in the mid-20th century and what it was like as college students to experience having their father fired and then reinstated for his refusal to alter NBS results. John is known for his iconic role as Gomez Addams in TV’s “The Addams Family” series. He is now at Johns Hopkins University as Homewood Professor of the Arts and director of the Theatre Arts and Studies Program. Alexander is the Allan M. Cartter Distinguished Professor of Higher Education Emeritus and Founding Director of the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. This was recorded July 31st, 2018.

Created April 28, 2023, Updated May 10, 2023