satisfactory substitute for this material in the manufacture of rope for maritime purposes which does not swell when immersed in water. Mercury figures chiefly in the manufacture of fulminate for detonating high explosives, drugs (calomel, corrosive sublimate), dental amalgam, antifouling paint for ship bottoms, storage batteries, and barometers, embracing, also, the generation of power (mercury boilers), mercury vapor lamps, photography, and manufacture of felt. Domestic sources of supply are mainly California, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, and Washington.

Mica in sheet form is used principally for electrical insulation purposes. Larger sheets find their way into heater elements for electric appliances, and into condensers; smaller, are used as segments, disks, and washers. Clear, transparent sheet mica is featured in stove fronts, oven, furnace and kiln windows, lamp chimneys, canopies, and shields; also, lenses of goggles, smoke helmets, and gas masks. Primary military uses are for aviation spark plugs and for condenser plates. British India is our chief source of supply.

Optical glass is associated with field glasses, cameras, fire-control and range-finding instruments, microscopes, and lenses. Since World War I, American manufacturers have had difficulty in competing with foreign producers controlling sources of cheap skilled labor. "With the advantage now obtained; namely, a 50-percent tariff on blanks and a correspondingly higher duty on finished products, our domestic industries are furnishing approximately 50 percent or better of present peacetime needs." However, the state of the home industry does not yet permit exclusion of imports. The National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. C., has contracts with the Procurement Division for furnishing optical glass for camera lenses and fire-control instruments. Crystalline quartz possesses piezo-electric properties. "For this type used in radio-frequency control there is no satisfactory substitute. Other uses with less strict specifications include jewelry, electrical apparatus, pivots, and laboratory vessels. Good crystals free from flaws, cracks, ghosts, phantoms, veils, needles, buttles, and twinning are worth about $6 per pound." Quartz crystal comes almost exclusively from Brazil.

Quinine is used for the prevention and treatment of malaria. Troops are dosed with it before, during, and after exposure to malarial infection. Cinchona bark, from which quinine is derived, in the form of sulphate of quinine, is graded as factory or pharmaceutical bark. Most of the cinchona bark is grown in Netherland Indies, some in Japan, British India, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, and the Philippine Islands.

The principal use of tin is in the manufacture of tin plate. It is also involved in the manufacture of solder, collapsible tubes and foil, babbitt, and bronze. Satisfactory substitutes are available for some of its uses though, from an economic standpoint, none has been

developed in preserving foods. At best, requirements for tin in the manufacture of solder and bearings could be reduced only to a limited extent by substitution. Tin ore is mined in Bolivia and shipped to Europe for smelting. This ore is found chiefly in Straits Settlements, Bolivia, China, and Belgium.

Tungsten is an element that endows alloy steels with high-tension characteristics.36 "In industry it is widely used for high-speed tool steel, lamp filaments, nonferrous alloys, electric contacts and electrodes;" the chemical industry has its own various uses. In the form of tungsten carbide it has still further application "A strictly directed military use is as an alloy in armor-piercing bullet cores." China, Bolivia, South Africa, and Argentina boast the largest deposits.

A photograph is supplied to illustrate the physical characteristics of certain strategic and critical materials (raw material varies in appearance from the finished product). Optical glass retains many of its original physical properties, while there is no resemblance between quinine and the cinchona bark, its source.

A comprehensive approach was necessary in order to buy the right materials in the proper amounts. The exact metals and minerals required, as also their uses and sources had to be defined. Stocks on hand in this country, in transit, and in foreign fields had to be estimated. Normal and wartime requirements had to be figured, and the use of satisfactory substitutes was correlated with requirements and estimated available supply. The effect of rising prices in a keenly competitive market, and the developing of local deposits had to be appraised. Methods of control and distribution of the stockpile, the influence of conservation measures, the increased cost of transportation, and the decreased facilities for shipping were other facets of over-all programming.

Restricted by section 3709 of the Revised Statutes, the Procurement Division issued invitations on all commodities to lists of prospective bidders prepared through correspondence with various organizations. Under the formal method, a proposal for manganese ore on which 400 invitations had been issued netted only 8 bids, 6 to furnish material from domestic, 2 from foreign sources. On a later invitation for the same commodity, 9 bids were received from a total of 692 inquiries. Four of these were domestic, 4 foreign, and 1 was Philippine. The procedure governing transactions relating to strategic and critical materials is quoted here in part from Office Memoran

36 See footnote 35.

dum No. 110, November 20, 1939, Procurement Division, Treasury Department:

2. ISSUANCE OF INVITATIONS AND DISPOSITION OF BIDS

A. Specifications for the material to be procured will be prepared from recommendations submitted by the Army and Navy Munitions Board and issued under SM series, approved by the Director of Procurement. Invitations to bid for strategic materials will be prepared by the Strategic Materials Group in cooperation with the Purchase Division.

B. After the invitations to bid have the necessary approvals, they will be issued to a list of prospective bidders prepared by the Strategic Materials Group and will go through the regular procedure as outlined by the Purchase Division. C. Bids will be received in the Bid Room and handled in accordance with Purchase Division procedure. At the time of the opening of the bids, they will be read in the usual manner and the original and the duplicate turned over to the Strategic Materials Group for preparation of abstract and the necessary bid evaluation sheets. All bids except the original accepted bids will be kept in the custody of the Strategic Materials Group.

D. After bids have been evaluated, recommendation for award of contracts will be forwarded to the Chief of the Purchase Division for handling in accordance with regular procedure.

3. CONTRACTS AND PURCHASE ORDERS

A. After an award has been approved, the issuance of contracts and purchase orders will be handled by the Purchase Division in accordance with Purchase Division procedure. Copy of contract and purchase order will be forwarded to the Strategic Materials Group for completion of entries into encumbrance and other necessary records.

B. It will be the duty of the Strategic Materials Group to see that the authorizations contained in the letter from the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy are not exceeded. Vendors' invoices for strategic materials will be forwarded to the Strategic Materials Group, along with reports of analyses and weights from inspection engineers, receiving and inspection reports from Army and Navy bases, and custody receipts from the Commanding Officers of the Army and Navy bases. The necessary follow-up and contact with the vendors, carriers, weighers, and inspectors at receiving bases will be conducted by the Strategic Materials Group, which will, also, maintain inventory records covering strategic materials stored at each base, showing location of material, analysis, and amount expended. Vouchers for payment of vendors' invoices will be prepared by the Strategic Materials Group and forwarded to the Finance Division for necessary action and payment.

The Procurement Division next progressed from the bid purchase method to the purchase negotiation process under authorization contained in Public Law 667. This authority enabled the Strategic Materials Group to deal quickly and effectively with fewer and better sources of supply. Out of 109 contracts issued, 72 were advertised

518532-43--17