The NAS in the Late Nineteenth Century

Although the end of the Civil War in 1865 eliminated the immediate circumstances leading to the founding of the Academy, the government continued to find a need for the young scientific consulting body. The immediate aftermath of the war brought with it problems in need of solutions, and thus in January of 1867 the Academy found itself asked to evaluate the viability of zinc-coated cast iron blocks for use as headstones on the graves of soldiers killed in the war. The Academy thus formed a Committee on Galvanic Action from the Association of Zinc and Iron, which, as described in its report, conducted an experiment by

...attaching to one end of the wire of a galvanometer a plate of zinc and to the other end a plate of iron. These two plunged in a vessel of water slightly acidulated by sulphuric acid, gave rise to a powerful current of galvanism from the zinc to the iron. While the zinc was rapidly corroded the iron remained unaffected...

The Committee's conclusion was that the proposed zinc and cast iron headstones would not last perpetually. Whether or not their decision was directly influenced by the Academy's advice, Congress in 1872 decreed that headstones in national cemeteries would be made of "durable stone."

During the 1860s, 1870s, and 1880s the Academy was called on to report on a diverse set of subjects. A partial list of the committees formed in response to government requests during this period illustrates just how diverse these subjects were. There were Academy committees on Proving and Gauging Distilled Spirits and Preventing Fraud (1866); on Metric Standards for the States (1866); on Means of Distinguishing Calf's Hair from Woolen Goods (1875); on Waterproofing the Fractional Currency (1875); on the Restoration of the Declaration of Independence (1880); and on Quartz Plates used in Saccharimeters for Sugar Determinations (1887). While some of the topics the Academy was asked to pronounce upon may appear trivial in retrospect, they do reflect the concerns of an agricultural nation in the process of industrializing.

Perhaps the most important services the Academy performed for the country during this period were recommending the establishment of the US Geological Survey, and helping in setting up a national forest service. In 1878, the Academy was asked to evaluate five independent surveys of public land west of the Mississippi then taking place under military and civilian leadership. An Academy Committee on a Plan for Surveying and Mapping the Territories of the US was thus set up and given the charge of devising an overall plan for surveying the Western territories. Among other recommendations, the committee proposed that a new government agency, the US Geological Survey, be established within the Department of the Interior. Through a subsequent act of Congress, the committee's major proposals were enacted. This was the first time an Academy committee had helped establish a major scientific government agency.

Nearly two decades later, in 1895, the Academy was asked to address the problem of the general neglect of American forests. Accordingly, a Committee on the Inauguration of a Rational Policy for the Forested Lands of the US was appointed. The resulting committee report, transmitted to the Secretary of the Interior in May of 1897, recommended that in the short term, military units should be sent to protect public forest areas from fire and despoliation. The committee's recommendation for the long term was that a permanent national forest service be established to oversee and patrol public forests. After a decade of political haggling, the Academy's recommendation was made law in 1905 as the Forest Service was set up under the Department of Agriculture.

Despite the successes of the survey, forestry, and other studies, by the 1890s, the government had been calling on the Academy with lessening frequency. This relative lack of activity had given some of the institution's membership cause for concern. But the Academy was soon to come out of its torpor thanks to an emerging group of activist members who would go on to revitalize the institution and establish the National Research Council under Academy auspices.

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