Corrosion researchers making a first step in the solution of a corrosion problem look to the literature to review the experience of others and to weigh others’ solutions. Since no man can read everything written about corrosion today, much less catalog in his mind what has been written in the past, some means of selecting only the immediately pertinent material must be devised. Furthermore, the nature of corrosion processes, crossing as they do the physical, chemical and even the atomical sciences, so complicate the problem of selection that even if all pertinent references are available in their several compilations, the physical task of finding them—of tracing them down through indices designed to achieve classifications of material for other purposes —becomes a task too great to even consider, even if the extended time necessary is available.
With this in mind, the National Association of Corrosion Engineers early in its history began...
