Deals mainly with Vinal's 43 years at National Bureau of Standards and his work on battery devices and their standards. Summer assistant to Edward B. Rose in at National Bureau of Standards (NBL), 1904; work with EMF of the Weston cell; Johns Hopkins Graduate School, 1906; work with J. F. Ames, Robert Wood; work on arc discharge between metallic electrodes. Return to Bureau in 1908; first work on silver voltmeter; 1910 conference on international electrical standards in Washington; work during World War I on anti-submarine warfare devices, development of dry cell; 1917 work on storage and perchloric acid batteries; trip to Europe to compare EMF standards, 1930; Dry Battery Research Committee activities under Hyman G. Rickover during World War II; comments on Rosa, early voltmeter work of P. W. Richards, E. N. Darcy, F. A. Wolfe and S. W. Stranton.