Abstract :
Underwriters´ Laboratories, Inc., nonprofit organization established in 1894 by the National Board of Fire Underwriters as the official testing station of the capital-stock fire-insurance business, celebrated in February the anniversary of its first 50 years of public service. From its modest beginning above a fire-patrol station in Chicago, Ill., as a one-engineer one-room office with only $350 worth of electrical equipment, it has developed into a national concern with four testing stations in major industrial sections of the United States. Today its central station in Chicago comprises approximately 130,000 square feet of floor area, and is said to be one of the best examples of fire-resistive construction in this country.