Improve ment of t he X -ray diffraction pattern file of t he America n Society fo r T esti ng M aterials is t he bas is for work being don e at t he N ational Bureau of Standards wi t h t he cooperat ion of t he Joint Co mmi ttee on Che mical Analysis by X -ray Diffraction Methods of t he Ameri can Society for T est ing Materials , t he America n Cr ystallographic Associa t ion, an d t he Bri tish Inst it ute of Phy sics. The equipment used in obtainin g t he d ata presented her e comprises a Geiger-count er spectrometer wit h a 180 0 ar c calibrated with t he calculat ed patterns of substances whose lattice const ants are known with high pr ecision . Separate chart s are prep ared to ob tain dat a for interplanar spa cing and intensity m easurements so t hat special attention can be paid t o mounting t he sample for t he best result s in each case. Tables are in cluded t o com pare t he patterns with t hose recorded in the literature.T ables a nd discussion follow for X-ray diffraction dat a ba sed on fou r compounds not listed in t he Ameri can Society for T esting M aterials file and on four represented there. T he pa tterns of zinc borate, Zn B20 4 ; selenium oxide, Se0 2; m agnesium silicate (forsterite ), M g2Si0 4 ; and magnesium t un gstate, Mg W04 , a re recommended as additions to t he file. The patterns of st r ontium nitrate, Sr (N 0 3h; bari um ni trate, Ba (N 0 3h ; lead fluochloride (matlockite) , PbFCI; and mcr cu ric chl oride, H gCh, are reco mmend ed to replace t he present patterns in t he fil e.