A Pioneer Investigator - ACS Publications

nison Manufacturing Company for their permission to pub- lish this method and to G. R. Alden for his assistance in pre- paring the article. A Pioneer ...
3 downloads 0 Views 770KB Size
I N D U S T R I A L A S D E S G I N E E R I S G CHEMISTRY

94

distilled from sample may be read directly from the buret. Per cent water in sample =

Volume water in cc

x 100

Weight of simple

Other Applications of Method This method has recently been used for the determination of water in emulsions of oil and water and coal tar, residual oils

Vol. 18, No. 1

and m t e r and has been found to give rapid and accurate results. Acknowledgment The miter wishes to express his appreciation to the Dennison Manufacturing Company for their permission to publish this method and to G. R. Alden for his assistance in preparing the article.

A Pioneer Investigator’ With Some Present-Day Observations Relating to His Work By S. W. Parr C N I V ~ R S I OF T YILLINOIS.URBANA, ILL.

HE annual meeting of the American Institute of Mining Engineers for 1877 was held at Wilkes-Barre, Pa. In scanning the names of authors of papers we note those of J. Lawrence Smith and Thomas M. Drown, both familiar to all chemists by reason of fundamental processes in analytical chemistry with which their names are associated. Professor Drown was secretary of the institute at the time. Just what sort of affinity, chemical or otherwise, sometimes becomes active between a professor of chemistry and the presidential chair of a university is difficult to d e h e , but Professor Drown, afterwards President Drown of Lehigh, is one of an illustrious list of persons who have in that manner strayed from the chemical fold. But these references to the chemical papers at the Wilkes’Barre meeting have at this time only incidental interest, which may be further developed later. There was still another paper, largely chemical in its subject matter, to which your attention is briefly called. This was a contribution by Persifor Frazer, of Philadelphia, for some time professor of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the staff of the Pennsylvania State Geological Survey. Professor Frazer’s paper was remarkable for two things. First, it was remarkable for the peculiarly effective handling of the information then available for the development of his topic, the classihation of coals. The data which he used and which furnished the ground-work for his discussion appeared in a published report thirty-five years previously, but had lain dormant during the interval, and it was the keen insight into the significance of that material and the masterful handling of it that enabled Frazer to present a scheme of classification so fundamentally sound that it has stood substantially without alteration for the nearly fifty years since its first presentation at the Wilkes-Barre meeting.

T

Report on American Coals-1844 The second notable feature of Professor Frazer’s paper was his reference to the source of his data. Had it not been for this reference it is entirely possible, and indeed probable, that the name of this early investigator and the time and circumstances attending his activities would have become lost. Because of the importance of the reference it is here reproduced from Professor Frazer’s paper, as follows: The true method t o be pursued in obtaining comparative data for coals is indicated by Professor Walter R. Johnson in his 1 Received October 29, 1925. Address delivered at Founder’s Day Bxercisw of Lehigh University. Bethlehem, Pa., October 7, 1925, upon which occasion the honorary degree of doctor of science was conferred upon Professor Parr.

unrivaled report to the United States Government, in 1844, OD American Coals; and consists in giving the ratio of volatile t o fixed combustible matter. A synoptical table, containing the analyses, specific gravity, etc., of the coals (tested) is printed, p. 304 of Professor Johnson’s Report.

So much for the reference. Note especially these points: The table as reproduced in Professor Frazer’s paper shows that analyses and other data had been obtained for more than forty coals; that the period for carrying out the work was previous to 1844; that it took over 300 pages to tell about it; that the information was embodied in a report to the United States Government, and that the name of the investigator was Walter R. Johnson. The statement has just been made that but for this reference embodied in Professor Frazer’s paper the knowledge of this early work of Professor Johnson would have become lost. This statement may need some further substantiation. The assertion is here ventured-subject to correction, of course-that in all of the considerable literature on coal technology this reference as given by Frazer can nowhere else be found. That other workers in the same field were not aware of Johnson’s report may be inferred from the fact that the bulletins and other published literature connected with the very extensive investigation by the United States Government along similar lines, inaugurated sixty years later in connection with the St. Louis Exposition of 1904, nowhere make reference to Johnson’s work. Even with the Frazer reference in hand it is not an easy matter to bring into view a copy of the Johnson report. The Superintendent of Documents at Washington will give a negative reply. If appeal is made to Representative good will or Senatorial courtesy, it will a t once become apparent that even the mighty arm of a Congressman cannot bring to the front anything now over eighty years in the rear. By becoming somewhat more modest in our contacts and appealing to the second-hand book store fraternity, two or three copies have been brought to light, from which much additional information has been obtained. Briefly, the report is found to cover 606 pages; hence Frazer’s reference to information on page 304 was in the middle of the book. Complete evaporative tests were made on forty-three samples, which in addition to a wide variety of American coals included one shipment each from England, Scotland, and Nova Scotia, and one test was upon American dry pine wood. The results are set forth by means of descriptive matter and tables, the latter numbering over two hundred, and in the majority of instances requiring double pages for each table.

January, 1926

ISDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERIXG CHEMISTRY

The boiler employed for the evaporative tests was 30 by 3 l / 2 feet with a grate area of 16l/4 square feet, whereon 60 tons of coal were burned, and all the tests were accompanied by complete chemical as well as physical data. The work was authorized by Congress in 1841, and the report was presented and ordered printed in 1844. The title page of transmissal by the Secretary of the Navy to the Senate shows that the report is listed as Senate Document No. 386 of the 28th Congress and that 10,000 copies were ordered printed. We can only speculate as to the fate of those 10,000 copies. Some, of course, went to libraries designated as Repositories for Public Documents. The number of such repositories up to the year 1844 was, of course, comparatively small, and when so assigned the report would not be listed as a separate book, hence could only be found by scanning the titles of the public documents on file. Some copies doubtless were distributed by Senators to their constituents, but the very expensive distribution of a 600-page book through the mail facilities of that day largely consisting of stage and horse-back methods of conveyance, must of necessity have been limited. The remainder of the 10,000 copies in all probability ended their mission in this world by contributing their weight in pounds avoirdupois t o the storage accumulations of the junk man. One cannot go through the pages of this report without marveling a t the indefatigable energy that must have characterized the author, the skill with which he developed a technic along lines having no established precedents to follow, and the wisdom with which he arranged and interpreted his results. Life of Johnson

Indeed, the introduction to this pioneer inyestigator as seen through this single glance at his work not only arouses our curiosity, but fully justifies a fuller acquaintance whereby we may know something more about him. In barest outline a review of his life isWalter Rogers Johnson was born in Leominster, Mass., in 1794. He graduated from Harvard in 1819, and it is said of his college course that he included in his studies all the work offered along scientific lines and even supplemented them by additional subjects not listed in the curriculum, such as botany, chemistry, and some foreign languages. We need to remind ourselves that a t this early day in America there were no laboratories, as we know them, established for instructional purposes a t any of the centers of learning. It was in 1816 that Harvard College received the bequest from the estate of Count Rumford and in that year the first professorship on that foundation was awarded to Jacob Bigelow, M.D., and, quoting from a historical narrative, In consideration of the novelty of the institution and the reasonableness of giving the Professor time t o furnish himself for his work, he was required to deliver during the first two years only four lectures annually, on the history of discoveries and improvements. I n the meantime he was t o prepare himself for a full course on the subjects pointed out in the statutes of the Rumford Professorship,

thus meeting the requirements as set forth in the founder’s will, which indicated that the holder of the professorship

should ***teach by regular courses of academical and public lectures, accompanied with proper experiments, the utility of the physical and mathematical sciences for the improvement of the useful arts, and for the extension of the industry, prosperity, happiness and well-being of society.

These excerpts relating to the methods and extent to which scientific subjects were taught during the years when Johnson was a student at Harvard College give a sufficiently

95

Yivid picture of the meager opportunity for training in scientific subjects then available. Upon graduating from college Johnson began the study of law, and to supply his living expenses meanwhile he served for one year as head master of the Farmington Academy. The next year he held a corresponding position a t the academy at Salem. From Salem he removed to Pennsylvania, where he served as principal of the Georgetown Academy until 1826, when he became principal of the newly established high school of the Franklin Institute. Here at the outset he taught Greek and developed a decided interest on the part of his pupils by preparing for their use a manual of instruction based on modern Greek, teaching it as a live and not as a dead language. I n the third year of his instructional work he had fifty-five students in this subject, who are said to have acquired a taste and fondness for the language and were able in a relatively short period “to read with ease, intelligence and propriety, the poetry of Sophocles and of Homer.” The notable success of the high school in these initial years induced the institute to establish professorships in certain specific branches of science. One of these, the chair of mechanics and natural philosophy, was awarded to Professor Johnson, a line of work for which he was peculiarly fitted and in which he had specialized so far as had been possible without infringing upon the time and strength due his regular employments. He provided himself with an extensive mechanical and philosophical equipment both for purposes of his lectures and for carrying on his investigational problems. During this period of Johnson’s sojourn in Philadelphia there was evidently an environment of men and scientifio interest which must have contributed greatly to both his activities and growth along scientific lines. It is only necessary to mention such men as Robert Hare, Martin Hans Boy&,and the Rogers brothers, all of whom were associated in the activities of the American Philosophical Society and the Franklin Institute, and whose interests were along the closely related lines of chemistry, geology, mineralogy, and physics. This group made up part of the twenty who founded the American Association of Geologists in 1840, a society which grew so rapidly by accretions from related branches of natural history, such as botany and zoology, that it reorganized in 1848 as the American Association for the Advancement of Science, with Professor Johnson as its first secretary. There was another line of work in which Professor Johnson was especially active, doubtless resulting from his years of service in the role of a teacher. This was an attempt by contributions to the public press, by public address, and by personal approach to members of the legislature to remedy the existing state of public instruction which for the entire State of Pennsylvania he maintained was in a deplorable condition. It was directly due to his efforts that the preeent admirable school system of the state was established. He first advocated the organization of special schools for the training of teachers the outgrowth of which has been the normal training schools for teachers as we know them, now established throughout the country. Scope of His Activities

But we gain an even more interesting view of his life by noting the specific lines of investigation which occupied the greater part of his activities. Space will only permit the listing of a few of them. As a member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania he gave a t a meeting of the society in 1837, and published in the memoirs of that society, a description of a specimen of cliff engraving by the aboriginal inhabitants of North America, together with some incidents

96

INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY

in the history of the early settlers on the west branch of the Susquehanna River. He prepared for the use of his students the first American edition of the work of Julius Weisbach covering the principles of the mechanics of machinery and engineering. Similarly, he published a book entitled “A System of Natural Philosophy,” designed for the use of schools and academies, based on the “Book of Science” by J. M. Moffat. Another text which he prepared for American students was a book on “Chemical Technology; or Chemistry Applied to the Arts and to Manufactures,” based on a translation of the work of Friedrich Ludwig Knapp. He translated from the French of L. Gaultier a text entitled “First Lessons in Practical Geometry,” for the use of students in elementary schools. As further showing his versatility, he prepared a memoir on the scientific character and researches of James Smithson. In 1826 he delivered an oration to the citizens of Germantown and surrounding country assembled to commemorate the virtues and services of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. He delivered the address on laying the cornerstone of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia in 1839. He published a report on the adhesion of iron spikes of various forms when driven into different species of timber. At another time he published the chemical analysis of the alluvial deposits of the Nile in Nubia. Again, he headed a commission employed to examine the sources from which a supply of pure water might be obtained for the city of Boston. And in 1838 he presented a memorial to the House of Representatives praying for the establishment of a national institution for the prosecution of experiments and researches in those physical sciences which are required by the public service for the general welfare of the country, exactly the same proposition which, sixty-five years later, materialized in our present Bureau of Standards. I n 1832 he read a paper before the Franklin Institute on the strength of cylindrical steam boilers. This report was the direct result of the appointment by the institute in 1830 of a special committee to investigate the cause of the numerous accidents due to the explosion of boilers on steamboats. The scope of this investigation was enlarged a t the request of the United States Government to extend the inquiry to include methods for the prevention of such explosions. The investigational work was carried out by Professor Johnson and the report with all the information collected appeared in the journal of the institute in consecutive years, from 1831 to 1834. The special report on prevention of boiler explosions was published in five numbers of the journal in 1836, as well as in a report to the Government in 1837, consisting of 280 octavo pages giving minute details of all their experiments. The results of these experiments on the strength of materials, with a detailed description of the original apparatus, received further distribution by being published in seven numbers of the journal for 1837. Out of these elaborate investigations on the cause and prevention of explosions of steam boilers appeared many reports of great significance and value, not the least of which was the discovery that iron increases in strength after being subjected to a powerful tension at an increased temperature. These investigations resulted not only in modification of the method of manufacture of the iron used in steam boiler construction, but especially also in the case of marine equipment, where, as with chain cables, the utmost strength is required with the minimum amount of weight. Not the least of his successful activities was in connection with his appointment in 1839 to the chair of chemistry and natural philosophy in the medical department of Pennsylvania College, located a t Gettysburg, but whose medical department was in Philadelphia. It was in connection with this appointment that he became interested in organic chemistry and made a special study of the relations between

Vol. 18, No. 1

physiology, pathology, and animal chemistry, a line of study which later led him into the field of agricultural chemistry and sanitation, in which he came to be recognized as an authority. After occupying this position for four years he was appointed by the Secretary of the Navy to carry out his most elaborate study on American coals, and the great volume of published material from his pen appeared in connection with this investigation on coal, its composition, properties, and steam-producing value. Personal Characteristics

Any account of Professor Johnson’s activities would not be complete without at least brief reference to the man himself. From his youth up, having been thoroughly grounded in the school of self-reliance which fostered also initiative, possessed always with an unbounded enthusiasm for the work in hand, he had a fund of energy and persistence which in large measure accounts for the phenomenal volume of accomplishment with which he is accredited. Generous and likable in all his personal relationships, he was equally devoted to every cause which had for its ultimate purpose human welfare and the public good. Bearing on Present Conditions

And now as to the bearing of these details upon presentday conditions. It seems to me there are certain obvious lessons which could scarcely be appreciated in any other way than by thus making use of the circumstances surrounding the investigational activities of a worker of seventy-five years ago. It is doubtful if a better object lesson could be found than the one presented in the life of Professor Johnson. My first observation, therefore, would be that the opportunities for disseminating the results of investigational work have multiplied since 1844. At that time the channels for publication open to Professor Johnson were perhaps four in number: (1) The American Journal of Science and Arts, printed in New Haven, better known as Silliman’s Journal (2) The Journal of the Franklin Institute, begun in 1826 (3) The memoirs of scientific societies (4) Government documents

Certainly a meager list, with the last two almost 100 per cent efficient in promoting a state of total obscurity. Nor had this condition changed greatly at the time of the publication of Professor Frazer’s paper in 1877. By that time the Transactions of the American Association for the Advancement of Science might be added, because those reports had steadily grown in size and value, but this was in the main an annual publication. The American Institute of Mining Engineers had been established in 1871, and their Transactions, always maintained on a high level, furnished a medium often used by chemists as well as engineers, as we have seen in the case of J. Lawrence Smith and Dr. Drown. As a matter of fact, publication activities in this country in connection with research did not really begin to show signs of life till about the year 1890. About that time the agricultural experiment stations were established a t the various land grant colleges, to be followed some ten years later by numerous engineering experiment stations and various government agencies for research, such as the Bureau of Standards, the Bureau of Mines, etc. During these years and following, there must have been a phenomenal growth in investigational activities if the multiplication of scientific periodicals can be taken as a criterion. If we foot up the number of scientific periodicals published in this country for the year 1924, beginning with Bacteriology and Botany and running through the list to X-Rays, the total count-not including trade journals, even though many of

,

January, 1926

INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY

them, like Power or Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, frequently serve as media for the publication of highly scientific material-has advanced from the two journals of 1844, or the possible half dozen of 1878, to 258 a t the present time. If to this we were to add the bulletins that appear frequently from experiment stations, government bureaus, the annual transactions and supplemental publications of scientific societies, it could hardly be an exaggeration to say that this number represents only about one-half of the output of investigational work for the country as a whole. The lesson of it all is not that an enticement or an allurement is presented because an ample prospect is open for exploiting the results of our work, but rather that here is a tremendous activity, the magnitude and sweep, the purpose and accomplishment of which we can scarcely begin to comprehend. There must be somewhere back of it an army of investigators, pushing forward the boundaries of human knowledge, delving into the life processes, alleviating pain, dissecting the atom, giving the ether something to do, conserving our resources, and ministering in countless ways to the common welfare-and the lesson of it all is, are we in on our share of the job? Are we doing our bit, have we caught the spirit of the passing days, or are we standing to one side with our hands limp and our lips repeating the question, “What can we do?” We often hear the remark that “Nothing succeeds like success,” which means simply that success contributes to success. Indeed, this is a truth of such general application that it might almost be formulated into a principle or subdivision of the general law of cause and effect. R e will be equally near the truth if we modify the statement to read: Wothing contributes to research like research.” Here again we have a striking illustration of the principle in the historical review we have just made. In 1844 Professor Johnson had available very little contributory information for the problem in hand, and, as a matter of fact, his conclusions were the outgrowth of his own work, in many features of which he had to devise his own apparatus and procedure. I n 1877 Professor Frazer had little additional material t o assist him, and the chief contribution to his study was rescued from a report then thirty-three years old. Notwithstanding this fact, the Wilkes-Barre meeting of the American Institute of Mining Engineers in 1577 stands out in regard to its contribution to coal literature as the highwater mark in all the years between 1844 and 1904. By contrast, another annuaI meeting of the institute has recently been held for this current year of 1923. An outstanding feature of this meeting was also its contribution to the literature concerning coal. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that it attained the high-water mark in this field for all the years subsequent to 1904, and it well illustrates the contributory value of research from widely divergent lines when brought to bear upon a specific problem. At this meeting there was a symposium on the constitution of coal. It was sponsored and directed by the chief geologist of the United States Survey, a paleobotanist, Dr. David White, who contributed a notable paper from his own investigational studies. But note also five other papers, and the fields of research from which they came. There was Thiessen of the U. S. Bureau of Mines, a botanist and biochemist bringing peculiarly valuable results on the microscopical constitution of coals; Dr. Jeffrey, professor of botany at Harvard, on the micro-study of the constituents of coal, having to do with the formation of coke; Dr. Seyler, public analyst of Swansea, Wales, on the microstructure of English coals; Professor Wheeler, direotor of the laboratory of the British Fuel Research Board, Sheffield, England, on the resolution of coals by oxidation with a micro-study of the residues. And then there’was Turner, professor of geology

97

a t Lehigh University with the most recent, and in many respects the most striking, contribution on the microscopical structure of anthracites. This list is enough, without mention of the other nine or ten papers, mainly the result of chemical studies, to demonstrate the proposition that research in many fields contributes to research in many fields. Illustrations of this fact could be multiplied from many sources. The metallurgical world has moved forward in an equally striking manner from the time of Johnston in the ?io’s, when he studied the modifications in the property of iron due to mechanical working with substantially nothing but empirical methods, to present-day knowledge of grain boundaries, slippage planes, solid solutions, of space lattices and atomic volumes, until we begin to think we understand something of the phenomena of hardening and annealing, of fatigue and stress effects, and a consequent ability to modify or control conditions for the production of specific ends. Again, the metallurgist, the physicist, the electrician, and the chemist have all contributed to the development of an instrument with ultra-sensitiveness to light, so that the astronomer is able to study the orbits of the double stars over ten light years away, and other co-workers, by the same means, even now are able to reproduce from a photographic record and with marvelous fidelity, the words and music, along with the visual reproduction of one of the standard operas. Indeed, it is not that we may be found standing by, nerve less, asking the question “What can we do?,” but rather that we react to the stimulus and catch the contagion of the passing days with the question uppermost in our minds, “What can we not do?” The time when there were many unknown discoveries lying near the surface has passed, The problems are now involved and deep-seated. Their solution requires men who can think in terms of the electron and radioactivity, of adsorption and molecular condensation films, of catalysts and colloids, of super-power units and fatigue strains, and SO ad infinitum. These mere names indicate the range where responsibility falls. It rests upon men of university training to lead the investigational host into these more profound and intricate realms. The “By-Products” of Research Is it not worth our while to consider briefly some of the by-products of research as distinct from the specific results sought? There is no question but that the human mind and human character are profoundly influenced by the environment in which they work and develop. What are some of the outstanding factors which must characterize the individual who really gets into the game? What are some of the characteristics that we might normally expect to see develop which, for want of a better term we have designated as the “by-products of research?” Some of the more obvious features which we expect to find would be: first, a profound loyalty to truth; second, an enthusiasm and zeal which we can only conceive as being associated with definiteness of purpose or objective. This involves, of course, persistence and diligence not circumscribed by the limitations of a four or six or an eight-hour day. Then there is the important factor of cheerfulness, of hope, of optimism. The grouch lacks the first prerequisite for entering upon a course of research, and a man with the dyspepsia is hopeless, unless perchance he is willing to take on the full research regime as a curative procedure. The old alchemists believed in certain fluids which they called “humors” of the body and which they believed to be in some way responsible for a man’s health and temperament. Now those old chemists and physiologists may not have been so far wrong. Indeed, I wonder sometimes if there is not some complicated

98

INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY

or obscure and unrecognized chemieal compound which is a direct physiological product of these more or less psychological activities. There are vitamins of our diet which no man has seen or isolated or weighed or analyzed, and, seemingly, as yet no man has numbered, or, better, no man has lettered. Why may not there be also vitamins of the spirit, no less obscure but also, as a matter of fact, no less obvious in their effect upon our physical status. I am not advocating any cult, or any new “ist” or “ism.” Nor would I mean to imply that all spiritual forces are referable to the mere mechanism of matter. I am simply recommending the health-giving possibilities of a research program, with its exhilarating activities and definiteness of purpose, as having vastly greater possibilities towards a rejuvenated body than loafing in California or seeking the fountain of perennial youth in Florida. Greatly as we need research for advancing and enlarging the boundaries of knowledge-and the greater need grows

Vol. 18, No. 1

with the greater need-may we not affirm that we need also these by-products of truth, of service, of altruism, of definiteness of purpose, of hard work, of faithfulness, and of hope and good cheer. I do not know that Kipling could be classed as an investigator, but certain of his lines fit a t least into this part of the picture : If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone And so hold on, when there is nothing in you But just the will, which says to them-bold on, If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue Or walk with kings nor lose the common touch If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you If all men count with you but none too much, If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance runYours i s the earth, and everything that’s in it, And what is more-you’ll be a man, m y son.

The Administration of Industrial Research’ By Edward R. Weidlein2 MBLLON INSTITUTE? OF INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH, PITTSBUROH, PA

The general absence of scientific research methods HE philosophy of scilaunching the work correctly, in chemical technology led to the formulation in 1906 and in maintaining suitable entific research is that of the Industrial Fellowship System of Mellon Institute. facilities and staff for attendno one can succeed in This system has not only aided in successfully arousing laboratory experimentation ing to all scientific research the interest of American manufacturers in research, without benefiting his fellowof the company. but has appealed to their imagination and their inA n i n d u s t r i a l research men. If a scientist is protellect, with the result that today the research deductive in his investigations, laboratory is often an expartment is the rule rather than the exception in inhis work must result for the p e r i m e n t and hence it is dustrial organizations. Although the Industrial good of humanity. If a reusually prudent to start in a Fellowship System remained experimental for nine search laboratory is founded, s m a l l w a y a n d gradually years, since 1915 it has been in a strong position finanbuild on acquired experience. it is because there is need for cially as well as administratively. This gradual Every plant laboratory must it, and it will bring public development has brought the directional methodology justify itself and develop into benefit. Every kind of scienof the Institute to the stage that appears sound, and an essential industrial service tific research establishment certain results of this experience are believed to be of is administered to meet a bureau. Work should genergeneral interest. ally begin in a simple and public want. The character relatively inexpensive buildof virtue is best seen in the ing, planned so as to permit of easy extension-as the activilife of a scientist devoted to the service of research. Our many research institutions and industrial research ties require and as the appropriation allows. The scope of the research, like several other features, should laboratories have endowed opportunity. They have created individual responsibility. They have aroused individual be determined as time goes on. At the outset there will be ambitions to the highest efforts. It follows, then, that these several problems awaiting investigation that will supply research establishments must have much in common in basic plenty of work for the small group of scientists. Gradually directional principles. It follows, too, that the exchange it will become the habit for various department heads to pass problems over to the laboratory director. Every of managerial experience in research is for the social good. Prior to establishing an industrial research laboratory in company that establishes a research laboratory should be their organization, the company executives should believe in educated in the value of and need for more and more scienthe realizable possibilities of research, should intend to give tific investigation. Therefore, a good motto for an industrial it proper financial and moral support, should know what to research director is, “Make our laboratory necessary.” expect from it, should have determined whether to try a All who have benefited by the results of scientXc research comprehensive and thorough type of research or to limit the should feel it a duty to do something for the acquisition of work to a narrower study of specific problems as they arise, additional knowledge. Industrial history makes it clear that happy ideas and and should be prepared to give sufficient time to put the laboratory well on a sound basis. The laboratory director, chance discoveries have not contributed materially to the progress of technology. The stimulus for development if properly chosen-and great care is needed in selecting himcan be relied upon to do the rest, but he should be aided in generally results from demand, and in manufactures organized on modern lines the working out of new processes and 1 Received October 28, 1925. Address delivered before Section K , the improvement of existing processes consist mainly in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Kansas City, Mo., application of scientific fact and theory, the raw material of December 30, 1925. the applied scientist and engineer. Industry, therefore, 8 Director, Mellon Institute of Industrial Research.

T