R+
4th.
NEW ENGLAND ASSOCIATION of CllEMISTRY TEACBERS Applied Research in Wartime' LAWRENCE W . BASS New England Industrial Research Foundatwn, Boston, Massachusetts
I
N THE TWO decades followingWorld War I, American research activities of all types expanded many fold. From an undistinguished place among the nations we advanced to leadership in most fields of scientific and engineering investigation. Our resources in applied science became recognized as one of our great national assets. It is depressing to think of the overwhelming handicaps we would have faced if Pearl Harbor had caught us in the research situation of 1918. When war was suddenly forced upon us, the conversion of our technical facilities to an emergency basis proceeded with a rapidity which on mature reflection we can regard with pride. With few exceptions our laboratories in 1941 were concentrated on the problems of peacetime, and there was considerable interest in longrange investigations for the postwar period. The directives, the background, the contacts, and the organization were lacking to transform our research programs ovetnight. The problems were too complex to permit an immediate readjustment of perspective in orienting technical work. Emphasis in the industrial conversion centered 61st upon the production of raw materials and of new articles for which specifications could be developed rapidly. The pressure of urgent requirements gave little opportunity for systematic study of a basic character. As industry mobilized for war production, however, technical questions began to arise in large numbers. In a relatively short time established organizations of scientists and engineers were for the most part wholly occupied with the problems of wartime economy. There has been a very active demand for competent industrial research men for several years. The shortage was already acute before we entered the war. Now there is a continually increasing number of vacancies in all brackets from junior assistants to seasoned technical
executives. In view of the present curtailment in chemical and chemical engineering training, the situation will become even more serious. To supplement the usual channels of applied research i t has fortunately been possible to draw upon reserves of technical manpower through such organizations as the National Defense Research Committee, the War Metallurgy Committee, the Committee on Medical Research, the Office of Production Research and Development, the National Research Council, etc. The problems confronting research men during the emergency have called for ability of the highest order. The complexities of raw material supplies have imposed new burdens which have taxed technical ability to the utmost. Answers have had to be supplied on short notice with the expectation that they would be only temporary solutions. In normal times the period between initiation of a research project and commercial application of the findings was usually a matter of years. The exigencies of wartime have necessitated a much more rapid tempo for development programs. The results obtained under such severe conditions naturally lack the refinements of a more cautious procedure, but they are evidence of the ability of our technical staffsto get things done. Because of the contributions of research organizations during the emergency, management has come to value its technical men more highly than ever before. Particularly among the smaller companies there has been a widespread recognition of the importance of science to the successful operation of a business. Educational programs in chemistry and chemical engineering have suffered profound changes. Opportunities are decreasing to the vanishing point for the type of training that fosters research careers. Faculties are being disrupted as the members are called into other types of work. Our teachers have just cause to Abstract of an address presented at the Fifth Summer Canference of the New England Association of Chemistry Teachers. be proud of the versatility and adaptability they have shown. The break in our educational sequences will Andover, Massachusetts, August 28, 1943. 46i2
present weighty problems in manning our laboratories both to provide wartime technical advances and to aid in meeting the difficulties of the postwar readjustment. When peace comes there will be a gap of several years before junior men of proper training become available a t a normal rate. Supplementary study will be needed to round out fragmentary courses in the scientific and engineering disciplines and to reorient young technical men whose careers were interrupted. Fundamental research has had to be curtailed or stopped by an increasing number of scientists as they have been called to aid in emergency problems. Their assistants are dispersed and their equipment is gathering dust. This intemption of progress in basic science is a great loss to the world which we must bend every effort to overcome in the postwar period. Research scientists in industrial, university, and government laboratories have played a vital part in the production miracle of this nation during the past year and a half. Our technical programs have now developed in such a way that the results will be still more important with each succeeding month. And when the war is ended these same scientists will point the way to a prosperous future.
may be obtained from the Secretary a t future meetings. At the invitation of the Civilian Preinduction Training Branch of the War Department, Millard W. Bosworth represented the N.E.A.C.T. a t a conference held in the Pentagon a t Washington, July 22-24. The Fundamentals of Machines and Electricity was the topic under discussion, and much work was accomplished on a new presentation of parts of these courses for the teachers of the United States. It is hoped that a supplementary manual for the P.1.T courses will be issued by September to acquaint the teachers Setter with the idea behind this work. It is essential that all teachers get behind the work and aid their students in obtaining a background of practical information to prepare them for induction into the armed forces.
Notes
About 189,000 teachers were reported in March as new to their positions in 194243, as compared to less than 95,000 in normal years. Probably 30 to 40 per cent of these came from other teaching positions. The teacher turnover rate, normally ahout 10 per cent, practically doubled in 194243. It was more than twice as great in rural schools, as in city schaols. The greatest losses were in city and rural war-related highschool subjects in which men predominate, and in rural elementary schools, in which very low salaries prevail. There were heavy losses from rural school positions to better paid city school positions. The numbers of unfilled positions in highschool subjects were greatest in: industrial arts, physical education, mathematics, commercial education, agriculture, physics, home economics, chemistry, and trades and industries. Standards of preparation of teachers have been seriously lowered. The number of emergency certificates issued in 194041 was 2305; in 1941-42, 4655; and in 194743, to March, an estimated 36,689.
An urgent request has come to the Secretary for Vol. 42, No. 1 of the Report. This is wanted by the New York State Library in Albany. They are anxious to get some volumes of the Report and anyone cleaning off his shelves will find the library grateful for the gift. Members of the Association will be interested to learn that Dr. Laurence S. Foster, Immediate PastPresident, and Associate Editor of the JOURNAL, is now a t the University of Chicago where he is doing war research. He has resigned as Associate Editor, and Dr. Leallyn B. Clapp has been appointed to take his place. New Manuals giving the names and addresses of all members of the Association have been prepared and
TEACHER MANPOWER PROBLEMS AND THE WAR The United States Office of Education (Washington, D. C.) has recently issued a three-page statement under the above title. It should be in the hands of every teacher in the country. From i t we quote the following:
