DREAMS AND REALITIES* LEOH. BAEKELAND, BAKELITECORPORATION, NEWYORE CITY
This lecture i s a sketch of the circumstances under which the author changed from his early p~ofessor'scareer to his work i n indusirial chemistry and thus was forced to make an adjustmsnt between purely theoretical concep~ionsand practical facts. The difference between research in pure science and for in&d u a l problems, their advantages and limitations are explained. Warning i s given against dogmatism in science as well as in politics or theology: against scien6is~-the "wisho1ogists"nsrho k t their wish be father of their thoughts. Answers ar8 given lo ths undesemed reproaches of "machine age" and "scimti& materialism" from men who are still led by the thoughts and needs of periods long gone by, who feel uncomfortable and unsuited to shoulder the newer and much greater responsibilities of the present age, as well as politicians and economists who try to use obsolete methods for the problems of our present ciwilization essentially based on applied science. I did not come here to teach you anything new in the different fields of science in which you are interested. Your able professors are well equipped for this task. I came merely to chat with you as an older friend-as a fellow chemist-not better in brains or knowledge, but as one who during the succeeding years of his life has had ample time to change some of his earlier views. C i ~ o u t hhas many advantages, such daring, speed of action, and quickness of perception. Intelligence is inborn: and develops by practice and opportunity, knowledge comes quickly to the intelligent: but experience lingers, and is only acquired slowly through life and mistakes. Some one said: "The wise man profits by the mistakes of others, the careful man profits by his own mistakes, while the fool profits by no mistakes whatever." Yet, a large part of the tragedy of the human race is caused by the fact that i t is well-nigh impossible to transmit fully to others our reactions about the mistakes we committed in our younger years. So we see each succeeding generation ever ready to commit the same blunders over again, and suffer by it. If any one during my enthusiastic student years had predicted to me that I was to leave sometime the field of pure science to enter chemical industry, I would have felt rather shocked. I congratulate those of you who will he able to continue to live their lives the way they are planning in the realm of science, independent of all the vexatious business problems connected with industrial enterprises. But many unforeseen circumstances creep into one's destiny and change our aspirations.
* Lecture delivered under the A. R. L. Dohme Foundation at The Johns Hopkins University, October 23, 1931. 1000
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After my graduation, my most important discovery a t the university was that my senior professor of chemistry had a very attractive daughter. Hence, the usual successiou of events. Not many years later I was married and was confronted with the necessity of a more adequate income than the meager salary of a young professor. Thus I went into industrial chemistry and consultation work. I soon found out that in practical industrial problems, chemical subjects could not he handled nor disposed of as in a lecture room or in a book or when teaching laboratory work to students. Until then I had been inclined to be rather dogmatic as far as my cherished scientific theories were concerned This is a mistake not uncommon among young and even older scientists. I have known quite a number of them to become as dogmatic as some theologians or politicians. In other words, I had to learn to how humbly before facts, even if they did not seem to agree with my favorite theories. I had to learn just as much to take into consideration the possibility of unforeseen events. The dangerous optimist is always prepared for the best, and the dark pessimist for the worst. But the safe and true optimist should he prepared for the worst as well as the best. Our present business crisis is the result of a long stretch of flimsy optimism, which led into a fool's paradise. Our younger generation, which never had experienced a real protracted business depression, very much needed a lesson. But I believe that what is happening since the collapse of 1929 will in the end prove a blessing in disguise to many who are willing to profit by experience. My great luck-which seemed a misfortune a t that time-was that I got this valuable lesson early in my industrial career. I had just built a little factory in Yonkers for the manufacture of Velox photographic paper, one of my earlier inventions. I was about ready to produce this paper on a commercial scale, when the intense panic of 1893 broke out and upset all business plans and financial conditions in the United States. It lasted several years, and was followed by another crisis, about as had, in 1896. So I got then and there my early "baptism of fire." The present younger generation can hardly imagine how much less serious conditions are a t present than in 1893, when even the financial credit of the United States Government was a t stake. Moreover, I had been too optimistic in believing that the photographers were ready to abandon the old slow processes of making photographic prints. I had to find out then how difficult it is to teach anything new to people after once they get used to older methods with which they have become familiar. Even my best friends tried to dissuade me from the continuation of my stubborn efforts. I had also unioreseen manufacturing difficulties, hut I gradually managed to overcome them. So, after all, my most arduous and expensive task was the introduction of the process to
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skeptical customers, always ready to attribute their failures to the paper instead of to their lack of care. So passed several years of hard work, with never a single day of rest, and ever wondering whether I would pull through or not. Finally success came, and I could begin to pay my debts. But by that time I was pretty well fed up on business matters, and more than ever desirous to return to my former broader fields in chemical research. So after Velox paper had become a well-paying enterprise, I sold out my interests to the Eastman Kodak Company. Thus at thirty-five I found myself in comfortable financial circumstances, a free man, ready to devote myself again to my favorite studies. Then truly began the very happiest period of my life. I improvised one of the buildings a t my residence in Yonkers into a modest but conveniently equipped laboratory. Henceforth I was to be able to work a t various problems of my own free choice. In this way I enjoyed for several years that great blessing, the luxury of not being interrupted in one's favorite work. Everything went well until, amongst numerous other subjects, I became interested in a line of research which captivated me, until i t led eventually to Bakelite. I described my work on this, early in 1909, before the New York Section of the American Chemical Society. But from that day on, my life of peace was gone again. I was plagued daily by telephone calls, letters, visitors, and business men. I firmly intended to escape the recurrence of business occupations, as in my Velgx days. So I planned, instead of manufacturing myself, to grant licenses to established manufacturing concerns, specially experienced in plastics. But I soon was confronted with a repetition of my former experience with Velox: that i t was very difficult to teach new methods to men who had acquired routine in older processes. The preparation of the new resinoid and its molding compositions, which to me seemed very simple, appeared either very difficult or needlessly complicated to others. Reluctantly I had to start manufacturing the raw materials in a sufficiently advanced stage so that the users had only to complete the operation of molding and polymerization. But even this required considerable teaching and supervision. Before long I realized that I was about to be caught in the same old treadmill in company with ever-increasing new technical and business problems. Fortunately, I was still financially independent, and, contrary to most inventors, could forego the assistance of promoters or bankers or any one else to borrow money from. So I organized a manufacturing company on a modest scale, selecting most suitable business associates among some of my old experienced friends. In the meantime, my laboratory work was gradually extended until I had four assistants. This number kept growing fast, with the arrival of
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more and more new problems, until a t present our research laboratories in Bloomfield occupy a set of buildings which have the appearance of a fullsized factory, with special offices and complete equipment, independent in operation and management from our manufacturing plants. All this has gradually brought about that it is no easy matter for any single person to follow the details of all the work going on and the increasing problems which vary from day to day. It has been stated, and the statement seems correct, that of all the patents granted here and abroad, there is hardly one in a thousand which finds successful application. One of the evidences of a successful patent is infringement. So I had to go through the experience of almost every successful inventor of defending my rights before the courts. Oi all the .irritating, timerobbing experiences in my life, I consider patent suits as some of the worst. Fortunately, I won every case. Furthermore, I was lucky enough to find amongst my former rivals many of the excellent men whom I count today as my dearest friends and most distinguished collaborators in our corporation. In the meantime, the scope of our enterprise has kept on growing in its manufacturing plants, offices, sales, and senice departments, so that today I feel myself again enmeshed in the very same net which I got rid of after giving up Velox. Many a time do I look back to former blessed days, of great happiness, when undisturbed I could work in my modest laboratory. Nor could I ever have imagined in my youngereears that after some of my brightest dreams bad become true beyond my expectations, and a t the head of a successful enterprise, my increased responsibilities would mean that my life would belong less to myself than ever. In 1893 I was responsible only to the destiny of my little family. Today I am responsible to a large number of fellow workers, who all have put their best endeavors and faith in our enterprise. Nor should any of you be too sure of escaping the same lot, even if you adopt a professor's or research career. After you have acquired a standing in your favorite field, you may some day be discovered as possessing better executive abilities than your colleagues, and before you know it, you may be trapped into accepting a deanship or the presidency of your college or other institution. From that moment on, your full concentration on your research work will be interfered with, and gradually your mind will be compelled to work along business channels. There exists a decided difference between industrial research and research undertaken for purely scientific purposes. First of all, the pure scientist has free choicein his work and can abandon it when he so chooses; the industrial research worker has usually an imposed task with defiqit? aims and under decidedly restricted conditiops,
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The two lines of endeavor may well be compared to the work of the botanist, who may pick out his explorations or investigations among such plants as suit him best, while the agricultural researcher has before him matter-of-fact problems which may mean ruin or success. The relations between a biologist and a practicing physician are of the same order. I might go farther, and refer to the differences between athletic sports and warfare; between yachting and commercial navigation. In industrial research, many fortunes have been swallowed up because the research men underestimated the factor of the time which elapses between initial research and a successful commercial development. In other cases, while expensive research went on, the trend of the market had changed or entirely new improvements had been introduced which rendered the initial problem obsolete. Then again, the pure scientist may choose to rush into print as fast as he has any sketchy results, and publish some half-baked theories and reap the glory thereof. Even if other workers later contradict the accuracy of his observations, the worst that can befall him is to be involved in a polemic. In industry, superficial or incomplete work spells financial disaster, besides recriminations of the victims. Nernst invented the ingenious lamp which bears his name and which was based on weU-ohsenred facts. There remained only the study of some apparently minor details for adapting this principle to great industrial uses. But the study of the practical problems involved in the details took so much time that when the commercial lamp wasdinally ready, its advantages had been superseded by the improvements on the now generally used tungsten lamp. The tungsten lamp itself was a long agony of successive disappointments before it reached its present admirable perfection. In industrial research work, the apparently small imperfections most of the time decide between success or failure. The contact process of sulfuric acid manufacture was well known as a laboratory demonstration, but i t required many long years of w r y costly and painstaking research work and practical operation before suitable catalysts and suitable equipment were found which made it possible to operate on a paying commercial scale. When, during the war, the United States had to undertake the manufacture of its own optical glass, which heretofore had been imported from Germany, our alert chemists succeeded within a short time in making some of the best varieties of glass. But their experiments were carried out in platinum crucibles on a small laboratory scale, where the process and equipment were under easy control. When, however, i t came to making tons of glass of uniform good quality, the problem immediately became incomparably more difficult by reason of the fact that molten glass dissolves
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impurities from the walls of the larger fireclay pots in which it is heated, and that perfect homogeneity is indispensable in optical glass. An incident in my younger years made a lasting impression upon my later ways of thinking. Jan Stas, the Belgian chemist, who during the middle part of the last century acquired fame by his marvelous researches on atomic weights and other fundamental subjects in chemistry, did me the great honor of befriending me. I had made his acquaintance when he was the chairman of a committee representing the four Belgian universities which in competition awarded me the postgraduate traveling fellowship, which enabled me later on to become acquainted with the United States. About that time Berthelot in France had aroused the enthusiasm of the younger chemists with his inspiring thermochemical theories. To us they seemed the beginning of a new epoch whereby chemistry was to take rank as an exact science. One day in a discussion with Stas, I developed a thermochemical argument. But Stas did not seem to accept my argument. "My young friend," he said, "do not feel impatient if an old man like myself does not get enthusiastic about every new theory that comes along. In my youth I was an ardent believer in the unity of matter as expounded by Prout. I was so well convinced about his theory that I became eager to furnish additional proofs by redetermining more accurately the atomic weights of those elements where the atomic weight numbers were not an even multiple of hydrogen. I simply imagined that more careful determinations would have eliminated these irregularities. But the yore I worked, the more I perfected my methods, the more I eliminated any errors of experimentation, so much the more did my results contradict my dearest hopes. Finally I had to admit that I was beaten and had spent the most important part of my life in killing my first love as a theory. You will probably have similar experiences. Then when a second theory is advanced, you may still fall in love with it, but the third time you will probably lose your enthusiasm." Whenever I think of this conversation, I regret that this great scientist died a few years too soon, and so missed the delight of recognizing his first love rehabilitated in a much better dress furnished by Harkins and by the work on isotopes of Soddy and Aston. Politicians, lawyers, and metaphysicians may jump a t conclusions; the true scientist must humbly bow before facts even if they disagree with his theories. Yet theories are verynecessary. But they should be considered merely as attempts a t simplification of our human knowledge. Theories stimulate us into further investigations. But even what we call "laws of nature" should not be taken as absolute truths. They are endeavors to coordinate scientific facts and to generalize them. As thus, they are simply approximations. True scientists should feel modest enough to know that our imperfect brain is still hopelessly unfit for the absolute truth. Our
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successors perhaps may fare somewhat better after a few million years more of improvement of the limited brains of our race. In the meantime we behave very much like clumsy blind moles burrowing channels underground without seeing much of the light above. In 1889 Lord Kelvin said without hesitation: "The ether is the only substance we are confident of in dynamics. One thing we are sure of, and that is the reality and substantiality of the luminous ether." Yet a few years later we find the quantum theory of Planck pretty well accepted, and the fate of Maxwell's theory seems much like that of Newton's. Modern chemists quite rightly are placing more and more weight on the valuable help of mathematicians. But I feel somewhat bewildered in my admiration for them when I see such great men 9 Millikan, Jeans, and Eddington arrive at entirely opposite conclusions after their observations of cosmic rays. I am reluctantly reminded of the famous fact-finding Wickersham report, which was greeted by "wets" and "drys" alike to stave their own opposite theories on prohibition. After all, mathematics seems to me very much like any other useful instrument. I might even compare it to a coffee mill, very useful for grinding coffee beans into coffee powder, but however good the mill is, it will only furnish in ground condition whatever quality of coffeebeans you put in and not convert bad coffee beans into good coffee. A very careful observation of the greatest possible number of facts is essential before relying too absolutely on far-reachitig mathematical deductions. I am under the impression that a nudlber of excellent mathematicians per se have crept into physics, astronomy, and chemistry, etc., not so much because they were suited for these departments of science, but because they were eager to find there a peg to hang their mathematics on. The French engineer, Claude, who distinguished himself so much in various subjects of applied chemistry and physics and who is known as a very able mathematician, told me, a few years ago, that much as he desired whenever possible to use his mathematics, he preferred a direct experiment before arriving a t conclusions; because in a well-conducted experiment he could introduce the many practical details, while a mathematical equation rarely could integrate all the factors which entered into play before a practical problem. John Ruskin made the statement: "Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think; but thousands can think for one who can see." I must agree with him if, by "see," he meant: observe without being waylaid by one's emotions, desires, ambitions, anger, love, vanity, bias, or personal wishes. None of us can entirely escape these human influences in our thoughts, opinions, conclusions, and theories. Unconsciously, we all become now and then what one should call "wishologists." Many of us are
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even chronic wishologists. Then like Mrs. Eddy Baker and her followers, we look a t facts through our wishes. When one becomes a wishologist there is no limit to fanciful conclusions or hazardous theories. This explains why in some lines of human thought our race has made hardly any progress for thousands of years; why it is so much more difficult for metaphysicians, theologians, politicians, and artists to agree among themselves. Prominent professors of ancient languages tell us now and then that modern poetry and literature are less advanced today than the best of the classics of antiquity. As to sculpture and painting, the best work of today scarcely seems as good as the masterpieces of former times. The same applies to music. Whenever a great artist dies, his acquired skill goes to the grave with him; his successors have to start all over again and seldoin reach above what has been done before. On the other hand, the progress of the natural or physical sciences is steadily cumulative and inductive; each generation can start where the preceding one left off and carry the work farther. Every well-observed fact remains available for our successors, in building up our ever-expanding house of knowledge. We are thus able to improve continually our store of knowledge by additional facts, whenever we succeed in devising perfected means of observation, better instruments. What we first could see by the naked eye was increased many fold by the invention of the magnifying lens; then came the microscope, later the ultramicroscope, etc. This simple example sketches sufficiently the general histo~yof our ever and everadvancing scientific observations. Each well-observed scientificfact constitutes an additional and imperishable deposit in the great savings bank of human knowledge. From this "bank" we can draw out steadily compound interest: and nevertheless the treasure keeps on ever growing, as long as scientific research keeps on. Then again, the use of this wonderful treasure is not merely available to a few men of genius or to great masters of the craft. Even mere modest workers in scientific research have access to it; under proper guidance they may find there a stepping stone for their humbler but persevering and conscientious efforts, in compiling additional valuable scientific data. All to the good. But then again morons and criminals may tap this treasure of knowledge for foolish or sinister ends; so it happens that the scientist or inventor is blamed by the unthinking public. Applications of science can be used either as a blessing for the human race, or for the most ignoble and silliest, if not criminal, purposes. After all, the history of the intellectual development of the race throughout the centuries shows a decided parallelism with that of the individual from childhood to maturity:
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Wonder, or fear, or laughter. Amusement or superstition, sorcery, mysticism, and the birth of primitive religions. Second phase: Inquiry-Beginning with the ever Why? Why? of the normal child-an inborn curiosity often killed by our pedagogic methods of education. Later on, investigation-closer observation of facts instead of relying upon hearsay, legends, or fables. Beginning of scientific research. No mere guesses or reliance upon brilliant rhetoric interwoven with casuistry, sophistry, or plain lies. Third phme: How can we use our knowledge of scientificfacts? Here the engineer, the inventor,'the medical man, the advanced agriculturist, and other men of applied science enter into action.
First phase:
Man, until then weak and a mere slave to Nature, becomes strengthened by knowledge. His frail body that houses a few ounces of better-informed brain, makes him now more powerful than the strongest animals of creation. The hitherto dreaded forces of Nature become his best weapons to fight through the problems and vicissitudes of life. But here also begins the choice for good or evil, where the most admirable conquests of human intellect may b,e borrowed for debasing designs. Nor should we feel too much discour2ged when encountering so many people who fail to grasp the intense new responsibilities which greater knowledge, greater power have thrown upon the shoulders of our present generation. Let us remember that humanity has not yet been able to adapt itself from earlier periods to the amazingly changed present conditions. Some plants and animals have had a much better chance to accommodate themselves to their environment, because they had a much longer span of time at their disposal. Restless humanity has been rushed ahead against the desire, the mental inertia, of the masses. A relatively small number of active, daring, intelligent men of knowledge have prodded the others; just as a herd of browsing sheep is driven forward by the shepherd and his dogs. Most of the people among whom we live have been carried into a civilization into which they do not fit. Nor can they conceive the awesome responsibilities of this generation. They represent a mental atavism of the race; they do not belong to this epoch. They try to handle entirely new problems with old tools which might have served in former ages, but which are now hopelessly out of date. While we see industry, commerce, medicine, and surgery eagerly availing
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themselves of applications of scientific knowledge, such is not the case with many of the politicians, philanthropists, religious men, or sociologists. However well-meaning, they are trying to settle our present problems by farm boards, international loans, restricted immigration, the dole, political or religious discourses, more laws, and what not. Every one of them believes in his own remedy and, to a limited extent, each one may be partially right; but most of them "do not see the woods for the trees." For years business men and politicians have been prone to boast about the increases of population in their respective cities or states, which at present are precisely those centers now most faced with the problem of the unemployed. Nor is this situation confined to our own country, it has pervaded every corner of the civilized world. Too many are ready to blame the machine age, modern science, and invention. Churchmen add their thundering denunciations of our lack of religious faith. Quite a large number of the unemployed should be called "unemployables" in our present state of civilization. But in all these discussions, the names and work of Francis Galton and his modem disciples are seldom mentioned. Dr. Charles H. Mayo in a recent address stated: "Every other hospital bed in the United States is now occupied by the mentally afflicted,insane, idiotic, feeble-minded, and senile. In addition, there is an enormous number of people almost fit for the asylum." What is the outlook for the next generations? Is it not time to put less pride in the increasing number of our populations, and to look more into the matter of quality? It is quite right that we should try to restrain the immigration of undesirables. But shall we continue forever to encourage the promiscuous breeding of unfit, degenerates, criminals, and insane, while keeping on ignoring the biological facts of heredity? If so, more unemployables, more hospitals, lunatic asylums, poorhouses, and prisons. In the past, raw Nature left to act by herself seemed more merciful than our present civilization. By exercising her rigors, she improved the race through the elimination of the unfit and by favoring the intelligent, the strong, and the healthy. The Bible tells us that the faU of Adam and Eve started after they had eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Whatever that may mean, I believe that ignorance--ignorance of scientific facts-is the real "original sin," the sin that has been and still is today the principal cause of our sorrows and of the martyrdom of man.
