February, 1932
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGIYEERING CHEMISTRY
He developed the use of impalpable graphite in dry cells. I n fact, this pioneer work in studying the chemical and electrochemical relations in dry-battery cells resulted in such an accumulation of data that the United States Government sent its responsible engineers and chemists to his plants to acquire this knowledge when it became necessary to construct new types of cells and batteries during the World mar. The Burgess Battery Company has grown until it now has plants a t hladison, Wis., Freeport, Ill., Niagara Falls and Winnipeg, Canada, and at, Earl Shilton, England. Its products have been an essential part of the equipment of many notable explorations. Burgess batteries have been flown over both poles and around the world and are now known in practically every civilized country. While the manufacturing and marketing of dry batteries have constituted the major part of Doctor Burgess’ activities of late, his activities have by no means been confined to them. I n 1928 he became associated with the late Samuel W. Parr and reorganized the Standard Calorimeter Company into the Burgess-Parr Company. This company manufactures a t hfoline, Ill., a line of scientific instruments, some of which, such as the Parr calorimeter, are now standard laboratory equipment. Through his encouragement and direction, the Burgess Laboratories developed from the waste of sawmills two heatinsulating products now widely sold throughout the United States by the Wood Conversion Company of Cloquet, Minn., under the trade names of Balsam Wool and Nu-Wood. After years of painstaking research, the Burgess Laboratories developed a stereotype dry mat, now sold throughout
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the United States and Canada by the Burgess Cellulose Company, of which Doctor Burgess is chairman of the board. A recent triumph of his laboratories was the successful commercial fermentation, on the largest scale heretofore attempted, of molasses into butyl alcohol. At present Doctor Burgess is devoting much of his attention t o the comparatively new field of acoustics. Under his direction a new type of acoustic treatment was developed; it is known to the trade as Sanacoustic Tile and is now marketed throughout the world by the Johns-Manville Corporation. He has recently patented a highly effective means of demonstrating the absorption of sound waves through perforated metal. Another important development of the Burgess Laboratories, employing acoustic principles heretofore overlooked, has been the silencing of the exhaust gases of internal-combustion engines. Burgess mufflers are now in use by thirteen automobile companies in the United States and England. While giving excellent silencing, they practically eliminate back pressure, thereby adding more power to the engine. In recognition of his activities as an inspiring teacher, for his contributions in the fields of pure and applied science, and for his accomplishments in the business world, the University of Wisconsin conferred on Doctor Burgess in 1928 the honorary degree of doctor of science. To his associates and to his hundreds of employees he is their respected and beloved leader, always more willing t o give than to take.
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Research “For Pleasure or for Gold” CHARLES F. BURGESS, C‘. F. Burgess Laboratories, Inc., New York, N . Y.
T
0 T H E Perkin Medal Committee and to the societies you represent I offer my humble and sincere thanks for the honor conferred upon me. No words can I find which enable me to express the depth of my :appreciation of this evidence of regard from men whose opinion I value. I realize fully that the favorable light by which you have viewed my work is a reflection of that which had been shed by the brilliant and able men and women with whom I have had the good fortune to be associated, and i t is with those who have worked with me that I wish to share the honor of this award. This invitation to address you I take as a courteous challenge to say something which may be useful or instructive regarding the work I have been doing. For thirty-seven years I have been engaged in various forms of scientific research; in that designated as pure science where the results are given to the public; in that sponsored by the government where the results are forced upon the public; and in industrial research where the results are sold to the public. Out of this experience I am able to say that the greatest pleasure to be derived from research is that which comes to the worker when freed from all thoughts of cost or of the economic value of the results.
STUDIESON ELECTROLYTIC IRON Of my numerous studies it was the one relating to electrolytic iron which brought no pecuniary reward but the greatest personal satisfaction. The idea which started this investigation was a statement published in a metallurgical journal
that pure iron was needed greatly for fundamental research on iron and steel, and that attempts to produce electrolytic iron had yielded only one sample weighing a few grams. Accepting this as a challenge, and with the cooperation of a graduate student, I undertook to excel the record. A refining process was developed, and, after continuous operation of a small electrolytic tank for 40 days and 40 nights, a plate of iron weighing 20 pounds was brought to view. If the alchemist, vainly seeking to transmute base metal into gold, had found that he could pour a stream of the precious substance from his crucible, he would have had no greater thrill than we on taking from our tank that white, shiny, warty chunk of iron. I n our greed we wished to make more, not only for ourselves but enough to share with other investigators. But our funds were exhausted and we could not go on. Then a bright ray of hope came to us in the public announcement that the Carnegie Institution of Washington was about to make available to worthy investigators various sums of money for carrying on meritorious research projects. We felt that we were worthy and that our plan was meritorious, but we had to prove i t ; and so, before making our formal petition, we sought and obtained the approval of various prominent scientists, among them being H. &I. Howe and Sir Robert Hadfield. Encouraged by such endorsement, our request was submitted, and after a period of breathless waiting the great news came from Washington that favorable action had been taken. Ten thousand dollars was to be made available, to be spread over a period of five years. A restriction was imposed. We were prohibited from applying
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INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
for patents or otherwise commercializing the results of the work. With such an opportunity open before us, other assistants were employed, several tons of electrolytic iron produced, over a thousand alloys made, tests conducted, and the results published. The joys derived from this work were shared by a group of able and enthusiastic young men who have since earned honorable positions in the scientific and technical world. The group included Oliver P. Watts, Carl Hambuechen, James Aston, John Thickens, Otto L. Kowallre, and A. Hoyt Taylor. SERVICES IN LIGHTAXD HEATLEGISLATION About this same time ’I had an opportunity for public service under the direction of Governor Robert M. LaFollette, that great champion of the masses, who believed that the benefits of science should be made available to the common people. He had observed that the oil lamps in the country homes and the oil lanterns carried by the farmers gave lights of varying degrees of brilliancy, mostly low. He decided that oil inspectors should be appointed; they were to be equipped with photometric instruments and instructed t o see that all kerosene sold in Wisconsin should conform to suitable standards. Legislation was passed to bring this about. A committee of scientists and engineers, three in number of which I was one, was appointed to define the candle-power standards for kerosene and design the equipment to be carried by the inspectors. After collecting a large rariety of burners and many samples of kerosene sold by dealers throughout the state, we made careful photometric tests. To our consternation these revealed the fact that all the grades of kerosene gave identical candle-power values; the differences in illumination from the lamps and lanterns were found to be dependent upon the care and frequency with which the wicks were trimmed and the chimneys cleaned. The committee was then discharged and the people were left to their own devices. But a better opportunity came later when it was decided to regulate the gas and electric service furnished by the public utility corporations. To me was assigned the duty of formulating rules and standards, and thus by legislative action rather than by qualification I acquired the title “Expert on Light and Heat.” A part of the work then undertaken involved an exhaustive study of gas calorimetry. Through an investigation of the technology of gas manufacture, with the cooperation of gas experts called into conference, standards of calorific value were determined and prescribed by law, Because of this, I believe that to Wisconsin should go the credit for being the first state in this country to enforce by legislation the abandonment of the candle power and the adoption of the heat unit as a measure of gas value. ORG.4KIZA4TIOK O F COMPASY TO 3 1 S K E RESEaRCH P A Y
But the joys of research in pure science and in public service were not unmixed with sundry trials. During one of the recurring reform waves, it was stated on the floor of the Wisconsin Assembly that all was not well a t the State University; that the professors were neglecting their educational duties; and that one of the worst offenders was Burgess who was the recipient of large sums from the vested interests, notably ten thousand dollars from Carnegie. A committee was appointed to investigate these disgraceful affairs, and I appeared before this committee and the governor. I explained that the money received from the Carnegie Institution was used for the promotion of research a t the university for which the university received credit; also that my university salary and other sources of income afforded but modest living comforts. No drastic action was taken so far as I knew.
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Then in 1910 came the launching of a most hazardous venture. With three of my younger associates numerous meetings were held, a t which we discussed the prevailing condition of poverty among teachers, the limitation on research imposed by university conditions, and the economic value of scientific discovery. R e reasoned that if research had value, the results should be salable, and that, if so, the money received could be employed in financing more extensive development work. With our imagination fired by such possibilities, we proceeded with our plans to organize a company. The greatest obstacle standing in the way was the lack of necessary capital, but by pooling our joint resources, which consisted in a combined borrowing capacity of nine thousand dollars, a company was organized and incorporated. We proposed to undertake the solution of problems in the field of chemical engineering and then t o prove that industrial research could build its own endowment. It was not with universal approval that my academic friends learned of my plans. Quite the contrary. I was accused by former colleagues of abandoning the higher standards of scientific ethics and becoming “a dollar chaser.” But these criticisms were trivial compared with the trials and reverses we soon encountered as the experiment got under way, for with no precedents or business experience to guide us we had our difficulties and disappointments. But also we had some success. S o w after twenty-two years this company is still in existence, and long ago the original indebtedness of nine thousand dollars was discharged. There was no dearth of ideas nor of problems upon which to work. Secessity compelled us to consider the results of research as a commodity for which buyers must be found. KO eagerly receptive market awaited us. The value of research as an adjunct t o industry was well recognized, since many of the larger industries had research departments, but the cost of research, even a t the moderate rates at which we tried to sell it, was an obstacle to securing suitable clients. Then the novel idea was presented: “If industry does not want t o employ us as an adjunct, why not reverse the plan and make industry an adjunct to research?” It proved to be a good suggestion. We engaged in the manufacture and sale of products embodying research results; organized several companies in which we retained interests and representation; and thus, when waves of economy or depression came, were in an authoritative position in presenting the case for research to the budget committee. How many people in our organization are engaged upon research? This is a question I cannot answer. It may be ten, or a thousand, or an intermediate figure according t o the definition of research. This term has come into indiscriminate use to designate all effort directed toward improvement. A simple inquiry into a factory operation, or taxation, or distribution of sales, or buying power of the public is often called “research.” The term “research project,” as employed by us, means a course of investigation of an idea which promises t o be of commercial value, involving study and supervision by men trained in science; testing and proving on successively larger scales; and a t last, from a pilot plant or semi-commercial operation, the drawing of final conclusions. A completed project may then be ready for commercial demonstration. One hundred and fifty such projects have entered on our records since 1910. Thirty of these have emerged as being worthy of commercial development. Of ideas presented there is always a superabundance. hlany of them come from the outside, but a larger number come through evolution during an investigation. When a man with the prospectus of a new device or product
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or process presents himself, I have a mixed feelilig of interest and of resistance, for I have to tell him that t,o put it thrwgh thc lahoratory course may inmilve a cost of a thousand dollars, perhaps a hnndred thousand. Our average for all projects has been seven tlmosand dollars. I must tell hiin the,$ no matter how praet.iaa1 the idea he presents may seem to him or to us, tlrere is but, one chance in five that it will pass ruccessfully through tlie laboratory stages; furthermore, tliat the investigation, if it survives the full course, may take anywhere from one to fifteen years, with the pmhahility of seven as an average. It is witli these figures in mind that we have come recently to appraise any new proposal for a research project. E X - O L U TOF I~K RESEARCH ON COTTON
From the list of our investigations the impression mipht well be convoyed tliat the subject.s were chosen in an illogical hit-or-niiss fashiim. This is because a laboratory pursuit, leads into devious gathxays. As an example, dnring the Great cotton became Scarce and almost unobtainable, even for such important uses 5s surgical dressing on the battle front. It was suggested a t a laboratory confercnce that a good subst.itnte could he made from wood pulp. This was entered as a prujert, an emergency measure. Rapid progress was made. In tlie process as evolved, a white bleached pulp was first converted by special disintegrating machines into what. resembled a snow storm of cellulose fibers. This came into contact witli a cloud or mist of adhesive, the combined material settling quietly on a moving screen, then passing through a drier, and emerging as a thick sheet of porous structure, well adapted to the specifieat.ion of a surgical absorbent bandage. Before regular production was started, the war stopped and the material became unnecessary. Seeking a method of salvaging this de\ielopment, we studied the properties of the material and its adaptability to other uses. An oututanding characteristic was its heat-insulating propcrty; another its
ability to absorb sound. To develop a conimereial use as a iniilding material, it was necessary greatly to reduce the cost, wliich was dono by eliminating the bleaching operation and by using a cheaper grade of matcrial--pulp-niill screenings. Thus evolved the commercial product known as Balsam Wool. A side issue now came into the program. It was noted that, by disintegrating wood and by grinding it for suitable t,irne in the presence of water, and then pressing and drying, boards of any desired degree of density and strength could bo made. Thus originated the expression “hoards 8 feet widc and 16 feet Img from trees 2 inches in diamet,er.” The outcome of these two projects was tlic erection of a mill at Cloquet, Minn., where the entire wood waste of a large lumber mill is now being converted into commercial products of value greater than is the lumber of which the waste is a hyproduct-certainly a long step taken by tlie Weyerliauser 1,omber Company in the interests of forest conservation. The adaptation of the porous cellulose material to sounddeadcning purposes introduced us to new problems requiring e to develop a protective covering soluti~in. It b c a ~ i desirable which would give rigidity and permancncy to tlie u d l surfaces 011 which the absorbent was applied. A discovery was then made (simple enough to he important) that when sound waves strike a metal plate perforated vith small holes and backed with sound-absorbent material, the metallic surface does not reflect the sound. I n fact, evidence points to a greater effectivenessof a sound-absorbent material if faced by a perforated nietal plate than without it. The metal screen thus affords a surface wliich may be painted and decorated, as well as giving strength and fire-resistant qualities. This type of structure is now extensively used in architectural aconstio treatment. I n an attempt to apply the perforated-plate idea to the quieting of the exhaust of gas engines, perforated sheet iron was formed into a tube and surrounded by a heat-resistant ahsorbent material, such 88 steel wool held in place by an outer iron cylinder. By conducting the pulsating exhaust gases
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through the inner pipe, an almost complete removal of sound was produced, and with no back pressure. Thus by a series of steps, the original attempt to make bandages for wounded soldiers evolved finally into the production of muflers for absorbing noise and increasing the efficiency of automobile engines. But those steps, thus lightly touched upon, covered a period of fourteen years of continuous effort. One factor that made for slow progress was the necessity of developing instruments and methods for measurement and analysis of sound waves. DEVELOPMENT
OF
NEW TYPEO F BRICK
Thus, engaged in a study of building materials, we found many ways in which chemical research might be directed to modern architectural development. I shall give one illustration by performing a simple experiment. I have in my hand a piece of brick made from a clay. As I place it in this glass of water, you will notice that it floats. And you will have to take my word for it that if I should leave it here for a year, it would still be floating. I n other words we have a brick which is light (one-fifth the weight of an ordinary brick), of high heat-insulating quality, porous yet resistant to the entrance of water, and of a crushing strength sufficient to support its weight if built into a tower five times the height of the Empire State Building. At least to some extent did the appearange of a certain news item in the daily press help to bring about this experimental result. It was related that a speaker arose before an audience in England to discuss the prevailing high cost of building. He took out his watch, held it before him, and looked a t it intently without moving a muscle. Curiosity of the audience a t this strange behavior turned to wonder and then to impatience when the speaker finally said: “That, ladies and gentlemen, is the length of time it takes a brick layer to lay one brick-66 seconds.” I showed this dispatch to Howard F. Weiss, who was then studying the possibility of improvement in brick manufacture. He made a mental calculation and said, ‘[Under the prevailing rates, it costs four times as much for the labor of laying a brick into place as i t does to manufacture it. Why not make a brick so that with a given physical effort two bricks can be laid a t one time and with the same motions that are required to lay one?” This in fact now appears possible; it has not been accomplished, as the technical practice has not been perfected. Although the process is still in the development stage, the outcome looks promising. Even when a process or product has been approved in the laboratory, it is not an accomplished success, for it must then share in the hazards which all new commercial ventures experience. It must answer the question, “Does the public want it?” Our experience is that telling the people about it is a far more expensive operation than is the cost of research leading to the development of a new product or process. It is a common experience to find that the cost of impressing upon the public even the name of a new product may be ten times
INCOME FROM MEDICALPRACTICE. A study of 6328 random r e p o h of physicians frcm all parts of the United States indicates that the median gross incomes for the entire group reporting lie in the range $65CO to $7499. The largest annual gross incomes are being made by physicians who have had ten or more years of preparation. The low gross incomes fall among those who have had three years or less of preparation. The peak of gross income seems to be reached in the period of fifteen t o nineteen years in practice. The gross annual income for the period of five to nine years in practice and the long period of
CHEMISTRY
Vol. 24, No. 2
that involved in the experimental and development work leading to its production, Because of this commercial uncertainty we have adopted a policy of directing our efforts along the lines of prospective public needs, and it is perhaps for this reason we now find ourselves working upon acoustics, suppression of noise, purification of air, and materials and methods for building construction, NEW PROBLEMS IN RESEARCH As to the outcome of our experiment to make research pay its own way, of making industry an adjunct to or a t least a partner with industrial research, I might point to our increase in membership, our buildings and equipment and interests in manufacture as showing reasonable success. But I must qualify this by saying that our research ability is no magic power by which we can free ourselves from the evils which have fallen upon all business and all people. I wish, therefore, to withhold judgment. That the scientist realizes the opportunity and responsibility which now confronts him is illustrated by a conversation I had not long ago in London with Sir Robert Hadfield. I had called upon him to pay my respects, to thank him for the notable service he had rendered me twenty-five years ago, and to express the wish that I might be of service to him. He said, “There is one thing I want. Tell me how I can give employment to one hundred men?” And here I failed. There is a continually changing economic background against which research must be judged. Only a few years ago the effort to relieve the drudgery of human labor by automatic machines was most praiseworthy, and now we are looking for something for people to do. The farmer who wrote to the Agricultural Experiment Station had a real complaint when he said, “You once told me a secret of how to make two blades of grass grow where but one grew before. Then I found it was no secret as all my neighbors knew about it, and so we are now producing more grass than we know what to do with. Xow I learn that you are trying to find how we can make one blade grow where two grew before. I am sadly perplexed about this research business.” The business executive is now being subjected to criticism for his curtailment of research appropriations and his lack of recognition of the value of sustained research; and the scientist is likewise blamed for slowness, impracticability, and failure to solve the problems of peace as )e did the problems of war. The scientist has a great opportunity if he will bring himself to share in the affairs of business, and the business man could forget his troubles if he would but experience some of the joys which come through research. In a partnership of the two lies opportunity for betterment. And now with this Perkin Medal as an inspiration I return to the work of producing batteries, quieting noise, making bricks, and developing ideas, in the knowledge that from it I shall derive pleasure, possibly produce profit, and I hope that in it will be a measure of public service.
thirty-five t o forty-nine years in practice appear to be closely parallel. Although the high average annual incomes for the entire group appear to be reached in the metropolitan areas of 1,000,000 and more population, the low gross averages fall in communities of 2500 and less population. The largest number of salaried physicians have had seven years or more of preparation. In the 6328 reports studied, the percentage of physicians who derive all or most of their income from salary is largest in the population groups of 10,000 to 25,000 and 500,000 to 1,000,000.
