W h a t do industrial researchers n e e d to c a r r y on e x p e r i m e n t a l activity which does not fît the pattern of traditional scientific disciplines?
Scientists N e e d Special CLIFFORD F. RASSWEILER Johns-Man ville
" I n this day of modern scientific complexity, no man, b y his single-handed effort, could hope to make a contribution t o the chemical industry which would justify his b e i n g selected for t h e Chemical Industry Medal," says Clifford F. Rassweiler 74
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Corp., N e w York, Ν. Υ.
JboR INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH concerned with materials, industrial companies have usually hired men who have been trained as chem ists or chemical engineers even though very little formal chemistry may b e involved. A very high percentage of the work done in t h e fields of rubber, plastics, wood fiber products, building materials, finishes, brake linings, foods, etc., is being done by men with chemi cal or chemical engineering training; and a very high percentage of the research directors in these fields have chemical backgrounds. As a result of chemical training, men bring certain valuable char acteristics to the field of industrial materials research. In the first place, chemists a n d chemical engineers bring to industrial research minds in which h a v e been deeply embedded the basic principles of scientific thinking. They have been disciplined to. think in terms of cause and effect. They have been taught to reason by analogy from past experience to future possibilities. In the second place, a chemist is taught to think about the rela tionship between the composition and the properties of any product. If you hand a chemist a product—whether it is a brake lining, a wallboard, or a tire—and ask him to predict its properties, his first question will be: What is it made from? What is its composition? Knowing this, he can give you a good prediction of how the product will perform. Ask him to change the properties of this product a n d his thinking directs itself immediately to changing its composition, either by changing the materials compounded together or by pro ducing chemical changes in the materials already present. Finally, chemists and chemical engineers bring to industrial r e search an interest in exploring the unknown by scientific experimen tation. T h e y have been taught by men who are experimental r e search scientists and, as students, have learned to accept experi m e n t a l investigation as an interesting and desirable form of activity. However, in nonchemical industrial research, chemists and chemi cal engineers find little or no use for a great deal of the knowledge they have painfully acquired during their university training. They deal with problems whose solution seldom requires the use of chemi cal equations and whose solution cannot be worked out in terms of
How Qmaterials
does industrial research differ from traditional chemical research carried on by chemical companies?
Industrial research, Aas I define it, is concerned
Training in Experimentation
the basic laws of chemistry. Their experimental work involves the use of little or no traditional chemical equip ment; and while chemical changes fre quently take place in the materials they are processing, they are usually so com plicated that t h e results cannot be ana lyzed as balanced chemical equations. The chemical engineer finds little op portunity to use what he has been taught about designing and operating fractionating columns, stills, and other equipment. More important than the wastage of unused training is the fact that chem ists and chemical engineers come to this special field of industrial research without certain types of training that would be very valuable. These men have been trained to b e chemists, but the big question is whether they have been trained to b e experimenters. It is my feeling that in the main they have been taught the science of chem istry but not the science of planned experimentation. This is certainly true of four-year men and even, in many ways, of Ph.D.'s. In order to make any activity scien tific, it is necessary to start by setting up certain broad generalizations which can b e used to guide both t h e thinking and the experimentation. Chemistry is a science because certain broad general
izations about chemical reactions and the relationship of chemical structure to properties have been developed, tested, and codified to t h e point where men trained in this science can plan programs for reaching desired chemi cal results with the minimum waste of either money or the time of trained investigators. It is my contention that over the years industrial research men have come to use similar broad generalizations and general principles to plan and carry out the programs necessary t o solve practi cal industrial problems with the mini mum expenditure of time and money. These general principles are much broader in their application than the laws of chemistry, for they can be ap plied not only to solving problems in volving chemical reactions, but equally well to solving such problems as how to make an organic brake block that will have essentially the same coeffi cient of friction on a wet metal surface as it has on a dry metal surface. A N e w Scientific Discipline We have, in a very rough and practi cal manner, really been developing a new science, which might be described as the science of applying basic scien tific principles to the solution of practi cal problems. One might almost say that we have in a rough manner been
with applying scientific ex perimental principles to the solution of practical problems. In general, it cannot employ standard laboratory experimental techniques or the codified knowledge of the accepted scientific disciplines. It is not simply research in chemistry or physics car ried on by industry. In dustrial research ties the parallel strands of scien tific knowledge into a firm fabric of industrial accom plishment.
developing a new scientific discipline with its own techniques, its own essen tial factual background, and its own specific manner of thinking. However, the techniques, the facts, and t h e methods of thinking essential for suc cess in this area have not been analyzed and p u t in a form where they can b e taught to men preparing for industrial research work. N e w men from the university a r e expected to absorb these general princi ples b y some form of infection or os mosis. As might be expected, one is continually surprised to find that really experienced workers in our industrial laboratories have never even thought of some of these basic principles which would increase the efficiency of their work. Here are a few examples of the prin ciples and techniques which might b>e formalized and taught to men being trained for the type of experimentation I have been discussing. Actually it is surprising how little has been written or said on this subject. There h a v e been innumerable papers and symposia on how to organize and administer r e search. Lately, there has been a flood of popular discussion about how -to stimulate the "flash of genius" type of creativity. It is smprising how little attention has been given to discussing the principles which contribute effiNOV.
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Qtrial
Why daesnt indusresearch use the traditional experimental techniques and the scientific facts of specific scientific disciplines?
A
The problems are usually so complicated that the experimental techniques of traditional disciplines cannot be applied, or the development of t h e material a n d character of its performance are dependent upon natural forces which a r e so obscure that neither chemistry nor physics has y e t supplied a definition of t h e basic natural laws which control their behavior.
ciency t o t h e actual everyday experimental work of t h e research laboratory. It is even odder that much of t h e writ-
ing a n d tiiinking has been done by people outside this field. You would h a r d l y look to a public relations consultant for an analysis of t h e science of industrial experimentation, and yet D a v e Killeffer has done some verv interesting writing in this field in hi· books "Two Ears of Corn, Two Blad JS of Grass" and "The Genius of Industrial Research." For example, he states, "Basic to all research is the need at each step to subdivide the problem" (into parts which can be separately investigated a n d solved) . . . "In a sense, the progress of research and development is a nibbling operation that, by many small bites, finally reduces the area of uncertainty to nothing." He illustrates this principle by considering the problem of conserving our petroleum resources. This problem was too big and broad to b e solved directly by a single research program. It was therefore divided, subdivided, a n d again subdivided until, eventually, Midgley and his coworkers concentrated o n the problem of improving the efficiency of the automobile engine b y de-
Industrial research and university people should consider offering a graduate degree after a year of study designed to teach the type of things important to industrial research. A start toward such an educational curriculum could b e m a d e b y holding special courses 76
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veloping fuels which would not knock. Even this problem was further subdivided until their first actual experimentation involved t h e development of an economical small-scale method for measuring knocking characteristics of fuels. Midgley a n d his coworkers solved this with the Midgley bouncing p i n knock meter, a simple metal pin resting on a metal diaphragm o n top of an experimental motor. W h e n t h e fuel burned smoothly, nothing happened. When t h e fuel "knocked," t h e diaphragm bounced t h e loose pin against an electric contact which measured t h e intensity of t h e s u d d e n "knock" explosion. This was the first nibble t h a t broke t h e skin of t h e problem and, after this, the solution of hundreds of other similar subdivisions of the major problem followed, leading eventually to high octane gasoline and t h e efficiency of our present high-compression automobile engines. H o w many of our industrial research men have ever been formally taught t h e principles of analyzing a problem in ways permitting its subdivision into
such as t h e present graduate business scbools started ( a management class at H a r v a r d i s pictured above ) . Such courses could teach techniques of solving industrial research problems; recording, analyzing, and reporting d a t a ; and the imparting, seeking, and receiving of information
Who makes a success Qful industrial researcher?
Aa
USE FATTY ACIDS
To be successful at it, man must have basic knowledge of chemistry, physics, biology, or engi neering; but the organiza tion and fruitful prosecu tion of this work must b e based o n t h e general prin ciples of scientific thinking and scientific experimenta tion, rather than o n the specific facts and tech niques customarily taught for specific sciences.
smaller problems which are individually capable of planned experimentation and solution? H o w many have been taught to save time and money by concentrat ing first on that small subdivision whose solution will simplify the solution of tihe others? In such an unexpected place as the Harvard Business Beview, July-August 1957, is a n article by Dorian Shainin on "The Statistically Designed Experi ment: A Tool for Process and Product Improvement." This deals with the technique of solving those important industrial research problems concerned with identifying die variables that give excessive rejects i n so many new and even old industrial operations. He presents a mathematical analysis which is essentially an application of the o l d technique that starts by devel oping a picture of the chronological pattern in which unsatisfactory results occur. One can then search for some point in the operation where conditions
HARCHEM INVITES YOU TO COMPARE If you: use F a t t y Acids y o u will w a n t H a r c h e m ' s n e w publica t i o n o f specifications a n d characteristics for t h e i r Century B r a n d F a t t y A c i d s . H a r c h e m g i v e s y o u t h e l a t e s t data a b o u t a l l grades in t h e i r c o m p l e t e line of uniform q u a l i t y fatty acids. Y o u are t h e b e s t j u d g e of the t y p e a n d grade y o u n e e d . B y using t h i s informa t i o n a s a b a s i s for comparison, y o u c a n select t h e fatty acid b e s t s u i t e d for y o u r specific use. H a r c h e m offers y o u a free t y p e s a m p l e of t h e k i n d a n d grade C e n t u r y B r a n d F a t t y A c i d y o u specify. W e i n v i t e y o u t o m a k e c o m p a r i s o n s w i t h a n y c o m p e t i t i v e product o f like g r a d e . Write us on your letterhead for a copy of our new publication. Ask for Bulletin H-29.
HARCHEAV CENTURY BRAND
Qneed What today
is the major of that experi mental activity concerned with putting, chemical ma terials to tvorky much of it seemingly nonchemical but carried on hy chemists and chemical engineers?
A.and
Educational curricula training methods are needed that are aimed more directly at preparing men and women for this highly essential type of sci entific and technical work.
HARCHEM DIVISION W A L L A C E Be T T ! E R N A . r s J . I N C . 2S MAIN STREET. BELLEVILLE 9.NEWJERSEY IN CANADA: W. C HARDESTY CO.OF CANADA. LTD.. TORONTO
5 0% available chlorine
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Effective sterilization for ion e x c h a n g e resins i n water soften i n g equipment. • Sterilizes without harming resins • Offers m o d e r a t e chlorine c o n c e n t r a t i o n s for prolonged periods • R e t a i n s i t s g e r m i c i d a l a c t i v i t y in t h e p r e s e n c e o f organic m a t t e r • I s safe a n d e a s y to h a n d l e Ό at a and samples available, write for bulletin PX-1
W A L L A C E 8c T I E R N A N I N C O R P O R A T E D 2 5
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In core analysis fab . . .
Controlled Volume m in iPumps® help compute oil flow Successful core a n a l y s i s of o i l bearing rock depends upon t h e r e l i a b i l i t y of m a t h e m a t i c a l computations and testing e q u i p m e n t - In a m a j o r oil c o m p a n y ' s c o r e analysis l a b o r a t o r y , a Milton Roy Constametric® m i n i P u m p is i n c o n t i n u o u s u s e supplying a constant, dependable p r e s s u r e of 750 p s i — n e c e s sary t o o b t a i n p o r o s i t y a n d permeability data. C o n s t a n t high p r e s s u r e m u s t be m a i n t a i n e d d u r i n g a t e s t . . . if t h e pressure varies, t h e t e s t must b e repeated. T h e dependa b i l i t y of this m i n i P u m p a s sures t h a t d a t a c a n be collected q u i c k l y — t h e first t i m e — s a v ing t i m e , labor a n d m a i n t e n a n c e . T h e r e ' s no necessity t o r e p e a t t e s t s b e c a u s e of p r e s s u r e variance. W r i t e for information o n y o u r particular application. Milton R o y C o m p a n y , 1300 E a s t M e r maid Lane, Philadelphia 18, Pa. Engineering Representatives throughout the world.
(V/w^Ao/r CHEMICAL INSTRUMENTATION SYSTEMS
CONTROLLED VOLUME PUMPS CHEMICAL FEED SYSTEMS ·
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have a similar pattern of variation. You may say this is just a matter of common sense, b u t it is amazing h o w often one finds industrial engineers a n d industrial research people failing to use this technique. I know of one multimillion dollar operation where for over two years recoveries varied erratically from 6 0 to 98,&*
