INSTRUMENTS FOR RESEARCH JAMES F. CORWIN Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio
WITH the modern need for instrumentation in conducting research has come the problem of providing instruments which are quite expensive. to researchers who are either not supported by research money or are supported by a limited amount. Although obtaining instruments of this sort is primarily a problem of the educator in a small college, it has become the problem of people who are associated with institutional research projects or industrial research projects accepted by university or college development funds. With these latter two, there are a great mauy instances when the researcher working on a directed program finds an interesting sideline of investigation that cannot possibly be investigated with the money that has already been assigned for a specific purpose. Like the teacher in a small college, he is confronted with a problem that is interesting to him personally and on which he would like to work but does not have the money for the necessary instrumentation. The problem of providing instrumentation for those projects ~vhichare not supported by some organized foundation has been attacked in a small way by the establishment of the Vernet Research Instrument Foundation under the direction of Antioch College and associated Board of Directors. The Foundation was established in late 1950 and has operated through the year 1951. The basic idea of the Foundation is to obtain general-purpose instruments that can be placed on loan to workers who will have complete control of the instrument during the time for which they have borrowed it. When the project is completed the instrument reverts to the Foundation where it can be loaned to other workers. The repository for returned instruments is the Chemistry Department a t Antioch College. The equipment loaned by the Foundation may be borrowed and retained under the following conditions: (1) The equipment shall be under the control of a "responsible investigator." The "responsible investigator" is defined as follows and determined by the Board of Directors after appropriate consultation: "A person whose educational background and/or experience has shown that he can use equipment with a great degree of imagination and ingenuity, yet not destroy its usefulness for general work in the same or allied fields." The procedure in loaning and returning of equipment is controlled by the following conditions: (2) The project assignment bears a maximum and minimum time limit determined for each project in which the instrument comes fully under the control of the responsible investigator. There is an added agree454
ment that an extension of time is assured if the project is not completed by the maximum time. The time limits will vary from three months to five years, hut must be renewed yearly. (3) The equipment will be available for demonstr* tion by the responsible investigator .to students with the investigator acting as a teacher. Ho-#ever arrangements for demonstrations are entirely under the control of the responsible investigator. The use of the equipment in student projects is not permitted unless full training has been given and the project is in charge of a responsible investigator. (4) For specific cooperative research projects, the equipment may be placed where it can be most efficiently used, possibly outside Yellow Springs. In such cases, one of the cooperating responsible investigators must be a member of the Antioch College Faculty or associated research projects. (5) Acknowledgment of use of equipment should be given on any published material that results from the use of the equipment. (6) The respoifsible investigator should, by his own initiative, give short written reports to the Board of Directors from t,ime to time on the use of the equipment and be available for discussion of what the project involves. (7) The responsible investigator should keep a case history on each instrument. This must be kept up to date and inspected before and aft,er each return and reloaning of equipment. The Foundation realizes that certain endo~r-edprojects or industrial concerns might a t some time wish to borrow this type of research equipment. Under such conditions, rental charges shall be determined by the Trustees of the Foundation based on ability to pay, and all rent,al charges go into a separate fund for repair, replacement of parts and insurance to cover equipment. After the starting of the Foundation and loan of instruments early in 1951 another attribute of such a Foundation became evident. It was found that, such instruments could be used for small projectsonacooperative basis mith one person in control of the particular instrument. The project started mith a donation of $5000 to Antioch College by the Vernay Laboratories, Inc., Yellow Springs. From this money, a flame photometer and complete high-pressure hydrogenation equipment were obtained. The high-pressure hydrogenation equipment mas assigned to the Chemistry Department a t Antioch College and the flame photometer to the Fels Research Institute for child development. The flame photomet,er mas to be used on a project
SEPTEMBER, 1952
concerning blood chcmistry and the construction of an artificial heart by members of the staff of the Fels Research Institute. Since this work was not directly connected with child development, the Fels Foundation could not furnish money for such equipment. During the year 1951 this instrument v a s used in furthering the work on the artificial heart and in addition was used on a cooperative basis in three other instances: with local physicians in emergency cases where potassium and caliium analysis was necessary, xith the Cincinnati General Hospital Department. of Obstetrics ~vhichwas concerned wit,h toxemia of pregnancy, and mith the Children's Hospital, Cincinnati, in cases of adrenal diseases. The instrument v a s made available twice as a demonstration t o st,udcnt groups from Antioch College during a course in instrumentation. High-pressure hydrogenation equipment, under the direction of the Chemistry Department, ~ v a sused for conducting high-pressure carbonations of phenols in connection with a Research Corporation Project on the determination of structure of polycyclic aromatic compounds. The equipment was also used in the hydrogenolysis of acetone pyrroles with t.11-o different types of cat,alysts and in the hydrogenation of a number of
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other pyrroles t o the corresponding pyrrolidines. All of this work was done under a Kettering Foundation fellowship a t Antioch College. Besides the above research, this cquipment mas made available t o advanced organic chcmistry students in connection with st>udentresearch problems in organic chemistry. At the beginning of 1952 additional money was added to the Research Foundation Fund and t v o more inst,ruments have been added which arc again generalpurpose instruments-a double channel combination magnetic oscillograph and a Lilly manometer oscillator amplifier. These mill be used in connection with blood chemistry research a t Fels Institute, Yellow Springs. After the first year of existence for the Research Instrument Foundation, the Board of Directors and Vernay Laboratories have felt that the whole program has been very successful and it is intended that the Foundation Fuuds be added t o every year and additional equipment obtained. Other such Foundations in conjunction mith small educational institutions, which make their operations tax-free, mould be very helpful in promoting basic research and allowing individual workers to do things that they would otherwise not be allowed t o do.
