1. Consider yourself an “investigator” rather than an iiinventor”, therefore, 2. Follow your goal and don’t unnecessarily branch outas attractive as it may seem to you a t that time. 3. Consider the importance of saving time against the cost of conducting many experiments simultaneously. Try to locate your target by shooting to the left and to the right, and don’t “machine gun” (close spacing of amounts) unless extremely pressed for time. 4. Change only one factor a t a time. 5. Don’t fool yourself-select a good sample for comparison. 6. Watch out for undesirable characteristics. An improvement in one direction is likely to bring about undesirable characteristics in another direction. Be sure to include such findings in your report. 7. Keep a detailed report of your findings and analyze them periodically. The accumulation of a number of “unimportant” findings may indicate a tendency which may very well become your basis for an important improvement later on. 8. Develop a systetn of recording which allows the easy tabulation of the factors to be judged. Don’t write out elaborate reports; lay out a form and make your entries. 9. Don’t depend too much on untrained personnel. Make your own tests if possible. Although this may seem a waste of effort a t times, it usually pays dividends because you may detect something which would be overlooked by someone not familiar with the problem. By all means, take the time to explain to someone working for you, what you are shooting at. 10. Don’t waste time working on problems which are not in your field. Ask a mechanical engineer or a physicist if neceasar . 11. Be sure your tests are conducted under identical con& tions. (Same stock solution, a t one time, by the same erson, with same instruments, etc.) This reduces the numier of possible errors and will prevent the drawing of wrong conclusions.
It is not uncommon that research is pictured as a group, set aside by management from the rest of the business, in the hope that some day the money invested will pay dividends. Nothing is further from the truth. Research nowadays is an integral part of any industrial organization and is needed not only to keep up to date, but also to make decisions pertaining to future actions. These considerations, in addition to the fact that research reports are used as the basis for future work in the laboratory, and that one chemist must be able to depend upon other’s findings, lead to an appreciation of how important management considers the proper recording of results. In the development of methods for reporting, the industrial engineer must be aware of the fact that it is just as important to know the disadvantages as to know the advantages of newly developed procedures; many a splendid research development has failed on a production scale because not all facts were known. It is also important that the conclusions drawn from a finding are properly checked before statements are made. Overoptimism on the part of the chemist or the judging of the merits of his findings from viewpoints other than chemistry will have to be restrained. On the other hand, management must refrain from forcing its research staff to choose hasty and overemphasized statements in order that an advertising campaign may be started or new products placed on the market more quickly. The forms for reporting should be developed in close cooperation with management and the men working in research. An attempt should be made to standardize upon graphs and charts in order to facilitate the comparison of results; if this should be found impractical, it may be advisable to develop a list of “don’ts” which will prevent anyone from selling his ideas on the basis of trick graphic presentations. (For instance drawing of a figure in which the total area increases more rapidly than the height representing the increase.)
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may be short again next year as the acreages that should be planted to meet the requirements are failing to materialize. Military requirements for chemicals remain at a high level, as indicated by December distribution report of WPB Chemicals Bureau; chemical industry will bear a heavy share of the responsibility for intensified war production. Curtailments are p a d e in releases, for civilian products, of acetaldehyde, acetic anhydride, synthetic ammonia, monoethylaniline, ascorbic acid, monomethyl ether of ethylene glycol, higher aliphatic alcohols except capryl, isobutanol, methyl ethyl ketone, synthetic organic detergents, sec-butanol for protective coatings, and toluene. WPB also announces that all participating brass mills have been put on the production urgency list in an all-out effort to meet the Army’s expanded 1945 ammunition program. Bureau of Mines recently revealed that the production in oil “stripper” fields has been increased some 30% by forcing air and gas into the underground pools. Not new in any sense, the method was tried first some forty years ago in Ohio. It was extended to the Illinois fields in 1921. Since then many of the oil pools that would otherwise be out of production have continued to operate. Two huge pipe lines were consolidated late in December when the Standard Oil Company line merged with that of the Oklahoma Oil Pipe Line Company. The new company is called Interstate Oil Pipe Line Company. At approximately the same time Standard Oil of Louisiana and Standard Oil of New Jersey became one. During the distillers’ holiday in January, it is expected that corn will be available to make bourbon whisky. There is no edict saying that distillers may use corn, but the lack of a specific prohibition was taken as a signal that the Government would not prevent its use. Alcohol production for the new year will reach an all-time high of 548,000,000gallons if the schedule, presented by Walter G. Whitman, assistant director of the Chemicals Bureau, WPB, is met. A t present the situation in the alcohol picture is: a stockpile of 75,000,000 gallons, increased allotments t o all classes of alcohol users, a holiday for liquor makers, and an acute shortage of sugar and invert sugar from Cuba. Civilians are about to experience a new squeeze, for the Army has materially upped its requirements for rayon yarns for use in making parachutes. Greatly increased delivery of material to ground troops by the parachute technique is the reason given. Some 14,000,000 pounds are needed. The Government has ordered construction of plants “from ground up”, and an expansion in present facilities to add a total of 10,400,000new tires to present output. Current production is a t a rate of 16,400,000 tires. More ammonium sulfate has been released by WPB t o afford relief to fertilizer manufacturers east of the Rocky Mountains and to ease up stocks a t production points. The equivalent of one month’s quota, or one twelfth of the manufacturer’s assignment may be ordered over the regular quota during January or distributed over the three months, January to March. LAXSEED
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