The year 1940 was marked by the establishment on June 27, 1940, of the National Defense Research Committee, by Executive Order under the National Defense Act of 1916. The Committee, under the chairmanship of Doctor Vannevar Bush, President of Carnegie Institution of Washington, and Chairman of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, is the focal point for the mobilization of scientific and industrial research resources in the United States and works in close cooperation with the Military Services and the National Defense Advisory Commission.
The Research Committee has a large number of projects under way at present, utilizing the resources of both university and industry research laboratories. The stated purposes of the Committee are to 'correlate and support scientific research on the mechanisms and devices of warfare.' The Committee may enter into contracts and agreements with individuals, educational, or scientific institutions, and industrial organizations for studies, experimental investigations and reports.
The Survey of Research in Industry, one of the most searching and thorough surveys of industrial research ever made in the United States, was completed in the late summer of 1940. It was supervised by a Committee of the National Research Council for the National Resources Planning Board and the findings will be published by the Board early in 1941. As a part of this survey there will be a new edition of the list of industrial research laboratories based on data accumulated from the survey, which will show that there are 2,264 industrial research laboratories, employing some 72,000 workers, and having estimated expenditures for research work of about $300,000,000 annually. The previous edition listing showed 1,769 research laboratories, but the apparent large increase is partly due to the extension of the survey to all manufacturing companies rated at one-half million dollars upward, and may not be a true measure of the actual increase in the number of laboratories.
The National Resources Planning Board in cooperation with the United States Civil Service Commission is also engaged in the establishment of a National Roster of Scientific and Specialized Personnel. The National Roster is being constructed through the use of questionnaires sent to the membership of scientific, engineering and technical organizations who are cooperating in the interests of National Defense. This roster follows the pattern established by a similar roster prepared and used effectively by Great Britain more than a year ago.
The development of synthetics, promising to free the United States from complete reliance on imports, particularly of critical items in the National Defense, has been given considerable prominence in the technical and lay press. A notable illustration of interesting and authentic accounts on the subjects of synthetic rubber, petroleum products such as super-gasoline, and synthetic leather, appeared in a series of articles in the New York World-Telegram by Allan Keller under the title of 'We Make Our Own.' Considerable industrial research effort has been concentrated on the domestic production of such critical defense items as mercury in California, and tin smelting in Houston, Texas, using Bolivian ore; under subsidy and in close collaboration with the National Defense Advisory Commission.
One significant development growing out of National Defense efforts in the field of science and industrial technology is the pooling of patents, research and engineering forces and technical cooperation leading to a speeding up of mass production in critical items of defense equipment, particularly airplanes, tanks, and trucks.
At the dedication exercises of the new Chrysler Engineering and Research Laboratories at Detroit, Michigan, in the fall of 1940, President K. T. Keller acclaimed research as the key to the issue of mechanized warfare, and stated that our industrial research laboratories were the first line of defense.
More recently Alfred P. Sloan, Chairman of the Board of General Motors Corporation, pointed out that industrial research must assume an even more significant role in post-war national economy through the immediate development of new processes and products which would take the place of the present and near future armament production, in order to make use of manufacturing capacity and to absorb the man-power released by the armed forces and the industry defense operations.
As a single illustration or two of significant developments of peace-time products for war purposes, the use of Nylon for parachutes might be mentioned, and the moulded plastic-plywood airplanes which have been tested and flown is one answer to the mass production of standard types of aircraft such as training planes and to the lowering of unit cost.
A few illustrative milestones in the progress of industrial research are as follows:
Nylon was perhaps the single major industrial science achievement of the year, because it represents a unique achievement in synthetic chemistry and its rapid growth from the laboratory to huge scale commercial production may have far reaching effects upon national welfare and may materially effect our international economic relations with the Far East.
Synthetics — new chemical entities which have been developed from simple raw materials approaching substances in their elementary state. Such raw materials are carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen. These synthetics have far-reaching economic effects because they can be adopted as improvements over such fundamental building materials as wood, paper, rubber, and metals. Some synthetics are vigorous competitors in the fields of standard textiles like cotton, wool, and silk. Synthetic fatty acids, detergents, drugs, dyes, and countless other important raw materials are being synthesized today from simple elements. The trend is definitely towards expansion of these synthetic materials over those derived from natural sources, particularly because of the versatility of the synthetic product justifies even a higher cost.
The Institute of Gas Technology is to be established at one of the leading universities in accordance with a plan adopted at a meeting of the American Gas Association in the fall of the year. The amount of $100,000 a year for 10 years is to be spent on pure science research for the benefit of the gas industry as a whole. Fifteen presidents of gas companies forming the Fundamental Gas Research Committee of the Association worked for more than a year perfecting these plans and drawing heavily on the experience of the Division of Engineering and Industrial Research of National Research Council in formulating the plans for this industry research effort. This is one of the few cooperative research efforts for an industry as a whole which has been established in the last 10 years.
A new professional organization of scientists in a very active field of industry was established in the Institute of Food Technologists of which Dr. Samuel C. Prescott, Dean of Science of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is the first President. The establishment of the Institute followed a series of annual conferences which brought together several hundred food technologists for the exchange of information and data on common problems. Food technology leading into the more basic sciences of nutrition and public health has thus become established in the scientific and public mind by their own professional scientific Institute.
General Electric Company celebrated the Fortieth Anniversary of the founding of the General Electric Research Laboratory on December 17, 1940 — one of the first industrial laboratories to be established in this country. A series of demonstrations of new scientific achievements were included in the program at Schenectady, attended by key men in the General Electric Company and visiting scientists. A special feature of the Fortieth Anniversary was a preview of a 1,000,000-volt industrial x-ray equipment which obtained maximum portability with its gas-insulated resonant transformer and sealed-off multisection tube. The equipment measures only 3 feet in diameter, and weighs 1,500 pounds.
Another achievement of General Electric research was the installation of a Mercury Boiler having a single 54-inch drum which replaced the original seven-drum boiler in the Kearny station of the Public Service Electric and Gas Company, New Jersey, occupying the same space as the earlier one. Increased operating efficiency was attained.
In the field of electrical science one of the notable advances was the development of a Trailer-Mounted Substation complete with protective and switching equipment, to provide a quick and convenient means of supplying power wherever emergency service is required or temporary loads demand increased capacity. It is only necessary to park the trailer, ground the unit, and run conductors to the high- and low-voltage lines of the system.
The present excess profits tax will have a tendency to encourage research expenditures while the interest in industrial research is gathering momentum. Frequency modulation in radio emerges from the laboratory and assumes commercial form in the experimental adoption by some broadcasting net-works as the year 1940 closes. Recently the first commercial contract for frequency modulation was signed.
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