1942: Industrial Scientific Research

The most significant single item in national trends of science in industry during the year 1942 was the establishment of the Office of Technical Development. This office was established after months of survey and study and may have a profound effect on the private enterprise system of industrial research. Its development will be closely observed by those concerned with science organization in industry.

The Office of Technical Development will complement and supplement the Office of Scientific Research and Development with the essential difference that the new office will be directly concerned with the 'pilot plant' or commercial development stage of those processes and products of industry directly connected with the war effort. The Office of Scientific Research and Development on the other hand, previously established under Executive Order of the President, is concerned with research and development of the 'instrumentalities of war.'

Office of Technical Development.

Doctor Harvey N. Davis, Director of the Office of Technical Development, has supplied a copy of the Executive Order outlining the functions and directives under which that office will operate. It is summarized as follows:

(Disestablishment of Former Agency: The temporary agency informally known as the Office of Technical Development within the War Production Board is hereby abolished, and its records and reports are hereby transferred to the Office of Production Research and Development.)

'The objective of the Office of Production Research and Development shall be: to plan, direct, and coordinate the scientific and engineering evaluation, research, and development work within the War Production Board, in order to ensure rapid appraisal and maximum effective utilization of mechanisms, materials, processes, and inventions, in war production; to this end, to utilize so far as possible existing research personnel and facilities.'

'The Director shall initiate and follow up technical evaluation, research, and development work on such mechanisms, materials, processes, and inventions, as will, in his judgment, advance the production program of the War Production Board.'

'The Director shall maintain close contact with the Industry Divisions and Branches, in order to assist them in the solution of problems requiring scientific or engineering evaluation, research, and development, advise them of progress and results on projects undertaken by the Director, and receive from them full information on current evaluation, research, and development projects with which they are in contact.'

'The Director shall analyze and arrange for the development of meritorious inventions and proposals received from the National Inventors Council, other agencies, and individuals.'

Nutrition Foundation.

One of the significant developments of the year is the rise of industry-sponsored research foundations, of which the Nutrition Foundation is a good illustration:

'The main objective of the Nutrition Foundation is to achieve improvement in public health by making possible broad investigations into the chemical, biological and physiological properties of materials used for the nation's food supply. The results of these investigations should increase the energy and efficiency of the average consumer.'

'Such a program not only investigates new and unknown methods of more effective nutrition but also is concerned with protection of food values now known, particularly new forms made necessary by the war. It is also the aim of the Nutrition Foundation, through early publication and wide dissemination, to bring current discoveries in nutrition to the attention of those agencies which can put such information into immediate use.'

'The pioneer organization represents an unusual opportunity for the food industry to recognize and acknowledge a definite social responsibility. More and more industry will be judged by what it contributes to human society. Heretofore, research in educational institutions has been supported largely either by endowment, or by public funds. In the future such funds may well be expected to decrease in amount. This means that industry must assume a substantial part of the financial burden and attain a closer alliance with the educational world if it desires that nutritional research be continued.'

'Through the Nutrition Foundation the food industry is giving full recognition of its social obligations and is insuring progress along nutrition lines.'

Effect of War Effort on Industrial Research Laboratories.

The impact of the war effort on industrial research laboratories during 1942 has been primarily characterized by laboratory assistance to the engineering departments in problems connected with conversion to war products. Conversion problems center largely in the improvement of processes, introduction of new manufacturing techniques, speeding up production, and particularly substitution of industrial materials.

The facilities and staff of research laboratories serve as technical advisers to engineering, product design, and production. In those industries in which their product is closely related to the war effort, or in the case of most automobile plants wholly converted to the manufacture of war equipment, there has been comparatively little loss or transfer of essential industrial research workers. In other industrial plants, however, not directly connected with war production there has been considerable loss of research personnel to the armed services and to those industries directly connected with war effort. Such industries as airplane, armament, chemical, light metals, and textiles have been drawn upon heavily for research workers in non-essential industries.

Part of this movement of research workers from industry to industry is initiated by the workers themselves under the urge of patriotic motives and the wish to be more closely connected with the war effort.

National Research Council Surveys.

In the field of broad trends of science in industry, the major emphasis in research programs brings out the following comparisons which are significant in the national scene. National Research Council's surveys of industrial research, made by its Division of Engineering and Industrial indicated clearly at the top of the 1929 boom that the major emphasis in the research programs, was on cutting production costs. This and later surveys covered a representative majority of 1600 laboratories of all sizes and in all fields of industry. A similar survey made by the Council at the bottom of the depression — 1932-1933 put the primary emphasis in substantially the same companies on the development of new fields of application.

In 1942 although no formal survey has been made by the National Research Council, a recent check with members of the Industrial Research Institute numbering over fifty in all fields of industry, clearly indicates that the major emphasis is on the substitution of materials. This major trend is borne out by direct observation in laboratories of member companies and others. Research executives' statements are in almost unanimous agreement that alternate materials and new applications of old materials will probably continue in the post-war period. The alternate or substitute materials in most cases are cheaper, and serve their purpose better than those previously used.

Synthetics.

Synthetics continue to take the place of natural products in ever-increasing volume of production and in surprisingly new fields of application. Recently, the research laboratories of a large flour milling company developed the base for a synthetic cinnamon. Cooperating with a large established company in the flavoring business, this synthetic cinnamon has already attained considerable commercial success. Other synthetic spices are under consideration combining the research facilities of two companies mentioned above and utilizing the distribution channels of one of the oldest spice millers in the country. Ginger and allspice may be the next natural products to feel the impact of synthetic flavors created in a test tube. Vanilla flavor derived from waste liquors of a large pulp and paper manufacturing company has previously had considerable commercial success. At the other end of the synthetic material scale that much publicized synthetic rubber industry may assume such proportions that natural rubber from Malaya may be only a memory.

Research Personnel.

A considerable number of new research laboratories are in the process of construction. Many others are in the planning stage and receiving close executive consideration in fields of industry which have almost wholly neglected organized industrial research in the past. It would not be surprising if the present listing of 2,264 industrial research laboratories in National Research Council's Bulletin of 1940 would be increased to 2,700 by 1945-46.

When it became apparent that industrial research laboratories were in danger of having their more experienced research men — particularly the younger ones within the draft age limits — either taken by the armed forces or transferred to laboratories or plants more directly connected with the war effort, there was a considerable upsurge of interest on the part of industrial companies in long range university research. Research policy which prompted this solution was based on the fact that fundamental and long term research projects could be continued at university research centers and additional research personnel could be trained for 'delivery,' say, in the spring of 1944-45.

As an indication of meeting this trend in the increase of university research sponsored by industry, the College of Engineering of New York University established the Office of Research Coordinator, and initiated a unique industry-sponsored program. These expanded industrial research activities at the College of Engineering may later assume the proportions of a separate department of Engineering and Industrial Research. There is one major factor which may tend to restrict the expansion of university industrial research. Recent legislation on the 18-19 year-old draftees, will make it impractical if not impossible for many universities to continue their contracts either for large volume industrial research work, or for 'delivery' of any considerable number of trained personnel. It now appears that technical colleges and universities may be almost wholly taken over by the armed forces as training centers in science, engineering, and technology.

One ingenious solution suggested for university research has been contributed by Doctor E. A. White, Engineering Research Department, University of Michigan, established nearly thirty years ago. Doctor White feels that as the teaching load on the faculty is reduced, faculty members and older graduate students will have more time to devote to fundamental research problems sponsored by industry.

It is to be hoped that the experience of World War I in stripping our university centers of potential industrial research workers will be taken advantage of, and that some system of deferment may be found, particularly for the younger, brilliant science and research workers in order that we may not suffer a lag in industrial research and product development after World War II.

National interest requires that an enlightened policy will be developed in the use of scientific and technical manpower through the efforts of the War Manpower Commission with the advice and assistance of the Office of Scientific Research and Development and the Office of Technical Development.

Postwar Period.

There is little or no opportunity to comment on the more significant and specific industrial research achievements during this war period, because of strict scientific censorship. There is agreement amongst research leaders and science writers on those industries in which technological advances will be prominent in the early postwar years. Those industries which from the point of view of pent-up purchasing power, mass needs of buyers, and striking technological advances which will induce the public to trade war bonds for something which they want more, include: housing, automobile, radio, domestic air conditioning, and aircraft. Other industries whose products do not directly touch the buying public but will have an increasingly important place in the postwar industrial structure, are synthetic rubber, light metal alloys, aluminum, and magnesium. The latter may attain the stature of an epochal age rather than new and expanded industries. In the more strictly scientific field of electronics, this subject may attain the proportion of a new industry, one which has already launched a magazine devoted to its own interests and the expanding scope of electronic applications, under the title of 'Electronics Industries.'

1941: Industrial Scientific Research

The most significant trend in industrial science during 1941 was the increasing mobilization of science resources, both pure and applied, in university and in industrial laboratories, in the interest of national defense. The average 'loading' of all research laboratories in defense work may be 70 per cent and in some industries, notably chemical, petroleum, electrical, automotive, and aircraft, defense research may be 90 per cent of the total activities with but 10 per cent of the staff and facilities being devoted to normal peace-time work. In not a few instances post-war developments rank second only to defense.

A recent survey made by the Research Advisory Service of the Liberty Bank of Buffalo, with member banks from coast to coast, indicated that 66 per cent of the industrial companies whose chief executives responded to the inquiry 'After the Defense Boom — What?' stated that they were expanding technical research and product development. Twenty per cent of these companies representing the 'Industrial Four Hundred' have already developed new products which they are holding over for the post-war period.

Recently, the Industrial Research Institute (affiliated with the National Research Council), representing more than 40 companies in varied fields of industry, and nationally known as leaders in technology in their fields, appointed a Committee on 'Economic, Political, and Social Trends Affecting Research Policies' to study the deep and significant national trends in these three categories as they are now affecting and may in the future affect research personnel, organization, and appropriations.

The primary purpose of this Committee is to devise ways and means to preserve research organizations intact after the war. It is looking toward the formulation of a plan, which can be sponsored and backed by the only organized industrial company membership group in the United States, for some method of accumulating a surplus or sinking fund for research in lean times, some form of economic security such as irrevocable trust funds for research workers, or some form of group insurance especially designed to fit the needs of creative workers in industry.

Some of the main factors affecting research policies and activities which the study has already uncovered, are the universally expanded research programs in industry and the increased demand for experienced research executives and workers which has resulted in a 'sellers market.' Experienced research men are commanding premium positions or compensation where urgent defense requirements are bidding against industry for the immediate services of the 70,000 trained research workers now employed in 2,300 laboratories supported by industry.

With the appointment of Doctor Vannevar Bush as Director, Office of Scientific Research and Development, by Executive Order of President Roosevelt, the entire science resources of the nation including those of the armed services are now under the direction of one man. Thus for the first time in the nation's scientific history, the resources of government, industry, and university, are integrated and coordinated for the primary purpose of national defense.

Substitution of industrial materials comes second on the list as a significant trend in the defense dominated scene, with companies crossing industry boundaries. The search for substitute material in the case of at least one large automobile manufacturer has definitely indicated that the substitute material is functionally better adapted to the purpose, is cheaper and more decorative, with the result that they will probably not go back to the original material.

There is no denying the fact that industrial companies in the high income tax brackets are influenced in their plans for expanded research and accelerated product development by considerations which make it possible to transfer half or more of the research costs to Uncle Sam as a charge against current expense of doing business. This seems an equitable arrangement, since the industrial research laboratories of the country may have to absorb the shock of post war deflation by developing new low cost products, which may be characteristic of that period.

The publication by the National Resources Board of Industrial Research II. A National Resource — a survey made by the National Research Council for that body — has had a marked effect on industrial-financial groups in stimulating interest in technical research as one form of 'industrial insurance.' This is particularly true in the management and executive strata of industry and financial organizations.

Specific industrial science advances or achievements during the year have been submerged almost completely by their applications to defense requirements which have been unusually well guarded as 'secret' or 'confidential.' Only a trickle of descriptive data is reaching the technical and lay press. Even the publication of patentable devices, processes, or materials has been suppressed in the interests of national defense within the discretion of the appropriate Government officials.

This much can be said of science in industry in the year 1941; the entrance of the United States into World War II will no doubt speed up the development of national and industrial organization and integration of science and its applications by at least a quarter of a century. It should bring about a public appreciation of the contributions of science workers, with commensurate benefits in their economic and social positions in the national community. The plusses in the equation — the conquests of military aggression vs. the conquest of the unknown by the 'soldiers of science' — will add up to a larger and mightier total than the minuses.

Inspired by this hope we may move forward past the milestone of 1941 into the next few years in which the matrix of future centuries of progress will be cast, with science in the role of metallurgist, shaping swords into plowshares!

1940: Industrial Scientific Research

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.

1939: Industrial Scientific Research

The year 1939 was marked by the mobilization of our scientific and industrial research resources in the interest of National Defense. A number of surveys of industrial research have been undertaken during the year. National Research Council in cooperation with the National Resources and Planning Board has undertaken a Survey of Industrial Research with the broad objective of weighing and evaluating the total economic and social effects of industrial research upon the Nation. This survey, initiated in June 1939 as a National Research Council project, supervised by a distinguished committee of scientists and industrial research executives, will undertake to determine the place and contributions of Government, trade association, university, private industry, and the consulting research laboratories, in the major industries.

Various fields of science will be traced through the whole fabric of industry and some attempt will be made to appraise the 'growth index' of industrial research and to uncover the 'holes' in American industrial technology. When the survey was initiated there was no thought of its use as a census of scientific resources, facilities, and personnel in connection with National Defense. It may, however, serve that purpose as a by-product. The National Resources Committee had previously surveyed Government Research ('Research — A National Resource,' Dec. 1938). The present survey is a second step in a comprehensive program covering all science and research resources of the nation, both physical and human.

Surveys Undertaken.

The National Association of Manufacturers during 1939 undertook a survey of industrial research expenditures of their own membership and hope to develop data and information which will give a comparative picture of the part that industrial research plays in the business of the nation. As a part of a program to stimulate science, research, and invention in American industry, the Association has developed a plan for selecting and making awards to outstanding inventors and research workers under the title of Modern Pioneers — On the American Frontiers of Industry. The pamphlet announcing the plan in referring to the geographic frontiers of yesterday and American pioneers who cleared the land and made it productive, emphasizes science and technology as the modern pioneer:

'The pioneer on the modern frontier of science and technology ventures into the unknown and conquers it. He pushes forward man's knowledge of the useful arts and sciences and turns the new knowledge into productive uses. To stimulate this kind of pioneering the Government grants the inventor or the discoverer title in the form of a patent to his new idea.'

The Modern Pioneer Awards to be presented at a National Modern Pioneer Dinner on Feb. 27, 1940, in New York City will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the American Patent System. The Committee on Awards is chairmaned by Doctor Karl T. Compton, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The National Association of Cost Accountants took up another phase of survey of industrial research by examining accounting practices of industrial research laboratories in some detail. A report of their survey was published in the National Association of Cost Accountants' Bulletin, March 1, 1939, titled 'Present Day Practice in Accounting for Research and Development Costs.'

Cooperation and Progress in Research.

The year was marked by a new and significant development of industrial research in the collaboration of a number of large companies pooling their industrial research resources and staffs to produce a revolutionary process or product which draws upon the science and technology of their respective fields. The sealed-in headlights appearing in the 1940 automobiles are one illustrative example of that type of collaboration between such diverse groups as electrical, glass, and rubber companies. Two or three conspicuous examples of this type of cooperation in research between large companies appeared during the year.

One of the oldest industries known to man furnishes one of the most striking examples of the advance of industrial research in the control of the Bessemer steel process by electronic devices announced in May by the research laboratories of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation. This company was the first to establish a pilot plant in the steel industry, which contributed largely to the successful introduction of the new process in an industry where technology is traditional and handed down from generation to generation.

The New York Times, May 21, 1939, reported that the electric-eye controlled process in perfecting precise temperature control by the use of scientific facts rather than the fallibility of the human eye, is estimated to save $3.00 a ton. Jones & Laughlin has a potential capacity of a million tons of Bessemer steel annually. According to the Times report this single research effort, costing less than $75,000 with a potential saving of $3,000,000 annually, is a striking demonstration that industrial research is a paying investment, in this particular instance in the ratio of 40 to 1!

Research Advisory Service.

An equally novel departure in another sector of business which may have considerable influence on the development of industrial research, was the establishment of the Research Advisory Service at the Liberty Bank of Buffalo under the leadership of its Vice-President Bert H. White. Banker White, after a thorough study of industrial trends both in this country and abroad, came to the conclusion that small industrial companies not maintaining their own research laboratories should be put in contact with companies so equipped, for their mutual advantage as a new service feature of banking. During the first year of its operation the Research Advisory Service not only demonstrated its usefulness to industries on the Niagara Frontier, but received the enthusiastic cooperation of more than 800 industrial research laboratories. Other laboratories are being continually added to the Bank's lists on the basis of voluntary cooperation. Twelve leading banks in key industrial cities are clients of the Service.

'The Service is an answer to the question. 'What can be done to overcome the prohibitive cost of research for the majority of American manufacturers who appreciate the value of the benefits of research but cannot afford to pay the price to have it?' The Service functions as follows. A manufacturer with a problem submits it to the bank which submits it to the outstanding research laboratories in the field of the problem. From the comments of the research men, the bank prepares a report which is submitted gratis to the manufacturer.'

The banker in the rôle of promoter of research in industry is a new figure. Having the confidence of the bank's industrial clients, and in many instances a stake in their economic future, the Research Advisory Service, operating without fee to the industrial companies served, may have a far-reaching influence in the expansion of industrial science in the American scene.

One of the vital needs in this greatest of industrial nations is the more uniform application of industrial science throughout industry. This is particularly true in the smaller industrial companies where the mortality rate is high.

Growth of Industrial Research.

The National Research Project of the Works Progress Administration, recently completed an exhaustive report: 'The Growth of Industrial Research in the United States 1920-1938' — under the direction of George Perazich. Some of the major subjects treated in this report (largely based on a National Research Council Bulletin listing industrial research laboratories) include: types of research, basic, applied, and commercial development; employment trends, concentration of research, occupation of workers engaged in research, research expenditures, geographical distribution of industrial research. A comparison of the growth, both of numbers of personnel and research expenditures in various fields of industry, is examined in some detail. According to Chart No. 3, Industrial distribution of Research Personnel of all companies 1927 and 1938:

'Chemical and allied products industries employed in 1938 the largest number of research workers. The industries next in importance were petroleum, electrical machinery, apparatus, and supplies; other machinery industries, rubber products, and electrical communications.'

An interesting comparison was developed for the first time by this study of the number of wage earners to research workers employed. This tabulation shows that for each 10,000 wage earners there were, in 1937, two research workers employed in the textile industry; 15 in iron and steel; 16 in food; 28 in paper and allied products; 41 in automobile; 116 in electrical machinery; 173 in rubber products; 300 in chemical and allied products; and 563 in the petroleum industry.

Between 1927 and 1937 the increase in the ratio of total research workers to wage earners was the largest in the petroleum industry, with textiles, food, motor vehicles, and iron and steel industries following in importance. This section of the report is concluded with the statement indicating the phenomenal growth of industrial research during the last decade:

'Of the 25,000 persons added to the industrial research laboratories during the last eleven years, more than 10,000 or over 40 per cent were employed by the chemical and petroleum industries.'

Recent Developments.

Some 1939 growth trends of industrial research as indicated above are further confirmed by specific illustrative references to Science Service review for the year 1939, which covers all fields of pure and applied science:

'A new synthetic silk-like fiber made from polyvinyl, and known as Vinyon, approached commercial production; a new type of glass, which can be heated cherry-red and then plunged into ice water without cracking, was developed; chemists were able to obtain 1 gallons of gasoline out of each gallon of crude oil by newly developed hydrogenation processes; the world's most powerful magnetic alloy steel was developed, which when used in a magnet, the size of a pea, lifted five pounds; commercial production was begun of high-test gasoline, using sulphuric acid as a chemical catalyst; Lignin, former waste product in the making of paper pulp, found a new use when it was discovered that it is more efficient than any chemicals now used in removing iron from water.'

The national Government gave support to the Chemurgic movement by establishing four regional laboratories under the Department of Agriculture with an announced budget of $1,000,000 each. The regional laboratories will assist in the development of industrial uses for farm products.

The emergence of television from the laboratory to the commercial form of a new industry may, when history is written, be the most significant milestone in industrial research in 1939.

1938: Industrial Scientific Research

It is a grim commentary upon the present state of the world that the most important and significant event of 1938 in American industrial research may prove to have been — the European war crisis.

Lesson of Munich.

No more dramatic demonstration could have been afforded of the extent to which a general lack of coordination for the effective use of science, not only in preparation for war but in solving the problems of peace, still characterizes this country's industrial research situation. Certainly no other event of the year so profoundly and immediately affected the course of scientific development, the policies of scientific organizations, and the whole fabric of American technology. Under the immediate influence of the lesson of Munich, more progress was made in the latter months of 1938 toward a real integration of American industrial research than in as many previous years.

Much still remains to be done. The lagging position of the United States is only partially evidenced in the estimates that the U.S.S.R. have 100,000 people working in science and industrial technology; Germany, by even better authenticated figures, 70,000 scientific workers; and the United States, with far greater wealth and industrial resources than either, barely 30,000. The coordination of effort along scientific lines in both Russia and Germany is far more complete and effective than in our own country; and coordination — mobilization — may prove even more decisive than numbers, individual skill, or natural gifts.

Report of National Resources Committee.

However, even before Munich the year did witness two important steps toward the integration of scientific research with the needs of national life. First of these was the publication of the report of the National Resources Committee, entitled 'Technological Trends and National Policy.' A public statement by the President, calling attention to this report, helped to give it national publicity. The report deserves and is still receiving thorough and serious study by legislators, industrial executives, educators, and others to whom the social and economic impact of scientific development is of importance.

Industrial Research Institute.

The second indication of progress was the organization in May of the Industrial Research Institute, a national cooperative association sponsored by the National Research Council. For the first time in America, industrial research executives are provided with a means of attack upon their common problems of administrative efficiency. The Institute may prove to be the instrument of valuable advances not only in direct return on industrial research investment, but in the entire relationship of research, first to industry and then to society at large.

Vital Needs Supplied by Research.

Sprawling and still largely unorganized and unintegrated though American industrial research may be — great as is the confusion, waste, and, doubtless, independent duplication of effort — yet more and more our industrial, financial, and political leaders are recognizing that research is a vital need of our times; first, as a means of safeguarding long-term investment in industry, of increasing the value and decreasing the wastes and dislocations of technological improvement, and of dramatizing the need for the flow of new capital into American industry; second, as a field for skilled and well-paid employment; and last but hardly least, as a guide to sales promotion, advertising, and the protection of the consumer.

Research Laboratories.

Publication of the latest edition of the Bulletin of the National Research Council, listing industrial research laboratories — the only standard reference work in this field — revealed a steady growth; the list comprising upward of 1,760 such laboratories as compared with the 1,562 listed in the previous (1933) edition of this Bulletin 91.

The figures indicate that the growth curve in industrial research is still fairly constant, having varied little in the past ten years. Industrial research is in reality only just emerging as an important factor in our national life. Imposing as a list of 1,760 industrial research laboratories may appear, it becomes less so when it is pointed out that fewer than 1,800 of the 170,000 manufacturing companies in the United States maintain their own research laboratories — though, to be sure, the 1,760 laboratories represent practically all the large national corporations — and that the annual national investment, through these laboratories, in industrial research, though it attains the substantial figure of $300,000,000, is less than the national bill for cosmetics.

Still another evidence of this integration of research with the national life is the growing extent of industrial research in the universities and first-class technical schools; and the spread of plans for forming separate research foundations or corporations, with the licensing of the patented discoveries of the laboratories for the dual purpose of securing the widest possible use of these new and improved methods, processes, or mechanisms, and at the same time obtaining additional funds for the promotion of research in pure science in the universities. There has even been some discussion of the possible desirability of a single national corporation to serve as intermediary between the universities, which may now or later engage in original research, and industry, which presumably will gladly pay adequate royalty for license to use profitable patented discoveries resulting from this research.

Specific Developments and Discoveries.

The year was by no means devoid of specific scientific developments and discoveries of more than passing interest. Foremost of these, perhaps, is nylon, the new textile fiber developed by the DuPont research laboratories. The importance of this development is indicated by the announcement that the DuPont organization proposes to proceed immediately with a $10,000,000 manufacturing plant for the new fiber, which is said to be the closest approximation to the finest natural silk yet attained.

In the same field is a new casein fiber announced by the United States Department of Agriculture. The new process has not yet emerged from the laboratory stage; commercial costs cannot as yet be even guessed at. Casein at present costs from 10 cents to 15 cents a pound as compared with 5 cents a pound for cellulose; but the agents used in treating casein to produce fiber are cheaper than those used in making rayon. There is an annual production of casein in this country on the order of one billion pounds; but many doubtful points still remain to be cleared up before this product of Government science can be accepted as a commercial success.

The significance of these two advances in one of the most laggard, scientifically speaking, of American industrial fields may be considerable. The tradition-bound textile industry stands close to the bottom in research effort; its annual expenditure for that purpose is but 0.7 per cent of invested capital, whereas the average for all American industry is 1.5 per cent, the chemical industry leading with 2.6 per cent. Here, seemingly, the leader — chemistry — is offering a helping hand to one of the least progressive of its fellow industries. (See also CHEMISTRY.)

Though 1938 saw no particularly striking new developments in the fast-growing field of plastics, the application of these new substances to ever wider fields of usefulness, with many accompanying refinements and improvements, continues at an accelerating pace. Some remarkably effective work was done during the year in the equally new field of air conditioning and the older field of scientific lighting now called light conditioning.

The partnership of industry and agriculture made further strides in the direction of new markets for farm products, and better utilization of agricultural wastes or by-products. Conspicuous in this field was the work of the Chemical Foundation's Farm Chemurgic Council in developing alcohol from cornstalks for use, blended with gasoline, as a motor fuel.

In the field of pure science, the entry of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company into fundamental atomic research, where the General Electric Company, and Bell Telephone Laboratories, with Nobel Prize winners (Irving Langmuir, 1932, and Clinton J. Davisson, 1937) on their staffs, were already rivaling or even excelling the achievements of university laboratories, is not the least interesting or significant development of an eventful year.