1379 



(a) The development of contact with all important research 

 laboratories or agencies, governmental or private; the compila- 

 tion of problems and subjects under investigation; and the col- 

 lection and compilation of the results attained. 



(b) The classification, organization, and preparation of such 

 information for transmission to the Research Information Com- 

 mittee in Washington. 



(c) The maintenance of continuous contact with work of the 

 offices of Military and Naval Attaches in order that all duplica- 

 tion of work or crossing of effort may be avoided, with the 

 consequent waste of time and energy and the confusion resulting 

 from crossed or duplicated effort. 



(d) To serve as an immediate auxiliary to the oflSces of the 

 Military and Naval Attaches in the collection, analysis, and 

 compilation of scientific, technical, and industrial research 

 information. 



(e) To serve as an agency at the immediate service of the 

 Commander in Chief of the Military or Naval Forces in Europe 

 for the collection and analysis of scientific and technical research 

 information, and as an auxiliary to such direct military and 

 naval agencies as may be in use for the purpose. 



(f) To serve as centers of distribution to the American expedi- 

 tionary forces in France and to the American naval force in 

 European waters of scientific and technical research information, 

 originating in the United States and transmitted through the 

 Research Information Committee in Washington. 



(g) To serve as centers of distribution to our Allies in Europe of 

 scientific, technical, and industrial research information originat- 

 ing in the United States and transmitted through the Research 

 Information Committee in Washington. 



(h) The maintenance of the necessary contact between the 

 offices in Paris and London in order that provision may be made 

 for the direct and prompt interchange of important scientific and 

 technical information. ^ • 



(i) To aid research workers, or collectors of scientific, technical, 

 and industrial information from the United States, when prop- 

 erly accredited from the Research Information Committee m 

 Washington, in best achieving theu' several and particular 

 purposes. 



OVERSEAS OPERATIONS 



Before the final action of the NRC, its Military Committee had 

 created a Research Information Committee, December 3, 1917, and 

 given it marching orders; these were referred by NRC to the (official 

 governmental) Council of National Defense, which approved the proj- 

 ect December 12, appropriated $38,000 for the first year of operation 

 and appointed Dr. H. A. Bumstead and W. F. Durand to London and 

 Paris respectively as "Scientific Attaches." ^ 



M It Is not clear what, if any, role the Department of State had in all this. It was Mr. Vinton's recollection 

 that attach^ commissions from the Department were given to principals and lesser ranks to the supporting 

 staffs. However, his own claim for pension rights for service during this period were— he said— disallowed 

 by the Civil Service Commission. The State Department has no record of attache commissions for members 

 of the Research Information Committee serving overseas. However, a typewritten note, unsigned and 

 undated, attached to the Academy copv of the Final Report of the Research Information Service carried the 

 notation that Professor George Ellery Hale hacj "pushed very hard to get the title 'Scientific Attachfe' for 

 the men, hoping to acquire for them and science the same status as military attaches." It added that he 

 had been gratified by his success in doing so. (However, the unknown author admitted that "I cannot, at 

 the moment, locate any supporting documents. . . .") 



