10 



providing Federal support to the establishment of agricultural ex- 

 periment stations. The Morrill and Hatch Acts thus combined to 

 create a solid link between the Government and institutions of 

 higher learning, a link that later served as a basis for further ex- 

 pansion. 18 



Industrial Research Laboratories 



By the eve of World War II, industry became the predominant 

 funder of scientific research and development in the United States, 

 but that role was a new one for it had not begun supporting science 

 on a large scale until well into the twentieth century. Thomas 

 Edison provided important precedents from the late nineteenth 

 century with the establishment of his famed research laboratory in 

 Menlo Park, New Jersey, in 1876 and his even larger laboratory in 

 West Orange, New Jersey, in 1887. From both laboratories came 

 stories of great successes resulting from the applications of science 

 to invention. These laboratories were the harbingers of a shift in 

 American industry, from a reliance on the lone inventor to the 

 maintenance of organized research laboratories. 1 9 



Growth in the number of industrial research laboratories was 

 slow up to World War I. The best known laboratories included 

 those at American Telephone and Telegraph, Eastman Kodak, 

 DuPont, Corning Glass Works, and Westinghouse. General Elec- 

 tric's research laboratory, established in 1900, had the distinction 

 of being the first such laboratory to devote its activities primarily 

 to basic, rather than directed, research. Industries such as electri- 

 cal manufacturing and chemicals found the support of scientific re- 

 search and development especially profitable, and after World War 

 I the number of industrial research laboratories grew rapidly. 20 



Despite the fact that industrial support of research and develop- 

 ment surpassed that of the Federal Government and the universi- 

 ties in the 1930s, industry was not a generous patron of science out- 

 side of its own laboratories. 21 Most industrial research was done 

 in-house. And, although some industrial research laboratories were 

 given over to the pursuit of basic research, the vast majority were 

 involved in testing and production. Thus, these laboratories were 



18 See Margaret W. Rossiter, "The Organization of the Agricultural Sciences," in Alexandra 

 Oleson and John Voss (eds.), The Organization of Knowledge in Modern America, 1860-1920 

 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979), pp. 211-248; James H. Shideler, "Reflections 

 on Public Support for Agricultural Sciences in the 20th Century," Working Papers Series, no. 15 

 (Davis: Agricultural History Center, University of California, October 1983), pp. 1-27; and Alan 

 I. Marcus, Agricultural Science and the Quest for Legitimacy (Ames: Iowa State University 

 Press, 1985). 



19 On Thomas Edison and his research laboratories, see Matthew Josephson, Edison: A Biog- 

 raphy (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959); and Robert Conot, A Streak of Luck: The Life and Legend 

 of Thomas Alva Edison (New York: Seaview, 1979). See also, Kendall Birr, Pioneering in Indus- 

 trial Research (Washington: Public Affairs Press, 1957). 



20 Brief histories of industrial research are contained in W. David Lewis, "Industrial Research 

 and Development," in Melvin Kranzberg and Carroll W. Pursell, Jr. (eds.), Technology in West- 

 ern Civilization, vol. 2 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967), pp. 615-634; Carroll Pursell, 

 "Science and Industry," in George H. Daniels (ed.), Nineteenth-Century American Science: A Re- 

 appraisal (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1972), pp. 231-248; and Kendall Birr, "In- 

 dustrial Research Laboratories," in Reingold, The Sciences in the American Context, pp. 193-207. 

 See also, Leonard S. Reich, The Making of American Industrial Research: Science and Business 

 at GE and Bell, 1876-1926 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985). 



21 See Howard R. Bartlett, "The Development of Industrial Research in America," in National 

 Resources Planning Board, Research — A National Resource, vol. 2 (Washington: GPO, 1940), pp. 

 19-77. 



