II, — 'THE RISE OF SCIENCE IN INDUSTRY 



to show that this was caused by the dissociation of hydrogen molecules 

 into atoms. In order to make sure of the correctness of this explanation, 

 I was led to experiment with nitrogen and with mercur)^ vapor over a 

 wide range of temperatures and pressures up to and including atmos- 

 pheric pressure. At this time no one in the laboratory had any idea that 

 any benefits could result from such gases. . . . 



I want to call your attention particularly to the fact that there were 

 many separate lines of pure scientific work which contributed to this 

 successful result. There was nothing from the prior knowledge that sug- 

 gested that any benefit would result from the addition of gas to the 

 lamp; in fact, there was no lamp made in 1911 which would have been 

 given an improved life or efficiency by the introduction of nitrogen. It 

 required the construction of an entirely new type of lamp based on new- 

 scientific principles before this benefit could be obtained. 



As soon as we received positive indications that an improved effi- 

 ciency of the lamp would be possible through the use of argon and 

 nitrogen, a large group of men in the laboratory worked on the develop- 

 ment of this type of lamp. It took about six months of intensive work 

 on the part of about twenty-five men before their results could be 

 turned over to the development laboratories of the incandescent lamp 

 factories, and it was about a year before these lamps were ready for 

 manufacture. 



D. 



CHEMICAL RESEARCH IN THE EARLY 

 TWENTIETH CENTURY— W. A. HAMOR 



Cin the late nineteenth century, Germany had built her technolog- 

 ical power, which so impressed A. N. Whitehead, largely on chemical 

 research. German hegemony was still unassailable in 1915 when W. A. 

 Hamor assayed the role of chemistry in American industry and dis- 

 cussed some of the barriers to a fuller utilization of chemical research. 

 What institutions does he see as the main alternatives for the support of 

 industrial research? Significantly, Mr. Hamor's affiliation was with the 

 Mellon Institute of Industrial Research in Pittsburgh, which, although 

 endowed from the profits of the aluminum industry, was attached to a 

 university rather than to a single corporation. Do you see any similarity 

 between the institutional coupling of science and technology in chem- 

 icals with that in electricity? (W. A. Hamor, "The Value of Industrial 

 Research," Scientific Monthly, I [1915], 86-90.)] 



The aim of all industrial operations is toward perfection, both in 

 process and mechanical equipment, and every development in manufac- 

 turing creates new problems. It is only to be expected, therefore, that 

 the industrial researcher is becoming less and less regarded as a burden 

 unwarranted by returns. Industrialists have, in fact, learned to recognize 

 chemistry as the intelligence department of industry, and manufacturing 

 is accordingly becoming more and more a system of scientific processes. 



[2.] 



