SUPPORT BY INDUSTRY 



dented rate for the next six or seven vears. As a result, the 

 percentage of basic work probably dropped to an unprecedented 

 low toward the end of the war. The absolute amount of basic 

 research probably recovered to the 1940 level within a couple 

 of years after the war, but it took much longer to attain the 1 940 

 level in percentage, even though, according to National Science 

 Foundation estimate,* basic research expenditures probably in- 

 creased fourfold between 1947 and 1957. All comparative 

 figures must be judged in the light of these radically different 

 trends during the war and postwar periods. 



Another fact often lost sight of is that, while government 

 contributions to research in university laboratories is usually 

 predominantly in the basic area, government financing of in- 

 dustry research naturally is limited largely to the applied held. 

 For this reason the airplane, missile, and electronics industries, 

 for which a large part of the research is financed by government, 

 show a low component of basic research. The National Science 

 Foundation studies make this distinction clear in its tables, but 

 isolated quotations from even its reports are likely to lead to 

 erroneous interpretations. Take, for example, the statement: 



Basic research played only a modest role in the industrial scene. 

 It received about 4 percent of private industry's total research and 

 development expenditures."}" 



This really refers, as the data for 1953 show, to the re- 

 search done in industry laboratories, including 37 per cent 

 financed by the federal government. The percentage for that 

 year based on industry as the source of funds is given in NSF 

 57-5 as 8 per cent (actually 7.6 per cent). 



For industry as a whole, I have been unable to assemble 

 comparable data, and most of those published are rather out of 



* National Science Foundation, 57-35, p. 47. 

 "j" National Science Foundation, 57-35, p. 38. 



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