l6 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



NDRC might engage in research on devices and mechanisms of warfare 

 having aerodynamic or aeronautical aspects, provided the NACA was not 

 itself engaged in that particular kind of research. 



The working arrangement was summarized as follows: 



The NDRC should not ordinarily enter upon research within the field of ac- 

 tivities of the NACA as indicated by the lines of work of the present Committees 

 and Subcommittees which direct NACA research, but may properly be concerned 

 with research having to do with aerodynamic or aeronautical matters outside of 

 the field thus defined. Moreover, when a problem is of such breadth that it has 

 features within the scope of activities of the NACA and also features pertinent to 

 nonaeronautical aspects of warfare, then either organization may properly con- 

 duct such research, provided that economies appear to result from a unitary 

 consideration. In such cases it would appear to be desirable that the matter be 

 discussed between officers of the two organizations before the research is under- 

 taken. 



With the scope of the Committee's activities outlined in general terms 

 in the order creating it, borderline situations were inevitable. One spectac- 

 ular problem upon which national attention was being focussed was that 

 of the shortage of natural rubber and the need for large-scale production 

 of synthetic rubber. Should rubber be considered a material of war to which 

 the Committee should give attention? 



The NDRC decided to place a strict interpretation upon the scope of its 

 authorized activities. This interpretation was formalized by a resolution 

 adopted at the fifth meeting of the Committee on November 29, 1940. The 

 resolution read as follows: 



Resolved, that the National Defense Research Committee by reason of the order 

 of the Council of National Defense which established it, is concerned with 

 scientific research on and development of new instrumentalities or materials of 

 war, or of new materials or methods to be used primarily in the manufacture of 

 instruments of war; and of the improvement of existing instrumentalities or 

 materials of war, or of existing material or methods to be used primarily in the 

 manufacmre of instruments of war. Where a material or method is widely used 

 or useful in industry, in addition to its use in the manufacture of instruments of 

 war, as for example in the case of substitute materials of wide utility, the research 

 and development involved do not lie within the province of the National De- 

 fense Research Committee, but rather within the province of many existing in- 

 dustrial and scientific research agencies, and in particular, when appropriate re- 

 quests for investigation or research in such fields are made by government 

 agencies, within the province of the National Academy of Sciences and the Na- 

 tional Research Council. 



This resolution was transmitted to the members of the various sections 

 of the Committee with a letter stating that in case of doubt as to whether 



