22 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



Conant's letter followed by two days a letter sent out by Jewett as Presi- 

 dent of the National Academy of Sciences to approximately 700 academic 

 institutions. Jewett's letter oudined the relations between the Academy, the 

 Research Council and the NDRC and requested concise information with 

 respect to special facilities for the conduct of research in the fields of science, 

 special competence of the staff in any department of science to conduct 

 research, and names of individuals on the staff with outstanding ability as 

 research investigators in the fields of science. 



The replies to Conant's and Jewett's letters were abstracted in a loose-leaf 

 mimeographed document entided "Research Facilities of Certain Educa- 

 tional and Scientific Institutions" which, with additions from time to time, 

 was sent to members of the Committee, Division Chairmen, Vice-Chairmen 

 and Section Chairmen. In the early days of the Committee particularly it 

 was a standard reference work used to supplement the already extensive 

 information about research facilities possessed by the key personnel of 

 NDRC as a result of their normal activities. 



Although no comparable survey of industrial research facilities was made 

 by the Committee, members of the Committee, especially Jewett, and mem- 

 bers of the divisions and sections possessed in the aggregate a large amount 

 of information about such facilities and the extent to which they were 

 being used for military research. 



In placing contracts, the Committee kept constandy in mind the necessity 

 of avoiding an overload upon those facilities which were already being 

 called upon by the Army and the Navy direcdy. 



One factor uppermost in the minds of the Committee was the need for 

 speed. No one knew when the occasion would arise for the instrumentalities 

 and weapons which the Committee hoped to create. It was desirable to have 

 as much of this material as possible in the hands of American troops when- 

 ever they might be called upon to do batde. Before that, they should have 

 the equipment in sufficient dme to permit adequate training in its use. 

 Before that, there must be production and in many cases, production in 

 quantity. Before that came development, which in turn was preceded by 

 research; and first of all was the need for the selecdon of the problems and 

 the institutions to work upon them. The time interval between the incep- 

 tion of an idea and the use of the finished product upon the batdefield 

 would normally run into several years. There was ever present in the minds 

 of the Committee the possibility that the need would arise before the equip- 

 ment could be completed. There was thus a sense of urgency in the selecdon 

 of contractors. Of course, it would have been nice to make some kind of 

 geographical distribudon of contracts, to build up research facilities in 

 insdtutions not presendy possessing them, to have some mathemaucally 

 determined basis for the allocadon of research among institutions. But the 

 need for speed hung like a sword over the head of the Committee and 



