NDRC OF OSRD — THE COMMITTEE 59 



was working made it difficult for Division and Section Chiefs to bring in 

 new groups. 



Following Pearl Harbor, the NDRC started aggressively to bring more 

 industrial concerns into this contracting framework. In a letter addressed 

 to a number of industrial organizations on December 30, 1941, Jewett, who 

 was the Committee's principal contact with industrial organizations, wrote 

 that when NDRC was created some eighteen months previously, it had 

 approached academic laboratories and a few industrial laboratories whose 

 normal work was closely akin to specific military problems. The reason for 

 this selection was partly because it was thought that industrial laboratories 

 were largely engaged on urgent problems which might interfere with taking 

 on additional work and partly because the most urgent problems confront- 

 ing NDRC at the time appeared to be largely in highly specialized fields 

 or in the fundamental stage which university laboratories could tackle. 

 Jewett pointed out that the result had been a heavy drain on the personnel 

 and facilities of academic institutions and a heavy load on a few industrial 

 laboratories. While recognizing that the military services might have made 

 substantial direct use of industrial laboratories, he was seeking untouched 

 potential resources in that field. He pointed out that with the change from 

 a defense philosophy to one of all-out war the number and urgency of mili- 

 tary development problems were greatly increased, while the inevitable 

 restrictions on civil life seemed likely to lessen the pressure of normal 

 research and development activities and to make more facilities available 

 for the solution of strictly war problems. The letter concluded with a request 

 for information as to facilities which the addressees might have available 

 for NDRC work. 



A summary of the responses to Jewett's letter was distributed to members 

 of the NDRC as well as to Division and Section Chairmen and Technical 

 Aides for their use in recommending contracts, particularly those in the 

 stage which intervenes between the completion of laboratory trials and the 

 undertaking of large-scale production. Jewett also prepared and distributed 

 a key to National Research Council Bulletin No. 104, entitled "Industrial 

 Research Laboratories," to call to the attention of the divisions some of the 

 more prominent physical research listings out of the approximately 2200 

 firms recorded in that Bulletin. 



When NDRC was reorganized late in 1942 a memorandum of general 

 instructions was issued for the benefit of the new Division and Section 

 Chiefs. It enumerated the following points for consideration in the selection 

 of contractors: (i) primary emphasis in the selection of contractors should 

 be placed on their ability to provide the highest standard of work in the 

 least possible time; (2) contracts should be placed with organizations re- 

 quiring a minimum of new personnel, machinery, equipment or facilities to 

 perform the work; (3) contracts leading to developing of devices which 



