CHAPTER XXII 



RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 



X 



.HE Office of Scientific Research and Development was highly 

 successful in assisting the armed services by research on and development 

 of weapons and in the field of military medicine. In part at least this was 

 due to the fact that it operated at first under the shadow of an impending 

 war and later under the pressure of war itself. This was, of course, a favor- 

 able circumstance for the type of operation in which OSRD was engaged 

 for it meant that the best scientific talent of the country was available, with- 

 out question and without qualification. 



When it started in June of 1940, NDRC's conception of its task was 

 essentially a modest one. It was to engage in research designed to produce 

 new and improved weapons of warfare. While the charter of the Commit- 

 tee would have permitted a broad interpretation of the Committee's field of 

 activities, a relatively narrow interpretation was adopted at the outset and 

 maintained with reasonable consistency. This permitted a high degree of 

 concentration in the field which the Committee marked out for itself. 



The Committee was not as successful in limiting its activities to research. 

 The original assumption was that the Committee would engage in research 

 which would establish the practicability and usefulness of a weapon or an 

 instrument and that further development would be carried on by the Services. 

 In practice, research tended to merge into development. Further, the Army 

 and the Navy were in the midst of a program of tremendous expansion 

 which required that the major attention be devoted to recruiting and train- 

 ing personnel and to obtaining the large quantities of equipment which 

 could be had only through standardization for large-scale production. They 

 were too busy to take over the results of research programs and carry them 

 through the development stages. It was difficult to arouse interest in an idea 

 until it had been converted into something tangible, complete, ready for 

 demonstration and use. With the creation of OSRD, development was added 

 to research; and with the passage of time an increasingly large amount of 

 attention was devoted to the developmental stages of ideas which had suc- 

 cessfully emerged from the research stage. 



Even with the completion of development OSRD was unable to withdraw 

 from some programs. The Services were geared to mass production and 

 never succeeded in developing an easy procedure for the procurement of a 

 few devices to cover the period before the production lines could begin to 



