10 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



ment of a nearly new industry in the United States. Formal 

 authorization to engage in this enterprise was given by the fol- 

 lowing resolutions, approved by the Executive Committee April 

 19, 1917: 



"Resolved, That the Director of the Geophysical Laboratory be and hereby 

 is authorized and requested, upon application from the United States Govern- 

 ment or any of its agents, to undertake an investigation of the properties and 

 technique in production of optical glass, and to secure cooperation in so far 

 as practicable and essential with governmental and private agencies engaged 

 in the study or production of this material. 



"Resolved, That a sum not to exceed $10,000 be and hereby is allotted to 

 the Geophysical Laboratory, from the special appropriation of $100,000 

 authorized by the Board of Trustees at its meeting of December 15, 1916, for 

 needs of the various departments and divisions of research of the Institution, 

 to defray costs of special appliances and traveling expenses incident to the 

 proposed investigation of optical glass and its production." 



For about one year from the date of these resolutions the entire 

 staff and resources of the Laboratory, along with extra allotments 

 of funds to pay necessary traveling and subsistence expenses, 

 were devoted to the several branches of the work. This work 

 embraced chemical and optical analyses of available specimens 

 of the many kinds of optical glass in use; extensive searches for 

 and tests of materials used not only in the glass itself but in 

 the pots in which it is fused; critical studies of the requisite 

 processes of manipulation and temperature control; and the sur- 

 mounting of obstacles set up by trade secrets, craftsmanship, 

 commercial rivalries, and by the inevitable friction of adminis- 

 trative machinery not wholly in conformity with the law of the 

 conservation of energy. 



Referring to the reports and correspondence of the Director of 

 the Laboratory for details concerning this novel and arduous 

 undertaking, it may suffice here to state summarily that within a 

 year the production of uncut optical glass was raised from less 

 than a ton per month to more than 100 tons per month; that this 

 work has required, in addition to numerous laboratory researches, 

 the virtual conduct of three manufacturing plants located in 

 different cities; that the Director and staff of the Laboratory have 

 penetrated the secrets in which the processes of manufacture 

 have been held hitherto and supplanted them by straightforward 

 methods which require only competent knowledge for their sue- 



