CULTURAL VALUES OF PHYSICS — DIETZ 143 



the world's first X-ray pictures. Those pictures — so commonplace 

 today, so startling then, the picture of coins and keys showing through 

 the leather walls of a purse, of bones showing through the skin and 

 flesh of a human hand — those pictures were proof that far from com- 

 pleting the cataloging of nature's laws, the nineteenth-century phys- 

 icist had only made a beginning. 



In thinking of the twenty -first century, I would ask you not to look 

 at those things which represent the most complete accomplishments of 

 our present day but to look at those things which we are just now 

 beginning to comprehend. I would ask you to visit the laboratories 

 and study the researches under way rather than to visit the factory 

 or the market place to study the finished achievements. 



Sometimes these laboratoiy experiments look confused and useless, 

 but let us not fool ourselves. I am reminded of the story of the 

 visit which the Prime Minister of England paid to Faraday's lab- 

 oratory at the Royal Institution in London. Faraday was then en- 

 gaged in those experiments upon the laws of electricity, experiments 

 in physics, if you please, from which have come every electric 

 generator, transformer, and motor in the world. 



"What's the use of all this?" the Prime Minister asked Faraday. 



"Don't worry, milord," Faraday is said to have replied, "you'll tax 

 it yet." 



When we recall all the taxes paid today by the electrical industry, 

 and all the taxes we help pay when we pay our electric-light bills, 

 we are inclined to agree with Faraday. 



And I am reminded of another story, this one about our own great 

 statesman, patriot, and physicist, Benjamin Franklin. That worthy 

 did many things his neighbors did not altogether understand, like 

 flying kites, for example. One day, a neighbor woman asked Ben 

 the very same question that the Prime Minister had asked Fara- 

 day. "Ben," she said, "what's the use of all this?" And Franklin 

 being a good Yankee, replied in Yankee fashion with another ques- 

 tion. "What's the use of a baby ? " he asked. 



We all know the answer to that question. A baby can grow up 

 to be a very useful man or woman, and when we see the veritable 

 giant into which the baby electricity has grown, we realize the wis- 

 dom of Franklin. 



Now when you attempt to picture the future I want you to give 

 thought to some of the babies of the physical laboratory. They 

 will grow up to make the twenty-first century a personality in its 

 own right, different from the century we know. 



I think first of the "babies" in the field of the production of 

 power. The age in which we live rests upon a foundation of phys- 

 ical power. Imagine, for a moment, what would happen to our great 

 cities if electric power and the power of the gasoline engine were 



