COTTON FIBER SCIENCE — PALMER 497 



larly for discussion and mutual stimulation. In the nation's textile 

 schools, fiber science and technology are firmly imbedded in the teach- 

 ing curricula and research. The National Cotton Council of America, 

 federating the diversified interests of the entire cotton industry in the 

 United States, has for some years lent the weight of its organization 

 and the services of its own highly qualified staff to the further develop- 

 ment of the field and the promotion of wider applications of the new 

 teclmiques. 



To fathom the significance of the masses of mathematical data on 

 cotton fiber properties of widely diverse characteristics accumulated 

 over the yeai-s, and the corresponding masses of figures on the proper- 

 ties of yarns and fabrics produced from them, it has remained to trace 

 out, by higher statistical analysis, the abstruse causal relationships 

 between cotton-fiber properties and product qualities. None was better 

 equipped for this task, and none more earnest in wanting it done than 

 Dr. Webb. Accordingly, in 1941, he initiated a program of this kind 

 with the statistical assistance of his two long-time professional asso- 

 ciates, Howard B. Kichardson and Gordon L. Austin. A series of 

 22 professional papers are the result of their combined efforts up to this 

 time, with more to follow. Together they constitute for students the 

 world over what is generally considered to be the authoritative refer- 

 ence work on the elements of raw cotton quality in relation to process- 

 ing performance and yarn quality. These reports, moreover, have 

 been translated into various foreign languages, distributed to members 

 of trade and textile associations abroad and at home, and they are used 

 in teaching at textile schools abroad as well as in this country. 



During the active yeai-s remaining to him. Dr. Webb will be engaged 

 in the study of a complex series of problems of much importance. In 

 particular, he will be completing a large number and wide range of 

 correlation analyses having to do with the interrelationships naturally 

 occurring among cotton fiber measures and with their disturbing effects 

 on evaluations of the contributions of the respective fiber properties to 

 yam strength and yam appearance. These mathematical investiga- 

 tions are of a highly exploratory nature ; Dr. Webb thus continues to 

 be a pioneer in the final plateau of his work no less than in his earlier 

 years.^ 



Meanwhile, in some dozens of laboratories, the researches go on 

 pushing out ever farther the borders of the unknown. New problems 

 are being recognized, new advances in skills and techniques are being 

 made, new and improved apparatus is being developed, new leaders are 

 coming forward, new workers are joining the ranks, relationships and 

 interrelationships are being newly discovered, and new applications 



' Hon. John Sherman Cooper, Senator from Kentucky, had inserted In the Congressional 

 Record for Sept. 2, 1960, an article entiled, "He Pioneered a New Science That Changed 

 the Ways of a Great Industry." 



