194 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1953 



workers, sizable budgets, and business operations. There is ample 

 precedent for this procedure in the agricultural experiment stations 

 and in the hospitals which are now traditionally a part of almost every 

 large university. Such hospitals are usually separate or related or- 

 ganizations integrated into the whole university structure only at the 

 policy levels. 



However, this country no longer depends entirely on the imiversities 

 for basic research, and we may now consider another means of pro- 

 viding for this fundamental acti\aty. Through the establishment 

 of the Research Society of America,^ the Society of Sigma Xi has 

 deliberately served notice that the band of Companions in Zealous 

 Research has been extended beyond the academic halls to scientists 

 in the laboratories of the Government and industry. In terms of 

 figure 2, the "blue" circuit is endorsed as a means of increasing our 

 store of understanding of the physical world. The industrial and 

 Government laboratories have a wonderful source of problems in 

 the phenomena encountered in the development and engineering 

 phases of the useful arts. They also have on their staffs men whose 

 curiosity can be effectively challenged to seek an understanding of 

 these phenomena. In other words, all the elements of the "blue" cir- 

 cuit are in place. However, severe impedances exist. The com- 

 munication of ideas between development engineers and research 

 scientists is still hampered by a lack of common language and stand- 

 ards. Furthermore, those charged with the responsibility of deter- 

 mining the policies of these laboratories have not often taken the 

 step of specifically allocating their funds in such a way as to broaden 

 and deepen the scientific understanding of phenomena encountered 

 in industrial work. As a result, the current in the circuit is fre- 

 quently shunted or even cut off just as it starts to build up. The 

 day-to-day pressures generated by the "red" development loop sap the 

 blue circuit so that the circulation of understanding, which could 

 bring intellectual satisfaction and perhaps the foundations of a future 

 development, is severely attenuated. May I suggest that RESA is 

 in a good position to remedy this situation, and that one of its objec- 

 tives might well be the promotion of the idea that industrial and 

 Government laboratories have the responsibility of allocating a part 

 of their vast resources to the pursuit of understanding. All that is 

 needed is a firmly rooted conviction that the "blue" circuit in figure 2 

 not only spans the gap between the universities and industry, but 

 also has all its elements present within the framework of many indus- 

 trial laboratories. Attention to these internal circuits will radiate 

 some of the imaginative and creative basic research we so badly need. 



* A substantial portion of this paper was delivered on the occasion of the founding of a 

 branch of RESA at the Burroughs Adding Machine Co. In Philadelphia, Pa., November 1952. 



