THE VACUUM— THERE'S SOMETHING IN IT 



By Dr. W. R. Whitney 

 Director, Research Laboratory, General Electric Co. 



[With 5 plates] 



We humans want better minds, broader horizons, and greater 

 understanding. Scientists everywhere are at work in their respec- 

 tive fields searching for new- truths to improve the process by which 

 our minds, our horizons, our powers, and our outlooks grow. 



When in the middle ages the great cathedrals of the world w^ere 

 being built the mentality of men seems to have been directed to sys- 

 tematic subordination of creation rather than to active appreciation 

 of it ; to acquiring salvation, or " safety first," rather than knowledge 

 or understanding. To-day scientists, in seeking truth, think of 

 " safety first " last. 



We are told that if the total age of mankind be expressed as the 

 life of a man of 50 years and, if he then looks back upon his progress, 

 he will see that what marks his greatest advancement are events 

 occurring in the most recent years. For example, such a 50-year man 

 now sees that he had not learned to scratch the simplest records on 

 stone until his forty-ninth year. All the immense advantages of 

 printing have existed only three months for him. He has only just 

 learned how to pass along what he has learned. The uses of steam, 

 which now seem so necessary, were acquired only three or four days 

 ago. The uses of electricity (street cars, lamps, and telephones), 

 which did not actually begin until about 1880, arrived the day before 

 yesterday to this 50-year man. The automobile, radio, X rays, ra- 

 dium, and most of the things which occupy our interests to-day were 

 actually discovered on this particular fiftieth birthday. 



The power outside of his own muscles, which during the past two 

 or three months he has learned to control, has grown to nearly 20 

 horsepower, or 200 man power, for every man in the country. There- 

 fore it makes only one-half a per cent difference whether all the men 

 work like horses or not. But guidance of power is man work, be- 

 cause there are no machine mentalities. Almost everything but 



1 Reprinted by pennission from General Electric Review, Vol. XXV 1 1, No. 7, July, 1924. 



193 



