Governmental Research 121 



GOVERNMENTAL RESEARCH 



By George K. Burgess, Sc.D. 

 Chief, Division of Metallurgy, Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C. 



As an aftermath of war, the past two years have witnessed an un- 

 paralleled interest of world wide extent in the subject of scientific re- 

 search, embracing its aims, scope and methods, as well as its relation to 

 industry, university and government. A remarkable series of contribu- 

 tions and addresses, written mainly by leaders in, or directors of research, 

 have called attention to the various aspects of the subject and have 

 served to inform the public mind and stimulate it to a realization of the 

 importance of research to the community on the one hand and the 

 dangers which attend ill considered plans on the other. 



One of the most important forums for discussion of this fundamental 

 subject has been the Royal Canadian Institute and I would like to recall, 

 in this connection, particularly, the addresses before this Institute of 

 Dr. George E. Hale on "Co-operation in Research" and Dr. Frank B. 

 Jewett on "Industrial Research". It so happens that Messrs. Hale, 

 Jewett, and myself have been identified each with a separate and dis- 

 tinctive phase of the development of research ; Dr. Hale, with science un- 

 alloyed with industrial aspects or governmental control. Dr. Jewett with 

 the applications of Science to an industry, and the writer (speaker) with 

 scientific research in a government department. The preliminary train- 

 ing of each of us was remarkably similar; we all are graduates of the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, specializing in physical science 

 and all had supplementary university training and some teaching ex- 

 perience, since which each has made his life's work in his chosen field of 

 research of the three characteristic types, institutional, industrial, and 

 governmental. We are all therefore exponents of the group method of 

 carrying on research. 



As a representative of this third type, that is, of research under 

 government auspices, it may not be without interest to you to have^from 

 me a statement regarding the conduct of research in a Government 

 Laboratory. I can of course do no better than give you the impression 

 I have received from the development of the laboratories with which I 

 am associated, those of the Bureau of Standards, and especially in their 

 relation to the public and the government in my own field of 

 metallurgy. 



