194 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 8 



said that some man eminent in science has "given" his results to the 

 people. That is, in nearly every instance, nonsense. Rontgen's dis- 

 covery of X-rays, upon which he took out no patents, could go to the 

 people only by the use of X-ray bulbs, and these X-ray bulbs were 

 manufactured and improved by various corporations, through whose 

 factories they went to the people. 



The classical example is, of course, the work of Faraday, on electro- 

 magnetic induction, on which is based ultimately the whole immense 

 development of the electrical industry; a development not achieved, of 

 course, without an enormous amount of capital and directed industrial 

 research. 



We are thinking, too, of industry not only depending upon many 

 sciences but being in a real sense science itself. Science pursued in 

 this broad manner will enrich itself and the world. The true manu- 

 facturing function consists in making the best thing possible in the 

 most economical way. It does not mean practicing the art through 

 the best tradition, but means pursuing the art with the aid of modern 

 scientific knowledge. A good illustration is in the field of synthetic 

 organic chemistry. The development of organic materials of pre- 

 determined characteristics to fill definite needs in industry has been 

 employed on a wide scale only in recent years. The more common 

 uses, such as the acetylene flame for cutting or joining metal shapes in 

 the steel industry or the use of glycerol trinitrate or trinitro toluol as 

 detonation agents in mining operations, are generally known. How- 

 ever, a wholly new degree of change is being brought about by inter- 

 weaving of synthetic organic chemicals with other products. National 

 defense against human aggressors as well as sanitary defense against 

 microorganisms in their modern forms depend largely on synthetic 

 organic chemicals as key products. The modern automobile and air- 

 plane, the outstanding accomplishments of the twentieth century to 

 date, would be far from their present standard of excellence without 

 the regulating effect of the synthetic products used in their construc- 

 tion and operation. Antiknock fuels, special lubricants, durable 

 tires and other rubber goods, antifreeze materials, lacquer coatings, 

 safety glass, brake fluids, plastic products, among other features, have 

 permitted the remarkable degree of perfection and low cost which 

 these unique products of our generation have attained. A new ali- 

 phatic organic chemical industry was created just prior to the depres- 

 sion and has had a rapid and continuous growth since 1929. 



Research in the metallurgical industry has resulted in metals with- 

 out which the production of these new aliphatic organic chemicals, 

 and other processes, needing to be worked at high pressures and high 

 temperatures, would have been impossible. 



Chemistry has likewise played a major role in the production of 

 better and cheaper motor fuel. Cracking, hydrogenation, polymeriza- 



