viii INTRODUCTION 



methods of navigating airplanes, and learned how to increase 

 the range of guns and the accuracy of bomb-dropping. The 

 bacteriologist sought out the hidden mechanism of trench fever, 

 and the means of lessening its ravages. And so we might go 

 on, drawing hundreds of typical illustrations from every branch 

 of science. 



The bearing of such varied and productive activities goes 

 far beyond the immediate issues of war, and reaches down to 

 the very foundations of national welfare. The problems of 

 peace are inextricably entangled with those of war, and if 

 scientific methods and the aid of scientific research were 

 needed in overcoming the menace of the enemy they will be no 

 less urgently needed during the turmoil of reconstruction and 

 the future competitions of peace. 



Remember the case of the aniline dyes, the first of which, 

 mauve, was discovered by Sir William Perkin in 1856. Here, 

 as in so many other instances, a great achievement of British 

 initiative met with no recognition from the home government, 

 and the fruits of Perkin's discovery were gathered abroad. 

 Aniline, from which mauve is derived, is one of the products 

 of coal-tar, formerly regarded as useless waste. Thousands 

 of chemists, thoroughly infused with the spirit of research in 

 the German universities, and supported by great corporations, 

 enjoying the powerful encouragement of the Government, have 

 built upon this foundation the great dye industry of Germany. 

 The basic processes involved in the preparation of the dyes 

 are precisely those required for the manufacture of tri-nitro- 

 toluol and other high explosives. Thus the German govern- 

 ment, bent on its preparations for war, quite naturally developed 

 an industry that brought great commercial prosperity and at 

 the same time provided the factories, equipment, and trained 

 chemists necessary to produce thousands of tons of explosives. 



Or recall the fixation of nitrogen. Long before the war Ger- 

 many systematically exploited the cheap water-power of Nor- 

 way for the manufacture of nitrates, needed alike for powder 

 and for fertilization of German soil, where the output of 



