CONTRIBUTIONS OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 35 



policies, the initiation of new projects, and for the detailed dis- 

 cussion of the seventy odd major research undertakings which < 

 had been initiated in large part at least by the Division and 

 which its members were either directing or closely following. 

 The opportunity both to initiate problems and to follow those 

 initiated elsewhere, particularly abroad, came about chiefly 

 through the most successful functioning of the second agency 

 mentioned above, the Research Information Service. 



This service had its inception in the Spring of 1917 when 

 certain British scientists in the British ministry of munitions 

 addressed a letter to General Geo. O. Squier suggesting the 

 development of a liaison between British and American scien- 

 tists. This letter was referred by General Squier to the Chair- 

 man of the Division of Physical Sciences of the National Re- 

 search Council who laid the matter before the Military Commit- 

 tee of the Council, which committee embraced the heads of 

 the technical bureaus of the navy and army, namely, Admirals 

 Benson, Griffin, Taylor and Earle, and Generals Squier, Black, 

 Crozier and Gorgas, in addition to the heads of civilian tech- 

 nical bureaus like Doctors Marvin and Stratton of the Bureau 

 of Mines and the Bureau of Standards. This body discussed 

 the proposal at some length and concluded that an even more 

 comprehensive plan for bringing about cooperation and prevent- 

 ing duplication was needed. It accordingly appointed a commit- 

 tee consisting of Dr. Walcott, Mr. Howard Coffin, Dr. Stratton 

 and Mr. Millikan to formulate recommendations. The commit- 

 tee formulated a plan which was approved by the Military 

 Committee and then by the Secretaries of War and of the 

 Navy and finally by the President, who appropriated $150,000 

 from his war emergency fund for carrying the plan into effect. 



This plan provided for the establishment of four new offices, 

 one in Washington, one in London, one in Paris and one in 

 Rome. The office in Washington was headed by a group of 

 three men : the chief of the Army Intelligence Service, the chief 

 of the Navy Intelligence Service, and the chairman of the Na- 

 tional Research Council; the group in London, by the naval 



