CONTRIBUTIONS OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 37 



that in the Research Information Service we had the first 

 demonstration in history of the possibilities of international co- 

 operation in research on a huge scale, a sort of cooperation 

 which made it possible for any development, or any idea which 

 originated in any of the chief civilized countries of the world 

 to go at once, very frequently by cable, to all the other coun- 

 tries and to be applied there as soon as possible, or to stimulate 

 carefully selected groups of competent technical men in these 

 countries to further developments. The extraordinary rapidity 

 with which scientific developments were made in the war was 

 unquestionably due first, to the forming of a considerable num- 

 ber of highly competent research groups, and second, to the 

 establishment of effective channels for the cooperation^ iietween 

 these groups. 



So much for the machinery by which the work in the Physical 

 Sciences was stimulated and coordinated. As for the problems 

 themselves it is only possible to sketch briefly the history of a 

 few of the most important. Of them all the submarine prob- 

 lem stood out from the beginning of the war as of paramount 

 importance. Effective attack upon it in this country started 

 with the visit of the scientific mission which was sent to the 

 United States in May, 1917, with definite official instructions 

 from the French, British and Italian governments to hold 

 back nothing, but to lay all the facts and plans of the Allies 

 relating to scientific developments in aid of the war before 

 properly accredited scientific men in the United States. The 

 National Research Council, which acted as the host of this 

 mission in the United States (for the mission had been sent 

 here in return for a similar mission organized and sent abroad 

 by the National Research Council in March, 1917) with au- 

 thority conferred upon it by the War and Navy Departments, 

 called a conference in Washington of some of the best scientific 

 brains in the United States and for a period of a full week this 

 conference met and discussed in detail the progress thus far 

 made and the plans projected in the fields of submarine detec- 



