FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTIONS 543 



ary sense, wants to know about the heat of the sun in order that he 

 might drive its chariot with greater success than Phaethon of old. It 

 is not knowledge but power which is his ultimate aim. 



Even in the department of pure science, to which we have referred 

 as the third department of technology, the idea of utility is more 

 prominent than it ordinarily is in the laboratories of pure science, 

 though still in its highest form, and acting rather as an incentive to 

 begin the work than affecting the manner of carrying it out. For 

 instance, the strong desire to eliminate the errors caused by the 

 sensitiveness of metals to variations of temperature has prompted 

 the effort to find a remedy, which has recently resulted in the use of 

 a definite combination of nickel and steel, a material practically 

 insensitive to temperature changes. 



The idea of utility seems to be the real key to the distinction 

 between pure science and technology. 



We find technology variously described as the science of the indus- 

 trial arts; as the application of scientifically obtained facts and laws 

 in one or more departments to some practical end, which end rules 

 the selection and arrangement of the whole, as, for instance, in the 

 practical sciences of navigation, engineering, and medicine. Again, 

 applied science is defined as a knowledge of facts, events, and phe- 

 nomena as explained, accounted for, or produced by powers, causes, 

 and laws. 



We see that when laws are attached to facts, whether in nature or 

 experiment, for the purpose of explanation merely, we call it pure 

 science, but when laws are attached to facts with an idea of utility in 

 art, manufacture, or in the general service of humanity, we call it 

 applied science or technology. In the first case, the fact is viewed as 

 an instance of the law; in the second, the fact itself is the important 

 thing. Therefore, the distinction between pure and applied science 

 seems to be largely one of purpose; if our purpose is to establish 

 a law we call it pure science, if our purpose is to establish a fact we 

 call it applied science. 



We see, therefore, that technology, while in one department a pure 

 science, investigating the laws which govern, for example, the strength 

 of structures both as dependent on material and form, or, in general, 

 any problem arising out of the artificial working-up of natural pro- 

 ducts, is, in the main, to be called an applied science, and is in fact so 

 described. I can find no essential difference between the use of the 

 two terms "applied science" and "technology," as they are ordin- 

 arily employed at present, and scarcely a case in which either of 

 them could not be used. A notable exception is the science of 

 medicine, which is, strictly speaking, an applied science, but which 

 is never described as technology, perhaps foreshadowing a more 

 distinct specialization in the use of the term technology, so that it 



