2 BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL JOURNAL 



Upwards of one hundred years ago there was adopted in earnest 

 by scientific men, principally in university laboratories, the program 

 of searching deeper into the unknown, to discover new principles and 

 new relationships of a kind which had at the time very little apparent 

 practical interest to mankind as a whole. 



Out of this work, and in time, have grown entirely new industries. 

 From the fact that these industries sprang directly from the research 

 laboratory, it was inevitable that they should be conspicuous because 

 of the number of their men trained in the methods of scientific re- 

 search. Equally inevitable was it that these new fields of endeavor, 

 originating as they did and being staffed as they were, should be the 

 ground where industrial research would find its first and largest 

 development. And not the least of the advantages which obtained 

 in these newer industries was the absence of age-long traditions tend- 

 ing to ultra-conservatism as to new undertakings, and more par- 

 ticularly as to the employment of the new types of mind. 



The results up to the present indicate clearly that the electrical 

 and chem.ical fields in industry as we know them today, are the places 

 where the greatest advances have been made in the utilization of 

 research methods and research men. Other, older and more basic 

 industries are rapidly following the general path marked out by the 

 successes already obtained in these fields. Hence, it is expected that 

 shortly all industrial activities will be based on the results obtained 

 by trained investigators, using the tools of modern scientific in- 

 vestigation. 



Just as applied electricity is a leading exemplar of the benefits to 

 be obtained by an intelligent use of scientific knowledge, so electrical 

 communication of intelligence is a leading exemplar in the field of 

 applied electricity. This branch of applied electricity is a pioneer 

 among those recognizing the practical value of scientific research. 

 It is interesting to note that electrical communication is credited 

 with having organized a research laboratory prior to the first university 

 course in electrical engineering. 



More than ever before, the communication engineer must seek 

 exact solutions of his problems. If his results do not always attain 

 the certainty he desires, the reason is the absence of complete knowl- 

 edge with regard to one or more essential facts. But true knowledge 

 of what things limit the solution of a problem is frequently more 

 than half the battle of obtaining the missing facts. Sometimes these 

 unknown facts can be obtained by a search through the remoter 

 parts of the vast scientific storehouses which have been built in times 

 past. Frequently, however, the search discloses the entire absence 



