INDUSTRIAL MATHEMATICS 261 



Red tape is easily avoided by avoiding it. No engineer, whatever his 

 rank in the organization, ought ever need permission to consult a mathe- 

 matician in the company's employ, and the mathematician in turn ought 

 not need a specific work order or expense allowance before giving his advice. 

 In this respect he should be on the same basis as the free-lance investigators 

 who are to be found in most large research laboratories, and who are 

 generally known as staff engineers. 



Unavailability is a more serious matter. It is well recognized that 

 in industrial research the urgent job always tends to take precedence 

 over the important one. Left to themselves, fundamental studies give 

 way to the detailed development "which ought to go into production 

 next month." Mathematical studies are no more susceptible than other 

 fundamental research to such interruptions, but the effect upon the career 

 of the mathematician may be more far-reaching, for as soon as he is assigned 

 an urgent project of special character his availability as a consultant ceases 

 or at best is temporarily impaired. If his value to the industry is greater 

 as a project man than as a consultant this need not be a cause for regret; 

 but to turn a good mathematician into a poor engineer, or an irreplaceable 

 mathematician into a replaceable engineer, is unfortunate for both employer 

 and employee. 



The Mathematical Research Department of the Bell Telephone Laboratories 



In the 'Bell Telephone Laboratories men of this type have beeft grouped 

 together as a separate organization unit. They have no more specific 

 function than to be helpful to their associates in other parts of the Labora- 

 tories. No engineer is obliged to consult them about any phase of his work; 

 no particular jobs come to them by reason of prerogative; conversely, 

 there is no sort of help which an engineer or physicist may not seek from 

 them if he so desires. No routine need be complied with in advance in 

 order to secure their services, and no report is required afterwards, though 

 written reports are frequently prepared when needed for scientific record. 

 The expense of the group is distributed broadly over the activities of the 

 Laboratories, not charged to specific jobs. Every effort is made to maintain 

 a spirit of service among the members of this group, and though respon- 

 sibility for engineering projects occasionally descends upon them, it is 

 regarded as an undesirable necessity to be avoided whenever possible and 

 liquidated at the earliest opportunity. 



The group has functioned successfully for a number of years. Its mem- 

 bers are respected by their engineering associates, and like their jobs. 

 Information regarding their activities reaches management almost entirely 



