26 



National Resources Planning Board 



lishing one of the first industrial research laboratories in 

 this country — a laboratory in wliich he worked sys- 

 tematically for 34 years not only to solve the immediate 

 problems of the Merrimack Manufacturing; Company, 

 l)ut also to discover new facts which would aid the 

 growing textile industry in New England. 



Another pioneer chemist in industry was Charles 

 Benjamin Uudlej% who, in 1875, left his position as 

 teacher of science at the Riverside Military Academy, 

 Poughkecpsie, N. Y., to join the staff of the Pennsyl- 

 vania Railroad.'" At that time the company had 

 acquired some apparatus for conducting physical tests, 

 but had made no provision for making chemical 

 analyses. Any need for the services of a chemist was 

 met by consulting an outsider. When the company 

 decided to have an engineering laboratory "in its 

 broadest sense," a department of physical tests was 

 easily organized from the staff and equipment already 

 available. To organize a department of chemical tests, 

 however, was not so simple, for nobody within the 

 company had had the necessary experience, and no 

 other railroad maintained a laboratory from which a 

 trained man could be liii'cd. Mr. Theodore N. Ely, the 

 Superintendent of Motive Power for the Pennsylvania 

 R. R., consulted his friend Dr. Coleman Sellers, and 

 upon his recommendation offered the position to Dud- 

 ley. Since the latter had a strong desire to make the 

 study of "physiological chemistry his specialty," the 

 decision to give it up for work in industry was not easUy 

 made. Moreover Dudley was well aware of the general 

 antagonism and skepticism regarding the work of the; 

 scientist when any attempt was made to apply it to 

 practical affairs. He knew too that the undertaking 

 was largely an experiment the success of which would 

 depend not alone upon the accuracy of his chemical 

 analyses, but also upon his ability to cooperate with 

 men who would have httle use for his approach. In 

 spite of these undesirable features, Dudley knew that 

 the railroad would offer many new and interesting 

 problems, and that the higher executives were men who 

 would be sympathetic toward his efforts. He accepted 

 the offer and began his work with the help of one or two 

 untrained men. 



The problem which confronted him was not a simple 

 one. First of all he had to determine what material was 

 best for the company to use for any given purpose. 

 Once this decision was made, he had to prepare specifi- 

 cations that would insure the company's getting exactly 

 what it wanted when purchasing in an open and higlily 

 competitive market. To get such results, a third step 

 was necessary, that of devising "the best methods and 

 the most efficient organization for carrying on routine 



"This account of Dudley's work is based upon papers by Marburg, E., Ely, T. N., 

 Smith, E. F.,aDd Howe, H.M., published in a Memorial volume commemorative of 

 The IKe and life work of Chariea Benjamin Dudley, Ph. D. (American Society tor 

 TestInK Materials.) Pbiladelphia, Pa., The Society, 1911. 



acceptance tests on an extensive scale." And finally he 

 had "to conduct independent research and keep in 

 touch with the latest scientific and practical develop- 

 ments in a vast field" in order that the railroad might 

 profit by any method or product that would increase its 

 efficiency or reduce its operating costs. 



At the time Dudley joined the staff of the Pennsyl- 

 vania Railroad, the loss resulting from the rapid corro- 

 sion of valves and other parts of the locomotives was a 

 serious one. He immediately began a study of the 

 tallows used for lubricating the locomotive cylinders 

 and found that by careful and proper rendering and by 

 the selection of fresh tallow he could greatly reduce the 

 loss. The next step was a carefully prepared specifica- 

 tion which would govern future purchases of tallow. 



A more dangerous situation, involving the safety of 

 passengers, existed in connection with the railroad's 

 signal lights, which frequently grew dim and sometimes 

 failed entirely. An investigation showed that no 

 trouble arose when lard oil made in the company's own 

 oil house was used. Then Dudley experienced difficul- 

 ties in his attempt to discover why lard oil purchased 

 from dealers gave trouble. Almost by accident he dis- 

 covered, in the course of his experiments, that "when 

 acid was added to a mixture of cotton-seed oil and lard 

 oil a reaction took place in which the heat evolved was 

 in almost exact proportion to the cotton-seed oil." A 

 conclusion was not difficult to draw: the manufacturers 

 were mixing low-priced cotton-seed oil with high-priced 

 lard oil and selling the mixture for pure lard oil. Notice 

 that in the future the company would accept no lard 

 oil that did not meet Dr. Dudley's tests brought 

 immediate expressions of indignation, which, how- 

 ever, were quickly followed by an ample supply of pure 

 lard oil. 



An investigation of The Chemical Composition and 

 Physical Properties of Steel Rails brought Dudley 

 world-wide attention. Steel was being offered to the 

 railroads as a substitute for iron, but nobody knew to 

 what extent it would meet the requirements of actual 

 service. Before beginning his investigation, Dudley 

 spent a few weeks at the Sheffield Scientific School in 

 order to learn more about the methods of analyzing 

 steel. After his work at Yale, in an effort to discover 

 the reasons for the variable life of steel rails, he examined 

 2.5 samples which in actual service had been rated from 

 "good" to "very bad." His data, which consisted of 

 the location of the rail, the tonnage carried over it, and 

 the results of chemical and physical tests, pointed to 

 the conclusion that mild steel made a rail which was 

 less likely to break and which would wear longer than 

 one of harder steel. On the basis of his findings he 

 then reconuncnded a formula for the chemical compo- 

 sition of rails that should be purchased in the future 

 by the Pennsylvania Railroad. 



