34 



National Resources Planning Board 



step in the complicated ciieniicul reaction and eventu- 

 allj- learned liow to control it at whatever phase he 

 desired. Then followed the discovery of a practical 

 method for producing a substance that would remain 

 fusible and plastic while it was being formed or molded, 

 and yet could under the action of heat be polymerized 

 and hardened to the state where it was no longer fusible 

 or soluble. 



Baekeland still had to convince himself that the new 

 substance could be produced upon a commercial scale 

 and that it could be used satisfactorily for industrial 

 purposes. Consequently, he installed a workmg unit 

 in which under various conditions the material could 

 be prepared in ton lots. From the earl}^ experiences of 

 those who used the material Baekeland learned much. 

 Because the methods of handling bakelitc differed so 

 radically from those involved in the manipulation of 

 rubber and celluloid, Baekeland encountered great dif- 

 ficulty in teaching some of his prospective customers 

 how to work the new material. Consequently he 

 abandoned his idea of allowing the use of his patents on 

 a royalty plan and concluded that the best way was "to 

 conduct the manufacture of the raw materials to be- 

 yond the stage where chemical knowledge or too much 

 experience is required." Once this decision was made, 

 Baekeland proceeded to organize factories in both this 

 country and in Europe. 



The Bakelite Corporation, now a unit of Union Car- 

 bide and Carbon Corporation, has had from the time 

 of its founding a research laboratory and an experi- 

 mental department for the carrj'ing on of both 

 fundamental and applied research. 



Today the research and development laboratories are 

 operated at Bloomfield, N. J. There, under the direc- 

 tion of Dr. George O. Curme, Jr., and Mr. Archie J. 

 Weith, the correlation of the numerous types of plastics 

 and their properties is being studied and new resins 

 are being evaluated in terms of present-day industrial 

 requirements. Fundamental research on synthetic or- 

 ganic resins for various uses is being carried on, and a 

 great many experunents are under way in the develop- 

 ment of compositions for use as molding plastics, im- 

 pregnating materials, adhesives and bonding agents for 

 plywoods, abrasives, resistors, and carbon brushes. 



Other research is bemg conducted in such diverse 

 fields as synthetic resin bases for the paint and varnish 

 industry, heat-hardcnmg laccjuers, cast resinoids, ce- 

 ments, wire coating compounds, calendering, and coat- 

 ing compounds. In cooperation with industrial firms, 

 research studies are being made to improve fabricating 

 techniques, to develop more efficient molding processes, 

 and to design faster production machines. 



Growth of Organized Research 

 Period Preceding First World VNar 



The preceding account of the efforts of men who were 

 seeking to apply science to industry, either within 

 the industrial organization itself or in their private 

 laboratories, is far from being a complete one, but it is 

 sufficient to show that after 1875 the application of 

 science to industry was becoming increasingly effective 

 and was receiving growing recognition and support from 

 industrial leaders. 



Until the end of the nineteenth century, however, in- 

 dustrial research remained for the most part an unorgan- 

 ized effort by individuals. Their accomplishments were 

 many and important; but individuals working inde- 

 pendently could not, for very long, provide the technical 

 and scientific knowledge essential to a rapidly developmg 

 industrial nation. 



Here and there farsighted executives saw the need for 

 organized, coordinated, systematic research by trained 

 scientists working together under favorable conditions 

 and, soon after the turn of the century, took measures 

 to meet that need by establishing in their companies 

 separate research departments or divisions.'* On the 

 whole, those industries born in the laboratory or di- 

 rectly dependent upon new knowledge for their growth 

 organized their research activities earlier and more 

 rapidly than the industries which had long been estab- 

 lished. In fact in 1920 approximately two-thirds of 

 all the research workers who were recorded in the first 

 survey of the National Research Council were employed 

 in the electrical, chemical, and rubber industries.^^ 



Several endowed institutes of research and an in- 

 creasing number of commercial laboratories provided 

 industry with additional facihties for carrying on re- 

 search conveniently and inexpensively. 



In spite of tliis increased activity, however, the num- 

 ber of companies carrying on research in 1920 was rela- 

 tively small. That j-ear the National Research Council 

 published its first Directory oj Industrial Research 

 Laboratories, which contained about 300 names. This 

 is a small figure when compared with the number of 

 companies for which research was a sound undertaking. 



Although after 1900 the technical journals and the 

 proceedings of engineering societies published an 

 increasing number of papers pertaining to industrial 

 research, public interest was still small. Before the 

 First World War popular and scmipopular magazines 



" Since the story of organized research in this country can best be told not In gener- 

 alities but In terms of specific experiences, one part of this paper sketches the growth 

 of research in approximately 50 industrial laboratories. See pp. 42-75. 



» Perazlch, G., and Field, P. M. Industrial research and changing technology. 

 Philadelphia, Pa., Work Projects Administration, National Research Project, 

 Report No. M-i, 1940. pp 41-12. 



