Industrial Research 



37 



research was being carried on in their countries, and, 

 in order to prevent duphcation of effort, scientists were 

 attached to the American embassies in London, Paris, 

 and Rome to keep in close touch with research activities 

 among the AlHes. The Council's Divisions of Physics, 

 Mathematics, Astronomy, and Geophysics dealt with 

 70 major problems in connection with range-finding 

 and the pressures and velocities involved in the dis- 

 charge of large guns. The Chemistry and Chemical 

 Technology Division had 40 problems assigned to it. 

 A thoroughgoing study of primers was made; a special 

 committee was formed to deal with the problem of fixa- 

 tion of atmospheric nitrogen; and other groups worked 

 upon charcoal for gas masks, fuel for motors, the toxi- 

 cology of gases, and difficult problems in ceramics and 

 refractories. The Engineering Division of the Council 

 had 14 committees at work and maintained close coop- 

 eration with the engineering societies. The Division of 

 Agriculture was active on problems of production and 

 conservation while other groups of scientists carried on 

 investigations in meteorology, geology, road building, 

 medicine, and psychology.^* 



Such organized effort resulted within a short time not 

 only in the solution of numerous wartime problems, but 

 also in the discovery of many facts that were to provide 

 the basis for great peacetime industries. The effective- 

 ness of cooperation in research was clearly demonstrated, 

 but the concentration of all the research resources of the 

 country upon the immediate problems of a warring 

 nation had at least one serious drawback, which Dr. 

 Jewett pointed out at a meeting of the Royal Canadian 

 Institute shortly after the war. He said : 



The results of the research activities throughout the war have 

 been simply astounding, even to men whose whole training and 

 experience have been along this line. Few, however, realize the 

 exact price paid for these results or appreciate fully the reactions 

 on the orderly peace-time life of the nations brought about by 

 the diversion of our educational and research energies toward 

 the one common purpose of human destruction. With the pic- 

 ture of recent scientific war-time achievements before us, it is 

 difficult to realize that in setting up the machinery to accomplish 

 these achievements we at the same time set up the machinery 

 for the destruction of advances beyond a certain point. By rob- 

 bing the colleges, universities, and industries of their trained 

 scientists and employing them in war's scientific sweat-shop, it 

 was inevitable that stupendous results should be obtained. By 

 so doing, however, we cut off completely the possibility of 

 further advances into the realm of the unknown and likewise 

 destroyed our chance of developing new men to carry on the 

 investigational work of the old, when the latter were worn out. . . . 



While I am not in a position to know the exact situation else- 

 where in the world, I do know that we in the United States had 

 early in the summer of 1918 arrived at the state where scientific 

 man-producing machinery no longer existed." 



In contrast to this point of view, however, was that 



of Dean W. R. That(;hcr, of the University of Minne- 

 sota, who felt that the increased appreciation of the 

 practical value of research and the enhanced respect 

 for the research worker, resulting from America's ex- 

 perience dm'ing the war more than counterbalanced the 

 temporary concentration upon wartime problems.'" 



Organized Research a Major Industry 



Since the First World War, industrial research has 

 assumed the proportions of a major industry. Labora- 

 tories organized before the war have expanded their 

 facilities and increased their staff's; new laboratories 

 have been established by companies seeking to maintain 

 or improve their position in the industrial order by 

 using more efficient methods, by making better products, 

 by developing new products, and by being equipped to 

 meet the changes that come through science and tech- 

 nology. In 1920 about 300 laboratories were engaged 

 in industrial research; in 1940 the number had increased 

 to more than 2,200. Meanwhile the total personnel 

 had grown from approximately 9,300 to over 70,000."' 

 The 2 periods of most rapid expansion were from 1920 

 to 1931 and from 1933 to 1940. Between 1931 and 

 1933, the business depression caused many companies 

 to curtail their research activities and to reduce the 

 number of workers in their laboratories. In 1930, 

 when the National Research Council revised its List of 

 Industrial Research Laboratories, 1,625 industrial estab- 

 lishments reported a total research personnel of 34,212. 

 A second report in 1933 showed 1,455 laboratories 

 reportmg a total personnel of 22,312, a decrease of 

 almost 35 percent. Nearly 44 percent of the labora- 

 tories, however, kept their personnel intact, and about 

 13 percent increased their staffs. The greatest decline 

 in the employment of research workers occurred in the 

 larger laboratories, of which only 22, employmg more 

 than 100 men each in 1930, accounted for a total 

 decrease of 3,119." By 1935, however, the lost ground 

 had been recovered in most industries, and for the last 

 5 years the total personnel in research laboratories has 

 showed a marked gain. 



In their study of "Industrial Research and Changing 

 Technology" George Perazich and Philip M. Field 

 have pointed out some significant features about the 

 postwar growth of research. 



In the interval between 1927 and 1931 laboratory personnel 

 grew by approximately 14,000 workers, more than half of whom 

 were employed by the electrical, petroleum, and industrial- 

 chemical industries. In the seven years following 1931, labora- 

 tory personnel of all companies grew by 11,500 more workers. 



"Howe, H. E. The stimulation of research. Scientific American, i!0, 518-519 

 (May 17. 1919). 

 " Industrial research, pp. 3-4. See footnote 61. 



'• Angel], James Rowland. The development of research in the United States. 

 {.Reprint and Circular Series of the National Research Council, No. 6.) Washington, 

 D. C, National Research Council. 1919, p. 17. 



'I Cooper, Franklin S. Location and extent of industrial research activity in the 

 United States. This volume, pp. 174 IT. 



" West, C. J., and Hull, Callie. Survey of personnel chunges in industrial research 

 laboratories— 1930-1933. Research Laboratory Record, I, 154-58 (September 19331. 



