38 



National Resources Planning Board 



About half of this growth was due to the increase in stafTs of 

 producers, of agricultural iniplcnieiits, industrial chemicals, 

 petroleum, and rubber." 



The same source shows that there has been an im- 

 pressive increase in the number of large laboratories. 

 Fifteen companies in 1921 maintained research staffs 

 of more than 50 persons; by 1938 there were 120 such 

 companies. Their growth was — 



. . . eightfold (as) compared with about a threefold rise for 

 companies with fewer than 1 1 persons on their research staffs. . . . 

 Thirteen companies with the largest research staffs, representing 

 less than 1 percent of all companies reporting in the National 

 Research Council survey, employed in 1938 one-third of all 

 research workers, or as many as the 1,583 companies with the 

 smallest research staffs." 



During this period concentration of research workere 

 in the laboratories of a few companies within an in- 

 dustry became more marked. 



... In rubber, for instance, a quarter of the reporting com- 

 panies employed 90 percent of the research personnel in the 

 industry; in petroleum and industrial chemicals the respective 

 percentages were 85 and 88." 



In 1938 the largest number of research workers was 

 employed in the chemical and allied industries. 



. . . Next in importance were petroleum; electrical com- 

 munications; electrical machinery, apparatus, and supplies; other 

 machinery industries; and rubber products ... In that year 

 more than half of all those working in industrial research labora- 

 tories in the United States were employed by the chemical, 

 petroleum, and electrical industries (including communications, 

 utilities, radio, and the manufacture of electrical machinery, 

 apparatus, and supplies.) " 



From 1927 to 1938 there was a gain in the number of 

 research workers in the petroleum industry of 538.7 

 percent while during the same period the increase in the 

 radio and phonograph industry was 1,600 percent.'' 



With the remarkable growth of industrial research 

 since 1920 have come a better coordination of all re- 

 search activities and a more cooperative approach to 

 the problems common to companies within an industry. 

 The National Research Council, in addition to promot- 

 ing research, has fostered among the scientific organiza- 

 tions and institutions of the country a coordinated 

 program of research in the interest of the general 

 welfare. To assist more directly the research interests 

 of industry, the Council has established the Division 

 of Engineering and Industrial Research." The greater 

 part of the Council's membership is "composed of 

 representatives of some 85 national scientific and tech- 



'* iDdustrlal research aod cbangiog technology, p. 6. S«e footnote 59. 



" Industrial research and changing technology, pp. 8-10. Sec footnote 59; Location 

 and Client of Industrial research activity in the United States. See footnote 71. 



" Industrial research and changing technology, p. 10. See footnote 59. 



" InduRtrlal research and changing technilogy, p. 18. See footnote 59. 



" Industrial research and changing technology, statistical table, p. 19. See foot- 

 note 68. 



" The relationship of the National Research Council to Industrial research, pp. 

 305-369. See footnote 87. 



nical societies." Nearly 1,000 persons are members of 

 the many committees that have been formed to repre- 

 sent the major fields of science. 



In addition to their work with the National Research 

 Council, the engineering societies have expended much 

 effort and money to promote important joint research 

 projects. In 1926 the Special Research Committee of 

 the American Engineering Council presented a 5-year 

 program of research estimated to cost $335,000 that 

 would benefit both industry and agriculture. In 1938 

 a Special Committee on Scientific Research Legisla- 

 tion presented a report, which was approved by the 

 American Engineering Council, stressing the need for 

 more coordinated and scientifically directed research 

 as "essential to the maintenance of adequate national 

 defense" and "investment in the public welfare." 

 This report also urged careful study of the ways in 

 which the Federal Government could aid and encourage 

 research without interfering with the existing or pros- 

 pective research of individuals, corporations, and edu- 

 cational institutions. 



The Engineering Foundation, the research agency 

 for the engineering societies in civil, mechanical, elec- 

 trical, mining, and metallurgical engineering, is like- 

 wdse active in coordinating research activities. In 1937 

 the laboratories of 14 universities and 2 Government 

 bureaus were working with it in an effort to solve tech- 

 nological and human problems in the engineering fields. 

 In addition the Engineering Foundation has sponsored 

 long-term research projects in alloys of iron and in 

 welding, the latter project embracing more than 60 

 fundamental studies in college and industrial labora- 

 tories and a compilation of welding literature." 



Many special and joint research committees in the 

 various engineering societies are active in furthering 

 coordinated and cooperative research projects. In one 

 of the worst years of the depression, 1931, the American 

 Society of Mechanical Engineers had 460 men, 50 

 percent of whom were not members of the society, I 

 voluntarily serving on 28 such committees. To finance 

 the society's research activities of that year, $40,500 

 was contributed by industry and other interests outside 

 the society. Some 25 technical societies, trade asso- 

 ciations, and Government bureaus cooperated with 

 the committees as joint sponsors and financial support- 

 ers of the various projects.'" 



A cooperative attack upon common problems by 

 companies in the same industry is not a new procedure, j 

 but it is one that has become increasingly important in 

 the last two decades. In the late eighties the cane- 

 sugar producers in Louisiana were threatened by the 



'• Cooperative engineering research. liututlTtal and Eatttutrint Chtmittr) (Newt 

 Ed.), 16, f J (February 20. 1937). 



*• American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Reports and papers research com- 

 mittee. New York, The Society, 1932, p. S. 



