Industrial Research 



39 



competition of the beet-sugar producers. For years the 

 latter had been working with the chemist and the 

 agronomist to raise the sucrose content of the beet root 

 and to find processes that would unprove the yield of 

 sugar and make molasses and all the other byproducts 

 sources of profit rather than loss. The net cost of 

 beet sugar fell year after year until it was sold at prices 

 comparable to those of cane sugar. Faced with this 

 grave competition the cane-sugar producers decided to 

 meet it with the same methods that had created it. 

 They called Dr. W. C. Stubbs to Louisiana, and under 

 his direction, established the Sugar Experiment Station 

 at Kenncr. It was moved later to Audubon Park, on 

 the outskirts of New Orleans.*' From funds contributed 

 entirely by the cane-sugar planters of Louisiana, a com- 

 plete sugar house was erected upon a scale large enough 

 to give commercial results. About $100,000 worth of 

 equipment for the station was obtained either by 

 purchase or gift.*^ 



Stubbs soon found that there were many inefficient 

 practices in the cane-sugar industry that could be 

 remedied by proper scientific control. When the 

 planters began, however, to look for chemists and engi- 

 neers to provide this control, they were faced with 

 another problem, for outside of Europe there were few 

 men who knew much about the chemistry of sugar. 

 Undaunted, the Louisiana Sugar Planters' Association 

 met and decided to establish in connection with the 

 Sugar Experiment Station a school for training the 

 experts they needed. Under the direction of Stubbs, 

 the Audubon Sugar School was opened in 189L The 

 whole enterprise was so successful that it was taken over 

 by the State and became a part of the Louisiana State 

 University. 



Research is today an accepted and important part of 

 the work carried on by many trade associations. Dis- 

 cussing in detail in another section of this report the 

 research activities of these associations, Charles J. 

 Brand states that of the 330 trade associations listed in 

 the survey of the National Research Council 36 main- 

 tain their own research laboratories, and at least 54 

 others conduct technical research in some other way. 



A cooperative attack upon problems other than 

 technical ones is now being made by a few industries. 

 Various means exist by which research directors and 

 laboratory executives can exchange information and 

 study jointly the common problems of organization and 

 management. One group of executives representing 28 

 companies in widely different industries located in many 

 different parts of the country has met at various times 



" Coates, Charles E. An experiment in the education of chemical engineers. The 

 twenty-fifth anniversary of the Audubon sugar school. Industrial and EngineerinQ 

 Ckemislri), 9, 379-380 (April 1917). 



•• An experimeiit in the education of chemical engineers. See footnote 81. 



since its formation 2 years ago to discuss problems 

 arising from the maintenance of research laboratories.*' 



Since the study of science and the technique of 

 experiment became parts of the curriculum of educa- 

 tional institutions in this country, university labora- 

 tories have been the source of innumerable scientific 

 contributions to industry." The proper relationship 

 between the university and industry in the matter of 

 industrial research is, however, a difficult one to de- 

 termine and perhaps an even more difficult one to 

 maintain. Nevertheless, during the last 20 years means 

 have been evolved by which the university and industry 

 can cooperate to their mutual advantage. Through 

 practice schools and cooperative courses both faculty 

 and students become cognizant of the practical prob- 

 lems which are involved in the successful application of 

 science to modern industry. As a result industry is 

 supplied with men better qualified to enter its research 

 laboratories and its development departments. Through 

 engineering experiment stations and divisions of indus- 

 trial cooperation, the knowledge of specialists and the 

 unique facilities of university and technical school 

 laboratories are made available to industry, without 

 interfering with the educational program, and often in 

 fact, with benefit to it. 



A few years ago Dr. Vannevar Bush in writing about 

 the educational institution and industrial research said: 



Where an institution has unique facilities, and outstanding 

 staff of specialists, and a location in the midst of intense indus- 

 trial development, it is certainly incumbent upon it to play a 

 part in the industrial world about it, not only because its exist- 

 ence may thereby become a matter of greater utility to industry, 

 but also because the resulting relationships when properly 

 nurtured are capable of exerting a profound and beneficial 

 influence upon its educational processes. This is especially true 

 in a case of a school of engineering, where the relationship be- 

 tween the pedagogical processes and many types of industrial 

 problems is particularly close; but it applies as well to an 

 institution of science, where that science is applied, whatever 

 may be the tield.'^ 



Some Economic and Social Aspects 

 of Industrial Research 



Science and the research laboratory played but a 

 small part in furthering the early technical develop- 

 ments in industry. Lewis Mumford in his Technics 

 and Civilization wrote: 



. . . The detailed history of the steam engine, the railroad, 

 the textile mill, the iron ship, could be written without more 

 than passing reference to the scientific work of the period. For 



« Worthington, C. Q. Coordination between industries in inrtustriBl research. 

 This Tolume. pp. 85-87. 



" Papers describing contributions of research laboratories in universities to indus- 

 try, have been published but no comprehensive study of the subject has as yet been 

 made. 



" Busb, Vannevar. The educational institution and industrial research. Research 

 LaboratOTii Record, t, 3.'> (November 1932). 



