Industrial Research 



49 



pany has growii to be an important research and 

 development organization. 



The investigations made at Independence resulted, 

 in 1919, in the building of a cracking unit which, in a 

 spectacular run lasting 10 days, demonstrated the 

 possibihties of the process. Because of the formation 

 of coke in the tubes of the cracking unit, runs had 

 previously been limited to 2 days. Successful as this 

 demonstration was, it served only to stimulate the 

 company to a gi-eater research and development 

 campaign. J. Ogden Armour supplied funds, to 

 the extent of more than $6,000,000, for the work. 



The laboratory at Independence was soon insufficient 

 for the company's needs, and, in 1921-22, a new one 

 was built at Riverside, 111. In addition to the labora- 

 tory buildings the research equipment now includes 

 25 acres of tanks and "strange looking structures." 

 Dr. Gustav Egloff directs the activities of approximately 

 250 research workers, most of whom are men trained 

 in science and engineering. The stafi" is divided into 

 groups of specialists such as mathematicians, physicists, 

 physical chemists, and organic chemists. Other even 

 more speciahzed groups work upon the specific prob- 

 lems of catalysis, treating, and cracldng. Fundamental 

 research has led to such developments as Ipatiefl"'s 

 catalytic polymerization process, which bids fan to 

 become the forerunner of a whole group of new processes, 

 and Morrcll's alkj^lation process, by means of which 

 100 octane gasoline is produced. 



In East Chicago, a few miles from the laboratory, 

 the company maintains a 1,000 barrel cracking unit 

 in which new developments, after they have been tested 

 in a pilot plant and on a semiworks scale, can be tried 

 on a commercial scale before being offered to pro- 

 spective Hcensees. The results of the company's re- 

 search and development are made available not only 

 to those who operate equipment under a license but 

 also to the industry as a whole, as soon as this step can 

 be taken safely. 



In addition to research in its own laboratories, the 

 companj' has helped to finance the work of the American 

 Petrolemn Institute and has maintained research 

 fellowships in several imiversities and technical schools. 



Electrical Communication 



Bell Telephone Laboratories 



On March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell's voice 

 was transmitted to the ear of his assistant, Thomas A. 

 Watson, over a wire strung between 2 rooms on the top 

 floor of a boarding house in Boston. The patient re- 

 search of another pioneer, who had often been beset 

 with poverty, had met with success; and the public, 

 in spite of its skepticism, was soon to have a new means 

 of communication. Gardiner G. Hubbard, Bell's 



father-in-law, organized the Bell Telephone Associa- 

 tion, in partnership with Bell, Watson, and Thomas 

 Sanders, the father of one of Bell's deaf pupils. In 

 May 1877 a man from Charlestown, named Emery, 

 came to Hubbard's law office and handed him $20 for 

 the lease of 2 telephones. The world's first commercial 

 telephone bill had been paid in advance. A crude ex- 

 change was established, and 6 telephones were lent to 

 the proprietor of a burglar-alarm system for installation 

 in 6 Boston banks. Within 90 days, 778 telephones 

 were in use.'" Although faced with many struggles, 

 financial, legal, and technical, the new telephone indus- 

 try was gathering momentum. 



Without continuous research, however, the present 

 system of communication by telephone could never 

 have been achieved. Since the days when Bell and 

 Watson constituted the "Department of Development 

 and Research," men have sought knowledge that would 

 improve and extend this means of communication. 

 Previous to 1907 the Bell Telephone System had three 

 laboratories or departments of development and re- 

 search, one in the American Company at Boston, one 

 in the Western Electric Company at Chicago, and one 

 in the Western Electric Company at New York. ""' 

 To promote efficiency and economy the laboratory work 

 and the experimental work of these three groups were 

 combined in 1907 into a single unit, known as the Engi- 

 neering Department of the Western Electric Company. 



Increasing the distance spanned was from the be- 

 ginning one of the outstanding problems of telephony. 

 From this combined laboratory organization came a 

 new attack on this basic problem, and telephone service 

 was opened in 1911 between New York and Denver, a 

 distance of 2,100 miles. This step was largely accom- 

 plished by improvements in the construction and appli- 

 cation of the loading coil which had been invented at 

 the turn of the century. 



Several years before the New York to Denver service 

 was opened, however, the company's engineers realized 

 that unless the problem of telephone repeaters could 

 be satisfactorily solved, this line would mark the prac- 

 tical limit of distance for telephony."" Consequently, 

 J. J. Carty, then chief engineer, of the American Tele- 

 phone Company asked for money and men to develop, 

 by further research, a telephone repeater suitable to 

 operation on long loaded lines. Theodore N. Vail, 

 president of the company, approved; consequently: 



in the winter of 1910-11, a small group of scientists was selected 

 and research initiated under the general guidance of Dr. F. B. 

 Jewett, who was then Transmission and Protection Engineer of 



" Kaempflcrt, Waldcmar. A popular history of American invention. New York, 

 C. Scribner's Sons, 1924, vol. 1, p 330. 



i» Oiflord, W. S. The place of the Bell Telephone Laboratories in the Bell system. 

 Bell Telephone QuaHerl]/, i, 90 (April 1925). 



'" Mills, John. The line and the laboratory. Bell Telephone QuaTterly, 19, 6 

 (January 1940). 



