70 



National Rcsnurcex Flnvnlnf) Board 



Committees are used as an efTcctive means of coordi- 

 nating; research activities with the various operating 

 departments of the business. For example, an operat- 

 ing department committee, consisting of representatives 

 from both the research division and a commercial 

 department, review periodically the details of all de- 

 velopments for that department respecting progress, 

 direction, and cost. 



Two other important committees are the shoe ma- 

 chinery program committee, and affiliate companies' 

 program committee which have the responsibility of 

 planning major developments in machines, processes, 

 anil products, and of formulating definite long range 

 objectives. 



The company has recently enlarged its experimental 

 laboratory and now has more than 600 persons em- 

 ployed in the research division. 



Western Precipitation Corporation 



In 1906 Frederick Gardner Cottrell, a professor of 

 physical chemistry at the University of California, did 

 the first work of any commercial significance in the 

 field of electrical precipitation — a principle that was 

 discovered by Hohlfeld, at Leipzig, in 1824. After 

 plant tests of Cottrell's precipitator were made at the 

 sulfuric acid works of E. I. du Pont de Nemours in 

 Pinole, Calif., a commercial installation was made in 

 1907 at the plant of the Selby Lead Smelter to collect 

 the sulfuric acid fumes escaping from the gold and silver 

 parting kettles. 



Once the practicability of the process had been dem- 

 onstrated. Dr. Cottrell and three associates founded 

 the International Precipitation Company to act as a 

 holding company for patents and to operate the world 

 over through engineering organizations in various terri- 

 torial districts. The Western Precipitation Company 

 was organized to handle the engineering work in the 

 western states. In 1911 the latter acquired its parent 

 company. Not until 1936, however, was the name 

 changed to the Western Precipitation Corporation. 



The corporation is a research, development, and 

 engineering enterprise, augmented by a construction 

 department. Although still specializing in (he electrical 

 precipitation process, the company is also active in 

 the field of dust and fiune control and in the air con- 

 ditioning of materials. ForSOyears Walter A. Schmidt 

 has been its director. 



An interestmg outgrowth of the International Precipi- 

 tation Compan.v is the Research Corporation. When 

 the Western Precipitation Company was formed, 

 Cottrell and his associates in the International Precipi- 

 tation Company offered their patent rights for the 

 eastern territorjnn the United States to the Smithsonian 

 Institution as an endowment for scientific research. 

 Although the members of the Board of Regents did not 



deem it wise for the Institution to become direct owner 

 of the patents, they were willing to accept a declaration 

 of trust from the owners of the patents and to operate 

 them in the interests of the Institution and pay over to it 

 any net profits.'*^ As a result of this decision, the 

 Research Corporation was organized in 1912 and 

 capitalized by a group of men anxious to further without 

 personal profit Dr. Cottrell's objects, which, as stated 

 in the charter of the corporation, are 



... to i)rovicte nioan.s for the advancement and extension of 

 technical and scientific investigation, research, and experimenta- 

 tion by contributing the net earnings of the corporation, over 

 and above such sum or sums as may be reserved or retained and 

 held as an endowment fund or working capital, ... to the 

 Smithsonian Institution, and such other scientific and educational 

 institutions and societies as the Board of Directors may from 

 time to time select in order to enable sucli institutions and 

 societies to conduct such investigations, research, and experi- 

 mentation. 



Dr. Cottrell hoped particularly that the Research 

 Coiporation would prove to be a means of getting closer 

 and more effective cooperation between universities 

 and technical schools and industrial plants, yet at the 

 same time keeping the academic institutions or the 

 members of their faculties from becoming involved in 

 business details. The Research Corporation, he be- 

 lieved, would achieve this cooperation by being in a 

 position to develop useful and patentable inventions 

 evolved by men in academic positions in connection 

 with their regular work — inventions which would other- 

 wise be unavailable to the public because of the dis- I 

 inclination of the owners either to undertake the ■ 

 necessary development work or to place their control 

 in the hands of a private interest. The corporation 

 could study the situation and arrange licenses under 

 fair terms so that individual manufacturers would be , 

 justified in undertaking the development of the in- I 

 vcntions. At the same time it would be accumulating 

 funds from royalties that could be used for further 

 investigations.'^ 



Research Institutes 



Battelle Memorial Institute 



By the will of Cordon Battelle, an industrialist of 

 Columbus, Ohio, the founding of Battelle Memorial 

 Institute was made possible. In the couree of his 

 industrial career, which was closely connected with 

 the metallurgical and fuels industries, Battelle came to 

 the conclusion that the furtherance of research in 

 industry would contribute largely to the public welfare, 

 and that a nonprofit research institute, sufiiciently 

 financed to insure independence and continuity of 



"' Coltrell. P.O. Tho research corporation. Jniuttrial and Engineering ChemistT\i. 

 i, 864 (December 1912). 

 »> The research corporation, p. 865. See footnote 122. 



