Industrial Research 



109 



Introduction 



Tho resources oi the United States for industrinl 

 research are measured by the personnel available to 

 carry on this work. This statement may seem an 

 exaggeration because there is a tendency to regard the 

 achievements of industrial research as resulting from 

 physical equipment such as laboratories and apparatus. 

 Wliile these are essential, they arc of little use without 

 the proper personnel. In the last analysis the achieve- 

 ments of industrial research are the results of human 

 efTort. For this reason it is highly important to con- 

 sider carefull}' the question of scientific personnel — 

 what kinds of men are most suited to industrial re- 

 search, and how they should be trained. 



While a number of previous writers have discussed 

 the qualifications required for research work, this has 

 been done largely from the standpoint of informing 

 the prospective employer as to what sort of men he 

 should seek. Furtheiinore, in many cases emphasis 

 has been placed on one or two qualifications. It is 

 therefore believed that a study of this subject should 

 be of value. One possible benefit of such a discussion 

 will be that prospective research workers will have a 

 clearer idea of the desirable qualifications so that they 

 will be better able to prepai'e themselves for a career 

 in research. It may also attract men who would be 

 admirably suited for industrial research but who do 

 not realize that they possess the proper qualifications. 



It is hoped that this discussion will be of use to the 

 educational institutions of the country, which have the 

 responsibility of training the men who man our research 

 laboratories. A fuller understanding of these problems 

 should assist the universities to select and encourage 

 men who have the necessary qualifications, to a con- 

 siderable degree at least, and to train them. 



It is not intended that this report should be taken 

 as a homily addressed to young men about to engage 

 in a career. The purpose is to state some of the results 

 of experience and not to pronounce dogma. Sugges- 

 tions are made on those subjects where experience has 

 shown that improvement is possible by conscious 

 effort. 



Great pains have been taken to make this report 

 representative. It was prepared in cooperation with 

 research directors of companies employing a large pro- 

 portion of the industrial research personnel of the 

 country, and their criticisms and modifications have, 

 as far as possible, been adopted. Where diverse views 

 are held, an attempt has been made to include these. 



A research director who has reviewed this report 

 saj's: 



In industrial research there is a great deal of research activity 

 which I classify as applied research that is carried on in close 

 cooperation with mill operations and is, in effect, more in the 

 form of development work in mill operations making use of the 



results of intensive, more fundamental laboratory effort. I 

 think this type of work is quite often overlooked and yet I 

 classify it quite definitely as research. It is perhaps what 

 might have been called in older days, Yankee intuition or Yankee 

 cleverness applied to mill problems. In larger organizations 

 wliich can finance large research laboratories and also large 

 development laboratories, there is opportunity to carry the 

 results of fundamental research through rather large scale 

 operations in a development laboratory, but with smaller or- 

 ganizations it is necessary to make the jump sometimes rather 

 drastically from small scale "test-tube" experiments to mill 

 operation, and this jump takes a lot of courage and careful 

 application of fundamental knowledge combined with knowledge 

 gained from practical experience together with a good measure 

 of common sense and intuition. 



Oualifications for a Career in Research 



The field of industrial research is so broad and diverse 

 that there is no standard type of individual worker 

 therein for whom specifications can be drawn. It is 

 possible, however, to state and explain a number of 

 desirable qualifications, some of which have as their 

 basis natural aptitude, while others may be acquired by 

 training. It is not, in most cases, possible or desirable 

 to make any definite statement as to the degree or 

 extent to which these qualifications are present, and 

 the degree to which they are present is probably not 

 the same for any two individuals. One reason for this 

 is that we lack the means to measure and evaluate these 

 qualities. Another reason is that the field of research 

 is so broad that various qualities are desirable, in vary- 

 ing degree, for different kinds of work. This point will 

 be discussed in more detail in the summaries which 

 follow the sections on qualifications and training. 



Personal Qualifications 



Intellectual integrity. — This is one quality that should 

 be possessed without any qualifications as to degree. 

 It is the sine qua non of the scientist. By this term we 

 mean not only the willingness but also the ability to 

 recognize the truth. It is vitally important that a man 

 who plans to do research work be capable of distinguish- 

 ing truth from untruth, and of being able to differen- 

 tiate that which may be true from that which has been 

 verified. In the words of T. H. Huxley — "The man of 

 science has learned to believe in justification, not by 

 faith but by verification." Possession of this quality 

 imphes the ability of self-criticism, and an objective 

 rather than a subjective attitude toward facts. 



Scientific curiosity and creative urge. — These have 

 been the motive forces behind many of our great 

 scientific advances. The scientist who possesses a 

 high degree of scientific curiosity is prepared to seize 

 upon the most meager clues. Small clues have some- 

 times led to far-reaching and unexpected results. For 

 example, argon was discovered as a result of an obser- 

 vation that atmospheric nitrogen prepared from the air 



