174 



National Resources Planning Board 



the information available from the questionnaire ' does 

 not permit this, and research expenditures througliout 

 this section have been given in terms of man-years. 

 Broadlj' speaking, this is translatable to dollar expendi- 

 tures, although the conversion ratio will differ from 

 company to company, and industry to industry. 

 Several estimates of the cost per man-year of research 

 have been made in the hterature, and this subject has 

 received some further investigation in other sections of 

 the present survey. The generallj^ accepted figures lie 

 in the region of $4,000. In a few cases, dollar expendi- 



■ The questionnaire used by the National Research Council has been reproduced In 



Industrial Research and Changing Technology, p. 55. Sec footnote 1, p. 173. Some 



slight changes were made between 193Sand 1940, the principal effect of which was to 



modify and tocxtend somewhat the classes of research personnel Included in the totals. 



Question 8 of the 1940 questionnaire reads as follows: 



"8. Total number of laboratory personnel (sum of a, b, and c below) : 



"(a) Number of professionally trained members of the scientific staff (including 



Director of Research): . 



Cbemists: . Physicists: . Engineers: . 



Metallurgists: . Biologists and bacteriologists: . 



other professional personnel (classified, if convenient): . 



"(6) Other technical personnel not included above: . 



"(<;) Administrative, clerical, maintenance personnel, etc. ." 



In general, the classifications of research personnel reported in 1938 and 1940 are the 

 same, except for those companies which in 1938 limited themselves to the equivalent 

 of classes a and b of the 1940 questionnaire. 



ture scales appear in the following charts, in addition to 

 the man-year scales, but ui general, it was felt wiser to 

 present only the data as collected, and leave the inter- 

 pretation to the reader. 



Extent of Research in All Industries 



Growth and Present Status of 

 Research Employment 



Perhaps the most significant measure of the growth 

 of research is the number of workers cnagaged in this 

 activity. That this is so merely reflects the fact that 

 research is a handicraft industry and, while the quality 

 and quantity of achievement coming from any one 

 person or from any single gi'oup may differ within wide 

 limits, the fact remains that the producing unit is the 

 individual worker. In a very general way, the technical 

 training of the individual is also a secondary consider- 

 ation, since the achievements which may be expected 

 from a given group of higlily specialized men depends 

 on their being implemented by an adequate corps of 

 technical workers. The ratio of professionally trained 

 workers to teclmical assistants will, of course, vary 

 from laboratory to laboratorj', but, assuming that each 



PERSONNEL EMPLOYED IN INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH: 1920-1940 



60,000 



50,000 



40,000 



z 

 z 

 o 



U) 

 (E 



o- 30,000 



< 



20,000 



10,000 



_L 



_L 



I 



1920 1921 



1927 



1933 



1938 



1931 



OATES OF NRG SURVEYS 

 NOTE THE UPPER CURVE SHOWS TOTAL RESEARCH PERSONNEL AS REPORTED TO THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 

 (SEE HOWEVER FOOTNOTE 4) THE LOWER CURVE SHOWS THE CORRESPONDING DATA FOR A SAMPLE GROUP OF 

 200 IDENTICAL COMPANIES WHICH REPORTED THROUGHOUT THE PERIOD 



1940 



FiouaB 44. — Personnel Employed in Industri&l Research: 1920-40 



