National Resources Planning Board, Industrial Research 



3i: 



Evolution of Industrial Research 

 in Electrical Engineering 



Electrical onginccring roots in the discoveries of 

 Hiun])hrey Davy, Michael Faraday, Andr6 Ampere, 

 Clerk Maxwell, Joseph Henry, and their contempo- 

 raries; H. von HelnihoUz, Wilhelm Roentgen, Ileinrich 

 Hertz, and their contemporaries; and, in and near our 

 day, Henry A. Rowland, J. J. Thomson, Lord Ray- 

 leigh, Lord Rutherford, together with many contem- 

 poraries of distinction as well as many men still crea- 

 tively active in physical science. 



These men have engaged in research for the purpose 

 of identifying natural phenomena and seeking out 

 their relationships, and they usually have worked in 

 laboratories supported in educational institutions or 

 in endowed research establishments. They seldom 

 have given direct attention to useful applications of 

 their discoveries. Other men, industrially minded, 

 have followed up and continue to follow up the 

 fundamental discoveries, producing further discoveries 

 and establishing inventions tlu'ough which the dis- 

 coveries have been made useful — that is, through which 

 the discoveries are made to contribute to comfort, 

 convenience, and safety of human Ufe. 



The earlier of these industrially-minded men usually 

 worked as individuals, gathered assistants about them, 

 and ultimately built up an industry or industries of 

 importance around their inventions when competent 

 fortune was with them. Notable examples are Werner 

 von Siemens, of Germany; Z. T. Gramme and others, 

 of France; Paul Jablochkov, of Russia and France; 

 Guglielmo Marconi, of Italy; John Hopkinson, Lord 

 Kelvin, S. Z. Ferranti, and others, of Great Britain; 

 Alexander Graham Bell, Charles F. Brush, Thomas A. 

 Edison, Elihu Thomson, Edward Weston, Lee De 

 Forest, Frank J. Sprague, William Stanley, George 

 Westinghouse, Nicola Tesla, and contemporaries, of 

 the United States, plus many men who are now active. 



Out of the situation thus described have stemmed 

 most of our now comprehensive processes for quick 

 electric communication of intelligence by wires and 

 radio; electric-power generation, transmission, and 

 distribution; electric-power utilization in industry and 

 in the household; electric illumination; electrometal- 

 lurgy; electrochemistry; medical services of electricity 

 such as X-ray treatments and diathermy; and other 

 applications that pervade nearly every walk of life and 

 most industries. 



It is to be remembered that research in the sense 

 here used consists of the processes of identifying addi- 

 tional facts among the phenomena of nature and of 

 discovering hitherto unknown interrelationships be- 

 tween such facts — that is, it is research within the 

 scope of the natural sciences. Industrial research has 

 for its objects the formulation of improvements in the 



useful applications of natural phenomena or in dis- 

 covering new applications of such phenomena. Indus- 

 trial research therefore may involve fimdamental 

 investigation relating to phenomena in the hope of 

 disclosing unportant basic discoveries which there- 

 upon may be directed toward useful applications, 

 as well as directing investigations toward usefully 

 applying hitherto known phenomena. Industrial- 

 research laboratories usually work in this broad field. 



An industrial concern that has been born out of the 

 womb of research is likely to maintain its growth by 

 contributions from research; making of research, as 

 the concern grows, a coordinated division of the total 

 organization. This has been notably the result in the 

 electrical-engineering field. The Edison Electric Light 

 Company, the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, 

 the Brush Electric Company, the Sprague Electric 

 Railway and Motor Company, and lesser concerns, now 

 joined together as the General Electric Company, 

 center enormous activities around a great, productive, 

 highly organized central research laboratory and a 

 number of collateral laboratories, presided over by 

 engineers, inventors, and discoverers in various special 

 sciences. The like is true of the Westinghouse Electric 

 and Manufacturing Company, the American Telephone 

 and Telegraph Company, the great broadcasting com- 

 panies, and a host of smaller manufacturing and operating 

 companies, within the electrical-engineering field. 



It is out of that process that came the following 

 many features which are constantly in our lives: 



The telephone system competent for use as a general 

 social instrument, which contributes to intimacy in 

 the communities and to unity of the Nation; 



Electric illumination competent for use equally in 

 homes, factories, and outdoor areas, through which 

 added hours of comfort, convenience, and safety have 

 been conferred on life ; 



Electric heating competent for use over the extraor- 

 dinary range from heavy electrometallurgical proc- 

 esses to personal uses in the home; 



The radio broadcast competent for daily recreation 

 and aid in education of the famihes of a nation and for 

 exchange of news between nations; 



The control, protection, and conversion of generated 

 electrical power which make such power competent 

 for use in almost any walk of life ; 



And a multitude of other effects that have brought 

 electrical devices and electrical influences in a wide way 

 into the hves of citizens, through uses in their homes, 

 in their facilities of transportation, and in their places 

 of employment. 



The generation and transmission of electric power 

 in the abundant way which is characteristic of the 

 present day are largely the outcome of long-continued 

 industrial research. Some of the later applications 



