Industrial Research 



339 



the determining factor in the decisions that arc made 

 by these committees regarding placing of new products 

 in manufacture. After this step is taken, and decision 

 is made to manufacture a new machine, tlie engineering 

 department takes up the problem of designing the ma- 

 chine, and the selection of materials and parts so as to 

 meet the requirements specified by the committee, in- 

 cluding the price at which it must be sold." 



Another manufactm'cr in the same industry WTites: 

 For example, 13 years a<.-o we recognized the need for better 

 equipment for the building of terraces and other earth structures 

 designed to prevent the erosion of farm lands. We studied soil 

 behavior and the fundamentals of moving soil in fields. This 

 resulted in the development of machines with blades or mold- 

 boards of proper curvature to prevent adhesion of soil and to 

 reduce power input. This work resulted in the production of a 

 line of terracing equipment. 



Similar instances could be given for almost any other 

 industry of the way in which careftd planning, amount- 

 ing almost to a routine, underlies most of the new pro- 

 ducts research of today. 



A few examples are given below of new products re- 

 sultmg from industrial research. These examples are 

 selected from the dozens mentioned in letters received, 

 to say nothing of hundreds or thousands that might 

 have been mentioned if the letters of inquiry had 

 stressed a desire for such information. Those quoted 

 have been selected, not on the basis of relative merit 

 or importance, but merely to show the range and variety 

 of industries profiting by this kmd of research. 



Among the new products reported are : Special boiler 

 furnaces for bm'ning bagasse, wood chips, sawdust, 

 waste liquor from refuieries, and other refuse fuels; 

 hjxlrogen-cooled high-speed electric generators and 

 sj^nclrronous converters with low windage losses; manj' 

 different experimental locomotives (20 by one firm) 

 "most of them built in cooperation with various rail- 

 roads interested in developing better motive power"; 

 streamlined trains, unit-container freight cars, and other 

 novel rolling stock; nonicing carburetors and wing 

 deicers for ahcraft; automatic oxyacetylene welding 

 machines "designed to take the personal equation out 

 of welding"; coated weld rod with satisfactory slag 

 characteristics and phj-sical properties; precision grind- 

 ers with kerosene-lubricated spindles; diamond-dust- 

 impregnated gi-inding and cutting-off wheels; meters 

 and control equipment for various industrial processes, 

 similar to those now standard for boiler fm-naces; 

 remote metering and control apparatus with a range of 

 hundi'eds of miles; geophj'sical instruments of very high 

 precision and sensitiveness for oil prospecting; deep 

 oil-well equipment for drilling, directional drilling, 

 surveying, sampling, and air-hft and mechanical pump- 

 ing; new machines and processes for the paper-makmg 

 industry; special handling equipment in connection with 

 dehiunidification in the manufacture of shoes; develop- 



321835 — 41 23 



ment of new services and tlu; machinery required for 

 those services "so as to bolster up the dwindling 

 laundry volume (in 1930)"; and a new kind of pneumatic- 

 tube system for handling books between the old and new 

 buildings of the Library of Congress. 



New Uses and New Markets 



Even commoner than new-products research, and 

 even more important from the commercial point of 

 view, is the search for new uses and new markets for 

 established products that is going on in nearly every 

 industrial establishment in the country. To the extent 

 that it is planned and organized, and particularly to 

 the extent that it involves field investigation and devel- 

 opment of techniques and processes, it well deserves to 

 be regarded as industrial research of a high order. 

 Much of this work is done in customers' plants rather 

 than in headquarters laboratories, and out of it has 

 emerged a rapidly growing consulting engineering 

 service, called sales engineering, that is profoundly 

 modifj^ing both the technique of salesmanship and the 

 former position and fimction of the independent con- 

 sulting engineer. Occasionally the organized search 

 for new uses and new markets develops into a careful 

 long-range study of industrial and even economic, social, 

 and political trends, thus contributing to that most im- 

 portant of all industrial functions, the work of the 

 admmistrative or "high-command" phase of manage- 

 ment. 



Some illustrations of this type of research are as fol- 

 lows. A ball- and roller-bearhig manufacturer wTites: 

 "Our engineering department is set up in several di- 

 visions which in combination cover the entire industrial, 

 automotive, and aircraft fields. You can well imagine 

 that where we are supplymg bearings to every type of 

 industry we have a wide variety of engineering activity, 

 both in the way of recommending proper application of 

 bearings as well as following up their performance." 

 Another firm in the same field wTites: "We have one 

 group which devotes its time to a study of the appli- 

 cation of bearings to many types of imits in industry. 

 In fact, wherever shafts rotate new bearing problems 

 are presented, and these are studied by mechanical 

 engineers who, as a rule, spend much of their research 

 tune in the plants of manufacturers using om- products. 

 The various details of the design of the bearing mount- 

 ing and of the lubrication and use of the bearing are 

 studied, and recommendations made not only as to 

 bearings but as to the design of surrounding parts 

 used therewith." 



A metals producer writes: "Our mechanical engineers 

 are continually working with the users of alimiinum 

 and its alloys in an effort to make better and more 

 economical use of this material. Applications include 

 transportation equipment, refrigerating, air-condition- 



