366 



National Resources Planning Board 



purposes the Council brings to the Academy recognized 

 contacts with a great many of the research organiza- 

 tions and institutions of the country, and in addition 

 the Council is provided with executive officers whose 

 business it is to effect timely encouragement of re- 

 search in the major fields of science. 



When the National Resources Planning Board 

 requested the National Research Council in the spring 

 of 1939 to make a study of the capacity of industrial 

 corporations in the United States for scientific research, 

 and especially the trends of the research undertaken 

 by the laboratories of these firms, the Council recog- 

 nized this as a major problem affecting all fields of 

 science, and made this study an enterprise of the Coun- 

 cil as a whole. To take immediate charge of the study 

 the CouncU appointed a committee of 26 members, in 

 addition to a Director for the study and a staff of several 

 associates. By the time the report upon this study is 

 finished work upon it will have occupied the greater 

 part of a year. 



Relationship to Research Agencies 



The Council has always recognized the research 

 institutions of industry as an important part of the 

 whole research resource of the country. These indus- 

 trial research agencies have increased very greatly, 

 both in number and in the extent of their operations, 

 during the past 25 years. This is shown in a general 

 way by the increase in the number of firms maintaining 

 laboratories as a part of their establishments from 

 about 300 in 1920 to over 2,200 in 1940. Many of the 

 men who have contributed largely to scientific progress 

 are engaged in industry, and a very considerable por- 

 tion of the membership of the National Research 

 Council is drawTi from industrial circles. 



The changing proportions within recent years of the 

 relative parts which each of the major groups of 

 research agencies (educational, governmental, and 

 industrial) play in the progress of science is in itself 

 significant. The colleges and universities which are 

 the traditional abode of learning, and which still 

 continue to contribute strongly to the increase of knowl- 

 edge through research, have, however, the additional 

 peculiar function of training scientific personnel for 

 research work of all the other types of scientific institu- 

 tions. The Federal Government, and to some extent 

 the State governments, have been obliged to expand 

 their research facilities greatly in order to provide the 

 information needed to perform their administrative 

 functions in law enforcement and in the promotion of 

 pubUc welfare. Many lines of basic research, also, can 

 only be undertaken by agencies equipped with such au- 

 thority or facilities as the Government inherently posses- 

 ses. There has, therefore, been a great expansion of the 

 scientific work of Government agencies in recent decades 



In industry the urge for the greater and greater use and 

 development of additional systematic knowledge to apply 

 in the useful arts is mainly, if not wholly, activated by the 

 desire for ultimate financial profit. This urge is sharp- 

 ened by competition not only within an industry but also 

 between industries. It has been a very potent factor 

 in the development of special research agencies in 

 industrial enterprises, and these agencies have added in 

 constantly increasing measure to the store of funda- 

 mental and applied scientific knowledge. Althougli 

 precise figures are lacking, it is easily recognized that, 

 while money spent for university research has increased 

 markedly during these years, this increase has not 

 been nearly so great — either proportionally or abso- 

 lutely — as the increase of funds devoted to scientific 

 research by industrial establishments. 



The CouncU has aided the Academy from time to 

 tinae in solving the scientific problems referred to it by 

 Government agencies, and the Council has been enabled 

 through large funds placed in its hands to assist the 

 research work conducted in educational and special 

 research institutions by means of research grants. 

 The Council has also attempted to aid in advancing the 

 types of research wliich are developed in industry, as 

 well as in strengthening industrial research capacity. 

 This has been done both by direct action upon selected 

 research problems arising in certain industries, and also 

 by organizing studies of conditions attending the prog- 

 ress of research in industry. 



The research enterprises in which the CouncU was 

 engaged during the First World War pertained largely 

 to problems relating to supply of military materiel, and 

 a number of these projects were carried over under the 

 permanent organization of the Council. These in- 

 cluded continuing problems in various industries; such 

 as heat measurement, steel-making processes, heat 

 treatment of steels, production of high-speed tool steel, 

 hardness testing, fatigue of metals, welding research, 

 prime movers, fertilizers, synthetic drugs, ceramic 

 research problems of neurology and psychiatry, and 

 medical problems of industry. 



Relationship to Industry 



In the report of the National Research Council to 

 the Council of National Defense for the years 19 IS and 

 1919, the following paragraphs occur: 



One of the most striking consequences of the war is the 

 increasing general reahzation of the primary importance of 

 scientific research to the whole question of national defense, 

 as well as to the successful prosecution of industry and the 

 greatest measure of economy of resources after the war. The 

 necessity of research work as the only means of solving many 

 military and industrial problems has been realized fully in 

 many foreign countries where, despite the stress of war and of 

 the excessively heavy burdens imposed by it, very large sums 

 have been appropriated for its promotion and support. 



