March 4, 1920] 



NATURE 



Scientific Research and the Glass Industry in the United States. 



By Dr. M. W. Travers, F.R.S. 



THE great American glass works engineer, Mr. 

 Owens, referring to the fact that he had been 

 refused admission to an English glass works, once 

 observed to a friend of mine, " If a man refuses to 

 admit me to his plant I generally reckon that he 

 is ashamed of it." I had often wondered whether 

 Mr. Owens 's countrymen really practised the 

 policy which he preached, and last autumn the 

 opportunity offered of putting it to the test. 

 During a seven weeks' tour through the States 1 

 paid almost daily visits to glass plants, with no 

 other introduction than the information conveyed 

 by my private visiting card, and only once was my 

 visit restricted to the office. . Generally I was 

 shown the whole plant, and all my questions were 

 frankly answered ; sometimes I was even permitted 

 to make a second round of the works on my own 

 account. In the research laboratories of both 

 private companies and great industrial corpora- 

 tions I was made doubly welcome. I can only 

 express a sense of obligation, which I can never 

 repay. 



It was very frequently that I heard statements 

 made to the effect that the application of science 

 to industry in America was only in its infancy. 

 It is a fact that American industry is absorbing 

 the whole output of the universities, and also draw- 

 ing men from this country. America has found 

 the application of science to industry to be a pro- 

 position which appears to be a sound one, and, in 

 conformity with American industrial policy, means 

 to give science a fair trial. If men of science 

 prove their value from the commercial point of 

 view, they will rank equally with men of business 

 capacity, who are able to dictate the terms of their 

 service to industry. 



It must be remembered that the American glass 

 industry is relatively small, and even in Pittsburgh, 

 where the glass factories are most numerous, it 

 is entirely overshadowed by the steel industry. 

 However, so far as scientific research goes, the 

 industry is in a remarkably favourable position. 

 The Geophysical Laboratory at Washington, D.C., 

 which 1 visited, is primarily an institution for the 

 investigation of scientific problems connected with 

 ' Iflasses, of which the earth itself so largely con- 

 sists, and the Bureau of Standards has devoted a 

 'considerable amount of attention to the subject. 

 In April, 1917, soon after America joined in the 

 pwar, American industry had to face a demand 

 for an immense amount of optical glass. The work 

 lone by the staff of the Geophysical Laboratory is 



)ld in a few words in the director's report for 

 1918 : " Suflfice it to say that with a staff of twenty 



;ientifically trained men, all trained in the hand- 

 ling of silicate solutions at temperatures required 

 iPor the making of glass, and familiar with the con- 

 trol of the most important factors in the problem, 

 it proved practicable to make rapid progress." 

 After two months the output had doubled, and 

 rejections by Government inspectors had become 

 NO. 2627, VOL. 105] 



very rare. A few months later "the output had 

 reached a magnitude such that an adequate supply 

 of suitable glass was assured for national needs, 

 and . . . many refinements were being effected to 

 bring the quality of the glass to a higher level." 



To achieve these results, the staff of the Geo- 

 physical Laboratory did not remain in Washing- 

 ton and issue advice to manufacturers, but actu- 

 ally took over the scientific control of the plants, 

 some of which were built after America's entry 

 into the war, and in such positions I still found 

 some of them when I was in America. The Bureau 

 of Standards also established a small manufactur- 

 ing plant in Pittsburgh, and here some very im- 

 portant work on glass pots for optical glass manu- 

 facture was carried out by Dr. Bleiniger. Accounts 

 of much of this work have been published in the 

 American Journal of Science and the Journal of 

 the American Ceramic Society, and the work is 

 described as being carried out "at the Geophysical 

 Laboratory and at the plants of the Bausch and 

 Lomb Optical Co., Spencer Lens Co., and Pitts- 

 burgh Plate Glass Co., under the authority of 

 the War Industries Board." Anyone who is in- 

 terested may learn exactly what was accomplished 

 and what the position is at the moment, and may 

 visit such of the plants as are in operation. Can 

 anyone say what really has been accomplished in 

 connection with optical glass in this country, what 

 remains to be done in order to establish the in- 

 dustry, and what organisation exists for doing it? 



The Bureau of Standards is, of course, an 

 official institution ; the Geophysical Laboratory is 

 maintained by the Carnegie Institution, and is not 

 under the control of Government. I do not know 

 how far the experimental work in connection with 

 optical glass was subsidised by the Federal 

 Government, but during the war very substantial 

 funds for research work were at the disposal of 

 the National Research Council, which was organ- 

 ised, at the request of the President, by the 

 National Academy of Sciences, and money from 

 this source was available for such purposes. It 

 must be noted that wherever an appointment had 

 to be made in any matter of a scientific character, 

 even in the case of officials, it was made on the 

 recommendation of the men of science. In this 

 we find an essential difference between American 

 and British practice. 



The development of scientific glassware, other 

 than optical glass, was left to individual effort, 

 and was solved with equal success by several firms. 

 The Corning Glass Works, at Corning, N.Y., suc- 

 ceeded, however, in producing a very remarkable 

 glass, which is called " Pyrex " glass, from which 

 are manufactured both chemical hollow-ware and 

 the so-called oven-ware. This glass has so low a 

 coefficient of expansion and so high a tenacity that 

 one can take extraordinary liberties with it, and it 

 is much more highly resistant to changes of tem- 

 perature than any glass previously produced. The 



