11 



indeed. Any one can recognize such a man 

 after his great achievements have become 

 known to all the world, but I sometimes 

 think that one who can select early a man 

 who has within him the making of the scien- 

 tific discoverer must have been himself 

 fired with a little of the divine spark. Such 

 surely was the case with Sir Humphry 

 Davy, himself a great discoverer, who, 

 realizing the fundamental importance of 

 the man in scientific discovery, once said 

 that Michael Faraday, whose genius he 

 was prompt to recognize, constituted his 

 greatest discovery. 



I can furnish no formula for the identi- 

 fication of budding genius and I have no 

 ready-made plan to lay before the univer- 

 sities for the advancement of pure scien- 

 tific research. But as a representative of 

 engineering and industrial research, having 

 testified to the great value of pure scientific 

 research, I venture to suggest that the uni- 

 versity authorities themselves might well 

 consider the immense debt which engineer- 

 ing and the industries and transportation 

 and communications and commerce owe to 

 pure science, and to express the hope that 

 the importance of pure scientific research 

 will be more fully appreciated both within 

 the university and without, for then will 

 come and then only that sympathetic 

 appreciation and generous financial sup- 

 port so much needed for the advancement 

 of pure scientific research in America. 



While there are many things and most 

 important things which the universities 

 can do to aid pure science without the em- 

 ployment of large sums of money, there 

 are nevertheless a great many things re- 



