A DKcKXXiAr, Kkcoud .59 



of liostilities. About 90 men in all attended these coiu-ses. As an 

 illustration of their practical worth it is reported that a new type of 

 cartridge case box designed by one of these men saved the Ordnance 

 Department .$50,000 on the first contract, besides saving $100,000 

 worth of cargo space. Instruction was also given dry kiln operators 

 at various periods, to supplement the individual instructional Mork 

 being done by laboratory representatives in the field. 



In concluding this chapter of the laboratory's history, record 

 shoidd be made of the fact that it coidd not have been written had it 

 not been for the loyalty and enthusiasm of the individual members of 

 the staff and the s])irit of the organization as a M'hole which overcame 

 seemingly insiu-mountable obstacles and produced the results. 



CHAPTEK V 



FIXAXC'IAI. VAIA K OF RESEARCH RESULTS 



Closely related as the Forest Products Laboratory is to much of 

 the business life of the country, and having much of its research 

 applied directly to industrial processes, the acid test of, "does it pay f. 

 is more likely to be applied than it would be if the research conducted 

 here were entirely of an abstract nature. At the same time emphasis 

 should be placed on the fact that much of the laboratory work has been 

 and always will be in the field of pure science, laying the necessary 

 ground work for the applied type of research that finds expression in 

 many of the ])r()cesses described earlier in this volume. With far 

 Hung connections such as have been built up in ten years, and with no 

 definite knowledge of the ultimate distance traveled by the methods 

 and ideas radiating from here as a center, it is impossible to answer in 

 full the (piery. does it pay. or correctly estimate the true financial value 

 of the research results of the laboratory. Any honest estimate, natu- 

 rallv. falls short of the total. 



