106 The Forest Products Laboratory 



edge must be set to work, if it is to produce results that are useful to 

 the people. 



So it is with the Forest Products Laboratory. It is fouuded to 

 bridge over the gap which lies between experiment and manufacturer ; 

 it must bridge the gap between laboratory and factory; in a word, 

 it must bridge over the great gap which lies between knowledge and 

 life, between knowledge and affairs. And this is not all; for it is not 

 a simple matter to set knowledge at work under the conditions of na- 

 ture. The representative of applied science does not merely take 

 knowledge wrought out by others and put it to work under new con- 

 ditions. The knowledge which is present as science is not stated in 

 the form in which it can be used, since the statement does not take into 

 account the complex conditions under which it is to be set to work. 

 The representative of applied science, therefore, does not merely apph/ 

 knowledge to new conditions but he translates that knowledge into 

 those new forms in which alone it can be applied. 



Thus the subject assigned to me is justified. Tlie function of an 

 institution like the Forest Products Laboratory is primarily the trans- 

 lation of knowledge into new terms and into such forms that it can be 

 set to practical work in affairs. Such a translation involves not merely 

 a knowledge of what other people have found out, but involves also 

 scientific study and research itself. It involves, therefore, not merely 

 an application of old knowledge but the development of a new sort 

 of knowledge; the development of knowledge which will work under 

 conditions which are set not only by the tangled web of nature within 

 whicli it is working, but also by the commercial and social conditions 

 of the men on whom the practical success of applied science must 

 depend. 



Thus, as you see, out of the enormous increase of knowledge on 

 the one side, out of the need for its application on the other side, there 

 have arisen professions like those which are represented here today, 

 and finally institutions like the Forest Products Laboratory, in which 

 these professions find a home and an opportunity for service. 



I will not trouble you with many illustrations. I^et me take one 

 or two from the work of the laboratory. It is necessary to find new 

 types of wood and new forms of wood if airplanes are to be quickly 

 and economically constructed. Hence there arises a need for water- 

 proof glue. It would seem at first that such a need could be easily 



