A Decennial Record 163 



home. But we are not doing enough and have not enough money at 

 our disposal. 



The industrial fellowship plan of the Mellon Institute carries 

 with it the idea of developing men for a particular field and at the same 

 time solving the given problem. The success has been marked. All 

 in all, we have reason to believe that we do stand high in industrial 

 research. The present condition is very promising for eventual and 

 undisputed leadership. 



A list of nearly 300 industrial research laboratories has been pub- 

 lished by the National Research Council and this does not include all 

 in the United States. The scale on which certain of our investigations 

 are handled is now a very hopeful sign. In the National Electric 

 Lamp Association we find something like 2,000 men on development^ 

 work, 600 of them being highly trained technical men. The American 

 Telephone and Telegraph Company have 1,300 giving their time to 

 industrial research. In the Du Pont Company we find there are nearly 

 as many engaged in industrial research, and in many other corpora- 

 tions large bodies of scientific men constantly at work trying to estab- 

 lish principles and gain knowledge that will improve process and 

 product. 



At one time in tlie rapidly changing conditions it was considered 

 a sign of weakness to acknowledge that things were not as they ought 

 to be and to spend money on scientific work. 



Public service corporations who meet great difficulty in steadily 

 increasing costs and fixed rates must turn to scientific work to find 

 means of doing an increased amount of work more efficiently. As an 

 example of the application of scientific research we can cite the long- 

 distance telephone. When the problem was to talk across the conti- 

 nent there were two methods of attack. One was the development of 

 a special instrument with a loud transmitter for long distance work; 

 the second was to find ways to use the instrument now installed. The 

 second line of attack was folloM-ed out with the result that eventually 

 the working radius of every telephone was increased a thousand fold 

 without changing the instrument, while the first method would have 

 required the re-equipment of the entire telephone system of the 

 country. 



Research activities are increasing and industries are employing 

 the very best research men they can possibly find. Today the cry is 



