604 BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL JOURNAL 



than chemical. His usefulness depends primarily, not upon the number 

 or size of the operations which are entrusted to his exclusive care, but 

 upon the distinctive mode of thought which he contributes to a critical 

 consideration of the methods and processes in use. As in medicine, so 

 in telephony the chemist is an aid to progress, not a prime mover. 



If one endeavors to define the distinctive mode of thought of chem- 

 ists, he is at once led to point out the fact that the chemist by his train- 

 ing intuitively tries to account for most phenomena by a consideration 

 of the composition of the materials involved. From his first days in 

 the laboratory he is taught what "chemically pure" means and learns 

 that even minor impurities may often have most important consequen- 

 ces, good or bad. While it is obviously true that many things happen 

 without a chemical cause, it is equally, though less obviously, true that 

 variations of composition or chemical changes in composition are fre- 

 quently associated with the happenings. No one is so well qualified as 

 the chemist to ferret out such obscure correlated and often important 

 facts. 



The distinctive nature of the training of chemists tends to adapt 

 them to the role of critics. The fundamentals of the old-school physics 

 reached a point some thirty or forty years ago when it was felt that the 

 whole field had been fairly thoroughly combed over and all essential 

 principles were known. These principles became embodied in formulas 

 and conventionalized modes of attack upon the problems of engineering 

 which have often been accepted at more than their true value by the 

 average product of the engineering school. Chemistry, on the other 

 hand, has never reached so high a development. Even in first-year 

 chemistry one encounters facts not explained satisfactorily by an^^ 

 known theory, and the reading of even a score of pages of an elementary 

 chemistry which has passed its first printing will bring one upon state- 

 ments which require modification in the light of more recently acquired 

 knowledge. By comparison with applied classical physics, chemistry 

 is a youthful science and its devotees are inclined to a juvenile disre- 

 spect for tradition. 



The enormous consumption in a telephone plant of such materials as 

 lead and copper, paper and textiles, rubber and asphaltic compounds 

 immediately implies the necessity of the chemist for the performance of 

 his most conventional function, that of analysis. While the Bell Tele- 

 phone Laboratories does not undertake the systematic inspection analy- 

 ses of the large variety of products purchased, it does undertake a great 

 volume of analysis of such products as a referee. Such work often re- 

 veals defects of analytical methods or defective statement of specifica- 

 tion requirements that necessitate large numbers of comparative analy- 

 ses to form a basis for proper amendment. 



