OCEANOGRAPHY 1961 — PHASE 3 203 



have been possible, had you been consiihcd, to avoid such a disaster, by 

 proper engineering ? 



Dr. Bi^\KE. I cannot give yon a positive answer to that, but I do 

 feel that at least it would have contributed significantly to a better 

 design. 



Mr. Pellt. Well, I think that you have given us all something to 

 think about, here. I am particularly convinced that ma-^be there is a 

 great deal back of this legislation that will be helpful to private in- 

 dustry and to our educational institutions, if we can get a proper com- 

 munication betW' een Government and the two other interested parties. 



Dr. Blake. As I mentioned earlier, we found that in our own case 

 we were using perhaps too large a safety factor. We were overde- 

 signing. However, we did come to the conclusion that some other parts 

 of the oil industry platforms were a little underdesigned. ^As was 

 pointed out in the magazine article I showed, the range of design 

 factors that were being used in the industry covered a range of 4 to 1, 

 which means that those on the low end w^ere perhaps a little under- 

 designed. 



I should point out that in the Texas tower case the oil industry was 

 consulted, not us, but the oil industry. ^ x\nd perhaps the ones they 

 consulted were those that were undersigning a bit. 



Mr. Pelly. If the data is available generally to all, certainly it 

 seems that we are headed in the right direction. 



Dr. Blake. We are willing to make it available on a cost-sharing 

 basis. 



Mr. Miller. Mr. Vanik ? 



Mr. Vanik. Dr. Blake, I am among those who believe that there is a 

 taxpayer equity in corporate research, because it is paid for in good 

 measure out of funds that would otherwise flow to the Treasury 

 perhaps as taxes, and I think it is a terrible neglect that we do not 

 take advantage of it. 



Now, with respect to this donable scientific data, the accumulation 

 of material that you have, that you deem of considerable value, what 

 can you do with it? In what way can you make it available to the 

 Federal Government or the agencies of the Government at the present 

 time ? 



Dr. Blake. It depends somewhat on the nature of the information. 



Mr. Vanik. Yes, I understand. 



Dr. Blake. If it is in the nature of information which is not, let 

 us say, of immediate competitive or economic advantage, in areas of 

 basic research in seismology, for example, we are, speaking for our 

 own company, now, willing to make that available on a cost basis only ; 

 no fee. That is, if it is new research. 



If it is information which we already have, in the normal course of 

 events we publish it in the scientific journals. It is therefore avail- 

 able to anyone who is willing to read the journals. 



Mr. Vanik. Those are professional journals ? 



Dr. Blake. Professional journals, yes. 



Now, we also accumulate a good deal of data in the course of our 

 survey work, which is really ancillary to our main purpose of finding 

 oil. Let us say water depths, for example ; data that we already have 

 in our files I am sure we would be more than willing to make avail- 

 able merely for the cost of collecting it and handing it over. 



