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incorporated in the needed apparatus. Space for new machinery and for the 

 search organization must be provided. The staff must increase and the shop 

 facilities soon become so large that the institution is able to see that it has en- 

 tered the manufacturing business. 



Most research institutions long ago invested in elementary machine tools 

 -- most of them soon found it necessary to separate maintenance shop facilities 

 from instrument shops. Then the instrument shops in turn had to be expanded 

 and subdivided; welding, drafting, and electrical operations required separate 

 rooms. The expansion of instrument making facilities has followed a remark- 

 ably similar pattern in all academic research organizations. 



Institutional instrument rooms often are beautiful to behold and appear to 

 be models of efficient productivity. But the visiting V. I. P. is seldom told that 

 down in the basement much of the equipment is duplicated for student use -- that 

 institutional shops have very limited work-capacity -- and that whenever emer- 

 gencies arrive the overload must be absorbed by resort to strenuous and general- 

 ly inefficient measures. 



Manufacturing inside the research institution is limited by several fact- 

 ors. The nature of the instrument and consequently its design and fabrication 

 is unpredictable; thus it is not feasible to acquire all of the highly -specialized labor- 

 saving tools that might be found occasionally useful. And it is impossible to re- 

 tain on the shop staff a large number of specialists. As a result the standard, 

 general purpose tools must be relied upon and the quantity of output can never 

 hope to rise above a primitive level. 



If the manufacture of instruments made within the institution is a limited 

 and inefficient procedure, why is it attempted? This question comes up re- 

 peatedly. The general answer is that instrument development has proved most 

 rapid and successful when the designer can be in close contact with the crafts- 

 men who do the actual building. Maintenance of such facilities is admittedly ex- 

 pensive -- but on the other hand costs are likely to be even greater when the 

 designer and the craftsman do not understand each other's problems thoroughly. 

 This luxury cannot be carried to extremes, and opinion varies widely as to where 

 the dividing line between formal and informal shop practices must be placed. 



The internal shop facilities can no longer be more than token facilities, 

 but it must not be forgotten that they contribute a most practical means for set- 

 ting up contact with the outside manufacturing world. Interpretation and consul- 

 tation regarding the technical merits of manufacturing proposals from the out- 

 side are commonly expected of the shop staff. The art of graphic specification 

 -- drafting -- generally falls under the control of shop authority. It must be 

 called upon when serious negotiations with outside factories are undertaken. 



Just when outside agencies should be called in for duplicating or speeding 

 up production of a well-developed apparatus is the subject of much discussion. 

 Instruments are multifarious and diverse beyond all enumeration. It is not al- 

 ways possible to set up hard and fast rules so that a state of complete develop- 

 ment can be recognized, and what might be a pilot-sized device in one field may 

 be a production apparatus in another. The requirements for producing a few 

 deep-sea coring tools may not be equivalent to those for many special hypoder- 

 mic needles. 



In certain instances outside manufacturing concerns become interested 

 in the commercial possibilities of the instrument. This is rare, but it does 

 happen. At this point the apparatus becomes an "invention", and takes on a 

 mysterious character perhaps not originally associated with it. It is well that 



