Marcu 12, 1914| 
NATURE 45 
homologous in the manner of their origin, it was main- 
tained that a mineralogical nomenclature which is 
properly applicable to the constituents of igneous rocks 
is similarly applicable to the constituents of steel; and 
though a phase rule (temperature-concentration) dia- 
gram affords a ready means for the discussion of the 
behaviour of phases during their partition into other 
pairs of phases, a metallographic description of their 
structure modelled on the nomenclature usual in petro- 
graphy is more manageable when the number of con- 
stituents is large. 
Special analogies between igneous rocks and metals 
were suggested. Segregation of the phosphorus 
and the sulphur in steel ingots was paralleled with 
‘ differentiation-in-situ”’ as it occurs in igneous 
rocks. The time taken in cooling through the tem- 
perature range of active crystal growth was shown to 
control the texture both of igneous rocks and of 
metals. Viscosity as another factor controlling crystal 
growth was considered, and the absence of any 
structures in metals analogous to those developed in 
viscous rock magmas and in devitrifying glass 
‘“‘spherulitic structure ’’—was attributed to essential 
differences in this respect. ‘Skeletal crystals,’’ so 
common in metals, are characteristic of over-rapid 
growth and as a passing stage in the development 
of polyhedra are not unknown in rocks. 
“Eutectic structures’’ in metals are like the 
‘“‘ sraphic’’ and “‘ pegmatitic’’ structures of rocks, and 
their obliteration with slower cooling, both from rocks 
and metals, was noted. 
“Cores”? in ‘‘mixed crystals’’ of metals are 
analogous to ‘‘zonary banding” in non-homogeneous 
isomorphous minerals, and the successive crystallisa- 
tion of distinct phases above and below a change-point 
has its parallel in the ‘‘corona structure’’ of some 
norites. 
Partition of solid solutions always at the margins 
or along the cleavage of pre-existing crystal grains, a 
process so important in the heat treatment of com- 
mercial steels, finds its analogue in the orderly separa- 
tion of the *‘schiller constituents’ within the minerals 
of plutonic rocks. ‘‘Perthitic structure’’ in slow- 
cooled felspars seems to require a similar explanation. 
From analogies such as these it was argued that the 
experience of the geologist may be useful to the metall- 
urgist, and that the knowledge of the structure of 
metals, which for commercial purposes are manufac- 
tured under controlled conditions of temperature and 
of stress, may provide a key of great adaptability with 
which, in conjunction with his map, his hammer, and 
his microscope, the geologist may decipher and inter- 
pret the autobiographical secrets of the record con- 
tained in the rocks 
€.2. 
INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH IN AMERICA.1 
ERMANY has long been recognised as_pre- 
eminently the country of organised research. 
The spirit of research is there immanent throughout 
the entire social structure. This is not the time or 
place, however, nor is it necessary before this audi- 
ence, to refer in any detail to the long record of 
splendid achievement made by German research during 
the last fifty years. It is inscribed in luminous letters 
around the rock upon which Germany now stands 
secure among the nations of the world. 
The virility and range of German research were 
never greater than they are to-day. Never before have 
the superb energy and calculated audacity of German 
technical directors and German financiers transformed 
so quickly and so surely the triumphs of the labora- 
1 From the presidential address delivered before the American Chemical 
Society at Rochester, New York, September g, 1913, by Arthur D. Little. 
NOmeg TS... VOL. 93)| 
tory into industrial conquests. Never has the future 
held richer promise of orderly and sustained progress, 
and yet the pre-eminence of Germany in industrial 
research is by no means indefinitely assured. A new 
competitor is even now girding up his loins and train- 
ing for the race, and that competitor is, strangely 
enough, the United States—that prodigal among 
nations, still justly stigmatised as the most wasteful, 
careless, and improvident of them all. 
To one at all tamiliar with the disdain of scientific 
teaching which has characterised our industry, and 
which still persists in many quarters, this statement is 
so contrary to the current <timate that its general 
acceptance cannot be expe. <. it will have served 
its purpose if it leads to a consideration of the facts 
which prove the thesis. 
The country of Franklin, Morse, and Rumford, of 
McCormick, Howe, and Whitney, of Edison, Thom- 
son, Westinghouse, and Bell, and of Wilbur and 
Orville Wright, is obviously a country not wholly 
hostile to industrial research or unable to apply it to 
good purpose. It is, however, not surprising that 
with vast areas of virgin soil of which a share might 
be had for the asking, with interminable stretches of 
stately forest, with coal and oil and gas, the ores of 
metals, and countless other gifts of nature scattered 
broadcast by her lavish hand, our people entered upon 
this rich inheritance with the spirit of the spendthrift, 
and gave little heed to refinements in methods of pro- 
duction and less to minimising waste. That day and 
generation are gone. To-day their children, partly 
through better recognition of potential values, but 
mainly by the pressure of a greatly increased popula- 
tion and the stress of competition between themselves 
and in the markets of the world, are rapidly acquiring 
the knowledge, that efficiency of production is a 
sounder basis for prosperity than mere volume of pro- 
duct, however great. 
The long-continued and highly organised research 
which resulted in the development of American agri- 
cultural machinery has led to the general introduction 
of machines which reduce the labour cost of seven 
crops 681,000,000 dollars, as measured by the methods 
of only fifty years ago. 
You need not to be reminded that the ubiquitous 
telephone is wholly a product of American research. 
Munchausen’s story of the frozen conversation which 
afterward thawed out is a clumsy fable. Think of 
the Niagaras of speech pouring silently through the 
New York telephone exchanges where they are sorted 
out, given a new direction, and delivered audibly per- 
haps a thousand miles away. New York has, 450,000 
instruments—twice the number of those in London. 
Los Angeles has a telephone to every four inhabitants. 
Why should one care to project one’s astral body when 
he can call up from the club in fifteen seconds? Our 
whole social structure has been reorganised. We 
have been brought together in a single parlour for 
conversation and to conduct affairs, because the 
American Telephone and Telegraph Company spends 
annually for research, the results of which are all 
about us, a sum greater than the total income of many 
universities. 
The name of Edison is a household word in every 
language. The Edison method is a synonym for 
specialised, intense research, which knows no rest 
until everything has been tried. Because of that 
method and the unique genius which directs its applica- 
tion, Italian operas are heard amid Alaskan snows 
and in the depths of African forests; every phase of 
life and movement of interest throughout the world 
is caught, registered, transported, and reproduced, 
that we may have lion hunts in our drawing-rooms 
and the coronation in a five-cent theatre. From his 
laboratory have come the incandescent lamp, multiple 
