534 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1353 



brings the foundation's fund to $500,000. It 

 is the aim of the foundation to obtain one 

 million dollars by January first. 



Engineering Foundation was organized to 

 care for the gifts aggregating $300,000 of Am- 

 brose Swasey, of Cleveland, Ohio, the income 

 from these gifts being devoted to research. 

 Since its organization as a trust fund in 1914, 

 the funds of the foundation have been used to 

 aid the National Eesearch Council and others 

 in performing research directly connected with 

 engineering. Mr. Swasey's gifts were made to 

 United Engineering Society as a nucleus of a 

 large endowment " for the furtherance of re- 

 search iu science and in engineering, or for 

 the advancement in any other manner of the 

 profession of engineering and the good of 

 mankind." 



The Engineering Foundation is administered 

 by the engineering foundation board composed 

 of members from the American Society of 

 Civil Engineers, American Institute of Min- 

 ing and Metallurgical Engineers, American 

 Society of Mechanical Engineers, and Ameri- 

 can Institute of Electrical Engineers and 

 members at large. The board is a department 

 of United Engineering Society. It is the in- 

 strumentality of the founder societies named 

 for the stimulation, direction and support of 

 research. 



The officers of Engineering Foundation are 

 Charles F. Rand, chairman; Edward Dean 

 Adams, first vice-chairman ; Frank B. Jewett, 

 second vice-chairman ; Joseph Struthers, treas- 

 urer ; and Alfred D. Flinu, secretary. The ex- 

 ecutive committee is composed of Charles F. 

 Hand, chairman; Edward Dean Adams, George 

 B. Pegram, Frank B. Jewett and H. Hobert 

 Porter. 



A statement issued by the foundation says: 



Potential benefits for the whole nation are very 

 great, but these benefits can not be gained with- 

 out expenditure of effort and materials. Research 

 workers must be supported. Equipment, materials, 

 working places and traveling facilities must be 

 provided. Since the benefits accrue to the pro- 

 fession, the industries and the public in general, 

 support in large measure should come from gen- 

 eral funds, such as those provided by endowments. 



Engineering Foundation seeks to build up its 

 endowment to dimensions worthy of the engineer- 

 ing profession. Engineers connected with indus- 

 trial and financial organizations having great re- 

 sources can aid by convincing proper ofSeials of 

 corporations that the continued prosperity of our 

 industries depends upon continued progress of re- 

 search. Since the commercial and industrial es- 

 tablishments of the country reap the larger pro- 

 portions of the financial profits arising from 

 scientific and technological work, these establish- 

 ments should contribute liberally to the support of 

 research. 



There are many problems relating to the mate- 

 rials and forces of engineering on which further 

 knowledge is needed. Progress will be made ap- 

 proximately in proportion to the funds made avail- 

 able. But there are other kinds of problems which 

 concern the engineer. No longer may one declare, 

 as did Professor J. H. Johnson a generation ago, 

 that "Engineering differs from all other learned 

 professions in this, that its learning has to do only 

 with the inanimate world, the world of dead mat- 

 ter and force." 



Many acute social and economic questions of our 

 day need the dispassionate, impartial, patient study 

 of scientists and technologists. To these questions 

 must now be applied the scientific method of col- 

 lecting facts by thorough study, and the engineer 's 

 capacity for planning and performing, instead of 

 ill-considered ' ' reforms. ' ' 



Occasionally experimental work is undertaken in 

 accordance with a well-conceived plan as a neces- 

 sary or desirable adjunct to the main operation. 

 In such cases the exigencies of the main operation 

 sooner or later interrupt the experimental work; 

 or the men who have it in hand leave the force; or 

 the information is gained but never written up; 

 or the statement is buried in some report of lim- 

 ited circulation; or greater familiarity with re- 

 search methods and a broader conception of the 

 problem could, with small additional expense, have 

 secured much more valuable results and have made 

 them more generally useful. 



These services and many others eould be per- 

 formed by Engineering Foundation, if adequate 

 funds eould be placed at its disposal. The Foun- 

 dation does not plan to build laboratories and con- 

 duct research work directly, but rather to stimu- 

 late, coordinate and support research work in 

 existing scientific and industrial laboratories, co- 

 operating, in so far as possible, with the National 

 Eesearch Council. 



