SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 731 



followers it became a fascinating topic for 

 experimental investigation by men devoted 

 to science for its own sake. Suddenly it 

 was launched into the realm of hard- 

 headed commercialism by a practical man, 

 daring, enthusiastic and optimistic enough, 

 at a time when electric waves could be 

 produced in one room of the laboratory 

 and detected in the next room, to dream of 

 sending such waves across the sea as 

 bearers of human messages. 



At every step of its development the 

 things that have made wireless telegraphy 

 possible have been borrowed from pure sci- 

 ence. 



"While Marconi was still struggling to 

 adapt the apparatus of Righi to long-dis- 

 tance transmission the antenna and the 

 coherer were already in use by Popoff^ in 

 the study of oscillatory lightning. In the 

 thermal detector of Fessenden the almost 

 invisible platinum wires produced years 

 before by Wollaston for the cross-hairs of 

 telescopes appear in a new field of useful- 

 ness. The "lead-tree" familiar as a 

 simple and beautiful lecture experiment in 

 electrolysis forms the basis of the responder 

 of DeForest. Another form of electrolytic 

 detector introduced independently as the 

 receiver of wireless signals by Schloemileh 

 and by Vreeland traces back to the Wehnelt 

 interrupter. Marconi's latest receiver, the 

 magnetic detector, is an ingenious modifica- 

 tion of Rutherford's device for the study 

 of electric waves and this in turn was based 

 on the classical experiment of Joseph 

 Henry on the effects of the discharge of 

 Leyden jars on the magnetization of steel 

 sewing needles. 



It is needless to multiply examples. In 

 the history of science and of invention this 

 intimate relation appears to be almost uni- 

 versal. 



In this country science is making a great 



* Topoff, Journal of the Russian Physical Chem- 

 ical Society, Vols. 28 and 29, 1895. 



growth, particularly in material equipment. 

 The number and size of our special socie- 

 ties is increasing year by year. The 

 American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science has already a membership of 

 more than 6,000. Our scientific joumals^ 

 are steadily growing in influence and im- 

 portance. Colleges everywhere are build- 

 ing laboratories and the universities are in- 

 creasing their facilities for research. The 

 federal and state governments are begin- 

 ning to recognize the necessity for scien- 

 tific investigation and to foster it. 



Nevertheless there is much to be done to- 

 bring us up to the European standard.. 

 Our position is like that which exists in 

 agriculture. The total product of wheat 

 and corn is enormous, but when we con- 

 sider bushels per acre we realize the 

 superiority of the intensive cultivation of 

 older countries. In science likewise our 

 total output is creditable, but our specific 

 productiveness is still low. The discrep- 

 ancy can hardly be ascribed to inferiority 

 of intellect or to lack of industry, for we 

 are of the same stock as those who have 

 created modern science and who have given 

 it its high place in other countries. For 

 an explanation we must look, rather, to 

 environment and to the conditions under 

 which scientific work is done here and 

 abroad. 



Now the environment of science has- 

 always been academic. Science has its 

 home in the university. From Galileo and 

 Newton to our own time the men who have 

 laid the foundations upon which civiliza- 

 tion is built have nearly all been teachers- 

 and professors. 



A few notable exceptions there are, such 

 as Darwin, whose centenary we are about 

 to celebrate. Each branch has its short list 

 of unattached investigators— Franklin, 

 Rumford, Carnot, Joule in physics, etc., 

 but the honor-roll of science is essentially 

 an academic list. 



