October 13, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



513 



dated by the small manufacturers many- 

 solutions of the problem will promptly ap- 

 pear. One of these is for the manufacturer 

 to take his problem to one of the industrial 

 research laboratories already established 

 for the purpose of serving those who can 

 not afford a laboratory of their own. Other 

 manufacturers doing the same, the financial 

 encouragement received would enable the 

 laboratories to extend and improve their 

 facilities so that each of the small manu- 

 facturers who patronizes them would in 

 course of time have the benefit of an insti- 

 tution similar to those maintained by oiir 

 largest industrial concerns. 



Thus, in accordance with the law of 

 supply and demand, the small manufac- 

 turer may obtain the benefits of industrial 

 research in the highest degree and the 

 burden upon each manufacturer would be 

 only in accordance with the use he made of 

 it, and the entire cost of the laboratories 

 would thus be borne by the industries as a 

 whole, where the charge properly belongs. 

 Many other projects are now being con- 

 sidered for the establishment of industrial 

 research laboratories for those concerns 

 which can not afford laboratories of their 

 own, and in some of these cases the possible 

 relation of these laboratories to our tech- 

 nical and engineering schools is being earn- 

 estly studied. 



Until the manufacturers themselves are 

 aroused to the necessity of action in the 

 matter of industrial research there is no 

 plan which can be devised that will result 

 in the general establishment of research 

 laboratories for the industries. But once 

 their need is felt and their value appreci- 

 ated and the demand for research facilities 

 is put forth by the manufacturers them- 

 selves, research laboratories will spring up 

 in all our great centers of industrial activ- 

 ity. Their number and character and size, 

 and their method of operation and their 



relation to the technical and engineering 

 schools, and the method of their working 

 with the different industries, are all mat- 

 ters which involve many interesting prob- 

 lems — problems which I am sure will be 

 solved as they present themselves and when 

 their nature has been clearly apprehended. 



In the present state of the world's devel- 

 opment there is nothing which can do more 

 to advance American industries than the 

 adoption by our manufacturers generally 

 of industrial research conducted on scien- 

 tific principles. I am sure that if they can 

 be made to appreciate the force of this state- 

 ment, our manufacturers will rise to the 

 occasion with all that energy and enterprise 

 so characteristic of America. 



So much has already been said and so 

 much remains to be said urging upon us the 

 importance of scientific research conducted 

 for the sake of utility and for increasing the 

 convenience and comfort of mankind, that 

 there is danger of losing sight of another 

 form of research which has for its primary 

 object none of these things. I refer to pure 

 scientific research. 



In the minds of many there is confusion 

 between industrial scientific research and 

 this purely scientific research, particularly 

 as the industrial research involves the use 

 of advanced scientific methods and calls for 

 the highest degree of scientific attainment. 

 The confusion is worse because the same 

 scientific principles and methods of inves- 

 tigation are frequently employed in each 

 case and even the subject-matter under in- 

 vestigation may sometimes be identical. 



The misunderstanding arises from con- 

 sidering only the subject-matter of the two 

 classes of research. The distinction is to 

 be found not in the subject-matter of the 

 research, but in the motive. 



The electrical engineer, let us say, find- 

 ing a new and unexplained difficulty in the 

 working of electric lamps, subjects the phe- 



