OoroBER 25, 1918] 
would quickly make. The newspapers helped 
in fostering this belief, and many were the 
proud boasts which we heard. There was a 
great disappointment, almost a ‘shock, as the 
days went by, the periods promised for great 
accomplishment passed, and certain names al- 
most disappeared from the public press. We 
have in fact stopped asking what has happened 
to the “ wizards.” The reason is that the prob- 
lem of this war is not to perfect an old device, 
but to design a new one; the knowledge re- 
quired is not that of the amateur or even of 
the trained engineer, but definitely that of the 
scientific investigator, the man who by his 
own laboratory investigations has added to our 
store of knowledge. One illustration of this 
may suffice; one government board, with whose 
activity I am familiar, has had submitted to 
it in the course of the year 16,000 projects and 
devices, proposed by so-called inventors; of 
these only five had sufficient value to deserve 
encouragement. I have nothing but admira- 
tion for these 15,995 men, whose disappoint- 
ment must have been keen. Most of them 
were more than willing to give their inventions 
freely to the government. The point I wish 
to emphasize is that the ability and knowledge 
required in waging this war successfully are 
not those possessed by any body of men except 
those with a profound knowledge of science 
and of scientific method. The problems are 
too complicated. It is true that with the help 
of trained technical men we will get better 
engines, better explosives, better guns; and for 
these we should be truly grateful to our much- 
boasted American genius. But, consider a 
problem like this: to devise a light signal, 
which can be used by day or by night, and 
which will be absolutely invisible to the enemy. 
Who can solve that? The answer is obvious: 
only a physicist. 
In times of peace, when commercial devel- 
opment is uppermost in men’s minds, the uni- 
versity scholar is at a great disadvantage. He 
rarely knows what problem is to be solved. He 
is busy with his own studies and researches, 
and does not come in contact, in the ordinary 
eourse of his life, with the demands of the 
technical trades. His discoveries are made 
SCIENCE 
403 
use of, and are always—sooner or later—of 
commercial value; but in this later stage he 
does not take part. Nearly all of our great 
technical companies maintain extensive lab- 
oratories where trained men pursue investiga- 
tions in pure science; but problems are rarely 
given them to solve. To-day, in order to meet 
the insistent demands of the war, the whole 
process is changed. On every battle front of 
Europe, attached to the various staffs, are men 
from university faculties, skilled in observing, 
quick to learn what is needed. In Paris, Lon- 
don and Rome there are groups of university 
men whose duty it is to collect data from the 
Allied powers along similar lines. Reports 
containing clear statements of the problems 
are cabled to Washington. To this same cen- 
ter come requests for help from our own forces 
on this side of the ocean. Then, as soon as 
‘the problem can be formulated with definite- 
ness, One or more men are asked to find the 
solution. For the first time in the history of 
science, men who are devoting their lives to it 
have an immediate opportunity of proving 
their worth to their country. It is a wonder- 
ful moment; and the universities of this coun- 
try are seizing it. The stimulus to scientific 
work is simply enormous; and the growth of 
our knowledge is astounding. In many cases 
investigations are prolonged for months, and 
in the end possibly the much desired solution 
is not obtained; but in any case new methods 
are made available for future use, new instru- 
ments are perfected, and the store of human 
knowledge is vastly increased. Let me give 
one illustration of this reaction of the de 
mands of war upon pure research. In the cen- 
struction of a mask to be used in case of a 
gas-attack it is obvious that one method of 
defense is to make use of charcoal which is 
known to absorb many gases with great ra- 
pidity. A scientific problem was to try to in- 
crease the efficiency of this absorbing action; 
and it was soon discovered that by a special 
treatment of charcoal made in special sizes 
from special wood the absorptive power could 
be increased enormously. Here is a fact of 
the greatest importance to the chemist, a fact 
which will be remembered in countless investi- 
