250 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VI. No. 1185 



fields of research of little commercial value, 

 on the one hand, and not directly affecting 

 the interests of the nation as a whole, on 

 the other, but of fundamental and far 

 reaching- importance to all. 



Industrial research takes the middle 

 ground and has already become a distinct 

 profession. It is in close touch with prac- 

 tical commei'cial application, on the one 

 hand, and with fundamental principles, on 

 the other. Its pi'oper field is anything be- 

 +.ween elimination of works troubles and 

 the investigation of fundamental principles. 

 The staff of the ideal industrial research 

 laboratory is composed of experts of wide 

 experience who can serve the manufactur- 

 ing departments in a consulting capacitj'' 

 without sacrifice of time. We may perhaps 

 best summarize the preceding statements by 

 describing the ideal research man and the 

 ideal research laboratory. 



Some writers have spoken of the investi- 

 gator as a rare individual to be sifted out 

 from educational institutions with great 

 care for a particular line of work. My per- 

 sonal opinion is that a large percentage of 

 the men students are fitted for research 

 work if properly started along the right 

 line. The investigator should have a mind 

 at once fertile and well trained. His mind 

 should be teeming with new ideas, but he 

 should possess unerring judgment to reject 

 those which are not logical or promising. 

 "We are often asked what sort of prepara- 

 tion in physics would be best for men in- 

 tending to take up research as a life work. 

 It has even been proposed to give courses 

 in "applied physics" for the benefit of 

 those intending to take up industrial re- 

 search. Our invariable reply is that the 

 best preparation for a research man is a 

 thorough grounding in the fundamental 

 principles of his science : physics, chemistry 

 or whatever it may be. If he has this thor- 

 ough knowledge of fundamental principles 

 it is safe to say that in any properly organ- 



ized research laboratory with the proper 

 leadership and companions, such a student 

 will have many times as many useful ideas 

 as he can himself possibly follow up with 

 research. Hardly any one who has com- 

 pleted advanced work in a science can read, 

 say an abstract journal, without thinking 

 of many problems which he would like to 

 investigate. Fertility of mind is not so 

 much an inborn quality of the mind itself 

 as of the training and association which 

 that mind has had. 



The ideal industrial research organiza- 

 tion may perhaps be outlined with a knowl- 

 edge of its development during the last fif- 

 teen years. I shall give, frankly, my per- 

 sonal views in the matter, based on an inti- 

 mate knowledge of four universities, three 

 professional research laboratories and a 

 visiting acquaintance, so to speak, with 

 quite a number of others. The ideal in- 

 dustrial laboratory, in my mind, consists 

 of two quite distinct divisions: one taking 

 the brunt of works troubles and testing or 

 making analyses of the material used. The 

 other wing is complementary to this and 

 deals with the larger fundamental problems 

 encountered, problems requiring skilled 

 specialists and considerable time for their 

 solution. The alternative organization with 

 a single research laboratory covering both 

 works troubles and fundamental problems 

 is not so successful. The plan in this case 

 is to have considerable research in progress 

 of very little interest to the company, but 

 engaging a staff much larger than required 

 to take care of ordinary works troubles. In 

 this case, when works troubles are many 

 and insistent, as they are wont to be at 

 times, the staff engaged upon fundamental 

 research forms a reserve to be called out 

 occasionally to deal with works troubles. 

 The disadvantages of this are that the fun- 

 damental work is subject to more or less 

 frequent interruption and can not be so effi- 

 ciently carried on. On the other hand, 



