Mat 5, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



mi 



where the temperatures, even below red- 

 ness, could be carefully controlled and 

 automatically recorded. This care, aided 

 by much experimentation along the line of 

 composition, of proportionality between 

 the several kinds of carbon in the brush, 

 etc., put us into shape to make really su- 

 perior brushes. The company has now 

 been manufacturing these for a couple of 

 years, with especial reference to particu- 

 larly severe requirements, such as railway 

 motors. In such cases the question of sell- 

 ing price is so secondary that we can and 

 do charge liberally for delicacy and care of 

 operation in the manufacture. 



This carbon work naturally led to other 

 applications of the identical processes or 

 materials. Circuit breakers, for example, 

 are now equipped with a specially hard 

 carbon contact, made somewhat as motor 

 brushes are made. 



It is not my intention to connect all of 

 the laboratory work to the thread which 

 seemed to connect these particular pieces 

 of work, but rather to show the possible 

 effect in accumulating in a laboratory, ex- 

 periences which should show on an in- 

 ventory. 



Among other considerations which ap- 

 peal to me is one which may be worth 

 pointing out. Probably almost every 

 manufacturing plant develops among its 

 workmen from time to time, men who are 

 particularly endowed with aptitude for 

 research in their line. They are usually 

 the inventors of the company. They are 

 often discovered in spite of opposition. 

 They are always trying new things. They 

 are almost of necessity somewhat ineffi- 

 cient in the routine production. In many 

 plants they are merely endured, in a few 

 they are encouraged. In my mind their 

 proper utilization is a safe investment. A 

 research laboratory assists in such a 

 scheme. Sooner or later such a laboratory 



becomes acquainted with this type of men 

 in a plant and helps them in the develop- 

 ment of their ideas. 



It is not a perfectly simple matter to 

 measure the value of a research laboratory 

 at any one time. In the minds of some, 

 the proper estimate is based on the money 

 already earned through its work, which 

 otherwise wotild not have been earned by 

 the company. This is a fair and conserva- 

 tive method which in our generation ought 

 to be satisfactory when applied not too 

 early to the laboratories. It does not take 

 into account what we may call the good- 

 will and inventory value, both of which 

 should be more rapidly augmenting than 

 any other part of a plant. The experience 

 and knowledge accumulated in a general 

 research laboratory is a positive quantity. 

 In our own ease we expended in the first 

 year not far from $10,000, and had little 

 more than expectations to show for it. 

 Our expenses rapidly rose and our tangible 

 assets began to accrue. Perhaps I can 

 point to no better criterion of the value of 

 a research laboratory to our company than 

 the fact that its force was rapidly increased 

 by a company which can not be particu- 

 larly interested in purely academic work. 

 Our annual expenditures passed the $100,- 

 000 mark several years ago. My own esti- 

 mate of the value would probably be 

 greater than that of others, for I am firmly 

 convinced that proper scientific research is 

 demanded by the existing conditions of our 

 technical age. 



Without going into exact values, which 

 are always difficult to determine, consider 

 for a moment the changes which incandes- 

 cent lighting has witnessed in the past ten 

 years. In this field our laboratory has been 

 active, in contributing to both carbon and 

 to metallic filaments. Moreover, all of the 

 improvements in this field have been the 

 product of research laboratories of trained 



