91B 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 859 



our material eomforts depend, and which 

 then stood in such need of help. 



A rational attempt to apply chemical 

 knowledge and methods to the industries 

 commenced about 1850, and is in reality- 

 contemporaneous with the founding of the 

 Institute of Technology which we to-day 

 celebrate. It was in 1856 that Perkins 

 made the first synthesis of a coal-tar color, 

 and founded the industry which has be- 

 come the most remarkable example of ap- 

 plied chemistry that we have. In 1855 

 Bessemer introduced his revolutionary 

 process for making steel, made possible by 

 the clear understanding of the nature of 

 steel through improved analytical proc- 

 esses. With the founding of the Institute 

 of Technology and other similar institu- 

 tions, which not only did its part in ad- 

 vancing science, but taught its students 

 how to apply this science to the problems 

 of the day, our industrial progress has 

 gone forward with leaps and bounds. 



I would point out in passing that a great 

 contribution in the aid of civilization is not 

 necessarily made by the simple discovery 

 of a scientific fact. Although, for ex- 

 ample, the reactions underlying the am- 

 monia-soda process were well known for 

 many years, this knowledge did not benefit 

 the world until the genius of Solvay made 

 through it pure and cheap soda available. 

 Cavendish long ago discovered that an elec- 

 tric arc produced nitric acid from the air; 

 the world waited until a few years ago in 

 order to profit by this knowledge, when the 

 researches of Birkeland and Eyde made 

 of the idea an industrial process. It was 

 for this ability to apply scientific facts to 

 the necessities of the times, that the world 

 was looking at the time of the founding of 

 the Institute of Technology. Much pure 

 science we had, but it was as yet largely 

 " nncontaminated by the worship of use- 

 fulness," if I may quote a contemporary. 



It was to just the kind of men which the 

 Institute of Technology turned out — men 

 who could appreciate the beauties of pure 

 science, and at the same time had the abil- 

 ity to apply it, that our marvelous advance 

 in material prosperity was due. 



But to-day there can be seen evidences 

 of a swing of the pendulum past the cen- 

 ter, and again to approach an undesirable 

 extreme. Eesearch has become a word to 

 conjure with. Private bequests for insti- 

 tutions of research in almost every field 

 of science are made in units of millions of 

 dollars. The most significant movement, 

 however, is the very general establishment 

 of laboratories for research, and especially 

 chemical research, by great industrial or- 

 ganizations. This movement is but in its 

 infancy, and it is here that a return of the 

 old spirit of alchemy is to be feared. It 

 has its foundation in the impatience of the 

 more enterprising firms to wait for scien- 

 tific facts and principles to be discovered 

 by others; hence their willingness to ap- 

 propriate often very large sums of money 

 and to actively enter the field of what is 

 called research in applied chemistry. 



From what has already been said, there 

 may appear to be a paradox in the expres- 

 sion "research in applied chemistry." 

 How can the element of research enter 

 into the work of applying to definite ends 

 the facts already established as true by 

 others? Is there a difference between re- 

 search in so-called pure chemistry, and 

 research in what, for want of a better 

 name, we will call applied chemistry. 

 Possibly I can make the distinction clear 

 by a rough analogy. The development of 

 research in a science may be compared to 

 the exploration of a new country. New 

 roads are to be laid out, tunnels bored and 

 bridges built; in other words, new prob- 

 lems solved. This may be done in two 

 ways. First, constructive work may be 



