770 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1118 



work with a full understanding of the use 

 to which the materials are to be put and 

 can often materially assist the purchaser in 

 working out his idea. Cooperation of this 

 kind between the general public and the 

 laboratory can not but be of advantage to 

 both parties. 



The manufacturing departments should 

 be in charge of skilled foremen who have 

 had previous experience in the works and 

 be run in exactly the same way as the pro- 

 duction departments themselves, being 

 under the general supervision of the di- 

 rector of the laboratory and of any assist- 

 ants that it may be necessary for him to 

 employ. The foremen of the departments 

 should, however, cooperate very fully with 

 the scientific departments. 



There is always some difficulty in a lab- 

 oratory in getting the scientific depart- 

 ments to make full use of the special knowl- 

 edge of the manufacturing division and at 

 the same time to realize the practical diffi- 

 culties which occur in works processes, but 

 this difficulty can be overcome much better 

 in the case of the manufacturing division 

 of the laboratory than it could if an outside 

 production department were involved with- 

 out the laboratory division acting as in- 

 termediary. 



The scientific division of the laboratory 

 should be divided into departments dealing 

 with the special subjects, but every care 

 should be taken that these departments do 

 not become at all isolated from each other 

 and that they cooperate with each other in 

 the most complete way on the solution of 

 the problems on which the laboratory is 

 engaged. In order to insure this the main 

 lines of work under investigation may be 

 suitably discussed at a morning conference 

 at the beginning of the day 's work, one day 

 of the week being assigned to each subject. 

 The laboratory organization will then re- 

 solve itself into a number of different de- 



partments engaged in dealing with a niim- 

 ber of different lines of wox'k, and the total 

 work of the laboratory during the year may 

 be suitably represented, as is shown by the 

 chart (see figure), which is that actually 

 devised for the research laboratory of the 

 Eastman Kodak Company. 



The departments of the laboratory are 

 represented as circles on the outside of the 

 chart, the main divisions in which prob- 

 lems group themselves being represented 

 by the rectangles, subdivided in some in- 

 stances, occupying the middle of the chart. 

 Each of these rectangles will correspond to 

 a morning conference; thus, a conference 

 will be held on general photography, at 

 which there will be present members of the 

 photographic department, the physics de- 

 partment, the department of organic chem- 

 istry and the emulsion and coating or man- 

 ufacturing departments. There will be 

 present at the conference, in fact, every 

 scientific worker of the laboratory, what- 

 ever his rank, who is directly engaged on 

 the subjects which are included under the 

 head of general photography, and in some 

 cases, or on special occasions, members of 

 the staff of the company external to the 

 laboratory may be invited to these confer- 

 ences, although as a general rule in the case 

 of a large company it will not be possible 

 for them to be regularly present. All the 

 main lines of investigation should be laid 

 down at these conferences and the progress 

 from week to week carefully discussed. 

 This procedure will enable a great saving 

 in time to be made, since it will avoid the 

 loss of time which continually occurs in 

 laboratories from the wrong man doing a 

 specific piece of work ; and the economy can 

 be much increased by suitable arrangement 

 of the building and equipment itself. 



The building should be so arranged that 

 all the laboratories are open to everybody 

 in the scientific departments but that in 



