896 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1095 



engine had been developed. To accomplish 

 this experimental work in a period of a few 

 years would cost some money; but to 

 do this rapidly, within a few months, be- 

 fore order is given to build these flying 

 machines, requires enormous outlays of 

 money, alongside of the indispensable en- 

 gineering talent. 



Another member brought out the fact 

 that even conservative industrial enter- 

 prises found it necessary and profitable to 

 spend at least 2 to 5 per cent, of their sales 

 on research and experiments. At this rate, 

 the contemplated expenditure of $500,000,- 

 000 in five years would certainly warrant 

 an expenditure of at least five million for 

 research during that period. 



Money for this purpose, wisely used, 

 ought to do so much good to the navy as to 

 increase its efSciency by the value of several 

 battleships costing considerably more. Mr. 

 Edison's arguments were particularly elo- 

 quent when he enumerated the enormous 

 expenditures for research in his own labora- 

 tories. 



In this discussion everybody seemed to 

 be well in accord with the general idea that 

 whatever expenditures were recommended, 

 the contemplated work should be carried 

 out under immediate supervision of the 

 navy; that this work should not be started 

 all at once — full blast — but should be ex- 

 tended gradually, as fast as circumstances 

 demand it. 



In view of all this, two policies were open 

 for obtaining the necessary appropriations 

 — the old time-honored trick of asking from 

 congress first an appropriation of a few 

 thousand dollars, knowing very well that 

 this would be insufficient, then after awhile 

 ask an additional appropriation and keep 

 on nagging and asking at various inter- 

 vals. 



But the members of the advisory board 

 thought it a more honest policy to state the 



facts as they saw them and to confront the 

 secretary of the navy with the probable 

 maximum expenses for research and experi- 

 mentation, commensurate to the five years' 

 naval building program now under con- 

 templation. The five-million dollar budget 

 for experimental work to be expended dur- 

 ing those five years, or about one million 

 a year, may strike the uninitiated as need- 

 lessly large, although it is only about what 

 some industrial enterprises have found 

 necessary to spend on their own experimen- 

 tal work. 



But if the nation does not want to go to 

 the expense of developing the latest and 

 most efficient means for defense at the low- 

 est cost by obtaining the necessary infor- 

 mation through preliminary experiments, 

 instead of committing mistakes on a large 

 permanent scale; or if our country wants 

 its navy to keep on building its ships or 

 other means of defense, as were good 

 enough in the past, regardless of the fact 

 that modern war requires the very latest 

 and the most efficient available devices, then 

 let us not be astonished if after incom- 

 parably more money has been spent for in- 

 creased armaments, we find that we are 

 loaded with means of defense which have 

 become obsolete in the meantime and are 

 merely good for the junkheap of antiquated 

 equipment. 



The foregoing is a brief resume of va- 

 rious arguments which were submitted by 

 some members of the board, and this is the 

 first time that this discussion has been re- 

 ported in public. Let iis hope that its pub- 

 lication may help to dispel some of the 

 ideas of the public which imagines that the 

 board contemplates the immediate erection 

 of a " $5,000,000 laboratory building, where 

 the members of the Naval Consulting Board 

 can experiment to their hearts' content in 

 company with long-haired inventors. ' ' 



As Mr. Edison expressed it picturesquely: 



