NOVEMBEK 7, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



651 



hensive index to chemical literature which 

 now contains 1,250,000 cards and which is 

 open to every worker. The Bureau of 

 Fisheries devotes $40,000 to a single study 

 and the Geological Survey, $100,000 to 

 the investigation of the mineral resources 

 of Alaska. It spent, in 1913, $175,000 for 

 engraving and printing alone. The superb 

 Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie 

 Institution of Washington is also con- 

 stantly engaged in the most refined re- 

 searches into the composition, properties 

 and mode of genesis of the earth's crust. 

 The Smithsonian Institution is honored 

 throughout the world for the efficieney of 

 its effort to increase and diffuse useful 

 knowledge among men. 



The Bureau of Mines of the Department 

 of the Interior was established to conduct in 

 behalf of the public welfare fundamental 

 inquiries and investigations into the min- 

 ing, metallurgical and mineral industries. 

 Its appropriation for the current fiscal year 

 is $662,000, of which $347,000 is to be de- 

 voted to technical research pertinent to the 

 mining industry. The bureau has revolu- 

 tionized the use of explosives in mines. 

 Over $8,000,000 worth of coal is now 

 bought on the specification and advice of 

 the bureau while more than 50 of the larger 

 cities, a number of states and many corpo- 

 rations have adopted the bureau plan of 

 purchase. Our own Dr. Parsons, as chief 

 mineral chemist of the bureau, is carrying 

 its researches into new and interesting 

 fields. 



Perhaps no better evidence could be ad- 

 duced of the present range and volume of 

 industrial research in America than the 

 necessity, imposed upon the author of such 

 a general survey as I am attempting, of 

 condensing within a paragraph his refer- 

 ence to the Bureau of Standards of the 

 Department of Commerce. Its purpose is 

 the investigation and testing of standards 



and measuring instruments and the deter- 

 mination of physical constants and the 

 properties of materials. To these objects it 

 devotes about $700,000 a year to such good 

 effect that in equipment and in the high 

 quality and output of its work it has in ten 

 years taken rank with the foremost scien- 

 tific institutions in the world for the pro- 

 motion of industrial research and the de- 

 velopment and standardization of the in- 

 struments, materials and methods therein 

 employed. Its influence upon American 

 research and industry is already profound 

 and rapidly extending. The bureau co- 

 operates with foreign governments and in- 

 stitutions, and is constantly consulted by 

 state and municipal officials, technical bod- 

 ies, commissions and industrial laboratories 

 as a court of highest appeal. 



I can not better conclude this cursory 

 and fragmentary reference to govern- 

 mental work in applied science than with 

 the words of the distinguished Director of 

 the Bureau of Standards : 



If there is one thing above all others for which 

 the activities of our government during the past 

 two or three decades will be marked it is its orig- 

 inal work along scientific lines, and I venture to 

 state that this work is just in its infancy. 



In view of the evidence offered by Ger- 

 many of the far-reaching benefits resulting 

 from the close cooperation which there ob- 

 tains between the university laboratory 

 and the industrial plant, it must be ad- 

 mitted with regret that our own institu- 

 tions of learning have, speaking generally, 

 failed to seize or realize the great oppor- 

 tunity confronting them. They have, al- 

 most universally, neglected to provide ade- 

 quate equipment for industrial research, 

 and, what is more to be deplored since the 

 first would otherwise quickly follow, have 

 rarely acquired that close touch with in- 

 dustry essential for familiarity and appre- 

 ciation of its immediate and pressing needs. 



