652 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. 984 



There are happily some notable exceptions. 

 Perhaps foremost among them stands the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology with 

 its superb engineering and testing equip- 

 ment, its Research Laboratory of Applied 

 Chemistry and the meritorious thesis work 

 of its students in all departments. The bio- 

 logical department has been especially ac- 

 tive and successful in extending its influ- 

 ence into industrial and sanitary fields, while 

 unusual significance attaches to the motor 

 vehicle studies just concluded and the more 

 recently inaugurated special investiga- 

 tions in electricity, since both were initi- 

 ated and supported by external interests. 

 About two years ago the institute brought 

 vividly before the community the variety 

 and extent of its wide-spread service to in- 

 dustry by holding a Congress of Technol- 

 ogy, at which all of the many papers pre- 

 sented recorded the achievements of insti- 

 tute alumni. 



The Colorado School of Mines, recognizing 

 that $100,000,000 a year is lost through in- 

 efficient methods of ore treatment, has re- 

 cently equipped an experimental ore dress- 

 ing and metallurgical plant in which prob- 

 lems of treatment applicable to ores of 

 wide occurrence will be investigated. The 

 Ohio State University has established an 

 enviable reputation for its researches in 

 fuel engineering. Cornell has been espe- 

 cially alive to the scientific needs of indus- 

 trial practise, and a long experience with 

 technical assistants enables me to say that I 

 have found none better equipped to cope 

 with the miscellaneous problems of indus- 

 rial research than the graduates of Cornell. 

 It may in fact be stated generally that the 

 quality of advanced chemical training now 

 afforded in this country is on a par with 

 the best obtainable in Germany, and that 

 home-trained American youth adapt them- 

 selves far more efSciently to the require- 

 ments and conditions of our industries than 



do all but the most exceptional German doc- 

 tors of philosophy who find employment 

 here. 



Several of the great universities of the 

 middle west, notably those of Wisconsin 

 and Illinois, have placed themselves closely 

 in touch with the industrial and other needs 

 of their communities and are exerting a 

 fundamental and growing influence upon 

 affairs. In the east, Columbia has recently 

 established a particularly well equipped 

 laboratory for indiistrial chemistry and is 

 broadening its work in this department. 



The universities of Kansas and of Pitts- 

 burgh are carrying forward an especially 

 interesting experiment in the operation of 

 industrial research fellowships supported 

 by the special interests directly concerned. 

 These fellowships endow workers for the at- 

 tack of such diverse subjects as the chemis- 

 try of laundering, the chemistry of bread 

 and baking, that of lime, cement and vege- 

 table ivory, the extractive principles from 

 the ductless glands of whales, the abate- 

 ment of the smoke nuisance, the technology 

 of glass, and many others. The results ob- 

 tained are intended primarily for the bene- 

 fit of the supporters of the individual fel- 

 lowships but may be published after three 

 years. The holder of the fellowship re- 

 ceives a proportion of the financial benefits 

 resulting from the research, and the scale 

 of sums allotted has progressively risen 

 from $500 a year to $2,500 and even to 

 $5,000. While some doubt may reasonably 

 be expressed as- to the possibility of close 

 individual supervision of so many widely 

 varying projects, the results obtained thus 

 far seem entirely satisfactory to those be- 

 hind the movement, which has further 

 served to strongly emphasize the willing- 

 ness of our manufacturers to subsidize re- 

 search. 



The present vitality and rate of progress 

 in American industrial research is strik- 



