November 7, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



655 



powerful organizations, research is still an 

 academic question to be discussed by their 

 members individually if they so choose. 

 Every industry has, however, its broad re- 

 search problems, and its points especially 

 vulnerable to research attack, among which 

 it should be easy to select those of general 

 interest to the industry as a whole. 



There are in the country many analytical, 

 testing and commercial laboratories, and, 

 in most of these, special researches are eon- 

 ducted for clients, often with gratifying 

 results. It is to be regretted, however, that 

 there is not a more general appreciation 

 among commercial chemists of the scale 

 and quality of equipment and organization 

 essential for really effective industrial re- 

 search. As this broader viewpoint is at- 

 tained, and the engineer's habit of mind ac- 

 quired, we may expect a great extension of 

 independent research, and the cessation of 

 complaint regarding the trend of prices for 

 analysis. 



Among the relatively few private or in- 

 corporated laboratories with highly organ- 

 ized staff, and adequate special equipment, 

 should be mentioned those of the Institute 

 of Industrial Research at Washington, 

 which has done notable work on the corro- 

 sion of metals, paint technology, canning, 

 road material, cement and special mill 

 problems; the electrochemical laboratories 

 of FitzGerald and Bennie at Niagara Falls, 

 which have so successfully specialized on 

 the construction and operation of electric 

 furnaces to meet the requirements of spe- 

 cial processes and products; the ore samp- 

 ling and treating plant of Ricketts and 

 Banks, and the Pittsburgh Testing Labo- 

 ratory. 



Industrial research is applied idealism: 

 it expects rebuffs, it learns from every 

 stumble and turns the stumbling block into 

 a stepping stone. It knows that it must 

 pay its way. It contends that theory 



springs from practise. It trusts the scien- 

 tific imagination, knowing it to be simply 

 logic in flight. It believes with F. P. Fish, 

 that, "during the next generation — the 

 next two generations — there is going to be 

 a development in chemistry which will far 

 surpass in its importance and value to the 

 human race, that of electricity in the last 

 few years. A development which is going 

 to revolutionize methods of manufacture, 

 and more than that, is going to revolution- 

 ize methods of agriculture," and it be- 

 lieves with Sir William Ramsay that "The 

 country which is in advance in chemistry 

 will also be foremost in wealth and general 

 prosperity. ' ' 



With these articles of faith established in 

 our thought, let us consider where they lead 

 VIS. Within the last few days Frank A. 

 Vanderlip, than whom no one speaks with 

 more authority upon financial matters, has 

 told the assembled representatives of the 

 electrical industries that they are facing a 

 capital requirement of $8,000,000 a week 

 for the next five years — a total within that 

 period of $2,000,000,000. As chemists, we 

 are ourselves entering upon an era in which 

 the capital demands of industries now em- 

 bryonic or not yet conceived will in the not 

 distant future be equally insistent and even 

 more insatiable. Have we as chemists given 

 a thought to this aspect of the development 

 of our science, or planted the seeds of the 

 organization which may some day cope with 

 it? In the electrical and other established 

 engineering professions, it is significant 

 that the great industrial applications of the 

 sciences involved have been in large part 

 due to the activities of firms and organiza- 

 tions like Stone and Webster, J. 6. White 

 & Co., Blackwell, Viehle & Buck and the 

 United Gas Improvement Co., which, by an 

 orderly but inexorable evolution, passed 

 from the status of engineers to that of engi- 

 neers and bankers. Our own profession has 



