January, 1912] 



69 



Miscellaneous. 



In such a complete field as insulations 

 and moulded materials, there have been 

 many changes produced. As far back 

 as 1906 we were using annually, in a 

 certain apparatus, 30,000 specially drilled 

 and machined soapstone plates, which 

 cost $1"10 each. As the result of experi- 

 ments on substitutes for such material, 

 it was found that they could be moulded 

 by us in proper shape, with holes in 

 place, and of a material giving increased 

 toughness at a greatly reduced cost. 

 As the result of this fact, the price of 

 the purchased material was reduced to 

 us from $1'10 to 60 cents, which in itself 

 would have paid for the work. But 

 further developments proved that the 

 new moulded material could be made 

 for 30 cents, which the foreign 

 material could not equal, so we have 

 since produced it ourpelves. This caused 

 a saving of approximately $24,000 annu- 

 ally for this one moulded piece. I have 

 heard of other cases where prices to us 

 have gone down, when we have obtained 

 a little promise from our experimental 

 researches. 



In considering the research laboratory 

 as a financial asset, there is another view 

 which might not be visible at first sight. 

 It is the question of the difference be- 

 tween the value of the useful discovery 

 when purchased from competitors in the 

 business and when made by one's own 

 company. It is not usually pleasant to 

 have to purchase inventions after their 

 value is known, no matter from whom, 

 but to have to pay a competitor for 

 such a discovery is doubly irksome. One 

 is naturally unduly fearful of its value 

 to the competitor, and he, in turn, is 

 over-estimating another's power to use 

 it. The purchaser's profit is apparently 

 limited to the differences between his 

 efficiency of operating it and that of the 

 original owner. 



1 was recently informed by an officer 

 of another large manufacturing company 

 where much chemical work is done, and 

 which established a research laboratory 

 several years ago, that the most import- 

 ant value they got from their labor- 

 atory was the assurance that they were 

 keeping ahead and are at least prepared 

 for the new, if they cannot always 

 invent it for themselves. Incidentally, 

 he said that from one part of their 

 research work they had produced process, 

 ect., which had saved $800,000 a year. 

 They are at present spending in their 

 several research departments a total of 

 about $300,000 a year. 



We hear frequent reference to the 

 German research laboratories and a brief 

 discussion may be in place. For the past 



fifty years that country has been advanc- 

 ing industrially beyond other countries. 

 Not by new opened territories, new 

 railroads, new farm lands, new water- 

 power sites, but by new technicnl dis- 

 coveries. In fact, this advance may be 

 said to be largely traceable to their 

 apparent overproduction of research men 

 by well-fitted universities and technical 

 schools. Every year a tew hundred new 

 doctors of science and philosophy were 

 thrown on the market. Most of them 

 had been well trained to think and to 

 experiment ; to work hard and to ex- 

 pect little. The chemical manufactories 

 began to be filled with this product, and 

 it overflowed into every other calling in 

 Germany. These well educated young 

 men became the docents, the assistants 

 and the professors of all the schools of 

 the country. They worked for $300 

 to $500 per year. They were satisfied so 

 long as they could experiment and study 

 the laws of nature, because of the in- 

 terest in these laws instilled into them 

 by splendid teachers. This condition 

 soon began to make itself manifest in 

 the new making of things, all sorts of 

 chemical compounds, all kinds of physi- 

 cal and electrical devices. I might say 

 that pure organic chemistry at this time 

 was academically most interesting. Its 

 laws were entrancing to the enthusiastic 

 chemist, and consequently very many 

 more doctors were turned out who wrote 

 organic theses than any other kind. 

 What more natural than that organic 

 chemistry should have been the first to 

 feel the stimulus? Hundreds and even 

 thousands of new commercial organic 

 products are to be credited to these men 

 and to that time. All the modern 

 dyestuffs are in this class. Did Germany 

 alone possess the raw material for this 

 line ? No ; England and America have 

 as much of that. But Germany had the 

 prepared men and made the start, 



It seems to me that America has made 

 a start in preparing men for the research 

 work of its industries. For example, it 

 is no longer necessary to go abroad to 

 get the particular training in physical 

 chemistry and electro-chemistry which 

 a few years ago was considered desirable. 

 Advanced teaching of science is little, if 

 any more advanced in Germany to-day 

 than it is in this country. In my 

 opinion, the quality of our research 

 laboratories will improve as the supply 

 of home trained men increases, and that 

 the laboratories of this kind will be 

 increasingly valuable when analyzed as 

 financial assets. I am certain, too, that 

 the industries will not be slow in recog- 

 nizing the growing value of such assets. 

 They merely want to be shown, 



