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Is research essential for social progress? Is it fundamental or superficial research that is essential? What is the essential need of fundamental research?

"Permit me a few comments on the first question: Is research essential for social progress? The question tempts me to a blunt remark: Is running essen­ tial when you are in a stampede? In other words, with research as a tool avail­ able to your competitors can you ignore its power? If you doubt the power of research look about you: Who here is dressed in homespun? Who here breakfasted exclusively on unprocessed foods raised and transported without benefit of meteorology, chemistry, physics and biology? Who got here on his own feet with­ out the aid of airplane, train, subway, taxicab, or elevator? Can you. or any one else, stop by fiat or pious resolve the advances of technology? Not without getting left so far behind as to make the words 'social progress' a cackling mockery. I suspect that there have been societies and states in the history of the world in which life and human relationships were to the healthy participants as agreeable or more agreeable than life in these modern times is to us. But I am quite sure you wouldn't trade your life for theirs: you like to get well from a ruptured appendix, diphtheria, or an acute mania or a rodent ulcer of the face--they couldn't and they didn't. In fact, it is precisely in the field of medical science that I would insist that progress is real. Do you seriously expect progress in the field of drug therapy to come from ignoring the kind of study which has given us our present amazing results in the use of insulin, liver extracts, vitamins, the sulfa compounds and penicillin?

"'Social progress?' Let me tell you a story. One night in Berlin about 1929 I met Fritz Haber, whose fundamental researches on fixing nitrogen had en­ abled the Germans to fight the last war with synthetic explosives, independent of saltpeter from Chile. Despite this service to his Fatherland Haber was later rewarded by the Nazis with persecution and a broken heart. That evening he asked me if I found the research institutes of the Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft at Berlin-Dahlem an ornament to German culture. I said 1 Yes 1 • He replied: 'Excuse me, it is not quite so! Ornament, no! Necessity, yes! We have enough solar energy in Germany to raise food enough to feed 38,000,000, From technological superiority alone can we export manufactures enough to buy the food for the other 20,000,000, From research only comes technological superiority. From brains depend twenty million people, It is not an ornament--it is a necessity. 11 • * * * • * • MANAGEMENT'S EYE-VIEW OF INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH

Maurice Holland, Industrial Research Adviser, contributed an article of this title to Chemical and Engineering news for April, 1945. We quote pertinent parts:

"Management is the directing head of corporation activities. Research is its heart. Research is the central pumping station which circulates the life­ blood of new ideas through the entire corporate system. The vital fluid of red corpuscles brings new life to production, distribution, sales, and advertising, Finally, the balance sheet of health and growth is reflected in figures and charts-1fever charts' and high blood pressure in the management office if the figures are red; an extra dividend for stockholders and a bonus for key people in the organization if the figures are black.

"To continue the medical analogy, the research department as the heart or pumping station for vital fluid circulating through the system might be consid­ ered to be the purifying agency to rid the body of tradition, prejudices, - 3 - No, 77 - 5/4/45

ignorance, and obsolescence. The red corpuscles of new ideas, new applications, I may be considered a tonic that can serve to tone up the whole corporate body. 11 ! said 'can serve', for too frequently its real function in relation to the growth factor is either overlooked or neglected by management. The definite and thorough understanding of the research function by the management in its proper relationship to the corporate health and growth is the first step in getting 'religion of science1 in the service of industry. The attitude of man­ agement towards research, like faith in religion, is the first step in the right direction.

11 What is management's attitude toward research as we look out over the broad representative cross section of American industry? While it varies from industry to industry it is almost axiomatic that in the older industries the growth factor of research is sterile or at least inhibited. Take, for example, textiles, iron and steel, fisheries products, railroads, and milling, and com­ pare their type of executives and the lack of technical or scientific background to the managements of newer industries which literally sprang from a test tube, such as the chemical, petroleum, electrical, aviation, electronic, and the rayon and nylon fibers of a rejuvenated textile industry.

11 We employed a group of graduate students of the :Business School of New York University, under the direction of Lewis Haney, to make a comprehensive and detailed study of the growth factors of research in American industry. They were in about this order of importance:

1, Scientific, engineering, or technically trained executives on the management level--by far the most important single factor.

2, The technological background, processes, and tradition of the indus­ try itself.

3. The technological position of the industry in America as compared with its foreign competitors. {This refers to the period of the early 19301 s when Germany particularly was assumed to have scientific leadership in industry throughout the world.) 4. The amount of money spent on organized research in relation to net worth, gross sales, and advertising expenditures.

11 Let1 s look at some factual evidence of management reporting each year to its bankers, the stockholders. If 700 annual reports of industrial manufactur­ ing companies, whose securities are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, are any indication, then more than 300 of these annual reports made some reference to the research activities of the company last year. Many more are doing so every year, A recent study by one of the outstanding opinion research organiza­ tions clearly indicates that the average stockholder (of whom it is estimated there are 25 million) places research foutth in a list of 15 subjects covering corporation activities which they prefer to see reported on by companies in which they have a financial interest.

11 This growing interest of stockholders in technical research activities as one form of guarantee for their long-term investment may have a profound effect on management's attitude toward research in the near future. This will be an increasingly important factor as we move into tho postwar era when American industry will have to go to the investing public for enterprise and reconver­ sion funds. - 4 - No. 77 - 5/4/45

"The interest of management toward scientific research as a very important part of a broad public relations program is constantly increasing! For instance: At the recent 25th anniversary celebration of the founding of the Standard Oil Co.'s development laboratories, in an all-day research forum in New York, at­ tended by 500 industrial, research, and other executives representing industry, universities, and government bureaus, a major part of the program was devoted to I research in the small company' .

"Perhaps at this point someone should raise a word of caution, that the public1 s impression of what constitutes real research may be mistaken for 14-color advertisements of scientists working with weird apparatus', which a.re too frequently appearing in some of our national magazines. That type of re­ search activity motivated by a desire for scientific prestige--or public accept­ ance as a guarantee of quality--has been classified by no less an authority than 'Boss' Kettering as 'advertising research'. Prestige in research activities does not come from 4-color page ads, particularly in national magazines, but rather from the truly scientific prestige of the laboratory staff and their publications-in scientific and technical journals! And there is still one other ingredient to be added to the research formula for management--that is, patience!

"During our service with National Research Council and particularly after a number of trips through the research laboratories of Germany and other indus­ trial nations of Europe, we made a plea to American industry by article, address and radio, for what I called 'patient money'. German industrialists put 15 million gold marks of this kind of money and nearly 20 years of patient plodding I to developing aniline dyes and capturing the dye markets of the world! (Remem­ ber this was the early 19201 s and there were only a handful of laboratories in .American industry). This kind of patient money produced Buna S rubber, Zelle­ wool, and Compreg wood products, which we saw in the research laboratories in Germany on a Research Council tour organized especially for American industrial executives and bankers as late as 193?. As one of the executives on that tour remarked:

'Most of our research observers were so impressed with the "rabbits of technologyu which German scientists were pulling out of the hat in that yea:r of 193? that a majority of them failed to get the sig­ nificant point: At least 10 or 15 years before that same management had put up "educated money"; and more important, the patience to wait for these dramatic results.' •......

"One of the top executives of the company made a statement, which I think you will find revealing as to the attitude of management towards research:

111 In most cases we give these research fellows all the money they can use. We tell them they can employ scientific consultants. We give them all the supplies and equipment they need. And yet they always ask for something more ! What is your opinion about that situation?'

"My answer was: 'Research is like a woman . She wants sympathetic under­ standing. She wants you to admire her new hat or dress. She wants you to be interested in human relations and values and what the neighbors' children are doing next door'. Research takes more than money--it demands understanding and it requires patience. - 5 - No. 7? 5/4/45

"The research laboratory. like the industrial ~orporation, is an organiza­ tion of human beings. Management too often confuses it with a beautiful build­ ing, Gothic columns. names of famous men of science on the facade, and rooms full of test tubes and balances. Research is ''Trained Men in Overalls' "Research is none of these things. Research is an attitude in the mind of a trained man of science who has 'put on overalls in °the service of industry', Men who work at the bench and laboratory develop a product which will ring up in the cash register, which in turn produces more funds--for more research." ...... * * • • * STATUS OF RESEARCH IN LEADING AMERICAN CORPORATIONS

1. E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. Dr. Elmer K. Bolton, Chemical Director of the du Pont Co. was given the Perkin Medal of the Society of Chemical Industry on January 5, 1945. In accept­ ing the medal, Dr. Bolton gave an address outlining the history, achievements, and guiding policies of du Pont research. We quote selected paragraphs from this address. A copy of the completed pa.per is also attached to this Bulletin. Expansion Into New Fields

11 For about one hundred years the Company manufactured only black powder, dynamite and smokeless powder, and, as a result, early research activities were limited to the explosives field. Around the ,turn of the century, however, man­ ufacturing activities were extended into collateral fields, as, for example, nitrocellulose for non-explosive uses. "Research ac.ti vi ties al so were extended and broadened through the estab­ lishment of the Experimental Station, near Wilmington, Delaware, in 1903, This new laboratory was under the direction of the Development Department, which had just been organized for the purpose of expanding the business of the Company. "It was during the administration of Mr. Pierre S, du Pont that the plan for diversifying the activities of the Company in the chemical field was in­ itiated, and this policy was continued during the administrations of Mr, Irenee du Pont and Mr. Lammot du Pont, and has also been continued by Mr. W. S. Carpenter, Jr., now president of the Company ...... "This may be summarized-and it should be put this way because it describes one of the foundation stones upon which Du Pont rests--by saying that every growth in the Company's manufacturing activities has been accompanied by a fully commensurate growth in research activities .•...... •

11 It should be emphasized that the Chemical Department, by virtue of its independent posftion, is not hampered by the daily problems arising from manu­ facture. The background and experience of our manufacturing departments naturally influence the selection of their new research activities. but with a central Chemical Dep:1.rtment, free to investigate any proble~ in the entire field of chemistry, there is less likelihood of attractive opportunities being neglected because they do not come within the immediate interests of the manu­ facturing departments. - 6 - No. ?7 - 5/4/45

Types of Research

"The research a.ctivi ties of the Du Pont Company in normal times fall into three broad categories: 1. Improvement of existing processes and products. 2. Development of new products. 3. Fundamental research.

"Improvement of Existing Processes and Products. Research work leading to the improvement of existing processes and products constitutes one of the main activities of the research divisions of our ten manufacturing departments. It is the 1 bread-and-butter1 research of these departments for maintaining position in the chemical-consuming industries which we serve •....• . .... "There seems to be no finality to research directed to improvement in qual­ ity and reduction of manufacturing costs. and the results of this kind of re­ search are far-reaching. Every improvement in quality means that purchasers receive a better product. Every reduction in cost means that more purchasers can buy those products. It is not raising a.n arguable question to say that this combination of improved quality and lowered cost, wherever it appears in Ameri­ can industry, is and has been a contribution of the first magnitude to the rais­ ing of our standard of living in peace, and to the winning of ultimate victory in war •••...•...•. . ..•

"The effectiveness of research devoted to the development of new products is indicated b the fact that in 1942 almost half of the ross sales of the Du Pont Com an --46 to be exact--consisted of roducts which either did not exist in 1928, or were not then manufactured in large commercial quantities. "Fundamental Research. The third type of research carried out by the Company is fundamental in nature. Research of this kind was started in 1927 by Dr. Stine, during his tenure as Chemical Director. with the object of estab­ lishing or discovering new scientific facts without re.gard to immediate commer­ cial use. It is thus distinguished from applied research, which uses previously established scientific facts in the solution of practical problems. "It was felt at that time that university research. while very valuable. was not sufficient to fill the existing gaps in scientific knowledge of im­ portance to the fields of activity of the C~mpany. Research was therefore initiated in colloid chemistry, physical chemistry, organic chemistry. and physics. This was the first formal program to be carried out by a group of Du Pont scientists specifically assigned to fundamental research. "In order to preserve continuity of effort, the fundamental research group was organized as part of the Chemical Department. Over a period of years, fundamental. research has grown steadily, and although relatively small in volume compared to the research activities of our manufacturing departments, it has become one of the most valuable phases of research work in laying the foundation for new lines of applied research. Du Pont Research Policy

"Some of the features of Du Pont 1 s research policy may be of interest to you, ·

- 8 - No. 77 - 5/4/45 defense. The great store of scientific knowledge which has been accumulated in the past through the careful painstaking investigations of countless scientists becomes of value to society when research points the way to harnessing it to a practical application. "It should be emphasized, however, that the research organization 1s only part of the team necessary to bring the fruits of scientific work to the service of mankind. It requires the wisdom and courage of management to make the invest­ ment, a capable engineering organization to design the plant, an able and experi­ enced production organization to make material of marketable quality and suitable cost, and a sales organization to develop markets. In no small measure the suc­ cess of Du Pont research depends upon the capabilities of other parts of the organization, for without them the developments which have contributed so much to the growth of the Company could not have been brought to the commercial stage. "From the colonial deys down to the present, our patent system has been a great stimulus to research, and an incentive to the creation of new products and processes. Large expenditures such as were involved in developing neoprene and nylon, for example, were justified because of the patent protection it was pos­ sible to establish. Were it not for this protection, the stimulus to research and invention would be greatly diminished, whether by a lone individual, by small business, or by so-called big business. 11 • • • * • • 2. National Dairy Products Corporation ( Q.uotations from Annual Report of 1944)

Research and Development

11 The history of American Business bears witness to the fact that the source of success is the ceaseless search for something new and something better at lower cost. This is no less true of the dairy industry than of the electrical, automotive, transportation or communications industries. While food has been man's most essential need from the dey he was created, it was only within the lives of our own grandparents that the facts of nutrition even began to be under­ stood. "Less than a lifetime ago milk's primary function as a food was considered the end of its usefulness. Today. by breaking it into its component parts, we have uncovered a vast new future in industry and chemistry for the by-products of milk. From milk we now get textile fibers, plastics, paint, vinegar, lactose, sodium lactate, lactic acid and many other useful products.

11 Most of these developments have come within the lifetime of National Dairy, and your Company has played a major part in many of them. Without a continuing program of research it would have been impossible for your Company to have grown and improved its position during this period of rapidly expanding scientific knowledge, and we are looking forward to a further extension of this work in the near future,

11 As soon as materials and trained personnel are available after the war, your Company plans to construct a new research laboratory containing the most modern equipment and facilities. and to staff it with a greatly enlarged group - 9 - No. 77 - 5/4/45 of technicians. Adequate space will be provided at the site for future additions as needed, and for pilot plants in which laboratory developments can be trans­ lated into commercial products. Promotion and Advertising "Our experimental kitchens, the Sealtest Laboratory Kitchen in New York and the Kraft Experimental Kitchen in Chicago, have continued to build valuable con­ sumer good will by giving practical assistance to the housewives of America­ through individual letters and the distribution of millions of folders and book­ lets of recipes, menus and diets, based on a sound nutritional foundation but with due regard to rationing and wartime food supply problems.

HThe three national radio programs sponsored by your Company - the Sealtest Village Store, Kraft Music Hall and the Great Gildersleeve -- have met with in­ creasing popular acceptance, two of them having received "All-American" Radio Program honors in 1944, In addition to the tremendous influence they have had in building public good will, they have contributed substantially to the war effort by appealing for increased War Bond purchases, Red Cross contributions and Cadet Nurse, WAC, WAVE and SPAR enlistments and by co-operating in the dis­ semination of other Government-sponsored information. "Since 1942, your Company has carried on a public information advertising program to acquaint the public with its aims, products and services. During the past year this program enjoyed increasing endorsement and respect, both from distinguished individuals in the profession and from readers of the national magazines in which the advertisements appeared, Standard survey studies indi­ cated conclusively that the reader interest for all of our advertisements was very high, • • • • * • • 3, Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation and Subsidiaries (Quotations from Annual Report for 1944)

Research, Development and Engineering

11 The Management continues its firm belief that the growth of the Corporation depends largely upon maintaining a continuous, adequate, and active program of research. development. and engineering, even in years when unusual conditions affect both operations and personnel, The many new products and new uses for old products that have been developed over past years have been due chiefly to this policy and to the intensive effort carried on by the Corporation in its own laboratories as well as in the field. The present program includes assistance to Government agencies a.ud to industry in the development of new processes and products that are important to the war effort. The establishment a.rd maintenance of an aggressive, alert, and experienced research, development, and engineering organization has made available to the Government and to industrial customers during the current critical period, a highly trained group of technical personnel. "Also• the Corporation has continued to devote an important part of its scientific effort to basic long-range study in fields showing promising possibil­ ities for the postwar period. Many new products and many new uses for established products have been developed, which because of wartime conditions are not yet . available through normal industrial or consumer channels. It is anticipated that many of these new products and new uses will be of importance to the postwar civilian economy. • • • • • • - ~o - No. 77 - 5/4/45

4. General Foods (Quotation from Annual Report for 1944)

Research and Development "Our investment in research in 1944 exceeded that of any previous yeax. We increased the staff at our Central Laboratories, went on a 48-hour week , and ac­ quired an engineering research laboratory building and equipment in Jersey City, N. J.

"General Foods research and de~elopment proceed along 6 main fronts. These are: 1) Fundamental research for the purpose of increaS1Il8 our general knowledge of the composition and properties of our raw materials and finished products. 2) Improvement in our present products. 3) Development of new products. 4) Development of improved packaging and manufaeturing processes. 5) Development of new raw material ingredients. 6) Utilization of waste materials and by-products. "Progress was made on all these fronts in 1944, and this progress is already reflected in our present business and will be of even greater significance in the postwar period. In addition, several items not previously manufactured by the corporation were developed and are now in production for the military services. Some of these items show promise for future consumer use, 11 In a number of instances research effort in 1944 enabled us to increase production or lower cost or increase quality or improve flavor. Research also assisted in the economic use of by-products and waste materials and in the con­ servation of critical supplies such as packaging materials. "Special research problems arise in almost every unit of the company. For example, our Birds Eye-Snider division requires research in plant breeding and horticulture. New vegetable and fruit varieties are actually bred for the specific purpose of improving Birds Eye-Snider products. When our supply of spinach seed from Holland was cut off by the European war, Birds Eye research had already developed a superior strain of domestic seed and we thus were able to pack a full supply of excellent spinach in 1944.

11 In our 1942 report, and again in 1943, we stated our wartime advertising policy to which we have adhered. Our purpose is to keep our brand names alive and healthy where products are restricted or eliminated and to continue aggressive­ ly to promote those products in free supply. * * • • * 5. American Telephone and Telegraph Company (Q.u.otations from Annual Report for 1944)

Research "Bell Telephone Laboratories has continued to devote its efforts almost wholly to the needs of the fighting services. It now employs about a.ooo persons - 11 - No. 77 - 5/4/45

and has nearly 500 active military projects. About 55 percent of its war work has been for the A:rmy, about 35 per cent for the Navy, and about 10 per cent for the Office of Scientific Research and Development. Not only has the Labora­ tories developed war communication equipment, both wire and radio, but it has also made notable contributions in radar, submarine warfare, rocket design, electrical computers, electronic tube development and in other fields which cannot be divulged at present. "Reports of the performance of the war products of the Laboratories and the Western Electric Company continue to reflect credit on those organizations, In every area of action on land, on our warships and on our airplanes, their products are to be found. "With the aid of electrical devices, our bombers attack their targets with precision and guns are accurately aimed at fast moving enemy planes which may travel two miles or more while a shell is on the way. The electrical anti­ aircraft gun director devised by the Laboratories and adopted as standard by both British and American armies has recently pl~ed an important part in bring­ ing down robot bombs sent against England. This is one of many kinds of elec­ trical computers which the Laboratories has devised. Another kirtd is used in a new trainer for airplane crews which reproduces in a stationary model of a plane all of the instrument readings and the reactions on controls of an airp:fane in flight, subject to conditions which can be .controlled and varied by an instructor. "Bell Laboratories School for War Training, which gives instruction in the use and maintenance of our new devices, has obtained special recognition in the decision of the Navy to place at least one officer graduate of the school on every major combat ship, To date, nearly 4,000 A:rmy, Navy and Marine Corps personnel have been trained in the school. The school has also continued its preparation of instruction books and maintenance manuals for Laboratories­ designed apparatus, In the number of books prepared for publication during the year, the Laboratories outranks the largest book publisher in the country. "Devotion to the war effort has not left much opportunity for the Laborator­ ies to work on post-war projects. However, it is possible now to do some forward looking in the light of fundamental developments that have been accelerated by the war. An outstanding instance is the progress made in utilizing very short radio waves,

"The advance of radio moves continually toward shorter waves as new tech­ niques of generation and detection are devised, Bell System engineers in 1915 telephoned across the Atlantic on 5,000-meter waves. Broadcasting since the 1920 1 s has used 200 to 600 meters. Short-wave overseas telephony operates on 15 to 60 meters. Television and FM broadcasting employ 3 to 7 meters. A multi­ plex radio link installed by the Bell System in 1941 carries twelve telephone circuits across Chesapeake B~ on 2-meter waves. Before the war, Bell Laborator­ ies engineers were experimenting extensively with waves only a few centimeters long.

11 These very short waves. called microwaves, can be formed into beams like searchlight beams, and can penetrate darkness, fog, dust and rain. To transmit along the earth's surface beyond the horizon, relay stations must be employed. There is no static and the possible number of speech channels in this frequency range is very great. While the communications possibilities of microwaves still II await final proof and economic evaluation, they appear very promising and their use is being exploren as a supplement or alternative to wires and cables for - 12 - No. 77 - 5/4/45 telephone and television transmission. For this purpose, the Bell System has obtained experimental licenses to test a radio relay system between New York and Boston. The intermediate relay sites have been secured and, as soon as circum­ stances of war permit, construction will be pushed forward . • • • • • 6. 1he Borden Company (~uotation from Annual Report for 1944)

Research "The policy of maintaining decentralized research laboratories in the major operating divisions and a general New Products Laboratory in the home office building continues to function satisfactorily. Research projects are now more definite in their objectives, and the close tie between laboratories, plants and sales force is a great stimulus to scientific workers.

11 A program of periodic meetings of key men from the different divisional laboratories not only avoids duplication of effort but also permits pooling of knowledge and experience, even though the research activities are centered in different localities. The interchange of ideas among the technical staff is supplemented by contributions from the sales and production departments in order to aid in establishi~g practical and profitable research goals.

"A further step in the company policy of diversification of products has been the establishment during the year of a Department of Market and Economic Research. This has been done to assure both the acceptability of new products and the economic soundness of pricing and distribution policies." • • • • • • ?. United States Steel Corporation I (~uotation from Annual Report for 1944)

War Needs and Technology "Important advances were made by U. S. Steel during 1944 in both fundamental research and in the application of technological findings to specific improve­ ments in steel products. The study of heat treatment of steels for highly specialized war uses was continued. "Wartime research and technical advances in steel ma.king will aid in the development of new and improved products for the post-war period." • • • • • •