appliances developed in manufacturing and commercial laboratories. Studies in the laws of gravity, atomic structure, the behavior of rays of light, or the properties of gases, have been made by university professors. At first thought, the discovery of detached principles and laws in these fields may appear devoid of all practical value. But it is a commonplace among scientists that all practical inventions and discoveries are but an outgrowth of the fundamental laws of pure science. The universities have furnished the basic principles at the source of the leading processes in modern industry. The commercial laboratories and the practical inventors depend upon the professors of science for the basic advances in scientific knowledge. After pure science has opened the way, applied science enters the field.

The main handicap in university experiment is the lack of adequate funds. University money must be utilized primarily for instruction purposes and only secondarily for original experimentation. This drawback makes it undesirable for the universities to undertake experiments which require a heavy outlay for apparatus and equipment, unless they are specially financed for the particular purpose by corporations directly interested. The universities excel in research which requires the time. and effort of painstaking labor. Graduate students receive their chief compensation in the form of training and scholastic degrees. Professors pursue experimentation in their free time, often with the desire to extend their knowledge of the science or to create prestige by their discoveries. The universities are specially adapted to research depending mainly upon the labor factor, but not to research depending upon the capital factor.

The research for which universities are chiefly distinguished is usually affected with a broad public interest. Universities for the most part limit their facilities to lines of study which are likely to be of concern to the general community. Research which is designed merely for profit making is commonly undertaken by non-university laboratories. The public aspect of university research is important in disposing of the question of patent rights. The principles of pure science are given freely to the world. The basic discoveries are not patented or copyrighted. On the other hand, discoveries of applied science are often patented by the individual professor. This privilege is denied to the individual in some universities, on the grounds that, since the financing of the research is carried on by the university, the results belong to the university, and should be controlled in ways to produce the greatest benefit to the university and to the public. Columbia University, while not compelling the individual inventor or scientist to surrender his patent rights, maintains an Administrative Board of University Patents to accept the voluntary assignment of such rights. The purpose is to protect the discoverer from encroachments upon his rights, to ensure that the public be served under the best possible conditions, and to enable the university to share in the benefits for which 6 The University of Illinois is an example of this type of university.

it was in part responsible. In any case, the significant feature of patent policy in university research is the recognition of the interests of the public. Public benefit comes first, commercialism comes last.

(b) Privately Endowed Research. The Carnegie Institute, with an endowment of $22,000,000, conducts research in ten special lines of pure science, including terrestrial magnetism, geophysics, solar physics, botany, nutrition, and economics. The Rockefeller Institute conducts intensive research in the field of medicine. The Smithsonian Institute and the Russell Sage Foundation conduct important scientific studies in the physical and social sciences. The Mellon Institute, maintained under the supervision of the University of Pittsburgh, provides facilities of research suited to the needs of individual trades or industries. The industry pays the direct labor cost of the research by maintaining a fellowship for the services of a specially employed investigator. These fellowships cost upwards of $5,000 per annum for each investigator required. The Institute furnishes laboratory, library, consultative facilities, the use of its permanent research equipment, and general direction and supervision of the work. Such experimentation is more effective, and more economical of time and money, than studies which the manufacturer might undertake to carry on independently in a small and poorly equipped laboratory of his own. Privately endowed research, whether devoted to pure science or applied science, stresses investigations which are of marked public importance. Research for mercenary purposes receives no attention. The whole effort is concentrated upon studies affected with a genuine social interest.

(c) Government Research. The United States Bureau of Standards is an important government laboratory maintained by the Department of Commerce. This Bureau conducts tests of materials and original research for other departments of the national government and for the state governments. It also carries on research directly as the agent of corporations and trade associations. The industries in such cases pay the expense of a research associate, who is usually some competent graduate student in physics, chemistry, or other science. The Bureau of Standards supplies the overhead of laboratory facilities and consultation with expert scientists. The research covers both pure and applied science. Investigation is not undertaken unless the results are likely to be of benefit to the public. The Bureau reserves the right of publication of all findings, and in general such discoveries as are made are not patented but are given out for the general good of industry and the public.

The United States Bureau of Mines, maintained by the Department of the Interior, is likewise devoted both to research for other government departments and to research for industry itself. The investigations cover accident prevention, sanitation, and working conditions in mining, and technical problems in pure and applied science affecting the production, conservation, and utilization of minerals. The investigations

7 Annual report of President N. M. Butler, Columbia University, 1925, pp. 34-35.

in all cases have a definite public interest, and the results are disbursed freely for the benefit of the public. The Bureau of Fisheries attempts to increase the yield of fish by the application of biological science. The Forest Products Laboratory, maintained by the national government, with the coöperation of the University of Wisconsin, studies methods of conservation, manufacture, and utilization of by-products of the forests. The Geological Survey provides scientific information on the extent, nature, and composition of the natural resources of the United States and of the rest of the world. The Department of Agriculture has a very elaborate research organization in Washington, and in addition cooperates with the States in the maintenance of agricultural experiment stations. The individual farmer has almost no facilities for scientific research. Consequently, the initiative has had to come primarily from the government. Thousands of studies in plant and animal breeding, plant and animal diseases, treatment of the soil, and farming methods, have made invaluable contributions to the technique of modern farming. These major government agencies of research reflect an alert and intelligent initiative on the part of public officials. Whatever may be said of the deadening effect of politics in other lines of business, certainly the accusation cannot be made that political institutions have retarded scientific progress. The governments have more often stimulated and educated industry to an interest in the possibilities of scientific research. The initiative and the inspiration of the work has come primarily from the government. Without the spur of private profit, without the drive of individual initiative, without the incentive of patent rights, scientists in the employ of the government have in countless ways forwarded the technology of modern production.

A salient characteristic of government research is its provision of laboratory facilities for industries which otherwise could not afford the expense of research. The government maintains a permanent equipment of laboratory materials which can be adapted to the needs of special research studies. The individual enterprise could not afford the original investment or the overhead cost of such equipment.

The National Research Council is a quasi-public organization which endeavors to stimulate research in science, to survey and collate scientific facilities, and to secure the coöperation of all scientific agencies and interests. In 1920, the membership of the Council consisted of representatives of 70 scientific and technical societies and government departments. The council is financed by private contributions and endowments and administered by private authorities, but works in intimate coöperation with all government departments interested in scientific work. The Council does not conduct research itself, but promotes and encourages the research of all other agencies by conferences, consultation, and coöperation.

8 The Bureau of Agricultural Economics and the Bureau of Labor Statistics should be mentioned as government agencies performing valuable economic and statistical research.

Other countries have furthered the movement of scientific research in like manner, by both direct appropriation of expenses for laboratories and by quasi-public stimulation and education of other research agencies. England, France, Japan, and Germany contribute to research in both these ways. Germany has carried government research to a much higher degree of effectiveness than most other countries. The Reichsanstalt provided a great public laboratory, financed by the government. The Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft was a research organization endowed by the commercial interests and operated in close alliance with the departments of the government. Probably the most important method of promoting research was government aid and supervision of the technical schools and universities. The government made direct appropriations to the technical schools, and encouraged business associations to contribute generously to the same end. The institutions of higher education in Germany busied themselves in countless ways with scientific studies affecting every side of industrial technology. Due to this emphasis upon science, Germany achieved an especially high place in such industries as chemicals, dyes, and electrical supplies. The schools sent out each year thousands of trained scientists who in turn furnished the personnel for the private laboratories of corporations and trade associations. The professors in the universities coöperated with the government and with industry to advance in every possible way the application of science to industrial technology. The alliance between the government, the university, and the corporation was complete, and the results were evident in the scientific proficiency of German production.

(d) Corporation Research. Research at the initiative of private corporations may be organized in four main ways:

First, corporations may employ research experts in laboratories of the government or of the universities. This method of financing and supporting research has been discussed in connection with university and government research, and need not be treated again at this point.

Second, an individual corporation may establish a research laboratory as a part of its own business organization. In 1924, more than 500 different concerns maintained laboratories of this type. In size, the laboratories range all the way from dingy one-room structures to large buildings costing millions of dollars and used exclusively for research purposes.

Third, a group of corporations may establish a coöperative laboratory and share the expense of maintenance. In 1924, approximately 40 trade associations conducted such laboratories. Small concerns find coöperative research specially helpful, since the sharing of expenses reduces the burden upon each individual company. Such research is not suited to subjects involving trade secrets, because the results of the research become the common property of all the members. The appropriate subjects for investigation are only those which are not affected with the jealousies of competition.

Fourth, corporations may refer their research problems to privately

incorporated laboratories, which sell their services outright to manufacturers. In 1924, about 86 such laboratories were in operation in the United States. These private laboratories render expert opinions and consultant advice for a professional fee. Also, they conduct original investigations for certain fixed scales of charges.

The research work undertaken by corporate forms of organization falls into three main classifications:

First, research may be purely analytical. It is devoted to routine testing of raw materials and finished products to insure certain standards of quality. It also sets up standards of testing, to the end that analytical methods may be uniform and consistent. This type of work, for the most part, calls for relatively slight originality and creative ability.

Second, research may be developmental. In that case, it is devoted to the discovery of possible new products, to the improvement of old products, to the elimination of manufacturing troubles, and to testing the commercial value of new industrial propositions submitted to the corporation. This type of work calls for the most brilliant creative ability. The great original discoveries and inventions are made by scientists and inventors of this character. New processes, new machinery, new ideas, emanate chiefly from this small group of research experts. The scope of their studies is somewhat limited by the necessity for getting practical results. Their interest is mainly in applied science. They of course depend upon the workers in pure science for much of their information, but such contributions from pure science are merely the starting point for the workers along strictly practical lines. Each investigation is circumscribed with the all important question: Will it pay? If it will not enable the corporation to make a larger profit, it will be immediately stopped. The pressure is strongly for discoveries and inventions which can be turned into dollars and cents.

Third, research may be purely scientific. For the most part, studies in pure science are pursued in the university environment or in government laboratories. But some of the larger corporation laboratories find it advantageous to engage directly in research in pure science on their own account. A substantial amount of truly fundamental research in pure science is carried on in corporation laboratories, but in general pure science is decidedly subordinate to applied science in their activities. Abstract laws are of secondary interest in comparison with concrete discoveries and practical results which have an immediate dollars and cents value.

The inventions and discoveries made in these various types of laboratories are seldom the fruit of the effort of any one man. They are the fruit of collective effort. Team work, conference, suggestion, coöperation between a group of scientific experts, are the methods of arriving at results. Each improvement or development is a joint product, and cannot be traced exclusively to the genius of any individual. It is true that certain scientists display greater ability to take advantage of such group coöperation than others, but even the most distinguished indi