What We Found Behind the Scenes in European Research [Observations on the Tour of Forty Research Laboratories in England, France and Germany (1937) / Chapter Skim
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What We Found Behind the Scenes in European Research
What We Found Behind the Scenes in European Research
Pages 1-51
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It would be ungrateful not to mention the splendid hospitality of our hosts and sub-hosts in all three countries -- Lord Rutherford, Undersecretary Jean Perrin and Doctor Matchoss especially. Dinners and luncheons were uniformly excellent and glasses were perpetually full of choice vintages.
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MAURICE HOLLAND National Research Council New York City MR.
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"European Research Tour." Article in the September issue of Cotton. "European Laboratory Tour Impressions." "High-Spot Impressions of Significant Trends in Research in England, France, Germany." "Report on National Research Council -- European Tour in England, France, Germany." "Nutter Sees Behind the Scenes in Europe's Industrial Growth." Article appearing in August 26, 1937 issue of New England Industry & Commerce.
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Thus it will be seen that practically all of the research work in the United States up to that time must be credited to private initiative and foresight. During the Civil War, President Lincoln, recognizing the growing importance of applied science in industry, had encouraged Congress to create by Congressional Charter the National Academy of Sciences.
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In most cases actual research work must be financed by interested industries or from other than government sources. The United States government has not provided and does not now provide funds for the carrying on of this important work.
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Only recently the French government has felt called upori for national safety's sake to buy up all of the principal airplane manufacturing companies in France. The inspirational director of one of the outstanding government laboratories in France advised us that French industry did not freely cooperate with his institution and that he did not have free access to any of the industrial laboratories in his country.
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So that not only are the people being taught the vital importance to the nation of work, but also that the cultural future of the nation resides in mass co-operation with industry and science in the application of science to industry. And why, under such conditions, should not the people become research-conscious, with artificial rubber, artificial leather and gasoline and oil from coal now available to it and artificial wool from beech trees and artificial silk from pine roots and synthetic fats practically ready for the market?
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Sir Robert Pickard, head of the Shirley Institute, which is perhaps the outstanding cotton research organization in Europe, stated that he felt that 10 years is not too long a time to await results of a fundamental research project. This organization maintains a full-time staff of 300 trained men, and over 90 of these are recognized scientists with college or university degrees.
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In France we paid a visit to Madame Curie, daughter of the world-renowned co-inventor of radium, and in her own right a distinguished French scientist who is devoting her talents to research. One of our party told Madame Curie that he was engaged in research work, and would appreciate any suggestion as to how he might best direct his efforts, and we were all forcibly impressed by her significant reply.
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humidifiers were the exception rather than the rule. The English mills use a much larger percentage of female labor than we do in the United States; I was told the percentage of the labor force is between 80 and 85 per cent female, and they are for the most part younger women.
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The one outstanding characteristic of laboratories visited was the enthusiasm of the workers and ability of those workers to concentrate upon the work in hand. Libraries containing up-to-date information of recent developments were found to be imperative for successful research work.
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No less important to public welfare is the Fuel Research Station at East Greenwich, where studies are constantly being made of the characteristics of the coal produced in England, for the purpose of improving and extending the field of utilization. Other laboratories directly under the jurisdiction of the Department are: Geological Survey and Museum at South Kensington Building Research Station at Garston Forest Products Research at Aylesbury Food Investigation at Cambridge Road Research at West Drayton Chemical Research at Teddington In addition to laboratories directly controlled, the Department encourages Industrial Research Associations which are self-governing bodies formed on a national basis in various industries for research in the interest of the members they serve.
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A few large corporations such as the Metropolitan Vickers Electrical Company, Mond Nickel, General Electric, Brown Firth Co., and others having highly specialized or exceptionally large volume of research work, maintain their own laboratories and operate independently of the national Department. When independent laboratories are maintained, the directors of those laboratories are members of one or more, usually several, committees appointed by the Executive Committee of the General Board.
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Under this system, the government has the power to instantly place all research work under one authority and obtain complete co-ordination of research personnel and facilities. The outstanding characteristic of German research is the training of many boys and men in the spirit and methods of research.
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Research to find substitutes is developing an intensity of purpose and an ingenuity in technique which seems likely to produce results of world-wide significance. Conclusion Laboratories for research in the three countries visited are equipped and manned much as American laboratories.
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Research in the tanning of leathers at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for leather research is illustrative of the fundamental scientific approach to technical problems of major fields of industry. This laboratory has succeeded (under the direction of Doctor Grassman)
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In Diesel engine research Doctor Nagel (a contemporary research worker with Otto Diesel) is currently engaged in fundamental and basic scientific studies of flame propagation, jet emission and atomization development of new Diesel fuels.
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Principal raw materials 'produced from coal and lime include hundreds of chemical compounds as well as some of the recently and extensively publicized new products, such as Buna, Bonalin, dyes and other coal derivatives. German scientists display unusual eagerness to co-operate with scientific research institutions in America and to exchange industrial technology with our leading American corporations.
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The extensive work of the Cotton Research Association at Didsbury, under the able direction of Sir Robert Pickard, can be traced to the intensive threat of Japanese competition, particularly directed at the textile industry, the industrial backbone of Great Britain. The recent devastating inroads on colonial and export markets which have been hitherto the exclusive trade territory of England (particularly in India, China and South America)
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carries on the classic research work of Brielly in the development of stainless steel alloys. Basic research in steel manufacture including long time tests of fatigue and high temperatures, and particularly emphasis on steel manufacturing processes using electrical furnaces are typical of the current research in that industry.
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Two national institutions which rank high in the international world of pure science and applied technology are the Fuel Research Station at East Greenwich operated under the direction of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and directed by Doctor Sinnatt, and the Building Research Station at Watford. Current research at the Fuel Research Station follows closely the research developments of the coal research laboratory at Carnegie Institute of Technology and the work of Doctor Bergius in Germany, on the constitution of coal and the development of processes for the production of coal derivatives.
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France The detachment of France's scientists from its industrial life has resulted in the country's making great contributions to the advance of pure science, but falling behind other nations in applying these discoveries industrially. The College of France is unique as a scientific research institution.
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Even for the greater firms research associations have proved useful and economic in sparing them from the purchase of expensive, special apparatus which in their own laboratory perhaps would find insufficient application to warrant their purchase, but which on the other hand are indispensable when working on certain fundamental problems. While a great difference between the facilities of various laboratories could be noticed, they all seemed to have come to the same understanding that to secure results it is necessary for research to be carried on quietly without being pressed in any way.
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Often the problems are studied for their own sake, rather than to try to make money by their solution. Germany, before the war, established a great number of excellently working research laboratories, some at the universities and some at special research institutes, where they worked scientifically on the fundamental problems.
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With Maurice Holland, director of the National Research Council's division of engineering and industrial research, as our leader, we visited a total of more than thirty laboratories in England, France and Germany. Some of them were under government supervision, some were university laboratories, the rest were research laboratories either of private industry or of industrial trade associations.
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Then scientists at Shirley Institute set to work and created new products, many of which are using cotton as a base where cotton had never been thought of before. New synthetic materials were made and mixed with other materials, and there's a new cotton so treated that it has much of the richness of pure silk.
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Pure Science Industrial Asset I've talked mostly about Germany and England, so far, but we found developments in France every bit as interesting. In France the emphasis is placed more on pure science, which has contributed greatly to all industries.
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IMPRESSIONS OF ENGLAND, FRANCE AND GERMANY GIVEN BY SUPT SHERTS ON HIS RETURN FROM EUROPE James H Sherts BOTH THE COUNTRYSIDE and the cities in England were all that we anticipated.
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In addition to the Associated Laboratories referred to above, we. visited in a thorough manner the Burroughs Wellcome Laboratories where research work is principally on chemicals for medicinal purposes, and the study of prevention and cure of all types of diseases.
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Building Research Station. British Fuel Research Station.
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The famous Louvre Museum of Art and Sculpture attracts all foreign visitors in Paris. Here are assembled thousands of famous canvases, the best known perhaps, the Mona Lisa by De Vinci, the Angelus and the Gleaners by Millet, Mother by Whistler, and the familiar Venus de Milo and Winged Victory in the Hall of Statuary were seen.
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The colleges and research institutions visited were the National Laboratory of Radio Electricity, the School of Autogenous Welding, the National School of Arts and Trades, Paris Optical Institute, and perhaps best known of all, the Curie Radium Institute, where the guests were graciously received by Madame Curie's daughter, who is carrying on the enterprise begun by her illustrious parents. A very beautiful reception and luncheon was held for the entire party at the French Foreign Ministry at No.
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We had afternoon coffee with the girls and their director in the camp dining room. They entertained us later by singing German folk songs and by giving us an exhibition of old folk dances in the garden at the front of the camp.
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We spent an afternoon at the "Give Me Four Years" Exposition in Berlin. Its purpose was to demonstrate the strides made in industrial developments and generally improved conditions existing under the present regime.
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Diisseldorf We traveled by motor from Cologne to Diisseldorf. Here we were luncheon guests of a German Scientific Society and later visited the Diisseldorf Exposition called "A Nation at Work." This city is a manufacturing center and has some beautiful residential districts.
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. Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Leather Research, Dresden.
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Wells said. England has no home resources in gasoline and fuel oils, and about half a million dollars is spent annually in its fuel research laboratory.
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One English plant alone produced 45,000,000 gallons of synthetic gasoline last year, or 4 per cent of the country's requirements, and Germany told us she will be self-sustaining on gasoline not later than 1939. A world authority on fuel with the British Research Station at London told us that the last thing we should do with coal is burn it.
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in Germany that the old gas masks won't help much, for they have developed a substance which will destroy the soda-lime element in the mask, making it practically worthless. At the Building Research Station at Walford, England, they are working on a new window glass which is immune to cold and which they claim will cut heating bills of homes and buildings 40 per cent.
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They have developed porite with which they use thousands of tons of slag from steel every week to make a concrete that crumbles less and holds nails without cracking. They do considerable work on machinery for building materials, and have developed a new concrete mixer which, by vibration, produces better concrete.
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This product also develops more beautiful colorings when mixed with paraffin and is the substance that prevents paraffin candles from bending in warm weather. Another new product developed is locron, used to make cloth and building materials fireproof.
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They have perfected a new electron microscope, to aid in the rapid development of synthetic products and the study of atoms. They have devised instruments better to examine the surfaces and interior of metals used for important parts of intricate instruments, to find imperfections which may develop under intense heat.
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The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Wood Research at Eberswalde is doing considerable work with plywood impregnated with metals, and has developed a beech plywood impregnated with bakelite which is very strong. They have also developed what they call a radium wood which has been impregnated with oil.
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At this exhibition they had a large room with some of this accumulation on one side and the synthetic products manufactured from them on the other side. It was quite impressive.
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Yet, if American business, or any business, is to be kept healthy, some connecting link must be made between research and the smaller manufacturer. After analyzing these conclusions, the Liberty Bank decided to do a little research of its own.
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Perhaps the largest part of a thorough public relations system is the offering and maintenance of courteous and really valuable service. When clients are companies, rather than single individuals, the most valuable service that can be offered is assistance in the conduct of business itself.
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What we found behind the scenes in European research
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