HPS280 - Week 9

HPS280 History of Science

Lectures for the week beginning 8 March 1999

Beginnings of Industrial Research

A. Age of Independents (1870-WWI)

Myths vs. Reality

not all isolated workers BUT did create their own environments (Menlo Park, etc.)
pattern: establish their own businesses to NURTURE their ideas
often abandoned businesses once invention was a success
(i.e. Edison General Electric merged in 1893 with Thomson-Houston Electric Company to become GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY)

2 Groups:

Non-professionals - with day jobs (Alexander Graham BELL and the WRIGHT Bros.)
Professionals - Thomas EDISON and Elmer SPERRY

FASHIONING A NEW WORLD/SPACE: Machine Shops and Laboratories

Edison was "The Wizard of Menlo Park" (1876-81)
Menlo Park had library, office, machine shop and CHEMISTRY lab
better equipped than many university labs
he proposed "a minor invention every ten days and a big thing every six months or so"
said you could depend on SCIENCE for mechanical or electrical problems but it was still "hunt and try" for chemical problems
when Edison moved to his second facility in West Orange, NJ, he had "8 loads of experimental stuff" brought to him (bragged that he had "everything from an elephant's hide to the eyeballs of a United States senator" - never knew what you might need!)
had one entire building dedicated to CHEMISTRY with a group of PhD chemists working there (German PhDs) and physicist Arthur E. KENNELLY (later became a Prof. at MIT and Harvard)
but Edison still led his "INSOMNIA SQUAD" as an inventor - not cultivating an academic-style lab
another impt. part of the mix were the MODEL builders ("muckers")
craftsmen (often European trained) who built models to test
if inventors couldn't afford their own, in-house, model builders used MODEL-BUILDING SHOPS like that of Charles WILLIAMS in Boston
EDISON was mimicked by others: ie. Nikola TESLA
when Tesla's NYC lab burned down in 1895, built new one in 1899 in Colorado Springs
dramatic boasts and demos of "indoor lightening"
Tesla wanted to be isolated from FINANCIERS: feared being "Astored, Melloned or Insulled"

"INVENTION IS LESS AN ACT THAN A PROCESS":

MYTH that Edison loathed scientists:

among his friends were Francis UPTON, a Princeton grad with postgrad work in Berlin and hired some academics for his lab
inventors used science in the form of ORGANIZED INFORMATION and, where they could, as THEORY
challenge was often the inventor's ideas were at the CUTTING EDGE of THEORY (theory had not yet developed to the point of being helpful)
inventors faced the frustration of applying OUTMODED THEORIES that were often too simplistic (ie. Edison's impatience with scientists who argued the THEORY of electric circuitry, developed for ARC lights, was valid for the newer INCANDESCENT lighting)
this would only be altered by the rise of INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH LABS
deprived of theory, had to rely on EXPERIMENTATION
led to changes and refinements in subsequent MODELS

B. Two Models of Innovation

1) LINEAR Model: (no feedback)

Research

Development

Industrial
Production

Diffusion
& Mktg.

2) INTERACTIVE MODEL (more sophisticated):

differs most from LINEAR model in its starting point - SIMPLE DESIGN vs. Research

interaction between SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY on 3 levels:

affected by TWO FORCES:

Central Chain		Common Scientific Knowledge
	SIMPLE DESIGN		TESTING & REDESIGN		COMPLEX DESIGN & PRODUCTION	MKTG
		Potential Market/ Users		Marketing

C. Case Study: Industrial Lab Research at General Electric

Willis R. WHITNEY (1868-1958) became head of the GE Lab

- took a German PhD (1894) at the University of Leipzig - studied with Wilhelm OSTWALD (renowned Prof. of physical chemistry)
- Whitney took a leave from position as instructor of chemistry at MIT to do this
- German tradition was to allow students to do HIGHLY SPECIALIZED work including PURE knowledge (no commercial application)
- in reality, many opted to do FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH of COMMERCIAL interest to INDUSTRY (eg. of 1860s German dyestuff industries/research)

- Whitney returned to MIT with his doctorate
- set up a small plant with Arthur NOYES, a senior MIT Prof, to develop a process for recovering valuable industrial solvents in 1899
- in two years, Whitney made more than $20,000 from this (10 times his MIT salary)

- Whitney approached by Charles STEINMETZ
- GE's chief consultant, research engineer and mathematician
- by 1900, Steinmetz knew GE had to emulate German research lab model or fall behind in incandescent-lamp filament race
- had been purchasing patents but this was counter-productive and EXPENSIVE
- Whitney accepted 2-day/week trial run; within a year Whitney was at GE

Incandescent Lamp Problem:

first used tantalum wire and paid a German company $100,000 for the right to its process
in US used AC not DC and lower voltages: had to alter European ideas
by 1907, no solution, just frustration (Whitney had to lay off 50 of 150 personnel)
turnaround with William D. COOLIDGE, a physicist, to be asst. lab director
by 1909, Coolidge found a way to produce DUCTILE TUNGSTEN
in 1910, also got Irving LANGMUIR (PhD chemist)
several years later, Langmuir perfected the gas-filled MAZDA incandescent lamp
this lamp assured GE of a monopoly of the lamp industry once again
by the 1920s, making profits of more than $30 million a year (30% return on investment)
by 1910, said annual sales of products originating in the lab = $2.4 million

- tried to establish academic atmosphere in the lab
- gravitated toward improvements of existing systems

- many chemists and physicists entered industry in early decades of 20th century
- industrial labs at: GE, Bell, DuPONT, Kodak, Standard Oil of New Jersey, General Motors
- pre WWI were at least 100 industrial labs; by 1929, more than 1,000
- by 1920, physicists employed in industrial labs made up 25% of American Physical Society

- independents did continue to exist, but golden age of 1870-1914, was over
- work on the frontiers of science leading to RADICAL BREAKTHROUGH inventions
- eg. air conditioning, automatic transmission, power steering, helicopter, catalytic cracking of petroleum, Cellophane, jet engine, Kodachrome film, all-purpose electronic computer and the laser

D. SCIENCE AND WWI

Background:

past history of involvement of science in war:
15th century cannon design
science of fortification/war machines of DaVinci
Lavoisier's research on gunpowder
science advisory committee for the Napoleanic War

World War I (1914-1918):

the road to WWI began with the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo by a young Serb, Gavrilo Princip
one month later, Austria declared war against Serbia
by August, Germany, Russia, Great Britain, and France were drawn into the conflict
Allies included Great Britain (including Canada), France and Russia
Central Powers included Germany and Austria
war of attrition: trenches, a few tanks (20 introduced by the British in 1916; 500 used in Nov. 1917 to break German lines at Cambrai), cavalry, tunneling and mortars
little in the way of air attacks: airplane very new
some naval offensives particularly German submarine attacks (ie. sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, British liner carrying munitions as well as civilians)
U.S. entered the war only on April 6, 1917
armistice signed November 11, 1918

E. CASE STUDY IN ORGANIZING WARTIME SCIENCE:

NAVAL CONSULTING BOARD vs. NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL in the U.S.

- case of INVENTIONS vs. SCIENTIFIC methodologies
- NCB set up by U.S. Naval Secretary Josephus DANIELS and Edison
- worried about state of American preparedness
- idea: to win the war with machines, NOT men
- solicit invention ideas from the PUBLIC and asked 11 professional societies to nominate two members
- shut out AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY (not practical enough) and NATIONAL ACADEMY of SCIENCES

- George Ellery HALE set up NRC in 1916 to promote cooperation between RESEARCH INSTITUTES and SCIENTISTS and ENGINEERS
- elite membership of academics, industry representatives and government representatives
- in Feb. 1917 NRC asked to develop submarine DETECTION devices (British so far behind, considered training seals)
- anti-sub committee chaired by physics Prof. Robert MILLIKAN
- competition between groups: NCB's anti-sub net system failed (in 1917 demo, nets snared a sub but also snared wireless signaling buoys so they couldn't call patrol boats to drop their [mock] depth charges)
- Whitney's NCB station at Nahant, Massachusetts: came up with C-tube (a stethoscope-like detector developed at Nahant and made by GE, named for GE lab's Coolidge)
- NRC came up with a physics-based solution: superior detector tube design by Max MASON at NRC's New London, Connecticut R & D facility
- still, it was the convoy strategy that was the BEST WEAPON
- but WWI exercise proved there was a PLACE for industrial and academic science

- eventually, NRC seen as science arm of the gov't
- NCB becomes a source for inventions
- Edison's proposal of a NCB model LAB - past its prime
- use math and experiment now, no more model building
- Naval Research Lab not built until Dec. 1920 - Edison left NCB in a huff

eg. AERIAL TORPEDO

SPERRY's bomb anticipated German V-1 bomb of WWII
used GE lab and Sperry Gyroscope Co. to develop devices
got a contract from the Navy and $200,000 for R&D
March 6, 1918 - 1st successful automatic flight of Sperry/Curtiss design
Charles F. KETTERING's efforts to improve Sperry's design
Kettering (inventor of the electric self-starter for cars): first head of GM's research lab
Kettering used Sperry gyro control system and some new elements (engine)
Kettering trials Sept. to Oct. 1918
tested: head to head: Kettering model scrapped in favour of Sperry/Curtiss model
irony: after all this, none were ready in time for use in the war and the project fizzled entirely by the mid-1920s

NB: REMEMBER TO PREPARE YOUR QUESTIONS FOR NOBEL LAUREATE JOHN POLANYI.

HE WILL BE AT CLASS THURSDAY, MARCH 18 FOR A "QUESTION AND ANSWER" SESSION WITH YOU AS WE ADDRESS THE ISSUE OF EINSTEIN, SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND THE REWARDS OF THE SCIENTIFIC ESTABLISHMENT.

A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF PROF. POLANYI WILL BE POSTED ON THE WEB BY NEXT TUESDAY.