CHAPTER II

THE MOBILIZATION OF SCIENCE

Science as a factor in the prosecution of the war The National Academy of Sciences Its offer of service in the interests of national preparedness - Creation of the National Research Council-Its functions as defined by executive order of the President - Its organization and activities The Research Information Committee and its foreign contacts. - Stimulation of industrial and scientific research-Its permanent organization — The Naval Consulting Board - Its function the examination and development of inventions Its organ

ization

Scope of its activities.

Another characteristic feature of the Great War was the extent to which recourse had to be had to almost every branch of science in order to meet the technical problems to which its prosecution gave rise. In the National Academy of Sciences the Government had a body to which it could appeal for assistance in this field. This body has a quasi-governmental status, since it was specially chartered by Congress in 1863 and in its charter it is provided that "the Academy shall, whenever called upon by any department of the Government, investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art." It is a matter of no little interest that this body was created during the progress of our great Civil War, largely in response to the need that was felt by the Government at that time for some agency to which it could look for advice and assistance in respect to matters involving scientific research. In point of fact, during that war and later at various times important use has been made of this body by the Government.

It was only natural, therefore, that upon the out

break of the Great War this body should offer its services to the Government. This it did at its annual meeting held in April, 1916. By a resolution adopted on April 19, 1916, it offered to organize the scientific resources of educational and research institutions in the interests of national preparedness. This offer was accepted by the President on April 26, 1916, and the Academy was requested to proceed at once with the work. To put its plans into execution the Academy decided to organize a special body to which it gave the name National Research Council. The establishment of this body was formally approved by the President on July 24, 1916, and at the same time he provided for the representation of the Army, the Navy, and various scientific bureaus of the Government in the Council.

On May 11, 1918, the President issued an executive order reciting the organization of the National Research Council, expressing appreciation of its work, requesting the National Academy of Sciences to perpetuate it, and specifying in considerable detail the nature of the duties it should perform. The clearness with which this order sets forth the character of the functions of the Council and the relations it should have to the scientific services of the Government warrants its reproduction in full. It reads:

The National Research Council was organized in 1916 at the request of the President by the National Academy of Sciences, under its congressional charter, as a measure of national preparedness. The work accomplished by the Council in organizing research and in securing coöperation of military and civilian agencies in the solution of military problems demonstrates its capacity for larger service. The National Academy of Sciences is therefore requested to perpetuate the National Research Council, the duties of which shall be as follows:

1. In general, to stimulate research in the mathematical,

physical, and biological sciences, and in the application of these sciences to engineering, agriculture, medicine, and other useful arts, with the object of increasing knowledge, of strengthening the national defense, and of contributing in other ways to the public welfare.

2. To survey the larger possibilities of science, to formulate comprehensive projects of research, and to develop effective means of utilizing the scientific and technical resources of the country for dealing with these projects.

3. To promote coöperation in research at home and abroad in order to secure concentration of effort, minimize duplication, and stimulate progress; but in all coöperative undertakings to give encouragement to individual initiative as fundamentally important to the advancement of science.

4. To serve as a means of bringing American and foreign investigators into active coöperation with the scientific and technical services of the War and Navy Departments and with those of the civil branches of the Government.

5. To direct the attention of scientific and technical investigators to the present importance of military and industrial problems in connection with the war and to aid in the solution of these problems by organizing specific researches.

6. To gather and collate scientific and technical information at home and abroad in coöperation with governmental and other agencies and to render such information available to duly accredited persons.

Effective prosecution of the Council's work requires the cordial collaboration of the scientific and technical branches of the Government, both military and civil. To this end repre

sentatives of the Government, upon the nomination of the National Academy of Sciences, will be designated by the President as members of the Council, as heretofore, and the heads of the departments immediately concerned will continue to coöperate in every way that may be required.

THE WHITE HOUSE,

WOODROW WILSON.

May 11, 1918.

The most significant features of this order are that by it the National Research Council became a permanent

body, was given a definite legal status as one of the war agencies created by the President, and had its function as an organ for coördinating the scientific work of the Government more distinctly emphasized.

The Council was duly organized with George E. Hale as Chairman, Charles D. Walcott, Gano Dunn, and R. A. Millikan, as First, Second and Third Vice-Chairmen, and Cary T. Hutchinson as Secretary. As members of the Council were appointed the heads or representatives of nearly all of the scientific bureaus of the Government and a large number of the leading scientists of the coun try. The Council thus became an agency for mobilizing the scientific talent of the country for war purposes.

It is impossible to describe in detail the work of this body, since much of it was of a confidential nature and all of it of a character that does not lend itself to descriptive statement. We may, however, give some idea of the great value of the services rendered by it to the Government and of the important part that it can play in the future in promoting and correlating scientfic work in the United States.

Among the several divisions created by it for the performance of its activities, first mention should be made of the Research Information Committee. This Committee was created in January, 1918, at the instance of the Secretaries of War and the Navy, to serve as an organ for" the securing, classifying and disseminating of scientific, technical, and industrial research information, especially relating to war problems, and the interchange of such information between the allies in Europe and the United States."

The Committee had its headquarters in Washington and branch offices in London, Paris, and Rome. In respect to its foreign activities, it worked in close coöpera

tion with the Offices of Military and Naval Intelligence. The functions of the foreign committees in charge of the branch offices were stated to be:

(a) The development of contact with all important research laboratories or agencies, governmental or private; the compilation of problems and subjects under investigation; and the collection and compilation of the results obtained.

(b) The classification, organization, and preparation of such information for transmission to the Research Information Committee in Washington.

(c) The maintenance of continuous contact with the work of the offices of military and naval attachés, in order that all duplication of work or crossing of effort may be avoided with the consequent waste of time and energy and the confusion resulting from crossed or duplicated effort.

(d) To serve as an immediate auxiliary to the offices of the military and naval attachés in the collection, analysis, and compilation of scientific, technical, and industrial research information.

(e) To serve as an agency at the immediate service of the commander-in-chief of the military and naval forces in Europe for the collection and analysis of scientific and technical research information and as an auxiliary to such direct military and naval agencies as may be in use for the purpose.

(f) To serve as centers of distribution to the American Expeditionary Forces in France and to the American naval forces in European waters of scientific and technical research information originating in the United States and transmitted through the Research Information Committee in Washington.

(g) To serve as centers of distribution to our allies in Europe of scientific, technical, and industrial research information originating in the United States and transmitted through the Research Information Committee in Washington.

(h) The maintenance of the necessary contact between the offices in Paris and London in order that provision may be made for the direct and prompt interchange of important scientific and technical information.

(i) To aid research workers or collectors of scientific, technical, and industrial information from the United States when properly accredited from the Research Information Committee