AN AMERICAN RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 147, 17 March 1919, Page 8

AN AMERICAN RESEARCH INSTITUTE

SYSTEM DESCRIBED.

An necount of au American research institute, .was given liy Mr. T. A. 11. Field, M.1 , ., before the Parliamentary Industries Committee at Nelson last week. Hβ sflul that Dr. Duncan, of the United States, while attending (he sixth international Congress of Applied Chemistry at Rome in 1907, conceived the idea of n. research laboratory which would be open to all classes of industrial problems, and by -.vhicli the industries concerned would obtain the best of chemical talent and equipment at. a -minimum of cost. The plan he evolved I was to permit industrial concerns lo establish fellowships in the research institute. Tha donor of (he fellowship would give a sum of money sufficient to pay the salary of ;i research fellow cr a group of research men for a term of years who would devote all their tiriie to the problem presented by the donor of the fellowship. All Ihe discoveries mndf would become Hie property of the donor, and- would be kept secret for a, term of three years. Then the matter was made public, thereby enriching science and enabling 'others to make use of the knowledge gained. The plan was first put into operation at the University of Kansas, and n:et with immediate success. Then Dr. Duncan was called to the University of I'ittsburg to establish a similar research system. This .system i.q now in operation at the Jlellon Institute of Industrial Research, under the directorship of Dr. Bacon, who succeeded Dγ, Diincan upon his dc-flth in 1915. It is called a benevolent institution, being, like the Cawthron l'nsti'tiite, for the benefit of the people. The donors pay only the salaries of the research fellows; All other expenses are borne- by the institute. In 1916' there were % industrial fellowships, and thn expense* of the institute were 72,000 dollars, roughly JJU.OOO, not much larger ihan the Cawthron Institute. Each .donor.received therefore a.u average of 2000 dollars in (he form of housing, equipment, or -expert direction of his .•research fellow. 'There were in 1917 forty-two industrial fellowships,' and the work they are doing ranges from the coking of coal-to the baking of bread, and from the washing of clothes to the filling of teeth. To show how its work is appreciated the Canadian Government endowed a fellowship to solve the problem of separating- asphalt from very fine sand so as to make available for* commercial use certain large deposits in the Dominion. Tho problem lifts been solved ' in the laboratory, and it is now undergoin" a test on a commercial scale. OutI side of the institute nre a number of .small buildings or shacks which represent the commercial tests''of the laboratory experiments. One research fellow is credibly reported .to have eaved a large United States bakery as much as .£200,000 a year. Recently a professorship of pure chemistry was established there.—Nelson "Colonist."