Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Ceramic Engineering - Journal Article [PAGE 11]

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an., i o i

TBM JOURNAL

OF INDUSTRIAL

AND ENGINEERING

CHEMISTRY

and fix it lastingly, for the good of mankind, we can still so arrange tilings that the tools are here for the good of others, sq the way shall be open, all the material provided, building and instructors ready, the opportunity shall be afforded those coming after us to use facilities we did not have and, lacking these, we dune to know their value. There is a wide field of experimentation that really cannot be done elsewhere than in a school such as this. Individuals have not the time to devote to it. It is broadly in the line of the advancement of the science, requires much time and careful attention, and would never be worked out except in such a school and by students who were building themselves up in the working out of just such problems. Instance of this is the formula for crystalline glaze given the American Ceramic Society and the eighteen hundred experiments made in this school with it in which very much of interest was added that never would have been worked out except under these conditions. The manufacturers of Germany demonstrated their belief as to the value of such research and, utilizing it in every available form, they went conquering the world. They were indeed far on their way in such conquest up to the time that the war lords fell out and so stopped their work and dragged them back to the old, old aboriginal manifestation of brute force and the Inst for blood. Had they but kept to their work, utilizing scientific research in their manufacture as they had been doing, their conquest of the world would seem to have been assured, but the war lords decided otherwise and chose the way of blood. This gathering here to-day is not just an accident, not something that happened without cause or reason. This gathering itself is a complete demonstration of the pressing importance and insistence of the subject of which I am speaking. You are gathered here to-day because of the persistent demand of the manufacturers for more ceramic research. They have not only clamored for it, they have worked for it, earnestly and selfdenyingly. They have labored personally and collectively. This department of ceramic engineering came into being because of their demands and their effort. They labored with the University authorities; they worked with every succeeding Legislative Assembly; they begged appropriations, and then, rallying the clay workers throughout the State, demanded appropriations, and they got appropriations. All this labor and effort has crystallized and materialized in tangible form in this building we here dedicate to-day to the furtherance of our Art, for the good of those who are to come after us and who will, we know, surpass us. We dedicate that they may not lack the facilities that we lacked, that they may grow to do the things that we could not do. We dedicate in reverence and hope as our best contribution to the progress and good of the work we love. I have treated my subject in a wandering fashion, possibly in a wondering fashion, for the reason that the need of the manufacturers for ceramic research is, and always has been, so great, so well known, so constant and insistent as to be selfevident and needing no demonstration. This dependence has existed from the earliest times, the want has always been felt. What was needed was a proper opportunity for research. A place was needed and tools and then education in using the tools. Men must be educated to becoming skilled in knowing how to use material and tool. Must be so trained that when reactions occur they must know why they occur and work intelligently to the desired end, and not blindly, as in the past. The quest has been much of the time blindly, gropingly, in the dark, but now is coming to be openly, undcrstandingly, and in broad daylight State universities like this, and buildings and appliances like these, are the tools which shall furnish the opportunities and appliances, for the training of the brains to mix with the clays it will then place our Art where it belongs, and our pioneer ork shall not have been in vainj 1 may only add that the men on this board whojmvc really

done the most in the pioneer labor to bring this work to fruition are so modest and diffident and fearful of receiving the praise they so well merit for their efforts that they are sitting very tight, keeping very quiet and, following usage from time immemorial, are now putting forward that member of the board who probably did the very least in the real past work to now do the talking.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

DISCUSSION

By h. K. BASKIMOSX

President American Ceramic Society Engineer or Insulations, General Electric Company

I prefer not to launch into the troubles of the electrical engineer, as I am afraid that would take a great deal of time because it is true that a large part of the electrical engineer's troubles today may be attributed to insulation and frequently to ceramic insulation. There are many forms of electrical insulation but true ceramic insulation forms a large part of the material used. I should like to tell you something about these electrical insulation problems but would prefer at this time to discuss the general aspects of ceramic research work as covered by the paper which has just been read. In the first place, there is one point in Mr. Gates' paper to which I wish to take exception, and that is his last statement that the man who had done the least had now been put forward to do the talking. Mr. Purdy and I did not know whether he referred to us or to himself, but assuming that Mr. Gates referred to himself, in his modest way, I want to say that eighteen years ago, in his factory at Terra Cotta, Illinois, I was given the privilege of going into that factory and working during my summer vacation. I was then in the first engineering class in ceramics in Ohio State University and was given the opportunity qf working in that factory, from the plaster shop to the decorating room, and of learning all that I could pick up in this way. While there I found that Mr. Gates had employed one of the first shortcourse students from Ohio State University and that he had set this young man experimenting upon all sorts of problems in colors and shapes of pottery, new kinds, unknown kinds, trying to develop something new and more beautiful, so I wish to say that in my opinion Mr. W. D. Gates is one of the pioneers in present day ceramic research. He had one of the very first laboratories, if I am not mistaken, and while Mr. Gates' motives may have been partly philanthropic (as he was always ready to encourage ceramic education and ceramic research), I suspect he had placed some dependence upon ceramic research for something that he really desired to obtain and that, therefore, he is a good example to put before you of the manufacturer's dependence upon ceramic research. Mr. Gates wanted something and he tried to get it by putting a technically trained man at work upon the necessary research.

Ceramic research is not different, or at least fundamentally different, from any other research. There is nothing to differentiate it in a general way. It requires the same sort of preparation and endeavor and the same attitude of mind but it is different in this respect—that it has taken longer to assume its proper place in the world's work. Personally, I think that this is largely because we have been handicapped by tradition. Ceramic industry is as old as the hills and from the ages past, we have record of the Chinese and Japanese potters producing most beautiful ceramic objects that are very rarely equalled, or excelled, to-day. We know that these old Chinese and Japanese potters worked by passing the secrets along from father to son. It was their greatest pride to discover something new and beautiful and then to have that live in the family as an heirloom, to be passed down to coming generations. That was the standard practice In China and Japan. Unfortunately the Germans, when they learned the secret of making pottery, particularly