Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Ceramic Engineering - Journal Article [PAGE 12]

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THE JOURNAL

OF INDUSTRI

AI

•\ND ENGINEERING

CHEMISTRY

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porcelain, in imitation of the wares from the Orient, followed the same course and produced the wares in secret, nay, even with royal approval and protection in maintaining such secrecy. I think that ceramic research has been largely handicapped by this tradition, a tradition which Is now fast being broken down and dispersed. Other industries have, I might say, been born in a new era, as the electrical industry, and have not been subject to tliis old traditional habit of passing these discoveries on from father to son. I was looking around the other day for a definition of research and I ran across this statement in the Encyclopedia Britannica: "Without research no authoritative works have been written, no scientific discoveries made, no theory of any value propounded." That is a very broad statement, but I think, after due consideration, it will be admitted that it is generally correct. When I read that, I tried to think of discoveries which might be termed "accidental." We hear of "accidental discoveries" but in nearly every case I could think of I knew that the discovery had been made simply as a side issue or as a by-product of research in some other line, but that it was almost invariably the result of something some man had found or observed in the course of research work started for some particular purpose. As a matter of fact, the most skilled research men closely watch every development, not only to attain what they seek as the ultimate result, but to avoid missing anything by the way, something perhaps that may be useful, or new or valuable. In this connection I recall Mr. E. G. Acheson having told me of his discovery of carborundum. While he was experimenting in electric furnace work in the Edison laboratories he observed in his arc furnace a few tiny iridescent crystals, crystals so small and so few in number that I dare say they would undoubtedly have escaped the attention of most investigators. He immediately focused his attention upon this tiny crystal and separated it from the other material, and in his interest tested the hardness by scratching a diamond in his ring and thus the discovery of carborundum, a hard abrasive of which he realized the value immediately. That might be termed accidental "discovery," but yet it was made by a research man endeavoring to find something, but with his eyes wide open so as to make sure of missing nothing while trying to find something, and to my mind such discoveries are legitimately the product of research. The country was never in greater need of research than a t the present time, and particularly "organized research" where groups of investigators are working shoulder to shoulder to advance some particular field of knowledge. The great industries have recognized the value of research and particularly the value of organized research, as is evidenced by the research activities of the General Electric Company, the Westinghouse Company, the National Carbon Company, the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, the Norton Company and others I might mention. Then there are the groups in the colleges and the United States Government service. As an example of organized research I would say that I represent a company that employs over a hundred men engaged in research work, a company which has invested heavily and has invested because it pays and not only pays but the progress of the electrical industry is absolutely dependent upon systematic research and effort to advance. One of the best examples is electric lighting which hits progressed tremendously in the last ten years. The old carbon filament was quite generally used ten years ago. Since then it has rapidly gone through the stages of metallized filaments, pressed tungsten filaments, drawn tungsten filaments and "gas-filled" lamps (nitrogen, etc.); all this has resulted from the determined efforts of the General Electric Co, and its research men to advance that particular field, which they have accomplished in a tremendously successful way. We have lighting to-day at a cost of one-third as much

as a few years ago, giving three times as much light at the same cost us in those days. I do not believe, then, that there need be any very strenuous argument as to the value of research to the manufacturer. As another example I would say that Mr. M. T. Herrick. in addressing the American Ceramic Society at its annual meeting last February, spoke of early research work by the National Carbon Co., with which he is closely identified, and stated that when that company was first formed it had great * difficulty in producing electrode brushes and other forms of molded carbon to compete in quality and in price with the European articles. There was no high protective tariff available and it became necessary that his company either compete successfully or go to the wall. Representatives were sent to Europe to study methods. They traveled from factory t o factory but very rarely were given the real secrets of the success of these European factories, and the representatives of the National Carbon Company came back empty-handed with this exception—that they had observed that there was one thing that every European factory had in common and that was a laboratory. Quite blindly, Mr. Herrick stated, the National Carbon Company put up a laboratory. Then they hired a man from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and within a year he had introduced two or three valuable features. This is another example of the absolute dependence of the manufacturer upon research, and not only in this country but the world over. The Germans have been pioneers in the line of industrial research. A few years ago we were called upon to develop porcelain bushings for high-voltage transformers. As you all know, very much greater voltages are being transmitted to-day over high-tension lines than a few years ago. Transformers had to be built for these higher voltage and where five or six years ago a transformer of 60,000 volts was considered large, the development rapidly made necessary transformers to be tested at 300,000 volts or more, and insulation had to be devised accordingly. We had been building comparatively small porcelain bushings to stand 50,000 to 70,000 volts and when it became necessary to go 300,000 we naturally thought the porcelain ought to be larger and thicker, so that we were soon making porcelain bushings five or six feet high. These large pieces proved very difficult to manufacture successfully and even when constructed did not entirely give the desired results. The interested electrical engineers studied the problem and after several months investigation found that the trouble was not in the porcelain but in the distribution of potential over the bushings and, as it were, the potential had piled up at certain points to such a degree as to be able t o break through porcelain of almost any size or thickness. By devising the proper design and proper voltage distribution appliances the voltage was so distributed that instead of making bushings five or six feet high and correspondingly thick, we were actually able to reduce the size very considerably. Now in this same development our next problem was to dry the bushings more quickly. I want to say hi connection with this particular research in drying that although it was initiated by the ceramic engineer it was not solved by the ceramic engineer alone. I saw at the start that it had more to do with automatic temperature control and with accurate methods of measuring humidity and temperature than with the purely ceramic field, so a committee was organized with three mechanical engineers and one ceramic engineer and that problem was solved when the mechanical engineers provided the proper control apparatus, That was a mechanical engineer's problem, but the research men had to say that it was entirely a question of proper mechanical equipment. I have pointed out these few things to show that while the manufacturer's progress must be dependent upon research,