Pure science and industrial research

IN MY address before the A. I. E. E. in 1916, to which Dr. Bumstead very kindly referred, I laid stress upon the importance of research conducted solely for the advancement of science. I testified to the great debt which applied scientists owed to the pure scientists, and I suggested that the industries owed an immense debt to science which they should pay by liberal contribution to those scientists, who, conducting experiments solely for the increase of knowledge, and without any expectation of pecuniary gain, give their services to this work. That paper was very well received, and I have been very much gratified to see how much good it has done to workers in pure science and among the physicists, particularly in gaining them recognition, for it appears that, as representing the American Institute of Electrical Engineers I had said something from the practical side which, if said by the theoretical or academic scientists, would not have had so much weight.