THE NEW WORLD
OF SCIENCE

Century flew TKHorlfc Series

W. F. WlLLOUGHBY, GENERAL EDITOR

THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE
Edited by Robert M. Yerkes

POLITICAL SYSTEMS IN TRAN-
SITION

By Charles G. Fenwick

THE WORKERS AT WAR

By Frank Julian Warne

Other titles will be published later

Centutg Hew THttorK) Series

A TOOL

THE NEW WORLD
OF SCIENCE

ITS DEVELOPMENT DURING THE WAR

EDITED BY

ROBERT M. YERKES

Chairman, Research Information Service
National Research Council

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO,

1920

Copyright, 1 920, by
THE CENTUBY Co.

PREFACE

In February, 1919, the editor of the Century New World
Series invited Dr. George Ellery Hale to prepare for the series
a volume on the war and science. This invitation contained
the following suggestions :

" It is desirable to give, first, a general statement of the ex-
tent to which the successful prosecution of the war required
the mobilization of the resources of the country; second, the
manner in which such resources came to the aid of the Govern-
ment; third, the results gained in the fields of research; and,
finally, the effect that the war has had and will have on the
promotion of scientific research and the application of science
to industry in the future. An account, of course, should be
given of the organization and work of the National Research
Council and the other agencies created by the Government
for the handling of scientific phases of the war administration."

Dr. Hale, feeling that it was impracticable for him to prepare
the entire volume, requested the writer to arrange with scientific
authorities for the preparation of various chapters and to act
as editor of the volume. It was originally planned to have
manuscripts prepared by a few individuals, each of whom
should be responsible for the military contributions of a cer-
tain science or group of sciences. This idea could not be put
into effect because of specialization in scientific war service.
The final outcome was the splitting of major sections of the
book into chapters which deal with the special aspects and
contributions of physics, chemistry, geology, and other
sciences.

The volume is not a complete account of the relations of
science in America to military activities; instead it presents
examples oj the important contributions of several of the

431718

vi PREFACE

natural sciences and of their related technologies. Complete-
ness of treatment within the scope of such a volume as was
proposed was impracticable because of the magnitude and
diversity of scientific service. It is appropriate to state also
that because of the impracticability of mentioning more than a
small percentage of those who deserve recognition, no attempt
has been made by most contributors to indicate the credit and
responsibility of individuals.

It has been the primary, if not the single, purpose of the
several writers to offer to the lay reader an untechnical account
of the nature of certain methods and their practical relations
to military problems. The editor, and doubtless every con-
tributor, has held clearly in mind the importance of acquaint-
ing the public with scientific progress and with typical ex-
amples of the dependence of industrial advances upon the de-
velopment of science.

THE EDITOR.

INTRODUCTION
GEORGE ELLERY HALE

One of the most striking results of the war is the emphasis
it has laid on the national importance of science and research/
The sharp spur of necessity, felt by the Allies soon after the
opening of hostilities, drove them to the instant utilization of
scientific research to make good the losses caused by the re-
striction of imports. Optical glass for gun-sights, range-
finders and periscopes ; chemicals needed for high explosives ;
and scores of other products developed in Germany after long
years of investigation, were suddenly rendered inaccessible.
Some of these could be manufactured without much delay;
but in many cases the necessary process was unknown, and
could only be discovered by research. Investigators from the
universities, the industries and the technical schools were called
upon for aid, and manufacture was soon rendered possible.

But the aid thus given was by no means restricted to the
duplication of known devices. It shortly became clear that
many of the problems of war lie in the domain of the physicist,
the chemist, the meteorologist, no less than in that of the mili-
tary expert. The physicist was quick to recognize that enemy
guns, though completely hidden from view by intervening
ground, might be accurately located by sound, and apparatus
for this purpose was rapidly developed and employed with
great success along the western front. The chemist, when
retaliation was forced by the German introduction of poisonous
gases, developed new and powerful vapors that led the origin-
ators of this system of warfare to regret the step they had
taken. The meteorologist, from his observation posts along
the battle line, supplied the data needed by the gunner, the
sound-ranger, the leader of gas attacks, and the airman. The
astronomer studied the trajectories of projectiles, improved the

vii

viii INTRODUCTION

methods of navigating airplanes, and learned how to increase
the range of guns and the accuracy of bomb-dropping. The
bacteriologist sought out the hidden mechanism of trench fever,
and the means of lessening its ravages. And so we might go
on, drawing hundreds of typical illustrations from every branch
of science.

The bearing of such varied and productive activities goes
far beyond the immediate issues of war, and reaches down to
the very foundations of national welfare. The problems of
peace are inextricably entangled with those of war, and if
scientific methods and the aid of scientific research were
needed in overcoming the menace of the enemy they will be no
less urgently needed during the turmoil of reconstruction and
the future competitions of peace.

Remember the case of the aniline dyes, the first of which,
mauve, was discovered by Sir William Perkin in 1856. Here,
as in so many other instances, a great achievement of British
initiative met with no recognition from the home government,
and the fruits of Perkin's discovery were gathered abroad.
Aniline, from which mauve is derived, is one of the products
of coal-tar, formerly regarded as useless waste. Thousands
of chemists, thoroughly infused with the spirit of research in
the German universities, and supported by great corporations,
enjoying the powerful encouragement of the Government, have
built upon this foundation the great dye industry of Germany.
The basic processes involved in the preparation of the dyes
are precisely those required for the manufacture of tri-nitro-
toluol and other high explosives. Thus the German govern-
ment, bent on its preparations for war, quite naturally developed
an industry that brought great commercial prosperity and at
the same time provided the factories, equipment, and trained
chemists necessary to produce thousands of tons of explosives.

Or recall the fixation of nitrogen. Long before the war Ger-
many systematically exploited the cheap water-power of Nor-
way for the manufacture of nitrates, needed alike for powder
and for fertilization of German soil, where the output of

INTRODUCTION ix

wheat was thus raised from 15 bushels to the acre, the average
in the United States, to 3; bushel-; *o the acre. The Chilean
nitrate beds were far away, and an interruption of overseas
traffic would inevitably accompany the outbreak of hostilities.
Thus German chemists applied, not merely the electric arc
process of nitrogen fixation rendered commercially possible
by the waterfalls of Norway, but other processes now effec-
tively utilized on an immense scale within Germany itself.
The results, rendered plainly visible during the war by the
enormous quantities of ammunition expended along the west-
ern front, will be no less important in the economic restoration
of the country through intensive agriculture.

Thus the very agencies of war will become powerful factors
in the competitions of peace, and the research methods from
which they sprang will play a far larger part in the world than
ever before.

At the outbreak of the war the statesmen of the Allies were
but little concerned with the interests of research. Necessity,
as we have seen, soon opend their eyes, and the results so
rapidly obtained convinced them that a radical change of policy
was essential. Perceiving the enormous advantages derived
by Germany from the utilization of science, and with wise an-
ticipation of the needs of the future, they took steps to remedy
the earlier neglect of science which the war had rendered so
conspicuous. An Advisory Council of Scientific and In-
dustrial Research was set up by the British Government in
1915, and one million pounds was appropriated for the pro-
motion of research in science and the arts. In the face of
rapidly rising wages and mounting costs of raw materials, it
was seen that the most direct of all possible attacks upon the
high cost of living might be made through the agency of re-
search. The cost of electric illumination, for example, will be
still higher than it is to-day unless existing methods of gen-
erating and using the current can be improved. Thus the re-
cent production of an incandescent lamp, which yields equal
light with a fraction of the current, is a most important step in

x INTRODUCTION

the right direction. In similar ways costs can be reduced and
efficiency increased in all directions through the intelligent use
of scientific research.

The recognition of this fact throughout the British Empire
has resulted in a world-wide movement of great significance.
Advisory Councils for Scientific and Industrial Research, hav-
ing large government appropriations at their disposal, have
been established by Australia, Canada, South Africa, and New
Zealand, and provision is being made for large research labora-
tories to render possible investigations in all branches of sci-
ence, and in engineering, medicine, and agriculture. It is uni-
versally recognized that the underlying problems of science,
from the solution of which all great industrial advances spring,
must be attacked no less vigorously than the more obvious
practical questions. Therefore this movement, the most sig-
nificant and far-reaching in the history of science, recognizes
no distinction between the problems of science and those of the
arts, but seeks to provide broadly and liberally for the ad-
vancement of knowledge and its effective application for the
public welfare.

The fundamental importance of science has long been rec-
ognized by the ablest leaders of industry in the United States.
The telephone was born in a research laboratory, and as soon
as the American Telephone and Telegraph Company was
formed, this laboratory was made into a department of its
activities. Under the far-seeing guidance of Theodore N.
Vail it has now become the Department of Development and
Research under Vice-President John J. Carty, employing thir-
teen hundred scientists and engineers who devote their time
exclusively to research and development in the telephone art.
Two of the outstanding results of this laboratory are trans-
continental telephony by wire and wireless telephony between
airplane and earth and between earth stations as widely
separated as Arlington and Hawaii. The General Electric
Company, which also grew out of research, maintains a great
research laboratory, costing nearly a million dollars per year,

INTRODUCTION xi

under the energetic and effective leadership of W. R. Whitney.
If the scores of devices and improvements that have flowed
from this laboratory were restricted merely to the Mazda
lamp, this country would have gained greatly by its establish-
ment. In another field George Eastman, recognizing that
photographic materials and methods are susceptible to great
improvement, founded in '1912 the Research Laboratory of the
Eastman Kodak Company, where C. E. K. Mees and his as-
sociates are accomplishing many important advances. One
might go on to mention many other successful laboratories of
industrial research in this country, including those of Thomas
A. Edison, the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing
Company, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, the United
States Steel Corporation, the General Chemical Company, the
General Bakelite Company, and others of equal importance.
A notable case is the research laboratory of the du Pont de
Nemours Company, which began with six chemists in 1902,
and employed three hundred chemists in 1918, when its an-
nual expenditure had reached three million dollars.

While the prime objects of these laboratories is the direct
solution of problems arising in the industries, much research
for the advancement of science is done in them, and their di-
recting heads are constantly emphasizing the importance of
fundamental science and its development. Thus W. R. Whit-
ney has said :

" Necessity is not the mother of invention ; knowledge and ex-
periment are its parents. This is clearly seen in the case of many
industrial discoveries ; high-speed cutting tools were not a necessity
which preceded, but an application which followed the discovery
of the properties of tungsten-chromium-iron alloys; so, too, the
use of titanium in arc lamps and of vanadium in steel were sequels
to the industrial preparation of these metals, and not discoveries
made by sheer force of necessity."

One of the best illustrations of the practical importance of
researches made solely for the purpose of increasing knowledge

xii INTRODUCTION

is afforded by the development of wireless telegraphy. The
now familiar electric waves, transmitted by the ether with the
velocity of light, were foreshadowed by Faraday and Henry
and definitely made known by the mathematical investigations
of Maxwell about the middle of the nineteenth century.
Nearly forty years later Hertz, deliberately following Max-
well's lead, produced and detected these waves experimentally.
Crookes foresaw their possible utilization for wireless teleg-
raphy, which was accomplished over short distances by Lodge
in 1894, and applied on a commercial scale by Marconi in 1896.
The wireless telephone was a later development of the
pioneer work of Maxwell and Hertz, reenforced by much ad-
ditional physical research on electric discharges in vacuum
tubes and other laboratory phenomena. Similarly the inven-
tion of the telephone goes back to the principles of magnetic-
electric induction discovered by Faraday; the anti-toxin treat-
ment of disease grew out of Pasteur's investigations of bac-
teria, which resulted in their turn from his studies of the na-
ture of certain crystals, made for the sole purpose of advancing
knowledge; the airplane had its origin in Langley's researches
on the resistance of the air to moving bodies. Analyze any in-
vention, and it will be found that it was rendered possible by
the work of men concerned only with the advancement of sci-
ence. How clearly this is appreciated by the chief leaders
of industry is best expressed in the words of Carty, from his
presidential address to the American Institute of Electrical
Engineers in 1916.

" It was Michael Faraday, one of the greatest of the workers
in pure science, who in the last century discovered the principle
of the dynamo electric machine. Without a knowledge of this
principle discovered by Faraday the whole art of electrical en-
gineering as we know it today could not exist and civilization
would have been deprived of those inestimable benefits which have
resulted from the work of the members of this Institute.

" Not only Faraday in England, but Joseph Henry in our own
country and scores of other workers in pure science have laid the

, INTRODUCTION xiii

foundations upon which the electrical engineer has reared such a
magnificent structure.

" What is true of the electrical art is also true of all the other
arts and applied sciences. They are all based upon fundamental
discoveries made by workers in pure science, who were seeking
only to discover the laws of nature and extend the realm of
human knowledge.

" By every means in our power, therefore, let us show our ap-
preciation of pure science and let us forward the work of the pure
scientists, for they are the advance guard of civilization. They
point the way which we must follow. Let us arouse the people of
our country to the wonderful possibilities of scientific discovery
and to the responsibility to support it which rests upon them and I
am sure that they will respond generously and effectively."

In each of the illustrations we have cited, and in many
others like them, three elements, fundamentally important
to the welfare of the United States, should be recognized. It
is clear that a nation anxious to reduce the cost of living and
unwilling to give place in the industrial world to better in-
formed rivals must adopt every feasible means of promoting
research in the industries. It is equally clear that so long as
the security of the world is menaced by unscrupulous military
powers, research methods must be effectively utilized in per-
fecting the means of national defense. But more fundamental
still is the prime necessity, clearly appreciated and strongly
emphasized by the far-sighted leaders of American industry,
of promoting research in all branches of science, without
thought of any industrial application, for the sake of advancing
knowledge. As Sir Joseph Thomson has recently said, it ib
only in this way that the greatest advances are made. The
pioneers of industrial research are those who seize and apply
the discoveries of men of science, by whom new territories are
opened and explored. Without the knowledge derived from
such explorations, the investigator bent upon immediate in-
dustrial advantage could make little progress.

Our place in the industrial world, the advance of our com-
merce, the health of our people, the output of our farms, the

xiv INTRODUCTION

conditions under which the great majority of our population
must labor, and the security of the nation will thus depend, in
large and increasing measure, on the attention we devote to the
promotion of scientific and industrial research. The purpose
of this book is therefore to describe the part played by science
in the war with special reference to the future development and
utilization of research on a scale commensurate with the needs
of the United States.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

PREFACE v

By the editor

INTRODUCTION , vii

By George Ellery Hale

I SCIENCE AND WAR . ;; V V: V V ' v' -^ ' • * • 3
By George Ellery Hale

II WAR SERVICES OF THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 13
By George Ellery Hale

THE ROLE OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE IN
THE WAR

III CONTRIBUTIONS OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 33

By Robert A. Millikan

IV SOME SCIENTIFIC ASPECTS OF THE METEOROLOGICAL

WORK OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY 49

By Robert A. Millikan

V SOUND-RANGING IN THE AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY

FORCES *v ; v 63

By Augustus Trowbridge

VI WAR-TIME PHOTOGRAPHY . . > * ,#• 89

By Herbert E. Ives

VII OPTICAL GLASS FOR WAR NEEDS 103

By Harrison E. Howe

THE ROLE OF CHEMISTRY IN THE WAR

VIII THE SUPPLY OF NITROGEN PRODUCTS FOR THE MANU-
FACTURE OF EXPLOSIVES 123

By Arthur A, Noyes

XV

xvi CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

IX THE PRODUCTION OF EXPLOSIVES 134

By Charles E. Mimroe

X THE CHEMICAL WARFARE SERVICE 148

By Clarence /. West

THE ROLE OF THE EARTH SCIENCES IN
THE WAR

XI CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOGRAPHY ....... 177

By Douglas W . Johnson

XII CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOLOGY ... .... 196

By Douglas W. Johnson

THE ROLE OF ENGINEERING IN THE WAR

XIII ADVANCES IN SIGNALLING CONTRIBUTED DURING THE

WAR .' .' ^ . . 221

By A. E. Kennelly

XIV CONTRIBUTIONS OF METALLURGY TO VICTORY . ^ '. ' . 247

By Henry M. Howe

THE ROLE OF BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE IN
THE WAR

XV THE FOOD PROBLEM 265

By Vernon Kellogg

XVI THE WAR SERVICE OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION . . 277
By Frederick F. Russell

XVII SOME DISEASES PREVALENT IN THE ARMY .... 291
By Frederick F. Russell

XVIII ADVANCES IN SURGERY DURING THE WAR . . . . 311
By John W. Hanner

XIX PREVENTIVE MEDICINE AND THE WAR . . . . 328
By Victor C. Vaughan

CONTENTS xvii

THE ROLE OF PSYCHOLOGY IN THE WAR

CHAPTER PAGE

XX How PSYCHOLOGY HAPPENED INTO THE WAR . . . 351

By Robert M. Yerkes

XXI WHAT PSYCHOLOGY CONTRIBUTED TO THE WAR . . 364
By Robert M. Yerkes

RELATIONS OF THE WAR TO PROGRESS IN
SCIENCE

XXII THE POSSIBILITIES OF COOPERATION IN RESEARCH . 393
By George Ellery Hale

XXIII THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF RESEARCH . 405

By George Ellery Hale

XXIV THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL

By James R. Angell

INDEX . . -.\ 439

LIST OF PLATES

FIGUBE

ii. The Dodge instrument for training gun-pointers Frontispiece

FACING
PAGE

1. Uniform rate of ascent of pilot balloon up to 11,000

meters . . /. . .... . . . . » • 5°

2. Pilot balloon ascent showing isolated convection current 51

3. Uniform rate of ascent of pilot balloon up to 20,000

meters where balloon sprung a leak. . .... 54

4. Convection currents at low altitudes . ... . . 55

1. Example of airplane photograph. Trenches, concrete

dug-outs and machine gun emplacements along the
Yser River N . . . . . . 94

2. The method of building up a mosaic map from a large

number of overlapping serial photographs ... -94

3. Color filters in aerial photography . . ... V . 95

2. Portable army telephone exchange . . . . - . . . 228

3. Portable 4-line switchboard . . . 228

4. Portable outpost switchboard 229

5. Signalers in gas masks talking with observer in a captive

balloon ........ t. . \ .... 229

6. Brigadier-General Edgar G. Russel, the Chief Signal Of-

ficer of the A. E. F .' *..... 236

7. Major-General Squier, Chief Signal Officer, U. S. Army 236

8. Types of vacuum tube . . . ...... . . . . 237

9. Airplane radiogenerator 237

10. Interior parts of radiogenerator ........ 237

1. A trade test in the United States Army . . . . . 354

2. An individual psychological examination in the United

States Army 355

3. Testing the mechanical skill of soldiers by the Stenquist

method V . > 358

4. Examination Alpha . :... . , . . . . . . . . 359

Group of soldiers at Camp Lee, Virginia, taking the army

psychological examination for literates. This was be-
fore benches were provided in the examining room !

Soldiers scoring psychological examination papers

xix

THE
NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

THE
NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

i

SCIENCE AND WAR1
GEORGE ELLERY HALE

SCIENCE UNDER NAPOLEON

THIS is by no means the first war in which men of science
have been called from their customary researches to solve
military problems. For early examples we might go back to
the Greeks, and cite illustrations from the conquests of Alex-
ander the Great or the reputed exploits of Archimedes at the
siege of Syracuse. But a more striking and illuminating ex-
ample, of great significance because of the emphasis laid on the
national importance of science and research by the leaders of
France, may be taken from the history of the French Revolu-
tion and the life of Napoleon Bonaparte.

At the period of the French Revolution the Paris Academy
of Sciences occupied an unrivalled position in Europe. Com-
posed of the leaders of science in every field, it was therefore
prepared to deal with the heavy problems which grow out of
a great emergency. When the Convention decided to raise a
large army to resist invasion and stamp out civil war, equip-

1 For the material used in the first half of this Chapter the writer is
chiefly indebted to Maindron's L'Academie des Sciences and to the
Presidential address of M. Guignard at the last annual meeting of the
Academy (Comptes Rendus, December 22, 1919).

3

NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

ment of all kinds was lacking. Steel, nitrates and many neces-
sary raw materials were cut off by the blockade, and the nation
was thrown upon its own resources.

In this critical situation the Committee of Public Safety ap-
pealed to the members of the Academy and their assistants. A
chateau at Meudon was placed at their disposal, together with
the adjoining park for experimental purposes. Aided by Van-
dermonde and Berthollet, Monge discovered the process of
manufacturing steel and making guns. Fourcroy succeeded in
separating copper from bell metal. Vandermonde was placed
in charge of the manufacture of rifles, swords, and bayonets.
Arms were soon available, but powder was so scarce that
Hoche, in command of the army of the Sambre and Meuse,
was compelled to retreat for lack of sufficient supply. But the
chemists were equal to the emergency, and nitrates were pro-
duced from many sources, the former slow methods of manu-
facturing explosives were replaced by new ones and in a short
time a single factory was turning out powder at the then ex-
traordinary rate of 30,000 pounds per day. Potash, formerly
imported from Spain, was also cut off, but a supply was ob-
tained from the ashes of plants. New methods were devised
for the rapid tanning of leather, the manufacture of paper, and
scores of other products. Even more striking to the popular
imagination was the development of the " telegraph " or long
distance signaling device of the Abbe Claude Chappe and tht
war balloon of Guyton de Morveau. If to the unthinking all
these results of science seemed to be creations of the moment,
those who paused to reflect saw their origin in the decades of
research that preceded the Revolution and reached their height
in Lavoisier, who fell a victim to the guillotine.

In the events thus briefly sketched we have an exact parallel
to the experiences of the present war, which once more forced
national leaders when confronted by critical problems, to seek
at the last moment the aid of science. A much more enlight-
ened appreciation of the value of science to the state was shown
by Napoleon Bonaparte, whose relations with the Paris Acad-

SCIENCE UNDER NAPOLEON 5

emy of Sciences are of special interest at a time when an equal
grasp by our own Government of the possibilities of research,
embodied in concrete form and applied to national advance-
ment, would bring a great return.

The brilliant strategy displayed in his Italian campaign,
and the attitude which he assumed toward the men of science
of the conquered territory, led to Napoleon's election as a mem-
ber of the National Institute of France on December 25, 1797.
In his letter of acceptance he remarks:

. . . " The truest conquests, the only ones that give rise to
no regrets, are those gained over ignorance.

" The most honorable as well as the most useful activity of
nations is to contribute to the advancement of human knowl-
edge.

" The real strength of the French Republic should henceforth
lie in its determination to possess every new idea, without a
single exception."

Entering at once upon his duties, Napoleon took part with
Borda and Coulomb the physicists, Laplace the astronomer,
and other members in the examination of devices, some of them
of a military nature, submitted for the consideration of the
Institute. But his belief in the utilization by the state of the
services of men of science was most strikingly demonstrated in
the organization of his expedition to Egypt. In addition to
the military and naval contingents, he took with him a scien-
tific commission, comprising many of the most distinguished
scholars of France. The long list of members includes
mathematicians, physicists, astronomers, chemists, engineers,
geologists and mineralogists, botanists, zoologists, surgeons,
pharmacists, political economists, archeologists, architects,
painters, and many others. Less than a month after his ar-
rival in Cairo, Napoleon established the Institute of Egypt,
modeled after the Institute of France, with which it was in
close correspondence. As Vice-President of the Institute of
Egypt, and in constant attendance at its meetings, Napoleon
called for the appointment of committee after committee, to

6 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

report on the best means of baking bread for the army, the
discovery of a substitute for hops needed in the manufacture
of beer, the best method of purifying the water of the Nile, the
relative efficiency of wind-mills and water-mills, the possibility
of manufacturing powder in Egypt. By no means forgetful
of the wider interests of science and the arts, Napoleon secured
the appointment of a committee to report on the feasibility of
establishing an astronomical observatory in Egypt, and
permanently preserved, in the magnificent volumes of the
Description de I'Egypt, the exhaustive studies of the temples
and antiquities made by his architects and archeologists. It
is interesting to remember that it was Napoleon who announced
to the National Institute, a few days after his return to Paris,
that he had given orders to bring to France the celebrated
Rosetta Stone, with its tri-lingual inscription, which enabled
Champollion some years later to decipher the Egyptian hiero-
glyphs. Thus the title " Le membre de ITnstitut, General en
chef," invariably used by Napoleon throughout his Egyptian
campaign, was fairly descriptive of his double service. Indeed,
when we recall the early collapse of that ill-fated expedition,
we cannot fail to recognize that his contribution to science
and the arts as Member of the Institute was far more enduring
than his initial military success as Commander in Chief at the
Battle of the Pyramids.

During the triumphs of his subsequent career Napoleon gave
strong support to the National Institute of France, which then
attained a brilliancy of success and achievement without a
parallel in the history of science. In 1800, as First Consul,
Napoleon presided over the meetings of its Class of Physical
and Mathematical Sciences (corresponding to the present
Academy of Sciences), and after listening to an address by
Volta on his electrical researches, proposed that a medal be
awarded him for his discoveries, which was done without de-
lay. Soon afterwards, deeply impressed by the great possi-
bilities which he keenly perceived to lie in the future develop-
ment of similar researches, Napoleon established a medal

SCIENCE UNDER NAPOLEON 7

valued at three thousand francs to be awarded to the author of
the best experiment made each year in the field of galvanic
electricity. Moreover, " with the special object of encourag-
ing and fixing the attention of physicists on that branch of
physics which, in my opinion, is the pathway to great discov-
eries," he announced his intention to present the sum of sixty
thousand francs " to any one whose experiments or discoveries,
in the judgment of the First Class of the Institute, shall ac-
complish an advance in electricity or galvanism comparable to
that made by Franklin and Volta."

Subsequently, both as First Consul and as Emperor, Na-
poleon continued to take personal part in the work of the In-
stitute, which he regarded as one of the most important na-
tional agencies for the advancement of France. He provided
for its reorganization with enlarged scope and greater powers
(law of January 23, 1803) and established it, -at the expense
of the state, in the Palais des Quatre-Nations (now Palais de
1'Institut). He presented to the Institute a large number of
statues of eminent men of science and letters formerly in the
Louvre, and subsequently added a statue of d'Alembert " as
a mark of his esteem for the Institute and of his constant wish
to reward and encourage the labors of this company, which
contributes so largely to the prosperity and welfare of his
people." He called upon the Institute to report every five
years on the progress of science, the arts and letters in France.
He founded a series of thirty-five grand prizes, nineteen of ten
thousand francs each, sixteen of five thousand francs each, to
be allotted by the Institute and awarded every ten years by
the Emperor in person for researches and inventions in the
various branches of science and the arts. In short, up to the
time of his abdication Napoleon did everything in his power
to advance the interests of the Institute and to render it of the
greatest service to the nation. He was amply rewarded by the
successes of its members, best illustrated by the accomplish-
ments of such men as Laplace, Lagrange, Berthollet, Cuvier,
Coulomb, Biot, Delambre, Jussieu, and Fourier, who, with

8 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

others of like distinction, constituted the most brilliant com-
pany of investigators ever assembled.

We have permitted this brief account of science in France
during the period of Napoleon to develop beyond the immediate
questions of war because of the value of the example from our
present point of view. In fact, as shown in the introductory
chapter, it is impossible to distinguish sharply between science
as needed for national defense and science as the basis of in-
dustrial progress. It will be fortunate indeed if the heavy
blows to civilization directly chargeable to the Central Powers
can be offset in some degree by the new appreciation of science,
and advantage should be taken of every feasible method of
stimulating research that may be suggested by past experience.

SCIENCE IN THE CIVIL WAR

Let us now glance for a moment at the early development of
science in the United States, and observe the part it played in
the Civil War. De Tocqueville, who visited this country in
1831, has preserved his impressions in his well-known work on
" Democracy in America." In a chapter entitled " How the
example of the Americans fails to prove that a democratic
people cannot possess aptitude and taste for science, literature
and art," he wrote as follows : '* It must be admitted that
among the civilized peoples of our time there are few in which
the higher sciences have made less progress than in the United
States." This he attributed to our Puritan origin, our pur-
suit of the wealth which is so easily acquired in a new country,
and our dependence upon England for intellectual things. " I
consider the people of the United States as that portion of the
English people which is charged with the exploitation of the
forests of the new world, while the rest of the nation, enjoying
more leisure and less preoccupied with the material needs of
life, may devote itself to thought and to the development of
the human mind in every field."

But although he regarded the United States as exceptional,
he fancied that he recognized in all democracies conditions of

SCIENCE UNDER NAPOLEON 9

disturbance and unrest which leave little opportunity for the
quiet and repose essential to the cultivation of science. These
he carefully distinguished, however, from great upheavals of
the body politic. " When a violent revolution occurs among
a highly civilized people, it cannot fail to give a sudden impulse
to feeling and imagination." Thus, he pointed out, the French
achieved their highest development in science soon after the
revolution of 1789.

In 1863, when the National Academy of Sciences was in-
corporated, de Tocqueville would probably have considered our
intellectual dependence upon England to be materially less than
at the time of his visit to the United States, thirty years earlier.
Doubtless he would have attributed the improved condition of
American science to the effect of the Civil War, and the con-
siderable increase in wealth and leisure. In 1873, if we may
judge from Tyndall's remarks in the concluding lecture of his
American series, European opinion saw hope for the future of
science in the United States, but recognized few important ac-
complishments. "If great scientific results are not achieved
in America, it is not to the small agitations of society that I
should be disposed to ascribe the defect, but to the fact that
the men among you who possess the endowments necessary
for profound scientific inquiry are laden with duties of ad-
ministration, so heavy as to be utterly incompatible with the
continuous and tranquil meditation which original investiga-
tion demands." At this time Henry was secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution, Barnard was president of Columbia
College, and Rogers was president of the Massachusetts In-
stitute of Technology. There was thus some justification for
Tyndall's remark, though the amount of scientific research in
progress was much larger than one would infer from his state-
ment of the case. Moreover, though deprived by other duties
of the privilege of personal work in the laboratory, these very
men, charter members of the National Academy, had assisted
in laying the foundations of science in America.

One of the most striking pen portraits of President Lincoln

io THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

that we possess depicts him on the great tower of the Smith-
sonian Institution, which he ascended night after night with
Joseph Henry, during the Civil War. From this vantage point
lights were flashed to distant stations, in connection with tests
of new methods of signaling. It was in such researches for
military purposes that the National Academy of Sciences had
its origin.

The period of these experiments was an anxious one. Many
months of war, marked by serious and unexpected reverses,
had left small room for over-confidence, and taught the neces-
sity of utilizing every promising means of strengthening the
northern arms. With one or two notable exceptions, the great
scientific bureaus of the Government, now so powerful, had
not come into existence. But the country was not without its
leaders of science and engineering, both within and without the
Government circle. Davis, fighting Admiral, Chief of the
Bureau of Navigation, and founder of the Nautical Almanac ;
Bache, Superintendent of the Coast Survey, and designer of
the defenses of Philadelphia ; and Joseph Henry, of whom we
have already spoken, clearly recognized the need of a national
organization, embracing the whole range of science, to ad-
vise the Government on questions of science and art. Joining
with them Louis Agassiz, the great naturalist; Benjamin
Pierce, mathematician and astronomer; and B. A. Gould,
founder of the Observatory of the Argentine Republic, they
planned the National Academy of Sciences. A bill to incor-
porate the Academy was introduced in the Senate by Senator
Wilson of Massachusetts on February 21, 1863. This passed
the Senate and the House, and was signed by President Lincoln
on March 3. After enumerating the charter members, who
comprised the leading men of science and engineers of the day,
and empowering the Academy to make its own organization,
the bill provides 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, the
actual expense of such investigations, examinations, experi-

SCIENCE UNDER NAPOLEON n

ments, and reports to be paid from appropriations which may
be made for the purpose ; but the Academy shall receive no
compensation whatever for any services to the Government of
the United States."

As the adviser of the Government on questions of science, the
Academy was immediately called upon by the War and Navy
Departments to report on various problems connected with the
war. Among these reports the following may be mentioned :

On the Protection of Bottoms of Iron Vessels from Corro-
sion.

On the Adjustment of Compasses to Correct Magnetic De-
viation in Iron Ships.

On Wind and Current Charts and Sailing Directions.

On the Explosion on the United States steamer Chenango.

On Experiments on the Expansion of Steam.

On the Preservation of Paint on Army Knapsacks.

In addition to such formal reports from special committees,
many members of the Academy contributed individually to the
study of war problems. Thus we find in the early records
the titles of such papers as the following:

F. A. P. Barnard : On the force of fired gun-powder and
the pressure to which heavy guns are actually subjected in
firing.

Joseph Henry : On materials for combustion of lamps in
lighthouses.

J. E. Hilgard : On a chronograph for measuring the velocity
of projectiles.

J. E. Hilgard: Note on the changes that have taken place
in the bar of Charleston Harbor since the sinking of obstruc-
tions in the main channel.

B. A. Gould: Various papers on the stature, proportions,
ages, and vision of American soldiers.

W. H. C. Bartlett : On rifled guns.

Most of the work of the members on war problems was, of
course, not embodied in published papers, though it formed an
important part of the activities of the Government.

12 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

This illustration of a national organization of science, includ-
ing representatives of the army, navy, and civil branches of
the Government, cooperating closely with the men of science in
civil life, recalls the similar organization in France under Na-
poleon. Since the Civil War the National Academy has been
called upon by the President, by Congress, and by the heads of
Government departments to deal with many scientific problems,
of the most diverse nature. A new opportunity for national
service, which arose with the German menace, was recognized
and acted upon nearly a year before the United States entered
the present war.

V

II

WAR SERVICES OF THE NATIONAL
RESEARCH COUNCIL

GEORGE ELLERY HALE

BROADLY speaking, the organizations of scientific men ef-
fected in this country and in Europe under the influence
of the war were of two classes: (i) those temporarily con-
stituted, either as separate groups or as parts of existing
branches of the army or navy, to deal with military, naval, or
industrial problems : and (2) those permanently established
for the promotion and development of scientific and industrial
research. They therefore correspond to the two general ef-
fects that such a war must inevitably produce in unprepared
countries, the Governments of which have lacked adequate ap-
preciation of the national value of science : A sudden demand
for military and naval equipment of new types and for products
formerly imported from enemy countries, and an almost equally
sudden recognition of the fact that science and research must
henceforth be recognized and developed as national assets of
the first importance.

It is obviously impossible within the limits of this book to
describe the work of these numerous organizations or even
to mention their names, though some typical illustrations of
their activities may be found in subsequent chapters. It is to
be hoped that adequate reports will be published of the work
of such bodies as the Naval Consulting Board and others, both
military and civil, that played a prominent part in the war.
When temporarily constituted, their history forms an impor-
tant part of the war record. But when permanently estab-

13

14 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

lished, to deal during the war with its special problems, and
later to promote the broad interests of scientific and industrial
research, they call for special consideration, because of the im-
portant bearing of their war activities on those to be under-
taken under peace conditions. In the United States the na-
tional body of this character is the National Research Council,
formed by the National Academy of Sciences at the call of the
President.

In April, 1916, when the wanton attack on the Sussex had
greatly increased the tension of our relations with Germany,
the Academy voted unanimously to offer its services to the
President of the United States. He accepted this offer im-
mediately, and expressed the desire that the Academy should
bring into cooperation governmental, educational, industrial,
and other research agencies, primarily in the interest of the na-
tional defense, but with full recognition of the duties that must
be performed in the furtherance of scientific and industrial
progress.

The Academy's connection with the Government, its inclu-
sion of the whole range of science, and its many years of co-
operation with the Royal Society of London, the Paris Academy
of Sciences, and other similar institutions abroad, pointed to it
as the only body in the United States in a position to comply
with the President's request. It was clear, however, that mem-
bership in the desired organization should not be exclusively
confined to the National Academy. Many technical bureaus
of the army and navy, for example, should be represented by
their chiefs ex-officio, and in other cases a varied membership,
broadly representative of research in its numerous aspects,
would also be desirable. The Organizing Committee accord-
ingly proposed the establishment of a new body, resting legally
upon the charter of the Academy, sharing its privileges, both
at home and abroad, and at the same time affording the wide
freedom of selection desired.

The National Research Council, comprising the chiefs of
the technical bureaus of the army and navy, the heads of gov-

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 15

ernment bureaus engaged in scientific research, a group of in-
vestigators representing educational institutions and research
foundations, and another group including representatives of
industrial and engineering research, was accordingly consti-
tuted by the Academy with the active cooperation of the leading
scientific and engineering societies. The important part taken
by the Engineering Foundation, which voted to apply its entire
income for the year toward the expense of organization, to give
the services of its Secretary, and to provide a New York office
for the Research Council, is a noteworthy illustration of the
cordial support given by the engineers.

On July 24, 1916, President Wilson addressed the following
letter to the President of the National Academy :

WASHINGTON, D. C, July 24, 1916.
Dr. William H. Welch,

President of the National Academy of Sciences, Baltimore,

Maryland.

MY DEAR DR. WELCH : I want to tell you with what gratification
I have received the preliminary report of the National Research
Council, which was formed at my request under the National
Academy of Sciences. The outline of work there set forth and
the evidences of remarkable progress towards the accomplishment
of the object of the Council are indeed gratifying. May I not
take this occasion to say that the Departments of the government
are ready to cooperate in every way that may be required, and that
the heads of the Departments most immediately concerned are now,
at my request, actively engaged in considering the best methods of
cooperation ?

Representatives of government bureaus will be appointed as
members of the Research Council as the Council desires.
Cordially and sincerely yours,

(Signed) WOODROW WILSON.

An Executive Order, requesting the National Academy to
perpetuate the National Research Council, defining its duties,
and providing for the cooperation of the Government, was
subsequently issued by the President.

16 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

The National Research Council was formally organized at
a meeting held in the Engineering Societies Building in New
York on September 20, 1916. The United States had not
yet broken relations with Germany, but some important steps,
looking toward preparation for war, could be taken without
delay. A national census of research, including data regard-
ing the equipment for research, the men engaged in it, and the
lines of investigation pursued in cooperating Government
Bureaus, educational institutions, research foundations, and in-
dustrial research laboratories, was taken by a Research Council
Committee under the Chairmanship of the Director of the
Bureau of Standards. With the cooperation of leading na-
tional scientific societies, committees were formed for the
three-fold object of strengthening the national defense, de-
veloping American industries, and advancing knowledge.
Steps were taken to secure the appointment of Research Com-
mittees in educational institutions, where many problems re-
lating to the national defense were subsequently investigated.
A strong committee was established for the promotion of in-
dustrial research, and comprehensive plans were made with the
view of securing a far wider recognition of the value of re-
search in the development of American industries.

However, relations with Germany grew rapidly worse,
finally resulting in war. On February 28, 1917, the Council
of National Defense passed a resolution expressing its recogni-
tion of the fact that the National Research Council, at the re-
quest of the President, had undertaken to organize the sci-
entific resources of the country in the interest of national wel-
fare, and inviting the Council to cooperate with it in matters per-
taining to scientific research for national defense. Soon after-
wards, the Research Council was requested to act during the
» war as the Department of Science and Research of the Council
of National Defense. As war approached, the Research
Council opened offices in Washington and prepared to give its
entire attention to military and naval problems, and to in-
dustrial problems developed by our entrance into hostilities.

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 17

Two lines of effort, demanding very different modes of pro-
cedure, lay before the Council in entering upon its war serv-
ices. Many new scientific methods, unfamiliar in the United
States, had been developed and successfully applied by our
Allies during the war. It was a matter of the first importance
that we should lose no time in profiting by such advantages,
which demanded for their application the organization of
new services in the army and navy, and the enlistment of large
numbers of scientific men for service at home and in the field.
In the second place, experience abroad had shown the necessity
of conducting researches for the solution of military, naval,
and industrial problems, even after war had begun. It goes
without saying that such researches, which demand much time
and thought, should have been initiated years before the out-
break ef war. But as preparedness for national defense had
been as sadly neglected in its scientific aspects as on its more
obviously military side, there was no alternative. In Ger-
many, where a short war had been expected, the men of science
had been called upon after the outbreak of hostilities to develop
new processes and to provide substitutes for commodities cut
off by the blockade. In France and England, researches con-
ducted under the disturbing conditions of war had been equally
successful. It was plain that we in the United States must
lose no time in taking advantage of our great national asset
of scientific men and laboratories.

At this point a fundamental principle in the policy of the Na-
tional Research Council should be mentioned. In spite of its
establishment for the promotion and utilization of scientific re-
search, the Council took the stand from the outset that in time
of war the proper procedure is to adopt and immediately to
utilize at the front the best available military device for the ac-
complishment of any purpose in view, before attempting to
develop a more effective means of serving the same end.
When men and means were available, researches for the im-
provement of such devices, or for the development of new ones,
might advantageously be initiated in many cases, but there

i8 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

could be no excuse for delaying action in order to await the
outcome of these researches. In time of war there can surely
be no justification for delays due to a desire to gratify per-
sonal or national pride in inventiveness or originality.

When a scientific investigator undertakes any piece of re-
search, his first act is invariably to ascertain just what work has
already been accomplished in that field. It goes without say-
ing, therefore, that an organization composed of scientific in-
vestigators must proceed in the same way in attacking any
large problem involving research. Moreover, it must lose no
time in arranging for close cooperation with the scientific men
of other nations concerned with the same problem.

Accordingly, the President of the National Academy, ac-
companied by the Chairman of the Committee appointed by
the Academy to organize the Research Council, made a pre-
liminary visit to England and France in August, 1916, in order
to learn the general character of the war services rendered
by the scientific men of these countries. They found the in-
vestigators, with whom they had cooperated for many years
in scientific research, actively engaged in the study of war
problems. Eminent physicists, always successful in research
and prolific in new ideas, were giving much attention to the im-
provement of airplanes, which were so greatly increased in
efficiency in England during the war. Others were attacking
the submarine problem, the full menace of which has finally
become known to the public through the recent articles of Ad-
miral Sims. The Astronomer Royal, most of whose staff was
at the front, was utilizing the facilities of the Royal Observa-
tory at Greenwich for the rating of chronometers and the ad-
justment of field-glasses. On the roof was a range-finder for
the location of Zeppelins and German airplanes, which had
recently dropped bombs in the Observatory garden. Distin-
guished physiologists were seeking means of alleviating the
new sufferings imported by the Huns into warfare. In fact,
all British men of science, if unable to enlist for duty at the
front, were devoting themselves to any available war service.

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 19

In France the activities of the men of science, who responded
to the earliest call for the national defense, were no less im-
pressive. The Minister of Public Instruction, himself an able
mathematician and member of the Institute, had organized
a strong group, which dealt with a great number of war prob-
lems. Some of its members were the first to conceive and to
carry into effect the method of sound- ranging, a brilliant ap-
plication of physics in warfare. Leading physicists and
astronomers with whom American investigators had long been
associated in the work of the International Union for Coopera-
tion in Solar Research, were prominent members of this group.
The Paris Academy of Sciences was also contributing largely
through its members toward the solution of scientific questions
of both military and industrial importance. Such examples
afforded a powerful stimulus to those American investigators
who felt that the continued lawlessness of the Germans must
soon identify our interests with those of the Allies.

On the day preceding the entrance of the United States into
the war, the following cablegram was sent by the National
Academy of Sciences to the Royal Society of London, the
Paris Academy of Sciences, the Accademia dei Lincei of
Rome, and the Petrograd Academy of Sciences — leading sci-
entific bodies, then engaged in the study of war problems, with
which the National Academy had cooperated for many years
in scientific research.

.TV

The entrance of the United States into the war unites our men
of science with yours in a common cause. The National Academy
of Sciences, acting through the National Research Council, which
has been designated by President Wilson and the Council of Na-
tional Defense to mobilize the research facilities of the country,
would glady cooperate in any scientific researches still underlying
the solution of military or industrial problems.

Steps were also taken to despatch a group of seven scientific
investigators to France and England for the study of war prob-
lems and the arrangement of effective means of cooperation.

20 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

The members of the Committee sailed early in May, 1917, and
were most cordially welcomed and given information of great
value.

The response of our foreign colleagues to our offer of co-
operation was immediate and effective. France sent to the
United States an able group of investigators, and both Eng-
land and Italy did likewise. The French members brought
with them a large collection of instruments and devices devel-
oped in France for military and naval purposes since the out-
break of the war, which was invaluable in connection with our
work.

Just at this time the submarine danger was at its height.
Shipping to the amount of 900,000 tons was sunk by the Ger-
mans in April, 1917, and the British Government was ex-
tremely doubtful whether this menace, the most serious of
the war, could be overcome. As Admiral Sims has recently
pointed out, quick action was essential. The depth charge had
already been invented, and naval officers all agreed that if
the submarine could be definitely located it could be easily
destroyed. Thus the problem for the scientific investigator
was to devise a means of determining the exact position of a
submerged submarine. Wrhile it was true that the results of
their researches might not be obtained and applied in time, it
was equally clear that no effort should be spared, even at that
late date, to devise the apparatus so urgently required. If the
vigorous action of the combined navies of the Allies should
succeed in alleviating the menace, without wholly overcoming
it, there might be time to develop a detection method which
would permit the finishing blow to be dealt. Fortunately for
the cause of the Allies, the convoy system, then regarded by
the masters of merchant ships as impracticable, was soon suc-
cessfully applied. But this outcome could not be foreseen,
and the men of science were in duty bound to contribute their
best efforts without delay.

The National Research Council accordingly organized a con-
ference on the submarine problem in which the foreign repre-

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 21

sentatives, with officers of the Navy Department, and the
physicists and engineers who had already studied the question
in this country, participated.1 In order to make clear the
general nature of the methods discussed, the following brief
description of the apparatus employed may be of service.

Submarine detection devices are of two principal classes :
listening apparatus, on the principle of the microphone or the
stethoscope, and instruments analogous to searchlights for use
under water, in which the beam of light is replaced by a beam
of sound. A simple physician's stethoscope, if placed under
water and connected to the ear by tubing, will render audible
the sound from a rapidly moving submarine at a distance of
a mile or more. Indeed, a small piece of rubber tubing, if
substituted for the stethoscope, will serve very well as a sound
detector. By connecting with the ears two stethoscopes, at
opposite ends of a supporting bar three or four feet long, the
direction of a moving submarine can be determined with con-
siderable accuracy by rotating the bar in a horizontal plane and
utilizing the same binaural discrimination with which we as-
certain the direction of sounds without apparatus. By re-
fining this apparatus, it is even possible to employ it on a sub-
marine destroyer moving at a speed of several knots, in spite
of the local sounds due to the destroyer. However, the
method is seriously limited in actual practice ; it cannot be used
on vessels moving at high speed, it cannot detect submarines
lying at rest or moving at low speed, and confusion may result
from the presence of several surface vessels, as in the case of
a convoy.

We therefore look for assistance to an entirely different
device. A beam from a searchlight is quenched by a short
thickness of water, but a beam of high frequency sound waves

1 Three able groups of investigators were already at work on this
question in the United States under the Bureau of Steam Engineering
of the Navy, and both the Naval Consulting Board and the National
Research Council had taken part in promoting studies of the submarine
problem.

22 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

can penetrate water to a great distance. Soon after the loss
of the Titanic, an English inventor was granted patents for his
method of detecting objects above and below water by the echo
of beams of sound, ranging in frequency from 5,00x3 to 100,000
complete vibrations per second. The method was not carried
into practical effect at that time, but during the war the same
principle was applied by French and British men of science,
and important progress resulted. Before the end of the war
this device had been developed to such a degree as to enable
a destroyer to detect and run down a submarine more than a
mile away.

After a two days' discussion of such methods by the Sub-
marine Conference, it became clear that a greatly intensified
attack on the problem of detection should be made. The Re-
search Council accordingly brought to Washington more than
forty leading physicists, and a second conference, of several
days' duration, was held with the foreign naval officers and
men of science. This resulted in the selection of several groups
of investigators to take up the problem at a point in its de-
velopment already attained here and abroad, and to continue
its study in cooperation with a special board appointed by the
Secretary of the Navy, on which the National Research Coun-
cil was represented. A more complete account of this work,
which involved the organization of special investigations in
laboratories in many parts of the country, may be found in
Chapter 3.

An important extension of the duties of the National Re-
search Council occurred in July, 1917, when it was requested
by the Chief Signal Officer of the army to organize the Division
of Science and Research of the Signal Corps. A vice-chair-
man of the Council was commissioned in the army and placed
in charge of this Division, which was given offices in the build-
ing of the National Research Council in Washington, where the
Division undertook the solution of numerous problems of mili-
tary importance. Here it was a question both of the immediate
application of new scientific methods developed during the

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 23

war and the solution by research of outstanding problems.
Both of these phases of the work of the Division, including
the organization of the Sound-Ranging and Meteorological
Services of the Army, and the development and application of
improved methods of photography from airplanes, are de-
scribed in subsequent chapters by those who took part in the
work.

A glance through the third annual report of the National
Research Council, which briefly surveys the war activities of
its many Divisions, occupied with every branch of science, and
with engineering, medicine, and agriculture, will indicate the
impossibility of giving in this chapter more than a few illus-
trations of the work performed. In nearly all cases the chief
purpose in view was to bring into a cooperating group the men
dealing with different aspects of a problem. A good case in
point is the work of the Committee on Explosives, authorized
by the Secretaries of War and Navy for the purpose of survey-
ing current investigations on explosives, bringing useful infor-
mation to the attention of the proper military and naval author-
ities, and arranging for the prosecution of supplementary in-
vestigations by governmental, industrial, or other research
agencies. (See Chapter 9.) The extensive work of the
Committee on Nitrate Investigations, appointed at the request
of the Secretary of War, and described in Chapter 8, is an-
other good illustration of the war researches organized by the
Council. If space permitted, much might be said of the re-
searches organized under the Chemistry Division, which cov-
ered a very wide range, from the preparation in university
laboratories of rare drugs and other chemicals rendered scarce
by the war, to the study of the physical properties of toxic
liquids and explosives, and of methods for combating toxic
gases. Committees studied the potash needs and resources of
the United \ States, and the availability of phosphoric acid for
plant food; the rubber content of certain California shrubs
and the preparation for the Quartermaster's Department of
specifications and tests for rubber compounds; the production

24 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

of a better fuel for airplane motors, and the causes and reme-
dies of the low efficiency of carburetors ; the location and pur-
chase or loan of apparatus required by the Government; the
sources of ceramic war materials; the preparation of courses
in chemistry, combustion and fuel engineering and a special
war curriculum in ceramic engineering for use by the Students
Army Training Corps ; the waterproofing of fabrics ; the prep-
aration of standard specifications for glues and gelatines.
Most of these activities, and many others of the most varied
nature, were undertaken at the request of various branches of
the Government.

The response of American engineers to the numerous de-
mands of the war was quick and effective, and thousands of
them saw service at home and abroad. The manufacture of
munitions of every kind and the erection of new plants for
war purposes absorbed great numbers of engineers in this
country, and in France their activities were even more varied.
In the work of the Research Council they also played a
prominent part, and the cooperative investigations set on foot
by the Division of Engineering to meet war needs are being
continued and expanded in all directions.

One of these, which led to the development of a helmet of
remarkable qualities, enlisted the joint efforts of men of the
most diversified experience. An authority on arms and armor,
familiar1* with the practice of all ages, applied his knowledge
to the design of the helmet. A distinguished metallurgist speci-
fied the composition of the special steels employed, and tested
the models by machine gun fire. Associated with them were
able engineers and metallurgists, competent to deal with every
aspect of the question. Another metallurgical problem arose
from faulty procedure in making and forging the steel ingots
used in the manufacture of shells, cannon, crank-shafts, etc.
Flaws resulted from the inexperience of manufacturers hastily
called upon to supply an overwhelming demand, and the con-
sequent rejection of the forgings appreciably delayed our war
preparations. How this difficulty was overcome is described

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 25

in Chapter 14. Another means of improving the quality of
steel has been supplied by the development of a pyrometer
suitable for measuring the temperature of steel baths in fur-
naces. One of the most important of the metallurgical prob-
lems attacked was that of the fatigue phenomena of metals.
The results of this investigation show that the elevation of the
elastic limit of steel, caused by such processes as cold rolling
and wire drawing, is dissipated by the repetition of a wide
variation of stresses, as in aircraft crank-shafts, which may
ultimately break down from this cause.

The development of certain war inventions was another im-
portant function of the Engineering Division. A staff of de-
signers and draftsmen, starting in some cases with well-defined
schemes and in others with very nebulous suggestions, worked
out the designs of promising devices, some of which proved
very effective in military practice. An interesting activity of
this branch of the Division, carried out in conjunction with
the Science and Research Division of the Signal Corps, re-
sulted in the production of small balloons, capable of maintain-
ing themselves automatically at any desired altitude, by al-
ternately throwing out liquid ballast and releasing gas. Bal-
loons only nine inches in diameter (before inflating) adjusted
to float at the altitude of a known prevailing air current,
traveled easterly from Fort Omaha for a distance of nearly
1000 miles. It is now proposed to use such balloons to ascer-
tain the air currents above the Atlantic between the American
and European coasts.

In the field of Geology and Geography the opportunities
for war activities were more numerous than one might sup-
pose. (See Chapters n and 12.) The importance of utiliz-
ing geologists for service at the front was fully appreciated by
the enemy, and a memorandum describing German methods,
and indicating the usefulness of geological advice in military
operations was presented to the Secretary of War in 1917 by
the Division of Geology and Geography of the Research Coun-
cil. A considerable development of such service took place in

26 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

our army before the Armistice. A handbook of Northern
France and chapters dealing with the western front from a
work on Topography and Strategy in the War, both by mem-
bers of the Division, were gratuitously distributed in large
numbers among officers of the army. At the request of the
Military Committee on Education and Special Training the
Division prepared text-books on Military Geology and Topo-
graphy and on Introductory Meteorology for use by the Stu-
dents' Army Training Corps. An exhaustive report on ma-
terials and facilities for road building, fortifications, and con-
crete ship construction was prepared by a committee of
geologists and engineers representing every coastal state from
Maine to Texas. The Division also supplied for the use of the
Peace Commission much information on geological and geo-
graphical subjects, and cooperated in an advisory capacity with
the Division of Military Intelligence and various other bureaus
and commissions of the Government.

The role of medicine, hygiene, and surgery in the war is de-
scribed in Chapters 16, 17, 18 and 19. In connection with this
far-reaching work the Division of Medicine and Related Sci-
ences was in a position to render a wide variety of services.
The Surgeons General of the Army and Navy appreciated
from the outset the possibilities of an organization whose func-
tion it was to bring into cooperation with their offices the many
resources of laboratories and educational institutions through-
out the country. A constant effort was made to recognize those
applied sciences upon which medical problems are dependent
and to include their representatives in the organization of the
Division. In fact, no pains were spared to render the work
as useful as possible, without limitation of scope. For ex-
ample, when a shortage of the white mice used for pneumonia
diagnosis was discovered, the Division immediately arranged
with several cooperating laboratories to breed the large num-
bers needed. It is interesting to record that at the same period
another Division of the Research Council was equally active
in devising means for the extermination of the mice and other

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 27

rodents that were preying on the grain supply of the country.

The chief purpose of the Division of Medicine and Related
Sciences was to mobilize the civilian, medical and related work-
ers and laboratories in the United States, and thus to create
a united medical service to assist in the solution of problems
connected with the war. Urgent questions were brought to
the attention of the Division by representatives of the War,
Navy and Labor Departments, and the best available workers
were then called upon to attack them. Scores of committees
were formed for cooperative work, and in many instances in-^
dividuals working independently devoted their entire time and
laboratory facilities to war service. In this chapter it will
suffice to indicate merely the general nature of some of the work
undertaken.

" Shock," so diversified in its manifestation and so injurious
in its effects, was the subject of extensive investigation by
members of the Division, both at home and at the front. Un-
der the auspices of the home committee, twenty-nine studies
were carried on at ten stations, and while much remains to be
explained, new light has been thrown on certain clinical aspects
of the problem. Another important activity of the Division
was the work of the Committee on Industrial Poisonings, di-
rected during the war period to the study of the toxic effects
of substances used in the manufacture of explosives and the
detection of early signs of intoxication among munition
workers. Fatigue in industrial pursuits, of special significance
under the high pressure of military demands, but hardly less
important under peace conditions, was also extensively studied,
from the standpoint of hygienic conditions in industrial estab-
lishments, efficiency at different hours of the working day,
and the physiological effects of fatigue. New methods of pro-
ducing acetone, a necessary solvent for airplane varnishes, al-
most unobtainable during the early period of the war ; the cul-
tivation and collection of native medicinal plants, providing
for example, all the digitalis needed by the army ; tests of new
antiseptics and studies of their application; investigations of

28 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

anerobic bacteria of importance in war wounds; methods of
controlling trench lice and their eggs, and the preparation of
effective insecticides and methods of delousing; the develop-
ment of a method for the prevention of neuromata in amputa-
tion stumps after operations; improved means of sterilizing
drinking water for large bodies of troops; studies of strep-
tococcus infection, the cause and possible prevention by vac-
cination of Spanish influenza, skin grafting, a test for oxygen-
lack in the air of submarines, improved means of blood trans-
fusion, the velvet bean and its utilization as a food, substi-
tutes for cane-sugar, the minimum vitamin requirement —
these represent the character, though by no means the full ex-
tent, of the activities of the Medical Division.

The extensive work of the Psychology Committee, described
in Chapters 20 and 21, was one of the most novel applications
of scientific method made during the war. Here, as in many
other cases, the existing conditions called chiefly for serv-
ice rather than for research. The rating of soldiers on the
basis of mental alertness, actually applied to some 1,700,000
men, proved an effective means of promptly eliminating those
unfit for service and utilizing the others for purposes calling
for different degrees of intelligence. The aid of psychological
tests in determining the qualifications for flying, the fitness of
aviators, and the psychological effects of high altitudes, was also
of great importance. The recent adoption by Columbia Uni-
versity of psychological tests for entering students and the
widespread application of similar methods in industrial estab-
lishments, are significant illustrations of the effects of the war.

Anthropology might be supposed a science remote from war,
but a previously unrecognized discrimination against the taller
native-born American was prevented when, on recommenda-
tion of the anthropologists, the minimum stature of 63 inches
for acceptance in general military service was reduced to 60
inches. The statistical methods employed in the measurement
of soldiers were also revised, and the resulting records have
been classified and studied with reference to the origin of in-

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 29

dividuals in 157 sections of the United States, the subdivision
being based primarily upon the racial constitution of the popu-
lation.

In the broad field of agriculture, botany, forestry, zoology,
and fisheries, numerous investigators and research agencies,
brought into cooperation by this Research Council Division,
organized much work of importance. Some of this was of an
emergency nature, but in most cases the studies undertaken are
no less applicable to the needs of peace than to those of war.
The indication of sources of material for making the special
charcoal required for gas-masks, and the presentation of evi-^
dence that certain native woods are better suited than African
mahogany for airplane propellers, thus saving thousands of
tons of shipping, are typical war activities, though both are
not without application under post-war conditions. The ex-
termination of rodent pests, undertaken in cooperation with
the United States Biological Survey, was of special importance
during the period of the war. The presence or absence in
poultry food of certain substances influencing egg production
was the subject of an extensive investigation, in which poultry-
men both East and West took part. A group of soil and fer-
tilizer specialists from North and South Dakota, Minnesota,
Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri was organ-
ized for the study of fertilizer problems of that large agricul-
tural region, and the special cooperation of the Department of
Agriculture was secured for a further investigation of the
questions involved. The protein element in animal feeding and
the physiological salt requirements of representative cultivated
plants were the subjects of two other cooperative researches,
involving the joint efforts of many investigators and labora-
tories. Other researches, too numerous to be mentioned here,
also stand to the credit of the Division.

An outstanding fact in this work of the National Research
Council is the splendid spirit of cooperation shown by those
who took part in it. Personal rivalries were thrown aside,
ideas and information were freely exchanged, and the one con-

30 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

cern of each investigator was to aid in the solution of the
problem at hand. In many cases, if not in all, this spirit has
survived the Armistice. It is safe to say that the direct losses
suffered by science through the war, in men, in revenue, and in
diversion of effort, will be largely compensated in the future
if the advantages attainable through cooperation can be realized.

THE ROLE OF

PHYSICAL SCIENCE

IN THE WAR

Ill

CONTRIBUTIONS OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE
ROBERT A. MILLIKAN

FROM the days of Alexander and Caesar, if not from periods
even more remote, the engineer has been a vital adjunct
of a successful army ; for war machines have always had to be
built and operated, bridges thrown across rivers, roads rendered
passable, new terrain surveyed and new fortifications designed
and constructed. These and their* like have been from the
earliest times the standardized operations of the Engineer Corps
of every army. But there is another and a quite distinct role
which the physical sciences played in the great war. For never
in the history of warfare up to the year 1914 had the whole
scientific brains of any nation been systematically mobilized
for the express purpose of finding immediately new ways of
applying the accumulated scientific knowledge of the world to
the ends of war.

It is not my purpose in this chapter to deal with the standard-
ized operations of the technical corps of the army and navy
during the great war. For this I have no competence. I shall
endeavor rather to pass in rapid review the most significant
of the newer developments which were due in large measure
to the organized activities of scientists who, until the great war,
had no association with things military. Many of these scien-
tists, like the writer, became connected during the war either
as officers or as civilian employees with the military depart-
ments of the Government. But whatever our official connec-
tion with the military service, we were all associated in our
scientific activities through the National Research Council,

33

34 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

which acted in the United States as the great clearing house of
scientific information, and as a coordinating and stimulating
agency for scientific research and development work in aid
of the war.

So far as developments in the physical sciences are concerned
this coordinating and stimulating work was done through three
main agencies, namely, first, the executive committee of the
Division of Physical Sciences of the Research Council, second,
the Research Information Service, and third, the weekly con-
ference of the Physics and Engineering Divisions of the Coun-
cil.

The National Research Council, being itself a voluntary
association for research purposes of the scientific agencies of
the country, civilian and governmental, industrial and academic,
it was to be expected that the Executive Committee of its
Division of Physical Sciences would embrace representatives of
important scientific and technical agencies. Its membership
was as follows: Prof. J. S. Ames, representing the National
Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Dr. L. A. Bauer of the
Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institu-
tion of Washington, Dr. A. L. Day of the Geophysical Labora-
tory, Major A. L. Leuschner of the Chemical Warfare Service,
Dr. C. F. Marvin, Chief of the Weather Bureau, Lt. Col. R. A.
Millikan, representing the Signal Corps and the Anti-submarine
Board of the Navy, Major F. R. Moulton of the Bureau of
Ordnance of the Army, Major C. E. Menedenhall of the Bureau
of Aircraft Production, Dr. E. F. Nichols of the Bureau of
Ordnance of the Navy, Dr. H. N. Russell, associated with both
the Engineer Corps and the Bureau of Aircraft Production,
Dr. W. C. Sabine of the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
and the Bureau of Aircraft Production, Dr. Frank Schlesinger
of the Bureau of Aircraft Production, General George O.
Squier, Chief of the Signal Corps, Dr. S. W. Stratton, Head
of the Bureau of Standards and Dr. R. S. Woodward, Head
of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

This committee held stated meetings for the formulation of

CONTRIBUTIONS OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 35

policies, the initiation of new projects, and for the detailed dis-
cussion of the seventy odd major research undertakings which <
had been initiated in large part at least by the Division and
which its members were either directing or closely following.
The opportunity both to initiate problems and to follow those
initiated elsewhere, particularly abroad, came about chiefly
through the most successful functioning of the second agency
mentioned above, the Research Information Service.

This service had its inception in the Spring of 1917 when
certain British scientists in the British ministry of munitions
addressed a letter to General Geo. O. Squier suggesting the
development of a liaison between British and American scien-
tists. This letter was referred by General Squier to the Chair-
man of the Division of Physical Sciences of the National Re-
search Council who laid the matter before the Military Commit-
tee of the Council, which committee embraced the heads of
the technical bureaus of the navy and army, namely, Admirals
Benson, Griffin, Taylor and Earle, and Generals Squier, Black,
Crozier and Gorgas, in addition to the heads of civilian tech-
nical bureaus like Doctors Marvin and Stratton of the Bureau
of Mines and the Bureau of Standards. This body discussed
the proposal at some length and concluded that an even more
comprehensive plan for bringing about cooperation and prevent-
ing duplication was needed. It accordingly appointed a commit-
tee consisting of Dr. Walcott, Mr. Howard Coffin, Dr. Stratton
and Mr. Millikan to formulate recommendations. The commit-
tee formulated a plan which was approved by the Military
Committee and then by the Secretaries of War and of the
Navy and finally by the President, who appropriated $150,000
from his war emergency fund for carrying the plan into effect.

This plan provided for the establishment of four new offices,
one in Washington, one in London, one in Paris and one in •
Rome. The office in Washington was headed by a group of
three men : the chief of the Army Intelligence Service, the chief
of the Navy Intelligence Service, and the chairman of the Na-
tional Research Council; the group in London, by the naval

36 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

attache, (Admiral Sims himself) chosen by the National Re-
search Council. The function of the scientific attache in Eng-
land, who was Dr. H. A. Bumstead, was to keep in touch with
all research activity in that country and to send back almost
daily reports to our office in Washington. Similarly, all re-
ports of work done on this side were sent by uncensored mail
or by cable to the offices of the scientific attaches in London,
Paris and Rome, and distributed from there to the research
groups in Europe. The navy cooperated heartily with this
plan from the start, and Admiral Sims aided it in every possible
way. As for the army, at the request of the General Staff,
the Secretary of War issued orders to all army officers who
were sent on scientific and technical missions to make duplicate
reports, one to the officer who sent them and the other to the
office of the scientific attache, so that there might be a central
agency through which an interconnection might be had between
all kinds of new developments. The actual functioning of the
Research Information Service had most to do with develop-
ments in the Physical Sciences.

Furthermore, through the authority conferred by the Mili-
tary Committee, there was held in Washington at the offices
of the National Research Council a weekly conference of the
Division of Physical Sciences and of Engineering, which re-
viewed all the reports from abroad each week and put the
workers on this side into the closest touch with the develop-
ments on the other side. The whole plan was an admirable
illustration of the possibilities of international cooperation in
research. In the submarine field, for example, all anti-sub-
marine work in England, France and Italy which was reported
by cable and by uncensored mail immediately to the office of
the Research Council in Washington, was taken each Saturday
night to New London and presented in digested form to the
group of scientists which was working there continuously on
submarine problems. Similar arrangements were made with
the airplane research groups, sound-ranging groups, etc., so

CONTRIBUTIONS OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 37

that in the Research Information Service we had the first
demonstration in history of the possibilities of international co-
operation in research on a huge scale, a sort of cooperation
which made it possible for any development, or any idea which
originated in any of the chief civilized countries of the world
to go at once, very frequently by cable, to all the other coun-
tries and to be applied there as soon as possible, or to stimulate
carefully selected groups of competent technical men in these
countries to further developments. The extraordinary rapidity
with which scientific developments were made in the war was
unquestionably due first, to the forming of a considerable num-
ber of highly competent research groups, and second, to the
establishment of effective channels for the cooperation^ iietween
these groups.

So much for the machinery by which the work in the Physical
Sciences was stimulated and coordinated. As for the problems
themselves it is only possible to sketch briefly the history of a
few of the most important. Of them all the submarine prob-
lem stood out from the beginning of the war as of paramount
importance. Effective attack upon it in this country started
with the visit of the scientific mission which was sent to the
United States in May, 1917, with definite official instructions
from the French, British and Italian governments to hold
back nothing, but to lay all the facts and plans of the Allies
relating to scientific developments in aid of the war before
properly accredited scientific men in the United States. The
National Research Council, which acted as the host of this
mission in the United States (for the mission had been sent
here in return for a similar mission organized and sent abroad
by the National Research Council in March, 1917) with au-
thority conferred upon it by the War and Navy Departments,
called a conference in Washington of some of the best scientific
brains in the United States and for a period of a full week this
conference met and discussed in detail the progress thus far
made and the plans projected in the fields of submarine detec-

38 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

tion, of location of guns, airplanes and mines by sound, of
ordnance, of signaling and of aviation instruments and acces-
sories.

As a result of these conferences there were organized through
the cooperative effort of the National Research Council and
several of the bureaus of the army and navy, a considerable
number of groups of scientific men, each of which was charged
with the development of some particular field. For example,
Professor -Trowbridge, of Princeton, and Professor Lyn-an, of
Harvard, were selected and placed in charge of the develop-
ment in this country of the sound-ranging service. They and
the group of scientific men whom they associated with them
were first given commissions in the Signal Corps, and with
Signal Corps authority and funds started development work
in sound-ranging at Princeton University and at the Bureau
of Standards. This whole group was later transferred to the
authority of the Engineer Corps, but its directing personnel
remained in the main unchanged and it did extraordinary work
in the whole of the fighting of the summer of 1918, locating
hundreds of guns by computing the center of the sound wave
from observations made on the times of arrival of the wave
at from three to seven suitably placed stations. This method
had never been used in any preceding war and it proved ex-
traordinarily accurate, a gun being located five miles away
with an error of less than fifty feet.

Again it is not an over-statement to say that the most ef-
fective part of the anti-submarine work done in the United
States grew directly out of that conference, and it grew out
of it in this way. As Lord Northcliffe continually reiterated
on his trip to the United States in the spring of 1917, the sub-
marine problem was at that time the problem of the war, for
while Europe might fight with little to eat, it could not fight
without iron and oil and other supplies which this country
alone could furnish, and in the spring of 1917 civilization
trembled in the balance, because the submarine was seriously
threatening to destroy all possibilities of transportation trom

CONTRIBUTIONS OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 39

this country to Europe. The English scientists therefore, irf
particular, came to this country directed by their government
to lay before the American scientists every element of the for-
eign anti-submarine program, whether already accomplished
or merely projected, and in the conference under consideration
a large part of the discussion centered around the submarine
problem, which, as Sir Ernest Rutherford repeatedly pointed
out, was a problem of physics pure and simple. It was not
even a problem of engineering at that time, although every
physical problem, in general, sooner or later becomes one for
the engineer, when the physicist has gone far enough along
with his work. Hence, since the number of physicists was
quite limited, the number of men who had any large capacity for
handling the problem of anti-submarine experimentation was
small. These men were found mostly in university laboratories
or in a very few industrial laboratories which employed physi-
cists, and we unquestionably had gathered a very representa-
tive group of them together in the fifty men assembled in the
conference at Washington. The success or failure of our
anti-submarine campaign, and with it the success or failure
of the war, so far as we were concerned, seemed to depend upon
selecting and putting upon this job a few men of suitable train-
ing and capacity.

At the close of that conference a small committee was ap-
pointed to select ten men to give up their work and to go to
New London to work there night and day in the development
of anti-submarine devices. The men chosen were Merritt of
Cornell, Mason of Wisconsin, H. A. Wilson of Rice Institute,
Pierce and Bridgman of Harvard, Bumstead, Nichols and
Zeleny of Yale, and Michelson of Chicago, although Professor
Michelson was almost immediately taken off for other work
of much urgency and Chicago was represented in a fashion
by the writer who was there a portion of each week. This
group worked under the authorization of the Secretary of the
Navy and with the heartiest of cooperation from the Navy De-
partment, although it was at first financed by private funds ob-

40 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

tained by the National Research Council. In the course of a
few months, however, when it had demonstrated its effective-
ness it was taken over by the Navy, which spent more than one
million dollars on the experimental work at that place. This
station with its chief scientific personnel not largely changed
became the center of our anti-submarine activity, and with other
stations, one at Nahant, Mass., embracing chiefly the physicists
of the General Electric Company, the Western Electric Com-
pany and the Submarine Signaling Company, one in New York
presided over by Dr. Pupin, of Columbia, and one in San Pedro,
Calif., which, like the New York station, was organized under
the Research Council, made remarkable progress in the rapid
development of anti-submarine devices — devices which ex-
erted a notable influence upon the reduction of submarine
depredations, and made it possible even by the fall of 1917,
to predict that the submarine menace could be eliminated.

Unquestionably the most effective device developed in
America, and one which played a real role in the elimination
of that menace, was one which had the following origin. The
French had already developed an apparatus consisting of a
sort of great sound lens which brought the incoming pulses
together in. the same phase at the center of the lens near the
bottom of the hull. This was presented and discussed at length
in the conference. A full official report of the device was sent
by the French government to the Anti-submarine Board of
the Navy, and at a meeting of that board the writer requested
to be allowed to take this report to the group of scientists at
New London for the sake of a thorough analysis of it, for he
felt confident, and so stated at the time, that through such an
analysis we would obtain variants of the device which would be
an improvement upon it. This procedure was followed and
for two days ten men assembled at a hotel in New London
and studied that report, drawing up four or five different vari-
ants of this device- to develop and try out. .The most success-
ful and effective detector which actually got into use in the
war was one of these variants of the original French device

CONTRIBUTIONS OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 41

suggested and largely developed by Mason. It consisted of
a row of from thirty to sixty sound receivers strung along
in two rows one on either side of the keel of the ship, well for-
ward ; the sound pulses coming in to all of the receivers on one
side were arranged to travel in tubes of just such length as to
cause them all to unite in the same phase at the mouth of a
tube leading to one ear of the observer, while all the sound
pulses received by the other row are brought together in a
similar way at the other ear. By now using the binaural sense
to equate exactly the sound paths to the two ears, it is possible
to locate the direction of the source of sound to within one or
two degrees. This instrument could pick up submarines from
one to ten miles away depending upon their speed and the
weather conditions. A variant of the multiple receiver de-
vice, using microphones and electrical compensators to equate
phases in place of ordinary sound receivers and sound compen-
sators, was even more effective. Many of our submarines
and destroyers which went across during the summer of 1918
were equipped with the acoustical form of this device, and
now the electrical form is being still further developed for
peace use, rather than for war, for it is possible through it to
eliminate the chief terror of the sea, namely, collision in fog.
And, when it is remembered that the preventing of a single dis-
aster like the sinking of the Tltantic or of the Empress of Ire-
land more than pays, without any reference to the value of hu-
man lives, for all the time and money spent by England, France
and the United States combined in developing detecting devices,
it will be seen how shortsighted a thing it is for any country
to fail to find in some way the funds necessary for carrying on
research and development work in underwater detection. For
decades and for centuries we have allowed ships to go down
year by year needlessly, simply because we have not realized
the possibilities of prevention through properly organized scien-
tific research in this field.

Another device capable of detecting a lurking submarine half
a mile or more away by the use of a beam of sound waves of

42 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

very high frequency was perfected too late to be of use, but it
represents a war development of extraordinary interest. The
credit for it is due primarily to Dr. Langevin of Paris, though
the New York and San Pedro groups of American physicists
did excellent work in the same direction following Langevin's
lead. Other anti-submarine devices in considerable number
were developed and effectively used, but these two are in most
respects the most notable.

But it has not merely been in sound-ranging and in submarine
detection that the war has demonstrated the capabilities of
science. Every single phase of our war activities has told the
same story. Turn, for example, to the development of new
scientific devices for use with aircraft. How was that
handled? The Science and Research Division of the Signal
Corps, organized through the cooperation of the Signal Corps
and the National Research Council, and later transferred to
the Bureau of Aircraft Production, had a group of as many as
fifty highly trained men, physicists and engineers, who were
working in Washington and in the experimental station at
Langley Field, twelve hours a day, seven days a week, on
aviation problems — one group on improvements in accurate
bomb dropping, another on improvements in airplane
photography, another on the mapping of the highways of the
upper air in aid of aviation, another upon balloon problems,
such as the development of non-inflammable balloons, another
on aviation instruments, compasses, speed meters, etc., and
producing the best there are in the world, and finally a group
on new sensitizing dyes for long wave-length photography, etc.
Let me select for special comment the most important physical
principles which have just now for the first time found large
and effective application in war. I shall classify these under
six heads.

The first two of these are (i) the principle of binaural audi-
tion and (2) the principle of sound-ranging (locating the posi-
•tion of a gun by plotting the sound wave emanating from it).
These two share the honor of having proved themselves the

CONTRIBUTIONS OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 43

most useful and effective of the new applications of physics
to the purposes of war. The second was responsible for the
location and destruction of thousands of enemy guns, while
the first was responsible for the location and destruction of
submarines, airplanes and mines.

The binaural principle itself was unknown even to most
physicists before the war, though it is used by all of us when
we turn our heads until we think we are looking in the direction
from which a sound comes. The accuracy with which this can
be done in the absence of disturbing reflections is surprising.
When the observer has set his head so that the sound pulses
from the source strike the two ears at exactly the same time
he has the sense that the source lies in the median plane be-
tween the two ears. If the sound pulses strike one ear first,
the observer has the sense that the source is on the side of the
ear which is struck first. This sense is not due in any ap-
preciable degree to intensity differences produced by shadow
effects of the head. It has to do practically entirely with phase
differences. The principle is beautifully illustrated by insert-
ing into each ear one end of a piece of rubber tubing four or
five feet long and scratching or tapping on the wall of the
tubing, first at a point slightly closer to one ear than the other
and then moving the tapping object slowly through the mid-
point to a position nearer the second ear. The sound of the
scratching or tapping will then appear to the observer to be in
the ear which is nearest to it and then to move around the
head to the other ear as the mid-point is crossed, With the
unaided ear one can locate direction in this way to within five
or ten degrees. The simplest way to increase the sensibility of
the method to faint sounds is to increase the size of the ears
by providing them with trumpet-like extensions. To increase
the accuracy of location one stretches out the receiving ends
until the distance between them is say, five or six feet instead
of five or six inches, as it is in the case of the unaided ear.
It is then only necessary to turn the whole receiving system
through about one-twelfth the former angle to obtain the same

44 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

phase difference. The angular accuracy of setting is thus in-
creased twelve fold.

Two methods of applying the principle were used in the
war. The one consisted in rotating the whole receiving system,
one side of which was connected with a rubber tube to one ear,
the other side in the same way to the other ear, until the ob-
server had the sensation of feeling the sound pass from one
ear to the other. At this instant he knew that the source was
directly ahead of the line connecting the two receivers, or else
directly behind this line, the distinction between the two posi-
tions being obtainable from the relation between the direction
of the motion of the head and the direction in which the sound
seemed to pass from one ear to the other. The second method,
the one used with the submarine detector discussed above, con-
sisted in keeping the receiving system fixed in space and chang-
ing the length of the sound path from each receiver to the ear
by means of a so-called rotating commutator until the sound
seemed to be passing from one ear to the other. The reading
of the dial on the compensator then gave the direction of the
source.

This principle proved so effective in locating enemy mining
and tunneling operations that according to official despatches
received by the Research Information Service both sides gave
up such operations practically entirely a year or more before
the close of the war. It was equally effective in anti-submarine
warfare, a very simple form of binaural detector having been
put out in large numbers by the General Electric Company,
in addition to the more elaborate and more effective devices
heretofore considered. The principle was less effective in its
application to anti-aircraft work though even here it served
a very useful purpose.

The third physical principle which was of immense use in
the war was the principle of amplification. This extraordinary
application of scientific investigations of the past two decades
in the field of electron discharges had been reduced to practice
in the telephone industry in 1914 when transcontinental wire

CONTRIBUTIONS OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 45

telephony became for the first time possible through the de-
velopment of the De Forest audion into a telephone repeater
and amplifier — an advance which not only extended enorm-
ously the possibilities of communication, but saved at once
millions of dollars even in the construction of short telephone
lines. With six stage amplifiers of this electronic sort the
energy of speech has been multiplied without distortion as much
as ten thousand billion fold. Small wonder then that by 1915
enormously amplified wave forms produced by speech had been
impressed on the ether from the Arlington Towers with such
energy as to be picked up and distinctly understood in Paris
and Honolulu. But in spite of the success already attained in
this field by the physicists of the telephone company, when the
United States entered the war the principle of amplification
had not been successfully applied either to inter-communica-
tion by wireless phone between ships (for example, submarine
chasers) or between airplanes, and one of the most pressing
problems which General Squier put up in April, 1917, to the
Division of Physical Sciences of the Research Council wa<= the
problem of wireless communication between planes. This was
solved by the mid-summer of 1917 by the group of physicists
of the Western Electric Company to whom it was referred
and, on Sunday following Thanksgiving 1917, for the first
time in history, airplanes in flight were directed in official tests
at the Wright field in Dayton, Ohio, in intricate maneuvers,
from the ground or by the commander in the leading airplane,
and reports and directions were given and received in clear
speech. For wire and wireless telephone receiving, sending and
amplifying on sea and land three-quarters of a million vacuum
tubes were built by the Western Electric Company alone for
the purposes of the war, and half as many more by the General
Electric Company, so that the amplifying principle was of
scarcely less importance in the successful conclusion of the
war than were the principles of binaural location and sound-
ranging.
The fourth tremendously important and altogether new ap-

46 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

plication of the principles of physics to warfare was made in
the field of airplane photography. In this field as in those of

., submarine detection and sound-ranging, though not in that
of amplification, we followed the developments of the British
and the French, though contributing important elements our-
selves. The war could scarcely have been fought at all with-
out the airplane photographer who was the very eyes of the
army. American developments in this field were organized
by the Science and Research Division of the Signal Corps which
in the summer of 1917 assembled a group of physicists and
photographic experts under the direction of Dr. H. E. Ives.
This group in closest cooperation with the Eastman Kodak
Company of Rochester and the Burke and James Company of
Chicago developed what are probably the finest airplane cameras
in existence. In addition it developed color filters for detect-
ing camouflage and increasing visibility of such value that forty
thousand of them were used in the army and navy. It pro-
duced new dyes for use in the production of pan-chromatic
plates designed to be used for the penetration of haze in air-
plane photography and made other advances in this important
art which bid fair to revolutionize the whole process of sur-
veying, since an airplane photograph taken in a few seconds
can give information which it used to* take months to acquire
by laborious triangulation methods.

The fifth* great new. application of physics to warfare lay
in the developments in meteorology and in the principles of
ballooning. The realization of the possibility of non-inflam-
mable helium balloons and the actual production of small
propaganda balloons which dropped their loads a thousand
miles, from the starting point are among the most spectacular
and interesting scientific developments of the war, but neither
of them played any actual part in achieving the victory. Of

^'untold importance, however, was the careful though unspec-
tacular work of the meteorological section of the Science and
Research Division of the Signal Corps which by thousands
of pilot balloon flights accumulated the data that not only aided

CONTRIBUTIONS OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 47

the flyer in his work at the front, but made possible the so-
called ballistic wind corrections upon which the effectiveness
of both the artillery and the sound-ranging services largely de-
pended. When it is remembered that the biggest element in
the effectiveness of a modern army is its artillery and that the
effectiveness of the artillery is dependent entirely upon these
wind corrections it will be seen how incalculably valuable the
work of the trained physicists and mathematicians proved to
be to the practical problems of the great war.

The sixth and last of the new applications of physics to the
purposes of the war has to do with the principle of signaling
by visible light rays, by infra-red rays, by ultra-violet rays and
by super-sound rays. In all of these fields there were develop-
ments of great interest and of much importance for the future,
though none of them contributed largely to the victory of the
Allies. In bombardments all the wire and wireless methods of
communication often failed and light signals of some sort were
the only reliance. Special signaling lamps were developed by
the Science and Research Division of the Signal Corps and
ordered in considerable numbers. A notable system of secret
signaling with infra-red rays was developed by Theodore Case
of Auburn, N. Y., and successfully used in keeping convoys
together at night when lights could not be used. The possi-
bility of having secret ultra-violet methods of guiding aviators
at night back to their landing fields was demonstrated by R.
W. Wood. As already indicated super-sound signaling under
water was successfully accomplished by Dr. Langevin and ap-
plied experimentally in submarine detection.

Outside the lines of the foregoing classification there were
some developments in Physics which deserve mention. Thus
a leak proof gasolene tank for airplanes, developed by Dr.
Gordon S. Fulcher in collaboration with the Miller Rubber
Company of Akron, Ohio, which could be shot through by
scores of bullets without leaking a drop of gasolene or catching
fire even when the bullets were incendiary, had at the close of
the war been ordered placed on all American combat planes.

48 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

It promised to do away with the chief terror of the American
flyer, namely, coming down in flames. An airplane compass
and a speedmeter developed by Major Mendenhall and Lieut.
Williamson, in cooperation with the General Electric Company
were used on all American planes. Dr. Duff, Captain Web-
ster, Captain Sieg and Captain Brown increased notably the
accuracy in bombing, a matter of the greatest importance since
doubling the accuracy in dropping bombs is more than equiva-
lent to doubling the production of bombing planes. Under the
stimulus of the war Dr. Coolidge developed a new and improved
x-ray tube for use in field hospitals. Dr. E. F. Nichols de-
veloped a new type of mine, which was used in mining opera-
tions in the North Sea. Prof. A. A. Michelson developed a
new and improved range finder, which was accepted by the
Navy Department. Prof. Raymond Dodge developed a new
piece of physical apparatus for the selection and training of
gunners. This instrument was adopted and used both by the
American and foreign navies. Optical glass was produced in
large quantities for the first time in the United States under
the guidance of a committee of the Physical Science Division of
the Research Council, consisting of Drs. A. L. Day, S. W.
Stratton and R. A. Millikan.

This is but an incomplete sketch of what look now like the
most important developments in Physics which were stimulated
by the war. Scores of other problems were undertaken the
results of which may in the end be as useful both for the pur-
poses of war >and for those of peace as any of those herein set
forth.

IV

SOME SCIENTIFIC ASPECTS OF THE METEORO-
LOGICAL WORK OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY l

ROBERT A. MILLIKAN

THERE is no more interesting illustration of the applica-
tion of new scientific methods to warfare than is fur-
nished by the developments in meteorology during the great
war. Prior to 1914 a meteorological section was not con-
sidered a necessary part of the military service. No correc-
tions had ever been made by the artillery of any army for any
save surface winds. Firing by the map was almost unknown.
No Sound-ranging Service, no Air Service and no Anti-
aircraft artillery had ever existed to demand aerological data.

At the time of the signing of the armistice on the western
front the Air Service and all the artillery were being furnished
every two hours with the temperature, density, wind-speed and
direction, taken at the surface and at various altitudes, from
100 to 500 meters apart, up to 5,000 meters. Further, tables
were prepared from which each battery could obtain the cor-
rection suited to its trajectory for the so-called ballistic wind.
This is the average wind for the trajectory, weighted for the ,
density of the air at the elevations traversed. Even machine
guns when used for barrage work made use of these ballistic-
wind tables.

In addition, daily forecasts were furnished to the armies in
accordance with the following outline :

1 Reprinted by permission, with the omission of certain illustrations,
from the Proceedings American Philosophical Society, vol. 38, 1919.

49

50 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

A. Character of weather for each arm of the service.

B. Winds: Surface, at 2,000 m., at 5,000 m.

C. Cloudiness including fog and haze.

D. Height of cloud.

E. Visibility.

F. Rain and snow.
G*. Temperature.

H. Warning of weather conditions favorable for use of gas

by enemy.
K. Probable accuracy or odds in favor of forecast.

Most of the aerological data were obtained from theodolite
observations on pilot balloons. The extent to which our knowl-
edge of the upper air has been, and is being, extended by this
pilot balloon work may be seen from the fact that before the
war there existed but one station in the United States where
pilot balloon explorations were regularly carried on. Within
a year of the inception of the meteorological service in the
United States Army, thirty-seven complete stations for the ob-
taining of both surface and upper air data in aid of aviation
and the artillery had been established in the United States and
equipped with special aircraft theodolites and pilot balloons,
neither of which had ever been produced before in this coun-
try. Further, twenty such stations had been established by
our forces abroad. For the manning of this service, about
five hundred specially selected men had been trained in this
country, and three hundred and fourteen of them sent abroad,
while about two hundred were held for work in the United
States.

The scientific interest in this service centers about four dis-
tinct problems :

1. The extension of our knowledge of the law of motion of
pilot balloons.

2. The procurement of data and the development of methods
for the preparation of artillery range table.

., . ' .:

I h.u,r * t ; r v e 1 a , N . Y.

cr g, t i 8 3 .01 m

U. n c *• .> r m Rate oi

Courtesy of American Philosophical Society

Figure i. Uniform rate of ascent of pilot balloon up to
ji,ooo meters

,3000

•Aberdeen Pro i/. Ing : Ground, Met.

October -2.!?, I o I 8 1108 o-.rru

4. r
ou vectlon C-u-.rv ent

50 60 70 80

Courtesy of American Philosophical Society

Figure 2. Pilot Balloon ascent showing isolated convection

current

METEOROLOGICAL WORK 51

3. The development of long range propaganda balloons.

4. The charting of the upper air in the United States and
overseas in aid of aviation.

i. The Extension of Our Knowledge of the Law of Motion
of Pilot Balloons. — Prior to the development of the meteoro-
logical service of the army there had been made in the United
States perhaps one hundred pilot balloon flights in which the
balloons had been followed by the two-theodolite method —
the only method which permits of real accuracy — and in sev-
eral European countries there had been a somewhat greater
number, but the data were incomplete and fragmentary.

Within the past year approximately five thousand such ob-
servations have been taken by the meteorological service of the
Signal Corps. From these observations the altitude of the bal-
loon is determined with great accuracy by triangulation, the
base line being usually a mile or more in length. The balloon
is kept in sight up to distances as great as sixty miles, and up
to heights as great as 32,00x3 meters, or approximately twenty
miles. P^or the practical uses of the artillery and the air
service, observations need not be carried higher than 10,000
meters (six miles), which is the extreme height to which air-
planes have thus far ascended, or to which projectiles usually

go-
In view of the number of variables which enter into the rate
of ascent of pilot balloons, such as the changing density and
the changing temperature of the surrounding air, the changing
size of the balloon and consequent changing tension of the rub-
ber envelope, the changing temperature of its interior because
of the absorption of the sun's rays, the diffusion of hydrogen
through its walls, etc., it is one of the most striking facts to be
found anywhere in the annals of empirical science that these
balloons rise to great heights without deviating appreciably from
the simplest possible law of ascent, namely that of constant
speed. Graph No. 5 * shows a beautiful example of this con-

1 Graphs i, 2, 3, and 4 are omitted from this volume.

52 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

stancy. Graph No. 6 shows a kink at about 5,500 meters,
which is presumably due to a descending current struck at that
altitude. Graph No. 7 is that of a balloon followed to a height
of 20,000 meters where it apparently developed a leak and
failed to ascend further. Graph No. 8 shows the fluctuations
which are often found at low altitudes, these fluctuations being
undoubtedly due to ascending and descending currents.

The extreme constancy in the rate of ascent, shown in a great
majority of flights, although surprising enough is not as in-
explicable as it at first appears, for since the pressure within
the balloon due to the tension of the rubber itself is only from
five to eight centimeters of water, and since this pressure is at
sea level less than I per cent, of the pressure of the atmosphere,
it will be seen that the balloon will expand practically freely,
that is, as though the walls did not constrain it at all, up to
heights of say 10,000 meters where the pressure is about a third
of an atmosphere. This means that the ascensional force must
be entirely independent of temperature and pressure.1 For
the speeds with which these balloons ascend, namely, about
three meters a second, the resistance to motion must be di-
rectly proportional to the density of the air and experiment
shows it to be nearly proportional to the cross section of the
balloon, that is, to the square of the radius. This makes the
resistance vary as the cube root of the density,2 which means
that at a height of 6,000 meters, where the density is about one-
half, the resistance is .83, of what it would be at the surface.

1 For if /lt d1, z;1/>1*1 represent ascensional force, density, volume,
pressure and temperature at the surface of the earth, and f2, d2, v^ />2, t2,
the corresponding quantities at any given elevation, then since d2/d^=
/>2f1//>1f2 (i) and fi/f^v^d^/v^d^ (2) there results from a combination
of i and 2 fi/f^tdJv2d2=p2tl/pJ2XpJJpJf=ii.

2 For if R^ is the resistance at the earth's surface and R2 that at any
given altitude,

which is seen from (i) to equal

METEOROLOGICAL WORK 53

If, as is approximately true for these speeds, the resistance
varies as the square of the velocity, or the velocity as the square
root of the resistance, this would mean that the velocity should
vary as the sixth root of the density. In other words, since
the sixth root of 2 is 1.13, at a height of 6,000 meters, the
velocity should be about 13 per cent, greater than at the surface.
Such an increase in velocity would be very easily observable in
the experimental data. The fact that it is not found there is
due to the wholly fortuitous circumstance that the slow dif-
fusion of hydrogen through the walls, as observation by Blair
and Sherry has shown, is just sufficient, with the balloons here
used, to retard the ascensional rate enough to make it quite ex-
actly constant.

This makes it possible, provided one could always duplicate
the size and weight of his balloon, to obtain a very exact de-
termination of wind velocity and direction by a one-theodolite
method, the height being always known from the time and the
known rate of ascent.

When, however, the weight and inflation of the balloons are
varied, as they must be in practice, since the balloons vary in
weight from twenty to thirty-five grams, and since it is con-
venient also to vary the filling according as low altitude or high
altitude wind-data are desired, it is found that no accurate
formula can be found for computing the speed in terms of the
ascensional force, the weight to be lifted, and a single invariable
constant. For approximate work, however, the one-theodolite
method, because of its convenience and because of the imprac-
ticability of measuring an accurate base line at the front, is
much in use, and one of the advances made in the meteoro-
logical work of the army during the past year has consisted in
developing with the aid of the large amount of data available,
a general formula for the rate of ascent in terms of the ascen-
sional force and the weight to be lifted, which though far from
accurate is more reliable than that which has heretofore been
used. The formula heretofore used is that of Dines, namely,

54 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

_ m

in which V represents the rate of ascent in meters per minute,
/ is the free lift, or the weight of the displaced air less the
weight of the balloon and contained hydrogen, L is the weight
of the balloon plus the free lift and K is a constant.

The formula as modified by the observers of the Signal Corps
is

.208

This formula is found to fit the observational data within the
ranges used in the Signal Corps work to an accuracy of some-
what less than 10 per cent., which is sufficient for most work
at the front.

2. Meteorology in the Aid of the Artillery. — In former times
when guns did not shoot to a greater distance than eight or ten
miles, it was usually possible to observe where the projectile
hit and to correct by (f spotting." This made unnecessary the
correction of the trajectory for the influence of the wind and
the changing density of the air with increasing altitude. In the
present war, however, guns have been built to shoot much
farther and in addition camouflage has prevented the visual
location of guns even at the old ranges. Hostile batteries have
been located in many instances solely by the new art of sound-
ranging which has itself demanded for the high accuracy at-
tained aerological data. The answering battery has been
obliged to fire wholly by the map, so that it is obvious that it
has become necessary to make careful allowances both for the
density of the air and the direction and speed of the wind at
various altitudes. Some of the modern projectiles remain in
the air as long as seventy seconds and a moderate wind blow-
ing across the path of such a projectile might easily cause it to
drop half a mile away from the point at which it would strike
if fired in still air. The wind-direction and speed at various
altitudes have been obtained, as already indicated by pilot bal-

Z.S 50 75 100 US

Courtesy of American Philosophical Society

Figure 3. Uniform rate of ascent of pilot balloon up to 20,000
meters where balloon sprung a leak

I. Insist

it. f i*Lt il , MY^j

October' Zl , l<j i $ 3 ' 0 i P . m • :

'• P . 3 T4"ec" ^

rVonoiirtced Co'nu:€ctia:n

Courtesy of American Philosophical Society

Figure 4. Convection currents at low altitudes

METEOROLOGICAL WORK 55

loons, while the temperature has been determined at the prov-
ing grounds by sending self-recording instruments aloft in spe-
cially constructed box-kites, as well as by sending self-record-
ing instruments and meteorological observers aloft in airplanes.
It has been with the aid of observations of this sort that the
new range tables for the Ordnance Department of the United
States Army have been constructed. The importance of this
work may be understood when it is considered that these range
tables will be used in connection with the firing of all guns, and
errors in them would produce errors in the range of every gun
fired with their aid.

3. The Development of Long Range Propaganda Balloons.
— In view of the fact that above an altitude of 10,000 feet 95
per cent, of the winds both over western Europe and over the
United States blow from west to east (i. e., have a westerly
component), Captain Sherry in 1917 suggested the development
of a large program for the extension of the use of pilot bal-
loons for the purpose of flooding the whole of Germany and
Austria with propaganda dropped from such balloons. The
project was submitted to the meteorological and military
agencies in France and pronounced infeasible, chiefly because
the rapid diffusion of hydrogen through rubber had hereto-
fore rendered it impossible to obtain pilot balloon flights of
more than about 100 miles. Undiscouraged, however, by these
reports, Mr. W. J. Lester, Dr. S. R. Williams and Sergeant
Redman attacked the problem of extending the range of pilot
balloon flights by developing an automatic ballast-control and
by reducing the diffusion by means of a special dope.

The automatic control was ingeniously simple, its essential
feature being a belly band which kept the girth of the balloon
constant (at a diameter of four feet) through the discharge,
in the act of shrinking, of a few drops of kerosene, thus causing
reascension and consequent expansion.

With this device the balloon not only does not fall but rises
very gradually to higher and higher levels until its ballast of
kerosene or alcohol is exhausted.

THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

In the week beginning October 3, 1918, sixty such balloons,
adjusted to fly between the initial and final altitudes of 15,000
and 25,000 feet respectively were sent up from Fort Omaha,
Nebraska, carrying return cards and watches, which were ar-
ranged to stop and be let down on small parachutes as soon
as the ballast was exhausted. Thirty-four out of sixty of these
balloons were picked up and returned to Washington. Instead
of flying loo miles, one of them came down within ten miles

TABLE 1

WAR DEPARTMENT, SIGNAL CORPS, U. S. ARMY, METEOROLOGICAL

SERVICE,

Station Ellendale, N. D. (90th Meridian Time.)

Wind Aloft Report.
Time 7:00 A. M. Date November 13, 1918.

Altitude,
Meters.

Direction,
Compass.

Veloc-
ity, M.
P. H.

Re-
marks.

Altitude,
Meters.

Direction,
Compass.

Veloc-
ity, M.
P.H.

Re-
marks.

0

sw

29

5,250

NW

57

250

S

17

5,500

NW

60

500

sw

16

5,750

NW

59

750

sw

15

6,OOO

WNW

63

1,000

w

15

6,250

NW

69

1,250

w

16

6,500

NW

68

1,500

WNW

18

6,750

NW

68

1,750

WNW

19

7,000

NW

74

2,000

WNW

22

7,250

NW

77

2,250

WNW

25

7,5oo

NW

85

2,500

WNW

27

7,750

NW

65

2,750

WNW

34

8,000

NW

73

3,ooo

WNW

35

8,250

NW

76

3,250

NW

35

8,500

NW

69

3,5oo

NW

40

8,750

NW

75

3,750

NW

4i

9,000

NW

73

4,000

NW

41

9,250

WNW

74

4,250

NW

47

9,500

WNW

68

4.500

NW

53

9,750

WNW

65

4,750

NW

56

10,000

WNW

78

5,ooo

NW

54

10,250

NW

81

METEOROLOGICAL WORK

57

TABLE 2

WAR DEPARTMENT, SIGNAL CORPS, U. S. ARMY, METEOROLOGIAL

SERVICE.

Station Groesbeck, Texas, (ooth Meridian Time.)

Wind Aloft Report.
Time 7 :oo A. M. Date November i, 1918.

Altitude,
Meters,

Direction,
Compass.

Veloc-
ity, M.
PH.

Re-
marks.

Altitude,
Meters,

Direction,
Compass.

Veloc-
ity, M.
P.H.

Re-
marks.

O

E

9

6,750

WNW

25

250

ESE

16

7,OOO

WNW

19

500

ESE

13

7,250

w

8

750

ESE

2

7,500

w

12

1,000

WSW

5

7,750

w

9

1,250

WNW

ii

8,000

WSW

4

1,500

WNW

18

8,250

WSW

16

1,750

WNW

23

8,500

WNW

20

2,000

NW

25

8,750

w

22

2,250

NW

20

9,000

WSW

2O

2,500

WNW

20

9,250

WSW

20

2,750

NW

23

9,500

WSW

22

3,000

NNW

21

9,750

WSW

28

3,250

N

18

10,000

w

39

3,500

NNW

29

10,250

w

47

3,750

NW

25

10,500

w

50

4,000

NNW

20

10,750

WNW

59

4,250

NW

20

11,000

WNW

57

4,500

NW

21

11,250

w

44

4,750

NW

20

11,500

w

39

5,000

WNW

16

n,75o

w

41

5.250

WNW

18

12,000

w

47

5,500

WNW

35

12,250

w

5i

5,750

WNW

35

12,500

w

56

6,000

WNW

32

12,750

w

59

6,250

WNW

25

13,000

w

60

6,500

WNW

26

13,250

w

64

of New York, 1,100 miles from Fort Omaha, another was re-
turned from Virginia, 930 miles from its starting point, and
the rest were scattered over Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, Wiscon-

THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

sin and Iowa. Not one went west of Omaha though the bal-
loons were sent up on days on which different surface condi-
tions prevailed.

The credit for this achievement, the significance of which
will be discussed later, is due primarily to Mr. Lester, Captain
Sherry, Dr. Williams and Sergeant Redman. At the time of
the signing of the armistice the Military Intelligence Service
was preparing for the extensive use of these balloons for flood-
ing the whole of Germany, Austria and even parts of Russia
with suitable leaflets, several hundred of which could have been
scattered by a single balloon, the total cost of which would
have been but two or three dollars.

4. The Charting of the Upper Air in Aid of Aviation. — In a
recent Brisbane editorial the following sentence occurs : " Fly-
ing machines of the future going long distances will travel at
least 32,000 feet up, where no wind blows except the gentle
eastern wind caused by the earth's motion on its axis." It
is quite likely that the future aviator will fly high, but his mo-
tive will be to find an air current, not to escape one. The

TABLE 3

WAR DEPARTMENT, SIGNAL CORPS, U. S. ARMY, METEOROLOGIAL

SERVICE.

Station Ellendale, N. D. (poth Meridian Time.)

Wind Aloft Report.
Time 8:26 A.M. Date December 5, 1918.

Altitude,
Meters,

Direction,
Compass.

Veloc-
ity, M.
P. H.

Re-
marks.

Altitude,
Meters,

Direction,
Compass.

Veloc-
ity, M.
P.H.

Re-
marks.

O

NW

19

1,750

NW

64

250

NW

47

2,OOO

WNW

68

500

NW

49

2,250

WN!W

81

750

NW

57

2,500

WNW

87

1,000

NW

48

2,750

WNV."

96

1,250

WNW

49

3,000

WNW

93

1,500

WNW

50

METEOROLOGICAL WORK

59

TABLE 4

WAR DEPARTMENT, SIGNAL CORPS, U. S. ARMY, METEOROLOGIAL

SERVICE.

Station Mineola, L. I. (75th Meridian Time.)

Wind Aloft Report.
Time 7 :o6 A. M. Date September 7, 1918.

Altitude,
Meters,

Direction,
Compass.

Veloc-
ity, M.
PH.

Re-
marks.

Altitude,
Meters,

Direction,
Compass.

Veloc
ity, M.
P. H.

Re-
marks.

0

N

18

2,OOO

sw

25

250

N

51

2,250

sw

37

500

N

65

2,500

sw

63

750

N

29

2,750

sw

55

1,000

W

22

3,000

sw

54

1,250

w

2O

3,250

sw

55

1,500

W

II

3,500

sw

81

1,750

wsw

13

gentleness of the zephyrs existing at high altitudes may be
seen from tables i, 2, 3, 4 and 5 which record three sets of
pilot balloon observations recently taken by the Signal Corps.
These tables show air currents increasing in intensity with in-
creasing altitude and approaching the huge speed of 100 miles
per hour. Such speeds are perhaps exceptional, but not at all
unknown. The pilot balloon mentioned in 3 traveled from
Omaha to Virginia at an average speed of thirty miles per
hour, the average height being 18,000 feet. On November 6,
1918, at Chattanooga, Tennessee, a velocity of 154 miles an
hour at an altitude of 28,000 feet was observed by one of the
meteorological units of the Signal Corps.

These facts bring out the importance of a forecast of such
currents for the purposes of long flights. A flier aided by such
a wind as that last mentioned would move toward his objective
2 X 154, or 308 miles an hour more rapidly than if he were
opposed by it. When it is recalled that the aviator above, the
clouds has no means of knowing anything about the motion of

6o

THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

the air in which he flies, it will be seen that it is of the greatest
importance to him to know the nature of the currents at dif-
ferent levels. Table 4 furnishes a very typical illustration of
this importance. From the above data it is evident that an avi-

TABLE 5

WAR DEPARTMENT, SIGNAL CORPS, U. S. ARMY, METEOROLOGIAL

SERVICE.

Station Fort Oglethorpe, Ga. (ooth Meridian Time.)

Wind Aloft Report.
Time 7 :3Q A. M. Date November 29, 1918.

Altitude,
Meters,

Direction,
Compass.

Veloc-
ity, M.
PH.

Re-
marks.

Altitude,
Meters,

Direction,
Compass.

Veloc-
ity, M.
PH.

Re-
marks.

0

NW

7

1,750

W

36

250

NW

8

2,OOO

w

41

500

NW

ii

2,250

w

46

750

WNW

19

2,500

wsw

47

I,OOO

W

29

2,750

wsw

56

1,250

w

34

3,000

wsw

76

1,500

W

36

3,250

wsw

96

TABLE 6

Altitude In
Meters.

Surface

Wind Direc-
tion.

"... NW

Wind Velocity In
Miles per Hour.

2.2

coo

E ...

5.8

I QOO

E

8.3

2 OOO

NE

-3 OOO

W

5.4

A OOO

NW

24.6

I2.OOO. .

NW

. 4Q.2

ator flying toward the west at this time and place should have
flown at an altitude of 1,000 meters, while an aviator flying
toward the east should have flown at an altitude of 4,000
meters or more.

In order to meet the obvious need of the aviator for a knowl-

METEOROLOGICAL WORK 61

edge of upper air currents the Signal Corps in the summer of
1917 undertook for the first time in history a general program
of mapping the upper air currents of the United States, the
Atlantic and western Europe in aid of aviation and particularly
with reference to trans-Atlantic flight. By the fall of 1918
iwenty-six upper air stations, carefully distributed over the
United States, were in full operation in place of the one station
which had existed before the war. From these stations reports
are telegraphed twice daily to the Weather Bureau in Wash- (
ington. From the pilot-balloon observations, charts are con-
structed showing the wind-speed and direction at the various
levels : for instance, one chart shows the wind-direction and
speed near the ground, another chart shows the. wind-direction
and speed 500 meters above the ground and additional charts
show the wind-direction and speed at the following levels :
1,000, 1,500, 2,000, 3,000 and 4,000 meters above the ground.
The forecaster at Washington has the various charts before him
showing wind and weather conditions prevailing over the
United States within an hour and a half after the observations
are made. From these charts he prepares the forecast of
weather conditions for the various sections of the United States
and at the same time prepares a statement of the wind and
weather conditions at various altitudes along the various air
routes for the use of aerial navigation. This service is al-
ready being used by the aerial mail service, and it is also used
by the military flyers, as is evidenced by telegraphic requests
received at various military meteorological stations for special
reports on the weather and wind conditions when long distance
flights are contemplated.

The problem of exploring the upper air currents over the At-
lantic was at first thought insoluble on account of the absence
of fixed bases, but the success of the Meteorological Service in
developing its long-range propaganda balloons has now made
possible the mapping of the upper-air highways across the
Atlantic, for arrangements are being made to send up both
from coastal stations and from trans-Atlantic steamers these

62 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

long-range balloons designed now for from two to three thou-
sand mile flights, and adjusted to maintain a constant altitude
and to drop in western Europe their records of average winds
in these heretofore unchartable regions. The importance of
this work for the future of aviation needs no emphasis.

The success which the Meteorological Service has attained
would have been wholly impossible had it not been for the
intimate and effective cooperation which has been extended to
it in all of its projects by Director Marvin and the whole staff
of the United States Weather Bureau. The chief credit for
the work abroad should go to Major William R. Blair, com-
missioned from the Weather Bureau for the observational work
with the A. E. F. For the success of the service in this coun-
try Captain Sherry and Lieutenant Waterman have perhaps
the chief responsibility. Captain Murphy and Professor Fassig
have, however, contributed very important elements.

SOUND-RANGING IN THE AMERICAN
EXPEDITIONARY FORCES

AUGUSTUS TROWBRIDGE

THE following picture is not an imaginary one, but rather
one of a very common occurrence throughout the entire
period of the war on the long battle front which stretched from
the Alps to the sea.

It is a dark, cloudy night and enemy shells begin to fall
near an important point in the trenches or on battalion or regi-
mental headquarters. There is a hurried report to our artil-
lery and in a few minutes our own guns begin to reply with
shells which rend the air or whine as they pass overhead to-
ward some invisible mark five miles distant through the black
night. Presently the enemy's fire begins to falter and then
ceases and the infantryman, whose life may have been saved
and whose comfort and efficiency certainly has been protected,
may wonder how the artillery knew just where to direct its
fire. He knows how it is done in clear weather; how the
artillery maintains advanced lookout posts from which observa-
tions are made on the flash of the nearer enemy guns; that
there are other and more elaborate lookouts on high ground
or in trees or towers on the forward edge of woods from which
accurate triangulation on the more distant hostile batteries may
be made; but he knows that these cannot be the means em-
ployed in rain, mist or fog and he probably ends by dismissing
the question with the thought that it was only a case of good
luck.

The chances are that even his officers have no clear idea of

63

64 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

how the enemy guns are quickly located in rain, fog or mist ;
for it has been the policy of the general staff to keep very
secret the details of a scientific service in which the Allies
possess a very decided superiority over the Germans.

Let us look for a moment at what may be happening on the
same night on the other side of No Man's Land. A German
battery begins to shell an important cross-roads in the Allied
back area in order to prevent the bringing up of munitions or
fresh troops. Presently shells begin to drop from somewhere
in France, but at first these are not close enough to make it
sure that they are trying to " find " the German battery ; then
six or eight rounds fall to the left and behind the battery ;
then there follows a short pause and another series of rounds
falls to the right and in front of the battery ; another pause and
the next group of rounds has crept closer and this goes on un-
til the battery has become the center of a steady rain of pro-
jectiles which makes it impossible for the crews to serve their
guns.

The German battery commander knows that the Allies are
directing their counter-battery artillery fire by a means which
he himself does not have at his disposal and he knows what
that means is, for his Intelligence has published a number of
pamphlets which describe it. He also has a set of instructions
as to what measures to adopt if he suspects that the Allies are
employing sound-ranging against him in order to render it less
effective, but these measures are unavailing against the most
improved form of apparatus operated by the Allies.

It is the purpose of the following article to •explain in non-
technical terms how the Allies applied certain acoustic prin-
ciples to determine the position of enemy guns when the more
usual and simpler visual means of observation failed because
of bad weather or because the German batteries were hidden
from view. It is in no sense the purpose to magnify the im-
portance of American scientific achievement in the war, for
the present writer, who as an American scientist has every in-
terest in seeing that all due credit comes to his profession,

SOUND-RANGING 65

nevertheless feels that so far as the war in France is concerned, \
American science contributed far less along original lines than
the general public has imagined. This is no slur on American
science, for it nobly did its part toward bringing the war to
a close, but it did it along lines already laid down by our Allies
and it did it all the more effectively for that reason.

The Allies counted much on American ingenuity in bettering
the existing scientific services and in devising new applications
of science to accomplish new purposes, but both they and we
fully realized the paramount importance of first establishing
services as good as their own before attempting either to make
radical improvements or to establish new services. At the
signing of the armistice experiments were under way in
America, many of which were nearing completion, which might
have added new and valuable scientific services to the number
already functioning in France, but the fact remains that at
the cessation of hostilities all that had been done was the estab-
lishment of American scientific units which were modeled on
those of our allies. The most important of the applications
of pure science which were a wholly new product of land war-1
fare were: the use of cloud and shell gas, the extremely bril-
liant application of chemistry in the construction of gas-masks,
airplane photography, the scientific aids to accuracy in gun-
nery and bombing from airplanes, sound-ranging, search-light
and listening devices for anti-aircraft defense, directional wire-
less, and camouflage. Practically all of the absolutely new
applications of physical science to warfare on land are con-
tained in this rather short list. These, of all the great number
of inventions which have been proposed, it has been possible
and necessary to establish on an engineering basis and to
organize into services for all the armies of the Allies.

The effect of these few new applications of science on the
character of the warfare on the western front was very far*
reaching. Airplane photography, for example, not only com-
pletely revolutionized military map-making but also profoundly
modified the methods of the army Intelligence and made nces-

66 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

sary the establishment of a large force for compiling and com-
paring data from photographs and for disseminating informa-
tion to all the various interested services. The profound
effects which were produced by the gas warfare were patent
to every man on the front and the same was true to a less
degree of the camouflage and some of the other services men-
tioned, but the very existence of one of these, sound-ranging,
was not suspected by most of the troops engaged. This was not
because it was in its way less important than the others or be-
cause it was working less effectively but rather because it was
the policy of the Allies to shroud this particular scientific activity
in the most complete secrecy. For this reason, even now"
not only the general public but also the majority of those who
were over there knows very little of the methods and achieve-
ments of the sound-ranging service. As these methods possess
a considerable scientific interest and as these achievements have
been very creditable it is quite fitting that some account of them
should be included in this volume.

HISTORY

After the first Battle of the Marne the operations on the
western front soon took on the character of siege warfare ; the
artillery of both of the belligerents was augmented, especially
as regards the larger calibers and the batteries took up well-
organized positions carefully concealed for the most part from
visual observation by the enemy.

The possibilities of visual observation had been vastly im-
proved by the use of the airplane in war, but these were some-
what restricted both by the practice of camouflage and by the
generally unfavorable atmospheric conditions on the western
front Experiments were therefore undertaken by the French
in the autumn of 1914 with the object of ascertaining whether
the location of hostile guns by means of sound waves might
prove feasible. It was probably not expected that a high de-
gree of accuracy would be attainable because of the disturbing
effect of wind and temperature irregularities, but the desir-

SOUND-RANGING 67

ability of even a fairly accurate method of location and rang-
ing which should not be interfered with by rain or fog and
against which the practised camouflage should be unavailing
was so obvious that the first successful attempts by the French
in 1914 led quickly to the establishment of a ranging service.

Instruments of four very different types for recording the
arrival of the sound of the enemy gun were tried out on various
parts of the French front. By 1916 the majority of the French
sound-ranging sections were equipped with standardized ap-
paratus of one type. A school for the instruction of the per-
sonnel of the sections was also established in the back area.

The standard type of apparatus adopted by the French had
the advantage of simplicity and the further advantage that it
was for the most part an assembly of well-known commercial
apparatus which had been in use in the field telegraph service
of the French Army. These were real advantages since the
French were obliged to use men in the ranging service who
were often unfitted for more active service or for some of the
other more highly technical services. There were, however,
certain very serious defects in the French apparatus which
prevented its adoption first by the British and later by the
Americans for neither of whom were the advantages just men-
tioned so important as they were for the French.

By the end of 1915 the British had organized a sound-rang-
ing service which employed a photographic recording instru-
ment devised by a British subject, resident in France, Mr.
Lucien Bull, and which had been tried out with success on the
French front but which had not been officially adopted by the
French. In the hands of Mr. Bull and Major Bragg, in tech-
nical charge of sound-ranging in the British Army, the original
apparatus was perfected so as to combine reliability with ample
sensitiveness and an extremely quick recovery so that sound
ranging could be carried on without confusion during periods
of relatively great artillery activity.

Shortly after the entry of the United States into the war —
in June, 1917 — a French scientific commission arrived in

68 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

Washington with information regarding a number of the new
scientific activities in the French Army. This commission
reported that four radically different systems of sound-rang-
ing were at that time in use in the French Army and recom-
mended that an instrument of each of the four types be con-
structed in America from rough sketches which were furnished
and that a comparative test of the four types be carried out at
an artillery firing field. The members of the commission stated
that such a test had not been carried out in Europe and that
it was regarded as highly desirable that such a test be carried
out impartially in America. The commission had data on the
original Bull apparatus but not on the apparatus as perfected
for the British; this was unfortunate, as it rendered the com-
petitive test incomplete and the conclusions drawn from the
test subject to revision later. ^

The present writer was charged with carrying on the pre-
liminary test and the construction of a field-set of the type
which should be judged most satisfactory. Before construc-
tion was started the writer secured permission to go to France
to study the various systems in actual use in the field and so
became aware of the progress which the British had made in
time to stop construction on the type first decided upon and
to start construction of apparatus in quantity of the Bull type
and to insure that the experimental work in America be along
lines determined by field rather than laboratory experience.

By the end of 1917 the first American troops assigned for
the ranging-service were available from the replacements al-
ready in France. The original group of about forty enlisted
men were given instruction by a small group of officers who
had been trained on the British front in the theory and prac-
tical application of sound-ranging, and an American school
was formed as a part of the Army Engineer Schools near
Langres. All of the five companies which ultimately came to
France to carry on the ranging-service (both sound and flash),
were put through this school before they were sent to the front.
The instruction covered a period of one month and the men

SOUND-RANGING 69

were thoroughly trained in the duties which they would have
to perform, with apparatus identical with that which they
would have later to operate. The school was situated in a
country where there was excellent opportunity to reproduce
field conditions. The men not only worked in day and night
shifts as at the front, but were given practice in making rapid
changes of position such as they might meet with later in a
rapid advance or a forced retreat. A short course in the
theory of soundr (and flash-) ranging was given to intelli-
gence officers and to the artillery officers who from time to
time were detailed to the engineer schools. The ranging school
thus not only served the purpose of preliminary training for
the ranging companies but also as a center from which in-
formation as to the possibilities, limitations, and principles of
the new methods of ranging could be disseminated among the
officers of the two branches of the service with which the rang-
ing sections worked.

A descriptive pamphlet, of a confidential nature, on ranging
was also prepared and distributed for the information of ar-
tillery and intelligence officers generally.

A supply depot of the highly technical material used by the
ranging-companies was maintained at the school, and a system
of quick delivery by light motor-trucks was set up between
the depot and the companies operating at the front. During
the period of about eight months (March to November, 1918)
during which American ranging-sections operated, work never
had to be discontinued, even temporarily, for lack of supply
of the highly technical materials used by these sections. For
a large portion of this period American sections were oper-
ating at widely scattered positions which made the problem
of supply a difficult one.

ORGANIZATION IN THE A. E. F.

The ranging-service in the American Expeditionary Force
consisted of two branches, the sound-ranging and the flash-
ranging. One ranging-company was allotted to each American

70 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

corps, and such a company furnished two sound- and two
flash-ranging sections, each section forming a unit capable of
covering a front of about five miles. Since an American army
normally consisted of five corps, this gave a battalion of five
ranging companies per army, and this battalion, if necessary,
could cover with both sound- and flash-ranging a front of fifty
miles. An army of five corps is not likely to have to cover so
wide a front as this even in defensive operations, while in of-
fensive operations on a narrower front the, reduction in the
necessary number of the ranging-sections could take care of
the increase in the number of men required to run a section
under battle conditions. Under the conditions of trench war-
fare, four officers and from fifty-five to sixty men were found
to be sufficient personnel for a sound-ranging section. One
officer is in charge of the maintenance and repairs of the rela-
tively large network of electrical lines running across the
shelled area to the observation stations. Two officers are
needed, besides the commanding officer, to supervise the work
at the central or calculating station where three eight-hour
shifts are maintained and from which reports of hostile fire
or directions for ranging the fire of friendly guns are tele-
phoned to the artillery information officer. On an active front
two more officers and about twenty more men are needed.
About one-third of the men in a section are needed for mainte-
nance of the electrical lines of communication, another third
for calculation, instrumental work and forward observation
and the remaining third for transportation, supply, cooking,
orderlies, etc. The policy adopted was to keep the minimum
number of men necessary for proper observation at a section,
with reserves at company and battalion headquarters ready to
be sent where most needed.

PRINCIPLES OF SOUND-RANGING

Sound travels in still air at zero degrees centigrade, (the
freezing point of water), at the rate of 330.6 meters per sec-
ond (rcughly iioo feet per second). At 10 degrees cent, the

SOUND-RANGING 71

speed, to the nearest whole number, is 337 meters per second.
The velocity is not only affected by the temperature of the air
but also the apparent velocity is very markedly affected by the
velocity and direction of the wind. It follows from this that
a survey carried out by the means of sound waves, unlike a
survey carried out in the ordinary manner by -light waves, is
subject to errors introduced by the lack of accurate knowledge
of the wind and temperature corrections which it is necessary
to apply to the data of observation. Furthermore there is a
lack of parallelism between a light survey and a sound survey
which will be evident from the following consideration. To
locate a point on the ground by a light survey it is only neces-
sary to secure an intersection of two light beams from two
known points on a surveyed base line by the use of relatively
small telescopes, while to obtain a location at all comparable in
accuracy by means of sound it would be necessary to use in-
struments of prohibitively great size. Fortunately, however,
advantage may be taken of the low velocity of sound compared
to that of light to obtain a survey from three points without
the use of listening apparatus of great size. This method en-
tails the accurate measurement of the differences of times of
arrival of sound at the three points. This, of course, requires
the use of some form of accurate clock and precludes the use of
human observers who are likely to differ so much in their reac-
tion times that their results are only roughly comparable.

In still air at 10 degrees centigrade the sound from a gun
moves out in a wave of compression and rarefaction which
travels 337 meters per second. If the gun is at G and
mechanical listeners electrically connected to a common timing

1 The Germans employed a sound-ranging system with human ob-
servers especially trained and selected to have equal reaction time but
the results obtained by the Germans fell far short of what the Allies
accomplished. The German system was defective not only as regards
accuracy but also as regards the speed with which results could be
reported; what the Allies could do in two minutes took the Germans
nearly an hour.

THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

device are situated at Mj, M2 and M3 and if, for example G Mx
be 3370 meters, the sound of the gun will reach Mj in 10 sec-
onds, and the front of the spherical wave will go through M±,
N2 and N8. This wave front moving with the velocity of 337
meters per second will reach M2 later than it reaches Mt.
How much later is determined by the time it takes the sound

N M
to travel the distance N2 M2 (that is by— - — -seconds). Thus

oo/

\ 1 •*?

\l

*/

|A3

A

/'

Figure i
the interval between the arrival of the sound at Mt and at Ma

will be

337

seconds and the interval between the arrival at

! and at M3 will be — - — - seconds. Suppose the distance

N2M2 were 33.7 meters, then the interval of time between the
arrival at Mx and at M2 would be one-tenth of a second and

SOUND-RANGING 73

this would be what would be recorded on the timing device
electrically connected with Mx and M2. This interval alone
would not serve to locate the position of the gun for there is
a whole series of positions which the gun might occupy and
still send the sound to Mx a tenth of a second earlier than to
M2 ; in fact G might lie anywhere provided G M2 were greater
than G Mx by 33.7 meters in the example chosen. Stated
more mathematically, G must lie on a particular hyperbola hav-
ing M! and M2 as foci, for an hyperbola is a curve drawn in
sych a way that the difference of the distances from any point
of the curve to two fixed points, or foci, is a constant (33.7
meters in this case). Now if G is not close to M± and M2
compared to the distance between Mx and M2, which is the
practical case on the battle front, the hyperbola on which G
must lie is practically a portion of a straight line which, if pro-
longed, goes through a point midway between Mt and M2 and
thus it is possible to determine the direction from this mid-
point to the gun. A plotting board may be prepared in ad-
vance which has a string pivoted on the mid-point A, and a
scale on the edge of the board marked with hundredth and
tenth seconds intervals. In the example taken this string
would have to be set at the interval marked one-tenth of a
second and the gun would be determined to lie on the ground
at some point represented on the plotting board as a point
lying under the string. Similarly, if the observed interval be-
tween the times of arrival of the report at M2 and M3 be laid
off on a second scale for a string pivoted on the mid-point B
the intersection of the two strings would locate on the plotting
board the position of the gun on the ground. Naturally the
plotting board must be very carefully prepared from an ac-
curate survey of the positions of the listening instruments on
the ground.

The location found on the plotting board will only be exact
without correction if the temperature of the air is 10 degrees
centigrade and if there is no wind. If there is no wind but
the temperature is greater than 10 degrees centigrade the sound

74 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

will have traveled more rapidly than was assumed in the
preparation of the plotting board and the intervals will thus
be too small for the scale adopted in drawing the board. The
amounts by which the intervals must be augmented or dimin-
ished if the temperature of the air be known are easily cal-
culated and the strings may be set for the corrected intervals
and the intersection then determines the true position of the
gun as before. If a wind be blowing with' a known velocity
in a given direction it is only the components of this velocity
which lie along the directions G M1? G M2, and G M3 which
will affect the times of arrival of the sound at the listening in-
struments; the observed intervals may therefore be easily cor-
rected to what they would have been were there no wind and
the plotting strings set accordingly.

The theory of the application of the wind and temperature
corrections is an extremely simple matter and the application
itself is easy and rapid because of the graphical method of
calculation employed in the construction of the string plotting
board. The real difficulty lies in an uncertainty as to what the
true temperature and wind are, since the sound comes by a
path inaccessible to observation. More than half of the path
lies behind the enemy lines and the remainder lies in a region
in which it is not permissible to attract the attention of the
enemy by carrying on any unnecessary activities.

A very valuable study of the wind and temperature cor-
rections to be applied to the observed data of sound-ranging
was made by the British before the entry of the United States
into the war and an empirical rule was found to hold that
these corrections should be based on observations of wind and
temperature made as near the front as convenient and at a
height of fifty meters above the ground. In the American
service the meteorological data were not available from army
sources when the first sound-ranging sections went into the
field in March 1918, so each section was equipped to obtain
its own data.

There are other wind and temperature effects which are of

SOUND-RANGING

75

a qualitative nature and may very seriously affect the operation
of a sound-ranging section, since corrections are usually not
possible. If the wind be blowing in a general direction towards
the enemy the sound of his guns may not arrive at the listening
instruments because of a lifting of the sound waves as they

' Wind

Figure 2

advance against a wind whose velocity is generally greater at
the higher levels than it is near the ground. This case is
illustrated in Figure 2.

If the direction of the wind is from the enemy guns the
sound reaches the listening instruments, but it is prolonged

Ground Leve

Figure 3

by reason of echoes from the ground and the result of this
is that the time of arrival is not clearly marked. This
case is illustrated in Figure 3. Echoes also occur because of
temperature inequalities which cause reflection of the sound

76 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

from air strata of unequal density at various heights above the
ground.

Three listening instruments electrically connected with a
" central " or calculating station are theoretically sufficient to
permit of a survey of the enemy batteries by sound ; however,
it is in practice advisable to employ more than three instru-
ments for the following reasons : The electrical connections
between the instruments and the time-recording mechanism at
the " central " are unavoidably subject to considerable cutting
by the enemy's shell-fire; it is out of the question to bury the
lines to a sufficient depth to avoid all cutting and to bury them
in a shallow trench renders the location and repair of the breaks
which do occur, extremely difficult ; the practice has been to lay
the lines exposed on the ground and to provide a sufficient force
of linesmen to ensure quick repairs. In order that the section
may continue its work while such repairs are being made, six
listeners instead of three are provided in the expectation that at
least three will always be in working condition. If only the
minimum number (three) of listening instruments are employed
no estimate of the accuracy of a location can be formed whereas
if six instruments be used the location is determined by the
intersection of five strings on the plotting board; if these all
intersect in a point the location is probably accurate whereas
if they intersect in a large cat's cradle the location is probably
badly in error. A study was made of the errors corresponding
to certain typical cat's cradles and a general plan of reporting
the probable accuracy of a location from the character of the
intersection was adopted. The officer in command of a sound-
ranging section thus reported to the artillery not only the loca-
tion, target and probable caliber of an active enemy battery
but also whether the location was probably accurate to fifty,
one hundred or one hundred and fifty meters; these estimates
were formed in a scientific manner and all of the various sec-
tions on the front employed the same method. After a con-
siderable number of the enemy's battery positions had been
captured it was possible to check up the errors of the in-

SOUND-RANGING

77

dividual sound-ranging locations with the results of a careful
survey of the positions; it was found that the estimates of
accuracy had been rather too conservative, for in none of the
cases examined was the accuracy less than had been claimed

Centra/

Figure 4

when the report was made and in the majority of the cases
it was considerably greater.

A sound-ranging section consisted of six listening instru-
ments at carefully surveyed positions on the ground; each of
these instruments was electrically connected with a recording

78 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

photographic chronograph at a " central " or calculating sta-
tion so situated as to entail the minimum amount of wire con-
nection to the listening instruments. Each section had two
advanced posts at which observers were on duty day and night
in order to start the automatic recording mechanism at the
" central " when necessary. The listening instruments were
equi-spaced on a straight line, or more generally on an arc of
a circle which was concave toward the enemy, situated a short
distance behind the line of the advanced posts mentioned above.
The distance between the listening instruments was generally
about fifteen hundred meters so that the entire length of the
sound-ranging base was about seventy-five hundred meters or
slightly less than five miles. The employment of a regular
base, generally an arc of a circle, was a highly important in-
novation which was introduced by the British ; it rendered the
interpretation of the records easy even when there was con-
siderable artillery activity because the indications on the record
which were caused by any one of the many guns which might
be firing at about the same time were spread out on the record
in a simple geometric pattern if the listening instruments were
arranged on the ground in a simple curve. Owing to this it
was possible to locate several guns, firing practically simul-
taneously, without a loss of time in correctly interpreting the
photographic record delivered by the instrument at the central
station.

The recording mechanism at the " central " consisted of an
accurate timing device arranged so as to photograph on a
moving strip of sensitized paper a series of lines about one-
fiftieth of an inch apart ; these lines were the shadows cast by
a set of spokes of a wheel which was kept spinning in the path
of a beam of light which fell on the sensitized paper; the rate
of spin of the spoked wheel was governed by a tuning fork so
that the shadows were cast on the paper with the greatest at-
tainable regularity; the rate chosen was one hundred shadows
per second so that the photographic paper had recorded on it
across its entire width an extremely accurate time scale the

SOUND-RANGING 79

smallest interval of which was one one hundredth of a second ;
the tenth second mark and the entire second mark were made
so as to be easily distinguishable from the others in order to
permit rapid counting. The photographic paper employed
was of the width of the standard moving picture film as this
could be obtained quickly and at low cost both in Europe and
America.

Superimposed on the time scale on the paper were six
shadows evenly spaced across the width of the paper; these
shadows were cast by six tiny moving elements of a specially
constructed galvanometer. One of each of these elements was
electrically connected to a corresponding one of the listening
instruments of the sound-ranging base. When the sound of
a gun arrived at listener No. i there occurred a slight twitch
in the element No. I of the galvanometer and this twitch was
photographically recorded on the moving paper strip. The
time the twitch occurred could be read with an accuracy of at
least a hundredth of a second because the record of the twitch
and of the time were superposed on the same piece of photo-
graphic paper. When the sound arrived at listener No. 2
the element No. 2 responded and recorded the exact time as
just described for No. I and the same was true for the other
four elements. Thus if the mechanism were set in motion
before the sound of the gun reached the listener nearest to the
gun and was allowed to run until the sound reached the listener
furthest from the gun the photographic record which was de-
livered, automatically developed and fixed, contained all the in-
formation necessary to calculate the gun's position ; i. e., it con-
tained the five intervals between the times of arrival at the six
listening instruments. If, as generally, the recorder was run
for twenty or thirty seconds, the burst of the enemy's shell was
also recorded and its position could be reported to the artillery
in one to two minutes after the gun had fired.

Figure 5 illustrates the type of record obtained from various
types of German guns variously located with reference to the
listening instrument. Figure 5 A shows the " twitches " on

•So

THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

all six recording elements due to the sound from a 15 centi-
meter howitzer situated very nearly equidistant from all six
of the listeners. The vertical lines represent tenth second
intervals. The hundredth second intervals which appear on
the actual film have been omitted from the drawing. Figure

15-cm. Howitzer.

10'5-cm. Howitzer.

c.

si

Figure 5

5 B is similar to A except that a wind was blowing from the
left flank which caused the sound to be so loud on the right
flank that the twitches of the lower elements are too rapid to
photograph. Figure 5 C is the record from a high velocity
gun situated towards the right flank of the sound-ranging base.
The portions of the record marked S are due to the bow wave
of the shell as it passes over the various listening instruments
while the portions marked G are due to the muzzle wave of

SOUND-RANGING 81

the gun. It is, of course, this latter portion of the record that
is used to calculate the position of the gun. The time in-
tervals between S and G serve to identify the caliber of the gun.

The listening instruments were grids of very fine wire elec-
trically heated and mounted in the narrow neck of bottle-
shaped containers. When the sound from a gun arrived at
the container, air was forced in and out by the pressure changes
existing in the passing sound wave ; the air rushing in and out
cooled the hot wire mounted in the neck of the bottle and this
cooling disturbed the flow of the electric current used to heat
the wire, and the variation in the flow of current was what
actuated the moving part of the galvanometer at the " central "
and caused the twitch in the shadow recorded on the moving
photographic paper. The listeners were rendered purposely
insensitive to loud but high-pitched noises like rifle fire, etc.,
but purposely very sensitive to grave and sometimes almost
inaudible sounds like heavy caliber artillery fire; in fact, for
the purpose for which they are designed the listeners were
superior to the human ear and were able to pick up German
guns as far in the rear as guns were likely to be placed. Very
often a gun — the report of which had not been audible — was
found on the same record with a nearer and audible gun.

The timing device at the " central " station was run continu-
ously day and night but the remainder of the apparatus was run
only when firing was taking place ; for this reason the apparatus
was electrically controlled by observers stationed near the front
line trenches; these observers had certain groups of enemy
artillery assigned to them for surveillance and they were
instructed to start the recording mechanism whenever they
heard firing from their assigned areas. There were generally
two or more forward observation stations (marked O. P. on
Figure 4) to each sound-ranging section, so chosen with refer-
ence to the lay of the land, that no enemy-firing on the five mile
front could take place without attracting the attention of at least
one of the groups of forward observers.

A typical record not only contained data from which the

82 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

position of the enemy gun could be located but also contained
data from which the location of the burst of the shell could
be calculated; thus both the range and the time of flight of the
shell were known. In the case of guns employing fixed
ammunition charge a knowledge of these two quantities was
sufficient to determine the caliber of the gun since the values
of the muzzle velocities of many of the German guns were well
known to the Allies. Even in the case of guns not employing
fixed ammunition charge the fact that the burst of the shell
could be located enabled the officer in charge of the section
to recover fragments of the shell on which to base an estimate
of the caliber.

The possibility of an estimate of the caliber of the enemy
guns was one of the unique features of sound-ranging.
Another important feature was the ability to locate guns which
were brought up by the enemy in preparation for an attack
and which were therefor not used in the period preceding the
attack in order to insure an element of surprise. Such guns
usually fired but one or two ranging shots and if they were
well concealed usually escaped detection by ordinary means;
many such guns were located by sound-ranging when they fired
their first, and often only, ranging shot.

The location of the enemy artillery formed only one part,
though the more important part, of the routine work of a sound-
ranging section. When, because of bad weather, aerial or other
visual observation was impossible the sound-ranging sections
were called on to correct the fire of the friendly artillery on
enemy objectives either to silence the fire of batteries or to
harass the enemy traffic in the back areas. In the case of
silencing the fire of an enemy battery which had just fired,
sound-ranging was very effective. The following considera-
tion will show why this was so: suppose an enemy gun has
just fired and that a record has been obtained by the sound-
ranging section; to obtain an accurate location it is necessary
to apply temperature and wind corrections to the observed
data and it is the lack of accurate knowledge of the wind and

SOUND-RANGING 83

temperature which causes errors in the location; suppose that
instead of attempting to locate the gun the approximate posi-
tion is reported to the friendly artillery and a shell is thrown
immediately somewhere near the enemy gun and a sound-
ranging record is taken of the burst of this shell. If, by
chance, the shell had hit the gun the sound-ranging records of
the gun and of the burst would be identical, for whatever effect
wind and temperature had had on the one record it would
also have had on the other. Even though the first shell does
not hit the gun it will be near enough so that its relative position
to the gun may be accurately calculated from the difference
of the two records. If the sound-ranging section commander
reports the first shell as so many meters left and so many
meters short, for example, the battery commander may correct
round after round in this manner until a direct hit is obtained.
A technique of rapid calculation was devised which permitted
the simultaneous correction of the fire of all four guns of a
friendly battery firing salvos. The fall of individual rounds
was in practice not reported though they were of course
observed but rather the mean point of burst of six or eight
rounds of each of the guns was reported; the battery com-
mander made his corrections and another series of rounds was
fired and new corrections were applied and this was generally
sufficient to make it worth while to fire for effect. This method
of ranging was only employed when the simpler visual methods
were impossible as it necessitated a partial suspension of the
normal work of the sound-ranging section which was the loca-
tion of active enemy batteries.

Ranging on an objective other than a gun which had just
fired was of course subject to the inaccuracies due to wind and
temperature. However, in this case the objective was gener-
ally a large one such as an ammunition dump, rest billets, cross-
roads, or the like, so that a high degree of accuracy was neither
sought nor needed.

84

THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

ACCURACY OF LOCATIONS

After the capture of the St. Mihiel salient and again after the
armistice, surveys were made by the army topographers of the
gun positions which had been located by sound-ranging and
the data from these surveys were used by the officers in charge
of the sound-ranging sections to determine what errors had

MAP SQUARE 28

A.I. ,3.
oyad

Individual &#:&

** •"

/0° "

P4759

Figure 6

been made in their locations. This study brought a number
of interesting results to light, some of which are of theoretical
interest to physicists and meteorologists and some of which
are of practical importance in pointing the way to improvements
in any future sound-ranging service in the army. The chief
result of practical importance was that the average value of a
small number of locations obtained under different weather

SOUND-RANGING 85

conditions, is of a surprisingly high order of accuracy. The
error is often less than ten meters and rarely more than twenty-
five meters at a distance of from five to eight miles. The reason
for this high order of accuracy of the average is probably the
following: Systematic errors, such as those due to a careless
survey of the sound-ranging base or to errors in the timing
device, etc., are practically non-existent and all errors are hap-
hazard in character. The relative excellence of each location
of a series may be judged from the character of the intersec-
tion on the plotting board as described earlier in this article
so that a fairly correct weighted average may be formed by
counting locations, estimated as correct to within fifty meters,
three times, those estimated as correct to within one hundred
meters, twice, and those to within one hundred and fifty meters,
once. Whatever unsystematic error due to wind and tempera-
ture has been introduced will affect the weighted average value
far less than it affects the individual values, for such errors
will tend to cancel each other's effect.

As a result of the study of the errors in the sound-ranging
locations of scores of enemy batteries it appears that the
section commander should report to the artillery the average
of all previous locations of a battery rather than the latest
location or even the best location as judged from the character
of the intersection of the strings on the plotting board. (There
are many instances showing that the average of five or more
locations, no one of which was correct to within 150 meters,
was accurate to within 50 meters.) Of course in mobile war-
fare averages should not be taken nor should they be taken
in position warfare if there is any reason to suspect that the
gun is not occupying a fixed emplacement.

The great accuracy of the average of a series of sound-
ranging locations was not suspected during the war even by
those engaged in this service ; had it been recognized an incident
like the following would have been impossible. In the
St. Mihiel sector there was an enemy battery position which
was repeatedly reported by sound-ranging as active. The

86 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

average of eight locations showed it to have the map co-
ordinates, x=350930 meters and 7=234700 meters; subse-
quent survey showed that the middle of the battery actually
had the coordinates, x=35O92o and y=2347io. The error
amounted to 16 meters (in x) too far to the East and 10
meters (in y) too far to the South or about 19 meters actual
error on the ground. This battery had eight gun pits, six of
which had been recently occupied ; nearby were deep, safe dug-
outs and the whole position was well designed and executed;
it had never been shelled by our artillery as it had never been
listed as an active battery. About two hundred meters away
from this very active battery was an emplacement which
showed up clearly on the airplane photographs but which an
examination of the ground, after the position had been cap-
tured, showed had not been active within at least a year. This
inactive battery was listed by our artillery and it was assumed
that the locations reported by sound-ranging of the really active
but concealed battery were incorrect locations of the visible
but inactive battery. Had either the artillery or the sound-
rangers had a proper confidence in the accuracy of the sound
location the German gunners would have had need of their
deep safe dug-outs and our own lines would have been shelled
less. Instances like the above were not common, however, and,
generally speaking, the artillery made full and efficient use of
the data supplied by sound-ranging. The surveys brought to
light full confirmation of the theoretical considerations on the
accuracy of the individual locations ; thus, errors in range were
always greater than errors in line and errors of both kinds
were less when the gun was opposite the middle of the sound-
ranging base than when it occupied a flanking position. Obser-
vations on guns lying more than one kilometer outside the
perpendiculars erected on the ends of the chord of the base
may be quite worthless as regards the determination of the
range though still quite accurate as regards the determination
of the line. This was predicted from geometrical considera-
tions and in consequence it was the practice for some time

SOUND-RANGING 87

before the close of the war to locate enemy guns by employing
two or more sound-ranging sections working together, so that
each might give an accurate determination of line and by com-
bining these to obtain an accurate determination both of line
and range.

An idea may be gained of the amount of artillery information
supplied by the sound-ranging sections from the following
figures taken from a report of the artillery information officer
of one of the American Corps. This officer had as sources of
information American sound- ranging sections, and American
and French flash-ranging sections. During a period of rapid
advance 425 separate locations of enemy batteries were made;
of these two American flash sections reported 63 per cent.,
three French flash sections 16 per cent, and three American
sound sections 21 per cent. In a period of two weeks when the
advance had been temporarily checked by the enemy the total
number of locations was 392 and the percentages were : three
American flash sections reported 38 per cent., two French flash
sections reported 8 per cent, and three American sound sections
54 per cent.

In another and very active sector, where there was but one
American sound section and one American flash section, the
figures were : during a period of three days preparation for an
advance, sound 22 locations, flash 22, balloons o, aviation o.
During a period of sixteen days rapid advance, sound 4, flash
46, balloons 30, aviation 15. During a period of four days of
stabilization, sound 6, flash 34, balloons 13, aviation 15. These
figures are fairly characteristic and bring out clearly the rela-
tively great importance of sound-ranging during the stationary
warfare and of visual observation during actual attack. This
was to be expected as sound-ranging was devised to meet the
peculiar conditions of trench warfare. When, in the spring
of 1918, it became apparent that a more open warfare was
beginning, the sound-ranging sections were trained and
equipped so as to become as mobile as the -artillery of the
heavier calibers but they never were able to get in action so

88 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

quickly or remain in action so long as the flash-ranging sections
whose equipment was lighter and could be more quickly set
up than that of the sound-rangers.

Sound-ranging was a oroduct of the recent war. Whether
it will prove useful in furure wars is an open question but its
usefulness to the Allies in the recent war was beyond question
for, due to it, they possessed a marked advantage over their
enemy in being able to locate and silence hostile batteries under
conditions where all other means failed.

VI
WAR-TIME PHOTOGRAPHY

HERBERT E. IVES

i

BEFORE the great war, photography had figured but
little as a military aid. It was used principally for making
records ; pictures of men and equipment, camps and battlefields,
as in the famous Brady photographs of our Civil War. In
quite recent wars some actual views of battles while in progress
have been produced, with men and artillery in action. These
were made possible by the practical development of instantane-
ous photography, and were due to the enterprize of the news-
paper photographer catering to a public accustomed to get its
news as much through photographs as through headlines. But
the use of photography as an essential to the preparation as
well as to the carrying out of military tactics is a development
of the last war, as peculiar to it as is the development of the
airplane. It is in fact in the airplane that the photographic
camera has developed from a mere recorder of minor aspects of
battles already lost or won, into the chief guide to their fighting
and a really important military weapon. Any account of war-
time photography must therefore be devoted largely to this
newest form, photography from the air.

But we must not infer, because airplane photography
has completely outdistanced all other kinds in military applica-
tion, that the services of the less novel forms of photography
have been small. On the contrary, the use of photography for
securing records, for instruction, and in apparatus for the most
diverse purposes — for instance in the sound-ranging of big
guns — has been on a scale that would have warranted remark

89

90 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

merely from the standpoint of the magnitude of the service
rendered. By way of record of American participation in the
war we have photographs showing every structure erected in
France, beginning with the docks of debarkation, and leading
on up to gun emplacements at the front. All the details of
modern warfare are preserved for future information and
instruction; how trenches are built, how barbed wire is wound
and supported, how telephone lines are strung, how gas attacks
are launched and met, how guns are camouflaged. Thanks to
photography there can henceforth be no excuse for ignorance
of the full meaning of waging war.

The most novel feature of this record work is probably the
use of the moving picture, which has practically come into being
since the Spanish War and the Boer War. Through its use
vivid records of all military operations are available in our war
colleges for instruction and study. Preparation, training, and
even " going over the top " are all faithfully delineated. Just
as in the industries moving pictures are furnishing the most
valuable records of construction methods and operations, so
it has been in the war. Take, for instance, that real epic in
cinematography, the story of the 1 4-inch naval guns; the con-
struction of their railway mountings in Philadelphia, their
transportation across the ocean, their assembly at a French
port, their cautious creeping over French railway bridges, their
detours around the too short French tunnels, until finally we
see them in action against the Metz-Meziers railway. It may
well be questioned whether the only adequate history of the
war will not after all be the photographic one.

Other war-time uses of moving pictures must not be over-
looked. Instruction in the use of machine guns, trench mor-
tars, even in the handling of an airplane, has been made more
vivid and more interesting, and so more easily grasped by the
student when given through clever moving pictures. And their
help in keeping up the morale of the men by supplying healthful
amusement must by no means be forgotten, with a Y. M. C. A.
budget for moving pictures of nearly two and a half millions.

WAR-TIME PHOTOGRAPHY 91

Of the many applications of photography to military instruc-
tion one of the most striking and novel is the '* camera gun."
devised to train aviators in machine gun marksmanship. As at
first worked out this consisted merely of a camera mounted
on the machine gun support and capable of one exposure at a
time. As finally improved and produced by an American
manufacturer, this consists of a camera attachment to the
Lewis gun which copies in every respect the behavior of the
gun itself. Not only may single exposures be made but even
" bursts," if the trigger is held back. On the pictures is
impressed a target, to show how nearly the aim was correct,
while in the latest form a clock dial is incorporated, so that
when two aviators return from practice, they have a complete
record not only of the number of hits, but also of who made
the first ''kill."

The chief photographic novelty of the war, aerial photog-
raphy, owes its existence and rapid development both to the
extensive use of the airplane, and at the same time to the very
limitations of the plane. The chief function of the airplane
is reconnaissance, the gathering of information on enemy mili-
tary dispositions and movements ; and it is this new all-em-
bracing point of view which the air gives that has enabled the
airplane to well-nigh revolutionise warfare. But it was early
found that the human eye was quite unequal to the opportuni-
ties presented by the plane. More could be seen in a single
glance downward than could possibly be remembered. Then
later, as the flying was driven higher, the magnification given
by the unaided eye was insufficient ; the use of camouflage made
necessary minute study of the view ; and last but not least, the
attention of the observer had to be given more and more to the
military duty of defending the plane against " the Hun in
the sun." All of these problems were met in a truly ideal
manner by the use of photography. A single exposure with a
long-focus camera produces a record faithfully depicting in an
instant every detail of a large area in a form eminently suitable
for study and general dissemination. From being a happy

92 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

experiment, aerial photography grew to be one of the main
activities of the air forces. The war had not been in progress
a year before the aerial photograph was the indispensable guide
to all military operations. Enemy lines were completely photo-
graphed each day or even oftener. Negatives to the number
of scores of thousands were made every month by the Allied
armies, and from these, toward the end, half a million prints (in
round numbers) were distributed each week to intelligence offi-
cers, to artillery headquarters, even to infantry company com-
manders to guide them in their local operations. So searching
indeed did aerial photography become that as the war drew to a
close all troop movements had to be made at night or under
cover of bad weather. Elaborate attempts to camouflage bat-
teries and fixed structures against the eye of the camera were
met by the development of a corps of experts in a new art, the
interpretation of aerial photographs.

The technical problems to be solved in the development of
photography from the air were numerous.1 Practically every
resource of scientific photography had to be pressed into service
and carried to further development by intensive research before
aerial photographs with the necessary quality were procurable.
As might be surmised, the foremost problems to be met were
those introduced by the altitude, the speed, and the vibration
of the new camera platform. The great altitudes reached by
army reconnaissance flying — 18,000 to 20,000 feet — brought
demands for lenses of very long focus and for combinations
of sensitive plate and color filter to pierce the layer of haze
almost always present on the earth's surface. The speed of the
battle plane, sometimes as high as 150 miles an hour, when
considered with respect to the earth, demanded lenses of large
aperture and shutters capable of giving extremely short ex-
posures in order to prevent blurring due to the motion of the
image. The vibration from the engine necessitated not only

1 For a comprehensive account of the technical aspects of aerial
photography see "Airplane Photography," by the present writer, pub-
lished by J. B. Lippincott & Co.

WAR-TIME PHOTOGRAPHY 93

short exposures but adequate anti-vibration mounting of the
camera.

Before taking up these problems one by one, let us look at
the various types of photograph required. The simplest picture
of all is produced by the process called " spotting," which con-
sists in taking a single photograph of some important detail,
such as a trench or a battery. (Figure i.) Pictures of this sort
were usually made with as long-focus lenses as possible, in
order to secure large magnification. For this purpose cameras
of as great focal length as 120 centimeters figured as a regular
part of aerial photographic equipment.

Next come strip or mosaic maps made by a series of succes-
sive exposures, at such intervals as to overlap by a quarter
or a third of their length. These photographs showed trenches,
railways, large manufacturing plants, or other extended areas
of military importance. (Figure 2.)1

Both these types of picture were *' verticals," that is, made
with the camera pointing directly downward through the floor
of the plane. " Obliques " were pictures taken with the camera
at an angle. At first made with hand-held cameras, these were
later taken by cameras slung in the plane at the desired inclina-
tion. Obliques closely resemble views made from high build-
ings. They show what the verticals do not, the elevations and
depressions of the terrain, and because of the natural appear-
ance presented by objects so photographed and because of their
ease of interpretation, they were of great value during the
preparation for local attacks.

Last of all come a class of pictures which may probably be
claimed as an entirely new development due to the war. These
are aerial stereoscopic views, produced not with two lenses
separated by the distance of the eyes apart, as are ordinary
stereograms, a method which, at flying altitudes, would give
practically no relief, but with a single camera taking successive
exposures separated sometimes by a few seconds, often by a

1 Acknowledgement is made to the Air Service of the United States
Army for figures 2 and 3.

94 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

goodly fraction of a minute. The result is a pair of pictures
with points of view so separated that the stereogram when
placed in the stereoscope presents the earth as it would be seen
by a giant with a head a hundred feet or more in width, that is,
with all the elevations and depressions showing in magnificent
relief. Stereo aerial views, both verticals and obliques, were
of the greatest importance in the detection of irregularities of
level, in differentiating shell holes from " pill boxes," and in
piercing the devices of the camoufleur.

The airplane camera required merely for spotting is a com-
paratively simple affair. No provision is needed for focussing
since the objects to be photographed are always at photographic-
ally infinite distance. All that is necessary is a lens, a box as
little subject to expansion and contraction as possible in the
extremes of temperature met from ground to upper air, a
shutter, and a plate holder. These essentials of an aerial
camera, lens, shutter and plate, may profitably be considered in
detail before touching on the more complicated types of camera
demanded by mapping or by stereoscopic photography.

The lens should be of the anastigmatic type, covering a large
flat field with microscopic definition, and should have the largest
possible aperture, preferably not less than F/4.5. Lenses meet-
ing these requirements had already been developed before the
war and were in fairly common use for the smaller sizes and
foci (up to 8 inch), but almost exclusively as a German product,
due to the Jena optical industries. As a temporary measure,
all available lenses of this kind were commandeered by the
Allies for aerial use. Soon, however, flying was forced to
10,000 feet and over, and the pictures obtained with such lenses
were too small. This fault was partially met in the British
service by the regular practice of making enlarged prints from
their standard 4x5 inch negatives. But this was not nearly so
satisfactory as the process of contact printing from negatives
secured by long-focus lenses. The efforts of the Allied lens
manufacturers were, therefore, directed toward the production
of lenses of a standard focus of 50 centimeters, capable of

Figure i. Example of airplane photograph. Trenches, concrete
dugouts and machine gun emplacements along the Yser River

Figure 2. The method of building up a mosaic map from a large
number of overlapping serial photographs

View taken at 10,000 feet altitude, without color filter

Similar view taken at the same time on color sensitive plate through
yellow filter, showing penetration of haze

Figure 3
COLOR FILTERS IN AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY

WAR-TIME PHOTOGRAPHY 95

covering a plate 18 x 24 centimeters in size. Their problem
lay chiefly in securing optical glass, of which the Germans had
almost a monopoly.

The optical glass problem is one which the Allies collectively
did solve, but in so far as the dense barium crown glass required
for modern photographic lenses is concerned, the greatest suc-
cess was attained by the French and English, the latter indeed
now bidding fair to oust the Germans from their primacy in
the optical industries. While the American optical glass
development did not succeed in producing the greatly desired
dense barium crown, American manufacturers were able to
utilize some substitute glass, and, by using English glass, de-
veloped new lens formulae admirably adapted to aerial use,
so that lenses in satisfactory quantities were produced of 50
centimeters focus, of aperture F/6.

It is one of the severe limitations of airplane photography
(but not of photography from dirigibles) that all exposures must
be strictly instantaneous. Calculation shows that the condi-
tions are rare when a speed of less than i/ioo of a second
may be used without fatal blurring. And the faster the plane,
and the lower it flies, the faster does the image move on the
plate, and the quicker must the shutter act.

The common type of shutter used on the smaller commercial
cameras, situated between the lens elements, was not suitable
for airplane use, because it could not be made in large, sizes;
nor was it at all efficient at high speeds. There was, however,
already at hand the focal plane shutter, a rapidly moving
slotted curtain, traveling close to the plate, originally developed
for the photography of rapidly moving objects on the earth's
surface, such as race horses and automobiles. With very few
exceptions all aerial cameras were equipped with shutters of
this type. But the existing designs were found to be defective
in many respects. The speeds developed were insufficient ; 4
the means for varying speed were inadequate. Most common
of all, the speed was greatly different at the beginning and at
the end of the travel across the large plates used, so that strip

96 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

or mosaic maps would be grossly uneven at the junction of their
constituent prints.

Here, as in many other cases, the severe requirements set by
this new form of photography led to intensive study, resulting
in detail improvements which have reacted to the advancement
of photography as a whole. Improved designs were worked
out, in particular one by the American Air Service, which
resulted in giving speed and regulation of speed much beyond
anything heretofore attained.

The sensitive plate is, of course, the crux of the photographic
problem. Needless to say, high speed is essential in aerial
work. Careful research developed, however, that mere speed,
as ordinarily measured, is not alone sufficient. Aerial views
are apt to be much under-exposed, and in addition there is but
small contrast of brightness in objects on the haze-covered
earth. Consequently it is desirable to have a photographic
emulsion that will develop as much contrast as possible, with
short exposures — a combination of qualities not usually found.

In addition to speed and contrast requirements comes the
very important one of color sensitiveness. Photography from
high altitudes means photography through a thick layer of aerial
haze. Because of its general bluish color, this haze appears
much thicker to the blue-sensitive photographic plate than it is
to the naked eye. To pierce this haze it is imperative to use
color filters of a general yellow hue, and with these it is neces-
sary to employ plates sensitive to green, yellow and red. The
Germans used very generally a plate of extraordinary green
sensitiveness, greatly superior in that respect to anything pro-
duced by the French or the English. This plate one of the
American manufacturers was able to match and indeed to sur-
pass, thus producing what was undoubtedly the best orthochro-
matic plate used in the war.

Probably the greatest achievement in photographic plate
making during the period of the war was the production of a
new panchromatic (sensitive to all colors) plate by one of the
English manufacturers, using new sensitizers developed by

WAR-TIME PHOTOGRAPHY 97

Professor Pope of Cambridge. These plates possess the
unusual characteristic of being more sensitive to red than to
blue light, and possess at the same time unusually high speed.
Produced first in the spring of 1918 these plates proved a God-
send to the Allied aerial photographers in the dull days of the
last great offensive, when the plates formerly employed by
them were only usable a few hours near noon.

Closely connected with the matter of color sensitiveness in
the plate is the question of color filters, to pierce the veil of
haze characteristic of the view from high altitudes. How
important is the use of a filter is shown in Figure 3, where
the picture taken at 10,000 feet without a filter is quite use-
less, while its companion, taken at the same time but with a
filter, shows the roads, trees, and other details clearly. Here
again the Germans were at an advantage both because of their
mastery of the manufacture of colored glass and also because
of their well-developed dye industry. In this connection it is
to be noted that the ordinary yellow filter intended to produce
orthochromatic effects is not what is required to pierce haze.
The requirement here is for a comparatively abrupt absorption
of the blue of the spectrum, which will cut down the green
but little and so leave the filter as efficient as possible.

The problem of producing filters of the required efficiency,
through which the exposure would not have to be increased
more than two or three times, was completely solved for the
American Air Service by two developments. The first was
a yellow glass produced by a leading glass manufacturer, and
the second a new dye, the " EK " (from the name of the com-
pany in whose laboratory it was developed) with which gelatin
discs were dyed and afterward mounted between glass plates
to form a highly satisfactory filter.

The simple camera above described, which sufficed for spot-
ting, was subject to many improvements aimed at simplifying
its manipulation, increasing the speed of operation, enlarging
its plate capacity, and — a vital point in the military plane —
making its operation as independent as possible of the attention

98 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

of pilot and observer, leaving them free for other duties. Plate
magazines, carrying from six to a dozen plates, operated by a
simple to-and-fro motion shifting the exposed plate behind the
pile of unexposed, were generally used by the French and
Germans. The English early designed and used to the end a
system of two magazines, one above the camera containing the
unexposed plates, another to one side and lower, over which
the exposed plate was shifted and allowed to drop. Cameras
of this type, known as the " C " and " E," operated by hand,
were ultimately followed by the " L," in which the operation
of shifting the plate and setting the shutter was performed
by a wind propeller. In this " semi-automatic " camera the
pilot or observer had merely to pull the exposing lever at the
appropriate instant, after which the camera set itself ready for
the next exposure. These cameras, using 4x5 inch plates,
formed the greater part of the equipment of the English Air
Service, and close copies were manufactured and used in large
quantities in the training of some thousands of American aerial
photographers.

The demand for completely automatic plate cameras, which
would require no attention save starting and stopping, was
perhaps most nearly met by the French de Ram camera. In
this was embodied a rotating magazine containing 50 plates,
the lower one of which was exposed, dropped off and picked
up by the top of the magazine as it rotated. Cameras of this
general design were under construction in considerable numbers
in America at the close of the war, and promised to be the most
complete and satisfactory plate camera yet devised.

A serious limitation to all plate cameras for aerial use lies
in their weight and bulk. Thus the de Ram camera above
described weighs, with its load of plates, about 100 pounds, and
stands over three feet high. Such a weight seriously interferes
with the balance and ceiling of the ordinary two-passenger
reconnaissance plane, and is quite, out of the question as an
extra load in a single-seater scout. This matter of weight and
space became so aggravated by the general adoption of 50

WAR-TIME PHOTOGRAPHY 99

centimeter focus lenses and 18 x 24 centimeter plates that
intensive study was turned toward the possibilities of celluloid
film in roll form. This, from its lightness and small bulk,
would appear to be the ideal medium for aerial photography.

Several interesting problems were met with in the develop-
ment of aerial film cameras. One was that of holding the large
film flat during the exposure. This was met in several different
ways. One method was to use a glass plate pressed against
the films, and since the plate was made of yellow glass, it could
at the same time be utilized as a color filter. Another method
is the use of suction through holes in the camera back, the
suction being produced by pump, Venturi tube, or bellows.

Another problem of some seriousness was caused by the
production of static electricity from the friction of the celluloid
film against the camera parts. This is especially frequent at
high altitudes, in cold dry air. It results in tree-like discharges
across the face of the film, easily mistaken for trenches or
paths, if indeed they do not obliterate the whole picture. This
is a trouble which used to occur in moving picture cameras,
to be finally met by metal construction and by grounding the
apparatus — the latter an expedient not permitted in the air-
plane. After considerable experimentation it was found that
this trouble could be entirely overcome by covering the suction-
back with coarse grained cloth impregnated with graphite,
whereby the fibers were turned into small electrically conduct-
ing paths, leading off the electric charges as soon as formed.

The film camera embodying these features promised in time
to supersede the plate camera for aerial work, although it did
not materialize in time to be actually used in the great war.
The chief outstanding problem in the use of the film is pre-
sented by its development, washing and drying in the huge
rolls of 100 or 200 exposures which it was expected would be
needed for reconnaissance work. Special mobile photographic
laboratories, consisting of truck-and-trailer dark and printing
rooms were already part of the regular photographic section
outfit at the front, equipped to develop plates in a few minutes

ioo THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

after their delivery and to furnish thousands of prints over
night. With the advent of the film camera an additional trailer
equipped with a special film-developing machine was planned.
It is indeed probable that had the war continued much longer
the automobile photographic train might have been supple-
mented by railway photographic laboratories, so extensive had
photographic operations become.

The proper mounting of the camera in the plane is of prime
importance. The first cameras were held in the hands, but
this soon became impossible, due both to the size of the cameras,
and to the airman's need for freedom to handle machine gun
and radio. Cameras were next " screwed " to the framework
of the fuselage, a method of support which proved quite un-
satisfactory, as half the pictures would be ruined by the vibra-
tion set up by the engine. Following this, various supports
of rubber and springs were devised along more or less scientific
lines, a chronic difficulty being the inadequate space available
for the camera and mounting.

Finally an accurate method of study and test was developed
in the English Air Service, on the basis of which eminently
satisfactory mountings have been devised. This method con-
sists in flying over a light on the ground, either at night (or else
by day, with the light located in a dense wood), the shutter
of the camera being left open. There is thus obtained on the
plate a trail, smooth if the camera is steady, wavy if it is
vibrating. By means of a second intermittent light, flickering
at known speed, the duration of each kink in the curve may be
learned, and the suitability of the mounting evaluated accord-
ingly.

Comprehensive tests of all kinds of mountings, supporting
the camera at the bottom, at the top, loosely and tightly, show
conclusively that the best form of mounting is that which sup-
ports the camera in the plane of its center of gravity (which
should not change as the camera operates), the supporting parts
being bedded in soft rubber or springs.

After the aerial picture is obtained comes the question of its

WAR-TIME PHOTOGRAPHY 101

interpretation. At the best of times the vertical view presents
all objects in an unfamiliar aspect, while in modern warfare
the arts of camouflage are enlisted to render interpretation
harder yet. In aerial photography the greatest foes to camou-
flage are stereoscopic pictures, and the fact that the photo-
graphic plate is differently sensitive to colors than is the human
eye. Thus often gun coverings and concealed dugouts, not
noticeable by the observer as he flies over, show clearly in
the photograph he brings back, since the camouflage paint is a
visual but not a photographic match with its surroundings.
Camouflaging pigments had, therefore, to be tested photo-
graphically, and in turn plates and color filters were sought
which would defeat the efforts of the enemy camoufleur.

The every day problem of the interpreter of photographs was
to detect changes of any sort — the substitution of artificial
trees with concealed listening posts for real trees ; the removal
of sod to be used elsewhere for camouflage. For this purpose
photographs made on different days were laboriously compared,
side by side. Even when this was done, minute but important
changes would be missed, a common failure which led to several
proposals to facilitate such comparisons. One was the use of
the " blink microscope " in which the two pictures were viewed
successively in the same position, any change showing as a flut-
tering or blinking in the scene. In another ingenious scheme,
adapted from the astronomical method of searching for moving
asteroids, a positive made from one negative is laid over a nega-
tive of the same subject made at another time. If no change
has taken place the two merge to a neutral gray. If any-
thing in the view has moved, it stands out in striking contrast
with the undisturbed parts.

In this brief sketch of war-time photography chief emphasis
has been laid on the contribution of photography to the winning
of the war. Reciprocally the demands of war have worked to
advance to no inconsiderable degree the science of photography.
This will be manifested, if in no other way, in the production
of photographic apparatus of greater accuracy and reliability

102 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

of performance. The impetus given to research by the quest
for emulsions of greater speed and sensitiveness has already
resulted in unexpected progress, and this research may be
relied upon to bring forth even greater improvements. The
addition of an entire new department — aerial photography —
is undoubtedly the greatest advance due to the war. It opens
up a new territory, and appears destined, quite apart from its
wide pictorial uses, to enormous usefulness in mapping. It
promises indeed quite to revolutionize our present methods of
charting the earth's surface.

VII

OPTICAL GLASS FOR WAR NEEDS
HARRISON E. HOWE

THE optical-glass problem, so far as the United States was
concerned, can be simply stated. Large quantities of
dependable quality were required immediately, the varieties
being limited to a half dozen or so necessary for military
optical instruments. It should be understood that by optical
glass is meant that type of glass which is so made that its
physical characteristics may be controlled within rather narrow
limits, so that it is suitable for the exacting requirements of
photographic lenses, range finders, spotting telescopes, binocu-
lars, periscopes, gun sights, and similar modern warfare
requisites.

In order t1 at the complexity and magnitude of this problem
may be more clearly understood, it will be well to examine
briefly the history of its development elsewhere and understand
the condition which prevailed in our country prior to
August, 1914.

Prior to 1886 the glass makers were offering a very limited
variety of optical glass to the makers of refracting instruments,
and the perfection of the various microscopes, telescopes, etc.,
was necessarily limited to the possibilities presented — a few
crown and flint glasses. The possibility had been established
of combining two lenses made from the available glasses into a
doublet so as to bring pairs of colors to a common focus on the
optical axis of the lens, thereby diminishing chromatic aberra-
tion. Means to render the image almost entirely free of
spherical aberration had also been devised, but no attempts were

103

104 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

made to introduce new glass fluxes, and effort was expended
only in perfecting technical manipulation and adding to the list
of dense flints.

To this state of affairs there were, however, a few notable
exceptions : Frauenhof er, the German optician ; Faraday, the
great investigator; and Harcourt, an English clergyman.
Frauenhofer succeeded in finding glass which showed a diminu-
tion of the secondary spectrum, but the new glass was not
produced on a commercial basis and the formula was unfor-
tunately completely lost. In 1825 Faraday was appointed by
the Royal Society, together with Sir John Herschel and Mr.
Dolland, on a committee to examine, and if possible, to improve
the manufacture of optical glass. The results of the systematic
and very exhaustive experiments were reported, minutely by
Faraday in 1829, and although glass so found did not prove to
be of important practical use, yet the work performed had
much directional influence on subsequent researches.

Harcourt could not obtain from his small meltings pieces of
sufficient size and perfection to permit a complete spectrometric
analysis, and lacking information which could be gained only
with the spectrometer, his subsequent work suffered for want of
guiding experience. However, these researches were not
entirely in vain, since certain facts were established relating to
the effect of some chemical elements upon the refraction of
light.

Until the late seventies silicon, sodium, potassium, calcium,
lead, and oxygen had been the only elements used, excepting
perhaps alumina and thallium in an experimental way. Crown
and flint glasses were being produced of a far better quality
as regards clearness, freedom of color, and homogeneity, and
flint of far greater refractive power and dispersion, than had
been offered up to this time.

In the late seventies Professor Ernest Abbe of the Univer-
sity of Jena published a paper on the microscope, in which he
made an appeal to scientists to take up the improvement of
optical glass, and pointed out that scientific instruments were in

OPTICAL GLASS FOR WAR NEEDS 105

a state of arrested development awaiting the perfection of glass
which would offer a greater diversity in mean index, and mean
dispersion, and render possible a higher degree of achromatism,
thus diminishing the secondary spectrum. This plea attracted
the attention of Otto Schott, and after communicating with
Abbe, the two began an investigation of the problems, and
started first of all to determine the chemical-physical principles
underlying the making of optical glass. In experimenting with
various combinations of elements new to the glass industry,
several limitations had to be borne in mind. First, the flux
must not act upon the material of the crucible and so absorb
impurities. Second, elements which evaporate during the
process tend to produce veins and must not be used. Third,
cloudiness, crystallization, and bubbles must be avoided in the
process of melting, cooling, and subsequent re-heating. Fourth,
it must be possible to bring the glass from the plastic to the
solid state without producing stress. Fifth, glass must not be
tarnishable or hygroscopic. Sixth, it must be colorless and
physically strong enough to bear the manipulation necessary in
grinding and polishing.

Beside silicic acid, the only glass-making acids were boric
acid and phosphoric acid and perhaps arsenic acid. There was
a tradition that these acids only gave tarnishable glass, but
experiments showed that phosphoric. and boric acids could be
combined with many metallic oxides and in addition to the six
usual elements, namely, silicon, potassium, sodium, lead,
calcium, and oxygen, the following were introduced by degrees
in quantities of at least 10 per cent : boron, phosphorus, lithium,
magnesium, zinc, cadmium, barium, strontium, aluminium,
beryllium, iron, manganese, cerium, didymium, erbium, silver,
mercury, thallium, bismuth, antimony, arsenic, molybdenum,
niobium, tungsten, tin, titanium, uranium, and fluorine.

It was soon seen that by the introduction of new elements
the variation of the hitherto fixed relation between refraction
and dispersion could be attained. On the other hand, very
few of the elements rendered the dispersions of crown and flint

106 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

more similar, whereby the shortening of the secondary spec-
trum could be effected. Boric acid is peculiar in lengthening
the red end of the spectrum, relative to the blue, while potas-
sium, and sodium have the opposite effect. In the old glass,
flint has a higher index and greater dispersion than crown
glass, and lengthens the blue more than the red. Hence it was
desirable to introduce into flint glass as large a percentage as
possible of boric acid. The work, being empirical, was very
tedious, but after a great many trials, in which the problems
of suitable crucibles, stirring apparatus, etc., were not incon-
siderable, a series of phosphates, borates, and boro-silicates was
successfully produced in small quantities.

The question of annealing soon became important, and after
a great many trials and subsequent testings with polarized light,
the process known as fine annealing was perfected. It was
discovered that the temperature of solidification lay between
370° C, and 465° C, and by spreading the fall of 95° over an
interval of four weeks or more, perfect results were obtained.
This involved the construction of an oven with thermo regu-
lators, whereby the temperature might be kept at any point and
allowed to fall with any desired slowness.

Up to 1886 the net result of all these epoch-making dis-
coveries and new processes was nineteen glasses of essentially
new optical characteristics, and the researches conducted by
Abbe and Schott, with, the help of the University and the
Prussian Diet, soon made Jena the world's center for the high-
est grade of optical glass. Through this small but essential
component of optical instruments of all kinds, Germany exer-
cised great power over scientific and military progress in optics.
The wide-spread use of German scientific instruments needs no
emphasis, and it is interesting to note that the best military
optics among the armies and navies of the Allies until long
after the war began, were made with Jena glass, and only the
fact that a large stock of this glass was in America enabled our
optical instrument-makers to carry on until American-made
optical glass could come to their relief.

OPTICAL GLASS FOR WAR NEEDS 107

It is true that optical glass was also being made in England
and France, but those countries needed all the glass they could
produce, and as a result, the glass sent here, although for use
in instruments being made for their accounts, was not always
wholly satisfactory.

That very high-grade optics are essential in modern warfare
is at once obvious when we consider improvements in Ordnance.
In the days of the Revolution the combatants are said to have
waited until they could see the whites of the eyes of their
enemies before firing; in the Civil War firing was point-blank;
in the Spanish War 6,000 yards was the maximum graduation
required on the range-finder. Today the horizon is the limit
in the larger instruments, and much progress has already been
made with range-finding methods which are necessary for dis-
tances beyond the range of observation from the ground.

Now what is the history of optical glass in America? The
oldest record states that some fair-grade optical glass was made
by the Macbeth-Evans Glass Company in the period between
1890 and 1893, during which time they had the assistance of a
Mr. Feil, a French glass- worker who had had experience with
Mantois. Both crown and flint were made but there are no
details as to the quantity produced, the percentage of usable
glass secured, nor the quality. At that time, as later, there was
no demand for other than European glass, the cost of develop-
ment would have been large, and the results quite uncertain.
Even if success was attained in producing usable glass, the
total volume of the business has never been such as to be
attractive, so that the work ceased. The next date is 1903,
when Mr. William Bausch, of the Bausch and Lomb Optical
Company, conducted a few small-scale experiments, but only
with discouraging results. The question remained dormant
until 1912, when Mr. Bausch resumed his work and had a
small, round, oil-fired furnace constructed. It was soon found,
however, that it was impossible to properly control this furnace
and in the spring of 1913 the firing was changed over to uncar-
buretted gas supplied by the local artificial gas company.

io8 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

Some time previous to this date Victor Martin, a Belgian
glass-maker, had come to this country with the hope of starting
an optical glass industry in America. He found European
glass very strongly intrenched and no producer of optical glass
in any way interested in his project, even provided satisfactory
glass could be produced. He turned again to the plate-glass
industry, but was fortunately attracted by an advertisement
placed by Mr. Bausch in the hope of securing an experienced
optical glass man to assist him in his work. In the spring of
1912 Mr. Bausch personally engaged Mr. Martin and serious
work began. There was some difference of opinion as to
whether the considerable expense involved in developing the
industry was justified in view of the fact that European sources
of supply were so satisfactory and the price of glass, which
was from $1.50 to $20 per pound, was considered reasonable.
Experimental work, therefore, was discontinued during the
late autumn of 1913 and was not again taken up until the spring
of 1914. Some usable glass was made from 1912 on and in the
autumn of 1914 two single pot furnaces of the regenerative type
and one pot arch were constructed at Rochester. Small pots
were used at first and it was not until May, 1915, that the first
melt in a pot, 26 by 26 inches, was made.

The outbreak of the war brought the seriousness of the glass
situation to the attention of the Bureau of Standards, and in
the winter of 1914-15 experimental furnaces and auxiliary
apparatus were installed at the Pittsburgh laboratory, with the
intention of starting at the bottom and working out the par-
ticular technique peculiar to the making of optical glass. The
first i,ooo-pound pot was installed in this plant during the
winter of 1916. In August, 1914, the Pittsburgh Plate Glass
Company began correspondence with the optical instrument
makers and in April, 1915, began their preliminary work,
strong in the belief that they could develop glass that would
meet all the requirements. They passed rapidly through the
experimental stages to xo-inch and then i6-inch pots, taking
over plate-glass furnaces for the purpose of melting optical

OPTICAL GLASS FOR WAR NEEDS 109

glass and constructing new furnaces designed to give better
results. They were encouraged in their work by the Eastman
Kodak Company, which placed large orders for suitable glass
on a basis which took into consideration a share in the expense
of development.

In June, 1915, Keuffel and Esser, finding their supply of
glass running low, gave permission to their glass moulder to
undertake optical glass making, and, _strange to say, this
moulder was the same Mr. Feil who had earlier been connected
with the Macbeth-Evans Glass Company. He made some use-
ful glass in Hoboken, but by November, 1915, had decided to
take up other work and at that time C W. Keuffel undertook
the task along scientific lines. Mr. Keuffel, unaided in his
researches, made such progress that by January, 1916, he was
able to produce at least one pot of boro-silicate crown from
which more than 200 pounds of usable glass was secured.
During the following months he was able to make much of the
glass required in that plant.

During the summer of 1916 the Spencer Lens Company
built a glass furnace in their plant at Buffalo, and with the help
of a general glass-maker, started to work. The furnace was
found to be unsuited to the work and it was soon seen that
other arrangements would have to be made. Consequently, a
small plant was built in Hamburg, New York, a suburb of
Buffalo, in the spring of 1917, and this was later greatly en-
larged. When the United States entered the war, the Macbeth-
Evans offered their services to a department of the Government
and were about to enter into a contract when it was learned
that two ^ other departments of the Government had already
made arrangements for optical glass and there seemed to be no
further need of their services. The National Optical Glass
Company, a subsidiary of the Hazel-Atlas Company, of Wash-
ington, Pa., and the Carr-Lowrey Glass Company, of Baltimore,
also made some glass, but details of their achievements are
lacking.

It should be emphasized that optical glass is not just glass.

no THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

The skill required for its successful production is quite properly
comparable to that required for exact quantitative analysis.
There was no time to look into the many scientific problems
encountered. It was the same insistent demand for production,
and still more production, but always within the limits as
regards quality, which could not be greatly extended even in
the war emergency. Good optical glass must be homogeneous,
both chemically and physically, it must have definite refractive
indices for different wave lengths of light, it must be as free
as possible from color, have a high degree of transparency,
extreme stability against weather and reagents, and have tough-
ness as well as hardness.

When glass is chemically homogeneous it is free from striae,
bubbles, stones, crystals, and cloud. Striae are variously known
as veins, cords, threads, and ream by glass-makers. Striae
come from a variety of sources and even when the melt is
comparatively free from them, lines of flow may be set up by
suddenly moving or jarring the pot. These lines of flow may
bring in glass from the sides, where it has been affected by the
pot, from the bottom, where there may have been selective
settling, or from the top where the volatilization may have
changed the composition enough to make the extremely small
difference in refraction which spells striae. Striae are fre-
quently due to excessive action of the glass upon the pot, insuffi-
cient or inadequate stirring, incorrect temperatures, or cooling
of the pot in arches, where the heat is so great as to cause the
stiff crust on the partly cooled pot to re-melt and start lines of
flow by convection. Striae usually show a high percentage
of silica and alumina. One of the important remedies is proper
stirring and this differs according to the glass and other con-
siderations, such as the selection of a pot built with due regard
for the kind of glass which is to be melted in it.

For some uses small striae if in one plane, are of such
trifling consequence that the glass can be used for certain types
of lenses. This led to the American war-time method of roll-

OPTICAL GLASS FOR WAR NEEDS in

ing optical glass into thin sheets just as plate glass is made —
something quite unheard of previously in optical glass manu-
facture. Some glass of nearly every variety has been treated
by this method, principally in the plant of the Pittsburgh Plate
Glass Company, and later elsewhere.

Bubbles, likewise called seeds, air bells, boil, and pot bubbles,
are also a source of great annoyance and show lack of chemical
homogeneity. They come from many sources and no doubt are
entrapped mechanically. Some form during the reaction, cling
tenaciously to the sides and bottom of the pot, and loosen but
gradually during the stirring. Others doubtless represent dis-
solved gases, air stirred into the mass, and steam from leaking
water-cooled stirring rods, and under unusual circumstances,
vacuum bubbles resulting when a pot is cooled very quickly.
Among the methods to free the glass of these bubbles, can be
mentioned the use of arsenic in quantities not over 0.3 per cent,
and of antimony oxide which reacts at a high temperature with
the evolution of gas, which rising through the mass, literally
sweeps out the small bubbles. The Pittsburgh Plate Glass
Company developed the use of ammonium nitrate for this pur-
pose, the compound being introduced in the shape of a small
moulded stick. The nitrate is volatilized completely and gives
off large bubbles of gas when forced to the bottom of the pot
of glass at the high " fining " temperatures. These methods
are called " blocking " and sometimes a potato or block of wet
wood is forced to the bottom of the pot, the object again being
to sweep out the bubbles by the use of larger ones, and this
action also tends to mix the glass. However, some glass can-
not be entirely freed from bubbles.

Stones refer to fragments of undissolved materials and more
often to pieces of the pot wall or the furnace crown which fall
into the pot. A good pot will cast very few, sometimes no
stones into the melt. Occasionally stones are introduced into
the glass during the pressing of the irregular pieces into desired
shapes.

ii2 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

Crystallization results from super-saturation, just as in any
solution, and when the glass is coolecl too rapidly crystals may
also be formed even to the extent of devitrification.

At one time each of two manufacturers had much trouble
with cloudy glass. It has been shown that this may be due to
chlorides or sulphates in the potassium carbonate, or in the
case of medium and dense flints, to excessive arsenic. Some
observers think the material to be present in colloidal form,
for when glass containing selenium, copper, gold, etc., is cooled
slowly a high color results, but if cooled quickly, the glass is
often clear. Potassium carbonate with o.i per cent sulphur
trioxide gave good results. When 0.4 per cent, was reached
the pot glass was milky at the edges, and when 0.75 per cent,
was present, the entire mass was spoiled. The skilful use of
high temperatures is said to be a good remedy for this lack
of chemical homogeneity.

Physical homogeneity is just as important, for strains cause
deformity of optical surfaces, give astigmatism, and may even
lead to cracking of lenses. It is out of the question to produce
high-grade optical parts with glass not free from strain or
internal stress — hence the necessity of fine annealing. The
softening point of glass is the temperature at which it flows
under its own weight, while the temperature at which it yields
slowly under loads approaching in magnitude its crushing
strength is its practical annealing temperature. Heretofore
annealing has been done by cooling so slowly that there is no
large temperature difference between the surface and the center
of a pot of glass. This requires expert manipulation and
extreme regulation of the temperature fall, as well as exact
pyrometric control. Drs. Adams and Williamson of the Geo-
physical Laboratory arrived at the conclusion that if the pot
were held long enough at the high temperature to allow internal
stress to be removed by the molecular movement of the glass,
yet with the temperature below that at which the glass would
flow, annealing could then take place much more rapidly.
While under this treatment strains would again be set up, they

OPTICAL GLASS FOR WAR NEEDS 113

would practically disappear when the whole mass again reached
the same, that is to say, room temperature. This method of
annealing has been found satisfactory for small and ordinary-
sized blocks and effects a great saving in time.

It is obvious that with such rigid requirements it becomes
necessary to develop adequate methods for testing. . The inter-
ference figure observed in the black field of a polariscope with
crossed prisms is customarily used as an indication of strain.
Dr. Wright of the Geophysical Laboratory devised a test based
on the assumption that because two rays of different index are
formed as a result of the strain, these seriously affect the image
formed. The path difference of two such rays is, therefore,
a measure of strain and this can be expressed in millionths of a
millimeter per centimeter of path traveled. In a well annealled
glass this path difference is 5, a fairly good glass 10, and that
which is barely usable 20 millionths of a millimeter. In
Government inspection the value 10 was ordinarily used, with
between 5 and 10 as the standard in special cases.

The refractive index and dispersion are two physical con-
stants of utmost importance and successful glass-making means
turning out pots of the same glass within one in the third deci-
mal place in refractive index. Dispersion is of fundamental
importance when designing lenses to avoid aberrations, and is
expressed as the V value. This is the ratio of the refractive
index for the D or sodium line, minus one, to the difference
between the refractive indices for the F and C lines.

Uniformity in the constants is very necessary, for of course
all grinding and polishing tools cannot be changed with every
batch of glass. Lead increases refractive index as well as
dispersion, and extends the blue end of the spectrum. Barium
raises the index, but does not relatively increase the total dis-
persion nor extend the blue end of the spectrum to the same
extent as does lead. Zinc is intermediate in its effect, while
calcium raises slightly both the index and the dispersion without
extending the blue. Boron cuts down the total dispersion.

Freedorq from color is also, a prime consideration and because

H4 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

of their influence upon light absorption, decolorizers may not
be used. Iron, copper, nickel, cobalt, chromic oxide, vanadium,
and manganese are to be avoided, both in the batch and in the
pot. Transparency is closely related to color in that the use of
decolorizers is prohibited, inasmuch as what they frequently do
is to form the color complementary to that of the glass, result-
ing in a gray which is very objectionable. Elements which
impart a high color must, of course, be avoided.

Stability, hardness, and toughness are all properties which
may be largely controlled by the chemical composition of the
batch, the most desirable qualities being obtained in low alkali
glasses.

It is apparent, therefore, that the production of good optical
glass falls into three or four principal problems, namely, raw
materials, good pots, special pots for special batches, tempera-
ture control, and glass stirring. From the nature of these
problems it is also clear that a good grounding in physics,
chemistry, and engineering is much more to be desired than
previous glass experience, the pre-war dogma of the Germans
to the contrary notwithstanding.

The Pittsburgh laboratory of the Bureau of Standards con-
tinued its investigations and did what it could to place the infor-
mation gained at the disposal of the public. The glass manu-
facturers patriotically adhered to their determination to make
glass, but it was soon found that there were not enough trained
scientists actively engaged on the problem. It was late in 1916
that a new group began to become involved. Dr. F. E. Wright
was asked to give an opinion on the cause of milkiness and
clouds in certain glass, and while he professed no knowledge
at the time, he did endeavor to help. Later on the Council of
< National Defense became interested, principally through mem-
bers of the Naval Consulting Board, and Dr. Wright went to
Rochester to learn if cooperation would be welcome. In April,
1917, under the direction of Dr. A. L. Day, Director of the
Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Wash-
ington, the first group from that laboratory went to the plant

OPTICAL GLASS FOR WAR NEEDS 115

of the Bausch and Lomb Optical Company with Dr. Wright in
charge. At that time the plant production was about 3,000
pounds net. per month.

At first there was certain passive resistance to be overcome,
largely because of the belief in technique and trade secrets,
and it became necessary to demonstrate the efficiency of applied
and theoretical science. This fortunately Dr. Wright was able
to do within two or three weeks by working out the curves for
three component systems based on the published analysis of
some i 10 German glasses. Silica, lead oxide, and alkali oxide j
are the three components in a flint glass. Too little silica gives
a soft glass, too much alkali one that is hygroscopic, and too
much lead will cause crystallization. A diagram was eventu-
ally worked out so that batches could be computed so accu-
rately in advance that within an experimental melt and one or
two large melts, glass of a desired quality could be made.

This marked a most important advance, not only because of
the extreme usefulness of such a method, but because it demon-
strated to the adherents of secrecy that science could be more
potent than technical skill. Thereafter an efficient cooperation
was enjoyed between the best that the country afforded in
technical skill and scientific knowledge.

The active support of the Geophysical Laboratory group was
sought because they were the most experienced in the study
of silicates, in working at exact high temperatures, and in
methods requiring precision. They began work at the point
where the best progress in commercial production had been
made, and where the greatest amount of technical skill was
available. They were able to add their scientific experience
and at the same time acquired the technique of glass-making
so rapidly that by June, 1917, they were able to manage the
plant in its entirety without difficulty.

The progress at Rochester became so gratifying and the
demand for glass so great that the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Com-
pany tore down their fence of secrecy in December, 1917, and
invited cooperation. The Geophysical Laboratory took charge

n6 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

and the Bureau of Standards assisted in the inspection of the
product. In December, 1917, the Geophysical Laboratory also
took entire charge of the plant of the Spencer L?ns Company
and with a free hand was soon making glass equal to that from
Jena.

Assistance of the utmost importance was brought to bear
upon the glass problem from other quarters. The Geological
Survey put men into the field to find suitable sand, limestone,
and clays, and were successful. Sand of high chemical purity
and composed of uniformly small grains was secured at Rock-
wood, Mich. ; Hancock, Md. ; and Ottawa, 111. Interesting
experiments were conducted on the removal of iron from other
sands by the use of chlorine and later phosgene, but this method
of treatment proved to be too costly, and in the meantime sand
sufficiently free from iron was found. Potassium carbonate
of necessary quality was produced by Armour & Company,
who deserve credit for the excellent work done on this impor-
tant raw material. In some glass sodium could be substituted
for potassium, but in certain cases the glass is inclined to be
less brilliant.

Good sodium carbonate, barium carbonate, boric acid, zinc
oxide, arsenic trioxide, and precipitated calcium carbonate were
finally secured. Lead oxide with less than 0.02 per cent, iron
oxide was also secured and by exercising careful chemical
control, no great difficulty was experienced with raw materials.

Pots have been mentioned, but we must emphasize their real
importance. Poor pots can cause all manner of trouble, rang-
ing from breaking at critical points and necessitating the re-
building of a furnace, to dissolving to a detrimental degree in
the glass melt. The Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company was
already accustomed to making special pots, and in June, 1917,
began experiments involving feldspar as an ingredient. While
their work was in progress the Bureau of Standards was suc-
cessful in devising unusually good pots for optical glass. This
work was under A. V. Bleininger, who also devised a successful
method for casting pots. Most of the pots are 36 inches in

OPTICAL GLASS FOR WAR NEEDS 117

diameter and height and hold 1,000 pounds of crown, and 1,500
pounds or more of dense flint. Pots sometimes contribute 0.02
to 0.04 per cent, of iron oxide to the glass, which is very
objectionable. Again, if a high refractory clay with poor bond-
ing qualities is mixed with a better bonding clay, the latter may
dissolve out, causing stones to be cast into the glass. The puri-
fication of pots after building has been attempted, but it makes
the pot porous and entirely too fragile. The outcome of
Bleininger's work was a so-called porcelain type of pot, made
up of white ware bisque, crushed to pass a ten-mesh sieve, 35
per cent. ; pot shell crushed to pass a ten-mesh sieve, 10 per
cent. ; feldspar, 3 per cent. ; flint, 4 per cent. ; Tennessee ball
clay, Number 5, 15 per cent.; Illinois bond clay, 5 per cent.;
and kaolin, 28 per cent. These pots were made by hand and a
typical formula for a cast pot is : whitevvare bisque, 48 per cent. ;
plastic bond clay, 23 per cent. ; kaolin, 24 per cent. ; feldspar, 5
per cent.

These pots withstand the severe corrosive action of even
dense barium crown glass, and are ready for use in much less
time than the German type of pot. Just as the glass-makers
did all they could to produce a sufficient quantity of good glass,
so the pot-makers continued their researches and contributed
largely to the final success. La Clede-Christy, the Buckeye, the
Gill, and the Willetts Clay Products Companies deserve great
credit, while the work on pots is probably considered the
greatest contribution of the Bureau of Standards to the glass
problem.

In furnace operations the cycle has been shortened from the
two and a half days here fore used customarily to twenty-four
hours, a very important improvement in glass-house practice
which was worked out by the Geophysical Laboratory in the
plant of the Spencer Lens Company. This has been accom-
plished by improvements in methods of stirring, stirring
machines having almost eliminated the hand stirring which
Jena had considered indispensable. Proper stirring is perhaps
the most dfficult part of glass-making technique and involves

ii8 THE NEW WORLD 'OF SCIENCE

a great many interdependent factors. The time of starting and
stopping, the temperatures to be held throughout the operation,
and the path followed in the stirring are all important. The
stirrer must come near enough and yet must not be too close
'to either side wall or the bottom of the pot.

Simple inspection methods for purposes of rough sorting
were evolved, and then more refined methods for use at other
points. An immersion method, using liquids of the same re-
fractive index as the glass, served well for locating striae in
rough glass chunks, and a combination of this method, the work
of the Bureau of Standards, with monochromatic light served
to detect the finest striae.

We have referred to annealing and the progress made
in that art. The German practice has been to place chunks
of glass in square molds, and heat them until the glass would
flow into the shape of a plate, in which condition annealing took
place. The fall in temperature from 465° C. to 370° C. was
spread over an interval of four or more weeks. The American
practice is to heat the glass in a muffle to the so f ting point and
then to press it into the desired shape for grinding and polish-
ing. Annealing of these small pieces may then be done in
some instances in three days.

As has been pointed out, there is a certain danger in the use
of the pot arch as a chamber in which to allow pots of glass
to cool. This danger comes from the re-melting of the stiff
crust and the skin on the sides of the pot, which form before
the pot is placed in the arch. This re-melting starts convec-
tion currents which may sweep into the glass, producing striae.
At a time when there was a scarcity of pot arches, the Pitts-
burgh Plate Glass Company tried banking the pots with sand
and this experiment led to the use of refractory lined iron
drums which might be let down over the pot. This practice
has been widely followed and is quite successful.

This same company also worked out the rolling of optical
glass into sheets on a casting table, employing technique similar
to that in the manufacture of plate glass. The spectacle

OPTICAL GLASS FOR WAR NEEDS 119

glass of the country was made in this fashion during the war
and it has become the established procedure for that type of
glass. Much optical glass has also been* made in this manner.
After casting, the glass is passed into lehrs where it stays six
hours or more to cool. Grinding and polishing can be done
on the large pieces before cutting for inspection.

A large number of batch formulae have been developed and
the production of newer and better types of glass is the subject
for continued research. Some of the limitations may be
mentioned. If silica is used in quantities above 75 per cent,
the glass cannot be properly melted. Alkali must be below 20
per cent, or the glass is hygroscopic. Lime must be less than
13 per cent, or crystallization will result. Lead above 70 per
cent, also will cause crystallization. Barium oxide may
be used up to 50 per cent., but great care must be exercised
or the pot will be attacked. Boron oxide jnay be used up to 15
per cent, or 20 per cent., but zinc above 12 per cent, causes
crystallization. Alumina above 5 per cent, gives a glass that
is too viscous, but alumina toughens glass and serves to counter-
act the tendency to crystallize. Arsenic increases transparency
by setting up an oxidizing action at the high temperature of
the furnace, thus reducing the color which arises from the pres-
ence of iron. Nitrates alone are too active. Carbonates alone
do not give the necessary oxidizing agents, while if too much
alkali is used with too little nitrate, the glass will not " fine "
well.

From importing exclusively in 1914, the United States rapidly
developed the industry until late in the war we were in position
to become exporters and served Italy's requirements during the
last months, taking a considerable burden off the shoulders
of the English and French makers. Of the 675,000 pounds
of ordinary crown, boro-silicate crown, barium crown, ordinary
hard crown, light flint, medium flint, and dense flint produced
for war purposes, 95 per cent, was made under the direction
of the Geophysical Laboratory, with ten men in the field and
thirteen at work concurrently in the laboratory. About 2.8^

120 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

per cent, was produced at the Bureau of Standards which was
rapidly approaching its schedule of two tons per month when
the armistice was signed. KeufTel and Esser made glass for
their own use. At the close of the war the maximum capacity
of the Bausch and Lomb Optical Company plant was above
50,000 pounds per month, the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Com-
pany, 40,000 pounds, and the Spencer Lens Company more
than 15,000 pounds. The optical companies will continue pro-
duction and development work with the object of making the
best glass in the world for their own use and for others. Some
scale of the operation can be conveyed by the statement that in
the Bausch and Lomb Optical Company plant 33 million cubic
feet of gas were required monthly.

Another achievement has been the percentage of glass found
usable. All German reports place 20 per cent, as a maximum
' and state that from 15 to 18 per cent, is more nearly the aver-
age. The record shows that toward the end of the war, an
average of 23^ Per cent, of all optical glass produced at one
of our large plants was usable. Transmission now equals
that of the Jena glass, as does the absorption, which has been
reduced 0.5 per cent, per centimeter of glass.

To record thus briefly the contributions of certain scientists
and manufacturers for the winning of the war seems inade-
quate in view of the tremendous obstacles which had to be
overcome under unusual pressure. Increased production
meant much more than merely the multiplication of manufac-
turing units, and to have accomplished all that was done is only
equaled by certain other scientific work where, as in this case,
it was necessary in a few months to cover the ground that had
been covered elsewhere during a period of years.

THE ROLE OF CHEMISTRY
IN THE WAR

VIII

THE SUPPLY OF NITROGEN PRODUCTS FOR
THE MANUFACTURE OF EXPLOSIVES

ARTHUR A. NOYES

AN adequate supply of nitrogen compounds, particularly of
nitric acid and ammonia, was of vital importance in en-
suring victory in the war. From nitric acid are made all the
important explosives, smokeless powder, picric acid, trinitro-
toluol, ordinary black powder, dynamite, and ammonium ni-
trate. The last of these materials, the simplest of them all,
came during the war into the greatest prominence as one of
the most important explosives. In fact, one of the leading
munition authorities of England declared that the war could
be won only with ammonium nitrate, as no other explosive
could be produced in quantity adequate to meet the enormous
demands of the Allied armies. This development of the use
of ammonium nitrate brought about a heavy demand for am-
monia; so that while in the early stages of the war our chief
concern was an adequate supply of nitric acid, we soon became
no less interested in a sufficient and ample production of am-
monia.

Of these two nitrogen compounds there are only three im-
portant sources.

The first source is Chile saltpeter, or sodium nitrate, which
is found in a natural state in the dry regions of Chile, and
which until recently furnished the total supply of nitric acid
of the world. We depended for our own nitric acid supply
at the beginning of the war wholly upon the Chilean imports.

123

124 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

This was, however, a precarious source of supply. For in
the first place, it required ships for its transportation, and ships
were scarce. In the second place, there was always danger
that enemy machinations, through the purchase of the Chilean
mines, destroying the plants, or blowing up the oil supply used
for fuel, would reduce the production; or that our supply
might be cut off entirely, by the establishment of a hostile sub-
marine base on the Pacific Coast. All of these possibilities
made it unsafe to rely for our nitric acid supply on Chile salt-
peter alone. But, even if none of them actually came about,
it would still be impracticable to get in this way the huge
amount of nitric acid that would be needed by the American
Army.

The second source of nitrogen products is the ammonia
produced as a by-product in the manufacture of gas and coke.
There has been developed, as will be described later, a process
for the conversion of ammonia into nitric acid, so that if we
could get, from any source, an adequate supply of ammonia,
it could be converted into nitric acid. But unfortunately, this
country was still producing most of its coke in the so-called
" beehive " oven, which is simply a hemispherical kiln, into
which the coal is charged and set on fire ; the products of the
combustion being allowed to pass into the air, whereby the am-
monia and valuable hydrocarbons that might be obtained are
lost. It is true that during the preceding decade there had
been a rapid introduction of the so-called " by-product " ovens,
in which the coal is heated in closed retorts, and the gases are
passed through condensers and scrubbers by which the hydro-
carbons and the ammonia are recovered. It was even claimed
before the war by representatives of the by-product industry
that this rapidly increasing supply of ammonia would alone
suffice to meet the military needs of the Government; but the
result proved that it was utterly inadequate. The production
by this process is necessarily limited by the fact that the by-
product industry is dependent upon the steel industry; for it
is mainly in the metallurgy of steel that coke finds its use,

NITROGEN PRODUCTS 125

and ammonia can be produced at reasonable cost only in pro-
portion as there is a demand for coke.

The third source of these nitrogen compounds is atmos-
pheric nitrogen. During the last fifteen years there have been
developed a number of chemical processes by which the nitro-
gen of the air is " fixed," as we say, whereby ammonia, nitric
acid, or cyanide is produced. Only the three fixation processes
which had been operated before the war on a commercial scale
will be here briefly described. These are the cyanamide proc-
ess, the synthetic ammonia process, and the arc process.

i. The cyanamide process starts with lime and powdered
coke. The first chemical reaction that takes place results in
the formation of calcium carbide (CaC2), as follows:

CaO-f 3C = CaC2 + CO.

This is the substance which is used so extensively in the manu-
facture of acetylene for use as an illuminant and in oxy-acety-
lene welding. The carbon monoxide escapes as a gas. The
first step in the cyanamicfe process is carried out in huge electric
furnaces. The charge of lime and coke in small lumps is fed
down through the furnace, in the center of which stands a
large carbon electrode ; the walls of the furnace form the other
electrode. The mixture is heated to a very high temperature,
and the melted carbide is tapped off at the bottom from time
to time, and allowed to solidify.

The carbide is then crushed and subjected to the nitrifying
process. It is packed into large basket-shaped containers three
to six feet high and two to three feet in diameter. These
baskets, which are perforated with small holes, are enclosed
in an iron vessel into which is forced nitrogen made by dis-
tilling liquefied air. The chemical reaction is started by heat
produced by passing an electric current through a resistance
wire, placed in the axis of the basket. The reaction which
takes place is as follows :

CaC2 + N2 = CaCN2 + C.

126 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

This gives us a product, CaCN2, called " cyanamide," which
contains some unchanged carbide and some lime and graphite.
For the production of ammonia the cyanamide is next treated
with steam, whereupon the following reaction takes place :

CaCN2 + 3H,O = CaCO3 + 2NH3.

This process is carried out in huge autoclaves about 20 or 30
feet high and 5 to 6 feet in diameter. The powdered cyanamide
is fed into an alkaline solution, and then steam is blown in;
the mass heats up, the reaction begins and becomes violent, and
the ammonia is liberated. After it has attained a pressure of
12 to 15 atmospheres, it is blown: off into gas-holders. After
the reaction has spent itself, the residue is again charged with
steam so as to get a complete removal of the ammonia. When
carried out properly, it is practicable to get substantially all of
the nitrogen in the form of ammonia.

2. The synthetic ammonia process is an extremely simple
one chemically, involving the following reaction :

There is an interesting history connected with the develop-
ment of this process. The proportion of ammonia which
forms from the elements (hydrogen and nitrogen) at atmos-
pheric pressure was known to be extremely small at tempera-
tures where the rate of combination was reasonably rapid;
thus it is only 0.13 per cent, at 500°, and still less, only 0.02
per cent., at 700° centigrade. The facts that the equilibrium
conditions become less favorable as the temperature rises, and
that on the other hand a high temperature seemed necessary in
order to give a rapid rate of reaction led to the belief that there
was little hope of basing a technical process upon this chemical
reaction. However, a German chemist, Prof. Haber, guided
by theoretical considerations which show that the proportion
of ammonia formed must greatly increase with increasing

NITROGEN PRODUCTS 127

pressure (becoming, for example, 18 per cent, at 200 atmos-
pheres at 500°), undertook elaborate investigations, supported
financially by one of the large chemical companies of Ger-
many, first, to develop large scale apparatus which would with-
stand these high pressures, and secondly, to discover a contact-
agent or catalyst which would cause the hydrogen and nitrogen
to combine rapidly at a fairly low temperature. After years
of research and the expenditure of two or three millions of
dollars, the difficulties were largely overcome, and a practical
commercial process was developed. The hydrogen required
in this process is one of the chief factors in the cost of pro-
duction of the ammonia. It was manufactured by injecting
steam into a furnace containing red-hot coke, mixing the gases
so produced with a large excess of steam, passing them over a
contact-agent whereby the carbon monoxide (CO) present is
converted into carbon dioxide (CO2), and removing the latter
from the gases by scrubbing them with cold water at a pressure
of 30-50 atmospheres. The chemical changes involved are
expressed by the equations

The nitrogen required in the process was obtained by the dis-
tillation of liquefied air.

3. The arc process like the synthetic process, involves an ex-
tremely simple chemical reaction; namely,

At a very high temperature the nitrogen and oxygen of the
atmosphere can, as expressed by this equation, be made to
unite to form nitric oxide. In this case the effect of tem-
perature on the equilibrium is exactly the opposite of its effect
on the ammonia equilibrium. The higher the temperature, the
more nitric oxide is obtained ; but there is very little produced

128 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

until the temperature becomes very high. At 1600° Centigrade
0.4 per cent, (by volume) of a mixture of equal parts of ni-
trogen and oxygen is converted into nitric oxide; at 1900° i.o
per cent. ; and at 2400°, 2.2 per cent. It is clear, then, that we can
get a considerable production of nitric oxide only by operating
at a high temperature. But not only is it necessary to do this,
but the gases must be cooled so quickly that in the process of
cooling the reaction does not reverse itself, with decomposition
of the nitric oxide into oxygen and nitrogen. The only really
practical way in which these conditions can be realized is by
passing through air a powerful electric discharge. An electric
arc produces locally an extremely high temperature, and the
gas can be drawn rapidly away from the arc and quickly
cooled.

The nitric oxide in the gases coming from the arc must now
be converted into nitric acid (HNO3). This is done by caus-
ing the two chemical changes expressed by the following equa-
tions to take place successively :

2NO + O2 = 2 NO2 (nitrogen peroxide).
3N02 + H2 O = 2 HN03 + NO.

This first chemical reaction takes place of itself when the gas
cools to below 150° ; but time must be allowed for its comple-
tion, which is accomplished by passing the nitrous gases
through a large empty chamber. The second reaction is then
brought about by passing the cool gases through a series of
high granite towers, often sixty feet high and sixteen to
twenty feet in diameter, filled with quartz pebbles over which
water is trickling. As this second reaction reconverts one
third of the nitrogen into nitric oxide, and the first reaction
must again take place before the nitrous vapors can be ab-
sorbed by the water, the process is a slow one, and an elaborate
absorption system is required. From the towers flows a dilute
(30 per cent.) nitric acid, which can be concentrated by well-
known processes to the strength needed for the manufacture of
explosives.

NITROGEN PRODUCTS 129

4. In this connection there should be briefly described the
process referred to above for the conversion of ammonia into
nitric acid. This consists in passing a mixture of air with
about ten per cent, of ammonia gas over red-hot platinum
gauze, whereby 90 per cent or more of the ammonia is con-
verted into nitric oxide, in accordance with the equation

4 NH3 + 502 = 4 NO + 6 H2 O.

The gases are then cooled and passed through absorption
towers, whereby the nitric oxide is converted into dilute nitric
acid through the occurrence of the chemical changes described
in the preceding paragraph.

From a technical standpoint, this was the " state of the art "
just before the war; but the commercial development of the
various processes had been limited, and there were many diffi-
culties in their rapid installation in this country. To appre-
ciate this, let us briefly review the industrial status of nitrogen
fixation at that time, and the economic factors involved in the
different processes.

The cyanamide process requires as raw materials mainly
pure limestone, coke, and nitrogen (obtainable from liquid
air). The synthetic process depends primarily on cheap coal,
but it demands elaborate machinery and highly skilled labor.
The arc process makes its product directly from ordinary air,
but it requires for its economic operation cheap and abundant
water-power. As the power requirement was a vital factor
in this country, the following quantitative statement in re-
gard to it is of interest. For the fixation of one ton of nitro-
gen about 10.5 horse-power years are used in the arc process;
2.2 in the cyanamide process, and 0.5 or less in the synthetic
ammonia process.

The arc process was being operated on a large scale in Nor-
way, where the water-power needed in great quantity for this
process is available at very low cost. It had been introduced
also in other countries, but only in a small way. The cyana-

130 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

mide process had been installed in all the larger countries of
continental Europe, and in Canada and Japan. The synthetic
process had been developed exclusively in Germany, and dur-
ing the war it was being greatly extended there. Had it not
been for this process, assuring a supply of explosives, Ger-
many would never have ventured to declare war on Europe.

On this continent the only considerable installation of fixa-
tion processes was that of the American Cyanamid Company
at Niagara Falls, Canada. This plant had in 1916 a capacity
for producing annually 12,800 tons of nitrogen in the form of
cyanamide. A small arc-process plant having an annual
capacity of about 300 tons had been installed and operated at
Nitrolee, South Carolina. The DuPont Powder Company had
also made complete designs for the installation of an arc process
plant of the Norwegian type.

The detailed information and experience needed for the in-
stallation of a cyanamide or an arc process plant in this coun-
try was therefore available, being in the possession of some
of our leading industrial companies. But this was not true
to anything like the same degree of the synthetic ammonia
process, the details of which had been kept by the Germans
a carefully guarded secret. The General Chemical Company
of this country had, however, been working for years on a
modified form of the German process; and soon after the
declaration of war by the United States this Company placed
its information and experience at the disposal of the Govern-
ment.

This then was the situation in April, 1917, when the Govern-
ment was faced with the urgent problem of enormously in-
creasing our supply of nitrogen products. It remains to de-
scribe the steps that were taken to solve it.

During the year preceding our entrance into the war some
preparation had fortunately been made. Congress had passed
on June 3, 1916 an act placing $20,000,000 at the disposal of
the President for the erection of nitrogen-fixation plants and

NITROGEN PRODUCTS 131

the development of water-power for that purpose. The Na-
tional Academy of Sciences had in April of that year offered
its services in scientific matters ; and a little later the Secretary
of War requested the Academy to appoint a committee to ad-
vise him as to " the best method to be followed in the manu-
facture of nitric acid by a process not involving dependence
upon a foreign source of supply." A committee was formed
consisting of leading chemists and engineers; and this commit-
tee rendered on June 2, 1916 a preliminary report urging that
in view of the unavoidable delays in the construction of ade-
quate fixation-plants, a large supply of Chile saltpeter be im-
ported as rapidly as possible and stored against an emergency ;
and that efforts be made to stimulate the introduction of by-
product coke ovens for the production of ammonia and hydro-
carbons. The committee then proceeded to make an exhaus-
tive study of the different problems of nitrogen-fixation under
American conditions, and in January, 1917, rendered to the
Secretary a full report. In this report the previous recom-
mendations were renewed ; and in addition the immediate con-
struction of a plant for the oxidation of coke-oven ammonia
to nitric acid and of a cyanamide-process plant for the fixa-
tion of nitrogen was recommended, the latter plant to be oper-
ated temporarily with newly developed steam power or with
existing power purchased from private companies. The
cyanamide process was recommended; for it was evident that
sufficient power could not be secured for the operation of a
large arc-process plant, and no information was available that
would make possible the proper construction and operation of
the German synthetic process. In the meantime the Chief
Chemist of the Bureau of Mines had been sent abroad by the
War Department to study foreign developments of nitrogen-
fixation, on which he presented a report in January, 1917.

This Academy Committee was later replaced by the official
Nitrate Commission of the War Department with a personnel
that included several members of the original committee and
a number of prominent government representatives; and the

132 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

Commission acted in an advisory capacity to the Secretary
throughout the war.

During the summer of 1917 a Nitrate Division was organized
in the Ordnance Department; and contracts were made for
the construction of two fixation-plants. The first one of these
arranged for was a synthetic-process plant to be built at Shef-
field, Alabama, by the Government with the cooperation of the
General Chemical Company, employing the recently disclosed
process of that company. It was to have a capacity of 20,000
tons of ammonium nitrate a year. This plant was constructed
during the following year ; and one of the three units was com-
pleted before the armistice was signed. Its continuous opera-
tion was, however, prevented by difficulties which had not
then been overcome.

The second fixation plant was built at Muscle Shoals, Ala-
bama, for the government by the American Cyanamid Com-
pany. It is the largest, and doubtless the most perfect,
cyanamide-process plant ever constructed. It is designed for
the production of ammonium nitrate, and has a capacity, of
110,000 tons of that material per year. It was already partly
in operation at the time of the armistice, but has since been
shut down, pending decision as to the practicability of manu-
facturing nitrogen-products for fertilizer use upon a paying
basis.

As the American Army grew in size, with still larger in-
creases in prospect, the need of ammonium nitrate became
still more pressing ; and the construction of two new cyanamide-
process plants, each with a capacity of 55,000 tons of am-
monium nitrate per year, was begun in the summer of 1918.
These were located near Toledo and near Cincinnati, Ohio,
where surplus municipal power was available. The construc-
tion was suspended, and the structures were salvaged when
the armistice was declared.

As in many other fields involving the applications of science,
the war demands have given a great stimulus to the develop-

NITROGEN PRODUCTS 133

ment of the art of nitrogen fixation, — an art which, by fur-
nishing cheaper fertilizer and thereby increasing the crop-pro-
duction of the world, is bound to contribute greatly to the wel-
fare of mankind. From the beginning of the war, the govern-
ments of England, France, and the United States, as well as
many of the large chemical companies of those countries, ac-
tively prosecuted investigation in this field. When the Nitrate
Division of our Ordnance Department was formed, it estab-
lished a Research Section^ and this actively assisted industrial
companies and inventors in the development of their processes.
And, in cooperation with the Nitrate Investigations Committee
of the National Research Council, it initiated and prosecuted
researches of its own, in its laboratories at the Nitrate Plant at
Sheffield, in those of the bureau of Chemistry and Bureau of
Soils at Arlington, and at the Geophysical Laboratory of the
Carnegie Institution, which during the latter period of the war
liberally placed its facilities and assigned some of its staff to
this work.

It is a subject for congratulation that provision has been
made by the Government for the continuation of researches
upon nitrogen fixation under most favorable conditions. The
excellent laboratories at the American University previously
used by the Chemical Warfare Service are now utilized for
this purpose, funds enough to enable the work to be effectively
prosecuted for some time are available, and the investigations
are under the competent direction of some of our best research
chemists, who will attack the difficult problems involved in a
fundamental way.

In conclusion, the hope may be expressed that this brief
story of nitrogen fixation in its war relations may contribute
to the purposes of this volume by showing the vital dependence
of military operations upon the applications of science, and
the reactions of war experiences on the development of science
itself.

IX

THE PRODUCTION OF EXPLOSIVES
CHARLES E. MUNROE

SINCE the introduction of gunpowder into use it has been
quite generally recognized that explosives are essential
in the carrying on of war, and it is expected that large quanti-
ties of them will be consumed in warfare. It is not as gen-
erally recognized that explosives are equally essential for use.
in industry and that the demands of our modern civilization
for coal and many of the ores, and for the carrying out of
engineering and a variety of other operations, cannot be met
except through the use of enormous quantities of these reser-
voirs of concentrated energy. An inspection of our census
statistics will show a constantly increasing production of ex-
plosives until 1909, when there were manufactured in the
United States 244,622 tons of explosives in one year, of which
less than one-half of one per cent, were designated for military
uses. It is believed that the annual production in subsequent
years, except that of 1914, was greater than the above but no
U. S. Census statistics have been taken except those for 1914
when production of all kinds was lessened during the last six
months. All civilized countries have been engaged in the
manufacture of explosives, though none upon so extensive a
scale as the United States, during the last half century.

For several hundred years after its introduction men de-
pended upon potassium nitrate gunpowder alone to perform all
the variety of duties demanded of explosives in peace or in
war, and it early became the subject of scientific investigation
and supervision; Tartaglia, Galileo, Newton, Huygens, and

i34

THE PRODUCTION OF EXPLOSIVES 135

many other mathematicians and physicists discussed its effects
on projectiles ; granulation was introduced in 1445 ; Benvenuto
Cellini observed the necessity for adapting the grains to the gun,
and devised the system of blending; Hawksbee, in 1702, meas-
ured the volume of gas resulting from a known volume of
powder; Robins, and then Hutton, developed the ballistic pen-
dulum ; and Rumford measured the pressure produced by gun-
powder in burning, all prior to the nineteenth century.

In connection with his duties in the office of the ferniier
general of France, Lavoisier was, in 1775, designated registeur
des poudres, when he at once proceeded to install a laboratory
at the Arsenal in Paris and to apply his chemical knowledge
to improvements in the production of saltpeter and in the
manufacture of gunpowder. Among his pupils was E. I. du
Pont de Nemours, who spent some time in the royal powder
mills at Essone, qualifying as a successor to Lavoisier as
superintendent and who, on July 19, 1802, on the advice of
Thomas Jefferson, began the gunpowder works on the Brandy-
wine at Wilmington, Delaware, which have been continued to
the present day.

The creation of this laboratory by Lavoisier may properly
be taken as the beginning of precise chemical investigations of
explosives, and his example was followed by many other chem-
ists, among those investigating gunpowder being Berthollet,
Gay Lussac, Violette, Chevreul, Bunsen and Schischkoff, Linck,
Karoyli, Noble and Abel, Hare and Debus.

Although picric acid had then been known and, to some ex-
tent, used as a bitter principle and coloring matter, and with
metal-amines, styled fulminating silver, gold and the like, had
been developed as interesting chemical material, the beginning
of modern explosives dates from the discovery of mercury ful-
minate by Howard in 1800, and from the middle of the nine-
teenth century on followed the discovery of the nitric esters
from starch, wood, cotton, glycerin, sugars and other alcohols,
known as nitro starch, nitro lignin, nitro cellulose, nitro gly-
cerin, and nitro sucrose ; of diazo-bodies, and of hydronitrides ;

136 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

while the usefulness of the nitro substitution compounds, both
those derived from aliphatic hydrocarbons as well as those from
aromatic hydrocarbons, and from many of their derivatives
as explosives per se was established. In fact Sprengel in 1873
stated that picric acid, a nitrosubstitution compound discov-
ered by Woulff in 1771, contains a sufficient amount of avail-
able oxygen to render it, without the help of foreign oxidizers,
a powerful explosive when fired with a detonator. As each
of the parent substances of these organic explosives was known
to be a member of a series yielding similar derivatives, most of
which through progressive substitution and isomerism would
each yield several nitric esters or nitrosubstitution compounds,
the number of actually known explosive compounds was very
large, while they were greatly exceeded in number by those
whose existence had been made evident but which had not,
for obvious reasons, such as their scarcity, cost, presence of
objectionable radicals, such as the haloids, been developed and
made use of. In addition many of these explosive compounds
were made use of as components of explosive mixtures, as
nitroglycerin was in a multitude of dynamites, or they were
modified physically, as nitrocellulose was when by colloidiza-
tion and induration of its grains it was converted into smoke-
less powder. Other oxidizing agents were also substituted
for potassium nitrate, such as other nitrates, chlorates, per-
chlorates, permanganates, dichromates, and liquid oxygen, and
other combustible agents for the charcoal, such as aluminum,
magnesium, hydrocarbons and cereals of various kinds.

In 1870, as a consequence of the Franco-Prussian War, there
was formed a Scientific Committee for the Defense of Paris,
of which Berthelot was a member. He then directed and con-
ducted researches in explosives, which resulted in the accumu-
lation of the mass of information regarding these substances
which is set forth in his " Force des matieres explosive," and
in the creation, in 1878, of the permanent Commission on Ex-
plosive Substances, with Berthelot as Chairman, which has been
intensively engaged in researches in explosives ever since.

THE PRODUCTION OF EXPLOSIVES 137

Similar research organizations were created in other countries.
In 1875, "Her Majesty's Inspectors of Explosives" was or-
ganized to supervise the manufacture, transportation and use
of explosives, with Dr. Dupre as its chemist, and other coun-
tries have, with modifications, created similar organizations.
In 1877 a French Commission was designated to investigate
explosives for use in coal mines and similar commissions have
been established in England, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Rus-
sia and this country. The United States Bureau of Mines
has at its Testing Station in Pittsburgh a most complete equip-
ment for chemical and physical tests of explosives and a force
of experienced and capable chemists and engineers. Because
of the military importance, testing stations or proving grounds
have for a long time been an active part of the army and naval
establishments of many countries, together with explosives re-
search laboratories, like those at Waltham Abbey and Neu-
babelsberg. In this country there have been for a long time
such chemical laboratories at Frankford and Picatinny Arsenals
for the army, and at Indian Head and Newport for the navy ;
the United States Naval Torpedo Station Laboratory having
been started in 1870 with W. N. Hill as chief chemist. Scien-
tific supervision, accompanied by research, has in recent' years
characterized the explosives industry. This is universally
recognized for those factories in which dyestuffs, photographic
and pharmaceutical chemicals are produced and in which ex-
plosives, such as the nitro substitution compounds, appear as
subsidiary products or intermediates. It has been the case,
though to a less extent, in those factories in which explosives
are the principal product. Thus, following the special inquiry
at the chemical census of the United States in 1900, it was
found that the explosives industry employed research chemists
a-ul engineers to a larger extent than any other of the chemical
industries. ^Moreover, explosives have for more than a cen-
tury furnished attractive subjects for research by university
professors and advanced students. As a result of all this re-
search activity the literature on explosives is very extensive.

138 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

At the outbreak of the war in 1914, explosives occupied an
almost unique position among the materials which became of
military importance for an enormous number of them were
known, a large number of them had been manufactured and
used so that the methods of manufacture and use had been
commercially developed. Because of this, and the fact that
for more than a century they had been the subject of numerous
scientific investigations, their characteristics were pretty well
ascertained. Since the war was evidently to be of great mag-
nitude and prolonged, the problem with regard to explosives
was the selection from among the many known of those which,
while offering a large measure of safety to the manufacturer
and user, would prove the most effective against the enemy,
and could be rapidly manufactured and delivered. As a result,
TNT and picric acid were the chief explosives used as burst-
ing agents, and smokeless powder, either single base (nitro
cellulose only), or double base (nitro cellulose-nitroglycerin)
as the propellents, with mercury fulminate and chlorate mix-
tures as initiating agents and tetryl or tetranitroaniline as
boosters. Black gunpowder played a subsidiary part as used
in trench mortars and pyrotechnic devices, while cheddites,
ammonals, nitrostarch compositions and similar explosives were
used in hand grenades and bombs. Guncotton* which would
have been more efficiently used in propellents, was employed
to some extent in defense mines and limited quantities of ex-
plosives such as ecrastic, schneiderite or explosive D were used
because of a special penchant of certain services.

In view of this there should be nothing surprising in the
statement that the explosives art and industry was in such a
condition of development and preparedness at the outbreak of
'* The World War for Civilization " that no new explosive
compound nor any new principle in application appears to h:ye
been evolved or made use of during this war. It is true that
the enemy, to piece out its requirements, made use of hexa-
nitrodiphenylamine (long used as a dye under such names
as Aurantia, Kaiser Yellow and others) and of hexanitrodi-

THE PRODUCTION OF EXPLOSIVES 139

phenylsulphide, and both sides employed in drop bombs the
liquid nitrogen peroxide explosives indicated by Berthelot in
1 88 r and well developed by Turpin about that time and styled
by him ponclastites. Also chlorinated nitrosubstitution com-
pounds, which had been rejected before the war because of the
poisonous nature of their explosion products, were tested out
but not adopted for use.

A multitude of explosive mixtures were proposed and some
of them were used. The only new one which attained marked
prominence and large use was amatol, which was a mixture
of TNT with ammonium nitrate. . By its aid the enormous de-
mand for bursting charges was met. Its production, however,
involved no new idea, for joveite was a similar mixture of
nitrosubstitution compounds and ammonium nitrate. Joveite
was the explosive which was tested at the Indian Head Prov-
ing Ground under Captain Sampson in 1897 and which Admiral
Sampson sought in vain for loading the shells of his fleet prior
to its encounter with Cervera's fleet. It may be recalled that
in the Indian Head tests Commander Couden fired armor
piercing shell charged with 8.25 pounds of joveite through
14.5 inches of the harveyized armor of the U. S. S. Kentucky
and that the shell exploded after complete perforation of the
armor. This was the first time in history that such a result
was attained and it demonstrated the practicability and effi-
ciency of these nitrosubstitution compound-metallic nitrate
mixtures for shell charges.

The real problems that had to be solved after the explosives
to be used had been selected were those pertaining to large
scale production at high speed and the obtaining of sufficient
supplies of raw material. These materials were mainly cotton
and glycerine for smokeless powder, phenol for picric acid, tolu-
ene for TNT, nitric and sulphuric acids with which to nitrate
each of the foregoing, ammonium nitrate, alcohol and mercury ;
but many other substances playing subordinate parts, as puri-
fying or stabilizing agents and the like, though used in much
less quantities than the foregoing, were nevertheless called for

140 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

in larger amounts and to be delivered at more rapid rates than
had ever been known or even, probably, dreamed of. And
this was to be accomplished in this country in the face of in-
terrupted transportation which cut off supplies of niter, sulphur
and pyrites; of a greatly increased demand for cotton for
clothing, tents, airships, automobile covers, and a variety of
other uses; and of the long continued policy of Germany in
preventing the manufacture in other countries of many of the
chemicals essential in the preparation of explosives, so that
all such manufactures had to be developed here ab initio.

With the increasing shortage of cotton attention was turned
to wood as a source of cellulose. It was known that the earli-
est and long used smokeless sporting powders, such as the
Schultze, were made from nitrated wood and that wood con-
tains considerable proportions of cellulose, but that it was in-
timately mixed with other bodies which interfered with its
use in the production of military powders from it. However,
under pressure, methods of large scale purification of the wood
cellulose were worked out by chemists on both sides and satis-
factory powder produced from it. It is claimed that it was
owing to this development and to that of methods for the pro-
duction of nitric acid from the air that Germany was enabled to
continue military operations so long. It was proposed in this
country to combine this development of the use of wood pulp
with the reclaiming of cut-over turpentine lands; the stumps
of the long-leaf pine were to be first treated to obtain from
them their spirits of turpentine and resin contents and the
residual wood to be converted to cellulose pulp, while the land
thus cleared was to be devoted to agriculture or reforestation.

Glycerin is obtained as a side product from fats and oils in
such processes as soap-making. For some years before the war
there was a constantly growing world shortage which became
acute as the war developed. In looking for other sources of
glycerin it was recalled that glycerin is always produced to a
slight extent in the ordinary fermentation of sugar to alcohol,
and this led to a search for and cultivation of the glycerin

THE PRODUCTION OF EXPLOSIVES 141

producing organism, the preparation of that medium, and de-
termination of those conditions best suited to its growth. The
Division of Chemistry, Bureau of Internal Revenue, U. S.
Treasury Department, met with success in the employment of
S. Ellipsoideus, var. Steinberg in alkaline sugar solutions un-
der definite conditions of concentration and temperature.
Yields of 20 to 25 per cent, of glycerin on the original sugar
content were obtained and inedible materials such as Porto
Rican " black strap " molasses were found to be the most ef-
fective of sugar-containing materials for this use.

Phenol, commonly called carbolic acid, benzene and toluene
are produced, with gas, coke and other substances in the dry dis-
tillation of soft coal and were originally largely recovered com-
mercially from the lighter coal tar distillates, but, though the
coal gas industry was established in this country in 1816, the
water gas industry in 1865, and the by-product coke industry
in 1892, the proper chemical utilization of the by-products
was prevented by the adroit commercial practices of the Ger-
man manufacturers and merchants, so that in 1914 we prac-
tically lacked these industries. It is true that for some years
we had employed by-product coke ovens about steel works,
where the richer gas was used for heating purposes in hot-
blast stoves, soaking pits and the like, and about cities, where
the richer gas was sold, either alone or mixed with other gas,
such as water gas, as illuminating gas. Also, to meet a con-
stantly increasing demand for higher candle power it had be-
come the practice to strip the gas at the steel works of its ben-
zene and toluene, by oil stripping, and to ship these hydro-
carbons to the gas plants for use in enriching the illuminating
gas. Furthermore, it had been early recognized that toluene
and benzene were formed in the carburetters of water gas
plants through the cracking of the petroleum oils used to sup-
ply the illuminants to the gas, and between 1900 and 1905 the
United Gas Improvement Co. had developed methods for their
recovery. None of these operations were, however, conducted
on a large scale, so that when this enormous demand came in

142 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

1914 and the succeeding years it became necessary to erect pro-
duction and recovery plants on a scale before unknown, while
cracking processes, such as the Rittman, were worked out to
secure large yields of these hydro carbons from petroleum.
The story is told in detail in Technologic Paper of the Bureau
of Standards, No. 117, entitled "Toluol Recovery," while the
system of tests applied which contributed largely to the suc-
cess of these operations is described in Ordnance Department,
U. S. A. Bulletin No. 1800, entitled " Methods for Testing to
be used in Toluol Plant Operation."

The phenol problem was more difficult since securing the
proper coal tars in quantity and the separation and purification
of the phenol fraction was too time consuming, and moreover
conflicted too seriously with the interdependent industries to
be available to any material extent in this emergency. How-
ever, benzene was attainable by the means described above and
it was known that phenol had been produced from it by first
converting the benzene into the potassium benzene sulphonate
and then fusing this with potash. As unfortunately potassium
compounds were also under the control of the Germans, the
use of sodium compounds was resorted to, and, despite the
fact that previous attempts to use sodium compounds had failed,
a careful study of conditions resulted in this process being made
commercially successful. At the same time other methods
for the production of picric acid from benzene, based on the
latter being first converted into chlor-benzene, were put into
successful operation, whereby much of the synthetic phenol
was released for disinfection purposes and other necessary uses.

The story of how the nitric acid problem was solved is told
by Dr. A. A. Noyes in another chapter. As for sulphuric acid,
this country was before the war a leading producer, if not the
leader, in this fundamental chemical industry, for by 1914, we
were producing annually over 4,000,000 tons of the various
grades reduced to 50° B. Extensive plants had been erected
with which to collect and convert the enormous quantities of
sulphur fumes given off in smelting copper ores, It is true

THE PRODUCTION OF EXPLOSIVES 143

that many of our acid works had been roasting foreign pyrites
but thanks to the inventions of Frasch large deposits of sulphur
in Louisiana and Texas had become available, while extensive
beds of pyrrhotite in Virginia and of pyrites were drawn upon.
Through these means and by limiting the supplies for use in
the fertilizer and other industries, in which sulphuric acid had
been largely used, the enormous demands of the explosives
industry were met.

Ammonium nitrate has a special interest in that not only has
it been extensively used as an oxidizing component of explo-
sive mixtures but that unlike the potassium and sodium ni-
trates, for which it was substituted, it is explosive per se.
This was indicated by Berthelot in his study of the several
different methods of decomposition which ammonium nitrate
can undergo when heated. Its use as a component of ex-
plosive dopes in dynamite began about 1870 with the intro-
duction of the practice of recovering spent nitroglycerin acids.
It was found that the weak nitric acid produced could be most
easily and economically reclaimed by neutralizing it with am-
monia, and its use in dynamites was largely established through
the invention of " protected nitrate ammonia," by R. S. Penni-
man (U. S. Patent 448361 of March 17, 1891) whereby its
deliquescent tendency was overcome. Since then these am-
monia dynamites have assumed an ever increasing importance,
while ammonium nitrate has been made a component of many
other explosive mixtures such as Favier's explosive, ammonal
and others which contained no nitroglycerin.

This demonstrated efficiency of ammonium nitrate and its
suitability for use in large scale operations created a demand
for it in this war which exceeded the capacities of all the
previous sources of supply. Ammonium sulphate, produced
at gas works and by-product coke works for use as a fertilizer,
was available in large quantities and sodium nitrate could with
effort be imported from Chile. It was known that during the
Crimean War (1854-55) to meet the increased demand for salt-
peter for the gunpowder then used, a process was developed

144 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

in Germany wherein the potassium carbonate, from beet root
residues, was made to react in aqueous solution with Chile salt-
peter as follows :

K2CO3 + 2NaNO3 •> Na2CO3 + 2KNO3

thus hot only supplying the desired potassium nitrate but also
greatly fostering the beet root sugar industry that Germany
was then seeking to promote. It was also known that about
this time there was discovered in the sinking of a shaft at the
Stassfurt salt mines the so-called abraumsalze containing
quantities of sylvite or mineral potassium chloride and that
at the opening of the Civil War in the United States there was
developed a method of producing saltpeter by metathesis of
potassium chloride and sodium nitrate in aqueous solution as
follows

KC1 + NaNO3 -> NaCl + KNO3

With these and many other precedents existing it appeared
a simple matter to produce ammonium nitrate from the meta-
thesis of ammonium sulphate and sodium nitrate in aqueous
solution as follows:

(NH4)2SO4 + 2NaNO3 •> Na2SO4 + 2NH4NO3

Owing, however, to the possible formation of three different
phases of sodium sulphate, five enantiotropic phases of am-
monium nitrate, and four different double salts with differing
solubilities, the problem was a most complex and intricate one
and many who sought to solve it failed. It was solved by
Freeth and Cocksedge through a careful quantitative study of
the solubility relations and the regulation of the temperature
within narrow limits as a result of the information obtained
from these data, and their discoveries were protected by Eng-
lish Patent 16,454 of 1910. The method was commercially de-
veloped during the war at the plant of Brunner-Mond in Eng-

THE PRODUCTION OF EXPLOSIVES 145

land and it constituted one of the most notable achievements
in physical chemistry as applied to explosive substances. An
equally notable engineering achievement was the building of
a plant at Perry ville, Maryland, in about 100 days in which
to produce 300 long tons of ammonium nitrate daily by this
process. The plant was built of concrete, tile and steel of the
most approved construction and cost about fourteen and a
quarter millions of dollars. The results of its operation ex-
ceeded all requirements.

An achievement of a quite different character but of the
highest order in novelty and importance was that of using
crystals, such as those of tourmaline, quartz or sugar, with
which to measure the pressures exerted by explosives as they
explode. It is important to know this with a high degree of
precision for use in designing and operating guns, in charging
mines and planning explosives operations. Heretofore at-
tempts to measure these pressures have been made by the de-
formation of disks of copper or lead of known form and di-
mensions, but since the inertia of these bodies must be first
overcome and, since, owing to elasticity, they tend to regain
their original form and dimensions, the methods were in error
to an unknown extent. It was known that when asymmetric
crystals, such as those of tourmaline, quartz or sugar, were
subjected to pressure they acquired electric charges, which
M. Curie had found were proportioned to the pressures put
upon the crystal, and the electricity thus generated by pressure
was styled piezo-electricity. Sir J. J. Thomson applied piezo-
electricity to the determination of the explosion pressures of
submerged guncotton by placing a plate of tourmaline within
the primary explosion area, the plate being connected on each
face to a conductor which led to an aperture through which a
stream of electrons emitted from a heated tungsten filament
was led, and the extent to which this stream was deflected was
then noted. Or, in order to produce a pressure-time curve, the
stream of electrons was at the time of deflection exposed to the
influence of a rapidly alternating magnetic field. This method

146 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

is applicable to explosions of gaseous mixtures as well as to
those of ordinary explosive substances and can be employed in
the study of the pressures occurring in internal combustion
engines as well as those in mines or guns.

An unexpected feature was the reduction in the cost of ex-
plosives in the United States as the war progressed. This is
statistically shown in Bulletin No. 56 of the War Industries
Board by C. L. Fry, and it was due to the exercise of good
management and to improvements in plan and methods which
resulted in increased economies in operation and greater out-
puts in the face of rising prices for labor and materials. It
was also due to the relatively small loss from explosions in
manufacture, storage, or transportation. It is true that there
did occur explosions of unparalleled magnitude at Black Tom
Island, London, Halifax, N. S., where 2367 tons of picric acid,
250 tons of TNT and 62 tons of nitrocellulose, or 2679 tons in
all, exploded on the S.S. Mt. Blanc; and at Morgan, N. J.,
where 4225 tons of ammonium nitrate, 370 tons of smokeless
powder and 187 tons of TNT were involved; and it is also
true a large number of explosions occurred in the industry
during the period of the war. But accidental explosions are a
feature of this extra-hazardous industry and no true idea can
be had of war-time experiences except through a statistical com-
parison with peace-time data. This cannot be done in this
matter for the United States, since until the declaration of the
war the National Government had not exercised any super-
vision over the explosives industry. But Great Britain has
done so in its domain since 1875, and H. M. Inspectors of
Explosives in the last annual report give a statement of condi-
tions from Aug. 4, 1914, to Nov. n, 1918. In this report it
appears that there were produced during this time 445,559 tons
of explosives and 11,725,000,000 pieces of ammunition and that
the average number of persons employed was 61,807, with a
maximum of 86,555. Yet, notwithstanding the fact that work
was carried on under high pressure, that most of the employees
were inexperienced, and that they were supervised largely by

THE PRODUCTION OF EXPLOSIVES 147

equally inexperienced officials, there were but 1.25 per 1000
killed per annum during this period, while for the last previous
five-year period in peace time the killed were I per 1000 per
annum.

Some data as to the extent to which explosives were used may
be of interest. Naturally since magazine rifles, machine guns
and rapid fire cannon were used extensively and large caliber
guns, of greater caliber, more numerously than ever before,
the expenditure of ammunition exceeded that ever known. All
calibers above small arms used high explosive shell. High ex-
plosives were also used in mines and torpedoes, which attained
dimensions greater than in former use, in depth bombs devised
for attack on submarines, and in drop bombs designed for use
from airplanes and airships.

Data for small arm ammunition is not at hand but of artillery
it may be said that while the total number of rounds fired by
the Union Army at the battle of Gettysburg was 32,781, the
British Army at the battle of the Somme in 1916 fired 4,000,00x3
rounds ; and that while the total number of rounds fired by the
Union Army throughout the Civil War from 1861 to 1865 was
5,000,000, the United States, British and French armies in 1918
fired 160,615,000 rounds. Of high explosives it may be said
that the 75-mm. shell originally designed for one-half pound of
black powder, in 1918 contained 1.76 pounds of high explosive.
The United States naval mine carried 300 pounds of TNT and
there were 70,000 of them anchored in the North Sea mine
field. The charge used in blowing up the Messines Ridge is
stated to have been 466.6 tons in weight, consisting princi-
pally of TNT. The largest single charge previously recorded
was 141 tons, principally rackarock, used in blowing up Flood
Rock at Hell Gate, N. Y.

X

THE CHEMICAL WARFARE SERVICE

/

CLARENCE J. WEST

HEMISTS have always played a certain role in modern
warfare. This role, however, was always more or less
superficial. It consisted simply in an attempt to perfect gun
powder and to suggest new and more powerful explosives, not
to make war more horrible but to shorten, if possible, its dura-
tion. The chemist was buried in his laboratory, in Government
arsenals or in the plants of privately owned ammunition com-
panies. He played no prominent part, as did the engineer or
the medical man. The introduction of poison gas and the
flaming liquid gun by the Germans during the year 1915
changed this relationship and as the war progressed the chemist
came to play one of the lending roles. It is not fair to the other
scientific men to call the late war " a chemist's war," but we
must admit that his was no mean part and that it was very
largely due to the tremendous advances in chemical knowledge
and the extensive gas program laid down by the Allies that the
war terminated when it did.

This honor is to be equally divided between the academic and
the industrial men. Even though industry is always using the
results of purely scientific research, there has been a tendency
on the part of the industrial men to decry the value of academic
research. This feeling was entirely lost sight of during the
past struggle and the two great classes of chemists worked
hand in hand, often in the same office or laboratory, in order
that a common end might be gained. No greater example of

148

THE CHEMICAL WARFARE SERVICE 149

cooperative research will ever be found than that of the
Chemical Warfare Service.

Too much cannot be said of the cooperation of our Allies in
this connection. Nearly two years had elapsed between the
time of the first gas attack on April 22, 1915, and our entry into
the war. During this time France and England had to face
and to solve, as well as they could, all the new and perplexing
problems of Chemical Warfare. While the American army
had many of its officers observing the new and rapid advances
in the various forms of fighting, and while the physician was
studying the new methods of medicine and surgery, apparently
little attention was paid to questions relating to the use of
poison gases. We were, therefore, almost as unprepared to
face these problems as were the Allies in the spring of 1915.
Once, however, we took upon ourselves the task forced upon
us by the barbarous acts of the German nation, the Allies put
at our disposal all the vast store of information gained during
their two years of experience. Not only did they send us
reports of work done and samples of the materials used by
their armies, but they sent to us trained men, with knowledge
of field and factory conditions, who were of inestimable value
to our scientists. We will always remember, with deepest
gratitude and respect, such men as Lieut. Col. Auld, Major Le
Sueur, Major Brightman, Dr. Grignard and their colleagues,
who so ably and so willingly contributed to the success of our
Chemical Warfare Service.

Census of Chemists. At the beginning of the war in 1914,
there were no indications that the chemist would be of any more
value than in previous wars. True, it was early evident that
the need of ammunition would be very great, but even this
increased output would require but a few of the hundreds of
chemists of military age. Therefore, when the real need did
come, England found that her young men, at least, were all
in the trenches and that many of them had already given their
lives in the great cause. In order that America might avoid
this loss of potential power, the first task undertaken by the

\

150 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

American Chemical Society in cooperation with the Council of
National Research was a census of the chemical talent of the
country. Since 14,500 of the 17,000 chemists were members
of this great organization, the Society was able to furnish the
Government with such information that, if a man was needed
for a particular work, the Government was able to place its
hand on the right man and send him to the right place. It
must be said in passing that this did not always please the
younger men of the chemical fraternity. Many of them wanted
to see the action of real fighting in France. Some of them
tried to do so by enlisting in the actual fighting units of the
army. While a few succeeded in this, so complete was the
information of the War Department that the majority were
secured for the more important task of the preparation of
chemicals for the use of the men who could not do this because
of the lack of training or experience. The value of this was
evidenced by the remarks of Secretary Baker at the Phila-
delphia meeting (1919) of the American Chemical Society.

Early Organisation. The first man to recognize the need
for a systematic and detailed organization to study chemical
warfare was Van H. Manning, the Director of the Bureau of
Mines. In February, 1917, when war between the United
States and Germany seemed inevitable, Mr. Manning pointed
out to the War Department the peculiar manner in which the
Bureau could be of value in the study of the gas mask. On
April 4th, the first conference was held, with representatives of
the army, navy, and Bureau of Mines present. This meeting
may be considered the organization of the American University
Experiment Station of the Bureau of Mines, later to become
the Research Division of the Chemical Warfare Service.
Mr. (later Colonel) George A. Burrell was called to be in
charge of this work. At once the station began to grow ; promi-
nent chemists were called from all walks of life to fill the ever
growing need of information and more information. The story
of the development of this wonderful chemical organization
has been vividly described by Colonel Burrell and the other

THE CHEMICAL WARFARE SERVICE 151

members of the Chemical Warfare Service (see the "Journal
of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry" for 1919 as space
does not permit its repetition here).

The Gas Service. The arrival of our army in France and
a study of conditions first hand soon revealed to General
Pershing that it was absolutely necessary to have a laboratory
on the field. To meet this need the Gas Service, A. E. F., was
organized with Colonel (later Brigadier General) Amos A.
Fries as Chief and with Colonel Raymond T. Bacon as Chief
of the Technical Division. Although this service was organized
in September, 1917, it was not until January, 1918, that the first
laboratory unit sailed. This grew into a very important organ-
ization with a defense, offense, technical and field division, and
carried on very important laboratory and field investigations.

Meanwhile at home the research, development and manu-
facturing sections of the Chemical Warfare work grew by
leaps and bounds and in order to care for all the needs of our
rapidly expanding army, many branches of the Service became
involved in the schedule of production. -The result of this
necessarily led to some confusion and there were constantly
growing demands for coordination.

The Chemical Warfare Service. The result of these de-
mands led to the organization in July, 1918, of the Chemical
Warfare Service, with Major General Sibert as Chief. All
the units of the army engaged in the development or production
of chemical warfare materials were assembled into this new
organization. It was finally composed of the following divi-
sions : Headquarters, Research, Gas Offense, Gas Defense,
Development, Proving, European (A. E. F.), Medical. Each
of these was under a competent chief, reporting to and respon-
sible to General Sibert. Out of almost chaos came order. The
work was coordinated and harmonized, each Division perform-
ing its own duties and working with the other Divisions in a
wonderful way. Because of the signing of the Armistice,
the Service was unable to show its full power of accomplish-
ments. Some of its achievements will be discussed below, and

152 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

these will indicate the possibilities of the organization when it
was forced to discontinue its activities on November n, 1918.

The Development of Chemical Warfare. We have traced
the organization of the Chemical Warfare Service and have
seen that it grew to meet the ever increasing demands of gas
warfare. Let us now examine briefly the development of
chemical warfare itself.

Chlorine was first used in chemical warfare, both because it
was a commercial product and readily accessible and because
it was a nearly ideal gas for a cylinder attack. For this pur-
pose a gas had to be easily compressible, heavier than air, and
with a boiling point sufficiently low to cause it to volatilize
easily and rapidly ; it had to be toxic in relatively low concen-
trations in air and it should be rather stable toward other
chemical agents. In all but the last respect, chlorine fulfilled
all these requirements. For months before the first gas attack
on April 22, 1915, the Germans must have been busy, building
up a supply of chlorine, developing a gas cylinder, providing
a mask to protect their own troops and in training the
" Pioneers," the men who were in charge of the actual gas
attacks. We are all acquainted with the success of that first
attack, and only the German's lack of faith in his own weapon
prevented him from a clear sweep of Calais and England.
About December, 1915, phosgene was mixed with the chlorine.
This added a greater toxic value to the gas mixture and intro-
duced a second very valuable property, namely, the delayed
action of the phosgene. Men might go for twelve hours after
being gassed with phosgene before realizing the fact, and then
only became aware of it, when, on slight exertion, they dropped
from heart disorder.

The cylinder attack had very decided disadvantages and the
German soon learned that he could accomplish the same end
with a much greater degree of safety by using the poison gas
in shell. Indeed, gas shell, containing lachrymatory (tear pro-
ducing) gases, were used almost simultaneously with the first
cylinder attack. The first toxic gas to be used was superpalite,

THE CHEMICAL WARFARE SERVICE 153

usually mixed with phosgene. This was almost as toxic as
phosgene and had the advantage of being more persistent, since
its boiling point was very much higher. The manufacture of
this material, however, wasted tremendous quantities of chlorine
and its use gradually decreased.

With the summer of 1916, we see the introduction of special
gases. The first of these was chloropicrin. While not quite
as toxic as superpalite, chloropicrin possessed the peculiar
physiological property of causing vomiting. It was used very
effectively in connection with other lethal gases, the chloropicrin
causing the men to remove their masks in the poisonous atmos-
phere, and thus producing many casualties. With the increas-
ing degree of protection, chloropicrin lost its great military-
value. Then the Germans sprung their Sneezing Gas
(diphenylchloroarsine). This was used in shells carrying a
high bursting charge. The explosion of the shell scattered the
Sneezing Gas in the form of a very fine cloud of particles.
While the charcoal of the mask will remove most poisonous
gases, it has no protective power against clouds or mists. The
Sneezing Gas passed through the best canister, and through its
peculiar physiological effect caused great discomfort to the
men and numerous casualties through forcing the men to re-
move their masks. Lachrymators were also used extensively,
especially in territory where neutralization alone was desired.
Because of the low concentrations in which lachrymators are
effective, they are very economical as far as the amount of gas
used, and very valuable from the military point of view, because
they cause the wearing of masks and thus reduce the efficiency
of the men.

The crowning achievement of gas warfare was the introduc-
tion of mustard gas. The name '* blistering gas " indicates its
peculiar physiological property. This is a high boiling sub-
stance which is very persistent. It has been known to cause
casualties seven to ten days after the firing of the shell. It
produces a severe burn and the casualties are usually out of
action from three weeks to three months or even longer. A

154 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

place that is apparently free from gas may become dangerous
from the material volatilized from the soil by the heat of the
sun's rays. It is stated that the British suffered more casualties
from mustard gas the first month after its introduction than
during all the earlier part of the war. Of the casualties in the
manufacture of poison gases, two-thirds were due to mustard
gas. While the later gas program of the Allies included phos-
gene, chloropicrin, lachrymators, diphenylchloroarsine and
certain other gases, the principal attention was given to the
manufacture of high quantities of mustard gas.

Equally important are means of defense. Throughout the
history of Chemical Warfare we see tjie art of defense keeping
pace with the new means of offense. While it was compara-
tively easy to furnish protection against chlorine and phosgene,
the special war gases demanded increased study of absorbents,
such as charcoal, soda lime, and specially activated mixtures.
The first British box respirator is a marvel of achievement, and
will always be a monument to the memory of the late Lieut.
Col. Harrison of the British Anti-Gas Committee. And yet
one can imagine the disagreeable task of wearing this mask
with its tight nose stopper and uncomfortable mouth piece when
charging over the top with fixed bayonet and the determination
to win. And while we may say that the problem of defense
was satisfactorily solved, we forget the discomfort of the man
at the front in so doing. The French early recognized this fact
and developed their Tissot mask. This removed both the nose
clip and the mouth piece and increased the comfort of the mask
many fold and the efficiency of the men at least, 50 per cent.
While the later developments in American practice produced a
Tissot mask that combined a high degree of protection with a
maximum of comfort, the unfortunate fact remains that this
did not help the man at the front in the least. At the signing
of the Armistice he was still wearing the Standard Mask with
all its inconveniences.

Research Method. It is worth while at this point to discuss
the methods used in chemical warfare research. Fundamen-

THE CHEMICAL WARFARE SERVICE 155

tally, of course, the methods used did not differ from those of
the individual sciences. But here there was a combination of
all sciences practically ; the results of one set of tests decided
whether other tests should be made and the combined results
decided whether the " gas " was suitable for military purposes.
The material in question may be one that was already used by
the Germans, it may have been found from a search of the
literature, or it may be the result of analogy or pure inspiration
The substance was prepared by the Offense Section, research
ability being used to secure the cheapest and most efficient
laboratory method. The first test is to determine the toxicity,
if the material is simply a lethal gas, or if a special gas, its
lachrymatory power, blistering power, etc. If this report is
favorable, then real research work begins. Methods of analysis
are worked out, both for the pure material and for air mixtures.
These methods are used in testing the efficiency of the standard
respirator against varying concentrations of the gas in air.
The stability when fired in shell is determined, and, if the mate-
rial is a solid, methods of dispersing it as a cloud or mist. If
the canister does not furnish sufficient protection, changes are
made in the proportion of the present ingredients, or new
mixtures or compounds are tested until satisfactory protection
is afforded by the canister. The results of all the tests so far
are then critically analyzed, and a decision reached as to the
probable suitability of the material as a poison gas. If this
decision is favorable, then more work is undertaken. First of
all it becomes necessary to work out a commercial process of
preparing the substance. Large firing trials are made to deter-
mine whether the boosters are suitable to secure the maximum
effect from each shell. The pharmacological effect of the
material is carefully studied, and the animals that have been
" gassed " are studied by pathologists. These results are then
used to ascertain, if possible, the therapeutic measures to heal
the lesions caused by the " gas." If the results of all these
tests still point to the success of the material, it is then ready
to be launched as a new poison gas.

156 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

SOME OF THE RESULTS

It is possible to pick out only a few of the many scientific
and technical problems which met the chemist when the United
States entered the war and which increased as chemical warfare
became more and more complex, and to show the results
achieved.

Charcoal. The first problem naturally to engage the atten-
tion of the army was that of defense. The Germans were
using poison gas. And whether we used it or not, it was
necessary to protect our men against German gas. This meant
gas masks. And while for comfort and efficiency the face
piece was very important, for protection the canister was the
vital factor. Of the canister, the filler used was really more
important than the shape and size of the tin box and even than
the method of filling. From the experience of the British Gas
Service we knew that charcoal and soda lime were the neces-
sary components oi the filler. We needed to know the general
requirements of gas mask absorbents, methods of manufacture,
methods of filling, methods of testing and how to secure the
maximum efficiency for the greatest number of gases. At the
close of the work we had learned that the following were some
of the necessary properties of a charcoal (not necessarily all).
It should have a very high rate of absorption, or a high degree
of absorptive capacity. A man, when exercising, breathes
about 60 liters of air per minute. This corresponds, when cal-
culated on the basis of the regular army canister, to an average
linear air velocity of about 80 centimeters per second. This is
obviously a very brief interval in which to remove toxic mate-
rials from the air. Furthermore, this absorption must be
surprisingly complete. The total result is that an absorbent
for use in a gas mask must be capable of reducing the concen-
tration of gas from say 1000 parts per million to I part per
million or less within o.i second. Of equal importance L; the
absorptive capacity of the absorbent, and further, that the gases
be held firmly by the absorbent. The material used must be of

THE CHEMICAL WARFARE SERVICE 157

a type which can be relied upon to give protection against prac-
tically any toxic gas. The absorbents must be mechanically
strong in order to retain their structure and porosity under very
rough handling and jolting. They also must not be subject to
abrasion, for the fines would plug up the canister or cause
serious channeling. The materials used as absorbents must
possess a very considerable degree of chemical stability; this
stability is composed of many factors, and places a very serious
limitation upon the materials which can be satisfactorily used.
The result of a very extensive series of investigations, having
as their object a low breathing resistance canister, has shown
that, in general, the use of large cross-sectional area of rela-
tively fine granules gives the best all round results. Then, of
course, such questions as ease of manufacture, and cheapness
and availability of raw materials must be considered.

The only single substance which even approximately fulfills
all the above requirements is charcoal. From a theoretical
study, it has been shown that the essential characteristics of
active charcoal are : it must have high and fine-grained porosity ;
it must consist of amorphous base carbon ; it must be free of
absorbed hydrocarbons. On the basis of these considerations
the preparation of active charcoal resolved itself into two steps :
the formation of a porous, amorphous base carbon at relatively
low temperatures, and the removal of the absorbed hydrocar-
bons from the primary carbon and the increase of its porosity.
The first step involves the destructive distillation of a material
(cocoanut shell was found the most suitable wood) at relatively
low temperatures, in thin layers so that the deposition of in-
active carbon from the cracking of hydrocarbons, would be
avoided. The second step is much more difficult, and was
finally accomplished by oxidation with air, steam or carbon
dioxide steam, all of which were used in the manufacture of
gas mask carbon.

In addition to the use of cocoanut shell (Dorsite), other
sources were developed, such as anthracite coal (Bachite), and
a synthetic product made by carbon manufacturing process

158 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

from lampblack, powdered coal and other suitable materials
(Carbonite).

Soda Lime. Charcoal alone is not a satisfactory all-round
absorbent because it has too little capacity for certain highly
volatile acid gases, such as phosgene and hydrocyanic acid and
also because an oxidizing agent is the best means of handling
certain gases. It has, therefore, been found that the use of an
alkaline oxidizing agent in combination with the charcoal is
advisable. The material actually used was a soda lime con-
taining sodium permanganate. The ratios used were 60 per
cent. 6-14 mesh cocoanut shell charcoal and 40 per cent. 8-14
mesh soda lime permanganate granules. The last mixture sug-
gested, which would have had a distinctly greater all round
efficiency, was composed of 75 per cent, specially impregnated
cocoanut charcoal and 25 per cent, soda lime containing no per-
manganate.

Due to the inherent nature of soda lime, it was a very difficult
and complicated problem to determine the best balance of the
requirements. The activity is not of vital importance except
in the case of phosgene. Capacity is of the greatest importance
since the soda lime is relied upon to hold in chemical combina-
tion a very large amount of toxic gas. The question of
chemical stability and mechanical strength demanded much
serious thought before they were satisfactorily secured.

A typical formula for gas mask soda lime is :

Hydrated lime 45 parts

Cement 14 parts *

Kieselguhr 6 parts

Sodium hydroxide , I part

Water 33 (approx.)

The lime constitutes over 50 per cent, of the finished dry
granule and is responsible in a chemical sense for practically all
of the gas absorption. The cement furnishes a degree of hard-
ness adequate to withstand service conditions. The loss in
porosity due to its use is counterbalanced by the introduction of

THE CHEMICAL WARFARE SERVICE 159

keiselguhr, which seems to increase the degree of hardness.
The sodium hydroxide served to give the granules considerable
more activity and at the same time maintains roughly the proper
moisture content.

The above mixture is dried to about 8 per cent, moisture
and then sprayed with a solution of sodium permanganate.
This acts as the oxidizing agent in the finished granule. Of the
five commercially available permanganates, sodium was the
only one meeting all the requirements. It makes up about 3 per
cent, of the granule, the moisture content of which ranges
about 13 per cent.

The use of large amounts of sodium permanganate neces-
sitated the working out of a method for its manufacture. It
was found that a 30 per cent, solution could be prepared by
the fusion of sodium hydroxide and manganese dioxide, leach-
ing, and chlorination of the sodium manganate in the presence
of a catalyst. Another method developed consisted in the
electrolysis of sodium carbonate solution in a diaphragm cell
with ferro manganese anodes. The current density used is
about 1 20 amperes per square foot and the temperature may
be about 20° C. The anodes gradually accumulate a skin of
oxides of iron, manganese and silicon, which is easily removed
every 24 hours by sand blasting. It is not feasible to run
beyond an 8-12 per cent, solution of sodium permanganate,
which is then concentrated to about 30 per cent. Under war
conditions, the cost was estimated at about 60 cents per pound.

CARBON MONOXIDE ABSORBENT

Another very important phase of work on absorbents was
concerned with carbon monoxide. While not sufficiently toxic
to be used as a poison gas, it is a source of serious danger both
in marine and land warfare. It is encountered as the result
of defective ventilation in boiler rooms of ships, in pill boxes
and in tanks and in mining and sapping work. In times of
peace, the gas is also a serious hazard and it was realized that
the successful solution of the problem of protection against

160 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

carbon monoxide would be of great commercial and industrial
importance. Because of the peculiar physical and chemical
properties of the gas, its removal from the air is very difficult.

Two mixtures were finally discovered which were satisfactory
absorbents. The first of these consisted of fuming sulfuric
acid and iodine pentoxide, with pumice as the carrier (Hoola-
mite). This mixture is active for 2 hours at room temperature
(the gas-air mixture being passed at the rate of 500 cc. per
minute per sq. cm. of cross section) and almost as long at o°.
About 75-8o per cent, of the iodine pentoxide is utilized during
this time. The sulfur trioxide which is given off is removed
by the use of a layer of active charcoal beyond the carbon
monoxide absorbent. But the sulfur dioxide, which is slowly
formed as the result of this absorption, gives serious trouble on
long continued use of the canister. Another disadvantage
arose from the fact that heat was evolved in the reaction of
carbon monoxide and the absorbent. This could be overcome
by the use of a cooling attachment (a metal box filled with
sodium thiosulfate-pentahydrate) though it nearly doubled the
size of the canister. Still another disadvantage of this ab-
sorbent was the fact that it absorbed enough moisture from the
air of average humidity in several hours to destroy its activity.

Incidentally a simple and inexpensive method for the pro-
duction of iodine pentoxide was perfected. It was also shown
that the green color resulting from the action of carbon
monoxide on Hoolamite could be used as a very sensitive detec-
tor for the presence of carbon monoxide in air.

The second and far superior absorbent consists of a mixture
of metallic oxides. This originated from the observation that a
specially precipitated copper oxide activated with I per cent,
silver oxide was an efficient catalyzer for the oxidation of
arsine by the oxygen of the air. This led to the study of other
oxides and mixtures and finally it was found that a three-
component mixture of cobaltic oxide, manganese dioxide and
silver oxide, in the proportion of 20: 34: 46, prepared by the
interaction of silver permanganate with moist hydrated cobaltic

THE CHEMICAL WARFARE SERVICE 161

oxide, and a mixture of equal parts of manganese dioxide and
silver oxide, acted as catalyst in the oxidation of carbon mon-
oxide by the oxygen of the air. Many mixtures of widely dif-
ferent composition showed catalytic activity. Since it was
found that the minimum silver oxide content decreased pro-
gressively as the number of components increased from 2 to 4,
a four-component mixture was finally chosen as the standard
mixture (Hopcalite I). This consisted of 50 per cent, man-
ganese dioxide, 30 per cent, copper oxide, 15 per cent, cobaltic
oxide and 5 per cent, silver oxide. The first three components
were precipitated and washed separately, and the silver oxide
was precipitated in the mixed sludge. After washing, the
sludge was run through a filter press, kneaded in a machine and
the cake dried and ground to size. Each step required careful
control to insure a product at once active, hard, dense and as
resistant as possible to the deleterious action of water vapor.

Because of the catalytic action, a depth of one and a half
inches was found sufficient in the canister (300 gm.) . Since the
normal catalytic activity of Hopcalite requires a dry gas mix-
ture, it was necessary to provide a drier at the inlet side of each
canister. Dry, granular calcium chloride proved a suitable
material for this purpose. Although there is a considerable
heating effect when the carbon monoxide is oxidized and also
in the drying of the gas mixture, the heat capacity of the can-
ister and its contents and the rapid dissipation of heat by
radiation and conduction prevents the effluent air from reaching
higher than 50° during the first fifteen minutes (against a I
per cent, mixture) and from rising higher than 90° even after
several hours. The cooling effect was considerably increased
by the use of sodium thiosulfate pentahydrate.

The canister, as developed, is now being used in the industry
and in mine rescue work.

AMMONIA ABSORBENT

Still another problem concerned itself with an absorbent for
ammonia. Here again the work was a direct outcome of the

162 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

needs of the navy, but this absorbent has already found very
practical use in connection with refrigeration plants. The
previous protection had been obtained by the use of pumice
stone impregnated with sulfuric acid. Such protection had
serious disadvantages. These were largely overcome by the
substitution of certain salts which form metal-ammonia com-
pounds. Of these, cobalt chloride or copper sulfate are by
far the best absorbents for ammonia. The pumice is added to
a solution of copper sulfate and the mixture heated until the
salt crystallizes on the pumice and the crystals are nearly dry.
Moisture that may be given off by the absorbent is removed by
placing a one inch layer of charcoal or preferably silica gel
at the top of the canister. With 45 cu. in. of this material,
protection is afforded for 5 hours against 2 per cent, ammonia
(man breathing at rest) or for 2.5 hours against 5 per cent,
ammonia. For periods over 15 minutes 2 per cent, ammonia is
unbearable, due to skin irritation. The copper sulfate canister
has been named the Kupramite ammonia canister and is being
manufactured by at least two concerns at the present time.

Absorbents, however, were only one, though a very important
phase of the work. The great disadvantage of the British
Standard Box respirator was the fact that the design of the
face piece, consisting as it did of a nose clip and mouth piece
as a " secondary line of defense," decreased seriously the
efficiency of the men. The French early recognized this and
developed their Tissot type of mask for the artillery men.
While the English apparently never saw fit to develop this
further, the Chemical Warfare Service saw its great advantage
and modified it in various ways, producing the Kops-Tissot, the
Akron-Tissot, the Miller-Tissot and the Lakeside-Goodrich
masks. All of these were designed upon the same basic prin-
ciple. The air, passing through the canister, was drawn up into
the mask so that it passed over the eye pieces before being
breathed. In doing away with the mouth piece and nose clip,
it was essential that the rubber face piece should be so rein-
forced that it would not be easily torn. This involved intensive

THE CHEMICAL WARFARE SERVICE 163

research on fabrics and led to a very satisfactory material.
Similarly each piece of the mask led to a search for the most
desirable design and the best material. In passing, the eye piece
may be mentioned. Triplex glass was soon learned to be the
most satisfactory for eye pieces, but the manufacturers almost
despaired of its production, the per cent, of rejects being so
high. Again science proved its worth, for the Service was
able not only to reduce very materially the number of rejected
lenses but was able to speed up production to the point where
the needs of the Gas Defense Service were adequately met.

OTHER DEFENSIVE METHODS

The introduction of mustard gas brought other problems of
defense. The viscous nature of this substance, with its high
persistency and its capacity to produce severe burns even in
low concentrations of vapor, suggested the need of protective
ointments and protective clothing. Much effort was expended,
by the Medical as well as the Chemical Section, to devise an
ointment that might act as a protection to the body. While an
ointment was obtained that appeared to give protection against
relatively high concentrations of the gas over short periods of
exposure, it was learned after continued experimentation that
no protection could be expected under field conditions, namely,
a low concentration and a long period of exposure. Attention
was also directed to the production of various articles of pro-
tective clothing, such as underwear, outer clothing, gloves,
boots, and masks for horses and dogs. Various types were
developed for factory use in the manufacture of poison gases,
and also for the front, though they never were used at the
front.

ORGANIC RESEARCH

The organic chemist found many fields for his endeavors.
The first problem to engage his attention was a survey of the
whole field of organic chemicals, in order that he might have a
clear idea of the possibilities of chemical warfare. This really

164 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

did not lead very far at first, and besides, years of research and
chemical reading had given the German an advantage. The
best results came from individual fields of research. Here,
again, we must acknowledge our debt to our Allies, for all their
experimental results were freely placed at our disposal.

The preparation of chloropicrin and superpalite was first
considered. Chloropicrin was soon placed on a manufacturing
basis, the well-known reaction between bleaching powder and
picric acid being used. The logical method of preparation
should be from an aliphatic compound, but no research revealed
the proper conditions. The English later found that chlorine
gas could be substituted for bleaching powder with a great
economy of chlorine, but the method was never used in Ameri-
can practice.

Superpalite was a favorite poison gas with the Germans and
was extensively used in the first gas shell. American chemists
could never discover any economy in its preparation, and never
used the material. It was found that chlorination of methyl
chloroformate in steps in ultraviolet light gave the substance
in fair yields but with a very great waste of chlorine. After a
great many fairly successful trials the matter was permanently
dropped.

One of the large tasks followed the introduction of mustard
gas ( dichloroethyl sulfide). The British were able to identify
the new shell filling without difficulty, because they had previ-
ously suggested its use. Their analysis indicated that the
material had been prepared by the academic method of Victor
Meyer, through the action of sodium sulfide on ethylene chlor-
hydrin, followed by the action of hydrochloric acid. The
logical method seemed to be the action of ethylene upon
sulfur chloride. Several American chemists tried this reaction,
but were unsuccessful in obtaining mustard gas, because of
their lack of information regarding its chemical properties. It
seemed necessary, therefore, that attention should be concen-
trated on the method as used by the Germans and that very
rapid progress should be made. This method resolved itself

THE CHEMICAL WARFARE SERVICE 165

into at least three separate and distinct problems (a) the pro-
duction of ethylene, (b) the reaction between ethylene, chlorine
and water, to form ethylene chlorhydrin, (c) and the produc-
tion of mustard gas from this compound. The first problem,
ethylene, was successfully solved by the action of kaolin upon
ethyl alcohol at a temperature of 500600°. A distinct develop-
ment was accomplished in the discovery that the reaction could
be controlled more uniformly and a purer ethylene obtained,
if steam was introduced with the alcohol vapor in the ratio of
one to one by weight. The British found that coke saturated
with phosphoric acid also provided a very suitable catalyzer for
the removal of water from alcohol.. The second and third
problems connected with this synthesis were never satisfactorily
solved from the commercial point of view, for in the midst of
this development Pope in England discovered the conditions
under which ethylene could be made to react with sulfur
chloride. Because of the simplicity of this reaction, the Meyer
method was entirely displaced by the sulfur chloride reaction.
The last word was added by the development of the Levenstein
" reactor." The details of these processes were communicated
to American chemists and adapted to American practice. The
success of the method is evidenced by the fact that at the signing
of the Armistice, the Allies were producing many times the
amount of mustard gas that the Germans were capable of pro-
ducing by their method, and also by the fact that the Germans
were rapidly replacing the Meyer method by the Pope method,
details having been captured from some Allied source.

Another intricate field of research was found in the arseni-
cals. The first member of this group was diphenylchloroarsine,
used as a sneezing gas by the Germans. Although this was an
old compound (first prepared in 1885), there was no satisfac-
tory method of preparation on a large scale. It was finally
discovered that it could be prepared by the interaction of
triphenylarsine and arsenic trichloride. The Germans also
introduced a second type of arsenical, ethyl dichloroarsine.
Apparently they used this because there was no suitable method

166 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

of preparing methyl dichloroarsine, which is a more satisfactory
substance. The Chemical Warfare Service was successful in
its efforts to develop methods for preparing both of these
substances.

Methyl dichloroarsine can be made in three stages: Sodium
arsenite is prepared by dissolving arsenic trioxide in caustic
soda solution; the action of dimethyl sulfate at 85° yields
disodium methyl arsenite, Na2CH3AsO3. Upon passing sulfur
dioxide through the solution, methyl arsine oxide results. This
is then converted into the chloride by passing hydrogen chloride
(gas) into the mixture, and the chloride is distilled and con-
densed.

Lachrymators also received a great deal of attention. The
French method for the preparation of brombenzyl cyanide,
which is probably the best lachrymator used on the field (though
more satisfactory ones were developed and would have been
used during 1919 had the war continued) was improved and
placed on a manufacturing basis.

A large number of other compounds were studied, many of
which were discarded as useless while others were developed
to the point where they could have been placed in large scale
production had the need manifested itself.

INORGANIC RESEARCH

Inorganic chemistry does not offer as many interesting prob-
lems nor as spectacular ones as does organic chemistry.
Among the problems successfully solved were the large scale
production of hydrocyanic acid (the method for which was
later used technically for its manufacture as an insecticide),
arsenic trichloride, nitrogen peroxide, arsine and fluorine.
Fluorine may be obtained very satisfactorily by electrolysis of
a fused bath of acid potassium fluoride at 22$-2$o0C. in a
copper containing vessel, using a graphite anode. It is prob-
able that better results could be obtained by the use of a
graphite anode, graphite diaphragm and a graphite containing
vessel, the last serving as a cathode. Various derivatives, such

THE CHEMICAL WARFARE SERVICE 167

as boron trifluoride, were prepared, but no fluorine compound
found any use in chemical warfare.

ANALYTICAL RESEARCH

As a preliminary to the study of the properties of toxic gases
and of the means of defending against them, it is necessary to
be able to detect and determine these gases. An analytical
and testing section was, therefore, one of the first to be estab-
lished and it was always busy in spite of the fact that all the
other sections cooperated in developing methods of analysis
and testing. The details of analytical methods are not specially
thrilling to anybody except a technically trained man, so it will,
perhaps, be sufficient to say that satisfactory methods were
worked out for analyzing every toxic gas with which the
Chemical Warfare Service had to deal. Three typical cases
may be mentioned, however: the testing of canisters, the field
tests for mustard gas, and the special paint for shell.

Canisters are tested on men and on machines. Multiple
machines have been developed which will test eight canisters
simultaneously at continuous flow of the gas-air mixture or at
intermittent flow. The continuous flow machines are the
easiest to construct and were made first. Since the man
breathes through the canister intermittently, the results with
the intermittent flow machines resemble more closely those
encountered when masks are actually worn in gas. The inter-
mittent flow machines are capable of wide variation both as to
volume of air passing through and as to number of oscillations
per minute. They can, therefore, be adjusted to simulate any
type or rate of breathing. Comparison tests on men have
shown that the intermittent machines give results in excellent
agreement with man tests, are easier to run, and are much more
accurate, because they do away with the personal idiosyncrasies
of the men. This does not mean that man tests should be
abolished. They must always be kept to provide for unex-
pected contingencies but they can be reduced to a minimum
with a great saving of time and friction.

1 68 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

In the earlier man tests the men were sent inside a gas
chamber; but afterwards the canisters were connected by tubing
to the gas chamber and the men sat outside the chamber. This
made it possible to run more tests simultaneously and had the
further advantage that the man in charge of the testing could
determine for himself whether any given canister had broken
down or whether the report was due to nervousness on the part
of the subject. All the toxic gases can be detected at concen-
trations which do no harm to the individual. There are two
extremes to be guarded against. The man who is testing the
canister may imagine that gas is coming through when that is
not the case, or he may be so anxious to avoid giving a false
report as to continue the test too long and consequently get
gassed slightly. With the men accessible outside the chamber,
it is a comparatively simple matter to guard against both these
possibilities.

The man test is only run until gas is detected coming through
the canister; but the machine test can be run farther. It is
customary to designate the time at which gas can be detected
coming through the canister as the " breakdown." Up to then
all the gas was removed by the materials in the canister. The
99 per cent., 95 per cent., 90 per cent, points, etc., are the points
at which 99 per cent., 95 per cent., 90 per cent., etc., of the gas
is stopped and I per cent., 5 per cent., 10 per cent., etc., of the
gas in the air comes through.

When testing the variations in absorbents, the absorbent is
filled into a sample tube, of specified diameter, to a depth of
10 cm. by the standard method of filling, and gas passed
through under definite conditions.

Trained observers can detect mustard gas by smell at o.i p.p.m.
(0.0007 m£- Per liter) ; but only for the first minute or two of
exposure. Low concentrations of mustard gas vapors, when
in contact with a dilute solution of selenious acid, produce an
orange-colored colloidal suspension of selenium which gradu-
ally increases to a deep brick-red color in time if the concen-
tration of mustard gas is sufficient. The test is sensitive to

THE CHEMICAL WARFARE SERVICE 169

about i p.p.m. (0.007 mS- Per liter). This method is not
specific because arsine gives a similar precipitate in less time
than does mustard gas, and other compounds such as diphenyl-
chloroarsine and butyl mercaptan give positive results. As
against this, chlorine, hydrogen chloride, phosgene, chloropicrin
and superpalite give a negative test even when present in fairly
high concentrations.

While the copper flame test is not sufficiently sensitive to
permit of direct detection of low but toxic concentrations of
mustard gas, it has been found possible to modify the method
so that one can detect o.i p.p.m. (0.0007 mS- Per liter) or even
o.oi p.p.m. under special conditions. The principle has been
embodied in a portable field apparatus. The method is really
one for halogens and is not specific for mustard gas. Its use-
fulness in the field is questionable.

SMOKE

One of the most interesting scientific studies made was con-
cerned with the theory of smokes. The concentration of the
smoke was determined by precipitation in a modified Cottrell
apparatus consisting of a central wire cathode surrounded by a
cylindrical aluminum foil anode about i/iooo inch in thickness.
A 15,000 volt rectified direct current was used and complete
precipitation was obtained with fairly concentrated samples of
smoke even when drawn through the apparatus at a rate of
about five liters per minute. The aluminum foil and adhering
smoke were then weighed. Microscopic examination showed
whether the smoke particles were liquid or solid. The size
of the particles in a smoke can be determined ultra-micro-
scopically with fair accuracy by measuring the velocity of a
charged particle in an electric field of measured intensity,
photographing the path of the particle while the direction of
the electric field is reversed regularly by a rotating commutator
whose speed is known accurately. When the convection due
to the source of light is perpendicular to this motion, a zigzag
line is obtained. Since about one-third of the smoke particles

1 70 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

are charged electrically, photographs of these oscillations show
simultaneously the behavior of a large number of particles, thus
simplifying the study of size distribution. For the more rapid
study of smokes an instrument called the Tyndall meter was
devised which measured the brightness of the Tyndall beam
set up in the smoke to be examined. For low concentrations
of smoke the brightness of the beam increases with the con-
centration and the degree of dispersity of the smoke material,
so that if either factor remains practically constant the readings
give a measure of the variation of the other.

Using the Tyndall meter, the rate of disappearance of smoke
in a confined space was studied. The smoke gradually dis-
appears, owing to coagulation, to settling and to the diffusion of
the particles to the wall where they stick. The rate of dis-
appearance was markedly increased by stirring the smoke.
This rate increases with concentration of the smoke, owing to
the increased chance for coagulation and removal by the walls.
It is also greater for a finely divided smoke of a given concen-
tration than for a coarser smoke owing to the increased oppor-
tunity for coalescence.

Several forms of smoke producers were developed for the
navy as a protection against submarines. The Navy Smoke
Funnel consists of a large horizontal cylinder approximately
two feet in diameter and 10 feet long with a hand operated
blast fan at one end to drive air through the funnel. The
apparatus is placed on the deck of a vessel and if a submarine
is sighted a dense smoke cloud of tremendous volume is pro-
duced for a period of thirty minutes. The Navy Smoke Box
consists of a metal container 8" in diameter by about 26" in
height, holding 100 Ibs. of the Bureau of Mines Smoke Mixture.
Attached to the cylinder are a float and a starting mechanism.
When ignited and thrown overboard, this smoke box evolves a
dense smoke for 9-12 minutes. An excellent smoke can also
be obtained by spraying sixty per cent, oleum into the smoke
stack of a ship. One drum of oleum (800 Ibs.) will produce
a smoke cloud of very large volume for one hour. The smoke

THE CHEMICAL WARFARE SERVICE 171

funnel and the smoke box are intended primarily for merchant
vessels and the oleum smoke for fighting vessels. The oleum
smoke is also very effective for concealing tanks, the oleum
being sprayed into the exhaust.

For land work the Bureau of Mines smoke candle is more
satisfactory than the smoke funnel or smoke box because the
smoke can be generated simultaneously at a greater number
of points along the front. It is ignited by means of an ordinary
match and emits a white dense smoke of large volume for four
minutes. A smoke knapsack was also devised consisting of
two cylinders which can be carried on a man's back. The
apparatus will give a dense cloud of smoke continuously for
15 minutes and the operator can regulate the production of the
cloud instantly by adjusting the valves on the discharge pipe.
Two men can cover the front of a company.

A Livens smoke projectile consists of a half -capacity 8-inch
Livens drum adapted for combustion smoke by drilling holes
around the top and filling these with fusible metal. The charge
consists of the standard Bureau of Mines smoke mixture.
Each shell will produce a smoke cloud of very large volume for
five minutes.

OTHER PYROTECHNICS

Various other pyrotechnic devices were studied, developed
or improved, mention of which may be made, but details of
which must be lacking.

Gas shells were developed with special lead, glass or enamel
lining, for use with the lachrymators in particular, but also
with other gases. It was necessary to use special precautions
with American filled shell, since they had to stand from three
to six months before being used.

Hand grenades were developed and improved, all types
(H. E., gas, smoke and incendiary) being studied. Special
training grenades were developed, which later offered promise
of field use.

Flaming liquid guns were developed but owing to the gener-

i72 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

ally unsatisfactory nature of this form of warfare they were
never used.

A great deal of work was done on the subject of incendiary
drop bombs, shell, and darts. Of the drop bombs, a final
successful type was a 100 Ib. bomb, containing thermit and solid
oil. Two types of darts were made. One was a non-pene-
trating type, weighing 5.6 oz. The other weighed 3 Ibs., and
had a penetrating head. Large numbers of each type were
intended to be dropped from an airplane at once. The incen-
diary shell contained about 3 ft. of strands of chlorated jute
rope.

Signal lights, flares and rockets were developed to a marked
degree of perfection.

New types of Stokes mortars, Liven's projectiles and other
ordnance material also were subjects of investigation on the
part of the Chemical Warfare Service.

One interesting development had to do with new work on
the French explosive, anilite. As used by the French, this
explosive consists of two materials, kept in separate compart-
ments in a two-compartment bomb. At the instant of fire, the
two materials mix and explode. The mixture was finally made
stable enough so that the two materials could be kept in a one-
compartment bomb.

PERMANENT RESULTS OF THE WORK

In closing, we may quote Colonel G. A. Burrell :
" Out of the war, with its tremendous waste and suffering,
have come many important and permanent things for humanity
at large. This is especially true in this country, where the
resources of the nation were not taxed to exhaustion or any-
where near it. Lessons have been taught in the aeroplane,
transportation, food, and other services that will produce last-
ing and revolutionizing effects. The same is true of the
Chemical Warfare Service. It is inconceivable that this service
with a personnel of thousands of people, and comprising much
of the best talent of the country, should not leave its imprint on

THE CHEMICAL WARFARE SERVICE 173

chemistry in this country. Organic, physical, biological,
analytical chemists, etc., joined forces in one huge cooperative
scheme. As a result, the organic chemist appreciated more
fully the things in physical chemistry, and vice versa, and dis-
covered how well the two branches working closely together
could solve problems which might baffle one branch alone.
Chemists learned more fully the great importance of certain
branches of biological chemistry, and biologists got much from
the other branches of chemistry. All learned the difficulties
in the way of large scale manufacturing, and thought about all
of their results in terms of production. They appreciated more
fully than ever before that usually there exists a long and
tedious path between laboratory test tube experiments and a
successful manufacturing process developed from those test
tube results. More research has been crowded into a short
space of time by one single group than ever before. Chemists
from all parts of the country met for a single purpose, High
class men who had scarcely a speaking acquaintance with each
other before the war became lasting friends, exchanging ideas
on research, education, factory management, etc. Many young
men of extraordinary latent ability have been developed, and
some of the older men have shown their many colleagues that
they were better adapted for and could do a first-class job
along lines somewhat different from their accustomed duties.
All of these things will have an important bearing on chemistry
in this country. It may, indeed, constitute an epoch in the
science.

" The direct fruits of the work are, of course, adapted for
chemical warfare. It is possible that gas warfare may be
outlawed because of its tremendous and fearful possibilities,
so that many of the devices developed for chemical warfare
will never be used in the future. On the other hand, the
thought that went into the development of these devices cannot
be destroyed. Men received an intensive training during the
development by which they will profit. " It is also true that
some of the results have direct and important applications to

174 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

the industries. ^ This is certainly true of gas masks, and the
absorbents in gas masks can be used for a diversity of purposes.
The charcoal especially is an extraordinary absorbent or cata-
lyst for a variety of purposes. Analytical chemistry received
an impetus. It is undoubtedly true that never before was so
much work done in so short a space of time on the refinement of
analytical methods, necessary in order to measure gases in so
great dilution as one part in ten million or twenty million. The
Friedel and Crafts reaction was successfully put in operation
on a larger scale than ever before in this country. For every
offense problem there was a defense one, and the defense prob-
lems worked out for protection of American soldiers will bear
fruit in protecting American workers in industries."

THE ROLE OF

THE EARTH SCIENCES

IN THE WAR

XI

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOGRAPHY
DOUGLAS W. JOHNSON

ONE evening during the war there gathered at the Cercle
Interallie in Paris a group of six or eight British, French,
and American geographers and geologists, to compare notes
and profit by the sharing of experiences. One had just come
to Paris from British General Headquarters to search libraries
and university laboratories for material needed in his work of
supplying to the British armies information about the surface
features of Northern France. Two were engaged as geo-
graphical experts on the French Comite d'fitudes, an organiza-
tion charged with assembling scientific data which would be
needed by the French representatives at the coming Peace Con-
ference. Another was a member of the " Inquiry," a similar
organization created in America by Colonel House at the
direction of the President, and was at that time in Paris on duty
for the " Inquiry " and as foreign representative of the Division
of Geology and Geography of the National Research Council.
Three were members of the Commission de Geographic, a
branch of the Service Geographique of the French Army,
occupied with the task of supplying the fighting forces of
France with detailed geographical information about every
region where those forces might be called upon to operate.
One had assisted in training future officers of the American
Army in geographical methods, and was now at the head of a
war work bureau in France. It is a significant fact that the
hazards of war could throw together in one place such a group
of men, each of whom had been actively engaged in placing

177

i;8 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

earth science at the service of the Allies in order to hasten the
day of victory. And the fact loses none of its significance
when we add that not one of these men was satisfied that full
advantage was being taken of the possibilities of his science
as an aid in war.

It is not the purpose of the present writer to criticize the
shortcomings of our own or any other government in utilizing
earth science in the military program. It is rather my purpose
to regard the brighter side of the shield, and to show by a brief
review of pertinent facts that geography and geology did at
least play an important role in the common task of wresting
victory from the enemy. In accomplishing this purpose I can-
not pretend to describe, nor even mention, all the channels
through which the geographer and geologist made their impor-
tant contributions. I must content myself with a very imper-
fect account of some aspects only of the work done in these two
sciences, aspects which happened to fall under my personal
observation. Fortunately, that of itself is sufficient to demon-
strate the great possibilities of these sciences as military ad-
juncts, should their full strength ever be mobilized in the
country's service. Let me begin at random with a short state-
ment of some of the first efforts of our British colleagues.

Early in the war Dr. H. N. Dickson, Professor of Geography
at University College, Reading, appreciating the importance of
geography in connection with military operations, sought to
establish a geographical bureau in connection with one of the
departments of the British Government. At that time the
War Office was so crowded with work that he turned to the
Admiralty where there was less confusion, and under its aus-
pices established a geographical bureau manned by a staff of
men and women who were for the most part volunteers serving
without pay. At the beginning his staff was housed in the
rooms of the Royal Geographical Society, but it soon increased
to such a size that special quarters were necessary, and these
were secured by utilizing Hertford House in Manchester
Square, an art gallery containing the Wallace Collections. The

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOGRAPHY 179

collections were in large part removed, temporary walls and
doors were erected, and a great staff of workers was soon turn-
ing out large volumes of geographical material for use by the
British Army and Navy. Here the visitor found one gallery
filled with long tables, each table devoted to a particular region
such as Hungary, Belgium, or Serbia, filled with appropriate
books and maps, and presided over by a specialist assigned to
prepare a monograph on that region. A number of assistants,
most of them men and some of them army officers, served under
each specialist. In another gallery a corps of translators,
mostly women, were at work translating and abstracting such
foreign reports as the specialists and their assistants might
desire. Two other rooms were equipped with drawing tables,
and here, perhaps, a dozen or so draughtsmen and cartographers
were busy making maps. One or two rooms were devoted to
the meteorological staff, which assembled data and prepared
maps and charts for this branch of the service. It was an
impressive sight to witness this great body of scientific workers
busy at the task of collecting geographical data for the use of
Britain's fighting forces.

Many of the reports prepared by this geographical staff
were of a highly confidential character; but it is permissible to
state that the documents issued included a series of " Hand-
books " describing the climate, topography, economic resources,
transportation routes, and political geography of the many
regions in which the British soldier might be called to fight in
a world war; more elaborate "Manuals" of certain regions
or problems of special significance, accompanied by Atlases of
detailed maps portraying the topography, geology, rainfall,
economic products, railways and other lines of communications,
distribution of races and languages, and other geographical data
which might be useful in very detailed studies; new maps of
regions for which satisfactory cartographic material had not
previously been published, and special maps and reports to
elucidate a variety of problems for the solution of which differ-
ent departments of the Government asked geographical

i8o THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

assistance; and charts of pressures, winds, and other meteoro-
logical elements for use by the flying forces of both the army
and navy. Much credit is due to Professor Dickson for fore-
seeing, and to his large staff of assistants for supplying, a wide
range of geographic needs of Britain's fighting machine.

But it was not alone in the Admiralty that geographic work
for war purposes was being prosecuted, although we have seen
that Professor Dickson found a better opening there than in
the War Office. The Department of Military Intelligence of
the latter bureau included in its complex organization the
Geographic Section of the General Staff, whose chief was
Colonel W. C. Hedley, and under whose direction were pre-
pared the countless maps upon which the British armies fought
their way to victory. It was this same geographic section which
also prepared many of the maps used at the Peace Conference.
In the various branches of the Department of Military Intelli-
gence professional historians, geographers, and other experts,
commissioned as officers of the General Staff, were busy
throughout the war studying frontier and other geographical
problems; and at the Peace Conference they contributed their
part to the making of the treaties. Among the younger geo-
graphers well known to Americans was Captain A. S. Ogilvie,
who was recalled from the Balkans where he had utilized his
special training in making new maps for the military forces, to
become an active participant at Paris in the geographical work
of delimiting the new frontiers of Europe.

The Royal Geographical Society, always more closely in
touch with its Government than is commonly the case with the
geographical societies of America, set for itself tasks of no
small magnitude. Thus under the direction of its President,
Sir Thomas Holdich, the Society undertook the preparation
of a topographic map of Europe and the Near East on a scale
of I :i,ooo,ooo, a similar map*of Africa on a scale of i 12,000,000
and a map of Asia on a scale of 1 :5,ooo,ooo. These maps were
designed for various uses by the War Office, and for certain
of the peace conference work. For the Foreign Office the

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOGRAPHY 181

Society also issued a series of wall maps showing " Historical
Boundaries in Europe/' using grouped sheets of the 1 : 1,000,000
map as a base, and showing successive boundaries in different
cplors. These boundaries were drawn with great care, on the
basis of extended research, and represented a valuable contribu-
tion to the work of preparing for the peace discussions. These
are not all, but merely important examples of the activities of
the Royal Geographical Society in the service of its country.

If one left London and crossed the Channel to the British
front in France, seeking evidence that the science of geography
was doing its share in war work, he was not disappointed.
From the general headquarters of the British Expeditionary
Force, down through the separate Army Corps and lesser
headquarters, to the most humble artillery observation post,
he found everywhere overwhelming testimony that an army
fights on its maps, just as truly as on its stomach. Maps of
many types, of many scales, in many colors, showing every
variety of information and used for every conceivable purpose,
tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of maps — such was
the contribution of the topographer and cartographer to the
winning of the war. Not least among the serious consequences
of a big German advance was the fact that it pushed the Allied
armies off of areas accurately mapped on large scales, and into
back areas where only smaller scales and less accurate maps
were available. This not only imposed on the engineers and
the geographical sections of the staffs a heavy burden of work
at a critical time, but made less effective artillery fire on the
German back areas, since the enemy also had moved into regions
for which the Allies possessed no accurate large-scale maps.
In many' cases maps carried information of such high value
that it was forbidden to take them into the front-line trenches,
lest an unexpected enemy raid should give them into the pos-
session of the Germans ; and the capture of similar maps from
the Germans was always a happy event.

To supplement the representation of the earth's surface by
maps, and to render more realistic the forms of the hills and

i&2 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

valleys, relief models were employed in large numbers. Field
Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, when asked some question on a
geographical point, drew from a chest a small-scale relief
model of the battle front and with its aid elucidated his answers.
Before some of the most important engagements, a large-scale
relief model of the battle area was constructed, and officers
rehearsed the coming attack while studying this miniature repre-
sentation of every hill, valley, knoll, and ravine which they
would have to cross. No class in the geographical laboratory
ever gathered around geographical models with such breathless
interest as did those British officers who studied in this way
the slopes of Messines and Vimy Ridges ; for to them to know
the detailed geography of those critical areas was literally a
matter of life and death.

Weather prediction became a subject of constantly increasing
importance as the war progressed. Battle plans depended upon
possible weather changes, and a knowledge of the conditions
of the higher layers of the atmosphere was more and more
imperative as the flying forces grew in size and increased the
scope of their activities. When the use of poison gases de-
veloped, wind direction and possible wind changes assumed a
new significance. Weather conditions at sea must be known
in advance to direct properly the marine flying corps and the
operations of the fleets engaged in combatting the submarine
menace. It was not surprising, therefore, to find at the front,
in the flying camps and along the sea coast large numbers of
meteorologists, experts on the physical geography of the air,
placing their special knowledge at the service of army and navy.

Were the French equally alive to the importance of
geography in the war ? Did their admirable army organization
provide place for a staff of geographical experts? Let us visit
Paris first, then the army fronts, to find answers to these ques-
tions.

Leave the Place de la Concorde, cross the Seine, and pass
by the Chamber of Deputies. When you reach the Rue de
Crenelle, turn to your right. A big auto-camion driven by a

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOGRAPHY 183

French soldier is just emerging from the unpretentious archway
of No. 140. You note that the camion is filled with great
bundles of what may be maps, so you enter the archway and
find yourself in an open court, surrounded by a series of low
buildings, some of them mere temporary structures. This is
the headquarters of the Service Geographique de TAnnee. In
a small office at the head of a dark stairway you would have
found all through the anxious months when the decision of
arms hung in the balance, the distinguished figure of the chief
of the service, General Bourgeois. Under his efficient direction
the science of geography was standing behind the blue-coated
man behind the gun.

Had you inquired into the organization of the Service you
would have discovered that it included a section of Geodesy
(in which little or no geodetic work was then being done),
and an affiliated section which directed the highly important
work of determining the precise geographic location of enemy
guns by triangulating, with special instruments, for the position
of their flashes and for the points of origin of the sound of
their explosions. Another section was charged with topo-
graphic surveying along the front, for in the midst of the war
new maps, including one series on the large scale of nearly
6 inches to the mile, were being prepared for portions of the
front. The general impression that no detailed mapping for
military purposes would be necessary in a country so well
mapped as France, is not correct. Although a part of the
front had been mapped on a scale of 1 150,000 before the war,
and contour maps on a scale of 1 120,000 had since been made
for the whole front partly on the basis of new surveys and
partly by enlarging and adapting smaller scale maps of earlier
date, the German advances forced the line back into territory
for which the best topographic data available was that used in
preparing the old i :8o,ooo £tat Major hachure sheets. When
these were enlarged to the i :5o,ooo and 1 120,000 scale, and
printed with a grille for control of artillery fire, it was found
that they were so inaccurate as materially to impair the effec-

184 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

tiveness of artillery operations. It was, therefore, necessary
to make new surveys back of the front, and up to the limit of
observation of the terrain held by the enemy, in order that both
at that time and in case of a future enemy advance the enemy
would be on ground of which the Allies should possess accurate
maps.

The section of Cartography, with its subsections on Draw-
ing, Photography, Engraving, and Printing, handled the gigan-
tic task of publishing the incredible "quantities of maps needed
by every branch of the French and Allied armies; for the
Service Geographique served not merely the needs of its own
armies, but placed its facilities at the disposal of its Allies
whenever this would contribute to the success of the common
end. The magnitude of the cartographic work performed by
the Service Geographique could only be appreciated by one
who saw day after day, great auto-trucks being loaded with
maps to be despatched to the various army headquarters. Map
printing establishments throughout the country were comman-
deered by the army, and it was practically impossible at that
time to get a map printed anywhere in France without an army
order. All of this work was, of course, in addition to the large
number of maps of all kinds prepared and printed by the
different army headquarters at the front.

Maps of foreign countries were purchased or reproduced
under direction of the section of " Cartographic Etrangere."
In addition there was a section to handle the geographic equip-
ment (field glasses, surveying instruments, instruments required
in the artillery service, etc.), a Printing Section, a section to
prepare geographic monographs of countries where the Allied
armies might operate, and a section to construct relief models
of all the battle fronts. Those who have imagined that the
fighting forces of our Allies paid little heed to the geographer
and his science, may well stand amazed at the scope of the
organization of the French Service Geographique.

Across the street from the main headquarters of the Service
was an ordinary French apartment house of the older type,

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOGRAPHY 185

and up its four flights of rickety, winding stairs, was a door
bearing a small cardboard sign, " Commission de Geo-
graphic." The key was usually in the lock, and one might
enter at will, to find two small, bare rooms, containing less
furniture and more brains than one would ordinarily expect to
find in a government bureau. Bending over small tables
heaped high with maps and books were the men who have
made French geography known to the world: Emanuel de
Martonne, son-in-law of Vidal de la Blache and Professor of
Physical Geography at the University of Paris ; Antoine Vacher,
Professor of Geography at the University of Lille ; Lucien Gal-
lois, editor of the Annales de Geographic as well as Professor at
the Sorbonne; Albert Demangeon, also of the Sorbonne where
he has charge of the work in Human Geography. Assisted
by other geographers of note and by some of their students in
uniform, these men constituted the section of the Service
Geographique known as the " Commission de Geographic,"
and labored day and night to prepare for the French Army
a series of confidential geographical reports for all areas where
military operations might become necessary, and for all of the
enemy countries.

The actual work of studying maps and reports, assembling
data, and writing the monograms was performed by the men
whose names have been given; while much of the labor of
compiling statistics, preparing maps, and similar duties fell to
the soldier assistants. The members of the Commission were
guided in their work by general specifications laid down by the
army authorities and of course provided whatever information
these authorities requested. On the other hand, the army
authorities wisely refrained from setting arbitrary limits
and iron-clad standards to which the reports should conform,
but left some discretion to the experts engaged in the actual
assembling and preparation of data.

It would be improper to record all the uses made of the
geographical reports issued by the Commission de Geographic ;
but their practical value was abundantly attested by requests

1 86 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

for additional data and demands for new editions. It needs
no special insight to understand that a complete description of
the railway system of a country might enable an intelligence
officer to interpret isolated reports from spies in that country
regarding troop trains observed by them at different points, and
thus to construct an accurate picture of enemy troop move-
ments then taking place. The value to airplane bombing
squadrons of geographic descriptions of the vital economic
points in enemy territory, is manifest. The reader may him-
self imagine many other advantages which a full geo-
graphic knowledge of enemy territory would give to army
commanders.

But the preparation of geographic monographs by no means
measures the full service which the Commission de Geographic
rendered during the war. High officers of the army appealed
to it for geographical information on a variety of problems.
Prior to the Aisne offensive they asked the Commission for
detailed data regarding the character of the river and its val-
ley floor, the nature of the soil, number of bridges, possible
locations for new bridges and the nature of the river banks
at such localities. They also required a special report on the
quarries occupied by the Germans, their depth, best ways of
entering them, and particularly which ones of the underground
quarries were provided with a surface covering of a thickness
and quality which would enable heavy artillery to crush in
the roofs by bombardment. On another occasion they asked
for a report on the Roumanian and Russian fronts as regards
conditions of marshes, rivers, soil, and roads, in the spring of
the year, in order that the high command might determine the
advisability of a great spring offensive. In these and many
other ways the Commission de Geographic of the Service Geo-
graphique contributed valuable aid to the prosecution of the
war.

If it be true that an army fights on its maps, it is also true
that during the latter part of the war the Allies fought on
geographic models. The section of the Service Geographique

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOGRAPHY 187

charged with the task of supplying the armies with large-scale
relief models of the whole front was in itself an impressive
organization. A visitor whose credentials admitted him to
the upper floor of the Invalides found that a portion of the gal-
leries had been transformed into a great laboratory where
highly skilled men and women were busily engaged in making
plaster reliefs with a speed and with a degree of precision never
dreamed of by the ordinary maker of geographic models.
Speed was essential, for military operations of the highest im-
portance might be awaiting the completion of the models in
order that every detail of the battle area could be studied on
a miniature reproduction of the original surface. Accuracy
was no less essential, for the slopes of the land as shown on the
models were often used to determine the trajectories of gun-
fire, and hence the kind of artillery necessary to reach certain
concealed areas behind hills or mountains; and also to deter-
mine quickly and accurately what areas of enemy territory were
invisible from any observation post within the Allied lines, and
where accordingly the Germans most probably would have
depots of importance. The skill developed by the staff of
women trained to superimpose on the completed model a tissue
paper map of the same scale showing every detail of military
value, and to stretch and warp this paper till it adhered to the
hills and valleys of the plaster relief without displacing stream
lines from the valley bottoms or hill crests from the high points
of the model, was most amazing. So perfect was the machin-
ery of this organization and so skilled were its employees,
that if an army commander telegraphed one morning that he
required a relief model of part of his battle front based on
a map covering, let us say, 30 to 40 square miles on a scale of
3 inches to the mile, the completed model could be shipped
to him the evening of the next day, and forty or more addi-
tional copies by the following evening. If the terrain was un-
usually rough an additional day would be required for the first
model. Those accustomed to regard the construction of such
models as a matter of weeks, will fully appreciate what this

i88 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

high development of the art of model making must have meant
to the Allied armies.

One who watched the large number of models under con-
struction at the Invalides, or saw them piled high in' their
corrugated pasteboard box containers in the store rooms, or
observed the many camions loaded with the large wooden cases
in which they were shipped to the front, gained an impressive
idea of the magnitude of this geographic contribution to the
war. The impression was greatly heightened when he learned
that the Invalides contained only one of the several establish-
ments in Paris devoted to this important work, and that at
various headquarters along the front were still other labora-
tories busy at the task of making relief models.

While Paris was indeed the center of the geographic work
of the French Armies, the visitor to army headquarters at the
front also received a vivid conception of the role played by
certain phases of geography in the military operations. It was,
for example, a surprise to note the excellence of the equipment
for drawing, engraving, and printing maps which one found
only a few miles back of the fighting zone; and a matter of
the greatest interest to observe the methods by which airplane
observations and photographs, reports of scouts and raiding
parties, data captured from prisoners and secured by spies,
were systematically being incorporated in new maps of con-
stantly increasing accuracy and detail. It was a surprise, too,
to see the size and equipment of the relief model laboratories
at certain headquarters, and to learn the practical military uses
to which these representations of the earth's surface were put.
And it Was during the terrific artillery duel which accompanied
the second battle of the Marne that a French major explained
to me a new geographical instrument he was perfecting to
improve the method of making contour maps of enemy terri-
tory from airplane observations. In the study of air currents
and in weather forecasting the French meteorological service
was likewise active along the entire battle front.

The French officer devotes a part of his training period to

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOGRAPHY 189

the study of military geography, and while the subject does
not appear to be adequately treated, I found among French
officers in general a lively respect for geographical science and
for its value as a military weapon. General de Castelnau,
whose genius saved eastern France at a critical moment in
the early days of the war, manifested a profound knowledge of
the topographic details of the cuestas and lowlands of the
Nancy region when he explained with the aid of maps how he
reversed the traditional theory of French military writers that
Nancy could not effectively be defended, and demonstrated
that the peculiar topography of that area made it possible for
an inferior number of French troops to defeat the attacks of
superior enemy forces. General Hirshauer, with the relief
models of the Verdun district before him, gave me a clear and
accurate account of the river captures in the Meuse basin
which caused the peculiar features of the valley in which the
fortress city is located. General Le Rond, of General Foch's
staff, was selected as the French expert on military and fron-
tier geography at the Peace Conference.

It is not necessary to trace in detail the uses made of
geography in all the Allied armies. In Italy the map-making
equipment was of a high order, and both in the Military
Geographical Institute at Florence, under the direction of Gen-
eral Gliamas, and at the General Army Headquarters near
Padua, beautiful cartographic work on a great scale was car-
ried on. The Italian photographic section far excelled the
best work of the other Allied armies in the scope and excel-
lence of its product. Italian soldiers were sent to the Paris
laboratories to learn of the French their methods of making
relief models, and later constructed a complete series of large-
scale models for all northern Italy and the east Adriatic Coast.
Colonel de Ambrosis of the Italian General Staff, a professor
in the Military Geographical Institute at Florence where he
had, before the war, begun the publication of reports on the
physiographic provinces of Italy especially adapted to the
needs of army officers, accompanied me along the Italian front

190 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

and discussed at length the geographical problems confronting
Italy's armies, and the geographical problems which would con-
front her statesmen when the time should come to delimit Italy's
new frontiers. As an instructor of army officers Colonel De
Ambrosis gives courses on geology and geography, and re-
quires field excursions in order to insure a practical under-
standing of the value of these subjects to the military man.

On the Balkan front, where facilities were certainly very
inferior as compared with those to be found in England,
France, and Italy, one nevertheless found that map-making
establishments, relief model laboratories, and other geograph-
ical equipment were among the things considered indispensable.
The lack of good maps for the Balkans imposed upon the en-
gineers, geographers and cartographers an unusually heavy
burden, particularly as the enemy's territory had to be mapped
in large part by means of airplane observations.

The fact that America entered the war very late, and de-
pended upon her allies, particularly France, for much of her
needed geographical material, makes impossible any compari-
son between geographical work in the American and Allied
armies. We may, however, note some of the ways in which
geographical science contributed to America's share in the war.
Our leading geographer, William Morris Davis, prepared for
the use of our army officers, with the approval of the Geography
Committee of the National Research Council, a " Handbook
of Northern France " which had a wide distribution, and later
undertook a similar work on Western Germany. The Division
of Geology and Geography of the Council issued for army use
a special edition of that part of the present writer's
11 Topography and Strategy in the War " which dealt with
the western front.

To assist in the work of the Student Army Training Corps,
the Division of Geology and Geography prepared and issued
under the editorship of Herbert E. Gregory, a " Textbook on
Military Geology and Topography," an " Introductory Meteor-
ology," and a " Syllabus on the Geography of Europe." The

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOGRAPHY 191

Division was also instrumental in stimulating the preparation
and publication of several pamphlets describing the physical
features of the environment of some of the army training
camps. These reports, generally issued by the State Geological
Survey, emphasized the topographic features of military sig-
nificance, the physiography and its influence on the economic
development of the region described.

The Division was also active in collecting important in-
formation on a variety of subjects of military importance
which it supplied to the interested Government Departments.
Most of the information was of a geological nature, but in its
treatment it was somewhat geographical.

American geographers were called upon to serve the Gov-
ernment in the War Trade Board and other organizations, and
a number were commissioned as officers in the army, some for
service at Washington and others for service abroad. Two
were assigned by the War Department to make detailed geo-
graphical studies along the western and Italian fronts, and one
of these was also sent to the Balkans on a similar mission.
American meteorologists were commissioned as officers and
sent to France to contribute their aid to our military opera-
tions. The " Inquiry " organized during the war under the
direction of Colonel House, and directed by the President to
make preparations for the coming Peace Conference, had its
headquarters in the building of the American Geographical
Society at New York, employed the map collections and map
making facilities of the Society in its work, had the Director
of the Society, Dr. Bowman, as its executive secretary, and
enrolled other geographers on its staff of experts. The first
troops to leave for Europe took with them collections of de-
tailed maps provided by this same Society. These are but
examples of the many ways in which geography came to the
aid of the American Government in solving problems arising
from the war.

As an aid in preparing for some of the problems of the
Peace Conference the ** Inquiry " undertook the preparation of

192 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

large block diagrams of certain territories which it was ex-
pected would be the subject of negotiation at the close of
hostilities. These block diagrams are with little doubt the
most detailed and exact ever prepared for any purpose. They
cover the region of northeastern France including Alsace-Lor-
raine, the Trentino, the Isonzo-Istria area involved in the
Adriatic dispute, Albania, and a large part of the Balkan
peninsula. Copies were distributed to commanders in our own
and the Allied armies, and served a useful purpose in enabling
officers to get a clear mental picture of the salient features of
the terrain on which they were operating. Inspired by these
diagrams, Dr. Kirk Bryan, a geologist serving in the American
Expeditionary Force, prepared a more detailed block diagram
of the Argonne Forest region, which was distributed to of-
ficers with an annexed explanatory description, as part of one
of the orders issued during the Argonne campaign. Thus the
geographical diagrams designed especially to elucidate prob-
lems of the peace were found to have a practical value in
prosecuting the war.

The Peace Conference was one of the necessary conse-
quences of the war; and no account of the role of geography
in the world conflict would be complete which did not place
upon record the immense service rendered by geography in
the task of remaking the map of the world. Every delega-
tion to the conference included geographical experts, and
there gathered about the green table in different commissions
and sub-commissions De Martonne of France, Ogilvie of Eng-
land, Cvijic of Serbia, Romer of Poland, Bowman, Jefferson
and Johnson of America, and others from other countries. On
certain of the International Territorial Commissions constituted
by the Great Powers to draw the new frontiers of Europe, the
Secretary of State named American geographers to represent
the United States and to sit with diplomats of the stamp of
Tardieu, Jules Cambon, and Sir Eyre Crowe. President Wil-
son and the Commissioners frequently asked and acted upon
geographical advice in regard to the more difficult territorial

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOGRAPHY 193

problems of the peace settlement; and during certain periods
when these problems were actively under discussion, one of the
geographers would have daily morning conferences with the
Commissioners to discuss matters which would be debated in
the Supreme Council in the afternoon. At meetings of the
Supreme Council, of the Council of Ministers, and of those
Territorial commissions which did not already contain an
American geographer on their membership, one of our geo-
graphers was usually present as consulting expert when ter-
ritorial questions were on the agenda.

The American delegation included in its organization a
Division of Geography charged with the highly important
task of supplying to the President and Commissioners not
only copies of published maps of every variety needed in their
deliberations, but in addition a never-ending series of new maps
to illustrate special problems and the recommendations of the
staff of experts ; and a Division of Boundary Geography which
scrutinized proposed new frontiers to determine whether they
were in harmony with the geographical conditions in the regions
affected, and to suggest such changes as topographic features,
economic relations, trade routes, lines of communication, and
other geographic elements might render advisable. Before a
boundary delimitation was written into a Treaty, its every
detail was passed upon by a geographical sub-commission.
There is therefore some reason for hoping that the execution
of the new treaties will not be hampered by the discovery of
such geographical blunders as diplomats have frequently per-
petrated in past peace conferences.

The map-making establishments set up at Paris by certain of
the delegations bore witness to the importance attributed to
the cartographic work of the Conference. The facilities of
the Service Geographique were already at hand. In one end
of the Bois de Boulogne the British erected at great expense a
first-class establishment for the drafting and engraving of
maps of various types, and among other things handled part
of the work of printing the large-scale and small-scale maps

194 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

showing detailed locations of tentative boundaries which
formed the basis of discussion in the Supreme Council. Less
pretentious but very effective was the equipment for repro-
ducing by photostat and other processes the large quantity of
special maps demanded by the American delegation. In like
manner other delegations had the cartographic equipment best
adapted to their special needs. Any style of map needed at
the conference could be produced on short notice, if not by
one delegation, then by another. In order that the American
delegation might have at its disposal the latest geographical
material produced in neutral and enemy countries, Major Law-
rence Martin was sent on a special mission to various parts of
central Europe, and through his efforts new maps were con-
stantly being added to the collections in the Hotel Crillon.

The importance of relief models in military operations has
already been emphasized. Believing that such models would
prove of inestimable value in the peace negotiations, the pres-
ent writer submitted, before the close of the war, a project for
the manufacture of large-scale relief models of every territory
likely to be in dispute at the Conference. Details of the plan
were worked out in collaboration with the French geographer,
De Martonne, and submitted to General Bourgeois of the Serv-
ice Geographique, who gave his hearty approval and support.
The French Government adopted the project, and work began
at once with American and Italian cooperation. Before the
tremendous task could be completed hostilities ceased, but the
work continued during the sessions of the Conference. Full
series were in time available for the west bank of the Rhine,
the Saar Basin, the Belgian frontier, the northern Italian
frontier region, the Julian Alps and Istria, and the east Adriatic
coast ; and large areas of Albania, Bohemia, and certain other
districts were completed in time to be of real service. In the
large rooms set apart for maps and models at the Hotel Cril-
lon the American Commissioners studied frontier questions on
facsimile reproductions of the real topography of disputed ter-
ritories. Groups of the models were occasionally transferred

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOGRAPHY 195

to the Quai d'Orsay when a difficult question needed elucidation
in commission. Two sets covering critical points in the Adri-
atic controversy were set up in the study of the President's
mansion in Paris, in order that he might make constant use of
them in his negotiations over that thorny question. In these
and other ways the geographic models served the statesmen of
the world on many occasions.

These pages make no pretense at cataloguing all the uses of
geography in the peace negotiations; rather they aim merely
to give the reader some conception of the scope and variety
of that usefulness. Certainly no other peace conference in
the world's history ever witnessed such an effort on the part
of the negotiators to make their territorial decisions geo-
graphically sound. And while political considerations some-
times overthrew both science and common sense, when the true
inside story of the conference is written it will be found that
the territorial experts had much to say about the location
of Europe's new boundaries; and that in making peace, as
in making war, the science of geography played a most im-
portant role.

N

XII

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOLOGY
DOUGLAS W. JOHNSON

TT was at dinner at the mess of General X. During a
•*• pause in the lively conversation carried on by the members
of his staff, I casually asked the General himself a question
which I had propounded many times before under similar
circumstances :

" Have you found any practical use for geological informa-
tion or assistance in the course of your operations?"

On previous occasions the answers had varied from an em-
phatic " yes," with concrete illustrations of the practical uses
made of the science in solving military problems, to an equally
emphatic " no," with reasons why geology could not be useful
in warfare. One general naively explained that trenches and
dugouts reached but a moderate depth below the surface, and
that as geology only dealt with deep-seated rocks it could of
course not come into play in military operations.

This evening my host replied by telling the following story :

" We had to establish a big aviation camp at Y, and I sent
an officer who is a trained geologist to report on the matter of
water supply. After a careful examination he reported that
for the number of men to be assigned to that camp, so many
wells must be dug to assure adequate quantities of water
throughout the entire year. This report was sent to the com-
manding officer of the camp for his information and appro-
priate action. It soon came back with the endorsement:
' What is the use of digging wells in a country which is al-
ready saturated with water ? '

196

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOLOGY 197

" The report was filed away. Summer came, the surface
water disappeared, springs gradually diminished in volume,
and the small number of previously existing wells could not
begin to supply the demands made upon them. Then we got
a distress call from the commanding officer : * For Heaven's
sake come dig us some wells. We have no water.' Now my
geological officer got his revenge. He sent a reply which read
something like this:

" ' Referring to your request of even date that some wells
be sunk in your camp, your attention is respectfully called to

my report of February , specifying the number of wells

you would need, and to your endorsement of said report to the
effect that there was no use in digging wells in a country al-
ready saturated with water. I regret to report that all our
drilling parties are at present engaged on pressing work duly
authorized; but as soon as a party is free, it will be sent im-
mediately to your assistance.'

" Since that day," concluded the General, " no one in this
army thinks of doing anything in a new region without first
consulting our geologist."

Not in all armies did the geologist enjoy such high confi-
dence. A survey of the army fronts, even in the last days of
the war, would have shown that in some localities and in some
problems geological science was actively contributing to the
prosecution of military operations; while in others the geolo-
gist was conspicuous by his absence, and the most heard about
him was a number of complaints from engineers and officers
that their work was seriously hampered because of the lack of
geological information and assistance. Nevertheless, the sum
total of the contributions made by geology toward winning the
war is a creditable record, and the reader may be interested
in some examples of the many ways in which a knowledge of
the earth's crust was made to increase the effectiveness of the
military campaigns.

In England one naturally turned first to the headquarters
of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, in London, to learn

198 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

whether the Government's official geologists had been called
upon to contribute their special knowledge to the solution of
military problems. Inquiry developed the fact that a great
range of geological questions had been submitted by the mili-
tary authorities, and that the members of the Survey, both in
the office and at the front, were busy finding the necessary
answers. When German " pill-boxes " were captured, the
Survey was asked to determine the source of the gravel used
in the concrete with which they were constructed, for thereon
hung an important question as to how effectively a certain
country was preserving its neutrality. The geologist was able
to identify, in the concrete, material which could have come
only from the Rhine Valley by canals across neutral territory,
and thus to refute the contention that the gravel was of Belgium
origin. In the same way the geologist was asked to discover
the origin of certain cements used by the Germans. When
between 3000 and 4000 soldiers had been rendered unfit for
service by septic sores which developed on the arms of men
tunneling through a particular geological formation, the Survey
geologists were called upon to ascertain the cause; and they
found that clay in the formation acted like Fuller's earth in
removing the natural oils from the skin, with the result that
the skin dried and cracked abnormally, rendering infection
easy in the unclean life of the trenches. The low plain of
Flanders is lacking in material suitable for road-making, so
the military authorities turned to the Survey for information
as to the nearest supplies of stone which, when crushed, would
make good road metal. To detect and forestall German tun-
neling operations, some one conceived the idea of using seis-
mographs to locate the origin of distant underground blast-
ing, and the testing of this idea was turned over to the Survey
authorities as the ones most familiar with the use of earth-
quake recording instruments.

The medical deportment of the army required information
as to the geological formations likely to yield good water sup-
ply in large quantities, not only in France and Belgium, but

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOLOGY 199

also in half a hundred or more places in Great Britain where
large bodies of men were quartered in training camps and hos-
pitals. The army engineers wanted to know the value of
certain sands for use in concrete, why particular formations
squeezed out into the trenches and dugouts, about the use of
sandscreens in wells, what was the permanent level of under-
ground water in many localities, and a long list of additional
things equally varied. War trade organizations wanted in-
formation on mineral resources in many parts of the world.
The navy desired 'help in testing various minerals needed for
the manufacture of instruments used in important submarine
devices, in locating coal supplies in distant ports of the world,
and in finding suitable water supplies for a large number of
naval stations. The ministry of munitions asked about caves
for storing high explosives, and the sources and quality of
minerals used in the manufacture of such explosives. Even
the air service had its geological problems to bring to the
Survey officials. All these needs, and many more which lack
of space forbids us to mention, were met by the trained staff
of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. If this were the
whole story, surely few would deny that this scientific branch
of the British Government had amply justified its existence
when the test of war came.

But it is not the whole story. Some members of the staff
were missing for a time, and inquiry would have elicited the
information that three of them were in the Gallipoli penin-
sula developing a water supply for the forces engaged in that
ill-fated campaign; while others were here or there on other
geological missions. At the front you might have found Bel-
gian, British and French army officials eagerly consulting one
of the only two known available copies of a detailed geological
map of Belgium showing geological cross-sections and well
records of most vital importance, both copies having been sup-
plied from the files of the British Survey. On asking about
the other copy, you would have learned that the Survey staff
was busy preparing from it as a base, a new issue for distribu-

200 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

tion among the many headquarters where it was urgently
needed. And had you seen the great mine explosions at Mes-
sines Ridge, the greatest of the entire war, and had asked where
the vast tunneling operations were, planned which made pos-
sible that remarkable series of nineteen volcanic eruptions, the
reply would have been, " In the offices of the Geological Sur-
vey in Jermyn Street, London." From every part of Britain's
far-flung battle front were threads running back to converge at
the offices of the Geological Survey.

The most effective use of geology in warfare requires that
a competent geological staff shall be located in the active theater
of military operations, where it can quickly examine and con-
stantly supervise every geological problem which may arise.
Our British friends were alive to this truth, and established
at their General Headquarters in France a geologic corps, at-
tached for convenience to the section of the Chief Engineers.
The Chief Geologist was Lt. Col. T. Edgeworth David, the
distinguished Australian scientist who accompanied Shackle-
ton on one of the Antarctic expeditions; and associated with
him were Captain W. B. R. King of the British Geological
Survey, and several other assistants. Their office formed part
of the Headquarters establishment, but their active labors ex-
tended the full length of the British front in France and Bel-
gium.

It would not be possible, even were it desirable, to present
in a single short chapter any adequate account of the variety
of geological services rendered by Col. David and his co-work-
ers. Suffice it then to mention the principal divisions into
which those services may conveniently be grouped, and to give
some examples under each. Let us turn first to the all-impor-
tant matter of locating underground mines, tunnels, and dug-
outs. It was fortunate that the British General Staff in-
cluded generals who held the opinion that geological study was
absolutely essential to the proper location of these under-
ground workings, and who were frank enough to express
their regret that geologists had not been employed from the

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOLOGY 201

moment the opposing forces began " digging in." At least two
such generals were among Col. David's superiors at Head-
quarters, and the success he was able to achieve in the practical
application of engineering geology to military projects was
no doubt partly due to the breadth of vision of men of this
stamp. One of these generals admitted that in the beginning
army officials were as a rule very skeptical as to the practical
importance of Col. David's geological theories. But, he added,
after several bad blunders due to refusal to take geological
advice, and several striking demonstrations of Col. David's
ability to predict accurately the conditions which would be en-
countered in depth by underground workings, they were so
far convinced that before the end of the war no responsible
officer in the British Army would consider the planning of such
works without first securing the opinion of a geological ex-
pert.

The non-geological reader will have no difficulty in under-
standing the importance of geological aid in selecting locations
for excavating mines, tunnels and dugouts, if he will remem-
ber that some rocks are porous and permit the ready passage
of water, whereas others are more or less impervious. Now
it happens that along part of the front one rock formation,
through which comparatively little water circulated, had
both above and below it layers carrying great quantities of
water. If the army engineers kept their tunnels or other
excavations well within the non-saturated bed, all went well.
But as soon as they got too high or too low, water burst through
from the adjacent formations and flooded their works. Only
a geologist familiar with every detail of each formation could
guide the underground work so that it would be sure not to
end in disaster. At Messines Ridge, where precisely these
rock conditions existed, very careful geological examinations
were made on the ground, in addition to work done at the
Geological Survey office in London. Thus the most exten-
sive military mining operations in all history were undertaken
on the basis of geological study. That they were successful

202 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

despite the dangers from waters both above and below, is suf-
ficient evidence of the excellent work done by Col. David and
his staff.

Practically all rocks below a certain variable level known
as " the groundwater level," contain water so that tunnels,
dugouts or other excavations which go below that level will
be flooded. Hence it is necessary to know the distance from
the surface of the earth down to groundwater level all along a
battle front, and an important part of the work of the British
geologists was to prepare detailed maps showing just how deep
at any given place excavations could safely be carried, or how
deep wells would have to be driven to get plenty of water. In
the rainy season the groundwater level begins to rise, and as
the change takes place slowly there is a " lag," or the rising
continues for a time after the rains have ceased. An engineer
who drove a tunnel just above the groundwater level at the
end of the rainy season might well suppose that he was quite
safe, and yet have the tunnel flooded by a further rise of the
groundwater. Precisely this happened to a number of Ger-
man tunnels. Thanks to the skilful work of Col. David the
British were saved this misfortune ; for Col. David determined
not merely the groundwater level for a given time, but the
variations of the groundwater level as well ; and constructed
curves showing just how high the level would be at every time
of the year. He then directed the army engineers how to
locate their excavations so that they would never be flooded;
and British efficiency once more scored against the much
vaunted German efficiency.

But it was not merely in locating excavations that the Brit-
ish geologists served their armies. They told the engineers
in advance what kind of rocks they would have to pass through
underground, and hence what kinds of tools and how much
timbering they would require. They kept a number of drill-
ing parties constantly busy making test borings to determine
with precision the exact thickness of every rock formation at
those places where the engineers planned underground work

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOLOGY 203

of any kind. They gave to the water supply officer of each
army the geological advice he was required to seek before put-
ting down any well, and told him where, how deep, and in
how great quantities he could expect to find good water. They
provided these same officers with various water-supply maps
and with geological cross-sections showing the conditions un-
der which underground water occurred at all points along the
front. They told where older rocks suitable for road metal
protruded through the later covering deposits, and where the
best rocks for concrete, cement and other purposes would be
found. And since it was important to know what sources of
valuable rocks and minerals the enemy had at his command, the
geologist's knowledge of the rock formations and the mineral
deposits of enemy countries was placed at the service of the
army to provide this information.

Artillery fire produces very different effects on different
types of soil and rock. One type of shell may produce the
greater damage in a clay formation, another in a loamy soil,
still another in limestone or chalk. The geologist was able to
tell the artillery officer what kind of formation his fire was
directed against, and thus to aid his judgment as to the type
of fire he should employ. When a big attack is planned, it is
vitally important to know just what surface conditions the
troops advancing into the enemy's area will find, as plans for
the advance will vary according to the kind of obstacles to be
encountered. It is evident that the heavy barrage fire preced-
ing such an attack must profoundly alter the surface of the
country to be passed over, and that the nature of the alteration
will depend upon the kind of soil or rock beneath the surface.
The shell craters may be large and deep in some formations,
shallow but broad in others, in still others imperfectly devel-
oped. In one formation water will accumulate in the shell
craters if it rains, but not otherwise ; in another water will in
any case be admitted because the bottoms of the craters pene-
trate a water-bearing bed; in yet another no water will stand
in the craters no matter what the weather may be. It should

204 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

therefore be evident that maps showing the kinds of surface
troops will have to cross following heavy barrage fire must
be of great value to an army commander. The British geolo-
gists prepared maps of this kind for much of Belgium and
northern France.

Tanks can advance over certain kinds of soil, but their great
weight causes them to sink deep and become mired in others.
So it became important to know in advance what were the soil
conditions behind the enemy's lines. " Tank maps " were
therefore produced by the geologist, showing where tanks could,
and where they could not go.

Before retreating an enemy aims to destroy all the wells
and springs in the country, in order that the pursuer may be
as seriously handicapped as possible. For this reason the
army commanders depended upon the geologists to prepare
maps showing underground water supplies of enemy territory
into which it was proposed to advance. These could be based
in part upon published data available in the geological libraries
of Allied countries, and in part upon long experience with
water-bearing beds within the Allied lines which were known to
extend under enemy territory. It was found possible from
published maps of enemy areas to construct geological cross-
sections of the country behind his lines, locate on these sections
the water-bearing horizons, and then by making allowance for
the surface topography, to prepare in advance maps which
indicated with reasonable accuracy just how deep the advanc-
ing armies must sink wells in any given locality in order to get
the fresh water supplies they would require.

Enough has been said to give the reader some impression of
the wide range of service performed by the geologists attached
to the British Expeditionary Force in France and Belgium.
I think it is fair to say that in no other Allied army was
geological science so largely and so successfully employed.
If we turn to the record of the French Army, it does not ap-
pear that the services of their geologists were utilized to any
great extent, although a limited amount of geological work

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOLOGY 205

was done along the French front. One series of maps con-
taining " General Information " carried overprints in colors
showing areas of resistant rock, sand soil, regions marshy in
wet seasons, regions permanently marshy, and other similar
data as to surface conditions. But these maps were imperfect,
and were not highly regarded by French geologists.

At certain of the French Army Headquarters in the field
there were prepared and published real geological maps espe-
cially adapted to the needs of the army. Some of these maps
were made by trained geologists who happened to be in some
military service at the front, and secured appointment to do
a little geological work. Such maps were of course well made.
Others were prepared by men with little or no geological train-
ing, and quite naturally were full of errors. Those of the bet-
ter grade, for example one of the region about Rheims, were
well printed in a variety of colors, and were based on the' stand-
ard geologic map of France. The descriptions of the forma-
tions were in terms of military importance, and the color
scheme was altered so as best to portray data of this type in the
special locality concerned. Whether the soil was thin and
the rock resistant, or the soil deep and the rock decomposed;
whether the terrain was sandy, clayey, or marshy; whether it
was or was not adapted to trenches, dugouts, and other ex-
cavations; and whether such structures would remain long in
good condition or require constant repairs, were among the
items emphasized. Two separate columns were employed to
give the special characteristics of each formation, the one in
wet seasons, the other in dry seasons. A series of such maps
for the whole front would have been of inestimable value to
the French armies.

Excellent use was indeed made of the standard French
geologic sheets by some of the engineering officers, who kept files
of these sheets at the front for constant reference. One of
these officers explained in detail how helpful the maps had been
in guiding him to horizons best adapted for tunneling, and
other underground works, and to formations valuable for road

206 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

metal and materials for concrete. Although he had no special
geologic knowledge himself, he fully appreciated the impor-
tance of the maps. At the same time he added that the serv-
ices of a geologist would have been most valuable to him.
The maps available were very generalized, the locations of
contacts were not sufficiently accurate for his needs, and the
formations were not sufficiently subdivided. He needed for
the sector covered by his defense engineering works a larger
scale geologic map which would show accurately the distribu-
tion of each formation important from the engineering stand-
point. Because of the lack of such a map he had been com-
pelled to do a large amount of exploratory work, uncovering
outcrops and studying the formations himself until he was
sure he had located the proper horizon for a given purpose.
All this had cost valuable time, and he felt that it was un-
fortunate to have French geologists mobilized for routine mili-
tary occupations when their special abilities might have been
utilized to save time and energy in important military under-
takings.

Many concrete examples could be cited of the unfortunate
consequences resulting from failure to seek geological ad-
vice. For sake of illustration I select one from the region of
Verdun. At the Cote du Poivre a position was being organ-
ized on the back slope of the ridge. The officer in command
ordered the construction of dugouts for protection from ar-
tillery fire at certain points, basing the selection of these points
purely on tactical grounds and without regard to the geological
structure of the district. After much loss of valuable time it
was found quite impossible to make dugouts suitable for hu-
man occupation in the places selected, because of the great
volumes of water encountered. The points chosen were lo-
cated on a water-bearing horizon. Only 150 yards distant,
and in positions equally good from the tactical point of view,
the dugouts could have been excavated in a dry, impervious
formation. Ignorance of the very simple geological structure
of the dissected plateau was responsible for the commission

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOLOGY 207

of an error under circumstances when errors meant loss of
human lives.

As in the case of the French Army, so in most of the other
Allied armies geological maps and geological knowledge were
utilized locally, sometimes on a very considerable scale, but
without any such systematic development of the work as took
place in the British Expeditionary Force. On the Italian front
I was informed that General Porro, Chief of Staff to General
Cadorna, was especially interested in the relation of geological
science to military problems, and that he made much use of
geology in connection with the important engineering projects
undertaken during the Italian offensives in the Trentino and
Carso regions. At the time of my visit the Carso front had
been lost to the enemy, and General Porro had retired with
Cadorna ; so it was not practicable to learn just how much
geology had contributed to those great engineering works which
preceded all principal attacks on the limestone plateaus beyond
the Isonzo. On Mount Grappa and other strategic heights
farther west the surface was undermined by a labyrinth of
tunnels and galleries cut in solid rock, in the excavation of
which the geologist had been called in as adviser. It was an
Italian engineer with a geological training who ran the tunnel
under Mount Tofana and placed the great mine which blew
off the summit of that peak thus destroying a noted Austrian
fortress. Geological advice was sought by the Italian Army
in connection with its extensive road-building operations, its
water-supply problems, and other engineering work. But there
was apparently lacking any systematically organized geological
corps.

At the General Headquarters of the Armies at Salonika I
found an army engineer having some knowledge of geology,
at work on a geological map of the peninsula for military use.
This map was largely based on an earlier one by Jovan Cvijic,
the well-known Serbian geologist, but contained new informa-
tion secured in the course of the military operations. It was
designed, however, to show sources of valuable minerals, ma-

208 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

terials for concrete, road metal, and similar economic products,
and was not sufficiently detailed nor exact to guide engineer-
ing works below the surface.

In the Russian Armies it was the practice to attach to each
large division of the military forces a technical corps which
included at least one geologist and his assistants. There were
said to be seventeen of these units with their associated geolog-
ists on the Russian front. It was the duty of the Russian
geologists to advise their army engineers and other military
authorities regarding the usual geological factors affecting the
construction of trenches, shelters, and tunnels, the development
of water supplies; and the location of materials needed for
the building of roads, fortifications, and other military engi-
neering works.

Before Roumania entered the war her government commis-
sioned the Roumanian Geological Institute under the director-
ship of its excellent chief Professor L. Mrazec, to prepare
a report with map on the surface and underground water
resources of the Dobrudja. This work was duly completed,
but the engineers of the Roumanian Army had small appre-
ciation of the value of geology, and according to report little
use was made of the important information put at their dis-
posal. The Roumanian armies in the Dobrudja suffered
greatly from lack of a proper water supply, and when the
Russians entered the region the geologist associated 'with the
Czar's troops was astonished to find on the one hand an un-
used report on the water resources of the region, and on the
other an army suffering from lack of water through the short-
sighted policy of its engineers. The Russian geologist found
the work of the Geological Institute of so much value that
he went to Bucharest in person to secure further details about
the geology of the country in which the Russian troops were
stationed. Among other problems referred to the Institute
was that of designing camouflage to imitate the rock outcrops
of certain sections of Roumania. But in general the geological
services rendered after the country entered the war were slight,

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOLOGY 209

and no geological organization in the army was affected.

America entered the war late, and while she thus had a
smaller space of time in which to develop a geological service
in her armies, she had on the other hand the advantages of
long time for preparation and a well-equipped geological sur-
vey upon which to draw for men and material. Frankness
compels one to say that she did not profit fully from these ad-
vantages. The criminal stupidity which brought us unpre-
pared into a war which had been threatening us for many long
months, necessarily had its deplorable consequences in every
branch of the service. A million men might spring to arms
over night, but when they got done springing they found there
were no arms to spring to. In the months of feverish prepara-
tion which followed it could not be expected that among the
thousands of things to be done proper provision would be made
for an adequate military geological service. That could only
come with time.

American energy, however, in some measure, compensated
for our other shortcomings. The first contingent of officers
which arrived in France to prepare for the coming armies sent
back word that geologists were needed. Before the Armistice
was declared America ranked next to Great Britain among the
Western Allies in respect to the excellence of the geological
service attached to its armies at the front, and was rapidly ad-
vancing to a leading position. Nine geologists were at that
time attached to our field forces, and more had been summoned
for service.

Under the able direction of Lieut. Col. Alfred H. Brooks,
the American geologists took up the task of supplying our
armies with much the same material and information as have
already been described in earlier pages relating to the work
of the British geologists. Geological maps, based in part on
earlier French reports and in part on new observations, were
carefully prepared and beautifully printed in colors. The
accompanying descriptions of formations were not the technical
and purely scientific accounts common to ordinary geological

210 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

maps, but practical descriptions of such features of each forma-
tion as were important from the military point of view. From
these maps the army engineers could tell at once which forma-
tions were filled with water, which were dry and suitable for
the location of dugouts, tunnels, and subways; in which the
walls of trenches would remain vertical for a long time, and
which would require timbering to prevent the slumping down
of trench walls; which would give muddy and marshy surface,
and which would yield valuable deposits of road metal and
other construction materials.

Of equal importance were the different types of water supply
maps, showing which formations carried ample quantities of
good water; what was the depth below the surface of the
groundwater level at any point ; where existing wells were
located ; where new ones should be placed, and where springs
could be sought with success; and all the needful information
for those upon whose shoulders rested the heavy responsibility
of providing the enormous numbers of men concentrated in the
war zone with sanitary supplies of water for drinking and
other purposes. There were also maps to show the different
types of surface over which the advancing armies would have
to pass following their offensives, and to portray other data
of high military value.

It would involve needless repetition to show in detail how
the American geologists proceeded to meet the same needs of
their armies which the British in their earlier work had demon-
strated could be met with enormous advantage to the efficiency
of the military machine. Suffice it to say that the excellent
work directed by Col. Brooks confirmed anew the value of
geology as an adjunct to military operations, and commanded
the respect and praise of our French and British associates.

Geologists were naturally much interested to know whether
the great military machine which the German Government
built up for their war of world conquest, was efficient enough
to provide an adequate corps of geological workers for their
armies. There is evidence to show that in the beginning not

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOLOGY 211

even the Germans realized the value of geological knowledge
as a military asset, doubtless in part because they expected an
easy victory over their unprepared victims, and had no idea of
having to fight much of the war underground. But they were
not long in realizing and correcting their mistake, and with the
usual German thoroughness they then provided a sufficient
force of geologists to conduct the necessary investigations in a
comprehensive manner. Captured documents indicated that
from ten to fifteen geologists were assigned to each army oper-
ating on the western front. The size of their organization
enabled the German geologists to meet demands for geological
advice wherever they arose, and to bring out special geological
maps of army corps areas on a scale of 1 125,000.

As an indication of the value attached to geological work
in the German armies there is reprinted here a translation of
one of several German orders relating to geological work
which were captured by the Allies.

" i.A.54048 (B) 24.1.

Geological Section of the Fifth Army, Nr. 1/466
Corps Headquarters,
1-10-1917.

1. The Geologists of the Fifth Army belong to Field Survey
Companies 3 and 15, and form a geological section within these
Companies.

Res^rvre Lieutenant WEIGEL is in command of this Section.

2. For the establishment of Geological Offices the Geologists are
distributed throughout the Army Area according to the subjoined
summary.

3. Applications for the services of the Geologists will be made
direct, and to avoid unnecessary delay should give the object of
the application and the exact location of the Area to be investi-
gated.

The Geologists deal direct with the formation of their Army
Sector.

4. Ajolications for the service of Geologists must always be
sent to "he Geological Offices of the Section which is nearest to
the formation which makes the application.

212 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

5. For Geological work in forward areas and on lines of com-
munication, the formation that demands the work must provide
labor and transport, and arrange for the rationing and billeting.

6. The duty of the Geologist is immediate assistance to the
troops in cases where the structure of the ground and its water
bearing qualities are a consideration. Geological advice is of
special importance with reference to the following problems:

/. Construction of positions.

The assistance of a Geologist at the first reconnaissance of the
country, before the lines are finally fixed, has proved of special
value. See regulations for Trench Warfare, for all arms of the
Service, i.b. Cipher 2, and Part II, Directions for the laying out
of trenches, tunnelled dugouts, dugouts, etc.

(a). In case where several points are of the same tactical value,
by choosing such as require the minimum expenditure of labour,
time and material, and are not likely to involve landslides or
inflow of water.

(b). The prediction in the case of lines already dug, as to what
difficulties are likely to occur arising out of the hardness of the
strata, and their water-bearing qualities.

(c). Information as to tracts in which dry dugouts are definitely
impossible, or whether there is any prospect of draining them by
natural means, as by drainage sumps.

(d). Testing the possibility of putting in dry tunnelled dugouts
under the water-bearing strata.

(e). Advice on subways and galleries. Information as to ),vhich
strata are the easiest to work, whether there is risk of landslide
or inflow of water, the possibility of tunneling under water
channels. j

(f). A preliminary investigation with a view to the use of boring
machines in mines warfare. Selection of favorable and exclusion
of unfavorable strata.

(g). Information as to the best dugouts for listening posts and
so forth.

(h). Opinion as to the stability of existing "subterraneans"
(caves and quarries.) j(

(i). Inundations and drainage of areas.

,

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOLOGY 213

. Water Supply.

(a). Improvement of existing wells and selection of sites for
new ones.

(b). Making good defects in existing springs, and the opening
up of new ones.

(c). Information as to places especially suited for driving wells
(wells made by percussion, Abyssinian wells.)

(d). The development of deep-seated water basins by deep bores.

(e). The ensuring of water supply for the defensive battle.

(f). Advice on construction of water conduits, the water supply
of towns and camps, and of industrial and commercial establish-
ments.

///. Winning of Raw Material.

(a). For immediate use in the field. The providing of gravel,
sand, loam, clay, building stone, material for cement and plaster,
road metal, railway ballast and peat, as near as possible to the
places where they are to be used. The marking out of stone quar-
ries, estimate of quantities, information about the stratification
and best way of working.

(b). Providing of raw materials for supplying the needs of the
army. One of the first considerations is the supply, for example,
of pyrites, phosphates, copper, and, in the Balkan peninsula, of
coal also, for the Directors of Military Railways.

(c). Records of the existence in more distant industrial fields of
material available for meeting the requirements of munition and
ordnance factories (new occurrences), abandoned mines, and their
ancient mine and slag dumps.

Of chief importance are ores, rock-oil, coal, asphalt and other
materials useful in the economies of war.

IV. Hygienic and Technical Problems.

(a). Advice on the location of sumps for drainage, cesspits,
drainage in general, disinfecting and germicidal establishments
and cemeteries from the point of view of risk of contamination
of sources of water supply.

(b). The defining of drainage areas with a view to the protection
of wells and springs, having due regard to the nature of the
ground.

214 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

(c). Electrical problems so far as controlled by the condition of
the ground with reference to earthing, erecting masts and bury-
ing cables.

(d). Advice on the locating of roads, field railways, light rail-
ways, cable tram-lines, with a view to avoiding cutting and em-
bankment slides.

(e). Appreciation of suitable sites for dams.

V. Other Military Problems.

(a). Careful observation of the structure of the substrata
(nature, solidity, water-content) for standing camps,
(b). Choice of dry substrata for munition dumps,
(c). Choice of suitable natural solid surfaces for heavy guns,
(d). Choice of spots naturally fitted for aerodromes.
7. The function of the Geologist is only advisory. It is not his
province to see to the technical development of propositions by
elaborating them from plans or by actual superintendence of the
work.

Signed WEIGEL,
Reserve Lieutenant,
Commander of the Geological Section of the Fifth Army.

Among other documents captured from the Germans were
water-supply and geological maps of various types, prepared
at the front by the German geologists. Some of the maps,
particularly those showing aerial geology, were very detailed,
printed in colors, and accompanied by cross-sections in colors.
Such maps were prepared for each army corps area, and addi-
tional detailed maps were printed for smaller areas of special
importance. Both types of maps were executed with much
care. Instead of being mere enlargements of the previously
existing French maps (which were often old and inaccurate)
both the topography and the geology were resurveyed, and the
results were more accurate and detailed than the data shown
on previous maps.

The German geologists endeavored to make their reports and
maps as untechnical and as practically useful as possible. The
descriptions of formations and explanations of structure were

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOLOGY 215

carefully adapted to the needs of the military authorities, and
the language used was such that persons having no geological
training could make use of the information conveyed. That
the German geologists served their armies well was abundantly
testified to by the Allied army engineers^ who repeatedly re-
marked the skill with which the enemy turned surface form
and underground structure to his advantage in all his engineer-
ing works.

Nothing has yet been said of the highly valuable services
rendered by the geologists of most if not all of the combatant
nations, in connection with the great work of mobilizing all the
resources of each country in support of the fighting machine.
Not only on the War Trade Boards and similar organizations
engaged in studying the mineral and other resources of Allied
and enemy countries, was the geologist busy, but out in the field,
scattered over the plains and in remote mountain valleys, in
many a distant corner of the world, geological investigators
might have been found seeking new deposits of the type of
sand necessary for the best optical glass, of some mineral needed
in a new anti-submarine device, or of some other element
required in the manufacture of high explosives, poison gas, or
any one of a hundred other products essential to a victorious
issue from the titanic struggle. In laboratories other geologists
were working day and night to test these materials and deter-
mine their fitness for various military uses. Still others were
examining sites of cantonments, reporting on their water sup-
plies, and preparing detailed studies of the geology and topo-
graphy for use by those engaged in the task of training a great
citizen army. At Washington the United States Geological
Survey was placing its equipment, its vast stores of geological
data, and its personnel at the country's service, and the Division
of Geology and Geography of the National Research Council
was organizing and correlating geological war work throughout
the country, and keeping in direct touch with the geological
needs of the army, thus acting as a clearing-house for geological
information of every kind. In other capitals similar service,

216 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

sometimes well organized, sometimes sporadic and less suffi-
cient, was being rendered through numberless channels. The
whole story of geology's contribution to the waging of the world
war will never be written; but enough is known to give us a
realization of the fact that it was, in the aggregate, literally
a monumental service.

Geology played no such role at the Peace Conference as did
its sister science of Geography. In the very nature of the
case the territorial settlements were primarily geographical
problems, whereas geology merely entered into that and other
groups of questions as one of many elements. Perhaps it fig-
ured most largely in the economic problems of the conference,
including the problem of reparations.

Long before the Armistice geologists in different countries
were engaged in collecting the data of their science which
would be needed when the representatives of the Powers
gathered about the green table. The French Government
appointed two of its noted geologists, Emmanuel de Margerie
and Lucien Cayeux, and a military officer with a geological
training, to examine and report on the mineral wealth of the
regions adjacent to the northeastern frontier of France, includ-
ing the mining regions of Alsace-Lorraine which it was deter-
mined should be reunited to the mother-country. In London,
Washington, and other capitals individual ^ geologists and
government geological bureaus were cooperating in assembling
material and preparing reports and maps on a wide variety of
questions. The American " Inquiry," the French " Comite
d'fitudes," and other bodies specially constituted to provide the
diplomats of their respective countries with information on the
peace settlement, included geologists on their staffs or secured
the cooperation of geologists in their work. When the Confer-
ence assembled at Paris, geologists, while less numerous than
the geographers, were present; some of them throughout the
long months of the negotiations, some for a few weeks only,
when called upon to aid in the solution of some particular
problem. Whether it was the Saar Coal Basin, the Teschen

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOLOGY 217

mining district, the Silesian coal fields, or other such large and
difficult questions ; or boundary problems involving the attribu-
tion of minor deposits like the Idria mercury mines, recourse
was had to the geologists attached to the delegations and to
the elaborate reports and maps they had prepared, for the data
needed as one element in making a fair readjustment of the
world's boundaries. Geology, like Geography, made good its
title to a place among those sciences which the governments of
peoples can not neglect, either in war or in peace.

THE ROLE OF ENGINEERING
IN THE WAR

XIII

ADVANCES IN SIGNALLING CONTRIBUTED
DURING THE WAR

A. E. KEN NELLY

THE fighting on land, in the world war, regarded from the
American point of view, was waged on a battle line
roughly 750 kilometers long, reaching from the coast of Bel-
gium to the Swiss Alps. The center of this line is approxi-
mately 6500 kilometers, or nearly 4000 miles, from the War
Department Building in Washington, D. C, the army adminis-
trative base. It is also approximately 7250 kilometers in a
bee line, or 4500 miles, from Chicago, which may be looked
upon as the center of gravity of America's supplies for her
army. Consequently, America's overseas army of two million
men had to join with Allied armies at a distance of more than
one-third of the sea-level separation from pole to pole. It was,
therefore, of the utmost importance that communication be-
tween Washington and the American Expeditionary Force
should be kept at the highest point of effectiveness.

It is recorded that in January, 1815, the news of the Battle
of New Orleans did not reach the capitol at Washington until
two weeks after the battle had been fought. That was before
the days of the electric telegraph and telephone. If such
restricted conditions of communication existed to-day, it is safe
to say that no such expedition as America sent to Europe could
possibly have been conducted and maintained. In fact, the
news of important events at the French front were, in this
war, frequently delivered in Washington before the hours at
which those events occurred; that is, within the five hours'

221

222 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

difference of time between Greenwich and Washington. In
that sense, therefore, America knew of the important events
of the war before the times at which they happened.

Again, in the European campaign of 1815, which precipitated
the final downfall of Napoleon Bonaparte, the final battle took
place on the field of Waterloo. From the top of a tower 60
meters high on that field, the visitor is shown by his guide the
whole scene of tactical operations. On yonder elevation, the
French Emperor sat on his famous white horse, directing, by
couriers, the movements of his army. Over on this roadway,
Wellington rode up an/d down surveying the battle, and send-
ing verbal orders to his commanders. The battle opened early
in the afternoon, and the fate of the Napoleonic empire was
virtually sealed before darkness set in.

Such was the nature of the last preceding great struggle in
Europe, when electrical communication did not exist, and when
the first, but unsuccessful experimental electric telegraph was
being tried, with frictional electricity, under discouraging con-
ditions, in the back garden of Sir Francis Ronald's house at
Hammersmith, in England.

At the battle on the European western front in which the
A. E. F. participated in 1918, the American headquarters was
necessarily remote from the front line — more than 200 kilo-
meters from some parts of it. The final battle lasted about four
months. Communication had to be constantly maintained by
the American headquarters, not only with each division com-
mander at the front, but also with the various reserves, depots
and bases, as well as with the Allied headquarters and with
the generalissimo in command of all the Allies. Moreover,
communication had to be maintained by each division head-
quarters, not only with its most distant outposts, through bri-
gade and regimental headquarters ; but also with its observation
balloons, its observation posts, airplanes and tanks. The army
was, therefore, extended over a vast network chain of electric
communications which ended, administratively speaking, in
Washington. Those links of the chains which cross the

ADVANCES IN SIGNALLING 223

Atlantic Ocean were supervised by the U. S. Navy. The rest
of the network was under the control of the U. S. Army Signal
Corps. The duty of maintaining a complete system of electrical
communication between Washington and the American Army
overseas thus devolved, in large measure, on the Signal Corps.
Under the pressure and stimulus of this duty, the very con-
siderable advances in signalling which were made during the
war, were largely developed in and by the Signal Corps, so
that the story of that advance, from the American viewpoint,
is mainly an account of signal-corps achievement.

Communication across the Atlantic was maintained mainly
by cables underneath the ocean, and partly by radio, or so-
called " wireless," over the ocean's surface. The transatlantic
cables in service were heavily loaded. A few of them were
out of service by breaks, partly due to accident and partly due
to war. It was very difficult to make cable repairs in the
Atlantic during the war, on account of the dearth of men and
repairing ships, and also on account of the vigilance of hostile
submarines. Those cables which remained intact were worked
at the maximum available speed, duplex ; i.e., in both directions
simultaneously, without pause or interval of rest, day and night
continuously throughout the year. In describing sustained and
unremitting business, the beaver is a common metaphor; but
the beaver is a very lame vehicle of expression for unceasing
activity ; because he sleeps through a fair share of each twenty-
four hours. As busy as an Atlantic submarine cable during
the war, would be a much more apt comparison for the anti-
thesis to the life of the lily of the field, which toils not, neither
spins.

In order to supplement the work of the cables, great improve-
ments were made in transatlantic radio signalling, under the
auspices of the navy ; both as to speed and precision, especially
between the naval radio station at New Brunswick, N. J., and
a similar station in France. The results attained indicate that
even without any new discoveries, or epoch-making inventions,
the prospects of long-distance radio communication are im-

224

THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

mense, and that the possible capacity for the transoceanic radio
traffic of the world is nearly two hundred times as great as that
in service during the war ; but that is a matter "for keeping the
future out of the lap of idleness.

Before the war, the transatlantic cables from America landed
mostly in the British Islands, a few going to France and Ger-

CODE

• tndicttes MamLonj L.nts Built ana
Operated by the Signal Corps.
Indicates Main Long Lines
Operated by the SignolC

Figure I
United States Army system of wires

many. One German cable was cut by the British, at sea, in the
very early days of the war, and was later diverted to Canada
at one end and to England at the other, while another cable of
Germany was diverted to France ; so that all transatlantic cable
communication came exclusively under the operation of our
Allies. The Germans, thus isolated electrically under the

ADVANCES IN SIGNALLING 225

ocean, kept up a continuous stream of official news and propa-
ganda by radio, into the air from their powerful station at
Nauen near Berlin. This continual outpouring of German
bulletins continued by radio during the war, and could be read
by radio stations over a considerable part of the northern
hemisphere, including stations in America. Neutral peoples
could receive these bulletins unchecked. In Britain, America,
and the countries of their Allies, all known radio stations came
under government control during the war, so that except in a
£ew surreptitious instances, these electric waves of propaganda
passed harmlessly over the heads of the peoples.

Signal Corps Telegraph and Telephone Lines Abroad. On
the other side of the Atlantic, the Signal Corps, in 1917, began
building and leasing a complete system of telegraph and tele-
phone lines in France and England. The accompanying map,
Fig. i, shows the U. S. Army system of wires in those countries
shortly after the Armistice and after communications had been
carried forward into the occupied region of Germany. The
heavy lines on the chart indicate conductors built and operated
by the Signal Corps, the light lines those which were operated
by the Corps, but leased from the respective Allied Govern-
ments. The system is seen to run from Brest, St. Nazaire, and
Bordeaux with their environs, through Tours and Bourges to
Paris, and to the American front near Toul and war-scarred
Verdun. Connecting Paris with London were two separate
leased lines, one crossing the channel near Boulogne, and the
other by a special cable near Havre. The Signal Corps built
in France about 3500 kilometers of pole line, carrying some
50,000 kilometers of copper wire. Counting 35,000 kilometers
of leased wires, 120,000 kilometers more for networks of tele-
phone wire from the various headquarters to the front, and
150,000 km. of locally erected army telephone wires, the Signal
Corps wire system comprised a total of approximately 358,500
km. of wire in France and England, or nearly enough, if spliced
end to end, to reach to the moon.

The traffic which this army telegraph system had to carry

226 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

was necessarily very heavy. It comprised not only all the
telegraph and telephone communications between different
depots and headquarters in France ; but nearly all those between
the army and America. It has been estimated that the tele-
graph system carried in all more than five million army
messages before the Armistice. The average army message is
much longer than the average telegram of commercial and
civil peace. It may be taken as sixty words in length. This
represents an average of about 10,000 telegrams or 600,000
words a day. The highest record was 47,500 telegrams or
2,850,000 words in one day.

In order to carry this heavy traffic, the wires had to be worked
by specially rapid signalling methods. One of the trunk lines
was from Paris to General Headquarters at Chaumont, and
consisted of four parallel copper wires on poles. These wires
naturally formed two pairs, say A, B and C, D. Over each pair
a separate telephone circuit was arranged in the ordinary way.
On these two parts an additional telephone circuit was made
up of the type known as the " phantom circuit." This pro-
vided, in all, three sets of telephonic communications between
Paris and Chaumont. Moreover, each of the four wires was
worked as a telegraph wire without interfering with the tele-
phonic conversations. Wire A had a synchronous three-
channel multiple printing telegraph system in operation over it,
permitting three messages to be sent simultaneously in each
direction. Wires B, C and D were also each worked duplex, or
simultaneously in opposite directions, telegraphically. As the
result, twelve streams of telegrams — six each way — were ob-
tained over these four wires, day and night, in addition to the
telephonic conversations.

To operate these telegraph lines, a number of American
operators were brought over to France in the Signal Corps,
and a number were also trained in special schools overseas.

Telephone Service with A. E. F. While the heavy traffic
of main army communications was carried on by telegraph, a
vast amount of local communication was conducted by tele-

ADVANCES IN SIGNALLING 227

phone. This telephone service was of two kinds; namely,
internal telephone service within the army itself, and external
telephone service between the U. S. Army and other armies
or more specifically (i) external service between the U. S.
Army and officials of the French Army or civilian life, and (2)
internal service within the U. S. Army organization itself.
Those two services had to be handled in different ways.

The first telephone exchange for external and internal service
was opened by the Signal Corps in Paris during June, 1917. It
served to connect the army offices with each other, and with
the French telephone system. American soldier operators had
no difficulty in making internal connections; since the English
language was exclusively used. When, however, connections
had to be made through a French exchange, it was necessary
for the operator to be familiar with the French language. In
fact, he had to be skilled in the use of French, for it is one
thing to be able to speak to a person face to face in a foreign
language and another thing entirely to speak to him at a dis-
tance, through the medium of the telephone. Although the
French people are notoriously tolerant and forbearing with
foreigners attempting to speak their language, the diplomatic
difficulties are enhanced when the mutilation of their language
occurs over a wire. A modus vivendi was reached by using
the relatively few French-speaking U. S. Army operators on
the external switchboard calls, and by the French using their
relatively few English-speaking operators on these same wires
at their switchboards. At the best, however, there was a good
deal of language difficulty in the external telephone service.

To cope with the language difficulty over telephone wires
that had to convey both French and English speech, the Signal
Corps called in the aid of the American Telephone and Tele-
graph Co. in the States to furnish female operators who could
speak both French and English, for service with the army in
France. There were hardly any such bilingual operators in
the American service; so they had to be advertised for and
specially trained in the States before being sent to France. It

228 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

was supposed that French Canadian provinces might furnish
such persons most readily; but most of them were actually
obtained from families of French descent living in the States.
They responded patriotically to the call and underwent a swift
and strenuous course of switchboard training in New York.
They were then assigned to the Signal Corps and taken to their
posts overseas in units. All were dressed in blue uniform with
a telephone transmitter on the arm as insignia. They were
located by groups in a number of French cities and towns.
Their arrival was always followed by a marked improvement
in the external telephone service. Their service, often under
army conditions of discomfort and even danger, was rendered
with the same courage and cheerfulness as the soldiers dis-
played.

The army telephone exchanges rapidly spread and multiplied
as the American divisions arrived in France, until there were
273 installed at the Armistice date. This represented a very
efficient army telephone system. It will be remembered that
while the telegraph services of Europe have always been excel-
lent and in some respects superior to our own, the telephone and
telephonic service have from the very outset been specially
well developed an America. The United States has always
led the way in the extent and effectiveness of telephone service
and equipment. The result of the Signal Corps telephonic
system installation was an excellent system of communication
behind all the American lines. It is credibly asserted that
Marshal Foch, in the course of his many journeys along the
Allied front, would always order his chauffeur to find the
nearest American telephone exchange, when he desired to stop
and talk with any of his lieutenants; because he felt he could
rely on the Signal Corps not only to provide prompt service
to any post, but also to keep its system patrolled against eaves-
dropping by enemy spies.

A portable telephone exchange at brigade headquarters is
illustrated in Fig. 2. At the back of the room is a telephone
desk set captured from the German army. Fig. 4 shows a

Figure 4. Portable outpost switchboard

Figure 5. Signallers in gas masks talking with observer in a captive

balloon

ADVANCES IN SIGNALLING 229

portable telephone outpost switchboard for outdoor installa-
tion under forest cover. As the telephone is carried nearer and
nearer to the front line, it naturally enough assumes a less per-
manent appearance and becomes increasingly rough-and-ready.
This is indicated by Figures 3 and 4. Of these, the former,
Figure 3, shows a little four-line switchboard which has been
set up, and is in use, on a street doorway. In all the apparatus,
serviceability, adaptability, and simplicity were of prime im-
portance, while finish and appearance were sacrificed.

As may be easily imagined, a very large amount of insulated
twisted-pair telephone wire was needed to maintain telephone
connection between all the elements of an advancing division.
Very often there was no time or opportunity to pick up and
reel in wire already in position, when new orders came to
march. Consequently, arrangements had to be made to pay
out new wire rapidly.

In the billeting and rest areas well behind the front, the
telephone wires could be maintained without much trouble;
but near the front trenches the wires were continually subject
to damage by shell-fire. It was necessary to keep men con-
stantly engaged on repairs, a very important, but very hazardous
duty. Much of this work had to be done under long sustained
gas-mask protection. A picture of two signallers in their gas
masks exchanging telephone messages with an observer in a
captive balloon overhead, through a pair of twisted wires in
the balloon rope, appears in Fig. 5.

In the colloquial language of many telephonists, telephones
and telephone circuits are apt to be " in trouble." There are
" trouble men " appointed to each exchange. If a telephone
man is said to be in trouble, the statement excites no remark ;
since that is part of the established order of telephonic things.
When, however, the troubles besetting a telephone man are so
numerous and inordinate as to do injustice to reason and
probability, he is described as being " in grief," and then eti-
quette requires that sympathy should be extended. According
to this philosophy of the art, the wires were "in grief" in

230 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

most front-line areas. It is recorded that, on one occasion, a
telephone line I kilometer long, near Soissons, had 350 breaks
in it, due to shell-fire. On another occasion, a Signal Corps
officer had laid down eight separate and independently insulated
telephone lines along the same shell-swept route to an artillery
outpost, on the principle made famous by Shakespeare's Maria
" If one break the other will hold " and so that one at least
might be hoped to remain in serviceable condition for a few
hours. To his dismay, a tank crossed this area shortly after-
wards, caught the wires in its advance, and twisted them into
a battered tangle of loose ends. In all such cases, reliance had
to be placed on other methods of communication. These were
wireless electric methods ; but there were also flash-light signal-
ling and flag signalling, where suitable protective cover could
be secured. Moreover, carrier pigeons and despatch runners
remained as ultimate resources.

Radio Communication in Front Areas. Radio communica-
tion was very extensively used in the War by all the armies.
It is not entirely new in war ; because it was used to a limited
extent both in the Boer war and in the Russo-Japanese war.
Nevertheless, it was a novelty of this war, in the sense that
never before has such great reliance been placed upon wireless
methods, and never have armies used it on so large a scale.
Moreover, in the next war, which every one hopes may be long
deferred, the expectation, from past experience and present
knowledge, is that the radio apparatus will play almost as
important a part in infantry tactics as the rifle.

The improvements in radio signalling as carried on in our
army were of three kinds, which may best be considered sepa-
rately ; namely,

(i). Improvements in the apparatus used for radio-
telegraphy, particularly in vacuum tubes.

(2). Improvements in radiotelephony, particularly as used
for airplanes.

(3). Improvements in radiogoniometry, or direction find-
ing.

ADVANCES IN SIGNALLING 231

Vacuum Tubes. One of the most wonderful devices de-
veloped during the last few years, in connection with radio
communication, is the vacuum tube. It is used as part of the
sending apparatus for transmitting radio messages, and also
as part of the receiving apparatus, as well as for various other
accessory purposes. Fig. 8 shows two forms of such a tube.
That on the right hand is structurally the stronger, and for
army work has now superseded that on the left hand; but,
in principle, they are identical. The vacuum chamber is a
highly exhausted glass bulb, not much bigger than a hen's egg.
At the center of this vacuum chamber is an incandescent fila-
ment in the form of a long inverted V, which receives heating
current through two of the four insulated base pegs in the
base. On each side of the filament, near to it, but not touching,
is a vertical metallic wire grid or grating connected with a thirdv
insulated base peg. Outside the grid are two vertical metallic
plates. These two parallel plates are electrically connected
and make permanent contact with the fourth insulated base peg.

So long as the filament on the inside of the system is un-
heated, the filament, grid, and plate remain highly insulated
from each other, although in close proximity within the vacuum
chamber. No current will flow from one to another even under
relatively powerful voltage. They are mechanically so near,
and yet electrically so far. When, however, an electric current
is passed through the filament, so as to heat it to cherry redness,
the tube becomes a scene of marvellous activity, most of which
remains invisible to the eye. The red hot filament disengages
and throws out infinitesimally small particles, called corpuscles,
of negatively electrified substance. If the plates are connected
to the positive pole of a dry battery, these negative corpuscles,
launched from the glowing filament, will be attracted to the
plates, and will bombard them. In so doing, they will give up
their negative charges to the plates, and cause a current to flow
to the latter from the dry battery. The strength of this current
can be greatly varied by varying the charge given to the inter-
vening grid or metallic grating. If this grid is made positive,

232 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

the corpuscles being negative, will be accelerated, and pulled
through from the filament to the outside plates at a rapid rate ;
whereas if the grid is made negative, the stream of bombarding
corpuscles will be either retarded, or shut off altogether. Con-
sequently, the application of a relatively feeble electric impulse
to the grid can be made to control and deliver powerful electric
currents to the plate. In this way, when the tube is used as a
receiving device, it is made to amplify or enlarge the received
electric current. It is then called an amplifier. On the other
hand, when used as a generating device, it can cause a rapidly
alternating and powerful current to flow in the generator cir-
cuit, under a very moderate initial stimulus. It is then called
an oscillator. The capabilities of these tubes are astonishing.
A ^eries of them is frequently used as a multiple amplifier, in
receiving and magnifying very faint radio signals. Each tube
may successively multiply the strength of the received signal
say ten times. A two-tube system can then amplify 100 times,
and a three-tube system 1000 times. Amplifiers of as many
as 20 tubes have been occasionally used, and 7-tube amplifiers
are common; but the available ratio of amplification is not so
high, when so long a succession is employed.

At first sight, it might well be considered that the vacuum
tube was merely a laboratory device, and not a soldier's imple-
ment. It is fragile, delicate and easily injured. The condi-
tions of military service in regard to transport are necessarily
so severe, that any piece of military apparatus is commonly
required to be capable of being dropped from the back of an
army mule into a pool of mud and water, without suffering
more than temporary embarrassment. Yet, by careful design,
and the cooperation of experts in manufacture, the Signal
Corps succeeded in producing vacuum tubes that would safely
withstand the vicissitudes of hurried transportation followed
by use in dugouts, trenches or airplanes. Large numbers of
these tubes had to be manufactured, tested, sorted and shipped
to the army in France, and many failures had to be encountered
before success was attained; but the very great advances that

ADVANCES IN SIGNALLING 233

were made in radio-signalling during the war are attributable
in large measure to that success.

As an example of what was accomplished by means of im-
provements in vacuum-tube receivers, it may suffice to describe
a single receiving radio station among a number along the Allied
lines in Europe. In an ordinary room of a brick building at
one of the army headquarters, without any mast or external
antenna, was a vertical wooden frame, about 2 meters square,
wound with wire and rotatable about a vertical axis. Near the
frame sat a soldier operator, with a pair of head telephones ad-
justed to his ears. These telephones were connected to the
loops of wire on the frame, through a vaccum-tube amplifier of
several stages. The room was kept fairly quiet, so that he
could listen attentively to the faint intermittent buzzing note in
the telephones. He sat writing messages in pencil on a pad
before him for an hour or two, when he would be relieved by
another soldier. Upon the wall, was a large map of Europe,
on which were marked the principal radio stations of the Allied,
neutral and enemy countries, with prominent electrical charac-
teristics serving for their recognition. By turning the frame
in the direction of the particular European radio station sought,
its particular ether waves could be tuned to and detected in
the telephone, almost to the complete exclusiori of all others.
Since these principal radio stations were in action at nearly all
hours, each could be located in turn, and made to reveal the
burden of its story as launched through the air in every direc-
tion over land and sea. In actual service, however, only one
station would be followed continuously, and all that it said was
written down on sheet after sheet of the message pad. These
sheets were then carried, at regular intervals, to the Intelligence
Section of the General Staff, for transcription and analysis.
This eavesdropping on the ethereal whisperings around the
world has become so common now in peace, as well as war, that
it ceases to elicit comment ; yet the recent great development is
largely due to the Signal Corps of the armies and to the work
of men in army uniform. In a certain sense, there has come to

234 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

be a new heaven and a new earth. Just as a spider on watch
at the center of her net, becomes a combined spider and net or-
ganization, extended into space as a circular plane surface with
physiological and nervous mechanism at the center ; so a human
being armed with a sufficiently powerful radio apparatus
becomes in the same sense, a combined man and ether organiza-
tion, pervading the whole world, and capable of initiating in-
telligent response over all the globe. This new man and ether
organization is spherical and hollow within, since its present
powers and realm terminate only a few meters below the
globular surface of land or sea. Its outer surface, although
roughly spherical also, is but ill defined as yet, albeit the realm
of the creature probably extends everywhere as far above the
globe as an airplane can soar. At the radiating and receiving
center of this spherical being, with its tentacles all over the
globe, is the physiological and nervous controlling mechanism,
or the man power. Yet hundreds of men situated in different
parts of the globe, and all pervading it, can radiate out their
respective tentacles through the circumambient ether without
conflict or interference.

In the earlier stages of the war, radio communication was
employed not only to link up regimental, brigade, division and
army corps headquarters, but also to link the infantry in the
trenches with their regimental headquarters, and the observa-
tion airplanes with their artillery commands. The radio spark
signalling was carried on from the trenches with the aid of
a low portable air wire, strung in or close behind the trench,
and worked from a shelter or dugout. It was open to the
objection that the radio signals were capable of being read by
friend and foe alike.

At a later stage of the war, the Signal Corps developed a
portable and collapsible frame, one meter square, which could
be operated on one of three different short wave lengths, by
sustained oscillations from a generator vacuum tube. This set
was found to be very reliable, and to be capable of sending or
receiving signals not easily detected by the enemy. Two such

ADVANCES IN SIGNALLING 235

square frame sets are able to maintain communication between
them, over a distance of 5 km. or more, even when each is
operated in a deep dugout.

This war differed from preceding wars also in the fact that
the artillery was fired at distant targets it very rarely saw, and
was directed by targets, on which it did not aim. In such
artillery practice, it becomes of vital importance for the artillery
commander to know just where his own infantry forward lines
are located, so as to keep his fire ahead of their advance. Port-
able radio loop sets are invaluable for this service, as they
enable communication to be maintained at all times with the
advancing lines.

Airplane Radio Communication During the War. In the
early days of the war, the airplane became the eyes of the army.
It was by reports from airplanes, that the British were able
to make good their retreat from Mons to the Marne, during
the fateful closing days of August, 1914. It was reports from
airplanes that gave Foch the inspiration for his daring and
epoch-making thrust through the German lines at the Marne
on September 9th, 1914. It was airplanes that enabled a
trench stalemate to be maintained for nearly three years there-
after, by eliminating the possibility of complete surprise on
either side in large-scale strategy. Above all, it was airplanes
that enabled long-range artillery fire to be controlled, the air-
plane observer signalling to the artillery outpost the effect of ,
each shell round.

At first, the signalling between the airplane and the observer
on the ground was entirely visual. The airplane showed a flag
or released a visible signal. The ground observer replied to
the airman by means of large flags, or other visible signals, dis-
played on the ground. These could only be read at a compara-
tively short range. Later in the war one-way radio communi-
cation was introduced into airplane fire control. The observer
in the airplane let out a wire or trailing antenna and sent his
reports in radio dots and dashes on this wire. A receiving
operator in a radio station on the ground received these sig-

236 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

nals and delivered the message by telephone to the artillery of-
ficer. The reply was sent back from the ground to the airman
by flags or ground signals ; because although radio signals sent
from the ground station might be received in the plane ; yet the
loud whirring of the airplane motor made such signals very
difficult to detect in the telephone.

At the entrance of America into the war, one of the first
projects of our Chief Signal Officer, in connection with radio
development, was to create a practicable airplane telephone set.
Events happen so rapidly in the air, that airplane telegraphy
with its dots and dashes may be all too slow at some critical
period. The telephone becomes essential to successful com-
munication. The difficulties in the way were very great, if
only on account of the great noise in airplanes aloft. It has
occasionally happened for example, that the pilot and the
observer in one and the same airplane, have desired to com-
municate with each other, the distance between them being
perhaps only a couple of meters. Shouting was of no use,
and even an umbrella spanning the distance between the men
would be unavailing for intersignalling purposes ; so that they
have actually given up the attempt to come to an understanding
aloft, and have wended their way down to the earth, in order
to stop the engine and talk together. The problem of tele-
phoning aloft from one airplane to another or to a radio station
on the ground was thus most ambitious and difficult.

The problem was successfully solved, however, with the aid
of the experts of the large telephone companies. A vacuum-
tube transmitter and a two-stage vacuum tube receiver were
developed, which could readily be carried on an airplane. A
carefully designed helmet, with rubber caps enclosing a tele-
phone tightly over each ear, eliminated most of the engine
noise, and then a trailing antenna from each airplane enabled
signals to be exchanged. A reel, like a large fishing-rod reel,
mounted on the outside of an airplane fusilage pays out and
reels in the antenna wire with a metallic weight on the end,
which from its shape is called a " fish."

VT-

Figure 8. Types of vacuum tube

Figure 9. Airplane radiogenerator

Figure 10. Interior parts of radiogenerator

ADVANCES IN SIGNALLING 237

In order to supply electricity for the airplane set, a special
little dynamo machine, of the windmill type, is supported
underneath the fusilage, so as to be driven by the motion of the
plane through the air. A picture of this machine with its two
windmill blades appears in Fig. 9. The apparatus is tapered
away towards the rear in stream-line fashion, so as to offer as
little useless opposition to the air as possible. The interior
parts of one of these airplane radiogenerators are presented to
view in Fig. 10. These little windmills are required to rotate
at a nearly constant speed over a wide range of airplane
velocity. A well-designed fan naturally keps its speeds of
rotation nearly in direct proportion to the speed at which it is
pulled through the air. In this case, however, it ought not to
change speed when the airplane goes faster or slower. This
means that the fan has to be designed very badly, judged from
the ordinary standpoint. One officer very proudly declared
that he had devised for this purpose the worst fan design in
heaven or earth, in order to meet the required conditions.
There is, moreover, a vacuum-tube automatic compensator
in the ogival apex of the dynamo case, which also aids in
maintaining constant voltage over a wide range in speed through
the air.

The airplane telephone set is also ordinarily so arranged that
the observer not only can telephone to his ground station up to
a distance of say 20 kilometers by radio, but also with the pilot
of the plane, sitting close to him in the next cockpit, by ordinary
wire methods.

Before the Signal Corps developed this aerial telephone
system, each airplane necessarily became an individual fighting
unit with only limited opportunities for concerted action after
it left the ground. A squadron of airplanes might fly together
under the leadership of its squadron commander, and follow a
preconcerted procedure. If, however, any unforeseen event oc-
curred during the flight to upset the original plan, the comman-
der had very little hope of communicating a change of orders to
his subordinates. The airplane telephone completely altered

238 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

this condition of affairs. The squadron commander could keep
in communication with all his planes, so long as they did not
get out of the telephonic range from him of say 5 kilometers.
A voice-commanded squadron then becomes a new fighting
unit of greatly improved power of manoeuvering. In practice,
it is customary to give a complete sending and receiving radio
set to the squadron commander; but to give only a receiving
radio set to each subordinate plane. The subordinate officers
can then receive orders, but have no means of answering back.
When an order to the squadron is given by radio, during flight,
the planes acknowledge it, each in turn, by a quick dip to
apprize the commander of their acceptance. If, however, a
plane fails to get the order, it gives a " wriggle " laterally,
which indicates to the commander that the order should be
repeated.

Another great advantage of a voice-controlled airplane
squadron is that if a warning comes of a threatened attack
from a distant but rapidly approaching hostile squadron, the
airmen on duty at the hangar can instantly board their planes,
get off into the air, let out their air wires and commence climb-
ing to the altitude of expected attack, without waiting for
detailed instructions, which can reach them later by radio as the
situation develops. In this way, precious moments needed for
climbing can be utilized without loss of manoeuvering power
or adequate information for defense. Many a hostile airplane
has thus been intercepted and overthrown, that could otherwise
have probably dropped its bombs on an undefended target.

Improvements in Radio Goniometry, or Direction Finding,
during the War. The invisible electromagnetic waves of radio-
communication radiate out in straight lines from the transmit-
ting station over every direction of the compass, like the rays
of light from a lamp or an open fire. Indeed, these electro-
magnetic waves are agreed to be identical with light waves
except in regard to their length. Whereas the waves of light
that are visible to the eye are only a fraction of one micron, or
one millionth of a meter, in length, the waves of light which

ADVANCES IN SIGNALLING 239

carry on radio communication and are entirely invisible to the
eye are from, say 20 meters to 20 kilometers in, length. A very
valuable property of such long waves is that they bend around,
and conform to, the spherical surface of land and sea ; whereas
short and visible waves, except in extreme cases, maintain
straight lines in their advance. If, however, the eye responded
to radio waves, we might expect to perceive the compass bear-
ing and direction of their source, however remote it might be.
Since the human eye is unresponsive, an artificial eye has to be
resorted to, which shall enable by its indications the electrical
bearing and direction of the source of any radio waves that may
be received. Such an instrument is a radio-goniometer, or
radio direction finder.

A goniometer may be mounted on the roof of a small radio
house or on the roof of a traveling radio car, or fixed on an
airplane. The goniometer in any case consists of a square
wooden frame of insulated wire pivoted on a vertical axis,
and rotatable by an observer underneath and inside the house.
The observer connects the ends of this rotatable coil to a tuning
condenser and a sensitive vacuum-tube amplifier. He then lis-^
tens for signals in his head telephone.

When the plane of the frame coil is parallel to the radio
wave front, the radio waves passing the frame produce no
electric disturbance in the observer's circuit, and no sound in
his ear. On the other hand, when the frame coil is set perpen-
dicular to the arriving radio waves, the electric disturbance
and telephonically received sound will be a maximum. One
way of getting the bearing of the radio station, which is sending
the signals, is to rotate the frame until the sounds in the tele-
phone pass through zero. The frame is then perpendicular to
the direction of the station sought, and the observer can read
off the direction from a horizontal disk at the foot of the frame
spindle. By practice, an observer can locate, in this way, the
electric bearing or direction of a radio station, within a certain
small angle of uncertainty. In the case of a powerful station,
only a few kilometers away, he can perhaps assign the direction

240 THE' NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

to a single degree of arc. If the station is feeble, and far away,
he may not be able to tell the exact direction to perhaps 20
degrees. His observations do not tell him the distance of the
station whose direction he assigns, except as he may guess the
distance from the strength of the received signals. But if there
are two, or still better, three such houses equipped with radio
goniometers, and their positions are properly marked on the
map; then if they take simultaneous cross bearings of the same
sending radio station, the signals from which are tuned to by
all, these cross bearings will locate that sending station definitely
on the map.

The Allied armies in Europe maintained a coordinated series
of goniostations at some kilometers distance behind the fighting
line and at intervals of about 15 kilometers along it. Radio
watch was kept in these stations, day and night, by skilled
observers, who thus patrolled the ether. Some of them directed
special attention to giving notice of the approach and direction
of hostile airplanes having radio equipment. Others listened
for radio messages from one hostile ground station to another
on the enemy's side of the line, striving to record both the
message and the direction of the station whence it came.
Again, others listened for and responded to orders from Allied
radio officers in charge. Each goniostation took up its assigned
duties in this coordinated patrol work. A regular code of radio
procedure was planned and executed, whereby all observers
regularly watched and recorded ; but emitted radio signals only
on order. The ordinary reports from each goniostation were
transmitted by wire, at regular intervals, to the intelligence
department of the general staff, and emergency reports upon
the instant. By dovetailing simultaneous directions and bear-
ings from adjacent goniostations, headquarters was able to plot
the positions of enemy radio stations at various distances behind
the opposing lines, to decipher the enemy's code messages, and
to keep statistics of his radio traffic. The imminence of a
threatened attack from the enemy could be predicted often days
in advance, by studying this collected material. These col-

ADVANCES IN SIGNALLING 241

lected radio data and deductions were communicated, at suit-
able intervals, to the general staff and neighboring corps.

The enemy was evidently well aware of these radio hunts
upon his preserves, and took pains to evade detection. Thus,
he changed the code names of his radio stations at very fre-
quent intervals. He limited the number and length of his
messages as much as possible, and used short wave lengths.
The shorter the message, and the more unusual the wave length
it employed, the harder it was for our radio scouts to catch the
message, and fix its direction of origin. On the other hand,
constant practice trained the observers so that they could detect
a new wave length, tune to it, take in and record the code
message, and get its radio direction, all in a few seconds of
time. The patrol became a strife of experts on each side with
invisible weapons in the ether. Some observers seemed to
develop a peculiar ethereal sense, or aptitude for hunting and
capturing radio raids. Each goniostation so manned sent out
invisible and ethereal feelers into space over a range of a
hundred kilometers or more, because all this fishing was at
relatively short radio distance.

The goniostations that watched for radio signals from enemy
airplanes could sometimes supply captured code messages to
headquarters, which, when deciphered, would enable the artil-
lery officer there to warn by wire some particular battery on
which fire was impending from hostile batteries, to take shelter
in time. Moreover, when the radio officer in charge of a
" radio net " received sudden warning of an approaching hostile
radio-equipped airship squadron, he would notify his fighting
planes at the nearest hangar to take the air and order certain
of his goniostations to take swift radio bearings of the oncom-
ing raiders. The instant these bearings were reported, they
were laid out on a special map with a very swift geometrical
apparatus, and the distance as well as the direction of the hostile
plane from hangar read and given to the fighting pilots, who
took their direction upwards accordingly. In this way, many
raids were intercepted by fighting planes and not a few crushed.

242 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

The success of such manoeuvers depended, perhaps, upon skil-
ful goniometry. A few seconds of time meant victory or
defeat.

Improvements in Aerogoniometry, or Direction Finding from
Airships. Just as ground goniostations were able, in the
manner above outlined, to measure the direction of a distant
and invisible airship which was emitting radio signals from its
trailing antenna; so conversely, it became, to a certain extent,
established practice among the Allied air services, during the
war, to find the direction of certain beacon radio stations from
on board a flying airship, and so, by cross bearings, locate the
observer's position over the land or sea. In particular, there
were three widely separated beacon radio stations in Great
Britain, which, for two minutes^ just before each hour, suc-
cessively emitted signals corresponding to certain distinctive
letters of the alphabet, on a definite wave length. A flying
observer, in cloudy weather, wishing to locate himself at such
times, could find the radio bearing of each of these three beacon
stations, and so lay down his position on his map to a certain
degree of precision. The radio bearing of a beacon station
could be measured on a steady airplane course to about one
degree of arc. The precision of the fix obtained from cross
bearings would, in each case, depend upon the distance of the
flying plane from the beacons; but ordinarily a fix within 10
kilometers of the actual position was considered satisfactory.
A distance of 10 kilometers would be passed over in about three
or four minutes of rapid flight. These gonio bearings were
obtained from coils mounted on the airplane, and commonly
within the fuselage, so arranged as to be rotatable by the
observer from his seat. Large airplanes, of the long-distance
bombing type, often carried a navigating officer, who, among
his other duties, took gonio measurements during flight, when
the darkness or cloudiness prevented him from recognizing
his position over the ground. It is clear that this method of
determining positions during flight by aerogoniometry, largely
developed under the pressure of the world fight, will play a

ADVANCES IN SIGNALLING 243

definite part in the future development of flying, in peace as
well as in war.

Improvements in Ground Telegraphy. In addition to radio
communication without wires, the Signal Corps employed in
our army, and in common with our Allies, another system of
so-called wireless electric communication, which consists in
laying a short length — say 75 meters — of insulated wire on
the surface of the ground in a straight line parallel to the front
trenches, grounding each end of this wire, usually by steel
spikes driven into the soil, and inserting in this wire, say at the
middle of its length, a relatively powerful electric buzzer send-
ing apparatus, worked from a portable storage battery. Any
similar length of wire parallel to this, and not more than say
2 or 3 kilometers distant therefrom, with its ends also grounded,
and with a delicate telephone receiver inserted in it, enables
the buzzer signals from the distant sending wire to be picked
up and read by the listening operator, who may, perhaps, be
located in a dugout on the front line. This communication
between two short parallel grounded wires depends upon
ground conduction, magnetic induction, and radio action, all
combined in certain proportions, that vary from case to case.
The French who, as a nation, are always logical in thought, and
precise in language, have called this telegraphde par sol, abbre-
viated T. P. S., or as it has been repeated in our army, *' ground
telegraphy."

Ground telegraphy apparatus has its advantages in being
portable and well adapted to rapid infantry advance over a
short range. It can be put down and picked up again, as
rapidly as the men can drive short steel spikes and pull them
up again. The short length of wire is likely to escape de-
struction from exploding shells, for a little while, during an
advance. Disadvantages are, on the other hand, that the coded
messages can be read as easily by foe as friend. As soon as
T. P. S. messages are picked up, the terrain from which they
may emanate at once invites the attention of opposing artillery.
The Germans, who also employed a T. P. S. system, resorted

244 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

to various methods to hamper our use of it, such as sending
powerful dynamo currents through the ground in the neighbor-
hood, in order to deafen the listener and make the signals
unreadable.

Experience with the system, while greatly developing it in
the war, seems to have indicated that the short-wave radio-loop
system is much more effective and advantageous; so that it is
doubtful whether the T. P. S. system will play much part in an-
other war ; whereas the use of the radio system is likely to be
greatly increased.

Tree Antenna. It was discovered by the Chief Signal Officer
in 1904, that almost any living tree, of suitable height, could be
made use of as a receiving antenna for radio communication,
if a nail were driven into the tree trunk at a short elevation
above the ground, and radio apparatus connected by a wire to
this nail and to ground. In other words, a growing tree could
be made to serve for radio reception, in place of a tower, or
high pole and wire. Every tree is thus, in a certain sense,
a makeshift substitute for a radio antenna. An intensive inves-
tigation of this remarkable phenomenon, made during the war
by the Signal Corps, showed that, with modern amplifiers,
signals could easily be read in America from powerful European
stations, like Nauen in Germany, using a tree and short wire
instead of a mast and high wire. Moreover, such a tree
antenna enabled goniometric measurements to be made of the
direction of the incoming signals, with the aid of relatively small
rotatable frame coils.

The investigation has shown that a radio observer who
desires to receive long distance signals, as distinguished from
transmitting them, need only locate a suitably high tree, and
connect his amplifying apparatus to it by a wire preferably
reaching up to about two-thirds of the total height of the tree.
If anyone should ask to-day what are the secrets which the
trees seem to whisper to one another in the woods, a scientific,
as well as a poetic, answer, might be that, in a certain sense,

ADVANCES IN SIGNALLING 245

they faintly whisper the secrets of all the radio communications
of the world.

Increase of Radio Precision and Range. It has been esti-
mated that at least in two directions, the war advanced applied
science more in four years than perhaps might have been accom-
plished in twenty or thirty years of peace; namely (i) in air-
ships or airshipping, and (2) in radio communication. The
great number of radio messages, passing simultaneously through
the air, forced the necessity of learning to tune sharply, in order
to effect precise and accurate inter-communication in the Allied
armies. Moreover, the ranges of radio signalling by telephone
and by telegraph were greatly increased. In regard to radio-
telegraphy, the range was increased until it actually encircles
the globe. It was found during the war that radio signals
emitted at Carnarvon, in Wales, were detected and read suc-
cessfully at Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Any ter-
restial globe will show that the British Wales and New South
Wales are nearly diametrically opposite. We may, therefore,
expect that, in the future, radio telegraphy will expand not
merely across oceans, but around the world in all directions
simultaneously.

The time that it takes an electromagnetic wave to run around
the globe, from the radio station of emission to an antipodean
radio station of reception, has not yet been actually measured ;
although the time of transmission of radio signals has been
determined photographically, between Washington, D. C, and
Paris, France, an overseas distance of 6175 kilometers, as 0.021
second. The wave travels very nearly as fast as light in vacuo;
i.e., 300,000 kilometers per second. Since the distance from
pole to pole is 20,000 kilometers, the time for any wave to
travel to an antipodean station should not much exceed one-
fifteenth of a second. Consequently, all parts of our world
have shrunk, during the war, to something less than one-tenth
of a second of utmost separation or remoteness. How hope-
less, in the future, must such a world be without a league, nay

246 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

a perpetual Congress, of nations, a single system of weights
and measures, a single trunk language, and a paramount inter-
national law! Disunity on this planet has been doomed by
radio. Law and order will necessarily have to be maintained,
not merely here and there, but everywhere on a tenth-second
world. If the great war has brought death to, say, twenty
millions of persons, and horror and hate to many more, yet it
has brought the reality of ethereal contact, and the potential
future blessings of almost instantaneous intercommunication,
through radio signalling, to all the children of men.

XIV

CONTRIBUTIONS OF METALLURGY TO VICTORY.
HENRY M. HOWE

IN this story of the contributions of metallurgy to victory let
me first tell of that which was of transcendent importance,
the human element, and then consider some of the technical
advances, of the new alloys, and of the new adaptations of old
ones. In the space available only a few striking and typical
cases can be given. To tell all that was noble or noteworthy
would need a shelf rather than a chapter. I have naturally
written of those events most familiar and readily verified.

The metallurgist's great contributions were the wonderful
increase in the production of ordnance material, and the equally
wonderful spirit of cooperation which underlay it. It is not
simply that each steel-maker who knew how to make steel fit
for cannons turned his manufacture from peace to war prod-
ucts, and increased the scale of his operations, but that the few,
the perilously few, who had this knowledge from long and
costly experiments, from risking their solvency, and from every
kind of strenuous endeavor, deliberately gave it freely to their
own competitors, actual and potential. Only thus was it pos-
sible to create the mechanism which could make the enormous
quantities imperatively needed. Each owner of furnaces whose
lack of special knowledge had till now restricted his work to
the cruder kinds of steel must now be taught how to make the
best. Where this giving was due to patriotism it was to high
patriotism ; where it was to enlightened self-interest, how clear
was that enlightenment ! The ordnance officers who urged
this course had indeed the strong argument, " What good will

247

248 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

the exclusiveness of your knowledge do you if Germany wins
and takes everything, down to the clothes on your back, ex-
clusiveness included? Better to tell your competitors your
secrets than to run the risk of beggary and blows for yourselves
and dishonor for your women."

The case of France is the most striking. Her northeastern
iron district, her most important, was overwhelmed by the first
German onrush, and she thus lost about 81 per cent, of her pig-
iron capacity and 63 per cent, of her steel-making capacity.
But in about two and one-half years she nearly tripled the
number of her blast furnaces, and increased that of her open
hearth furnaces by about 60 per cent. During the war she
increased her annual production of rifles 290 fold, of machine
guns 70 fold, of 150 mm. shells 225 fold, and of 75 mm. shells
15 fold, the production of these last reaching "the enormous
number of 200,000 a day. Far as these numbers are beyond
our mental grasp, they suffice to correct the impression that it
is by necessity that France has usually devoted herself to the
exquisite perfection of her products rather than to their quan-
tity. Her gigantic output of munitions, for her own army,
for ours, and for those of five other Allied nations shows that,
in habitually devoting herself most strikingly to products beyond
the skill of all other people, she is following choice and not
necessity.

The part played by an illustrious French ironmaster, Dr.
Schneider, may well be recorded. He controls about 250,000
workmen at Le Creusot and his many other steel works, ship-
yards, iron and coal mines, optical works, machine tool works,
electrical works, Diesel engine works, locomotive works, bridge
and other works. He supplied about three-quarters of all the
artillery used in the war by the French, including the Schneider
2 1 -inch guns. He provided the American Army with about
half of its heavy artillery, and all of its field artillery, besides
sending much to the Belgian, Italian, Roumanian, Russian and
Serbian Armies, and making enormous quantities of the most
varied war products, tanks, aircraft and machine guns. This

CONTRIBUTIONS OF METALLURGY 249

achievement is not dimmed by our sending ordnance of other
kinds to Europe on a like scale, As early as March, 1915, fore-
seeing our eventual entry into the war, he sent engineers to
introduce into this as well as other countries the French methods
of making shells and gun steel, thus lightening the work of the
French commissions later sent to buy munitions.

Like Dr. Schneider's story is that of the Perrone Brothers,
President and Chairman of the Ansaldo Company of Genoa,
makers of ships, turbines, locomotives, electrical machinery,
and like products.

Seeing clearly, and long before the war, the menace to Italy
in the German peaceful penetration all about them, they pledged
themselves beside their father's coffin to keep all German inter-
ests and influence away from their great industry. When we
remember how the treacherous Teuton succeeded in controlling
Greece and in causing Russia's perfidy towards Roumania, we
are hardly surprised that this strictly Italian company, with its
wonderful possibilities, could get no orders from its own gov-
ernment. Nothing daunted, the management started at the
beginning of the war to turn its plants into gun-making estab-
lishments, and actually completed two thousand cannons before
it could get an order. Then, when the terrible Caporetto dis-
aster came, the government turned to it for guns, and seems to
have been greatly surprised to learn that these two thousand
guns were even then on hand ready for immediate shipment.
Thereafter, indeed, came orders in plenty, till the company,
now employing a hundred thousand men, had made ten thou-
sand guns.

To the stupendous task of making these was added that of
financing the manufacture, for, plenty as the orders now were,
there was no pay. At one time the government owed the
Ansaldo Company about one hundred and forty million dollars.
In order to carry so great a load a combination of banks had
to be made.

In the last two years of the war this company bought and
brought from America in its own steamers nearly fifty million

250 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

dollars worth of war material. Besides 10,000 cannon it
made 3000 airplanes, fifty million projectiles, and great nun>
bers of warships, torpedo boats, and submarines.

To illustrate the British metallurgical contributions my story
may well give some examples of the work of one of the very
most interesting figures in modern metallurgy, Sir Robert Had-
field, inventor, general of investigators, vitalizer of societies,
astonishing captain-major of industry, and inexhaustible foun-
tain of enthusiasm to all about him.

Of his manganese steel helmets I tell in a later section.
Other important war uses of this material were found, of which
I may not tell.

In the terrible autumn of 1914 he was asked by the War
Office to install several factories specially planned for making
the high-explosive shells of which the Allied armies were in
such grave need. It was characteristic of his exuberant driv-
ing power that he built two plants and had them delivering
finished shells in one case in 5 months and 3 days and in the
other case in less than six months after beginning to build.
He also built new plants and converted existing plants, giving
them a weekly capacity of over 8,000 of the important 9.2 in.
Howitzer shells. Before the war a weekly production of 200
such shells was about the normal.

The flexibility with which he adapted his works to new and
very difficult products is illustrated by his making 3000 gun
tubes of calibers running up to 9.2 inches, and 3400 trench
howitzers, though he had never made either guns or howitzers
before March, 1917.

It was by such feats that the steel makers of Great Britain
and France enabled their battered armies to hold back the
German flood till the general ammunition campaign became
effective later on.

Sir Robert's firm made nearly 2^ million shells of about 20
different kinds for the British Army, and I million of 37 differ-
ent kinds for their navy, including the immense armor piercing
shells, weighing a ton and a half each, for the 1 8-inch monitor

CONTRIBUTIONS OF METALLURGY 251

guns. The gun itself weighs about 150 tons, and can send its
shell more than 30 miles. The total Hadfield production of
shells was equivalent to nearly 30 million i8-pounders, and
their total production of all kinds of steel was about 750,000
tons, valued at about $160,000,000.

American Contributions. When we entered the war it was
wisely decided that our ordnance makers should concentrate
their attention first on making the products with which the
Allied armies as a whole were least well supplied; and second
and chiefly on laying the foundations for an overwhelming
production of ordnance for 1919 and 1920, even though this
meant deliberately restricting the joint production of the Allies
for 1918 to but little beyond their bare necessities.

The former of these principles is illustrated by our throwing
the chief accent on the manufacture of explosives, propellants,
and certain specific kinds of shells, because the British and
French works already had capacity sufficient for supplying all
the Allied armies, including our own, with most kinds of guns
throughout 1918, and with most kinds of shells at least till
June of that year.

If, as seems probable, the German general staff was allowed
to learn of the second of these two principles, our straining
everything to create establishments which could prepare the
vast quantities needed for an irresistible onslaught in 1919, it
would naturally do as it did, stake all on a series of titanic
efforts to break through the Allied line at all costs before our
help could come, and when these failed abandon hope. If
Chateau-Thierry could happen in our unreadiness, what would
we be when ready? Why fight and bleed till then?

In order to weigh fairly what we did in gun making you must
understand our shameful situation in having before the war
only two establishments at which great guns of first rate quality
could be made. Think of that, the richest country in the world
in natural resources, in assets in general, and in power of
industrial organization, with a hundred million inhabitants
generous to prodigality, and only two establishments, public or

252 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

private, which had the knowledge and the tools needed for
making first-class cannons. No administration in the last
twenty-five years can escape part of the blame for failing to
make our people understand how grossly we were unprepared.

Happily we can turn from this humiliating ante-bellum state
to a war record of which our children and grandchildren may
be proud.

The contrast between the two private ordnance works and
six government arsenals before the war, and the nearly 8000
establishments working on ordnance contracts on Armistice
Day, is striking enough whatever allowance we make for the
great number of ordnance items apart from guns at the end
of the war, when there were more than 100,000 distinct items
in the American ordnance catalogue.

The story of the " Gun and Howitzer Club " is an interesting
example of the way in which we worked. In addition to our
• two skilled cannon-makers there were plenty of steel makers
who could readily be given this great skill by filling in the gaps
in their already great knowledge. They were the material out
of which we must needs make gun makers. To this end the
Gun and Howitzer Club was formed. It was called by its
Chairman the " Greenhorns' Club " with the wise purpose of
impressing on the experienced steel makers and ordnance offi-
cers who were its members their ignorance of many essentials
of gun-making procedure. They could already make very good
steel, yet not steel good enough for guns. Moreover, in their
long and very intelligent practice many of them had developed
expedients which would be of help in hastening and cheapening
even the practice of the best gun-steel makers.

The purpose of the club was thus to pool the knowledge of
the actual and potential gun makers, which meant to replace
their firmly established policy of secrecy with its opposite. In
order that so complete a reversal of trade policy should even
be considered, it must be proposed by men whom the trade
held not only in perfect confidence for their uprightness and
good sense, but also in affection. Such were the men who led

CONTRIBUTIONS OF METALLURGY 253

the difficult but absolutely necessary work of this club, — Mr.
A. A. Stevenson, its Chairman, and Colonel William P. Barba
of the Ordnance Department, himself a most accomplished
maker of guns and gun steel.

So wisely and so energetically was this pooling pressed that
by August, 1918, twenty-one of the most capable makers of
gun steel and of gun forgings, indeed all of those supplying
either the army or the navy, were brought into the closest re-
lations, so that at the frequent meetings of the club at the
various gun works its members interchanged even the most
secret information without reserve.

The value of this organization, loose as it was, may be in-
ferred in a rough way from a comparison of our trifling pro-
duction of 55 finished guns per annum before 1917, with
our production in October, 1918, at the rate of 24,000 * sets
of forgings for guns between 3-inches and 9-5-inches in
diameter, though three of the gun factories had not yet com-
pleted their machine-tool equipment.

This substitution of cooperation for segregation was of such
great and clear benefit to all that the Greenhorns' Club is still
working with the Ordnance Departments of both army and
navy, to design their new equipment in such a way that its
production may be quickly expanded to enormous dimensions
when the next demand comes.

Two cases of very rapid construction of gun factories de-
serve mention. The Taeony gun plant, which cost $3,000,000,
was built in 7 months, between October nth, 1917, and May
1 5th, 1918, in spite of the extraordinarily severe winter. On
June 29th, 1918, its first carload of gun forgings was ac-
cepted and shipped, eight and one-half months after breaking
ground.

The new works of American Brake Shoe and Foundry Com-
pany began shipping howitzers seven months after breaking
ground.

At the end of the war we were making gun bodies ready for

1 America's Munitions, 1917-1918, Benedict Crowell, pp. 43-44.

254 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

•mounting at the rate of 832 per month, while England was
making them at the rate of 802 and France at the rate of 1138
per month ; and we were making machine guns and automatic
rifles nearly thrice as fast as England and more than twice as
fast as France.

How rapidly we increased our production of ammunition is
shown by the fact that about one-quarter of all the high-ex-
plosive 75-mm. shells, and nearly 40 per cent, of all the adapters
and boosters for them which we machined up to November
ist, 1918, passed inspection in October, 1918.

By the end of the war we had at least 42,000 workmen en-
gaged in the manufacture of great guns, including their car-
riages and fire-control apparatus. Though, because of our
initial lack of preparation, our Army Ordnance Department
sold to our allies much less than half the ordnance that it
bought from them, yet our country sold them five dollars' worth
of ordnance and materials for conversion into ordnance and
munitions for every dollar's worth we bought from them. We
may well consider how far the resulting adverse trade balance
of our allies represents a normal debt, and how far a pound
of flesh from next the heart. Before our belated entry into
the war we knew that they needed these arms to defend us
as well as themselves from annihilation. If I arm a watchman
to defend both himself and me, which is the debtor? Should
he alone pay for the arms which he uses in our common de-
fense, while I remain at home in supposed safety?

Simplification of Cannon Making. The manufacture of
cannons was materially hastened and their quality improved
at the same time by decreasing greatly the amount of forging
which they undergo. This seems at first a most uninteresting
and purely administrative measure, but on examination it turns
out to be due to basic physical considerations of very great
interest, which might well escape attention. We ask at once
" Why are cannons forged at all ? Why do we follow the
tedious and expensive plan of casting the molten steel in a
very large ingot, as the crude mass into which the steel is first

CONTRIBUTIONS OF METALLURGY 255

cast is called, with a cross section about four times that of the
cannon itself, and then forge it down with extremely costly
presses and with a very great outlay of energy, into its final
shape? Why do we not proceed as in making a statue, and
cast the molten metal directly into a cannon of the exact size
and shape in which it will be used ? In short, why are cannons
forgings instead of being simply castings ? "

Partly from copying blindly the procedure which was neces-
sary when cannons were not cast from the molten as a single
piece of steel, but were built up from a large number of
lumps of wrought iron, which had to undergo a great amount
of forging in order to weld them together. Apart from this
minor and valid reason is that the kneading under the hy-
draulic press closes up any small cavities which form in the
solidification of the molten mass. But the chief motive is
that this kneading may lessen the extreme heterogeneousness
which such a cast mass necessarily has, as I will now show.

Solidification is an extremely complex process of differentia-
tion. This differentiation is familiar, though not by so long
a name, to every country bred boy, who knows that if a vessel-
ful of cider is frozen half way through, the half which re-
mains unfrozen, surrounded by the frozen part as by a jacket
of ice, is far more stimulating and joyous than the original
fermented juice of Eve's fruit. There is no more alcohol
present in the mass taken as a whole than when we started,
but that which is present has been concentrated in the un-
frozen " mother liquor," because of this differentiation in
freezing. The earliest frozen layers in the act of freezing re-
ject part of their alcohol content and thus concentrate it in the
mother liquor.

A parallel process occurs in the solidification of a steel
ingot. The carbon as well as the harmful impurities, phos-
phorus and sulphur, which we have failed to remove com-
pletely in the purification of the steel, become concentrated
progressively during solidification in the remaining molten
metal. Each successive layer of solid steel, deposited from

256 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

the still molten interior upon the already solid white-hot jacket
of steel which encases it, becomes thus richer in carbon, phos-
phorus, and sulphur than the preceding layer, so that the con-
tent of these elements increases progressively from the skin
to the axis of the completely solidified ingot.

But this is not the worst of it. The steel solidifies not in
successive layers like the leaves of a gigantic onion, but rather
in great columnar or pine-tree crystals protruding out at any
given moment into the still molten interior. As solidification
proceeds these trees grow not only at their tips but also at the
ends of their tree-like branches, which thus in time inter-
lace, and thus landlock part of the enriched mother liquor.
The result is that, when solidification is complete, the ingot
as a whole has a dendritic structure, with these elements con-
centrated in part between the trunks and branches of the pine
trees, and in part concentrated progressively towards the axis
of the ingot, or more strictly towards the last freezing part.
This structure may be likened to the veining of marble. In
each case the mass is substantially free from cavities, and even
from porosity, but it is coarsely heterogeneous.

The carbon and phosphorus which are thus concentrated
embrittle the metal locally, giving rise to brittle regions scat-
tered through the mass, somewhat like brittle links in an other-
wise ductile chain, lessening the resistance of the whole to
shock.

The main purpose of forging is to lessen this heterogeneous-
ness by a species of kneading which mixes up the various
parts, and in particular lessens the distances which diffusion
has to cover in order to give uniformity. Kneading thus being
a good thing, give us plenty of it. It was most readily given
by reducing the cross section of the ingot under the hydraulic
press, and simultaneously lengthening it. But in order that
this cross section should thus be reduced greatly it must ini-
tially be much greater than that of the finished piece, formerly
four times as great. In trade language, there was a reduction
of four to one. Even before the war many of us insisted

CONTRIBUTIONS OF METALLURGY 257

that this was exaggerating the disease in order to use more
medicine for its cure ; that to give the ingot this great cross sec-
tion was to retard the solidification greatly, and thus to in-
crease the differentiation which it is the purpose of forging
to palliate. We insisted that a reduction of four to one was
excessive.

Fortunately the needs of the war gained us a hearing. We
needed cannons, and as quickly as possible. Clearly a re-
duction of two to one takes only half as long as a reduction of
four to one. This consideration, backed up by the assurances
of the most intelligent experts that the faster solidification of
the smaller ingots would result in a better product, at last led
to casting the steel in much smaller ingots, calling for a re-
duction of only two to one instead of four to one. This is
typical of a whole class of cases in which the necessities of
war induced the authorities to depart from bad practices which
had rested on superstition or ignorance.

Hadfield's Manganese Steel for Helmets. In using Had-
field's manganese steel, an alloy of iron with about 12 per cent,
of manganese and 1.25 per cent, of carbon, for the helmets of
the American and British Armies, the idiosyncrasies of a very
remarkable material were utilized in a striking way. Even
in our early attempts to use it, we saw some decades ago that,
in addition to its extraordinary combination of hardness with
ductility, it had some obscure peculiarity which prevented our
foretelling with confidence whether it would fit any new serv-
ice proposed. Shortly before the war we found that this
peculiarity consisted, at least in part, in its increasing greatly in
hardness on even slight plastic deformation, that is on being
bent, twisted, compressed, lengthened, or otherwise forced be-
yond its elastic limit, so that it takes permanent set. This
plastic deformation seems to precipitate an overdue allotropic
change of the iron itself, from the gamma or non-magnetic
ductile state to the beta or hard brittle state, given to common
steel by rapid cooling from above a red heat. Thus a rail
of manganese steel when first laid in the track consists

258 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

throughout of the ductile and rather soft gamma iron. The
pressure of the passing wheels soon strains a very thin layer
on the top of the rail beyond its elastic limit, and thus shifts
it to the hard beta state, which because of its hardness resists
the abrasion of the wheels, while its integral union with the
ductile gamma body of the rail prevents it from breaking
readily.

A helmet is pressed into shape from a flat sheet. In thus
pressing a helmet of manganese steel the incidental plastic
deformation transfers enough iron from the gamma to the
hard beta state to make the mass hard and rigid, while leav-
ing enough ductile gamma iron to prevent shattering under the
impact of the bullet, and the wounding of the wearer by fly-
ing fragments. Hence this alloy, in spite of its low ballistic
resistance when in the form of heavy ship's armor, has great
ballistic resistance when pressed into helmets. Many millions
of these manganese steel helmets were worn by the soldiers of
the American and British Armies. Indeed the manganese steel
made for this purpose by the Hadfield firm alone represented
nearly four million helmets. They are incomparably more
resistant than the French helmets, which strangely enough
were made of a soft weak steel. The German helmet was
about 12 per cent, thicker and about half heavier than the
manganese steel ones, weighing 37 ounces against the former's
25l/2- On the other hand it protects the back of the head and
neck much better.

A helmet must neither perforate, splinter, nor indent deeply.
Its wearer may be killed by the helmet's indenting so deeply
as to fracture his skull sand-bagwise, even though it is not
actually perforated by the bullet.

Inestimable as was the service rendered by this helmet, a
fair weighing of its merits and defects against those of the
German helmet, and of the material and design developed in
the experiments carried out by the American Army Ordnance
Department jointly with the Enginering Division of the Na-
tional Research Council, remains to be made.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF METALLURGY 259

The Use of Cast Iron for Bursting Shells. With the steel
works representing more than 60 per cent, of the French steel
production overwhelmed by the first German onrush, the French
wisely adopted cast iron as one of the materials for their burst-
ing shells, thus releasing their small remaining steel produc-
tion for high-explosive shells, cannon, and other imperatively
needed ordnance. Fortunately, the manufacture of these cast
iron bursting shells had been developed at the Douai arsenal
before the war.

Among the many advantages of this step were that the mak-
ing of these cast iron shells could be begun immediately at most
of the numberless iron foundries scattered all over the country;
that additional foundries for making them could be built far
faster than steel works could ; that the processes of production
are much simpler than the steel making processes chiefly be-
cause cast iron is very much more fusible than steel; that the
cast iron shells can be made from relatively impure and very
abundant raw materials, thus leaving the scanty supply of the
best materials for steel-making; that they are far cheaper
than steel shells ; and that their manufacture calls for far less
fuel.

Ordnance engineers have been reluctant to use so brittle a
material for shells, lest they break in the gun and thus cause it
to burst. Even a thread left in- the barrel of a revolver in
cleaning it will lead to its bursting when next fired. But with
the Germans at the Marne it was imperative to increase the
shell production by all possible means, even if this led to the
occasional bursting of a gun. Better one gun crew in a hun-
dred blown to shreds then Paris taken.

The risk of gun-bursting is probably less than it seems at
first, in view of the general use of cast iron in this country
for carwheels, even those of passenger coaches on express
trains, and of the insignificant number of the accidents caused
by breakages, in spite of the severe shock to each wheel on
passing each crossing at full speed. For that matter, cast
iron shells have been used very extensively here for target

26o THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

practice, and they should be no more likely to explode in a
gun aimed at a German than in one aimed at a board.

Light High-Conductivity Alloys for Air-Craft Engines.
Because the weight of an engine which is to develop a given
quantity of energy is inversely as its piston-speed, the little
aircraft engines make an extremely great number of revolu-
tions per minute. This, or more generally the lightness of the
engines for the energy they develop, leads to an extremely
great internal heat development per unit of weight, and hence
of thermal capacity, and hence finally to a tendency of the
engines to overheat. To meet this tendency these engines
need material of great thermal conductivity as well as strength,
so that the heat developed in them may escape readily, and
not heat them so hot as to crack the lubricating oil, and thus
choke them with carbon. Hence the use of the light high-
conductivity copper-aluminum alloys of the duralumin class.
Their chief value here lies in their combination of great thermal
conductivity with immunity towards the embrittlement which
steel suffers at about 300 C, rather than in their lightness, for
none of them is as strong as steel per unit of weight.

These alloys were improved greatly during the war. The
discovery of the best conditions for melting, alloying, and
casting made it possible to increase the tensile strength required
in the reception tests by nearly forty per cent. The regula-
tion of the manufacture at the works of the Aluminum Cast-
ings Company was so close that only thirty castings in about
ninety thousand were rejected, or at the rate of one in three
thousand.

Stainless Steel for the Valves of Aircraft Engines. The
tendency to overheat which we have just considered is ex-
aggerated in the valves, because they are surrounded on all
sides by the hot gases, and have so little chance to get rid of
their heat by conduction that their temperature is said to reach
1000 degrees Centigrade (1832 F.), or above the melting point
of these copper aluminum alloys. At this temperature most
alloys of iron oxidize very rapidly. To meet these very try-

CONTRIBUTIONS OF METALLURGY 261

ing conditions an iron alloy called *' stainless steel," of re-
markable inertness and hence resistance to oxidation, was used.
It contains about 13 per cent, of chromium. Before the war
its resistance to oxidation, its " rustlessness," led to its rapidly
increasing use for cutlery.

THE ROLE OF

BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE

IN THE WAR

XV

THE FOOD PROBLEM
VERNON KELLOGG

IN his great book on " The Future of War," first published
about thirty years ago, Jean Bloch, the Polish economist,
said epigrammatically : Famine, not fighting; that is the fu-
ture of war.

With due allowance for the combination of half truth and
half exaggeration, characteristic of epigrams, this prophecy
of Bloch's of thirty years ago was fairly realized in the World
War. There was, to be sure, plenty of fighting in the war,
but famine and the threat of famine played a very important
part in its course and its decision. The food problem was al-
most dominatingly insistent among the war-problems which
all the major governments involved in the struggle had to
face. The great diversion of man-power from the fields to
the trenches and war-factories with the consequent lessening
of food production, and an actual needed increase in consump-
tion because of the transference of men and women from
sedentary occupations to vigorous physical and fuel-burning
activity, the transfer of horses and work-stock from the farms
to the cavalry and transport service of the armies, the cur-
tailed import of fertilizers, and the occasional actual destruc-
tion of food stocks during the military operations together with
the military occupation and devastation of considerable areas
of farm lands, all resulted in producing a food problem of
great difficulty of solution. It meant a calling on external food
supplies, and this at a time of unusual difficulties of transpor-
tation, to a degree never before dreamed of, and it meant a

265

266 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

voluntary or controlled modification of food habits and re-
pression of food use by whole peoples beyond anything ever
before attempted.

Dr. H. P. Armsby has recently most truthfully declared
("Yale Review," January, 1920): "The experiences of the
great war have forced us to realize as never before that the
maintenance of the food supply is the basal problem of civili-
zation. Before commerce or manufacturing or mining can be
carried on — before science or art or religion can flourish —
man must be fed. A starving world cannot be made safe
for democracy. Any rational program of national or inter-
national preparedness, not only for possible future war but
especially for the hoped for victories of peace, must have as
its prime element the maintenance of an abundant food sup-
ply at prices which shall adequately reward the producer and
not unduly tax the consumer."

/ There is then an ever-existent great national and interna-
'• tional food problem: a problem that demands consideration
^ in peace-time as well as war-time, although its insistence in
war-time is enormously enhanced and made visible to every
one. ) In peace-time not many of us notice it, except in so far
as if reveals itself by certain indications to our purses. Just
now it is particularly a problem of the household budget : suf-
ficient food exists, which may not be the case in war-time,
but it costs so much that most of us are constantly worried by
the effort to obtain it. So we appeal to economists for a so-
lution of the problem. And these men in turn appeal to
science to see if this all-resourceful last resort can do anything
to help in the emergency. It therefore devolves on scientific
food and nutrition experts, on men versed in scientific methods
of food production and scientific guidance to wise and
economical food use, to tell what they already know, and to
try to know more, for the sake of the national well-being and
the national strength. For national well-being depends largely
on a sufficient and available food supply, and national strength
depends largely on national well-being.

THE FOOD PROBLEM 267

In the " relief of Belgium," as carried out by Mr. Hoover's
Commission, we introduced into occupied Belgium and France,
in the four years of the work, about five million tons of food
stuffs of a value, at wholesale prices and with much unpaid
service, of seven hundred million dollars. This food was se-
lected with much regard to economy of purchase, ease of
handling, keeping qualities, and, especially, concentration of
food value in relation to weight and mass. The problem of
transportation, during the period of the importations, was
made so serious by the tremendous demand on shipping and
the constant loss of vessels by submarines, that no waste stuff,
possibly avoidable, could be carried.

The Belgian importations consisted chiefly of wheat and
flour, dried beans and peas, animal and vegetable fats, con-
densed milk and sugar. These staples, with their small con-
tent of water and high nutritive value, best met the needs of
the situation. Some meat, for protein needs, was available
in the country, as were also some green vegetables and fruit.
Out of these native and imported foodstuffs a ration, varying
in character somewhat with season, and in amount with the
varying situation as to money, actual food obtainable and con-
ditions of transportation, was determined, and on it a great
majority of the people lived. The wealthier ones could add
to it by purchase of the limited native production. The poorer
ones, those dependent on the American Relief Commission and
the native relief organization for actual charity, had practically
nothing else. At the end of the war practically one-half of
the imprisoned Belgian and French population jof nearly ten
million people was living wholly or partly on charity. At one
time actually one-half of the inhabitants of the great city of
Antwerp was in the daily soup and bread lines.

Now this daily ration at no time was of character to produce
much over two thousand calories. Three thousand, and even
a fraction more, are considered by most physiologists to be the
desirable minimum for the average man at reasonable work.
Yet these Belgians and French maintained life, and most of

268 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

them a fair health, on much less than three thousand calories
a day. To be sure, most of them did no heavy work, and
many of them no work at all. There was little work to do,
except for the Germans, and they would not do that. For
the few actual heavy workers, the men in the coal mines, a
supplement to the regular ration was given.

This ration also had a very low protein content as com-
pared with the usually recommended one. It was only rarely
that the protein food ran to as much as 50 grams : it was usually
nearer 35 grams. The textbook rations usually call for at least
100 grams.

The lesson of the great nutrition experiment in Belgium is
that a considerably lower ration than the one ordinarily recom-
mended by physiologists can keep a people alive and most of
them in fair health for a considerable period of time. Two
elements in the experiment were unusual, namely, the number
of subjects and the duration of it. . On the other hand, the re-
sults of the experiment can be expressed only in large and
general terms.

By the time America came into the war the demands of the
Allies and European neutrals for importations of food had
become so enormous, and the submarine warfare had so re-
stricted the shipping available and made it necessary to limit its
use to the shortest sea lanes, thus cutting out possibilities of
bringing food from such distant sources as Australia, and
concentrating the demand on North and South America, that
the war food problem was more serious than ever. The al-
ready difficult transportation situation was made worse by
America's need for tonnage for the sending overseas of her
great army and its equipment in munitions, clothing and food.
It therefore became evident that the use of food by the Euro-
pean Allies and neutrals would have to be repressed to the
lowest safe amount. What was this amount for each country ?

This was a problem for the English, French, and Italian
governmental food controllers and for the American food ad-
ministrator to decide. Theoretically a great pooling of Ameri-

THE FOOD PROBLEM 269

can and Allied food supplies was made with a common at-
tempt to place consumption at the lowest safe figure. England
and France and Italy intensified their food control, restricting
sales by dealers, using purchasing or ration cards, limiting the
bills of fare in public eating places, and generally putting food
use on a basis of governmental permission; while America,
following a method presumably more in harmony with the
spirit of our people, instituted under the stimulus and guidance
of Food Administrator Hoover a nation-wide campaign of
voluntary food-saving. This was reenforced by a considerable
degree of official regulation of food manufacturers and whole-
salers, but no attempt was authorized by Congress, in its food
control act, to regulate the sales by retailers or the actual
food use by individuals. As a result of a considerable in-
crease in American production and the radical food-saving of
the people, we were able to export to Europe during our first
year after entering the war (April i, 1917 to April i, 1918)
fifteen billion pounds of food, an increase of more than 200
per cent, over the annual average of late pre-war years.

The theoretical pooling of the available Allied and Ameri-
can food supplies made necessary the determination of fair
allocations from the American surplus to each of the major Al-
lied countries as well as to the European neutrals needing
imports, the share of each to be based on the deficit between
native production and a fair minimum consumption. This
need of a proper division among needy countries led to the
formation of various bodies for effecting the determinations,
of which bodies one, known as the Inter-Allied Scientific Food
Commission, was composed of representative food and nutri-
tion experts from America, Great Britain, France, Italy, and
Belgium, and had the responsibility for providing the food
executives of America and the Allies with any scientific knowl-
edge that might be advantageously used in making the de-
termination of the food allocations.

This Commission held meetings at various times in 1918 and
1919 in London, Paris, Rome, and Brussels. One of its first

270 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

attempts was to reach an agreement on certain fundamental
units and co-efficients necessary for use in determining the
food needs of a large mixed population.

It is familiar knowledge that men engaged in different kinds
of work, who might be classed as non-workers, light-workers,
and heavy-workers, and women and children, do not all de-
mand rations of the same value in calories. The Commission
agreed that if the average man, doing medium work, is taken
as the unit, then a child up to 6 years should have .5 of this
ration, from 6 to 10 years, .7, from 10 to 14 years, .83, and
girls above 14 years and women, .83.

In order to apply these co-efficients of conversion of all mem-
bers of the population into " average men," so as to obtain the
figure of the total quantity of food stuffs necessary for a
given population, it is necessary to know the proportionate
occurrence in the population of children, women and men.
If the food necessary for a population entirely composed of
average men be represented by the unit j, then, on the basis
of the distribution of men, women, and children in America
and the Allied countries, England should receive .835, France,
.845, Italy, .826, and America, .84. That is to say, every 100
individuals in England, taken in the proportions in which the
different kinds of persons exist in the population, will be
equivalent for feeding purposes to 83.5 average man.

The advisable daily ration for an average man was fixed by
the Commission as one having a value of 3300 gross calories.
By gross calories is meant the energy value of the foods as they
are bought in the market. It was agreed that a reduction in
10 per cent, of this amount could be supported for a consider-
able time without injury to health.

With regard to the necessary protein content in a ration of
this calorific value and made up of a number of different food
stuffs it was agreed that such a ration would almost inevitably
contain enough protein matter to meet the needs of the in-
dividual. At the same time the Commission records its belief
that although meat is not a physiological necessity and hence

THE FOOD PROBLEM 271

need not of necessity compose a part of this ration, and its
place can be supplied by various other animal protein, such as
milk, cheese, and eggs, and also partly by vegetable proteins,
nevertheless, the dietary habits of the nations of Western
Europe being what they are, it is highly desirable to include a
certain proportion of meat in the ration of any people long
accustomed to its use.

As regards fat, the Commission agreed that a desirable
minimum of fat would be 75 grams a day. It recommended
that this fat ration be composed primarily of vegetable fats
and if there is an insufficiency of these available, the deficit
should be made up by animal fats.

For the special rations in the army and navy it was agreed
that for the troops, both naval and military, behind the fight-
ing lines, the minimum rations should be that of the " average
man," that is to 'say a ration to produce 3300 calories and con-
taining at least 75 g. of fat. For the actual combat troops
the value of the ration should be increased by 600 calories and
the fat content by 25 g. For troops fighting in high mountains
the calories should be further increased to the extent of 200.

The Commission discussed at much length the subject of
the milling rate, or rate of extraction, of flour from grain.
The usual extraction rate for bread grains in practically all
countries is considerably below 100 per cent. That is to say,
from a given amount of wheat or rye or other grain, anywhere
from 50 to 85 or 90 per cent, of the berry goes into the flour,
the rest, 'which is composed chiefly of the outer coats of the
berry, composing the " offals," or '* roughage," which is mostly
fed to animals. When there is need, however, of " stretch-
ing " the grain, the extraction rate is raised until it may, as
in actual whole wheat flour, be composed of all of the grain.
This means that the flour contains a certain part, even up to
all, of the offals normally kept out of the flour. The
question is, what is the highest extraction rate that may be ad-
visably used, from a physiological point of view, at times
when there is a shortage of grain, in order to obtain as large

272 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

an amount of bread as possible from the grain available.
Taking into account all of the knowledge available from scien-
tific experiment, the Commission agreed that for the sake of
the general health of the whole population it is advisable not
to use a higher extraction rate for wheat than 85 per cent., for
rye than 70 per cent., for maize 85 per cent., and for barley,
65 per cent.

At the same time that the Inter-Allied Scientific Commission
was considering the international food problem from a scien-
tific point of view the United States Food Administration,
endeavoring by all means in its power to effect a material sav-
ing of food in America for the sake of being able to send as
large an amount as possible to the Allies, whose very per-
sistence in their war effort depended upon these American
food contributions, was paying much attention to disseminat-
ing information among the people concerning wise and
economical food use. This involved many recommendations

\ based on scientific knowledge of a proper balancing of the
/ dietary and the possibility of substituting certain kinds of more

) abundant foods for those less abundant but necessary to the
Allies. For the sake of having the best scientific information
available in connection with this propaganda the Food Ad-
ministrator asked a large group of the leading physiological
chemists and food and nutrition experts of the country to act
as an advisory committee on food and nutrition, and all ques-
tions whose answer involved a reference to scientific knowl-
edge of food use were referred to this committee. As a result
of this arrangement much recent and not yet popularly under-
stood knowledge of food science was disseminated among the
people.

In addition to a general popular propaganda of scientific
food knowledge the Food Administration gave particular at-
tention to encouraging the teaching of food knowledge in the
public schools and colleges and universities of the country.
There were issued under the auspices of the Food Adminis-
tration several textbooks on food compiled by competent au-

THE FOOD PROBLEM 273

thorities and made widely available to the school children and
college students of the land.

In September, 1917, a conference of representatives of the
American Navy, the offices of the Surgeon-General and
Quartermaster-General of the Army, U. S. Food Administra-
tion, the Bureau of Chemistry of the Department of Agricul-
ture, and the Medical Department of the Council of National
Defense, was held in Washington " for the purpose of con-
sidering questions relating to the subsistence of the army."
• In this conference some of the best American authorities on
nutrition voiced the opinion that the garrison ration of the U.
S. Army provided much more food than would seem to be re-
quired except for very heavy muscular work under rather
severe conditions of weather and climate. Contrary opinions
were, however, expressed by officers of the army who had had
much experience in small organizations without army ration.
The representatives of the Food Administration also referred
to the many complaints that had come to them from civilians
visiting the army camps, so far established at that time, of an
enormous wastage of food to be seen in those camps. The
discussion of these and other points in the methods and char-
acter of the army feeding led to the determination to have a
series of nutritional surveys conducted by experienced ob-
servers in the several army camps with a view to determine
quantitively the actual consumption and the actual wastage of
food.

Early in September, 1917, there was organized a Food Divi-
sion of the Surgeon-General's office which was later established
by the War Department as a Division of Food and Nutrition
of the Medical Department of the Army. Major (later Lt.-
Col.) John R. Murlin, of the Sanitary Corps, a well-known
nutrition expert, was very active in all this work and from
various official reports and scientific papers published by him
and his associates, a large number of facts concerning army
feeding and rationing in general have been made generally
available.

274 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

The method of conducting an army nutritional survey was
in brief as follows: A survey party, reporting to the com-
manding officer, usually spent the first few days in becoming
acquainted with the camp and in learning where typical messes
could be found. The most highly efficient as well as the
poorest messes were purposely avoided. During these first
few days there was also made a preliminary inspection of the
subsistence stores and of the food on hand at the mess houses.
Next a determination was made, consisting of careful inven-
tories, by weight, of all foods in the store room in the beginning
and at the end of a definite period and of all accessions to stock
during the period. At the same time the garbage was care-
fully separated into edible and inedible portions; the former
was weighed, ground through a meat grinder or chopped with
spades according to the amount, and a sample taken for
analysis. Any foods whose composition was in question were
likewise analyzed. Deducting the second inventory from the
first, plus accessions to stock, and reducing to protein, fat,
carbo-hydrate, and energy content, and finally subtracting pro-
tein, fat, carbo-hydrate, and energy content found in the edible
waste, the net consumption for food per man per day would
be calculated.

It was found by a careful study of 427 army messes repre-
senting about 135,000 men, that although the daily ration sup-
plied had a fuel value of about 3900 calories the actual con-
sumption of food amounted to a little over 3600 calories per
man. The protein content amounted to 131 gr. supplied and
122 gr. consumed; the fat content, 134 gr. supplied, 123 gr.
consumed; the carbo-hydrate content, 516 gr. supplied, 485
gr. consumed. The total waste was 7 per cent. In addition
to the ration almost all of the men added to their daily food
intake by purchases made at the canteens, most of the addi-
tions consisting of chocolates, cakes, pies, and soft drinks.
The average consumption record for 261 canteens was 365
calories per man per day.

After careful analysis of the make-up of the ration in vogue

THE FOOD PROBLEM 275

in the army it was decided to formulate a new ration to be
called the " training ration " which was especially worked out
so as to avoid the considerable waste which occurred in con-
nection with the old ration. This "training ration" provided
for a protein content of 127 gr., a fat content of 135 gr. and
a carbo-hydrate content of 575 gr., giving a total fuel value
of 4132 calories. This new " training ration " was consider-
ably in excess of the rations in vogue in the British, Canadian,
French, and Italian armies. The British Home ration for
May, 1918, provided 3483 calories; the Canadian ration for
July, 1918, provided 2946 calories; the French normal ration
for March 29, 1918, provided 3604 calories; .the Italian Ter-
ritorial for February I, 1917, provided 2797 calories.

Elaborate studies were made by the War Department's Divi-
sion of Food and Nutrition on the effect of season on food
consumption, on the actual consumption of food as effected
by the length of time in camp, on the food consumption in the
army compared with other occupations, and on the variations
in waste and strength of the men in relation to their food con-
sumption. Many of the facts and statistics thus found out
will be of great value in the future wise determination of the
American Army ration as well as in their significance for mass
feeding generally.

However, this work only throws light upon the feeding of
men of certain conditions of age and physique. There is quite
as necessary a further scientific knowledge of the proper feed-
ing of women, adolescents, and infants, both as mass feeding
and individual feeding. < The experiences of the war have
created a special interest in this problem and the people are
ready, as perhaps never before, to take an interest in an in-
vestigation of the problem and to listen to, and make use of,
the results of such an investigation. ) Therefore, the National
Research Council, solicitous to encourage all scientific investiga-
tion, especially such as may have an immediate value in the
maintenance and increase of the national well-being, has or-
ganized a special committee on food and nutrition in connection

276 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

with the work of its Division of Biology and Agriculture.
This Committee is composed of a number of leading physio-
logical chemists and food and nutrition experts of the country
and has laid out an important program of investigation. The
results of this work should be of the highest value to the na-
tion.

XVI

THE WAR SERVICE OF THE MEDICAL
PROFESSION

FREDERICK F. RUSSELL

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PERSONNEL OF THE MEDICAL CORPS

OF THE ARMY

THE number of medical officers in the army before we
entered the war was, on June 3Oth, 1916, 589, and this
number was made up of 443 belonging to the regular army and
146 who were members of the Medical Reserve Corps. On
June 30, 1917, one year later, and two and one-half months
after war had been declared, the prompt response to the call
for physicians from civil life to assist the small nucleus already
in service, resulted in an increase to 4125, of whom 487 be-
longed to the regular service and 3636 to the reserve. On June
30, 1918, there were 867 regular medical officers and 20,855 wno
were serving with temporary commissions in the Medical Corps,
a total of 21,722. On June 30, 1919, there were 948 regular
and 11,783 temporary medical officers, a total of 12,731.

The greatest number in service was 989 regular and 29,602
temporary officers, a total of 30,591 about the middle of No-
vember, 1918.

The enlisted force of the Medical Department increased
from 6691 on April 6, 1917, to 154,556 on July ist, 1918, to
264,181 on November I5th, 1918, and decreased to 98,396 on
June 3Oth, 1919. Until the time of the last reorganization of
the army, in 1909, the enlisted men of the Medical Department
were known as the Hospital Corps, a name far from appro-

277

278 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

priate, since large numbers of them were attached to mobile
military formations, companies, battalions and regiments, and
they had no hospital duties whatever while so serving; further
it was a corps without officers which was an anomalous con-
dition and for these and other reasons the name was changed
to the enlisted force of the Medical Department ; the latter also
comprised the Dental, Veterinary and Nurse Corps, and after
the outbreak of the war, and the passage of the National De-
fense Act, the Sanitary Corps, the U. S. Army Ambulance
Service and a large number of Contract Surgeons and civil
employees.

These elements of the Medical Department and their strength
at different periods is shown in the following table:

In 1918, there were, in the whole United States, 147,812
physicians, and among these there was a considerable number
who were not in active practice of their profession. The larg-
est number on active duty with the army on any one date was
30,591, on the I5th of November, 1918. There were many
losses among the medical officers ; for example, in some weeks
the losses exceeded the gains, so the total number of physicians
who were at one time or another in active service was much
greater than the number just given. The exact figures can-
not now be stated, but it was in the neighborhood of 40,000, and
this last number represents, perhaps, about one third of the
physicians in active practice in the United States.

It has been estimated by military authorities in the past that
it would require seven physicians per thousand of army
strength for service directly with troops and approximately
three per thousand in addition for work at home with recruit-
ing, with convalescents and chronic cases. Since we had ap-
proximately four million men at one time or another and about
40,000 physicians in all, the result, 10 per thousand, corresponds
very closely with the estimate. The greatest number in the
army at any one time was 3,634,000 on the first of November,
1918, and at about that time we had 30,591 medical officers,
which again is very close to the estimate.

WAR SERVICE OF MEDICAL PROFESSION

00
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280

THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

B. Changes in Regular Medical Corps

Major
General

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12

j*s

IH 4J

ttO

Colonel

Lieutenant
Colonel

1

s

c
'3

!

Lieutenant

*«3
£

June 30, 1918

I

o

64

112

296

394

867

June 30, 1919. . . .

I

2

60

109

349

154

264

939

Losses :

Deaths

o

o

o

O

Q

Resignations ..

O

o

O

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5

2

21

28

Retirements .. .

I

0

7

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0

12

Discharges ...

O

0

0

0

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3

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Declinations ..

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20

20

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o

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Appointments ...

o

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145

145

2 Col. Ireland made Surgeon General, Col. McCaw made brigadier
general, and Lieut Col. Noble made brigadier general.

If

rt

1

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Temporary

Aug. i, 1918: 3
Overseas

TO I

7,698

United States ....

365

14.06^

Total

866

22,66l

June 30, 1919 :

338

6,217

United States

603

^ 578

Total

941

11,795

3 Figures for July I, 1918, will not be known until the records of the
chief surgeon, American Expeditionary Forces, are transferred to the
Surgeon General's Office.

WAR SERVICE OF MEDICAL PROFESSION 281

The response of the medical profession to the call of the
Government was at all times sufficient for our needs, and in
addition permitted us to loan medical officers to our Allies in
considerable numbers, particularly to Great Britain.

The wastage or losses from all causes during the period of
our participation in the war, was about ten thousand or one-
quarter of the total names on the rolls.

SANITARY ENGINEERING PROBLEMS AT HOME AND ABROAD

In home territory in all large National Army and National
Guard camps good potable water was provided, where possible
by purchasing treated water from a nearby city, but when this
was not feasible a complete water supply system was installed
at the camp itself. This usually consisted of an impounding
basin for the collection and sedimentation of the raw water,
which was then filtered in some form of rapid sand filter after
dosing with alum or other suitable coagulant, to throw down
all suspended matter. Finally, at practically every place, the
clear water was then treated with anhydrous chlorin gas, which
disinfected the water by oxidizing all organic matter.

In smaller places, the question of water purification was
less satisfactorily answered. The Lyster bag method of chlori-
nation was the standard. The chlorin was added to the raw
water, in the form of bleaching powder, which was put up
in small measured quantities, in glass ampuls. The bag itself
is made of strong canvas and is attached to a folding iron ring
at the top. At the sides a little above the bottom, high enough
to avoid the sediment which falls gradually to the lowest point,
are several simple faucets from which the water is drawn off
to fill canteens and other pure water containers.

The control of successful water sterilization by means of
chlorin is fortunately a simple "mailer, consisting merely in a
test for free chlorin by means of the starch iodine test. This
is made thirty minutes after the bleaching powder has been
added to the water in the Lyster bag, by taking a large cupful
and adding to it 10 drops of a 10 per cent, solution of iodide

282 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

of potassium, and the same amount of a one per cent, solution
of soluble starch and one-half per cent, of sulphate of zinc.
If free chlorin be present, the iodine is liberated from the
potassium iodide and it combines with the starch, giving the
characteristic blue color of starch iodide. The significance of
the test is clear when it is realized that the chlorin is used up
by the organic matter present in the water, and that there can
be no excess unless all the organic matter has been oxidized.
If the test shows no free chlorin more bleaching powder is
added until some is present in excess.

The principle of chlorination in the Lyster bag is the same as
in the largest installations, depending as it does on the oxidiza-
tion of all organic matter, by the oxygen set free by the action
of nascent chlorin on the water molecule. The small quantities
treated in this method make it very difficult to adjust the
chloride of lime accurately, and the result is that the water
may be 'overdosed with chlorin, giving it an unpleasant taste.
The soldier may then be tempted to drink untreated water,
which although clear, bright and sparkling, may be heavily
contaminated with pathogenic bacteria, rather than the water
which is quite safe but less attractive in appearance and flavor.

In the A. E. F. both large and small scale water treatment
was used almost everywhere the American troops were sta-
tioned. In the back areas, that is, on the Lines of Com-
munication, or rather, in the area of the Service of Supply
(S. O. S.) as it later came to be called, it was usually possible
to use the large scale methods in cooperation with the French
civil and military authorities.

Chlorination of water supplies in the United States has been
customary for the past ten years, but until 1917 the method
was not known in France. It was introduced there by an army
chemist and water supply expert, who had been selected for
special work in France by the National Research Council.
This officer worked with the French authorities and at the
Laboratory of the Museum de Histoire Naturelle, Paris, in
conjunction with a French chemist he carried out a series of

WAR SERVICE OF MEDICAL PROFESSION 283

demonstrations showing the practicability of treating success-
fully the raw water of the Seine. The results of these trials
were published in the " Revue d' Hygiene," 1918, and reprints
of this article proved of great assistance in obtaining the ready
cooperation of French municipalities for the chlorination of
their public water supplies.

As one area after another was taken over for billetting and
training American troops, complete sanitary surveys were made,
including a study of the quantity and quality of all available
water supplies. Until the results of the survey were known
and posted all water was treated as if contaminated and was
chlorinated.

In the front areas, where it was impossible to deliver safe
water at water points for men and animals, by means of large
motor trucks, recourse had to be had J:o the Lyster bag. Each
organization was equipped with these bags and the necessary
bleaching powder, and a water detail, consisting of one or
more men of the command, was in charge of the water puri-
fication. Satisfactory results were not usually obtained unless
the water detail consisted of men permanently assigned to this
work under the direction of the surgeon of the command.

The process of chlorination, when used with reasonable care,
either on a large or small scale, is one of the most successful
methods of purifying water, and its adoption for military ex-
peditions is a matter of the greatest importance for the health
of the troops. Had it been possible to use it everywhere as
planned we would have escaped the relatively small amount of
typhoid fever and dysentery which did occur in France. The
difficulties of transportation under war conditions on the
western front were such that it was impossible at all times to
have adequate supplies of bleaching powder in the hands of
the troops, and they were thus compelled to drink whatever
water was available. Early in 1918 the system of supply was
changed so that bleaching powder was issued with the rations
of the man. This was a decided improvement, but lack of
trained personnel and the inexperience of many of the troops

284 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

made them careless in the enforcement of water discipline.
Nevertheless, the total number of cases of diseases of the in-
testines, diarrhoea, dysentery and typhoid was smaller than in
any other war in history.

SELECTIVE SERVICE-

Another considerable medical activity of the war was cen-
tered in the Selective Service Boards which were organized
by and administered under the direction of the Provost Marshal
General. It was expressly stipulated in the Selective Service
Law, that the machinery should be civil rather than military,
and no officers of the army engaged directly in the selection of'
the men who were to make up our forces. A few of the ad-
ministrative heads of the service, however, were members of
the permanent or temporary military force. This was par-
ticularly true of the federal control of the service, which cen-
tered in the office of the Provost Marshal, General Crowder,
who, in times of peace, is the Judge Advocate General of the
Regular Army; some of his assistants belonged to the same
body. In each state, the governor, under the law, divided his
territory into districts, one for each county, except in cities of
over 30,000 population, and these were divided into districts
of not over 30,000. This meant the organization of 4557 local
boards, each consisting of three men, of whom one was a
physician who made the physical examinations, sometimes
alone, but often with assistance. Under the first draft the
number of men selected by the Local Boards was 527,000.
On November 8, 1917, new selective service regulations were
promulgated which authorized the regular appointment of as-
sistant medical examiners for the Local Boards, and also of a
new board, composed entirely of physicians called the Medical
Advisory Board, on which all the special fields of medicine
were represented by experts. To this Board all doubtful cases
were referred by the Local Boards; in all there were 1319
such Advisory Boards, distributed through the states so as to
be most easily accessible. As a rule they were located at some

WAR SERVICE OF MEDICAL PROFESSION 285

well equipped hospital, where facilities were at hand for the
most intricate tests and specialized examinations. Under the
first selective1 service act, approximately 10,000,000 men, from
21 to 30 years of age, were registered, and of these 2,510,000
were examined by the Local Boards. Of this number 730,000
or 29.1 per cent, were rejected on physical grounds.

The report of the Provost Marshal General indicates that
about 22 per cent, of the rejections were caused by some
mechanical defect in the organism, or rather some defect or
disease that would interfere with its mechanical performance,
such as defects in the bones and joints, flat foot and hernia.
An additional 15 per cent, were rejected because of imperfec-
tions of the sense organs, and about 13 per cent, for defects
in the cardio-vascular system. About 12 per cent, were re-
jected on account of nervous and mental troubles, in part due
to abnormal thyroid secretions. About 10 per cent, were re-
jected on account of the two communicable disease groups —
tuberculosis and severe cases of venereal infections. About
8*/2 per cent, were rejected because of developmental defects
in physique ; about 6 per cent, because of diseases of the skin
and teeth, and about 13^ per cent, for miscellaneous defects.

The significance of these findings for civil life is not im-
mediately apparent. The demands of the military life on the
physique of a man are much greater than those of civil life,
because of the need for ability to make long marches while
carrying a heavy load (40 or more pounds) and for reserve
strength and vitality to throw into a fight at the end of a long
and wearisome march. A man who weighs only 100 pounds,
however healthy and however strong he may be for hi,s size,
can rarely do this. Yet his small size may even be an ad-
vantage in civil life. Again, many a man with a tendency
toward flat-foot or hernia may do his work in civil life well, and
always have excellent health, and be really unaware of any
weakness, but his presence may handicap combatant troops.
Defects in sense organs are less important in civil life, because
the individual adjusts his life to them and finds ways to pro-

286 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

tect himself. Also the stress of struggle, work and excitement
on the battlefield requires a degree of perfection in heart action
and inervation that is rarely demanded in civil life. On the
other hand, the disabilities due to nervous and mental diseases
and to tuberculosis- an^ the venereal infections are an equal
handicap in the life of a civilian. Considering these circum-
stances it is probable that not over half of the 29.1 per cent,
rejected for military service were incapacitated in a civil sense.

CASUALTIES FROM POISON GAS

When looked at from one point of view poison gas is one
of the most humane weapons of warfare. Although 74,779
of the 274,217 battle casualties resulted from gas, the number
of deaths was very small, 1.87 per cent., as compared with 23.4
per cent, from shell and bullet wounds. These figures indi-
cate that a man suffering from poison gas has twelve times as
many chances for recovery as a man put out of action by other
weapons.

In the early days of the war chlorin gas alone was used, be-
ing liberated in great clouds when the direction of the wind
was favorable, from steel cylinders of liquefied chlorin, and the
cloud was carried by the wind in the direction of the enemy.
Experience soon demonstrated that the poison gas was quite
difficult of control when used in this way, and the chlorin
cloud gas offensive was soon superseded by gas of many sorts
contained in explosive shells which could be placed exactly
where the enemy desired. Reference to other portions of this
work will give greater details of the methods of using gas.
Our interest at this moment lies in its medical aspect alone.

The new gases were of many sorts, but the most important
was dichlor-ethyl-sulphid or mustard or yellow cross gas as
it was commonly called. The liquid gas vaporizes rather
slowly on the explosion of the shell, and in addition the fluid
itself is sprayed over all those in the immediate neighborhood
of the explosion. Its effects are not noticed at once, and are
really not much appreciated until about four hours after ex-

WAR SERVICE OF MEDICAL PROFESSION 287

posure. It causes an eruption on the skin, at first of larger
or smaller rose red areas, which will later form blisters con-
taining yellow fluid. Later the fluid may coagulate and be-
come infected and the mass will slough away leaving a large
punched out ulcer. As the fluid from a blister runs over the
skin it may produce secondary eruptions and even ulcers. In
addition to the lesions on the skin, there may be conjunctivitis,
and ulcerations of the cornea, and a little later vomiting, hoarse-
ness, cough and pain with shortness of breath ; in the severer
cases there is oedema of the lungs and early death. Cases of
intermediate severity may progress well for a day or two, and
then develop a broncho-pneumonia from secondary infections
through the damaged mucous membrane of the respiratory
tract. Such cases die or recover, depending upon the extent
of the lesion. As a precautionary measure it was customary
to consider all gassed men as litter cases, to be carried to the
rear to special gas hospitals after receiving first aid treat-
ment, which usually consisted of irrigations of the eyes, nose
and mouth with a five per cent, solution of sodium bicarbonate,
and an application of soft soap or of soda solution to the body,
or if the case be seen early enough a two per cent, solution of
chlorinated lime may be used to neutralize the gas. To reach
the throat, trachea and the bronchi, inhalations of aromatic
spirits of ammonia, or of two per cent, sodium thiosulphate or
0.5 per cent, sodium bicarbonate were used. The further
treatment of the skin lesions was much like that employed for
ordinary burns. As soon as possible the man's entire clothing
was changed, as the gas adhered to it and remained active for
long periods, and he was given a complete bath in warm water
and alkali and a complete new outfit of clothing.

The gas inhalation cases which were severe enough to be
sent back to base hospitals were treacherous and uncertain in
their course, and many died after an illness of weeks. All
possible lesions of the lung were present from simple catarrhal
bronchitis and oedema to suppurative processes involving the
trachea and bronchi and the lung itself. In the slower but

X
288 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

severe cases the inflammation might gradually extend from one
part of the lung to another over a period of two weeks or more,
the patient becoming gradually more and more cyanosed and
water logged.

The treatment subsequent to the first aid already described
consisted in absolute rest in bed, occasional bleeding, and oc-
casional administration of oxygen, often for long periods, and
the proper amount of stimulation, and the interval administra-
tion of alkalies, and for the conjunctivitis and skin burns, alka-
line applications and irrigations. The strain on the heart was
often severe requiring the exhibition of digitalis. Small doses
of morphine were necessary to control the cough and to secure
rest. The sputum was often purulent and streaked with blood,
and in some cases profuse and watery. The hoarseness was
sometimes followed by complete loss of voice and examina-
tion usually showed oedema and swelling of the vocal cords
or ulceration and the presence of a false membrane. If the
pharynx was also involved there was pain on swallowing, with
dryness and a burning sensation in the nose, throat and mouth.
The pain in the chest was a frequent symptom, occuring in
perhaps 75 per cent, of the cases, and while it was not limited
to any region of the chest it was more common over the heart
than in any other location.

During convalescence a system of graduated exercises was
used to restore the men, if possible, to complete recovery, be-
fore returning them to a duty status.

Insufficient time has elapsed to enable us to know the end
results of gas poisoning. So far as one can tell at the present
time, from the physical examinations of thousands of returned
patients, there is no reason for believing that the irritation and
subsequent inflammation of the respiratory organs tends to
induce tuberculosis or to light up a focus of pulmonary tubercu-
losis already existing.

Further, the evidence is scant that among returned soldiers,
at least, there is any material destruction of the tissue of the
lungs.

WAR SERVICE OF MEDICAL PROFESSION 289

RECONSTRUCTION WORK IN HOSPITALS

r

I The development of reconstruction work in army hospitals

I has been one of the strikingly good results of the war. The

\ idea is not altogether new, but it, like so many other advances

in medicine and surgery, had, before the war, been confined

to a certain few hospitals of the best class, and it also was of

very unequal quality. The development during the war in this

field consisted in applying the best features of the work to all

our hospitals, in a standardized manner.

The so-called reconstruction work was really divided into
two quite different sorts of undertakings, although they both
went along side by side, usually using the same methods and
principles, but with two separate and distinct objects in view.
The first was to occupy the man's mind and at the same time
to improve it, so that his spirits and morale were not impaired
by his long and possibly painful illness, f The purpose of the
morale treatment 'was to overcome the condition so long known
as hospitalism, a form of chronic invalidism which leads to help-
lessness and loss of initiative, which is entirely mental and has
no relation to the amount of physical deformity or of limitation
of function./ The second object is the restoration of function
of the injure^ part as completely and as early as possible. I To
accomplish these results, which are as a matter of fact, just
as important in civil life as in military, it was found that the
reconstruction work could not be postponed until the patient
was sufficiently recovered to be sent to another hospital espe-
cially set aside for this sort of teaching, but that it must be
started just so soon as the patient was able to do anything at
all, and that, therefore, every hospital where patients were sent
for anything more than emergency treatment must have a
" reconstruction staff " in addition to the medical and surgical
staff. These persons, sometimes physicians, but more often
teachers or psychologists, went into all the wards and started
instruction as soon as a patient was able to do anything; as,
for example, a man might be taught to do bead work simply

290 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

as a means of arousing his interest and causing him to think
of the possibilities for retraining himself for some new form
of employment suited to his modified physical condition.
Whenever possible the new work chosen was on a higher plane
than his former occupation. For example, a house painter
might be taught fancy lettering and sign painting, which re-
quired less strength but more skill, and some have been able
to command higher wages after injury than they had been
able to obtain before. Blind men were taught to assemble
watches or clocks or intricate automobile parts, and so to sup-
port themselves a| least as well as before entering the service
of their country. / The training was both vocational and thera-
peutic and the two were inseparable. , A barber, for example,
who had received a considerable injury of the hand would re-
cover the lost function quicker in doing the work of a barber
than by long hours of passive or mechanical motion in the
hospital ward. The difference in the spirit of the men was
soon seen and in its turn exerted an undoubted influence in
hastening convalescence and in preventing the paralyzing hos-
pitalism which formerly followed injuries which interfered
with the earning power of the individual. Such injuries are
common in civil life, in the industries and in mining and rail-
roading and civil hospitals and insurance commissions will no
doubt continue to use the reconstruction methods which have
been elaborated during the war. The public, the patient and
the physician now are all informed of the great possibilities
of corrective vocational training and will demand its use in
the future.

XVII

SOME DISEASES PREVALENT IN THE ARMY
FREDERICK F. RUSSELL

THE WAR NEUROSES

THESE diseases early in the war came to be called " Shell-
shock " and a considerable amount of literature and dis-
cussion has grown up about them. Although the forms of
psycho-neuroses which appeared early were apparently new,
it was soon recognized that the disease was essentially an old
and well established entity, but that the manifestations of the
diseased condition took on new forms peculiar to the war.
In times of peace we have comparable conditions resulting
from railroad and other accidents; in fact from anything
which makes a profound mental impression, usually associated
with great apprehension, fear or horror. Even in our train-
ing camps in this country, three thousand miles away from ex-
ploding shells, many cases of war neurosis developed. One
of the commonest forms was stiffness of the spine and rigidity
of the muscles of the back, usually in some markedly flexed or
twisted position. Although the manifestations of the disease
were innumerable they all had one feature in common: com-
plete impossibility of performing the full duties of a soldier in
the front line of the armies. It is not understood that these
men were malingering, that is, faking a disability, because the
man himself, unless given the proper care and treatment, was
quite unable to control the malady. In other words, his symp-
toms were due entirely to his nervous and highly excited
mental condition, and they had no organic or actual tissue

291

292 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

change in the body as a foundation. The conditions under
which the men fought were enough to shake the nerves of all
but the strongest individuals, and it is not to be wondered at
that a profound impression was made on any person in the
least inclined to be emotional. The symptoms of the disease
were so numerous that it is impossible even to enumerate them,
as almost every known disability was mimicked.

Early in the war the purely nervous nature of the conditions
was not recognized by the physicians in charge of most of them,
nor by the public, and the men were treated in the base hos-
pitals as though they had a serious organic lesion in the brain
or spinal cord, rather than a pure disturbance of function
without organic change. As the patient was still in an emo-
tional and highly sensitive state each suggestion of
disease soon became to him a reality, and as time went on the
course of the disease grew worse, rather than better, and
chronic invalidism became the only outlook.

When, however, these cases were carefully studied by trained
neurologists their identity with peace time neuroses was estab-
lished and a complete reversal was instituted. This occurred
at a very early date among the French, who have long been
foremost in the knowledge of the psychoneuroses. The patients
were no longer sent home or even to the base ports, but were
treated in special hospitals not far back of the front, by men
who were especially skilled in nervous diseases. The treatment
was along definite lines, was firm, almost paternal, and above
all was given promptly, as soon after the true nature of the
disease was recognized as possible. In principle the successful
method of treatment was essentially reeducation in the life of a
soldier. Drill and work of a useful kind was kept up as much
as possible and everything done to aid the patient in regaining
his normal healthy view of the life of a soldier and his control
of his emotions. In the military atmosphere of drill and useful
work and with good hygiene, food and comfortable living condi-
tions it was astonishing how soon these men became normal
soldiers again, and although many were unable to resume full

.

DISEASES PREVALENT IN THE ARMY 293

duty in the front line again they did their part somewhere in
the rear, in the Service of Supply of the armies.

It had been estimated, early in the war, that about 10 per
cent, of cases admitted to hospitals in the A. E. F. were of this
nature, and that about 60 per cent, of these had been returned
to duty. It was also frequently noted that a neurosis rarely
occurred in a wounded man, and that they were exceedingly
rare in colored soldiers. It is doubtful if these were so numer-
ous as that, for there were only 3795 cases reported as such
during 1918, and even if 4266 cases of hysteria are added the
sum would be only 8061 out of a total of 82,289 diagnoses
reported during the year. On the whole, the American Army
was relatively free from these conditions, and this was due
principally to the fact that we profited from the experience of
our Allies and excluded from the ranks of our army as many
as possible of these who would be more liable to develop such
neuroses. At each training camp and mobilization center was
stationed a board consisting of one or more psychologists and
psychiatrists, and, as a result of their examinations of the re-
cruits as they arrived from their homes, all the weak-minded,
mentally diseased and the neurotic were eliminated. This not
'only reduced the number of cases of war neuroses, but also
kept down our military offenders and criminals. No army in
history was so free from crime, both large and small, as the
American Expeditionary Force.

INFECTIOUS DISEASES DURING THE WAR

In the study of the infectious diseases, one of the fundamen-
tals is the problem of the healthy human carrier. In the ordi-
nary course of events a person who is infected with some
pathogenic organism develops the particular disease caused by
the microorganism in question, and he exhibits a more or less
typical picture of the disease, and either recovers or succumbs
from the infection. If he succumbs we can often demonstrate
the presence of the causative microorganism in the blood and in
many of the tissues at autopsy, often in enormous numbers. If

294 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

the patient recovers, the conditions are quite the opposite, the
causative organism, after the height of the disease is passed,
tends to disappear from the blood stream and then from the
body, and in most infections it is necessary to make the usual
bacteriological examinations early in the course of the disease
in order to be successful in isolating it. Sooner or later, there-
fore, there comes a time when the infecting organism is unable
to survive in the combat with the defensive forces of the body,
and it disappears completely. We know, however, that there
are many mild cases in all the infectious diseases, from which,
nevertheless, the specific organism may be recovered. Here,
also, the germs usually disappear completely with recovery.
The next step, from the mild case to the healthy carrier is an
easy one ; at first glance it sounds paradoxical to speak of this
condition as an infection because there are no symptoms of
illness. Yet, if we accept the presence of immunity to a new
infection and of specific anti-bodies in the blood as evidence of
the invasion of the body we must consider the healthy carrier
as a person who suffers from the mildest form of infection.
Even in this case the normal course of events leads to the
gradual disappearance of the infectious agents from the body
and the usual healthy carrier is merely casually or temporarily
in that condition.

In certain persons, however, the organism continues to exist
in the body for an indefinite period, sometimes for years or
even for the remainder of his life, and he is then classed as a
chronic carrier from whom the pathogenic organism can be
obtained either constantly or at intervals.

The temporary carrier frees himself from the invading bac-
teria by developing an immunity with a surplus of anti-bodies
in his body fluids sufficient to kill off the invaders. Why does
this not occur also in the chronic carrier? Is the difference due
to the microorganism or to the host ? Many investigators have
examined the bacteria isolated from such cases, without being
able to establish any regular or constant peculiarity of carrier
organisms. They seem to vary in the same way and to the same

DISEASES PREVALENT IN THE ARMY 295

extent in their cultural and serological reactions and in their
virulence for animals as do cultures isolated from frank cases
of disease.

On the other hand, it is possible ofttimes to find differences in
the host, as in the case of typhoid carriers, cholelithiasis, or
some other disease process in the gall bladder is commonly
present. In the case of diphtheria carrier abnormalities in the
tonsils are common. We find, therefore, that the weight of
evidence is to the effect that a person becomes a chronic carrier
because of some more or less well-marked organic pathological
lesion in his tody, and in this abnormal tissue the invading
organism finds favorable conditions for a purely parasitic
existence.

It was due to the presence among recruits arriving at our
camps of temporary and chronic carriers, as well as cases, that
one "after another of the acute infectious diseases developed
sooner or later among most of our troops. All of the diseases
of childhood, measles, mumps, scarlet fever, and also smallpox,
typhoid, dysentery and malaria were all introduced repeatedly,
yet only the first spread, as we had no method of rendering
soldiers immune to infection by vaccination as we did in the
case of smallpox and the typhoid fevers. Except for their
presence in such large numbers and their complications, there
was nothing of interest in these diseases. A few of the rarer
infectious diseases are of more interest and they will be briefly
discussed. Trench foot was distinctly a war disease, and was
due to the urniatuTaTenvl ronment in which troops were placed
because of the remarkable development of the system of trench
warfare. That it is preventable is now generally accepted,
and we suffered relatively little from it, because our men saw
comparatively little of trench warfare, and because of the
lessons learned from the experience of our Allies. It consists
of more or less damage to the skin, the underlying soft tissues
and blood vessels of the feet and legs from prolonged exposure
to wet and cold in tight or ill-fitting boots and shoes. The skin
is bruised, the soft parts and the blood vessels are constricted

296 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

so that the circulation is ultimately shut off from the distal part
of the extremity. With the failure of circulation and the possi-
bility of infection through the damaged skin, a condition of dry
or moist gangrene develops which leads to serious infection or
to spontaneous amputation of the affected part. Operative
procedures were always necessary to secure a clean stump and
to prevent the spread of infection up the limb. The largest
number of cases in the American Army occurred during the
Argonne-Meuse offensive of October and November, 1918,
when the troops were fighting continuously day after day and
week after week in the rain and mud and in temporary trenches,
and in situations where it was impossible to provide them with
dry foot wear or to relieve them long enough for them to dry
out their own. In 1918 we had 1715 cases reported, giving
a rate per 1000 of 0.68. The total deaths from this disease,
however, were only five. Trench mouth is another new term
which sprang into use because the facilities for careful and
scientific examination of new cases were not available. The
symptoms were those of sore mouth, shown principally by red,
tender and bleeding gums, with more or less involvement of
the tonsils and the mucous membrane of the cheeks. The
lesion was, therefore, an ulcerative and sometimes pseudo-
membranous inflammation of the mucous membrane of the
mouth and gums. The corresponding lesion of the tonsil had
long been known as Vincent's angina, and that condition is
always associated with the presence of the spirillum and fusi-
form bacillus of Vincent. In these cases of sore mouth the same
microorganisms were found to be regularly present. Whether
they are the primary cause or merely secondary invaders is not
well established, nor is the manner of the spread of the disease
well known. It apparently spreads by contact from soldier to
soldier from common eating utensils, and possibly from pipes
or contaminated articles of food. The position of the troops
in the front areas, particularly in the trenches themselves, made
the ordinary principles of mouth hygiene impossible of execu-

DISEASES PREVALENT IN THE ARMY 297

tion and what might have been slight infections under ordinary
conditions became serious ones.

The disease yields readily to treatment and as soon as a man
could be sent to the rear to a dentist he could soon be cured by
local applications of dyes and caustics.

The disease was serious, not because of the deaths, for there
is practically no mortality, but because it produced a consider-
able number of invalids, each requiring care and treatment
from the medical personnel. The disease is not a new one, and
there is no justification for the term " Trench Mouth." It is
an ulcerative or pseudo-membranous gingivitis, when confined
to the gums, or stomatitis when the mucous membrane of the
mouth is involved or tonsilitis or pharyngitis; in the last two
locations the condition is commonly referred to as Vincent's
Angina.

INFECTIOUS JAUNDICE (SPIROCHETAL JAUNDICE)

This disease, long known as Weil's Disease, was the cause of
illness in 78 men, of whom five died. Numerically, therefore,
it is quite unimportant, but because of its interesting epi-
demiology it deserves a few words. It is caused by the Spiro-
cheta ictero-hemorrhagica, a common parasite of rats which
was first described by Inada and Ido in Japan in 1915. The
infection is characterized by irregular fever, well marked
jaundice which usually appears about the fourth day of the
disease, a tendency to hemorrhages from the mucous surfaces
and into the tissues and hemorrhagic herpes or fever sores.

The disease occurred in small epidemics at various times
and places in the armies of our Allies, the British, French and
Italian, and the few cases occurring among our troops may have
had some connection with these. The Japanese noted that the
epidemics were limited to small groups, such as a family or a
small group of soldiers in barracks; in mines, for example, it
would be limited to the workers in a certain part of the mine.

The spirochete is exceedingly small and delicate, and about

298 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

the same size as the spirochete of syphilis, from which, how-
ever, it is easily distinguished by the beaded appearance of the
body and the hooked ends. In suitable preparations it is seen
to be actively motile. The motion is both that of rotation,
undulation and progression. It has been cultivated in test
tubes using the methods which Noguchi elaborated for the study
of the spirochete of syphilis, and from these cultures the disease
has been reproduced in animals, particularly in the guinea pig.

The diagnosis of the disease was more successfully made by
demonstrating the presence of the spirochete. This was done
by injecting a few cubic centimeters of blood from a patient,
preferably the first four or five days of the disease, into the
peritoneal cavity of a guinea pig, where it multiplies rapidly
and its presence can be demonstrated. It is rarely present in
the blood of the human being in sufficient numbers to permit
of its demonstration without this enrichment in the guinea pig.
Later in the course of the disease, from the tenth to the fortieth
day, the organism can be found in the urine by direct examina-
tion of centrifuged specimens. This is analogous to what
occurs in the natural infection in the rat, as the organism has
been found in the urine of apparently healthy rats, both house
and field, in as high as 30 per cent, of those examined. This is
true in Japan, on the French front, and also in certain places
in America, where the rats have been examined.

It is possible to produce the disease in guinea pigs by giving
them food contaminated with cultures of urine containing the
spirochetes, and presumably the epidemiology of the disease in
the human being is explainable in the same manner.

Weil's disease, which occurs sporadically in all countries, has
been a mystery in the past, but thanks to the investigation^ of
the Japanese, which have been fully confirmed during the
World War, its epidemiology is now quite clear.

ANTHRAX

During 1918 there were 129 cases of anthrax reported among
all troops of the army, giving an admission rate of 0.05 per

DISEASES PREVALENT IN THE ARMY 299

thousand of strength. Among these there were 23 deaths from
the disease, making a rate of o.oi per 1000. It was distinctly
a war-time disease with us, since in times of peace the disease
is "practically non-existant in the service. It was early noted
that the initial lesion of the disease, that is, the place where the
infectious material gained entrance to the body, was on the
shaving area of the face. Although many of the men billeted
in stables and in buildings which had been used for animals,
and in this country they were housed in buildings recently
erected on ground used for animal shelters of one sort or
another, it is improbable that these facts were of any importance
in explaining the presence of the cause of the disease, since the
lesion was so uniformly located on the shaving area of the
face. This fact led to the critical examination of the articles
used in shaving. Naturally the brush, being made of animal
hair, came first under suspicion, and bacteriological examina-
tions soon were successful in showing the presence of the spores
of anthrax on the hair. Uniform reports came from all parts
of the country and left little doubt but that the troops were
being furnished by the Quartermaster with infected brushes.
On the recommendation of the Surgeon General, the issue of
the brushes in stock in all depots was suspended until they
could be examined and disinfected. In the meantime, the
United States Public Health Service was informed of the un-
usual prevalence of the disease, and was requested to institute
an inspection service of the factories furnishing shaving brushes
to the army, and to make recommendations regarding those
whose output it was safe to purchase. The Public Health
Service reported that previous to the war most of the cheaper
grades of shaving brushes were produced in Germany, and that
the German manufacturers were accustomed to using hair from
Siberia, Manchuria and China, and knew that it needed radical
disinfection. In this country, when the customary source of
supply was cut off, brush factories of every sort, including those
which had never before produced anything but paint brushes,
began the manufacture of shaving brushes, without any idea

300 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

of the possible danger which might arise from using the im-
perfect methods which had sufficed for other classes of brushes.
Hair of several kinds of animals was used, but all varieties,
except horse hair, had to be boiled to straighten the bristle, and
this boiling sterilized automatically all hair except the horse
hair, and that alone was found capable of carrying infection.
The factory inspection soon led to the use of correct methods
and the new brushes purchased were safe. Since a large num-
ber had been produced and sold to the army and to civilians,
a few cases continued to appear, but in decreasing numbers.

A review of the experience of the French and British showed
that they had gone through an exactly similar experience and
had our own manufacturers and authorities been closely in
touch with foreign conditions we might have been spared the
129 cases and 25 deaths from this preventable disease.

GASEOUS GANGRENE

At the beginning of the war there was much confusion re-
garding the nature of this affection. One group of workers
who had isolated the Vibrion septique from cases believed that
to be the cause of the disease; another group, on finding the
bacillus of Welch considered that organism responsible. Other
workers from time to time isolated still other organisms. The
entire subject was investigated thoroughly during the war by
bacteriologists of the Allied nations, and at the present time
they have practically agreed that there are eight different
anaerobic bacteria which are capable of producing gaseous
gangrene in both man and animals, and that they may be
arranged in their order of importance as follows : ( i ) B. welchi
(gas bacillus, B. aerogenes capsulatus, B. perfringens, B.
phlegmonis emphysematosse.) (2) Vibrion septique (B. of
malignant cedema, B. chauvei, B. symptomatic anthrax, von
Hibler III, B. septicus.) (3) B. cedematiens (B. gasoedem,
B. bellonensis, B. novyii.) (4) B. fallax. (5) B. histolyticus.
(6) B. sporogenes (B. enteritidis sporagenes, B. faulnis erre-
ger.) (7) B. aerofetidus. (8) Streptococcus anerobius.

DISEASES PREVALENT IN THE ARMY 301

In addition there are a fairly large number of other organ-
isms which have been isolated from wounds of human beings
showing gas gangrene, but which have not the power of pro-
ducing the disease in animals.

Jablons reports that the following organisms are capable of
producing a toxin and of progressive tissue necrosis and irre-
parable damage to the central nervous system : B. welchi,
Vibrona septique, B. cedematiens, B. fallax, B. histolyticus, and
B. sporogenes. Against all but fallax and sporogenes it has
been possible to produce anti-toxic sera for the treatment of
the disease.

Most of these organisms have been isolated from the soil,
and as the troops in the trenches had their clothing constantly
coated with mud or dust, it is easy to see how soil organisms
would be carried into the wounds on fragments of clothing.
They are commoner in soil which is polluted with excrement
or heavily manured. As the soil of Flanders and most of the
western front has been under intensive cultivation for centuries,
all the conditions favorable for the development of gas gan-
grene were present.

The bacilli exert their damaging action very largely in the
muscles ; the fibres swell and quickly undergo necrosis with the
development of bubbles of gas between the fibres. The quan-
tity of gas is sometimes large enough to be felt as a cracking
sensation as the hand is passed over the skin.

The treatment of gas gangrene is primarily surgical and
consists of complete extirpation of the necrotic and infected
wound down to healthy tissue. This radical treatment is
usually referred to as debridement. In addition anti-gas gan-
grene serum is used, both as a prophylactic measure and for
treatment of recognized cases.

Anti-gas gangrene serum. Bull, at the Rockefeller Institute,
was successful in preparing an anti-toxin against the B. welchi,
one of the most important of the gas gangrene organisms. He
made use of an observation of Flexner's, that the bacillus of
Welch was capable of producing lesions in pigeons quite com-

302 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

parable to those found in man. He soon learned that he could
obtain a toxin from his broth cultures which produced a
necrosis of muscle when injected into the pigeons, and that
he could produce an anti-toxin by appropriate methods of
immunization of larger animals with the toxin, and that this
new found anti-toxin would neutralize the toxin both in test
tube and in the body of the pigeon. The hope that was raised
by this discovery that a cure for gas gangrene had been found
was short lived, for it soon became evident that the bacillus
of Welch was only one of many organisms capable of producing
the disease, and that further anti-toxins must be prepared
before much could be done. At the close of the war it had
become possible to produce several other anti-toxins by using
the same methods which had been elaborated by Bull, and the
commercial manufacturers were ready to furnish a polyvalent
anti-gas gangrene serum. The plans called for a single serum,
made either from one horse, or by mixing the sera from several
horses, which would contain anti-toxin for the tetanus bacillus,
and the three principal gas producing anaerobes. Anti-toxic
serum against tetanus and B. welchi had already been manu-
factured in considerable quantity and was available for use
during the offensive in the Argonne. Fortunately the Armis-
tice intervened and no further research, because of war wounds,
was necessary.

Although gas gangrene is present from time to time in civil
practice, particularly in wounds due to industrial accidents, it
has never been a common condition. In the past, unless com-
plete surgical treatment was given early, the cases were quite
hopeless. The experiences of the war have made it possible,
therefore, to make provision for these sporadic cases, which,
in total numbers, are quite considerable, although a single
physician rarely sees many of them.

PNEUMONIA

The history of the diseases of the lung is as old as anything
in human medicine, and yet much less progress has been made

DISEASES PREVALENT IN THE ARMY 303

in their study during recent years than in the diseases of the
digestive tract, or in the tropical diseases or in several other
categories of diseases. The reason for this is not perfectly
plain, but it is perhaps because all these are diseases of human
beings alone, having nothing in common with the diseases of
animals or with those carried by insects or other hosts, and
for this reason are not easily made the subject of experimental
research on laboratory animals. In addition, the respiratory
diseases are the most common of all human ailments, and most
of them are so trivial that they have not received the study and
attention that have been given to more fatal maladies. Very
few of us give much consideration to a common cold and yet
in the mystery of the common cold may lie the secret of many
of the acute infections of the respiratory system.

At the beginning of the war there was every reason for
expecting a considerable number of cases and deaths from pneu-
monias, since that had been the experience of the Civil War,
and in civil life the percentage of deaths due to lobar pneumonia
has been relatively increasing during recent decades as the more
easily preventable diseases decreased. An orderly understand-
ing of acute lobar pneumonia had also been arrived at through
the work of Rufus Cole, Avary, Dochez, Chickering, and
others at the Rockefeller Hospital, New York. The work
began some years ago, about 1913, in fact, but the subject was
complicated and difficult and progress, although steady, was
slow. In the end, however, these investigators showed that
the organisms which cause lobar pneumonia may be grouped
into four classes, which they have designated as types one,
two, three and four. The first three of the types are fixed
and are readily identified by agglutination and precipitin tests
and by some other biological and cultural tests. The fourth
type, however, is made up of the irregular organisms which
do not fall into any one of the first three types. The fixed
types are clear cut homogeneous groups made up of similar
individuals, while the fourth type consists of a large number of
irregular organisms which bear no relation to the other groups,

304 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

nor to one another in their own group. In fact, they resemble
in this the organisms found in the normal, healthy human
mouth. From a study of these clearly defined types it has
been possible to prepare a serum which is curative when given
sufficiently early in the disease, for the lobar pneumonia caused
by organisms of type one. Similar curative sera have not yet
been prepared for the other types. In a study of 454 cases
of pneumonia at the Rockefeller Hospital, it was learned that
about one-third of all cases are caused by type one, a second
third by type two, about 13 per cent, of type three and the
remainder, 20 per cent., by type four organisms. We have
then, a specific treatment for about one-third of all cases of
lobar pneumonia. The mortality of this type of the disease is
normally about twenty-five per cent., but under treatment with
serum in suitable surroundings the mortality may be reduced
to ten per cent. This treatment was rapidly gaining ground,
but, like other new things in medicine, had not yet become
generally accepted through the country, and very few hospitals
or physicians were prepared to make the bacteriological diag-
nosis or to apply the indicated treatment. To provide for this
condition, classes of otherwise well-trained bacteriologists and
clinicians were organized in our principal hospitals and labora-
tories, and systematic courses of instruction were given.
Several hundreds of the younger medical officers passed through
the Army Auxiliary Laboratory No. One at the Rockefeller
Institute and the Yale Army Laboratory School at New Haven.
When these men were distributed to our large base hospitals
they in turn organized schools for special instruction of the
staffs in the diagnosis and treatment of the diseases of the
lungs, including tuberculosis, of empyema, and of cerebro-
spinal meningitis, and of the other commoner epidemic diseases.
Nothing in the medical history was more inspiring than the
spirit and energy with which our men undertook the study and
systematic investigation of the important problems which con-
fronted them. The greatest of all the new fields was in the
respiratory diseases which were unusually common, quite severe

DISEASES PREVALENT IN THE ARMY 305

and the cause of tremendous loss of life, and of training time
of those who recovered. Even had the appalling epidemic
of influenza not occurred it would still remain true that the
respiratory diseases were the most important group with which
we had to contend.

When the troops assembled in the Fall of 1917, men from
the cities and from the country district were brought together
in intimate association in our training camps, and the carriers
of disease germs quite early infected those who were susceptible,
with first one and then another of the acute infectious diseases;
those which we are ordinarily in the habit of calling the diseases
of childhood. Of these measles was the first to appear, and it
passed through first one camp and then another until prac-
tically all the susceptible material was exhausted. It seemed
quite impossible to prevent its spread when introduced into an
organization, although a great deal was accomplished in modify-
ing its severity and in preventing its complications. During
1917, 32 per cent, of all deaths were due to this disease, and
it caused a mortality of 1.7 per thousand of the strength of
the army. In 1918 there were fewer cases. In the American
Expeditionary Forces the disease was constantly present, but
it never assumed the proportions of an epidemic as it did in
the United States, for the simple reason that the troops sent
overseas were relatively seasoned, or salted as the British say,
when speaking of troops which had already acquired an im-
munity to the diseases of childhood. For the two years of the
war there were 98,606 cases, and 2455 deaths. In spite of
these large figures, we know that the disease was less serious
as a military difficulty than during the Civil War. Had the
same rates prevailed as in 1861 and 62 there would have been
184,918 cases and 6649 deaths.

Measles is always a serious disease and is the cause of a
large mortality among children every year, especially in our
large cities, and it deserves more study and research than has
been given it. We made several attempts to unravel the riddle
of the disease, but without success, and we are to-day in no

306 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

better position to prevent its spread than before the war. The
single improvement, if such it can be called, is in our present
appreciation of its importance, and of the necessity for further
research, as to its cause, in order that we may have knowledge
to prevent or at least to control its spread, most probably by
the discovery of a suitable vaccine.

Simple, uncomplicated measles is probably a mild and almost
harmless infection, but unfortunately complications are common
and severe, the most important being pneumonia. In this war
the pneumonia was studied as have been the ordinary or lobar
pneumonias, and it was early learned that the inflammation of
the lung was of quite a different character; that is, was ordi-
narily caused by the type four pneumococci, or even more
frequently by the haemolytic streptococcus. The last named,
organism is the cause of some forms of septicemia, of erysipelas,
of puerperal fever, and of many wound infections, all these
conditions being serious and often fatal. The pneumonias
caused by this organism were frequently complicated with
empyema, and were very fatal. Many studies of the complica-
tions of measles were made in all our larger camps where the
disease prevailed, by the foremost investigators of the country,
and the importance of the disease, from a military standpoint
was realized as never before, and we may reasonably expect
some solution of the riddle of the disease, provided the science
of bacteriology and of immunology is sufficiently far advanced
to furnish us with a workable technique for its study. At the
present time the chief stumbling block is the practical impossi-
bility of producing the disease in animals. This limits the
experimental work which can be done quite sharply.

INFLUENZA AND ITS COMPLICATIONS

Pestilences of one kind or another are popularly supposed to
follow upon the heels of war, and history does indeed show
many such associations, as, when, for example, smallpox spread
through France during the Franco-Prussian War, and through

DISEASES PREVALENT IN THE ARMY 307

Germany soon after peace was signed. In our own Spanish
War we were assailed with a plague of typhoid fever, which
left its imprint upon our civil death rate for years after 1898.
A recurrence of either of these diseases had been rendered im-
possible by the general practice of vaccination against them.
Indeed it would not be an exaggeration to affirm that the war
could not have lasted as long as it did, had it not been for the
success of the vaccination program in all the armies involved,
including those of the Central Powers. No one ventured to
prophesy that influenza would be the scourge of this war,
although it would not have been illogical. It is a very old and
well known although little understood disease. Since the fif-
teenth century we have had periodical pandemic waves of the
disease, extending to the remotest points of the world. The
interval between epidemics has usually been twenty or thirty
years. The last preceding world epidemic was in 1900. It is
characteristic of the disease that it travels as fast as the modes
of human transportation permit, remains at any one place for
little more than a month and then passes on to new regions
until it has reached the most remote corners of the civilized
world. The long interval between epidemics makes it inevitable
that each new epidemic must be studied by a new group of
investigators. It takes the men an appreciable time to learn the
difficult technique which is necessary, and before many have
acquired proficiency the disease, and with it the opportunity for
its investigation, has passed. Pfeiffer did not discover the
influenza bacillus until 1902, two years after the crest of the
epidemic had passed, and for this reason many skeptics doubted
if he was dealing with the true epidemic disease.

In this visitation, the disease was called the Spanish Influ-
enza, an old name, since several times before the disease has
first been recognized in that country. Almost as often it has
been called the Italian influenza. The epidemic of 1900 came
out of Russia and was commonly called La Grippe.

There is really no reason to doubt that it has always been the

308 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

same disease, although the laboratory proof is still lacking, be-
cause the clinical course of an attack of the disease is so charac-
teristic.

What is the history of influenza in inter-epidemic years?
In the absence of complete proof it is impossible to be sure
about it, yet the most commonly accepted belief is that the
disease is always with us, as the ordinary influenza, a form of
common cold, but that only under exceptional circumstances
does it become virulent and cause any appreciable mortality.
Dr. Welch showed years ago that the influenza bacillus could
be recovered frequently at autopsy from the cavities in tuber-
culous lungs. Others have shown its presence in chronic dis-
eases of the sinuses accessory to the nose and throat. In other
words, the causative organism is regularly present, but of low
virulence, and it does not prove sufficiently fatal to cause an
appreciable influence on the annual mortality curves. Why
some diseases, such as infantile paralysis and influenza, should
suddenly become extremely virulent and produce wide-spread
epidemics we do not now know. During the war it is probable
that it obeyed the same law as measles, and spread among our
soldiers because they were young, many of them from the
country districts, and, therefore, not immune to the infection.
As the conditions were ideal for the rapid passage of the virus
from man to man, it is concluded that there was a steady
increase in virulence, until the virus was capable of causing
a very severe and fatal illness.

During the last four months of 1917, when the camps were
filled with recruits, there were reported 40,512 cases of influ-
enza, yet it was not noted as a severe disease, and it was not
apparently followed by pneumonia to any serious extent. In
the Winter and Spring of 1918, particularly in January, March
and April, many cases of influenza were again reported, as well
as many fatal cases of pneumonia. It was not until the Fall,
however, during September and October, that it was recognized
that the fatal epidemic form of influenza was present, and that
pneumonia was reported as a frequent and fatal complication.

DISEASES PREVALENT IN THE ARMY 309

The particular strain of the virus responsible for this seems to
have been brought to Boston from Brest, the first week in Sep-
tember. From Boston and Camp Devens the disease spread
as rapidly as human beings travel to all parts of the United
States. The further history of this virus we do not know,
and we may indeed never be able to trace it. We know the
disease in a mild form was present in our camps from the be-
ginning, and that our troops presumably carried it with them
wherever they went. We know that the French had a similar
experience with their own colonial troops, and it is probable
that the experience of all the warring nations was the same.
From a military point of view one is justified in saying that
travel was free and uninterrupted from the ends of the world
to the seat of the war in France. Troops from all the world
were poured in daily and a returning stream of wounded, sick
and broken down men, returned to the home countries and
carried with them the germs of any respiratory infection to
which they had been exposed. The virulent virus, therefore,
wherever it first arose was soon carried across the battle lines,
to friend and foe, to the lines of communication in the rear of
the battle areas, and finally by ships, from port to port.

It stands as one of the most fatal pestilences of history. For
1918 there were reported 688,869 cases in the American Army.
This gives a rate of 273 cases per thousand men. The number
of deaths charged directly to influenza was 23,007, giving a rate
per thousand of population of 9.14. In addition to this number
of deaths, there were 431 charged to bronchitis, 6814 to
broncho-pneumonia, 8407 to lobar pneumonia, and 405 to pneu-
monia unclassified, 262 to pleurisy, 330 to various respiratory
diseases, a great many of which should, no doubt, have been
charged to influenza. If these deaths are added together it
would give a total of 39,701 out of a strength of 2,518,499
during the year, a rate of approximately 15.75 per looo of
population. The total deaths for the army for the year from
disease amounted to 47,384. Approximately 82 per cent, of
all deaths were, therefore, caused by diseases of the respiratory

310 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

tract. If we deduct this respiratory rate of 15.75 from the
total rate for disease, it would leave the exceedingly low rate
of 3.07 for all others.

We may conclude, therefore, with this evidence, that it is
possible to prevent deaths, under conditions of mobilization and
warfare, from all diseases except the respiratory; that so far
as such diseases are concerned we have advanced but little, and
that the field for future investigation and research for all con-
cerned in public health and medicine lies in the diseases of the
respiratory tract.

Some progress has already been made ; secondary pneumonias
from the haemolytic streptococcus are now recognized and
methods for their control are now available. There are those
Who believe that epidemic influenza, and the influenza of inter-
epidemic years, is caused by the bacillus of influenza, but even
so, there does not seem to be at the moment of writing any
method of preventing an epidemic which has once started.
This is, perhaps, the greatest of the public health problems at
present awaiting solution.

Y

XVIII

ADVANCES IN SURGERY DURING THE WAR
JOHN W. HANNER

WHILE there has been nothing startling or revolutionary
in the surgical art as a result of the recent great war,
substantial and valuable gains in the surgical field have marked
the progress of surgeons of all nationalities through the multi-
plicity of conditions met with, and valuable knowledge for
future use has been stored up in the literature.

Perhaps the outstanding and most spectacular achievement,
one that shortened the period of disability greatly and resulted
in the early return of the soldier to the fighting line, as well as
prevented large, mutilating and often disabling scars and con-
tractures, was the early closure of wounds, after thorough
excision and cleansing of the lacerated, devitalized tissue found
in and around the track of the projectile, a procedure called by
the French " debridement."

This excision of tissue and immediate closure of a wound is
successful only when it can be done within a short period after
the receipt of the wound, usually given as eight to twelve hours.
As a rule, when a longer time has intervened, infection of the
wound has already gained such headway and has become so
widespread, since the organisms have had time to multiply and
penetrate into the surrounding tissue, that it is unsafe to close
the wound immediately. In such cases, it has been found safer
to delay the suture of the wound for two or three days, when
in favorable cases it can be closed without fear of future in-
fection ; or to employ antiseptics to combat and limit the infec-
tion ; or to use simple drainage, as was formerly done, until the

312 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

infection is controlled, after which a freshening of the edges
of the wound can be done and a secondary closure, perhaps
after two or three weeks, be successfully performed. The suc-
cess of early closure of wounds depends, then, on getting the
wounded man to a surgical formation as soon after being
wounded as possible ; for the earlier a wound has surgical treat-
ment, the greater the chance of success in immediate closure,
when the wound, after thorough excision of the injured tissues,
behaves as does a clean wound made by a surgeon in ordinary
civil operating, healing taking place without any complicating
suppuration. This necessity of early surgical treatment was
met by improved methods of evacuating the wounded from the
battlefield and by moving the surgical hospitals and operating
teams as far forward as safety of the wounded permitted, in
order to shorten the haul to the place where surgical aid was
available. Constant improvement along these lines resulted
in the reception of the wounded and operation upon them within
an average time, in the majority of cases, of six to eight hours
after the receipt of the wound.

It had been hoped that the incidence of infection of war
wounds would be less than had occurred in former wars, due
to the use of the so-called '* humane/' small caliber, high
velocity bullet of the modern military rifle. But, as a matter
of fact, such did not prove the case since, especially as the war
progressed, the number of those wounded by the small bullet
was a small percentage only. The great majority in the later
stages of the war showed wounds from shell fragments of the
high explosive shell, which was used more and more as the
number of field guns and long range cannon increased, and such
wounds were invariably potentially infected. Wounds from
shell fragments are torn, jagged and lacerated, and the mass
of macerated, devitalized tissue surrounding the track of the
projectile is increased. Hence debridement or total excision of
this injured tissue is rendered more difficult, and requires much
patience and painstaking care to insure 'that all of the bruised
and infected tissue is entirely removed, for this is essential to

ADVANCES IN SURGERY DURING THE WAR 313

the success of immediate closure. Added to this was the fact
that the soil of the western battle front, in Belgium and North-
ern France, had for many generations been intensively culti-
vated, and manure and human dejecta had been used for
fertilization. As a consequence the soil fought over was richly
impregnated with bacteria, especially of the fecal variety, both
spore bearing and non-spore bearing. The spore bearing
organisms are very tenacious of life and resistant to destruction.
Among these fecal organisms the most important and virulent
met with in the war were the bacillus tetani, which causes
tetanus or " lock-jaw," and the bacillus aerogenes capsulatus
(Welch) or perfringens, which causes gaseous gangrene.
There are other varieties mixed with these and usually found
associated with them in wounds ; but these are the ones which,
especially in the earlier stages of the war, caused the greatest
mortality in the wounded. The clothing of the soldiers was
necessarily more or less fouled with the germ-laden earth;
often their skins were dirty, too, for a dainty toilet and ideal
cleanliness are not often possible under field conditions; so
that when a wound was inflicted these virulent organisms, to-
gether with the ordinary pus-producing bacteria, were carried
into the depth of the wound either on the projectile itself, or
on shreds of clothing or skin which are usually carried into the
wound by the projectile, and there they found a favorable home
in which to multiply and elaborate their toxins. The "lock-
jaw " and " gas gangrene " bacilli are anaerobic, that is, they
flourish only when they are protected from the action of
oxygen or air; so that deep wounds and those which exhibit
pockets or side tracks are the ones which are best suited to the
needs of these organisms. Naturally, then, the rational treat-
ment of such wounds and the one practiced with success if
the patient was seen sufficiently early was either excision of
the entire wound, or if such was not possible, the thorough and
wide opening up of the wound so that there were no pockets
or crevices left which prevented the access of air to them.
Due to the high incidence and the fatal effect of tetanus or

THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

" lock-jaw " when once the system has absorbed the toxins of
the tetanus bacillus, it early became the practice, which was con-
tinued throughout the war, to give a prophylactic or preventive
injection of tetanus anti-toxin at the first sanitary formation
to which the wounded man was taken, usually the battalion aid
or collecting station. This injection of anti-toxic serum was
made mandatory and each wounded man was so protected,
however apparently trifling the wound ; as a consequence the
occurrence of " lock-jaw " became a rarity instead of a common
complication.

Though the incidence of gaseous gangrene was greatly les-
sened by early surgical intervention, cases which were seen late
frequently already showed the infection as well established, and
then the problem became one of control instead of prevention.
Various measures were proposed for combating and limiting
its spread, the most popular of which were the injections of
oxygen or peroxide of hydrogen, which gives off free oxygen,
in the tissues beyond the infected area, in the endeavor to pre-
vent an extension of the process. The value of these measures
is very doubtful, since tissues distended with the oxygen or
peroxide are rendered tense and their blood supply lessened
by pressure; in other words, tissues which are uninjured are
really damaged and rendered less able to combat by their
natural processes the invasion of the organisms; hence these
means were not widely employed though some surgeons claimed
that it was really beneficial and the gangrenous process was
limited by use of them. Unfortunately, often, when massive
gangrene had already supervened, temporizing measures were
too risky, and amputation had to be done as a life-saving
measure. In less severe cases, in which a muscle or group of
muscles only was involved, excision of the infected muscle or
group, as the case might be, resulted in the saving of both
life and limb.

The importance of immobilizing for transport the wounded
part, whether it involves bone or is of the soft parts only, in
aiding to prevent or limit infection, is more fully appreciated

ADVANCES IN SURGERY DURING THE WAR 315

now as a result of war experience than it ever has been before.
When infection of a wound is evidently unavoidable or is
already frankly present when the patient reaches surgical aid,
either through inability thoroughly to excise the wound, if
seen early, or due to the general condition of the patient which
prevents a radical primary operation, or through the impossi-
bility of early evacuation to a surgical hospital, the problem
of early control of the infection, cutting short its course, so
that the wound may be sterilized and rendered capable of
secondary closure without the long wait for healing from the
bottom out by granulation, is the effort to which the surgeon
bends his knowledge and energy. In the years of peace, sur-
geons had striven steadily with success to render surgical
operations aseptic or free from infection, and the use and
elaboration of antiseptic agents, employed to destroy bacteria
and control infection, had claimed but little of their thought
and attention. Faced with the treatment of many and viru-
lently infected wounds, interest in antiseptics was revived and
out of experiments with many substances and many methods of
application were evolved successful means of combating infec-
tion. Holding first place, probably, in efficiency of controlling
infection is the Carrel method of wound sterilization by use of
Dakin's solution. Dakin's fluid is a solution of sodium hypo-
chlorite of a given strength, 0.45-0.5 per cent, of the hypo-
chlorite. If stronger than this it is too irritating; if weaker, it
has but small antiseptic power. If employed haphazard, in
any sort of fashion, it has no more value than any fluid em-
ployed for irrigation or mechanical cleansing. Carrel worked
out a method which utilizes its full antiseptic value. He found
that by the use of many small, soft rubber tubes (4mm. inside
diameter) with small perforations in the tubes towards their
ends, so that the fluid might be evenly distributed in the wound,
this antiseptic fluid could be brought into contact with all the
wound surface. By trial the frequency of the use of the fluid
in the wound was determined to be at two-hour intervals for
the best results. To get results the technic as elaborated after

316 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

long study and experimentation by Carrel should be carefully
and rigidly followed. Dakin's fluid is antiseptic for only a
brief period, and to act must be brought into actual contact with
the infected tissues, which is best accomplished by rigid adher-
ence to the technic as laid down by Carrel. As remarked
before, failure follows haphazard, hit-or-miss methods. Many
surgeons have failed to get results with Dakin's solution, and
have pronounced it valueless, but investigation in such cases
usually shows that they have applied it in a way of their own
and have disregarded the teachings of Carrel as to its proper
methods of use. The surgeons who have followed the method
rigidly as recommended are usually successful and become en-
thusiastic advocates of this means of controlling infection.
Remarkable results in the prompt control and quick sterilization
of badly infected wounds have been reported in great numbers,
permanent secondary closures then becoming possible and
usually proving successful.

Rutherford Morison, an English surgeon, has advocated the
use of a paste composed of Bismuth subnitrate, or carbonate,
iodoform and enough liquid paraffin to make a paste — this
paste being commonly called " Bipp " from the initial letters of
its components. The English have used it with success and
Morison claims that by a few dressings with it, many wounds
can be sterilized at once, while in the remainder the spread of
infection can be checked and remedied.

For the treatment of infected wounds Sir Almroth Wright
also introduced his hypertonic salt solution. Normal salt solu-
tion, 0.9 per cent, of ordinary table salt in sterile water, has
long been used as a cleansing fluid, with perhaps mild antiseptic
properties. Wright's Hypertonic Solution is a solution of salt
in water in the strength of 5 per cent., over five times the
strength of the normal saline. A fresh wound has a coating
of lymph from the tissues of the body formed on the wound
surface in a comparatively brief space of time. This seals the
surface of the wound, and bacteria multiply unhindered beneath
this protective coating. The use of five per cent, salt solution

ADVANCES IN SURGERY DURING THE WAR 317

prevents the formation of this film of lymph and invites the
flow of lymph from the tissues, causing what Wright terms
" lymph lavage." This lymph is one of the protective fluids
of the body, and the constant outgoing stream of it through
the infected tissues serves to carry away with it the bacteria
which are growing on the surface and to prevent their deeper
penetration.

The above have been the most successful methods of treating
infections which have already become established and of pre-
venting serious infection in wounds in which surgical cleanli-
ness could not be obtained.

Brief mention should be made of the treatment of shock. No
specific treatment has been discovered; it is still symptomatic.
Cannon did valuable work in this field. While nothing new in
treatment has been added, methods of treatment were rendered
available and efficient, which had not been so formerly in the
field with armies. So-called " shock teams " were organized,
consisting of personnel specially trained in the handling of
shock cases, and these teams worked in the hospitals in the
advance zone. The evacuation and mobile surgical hospitals
had wards set aside for the treatment of these cases, and the
personnel to carry out the treatment. Field hospitals and
triages had litters so arranged as to warm up quickly and to
keep warm any patients received in a state of shock, and ambu-
lances heated from the exhaust were used to transport them.
The warming and keeping warm of a patient in shock is still
a great necessity. Acidosis, an acid condition of the blood,
which is normally alkaline, is present in shock, and Cannon
combats this with success by giving sodium bicarbonate by the
mouth, and a 4 per cent, solution of it intravenously, intro-
duced very slowly, about an ounce a minute. The menace of
low blood pressure is met by position, prone, or head lowered,
except in cranial and chest wounds, as little movement and
handling as possible, and many advocate the use of 6-10 per
cent, glucose and 5-7 per cent, gum arabic solutions in the veins,
either alone, or with glucose added, and perhaps a small per-

318 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

centage of adrenalin ; but the stimulant effect of the latter is
very fugitive. Blood pressure readings are taken at frequent
intervals, and treatment regulated thereby.

Porter advocates the treatment of shock by means of carbon
dioxide, which is introduced into a box in which the patient's
head is enclosed, enough gas being used to double the number
of respirations. By employing this carbon dioxide treatment,
in addition to the posture, the warming, and the intravenous
injections, Porter claims to have 80 per cent, of successes, even
in the cases of profound shock.

Another important advance in war surgery was the early
splinting of the wounded, as far forward as possible. Some
splints were applied even on the field, many at the battalion aid
stations close behind the firing line, while it was the endeavor
to have every man splinted before being evacuated from the
*' triage " or sorting station of the wounded to formations
farther back. This splinting applied not only to fractures and
joint wounds, but to extensive wounds of the soft parts as
well. It resulted in greatly lessening shock, rendering the
wounded more comfortable and thus keeping up their morale,
preventing further injury from movement of the wounded part
during transportation and so delivering the patient in better
condition for immediate or early operation. This was accom-
plished by standardizing the splints throughout the army, mak-
ing them simple, easy and quick of application, training the
sanitary personnel in their proper application and adjustment,
and having a sufficient supply for their needs at all times with
the combat units. Better final results in the treatment of
wounded resulted from this early and far-forward splinting.

A very distinct and one of the most far-reaching and bene-
ficial results of the war was the realization of the surgeon that
his duty had not been fully accomplished in getting a wound
to heal or a fracture to unite. Too often in the past the general
surgeon was satisfied with just this, and as a consequence not
enough attention was paid to the future function of the
wounded member. Due to the teaching and indefatigable effort

ADVANCES IN SURGERY DURING THE WAR 319

of the Orthopaedists both of this country and of England, the
general surgeon's view was broadened and his attention was
directed to preserving of function even at the expense of quick
healing, though in most instances the one did not interfere with
the other. As Sir Robert Jones, the eminent English Orthopae-
dist, expresses it : " The orthopaedic mind thinks in terms of
function." During the war preventive orthopedics was prac-
ticed, as distinguished from corrective orthopedics. The latter
is and has long been more especially in the province of the
Orthopaedic Surgeon. The former, however, should lie in the
province of every surgeon who has to deal with war wounds.
The world war has taught the general surgeon a lesson in
preventive orthopedics which will never be forgotten, and the
benefits of this lesson will be carried back with him into civil
life. Many deformities and crippling as to function will be
prevented which have hitherto occurred more or less as a matter
of course, requiring secondary operations or corrective orthope-
dics to gain what might have been prevented in the first place.
This advance we owe to orthopaedic surgeons and their insistent
teaching. Results obtained augur well for the future. But
to obtain them it was early learned that a consistent line of
treatment must be followed, not haphazard methods. This was
accomplished by having uniformity of treatment from front to
rear formations, so that the wounded, even though necessity
compelled him to pass through the hands of different surgeons,
was assured of the continuation of the treatment instituted in
his case by the first surgeon who attended him, and by the best
methods experience had shown as giving the best results in the
individual cases.

Another advance in surgery or in being better able to do good
surgery was the aid and increased use of the roenigenol-
who, during the war, became a more important factor than he
had ever been. He operated far forward ; practically all cases
passed through his hands before operation and the information
he was able to furnish was invaluable in indicating the proper
operative procedure. Through advances in the roentgenologic

320 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

art foreign bodies were more accurately located than they had
ever been before. Several very simple and accurate methods
of locating the foreign body within a fraction of an inch,
rapidly applied without long mathematical calculations, were
perfected. Too, the roentgenologist became an anatomist as
well, and not only could he give the depth from the skin surface
at which a foreign body lay, but he could locate it further by
its relations to well known anatomical landmarks. By aid of
the roentgenologist, the surgeon could also cut directly down
upon and remove under X-Ray vision, by means of the lluoro-
scope, a foreign body which might be small, difficult to find or
difficult of access, without such direct X-Ray vision. Thus the
roentgenologist has become in operating a most valued and im-
portant assistant of the operating surgeon.

As a product of the war there was also perfected a portable
bedside X-Ray unit, capable of taking excellent roentgeno-
graphs and of being used with the fluoroscopic screen. This
operates from the ordinary incandescent lamp socket or wall
plug. No longer is it necessary, during convalescence and the
progress of union, to move a patient with a fractured bone to
determine the position of the fragments. This can now be
done at the bedside without moving or disturbing the patient
in the least, with the consequent risk of displacing the fragments
which such moving entails. X-Rays will be taken more fre-
quently during the mending process. Any displacement will be
corrected early, fewer cases of vicious union or non-union will
occur, and better results in fracture work will result.

While there has been, perhaps, no distinct advance in the
treatment of wounds of the cranium and abdomen when oper-
ated, lives have been saved by early operation of these cases.
Formerly, due chiefly to the too long interval between the time
the patient was wounded and the time surgical aid was avail-
able, the teaching was that expectant treatment — non-operative,
fhat is, merely meeting symptoms as they arose — resulted in
saving more lives than operation did. This has now been
reversed. Improvement in evacuation methods, and the moving

ADVANCES IN SURGERY DURING THE WAR 321

of surgical hospitals with competent and trained surgical per-
sonnel to operate these special cases far forward, has resulted
in getting the wounded to surgical aid quickly, within a few
hours after the receipt of the wound. Under such conditions
operation on these cases is indicated; the sooner the operation
is done the better the chance of success. So that now, as has
long obtained in civil surgery, in war surgery, too, these cases
are no longer treated expectantly, but are operated when seen
early and the mortality in such cases has thereby been very
materially reduced.

In chest wounds a distinct advance has been made in one
direction. It has been discovered that opening the chest cavity
and thereby allowing air to get in is no longer to be feared for
its dire results as formerly. Such fear of air in the chest
cavity (pneumothorax) has been found to be largely mythical.
Now bruised, devitalized and potentially infected lung tissue is
excised, hemorrhage in the chest is stopped, and lung tissue is
sutured as is the soft tissue anywhere in the body. In other
words, wounds of the lung are debrided or excised and
treated as are other wounds of the soft tissues. In the old
cases of pus in the pleura, pyothorax or empyema, in which
the pleura is greatly thickened or leathery and no longer elastic,
imprisoning the lung and preventing it from expanding, the
earlier method was to excise the chest wall and allow it to
collapse, thus filling the cavity in the pleura so that it will no
longer discharge pus. According to present methods, such
amounts of the ribs as may be necessary to permit a free access
to the affected part of the pleura are resected, care being exer-
cised that the periosteum or membranous covering of the
ribs is preserved, this thickened pleura is then excised, peeled
off of the chest wall and of the lung, permitting the lung to
expand and function again. The soft parts are closed, the
membranous covering of the portions of the ribs taken out is
left in place, the ribs soon grow back, and the old deformities
of a collapsed chest wall and drooping shoulder are no longer
evident.

322 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

Mention should be made of the great value of the X-Ray
as a diagnostic agent in empyema cases, especially if stereo-
scopic use of plates is employed; the extent of the empyema
or delimitation of the cavity to be dealt with is plainly brought
out.

A decided advance has been made in the management of
wounds of joints. As a result of experience in joint wounds
during the world war it has been proved indubitably that the
lining membranes of the joints (synovial sacs) are quite re-
sistant to infection, taking rank almost with the lining mem-
brane of the abdomen and its contained organs in this respect.
Early immobilization of joints which have been wounded, in
case they are already infected, will usually prevent the spread of
infection; and the resisting power of the synovial membrane
lining the joint will confine the infection to a limited area, so
that the whole joint will not become involved, and it is neces-
sary then to drain only the infected portion. Since it has been
ascertained in these cases that the joint membrane has the power
to control and overcome mild infections, joints are now fear-
lessly closed primarily, after excision of the torn and possibly
infected wounded area and the cleansing of the joint of extra-
vasated blood and perhaps bits of foreign bodies and detached
bone fragments, where former teaching would have led to
prolonged drainage with a resultant stiff joint or one with
limited motion. It has also been discovered, contra to former
teaching, that drainage tubes introduced into or through a joint
prolong the suppurative process and retard recovery instead of
hastening it,, so that now when drainage has to be instituted,
the tubes are carried only down to the joint but never project
into it. These facts, together with immediate immobilization
of joint wounds, followed early in convalescence, usually cer-
tainly not later than ten days to two weeks, by passive and
active or voluntary movement of the joint, so as to avoid stiff-
ness, or a rigid (ankylosed) joint, have resulted in retaining
function which, under former methods of treatment, would
have been lost entirely or severely limited. By having the

ADVANCES IN SURGERY DURING THE WAR 323

patient himself gradually increase the range of motion of the
joint, entire restoration of function is obtained in a majority
of cases ; the muscles do not atrophy and shrink and lose their
power, as they do when they are long immobilized and not
allowed exercise, and convalescence is thereby much shortened,
not only redounding in benefit to the patient himself, but to
the economic gain of the country at large.

A radical change in the treatment of infected joint wounds
has been introduced and advocated especially by Willems, a
Belgian surgeon. He uses no drainage tubes in suppurating
joints, but at stated intervals the patient is required to move
his joint, which movement expresses the contained pus through
the incisions made into the joint for the escape of the pus.
Remarkably good results have been obtained by Willems and
others who have employed this method of treatment. They
claim that better drainage is obtained than by the use of drain-
age tubes, the infection is more quickly controlled, the joint
cleans up more rapidly, and it is a rare occurrence to have a
stiff joint result when the treatment by movement is persistently
and consistently employed. In this method of treatment move-
ment of the joint is begun in twelve to twenty-four hours after
the joint is opened by operation. Willems states that, contrary
to what one would expect, after the first few times movement
of the joint causes no great pain, since the pain on movement is
due to inflammation and the acute inflammation quickly sub-
sides, drainage by this means is so efficient.

What has been said of joints, as to early movement and
exercise of the muscles of the wounded member, can also be
said of fractures. The importance of frequent roentgenograms
during convalescence has been mentioned ; progress of union
and the assurance that fragments remain in proper position
are ascertained by them. No longer are fractures immobilized
by rigidly immobilizing the entire injured limb with nearby
joints rendered incapable of movement. By the suspension
treatment of fractures, constant extension is obtained by a sys-
tem of pulleys and weights, so that even though the joints are

324 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

moved and the muscles are exercised, the extension pull remains
constant, the patient is no longer helpless and dependent upon
nurses or orderlies even to shift his position in bed; he can
move about in bed to a limited degree, of course, and is required
to move and exercise the muscles and joints of the fractured
extremity. This process hastens bony union in that it improves
circulation, prevents stiffness of joints and atrophy of muscles
from disuse, and thus again shortens the period of conva-
lescence, allowing the use of the injured member much earlier
than was formerly thought possible. Too, the early use of
ambulatory splints for walking during convalescence hastens
return to normal use and lessens the vicious " crutch habit."

Though nothing new has been added in the matter of bone
grafts, bone grafting is now done with greater success probably
than formerly. Instead of covering in defects of the skull
with foreign material, such as metal plates, as heretofore has
been the usual practice, it has been found that a thin shaving
of bone with its covering membrane or periosteum transplanted
bodily from a nearby portion of the uninjured skull, will unite
with the bone around the defect, will grow and thus give a
homogeneous bony covering for the area of lost bone.

When amputation has to be performed, greater attention is
now directed to the effort of obtaining an end-bearing stump,
that is, a stump which will take the weight of the body, when
the leg or thigh has been amputated, on the end of the stump
against the artificial limb, instead of the pressure of weight-
bearing falling upon the sides of the stump. An end-bearing
stump is altogether desirable and offers many advantages.
Now, under the supervision of the surgeon, hardening and
toughening of the end of the stump is begun as soon as healing
permits, and by graduated steps of pressure and pounding and
the early use of a temporary or provisional artificial leg, the
stump is rendered fit for the wearing of the permanent limb
much earlier than formerly. Also, more attention is paid to
the " shrinking " of the stump, with the same end in view.
All of this is done under the supervision of the surgeon and

ADVANCES IN SURGERY DURING THE WAR 325

no longer is a man dismissed and sent to a dealer in artificial
limbs to be fitted ; his final fitting is given before he is dismissed
from hospital and the proper sort of device is chosen best to fit
the individual case, with an eye chiefly to the man's occupa-
tion. Also, he is educated in the use of the new appliance before
dismissal. The early use of the artificial leg lessens the period
of crutch using and obviates the undesirable " crutch habit."

New knowledge has been acquired which assures greater
success in dealing with lesions of the peripheral nerves. It has
been ascertained that the fasciculi or smaller bundles of nerve
fibers, which together make up the nerve trunk as a whole,
have special functions of their own, and to obtain the best
success in suturing a divided nerve these bundles of fibers
should be joined to the corresponding bundles of the other end
in suturing, so that the special tracts will be continuous. Hence
the greatest care is now exercised to place the nerve in its cor-
rect anatomical continuity and to avoid any torsion or twisting
of the nerve ends in joining them. Also, it seems to be defi-
nitely determined that surrounding the sutured segments of
nerves with extraneous material, such as fascia, various mem-
branes, gutta-percha tissue, segments of veins, which was done
in the endeavor to prevent adhesions, is undesirable since it
interferes with new-formed blood supply to the injured portion
of the nerve and so retards regeneration. The best bed for a
sutured or transplanted nerve is vascular muscle tissue, and
there is a minimum of adhesions where the nerve can course
between the inter-muscular planes. Success has not generally
attended the transplantation of nerve segments; it is far better
to join the severed segments of the divided nerve to each other
when at all possible, and this is usually possible, for gaps of
considerable extent can be bridged by proper position of the
arm or leg in bringing the too short segments together without
tension.

Great strides forward have been made in maxillo-facial sur-
gery in obtaining both functional and cosmetic results.
Surgeons and dental surgeons, working together to a common

326 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

end, have succeeded in correcting most frightful and repulsive
disfigurations and deformities of the face and jaws into the
lineaments of quite presentable human beings. Whole jaws
and sections of the bony structure of jaws and face are built
up prosthetically, contours are rounded out, scars excised, and
tissue and skin from other suitable portions of the body are
transplanted and grafted to fill in the soft tissues which have
been burned or blown away. New eyelids, new eyebrows, new
noses, new mouths and lips, new chins, new ears and cheeks
are successfully made, restoring the contour of the face to as
near a likeness to the original as can be obtained. This work
requires infinite patience, optimism, and a steadfastness against
discouragement, often many operations, but the results have
been nothing less than marvelous in cases one would judge
utterly hopeless of any possible benefit. Each case requires
careful and individual study, and the procedure to be attempted
should be fully worked out and determined, and accurate pat-
terns of flaps, etc., made before operation is begun.

A weak solution of sodium citrate mixed with blood will
prevent its clotting. Based upon this fact, a simple method of
blood transfusion with simple apparatus has been perfected to
replace at least a portion of the blood lost from hemorrhage.
The technic is so simple, the apparatus required for its use so
simple, that it can be done far forward and by surgeons of only
ordinary ability, so that new blood can be supplied to one who
needs it at a time when it will have the best effect, shortly after
the original loss of the blood. Proctoclyisis, or the slow intro-
duction of normal saline solution into the rectum, to aid the
system in the making of its own blood and to help combat shock,
maintains its place of importance and value.

The recent war has resulted in extending the surgeon's
interest to the field of reconstruction and reeducation, which
in a way, properly falls under after-treatment of surgical con-
ditions. The surgeon's advice and supervision in reeducating
the maimed and crippled is naturally of high value, based
upon his study of and knowledge of anatomy. He can best

ADVANCES IN SURGERY DURING THE WAR 327

direct the course of reeducation so that the maximum beneficial
results can be obtained. The direction of his energy and
knowledge to this end will redound largely to the happiness of
the individual who can be transformed from a helpless burden
to a more or less useful existence, as well as prove an enormous
economic saving to the nation as a whole.

The knowledge gained in improved methods of surgical treat-
ment during the world war will result in better results in the
treatment of industrial accidents in peace time.

XIX

PREVENTIVE MEDICINE AND THE WAR l
VICTOR C. VAUGHAN

educated man, civilian or military in his training and
life, now questions the importance of keeping the soldier
free from infection. That health is at all times a nation's
greatest asset and disease its greatest liability has become a
recognized truism. Never in the history of the world has
preventive medicine had so great an opportunity to demonstrate
its value in the service of mankind and that it has not failed
in this demonstration all admit. From all parts of the earth,
bearing every known infection, millions of men have been
assembled and disease has at no time and in no way become a
deciding factor in any military enterprise. The mobilization of
raw untrained men,and their hurried transformation into effec-
tive soldiers, has always been accompanied by marked increase
in morbidity and mortality. The assembly of young men in
camps acts like a drag-net bringing to a central point all infec-
tions prevalent in the areas from which these men come. The
wider the area, the larger the number of those brought together,
the greater the susceptibility of the individuals constituting the
assembly, the more closely they are crowded together and the
more intimate their contact, the larger the number of bearers
of infections, the more virulent the disease-causing organisms
brought into the camps, the greater will be the morbidity and

1 For the scientific details upon which this Chapter is founded see
papers by Col. Victor C. Vaughan and Capt. Geo. T. Palmer in the
"Journal of Lab. and Clinical Medicine," August, 1918, and July and
August, 1919.

PREVENTIVE MEDICINE AND THE WAR 329

mortality from communicable diseases. Our Government
assembled within less than two years nearly four million un-
trained, undisciplined men, most of whom were unacquainted
with the details of personal hygiene and without experience in
caring for themselves under conditions of army life. That the
morbidity and mortality from communicable diseases among
these should show an average above that in the civilian life from
which they came was to be expected by one familiar with the
science of epidemiology.

The purpose of this writing is to ascertain to what extent
preventive measures succeeded in holding down the death rate
from communicable diseases among our soldiers, especially in
the camps in this country. In doing this it will be best to divide
the period covered by our active military operations into three
seasons: (i) From Sept. 29, 1917, to March 29, 1918. On the
first of these dates the camps were fairly well developed and
this period covers the winter months and our findings can be
compared with the summer months with reference to the sea-
sonal influence on the character and spread of infections. (2)
From March 30, 1918, to August 31, 1918. Under usual con-
ditions the month of September would have been included in
this " Summer Season," but the appearance of the pandemic of
influenza early in September led to the division here indicated.
(3) From September i to December 31, 1918. These four
months we have designated as the " Autumn Season " or the
" Influenza Period."

THE WINTER OF 1917-18

The death rate in the army should be compared with that
for the same age period in civil life. The comparison should
be made on the records for the same year and the same season.
Through the help of the Health Commissioners of certain cities
we are able to do this. Most enlisted men in the army were
between 21 and 31 years of age. The period nearest this avail-
able in civil statistics is the age between 20 and 29 years. In
comparing these figures there is a slight disadvantage to the

330

THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

army on each of the following points: (i) The death rale
in the group from 20 to 29 years of age is lower than that of
the draft age from 21 to 31 years. (2) The death rate in these
ages is greater among males than among females. (3) The
army includes more men above 31 than below 21. (4) The
population 'of cities is as a rule overestimated and a slight over-
estimate in the population lowers the estimated death rate
markedly.

With these explanations a comparison of the army death rate
with the rates in certain cities, expressed as annual rates, is
given for this period in Table i.

TABLE i

Annual Death Rate per 1000. (Age 20 to 29 Yrs., Time, Oct., Nov.,
Dec., 1917; Jan., Feb., Mar., 1918.)

Place

Death Rate

Army

New York City.

St. Louis . .

New Orleans . .

Pittsburgh

Chicago

9-1
5-5
5-5
10.4
6.2
5-2

It is seen that the average death rate in the camps is higher
than that of any city with the exception of New Orleans.

As is true of cities the death rate varied widely in different
camps, as is shown in Table 2.

TABLE 2
Annual Death Rate per 1000

National Guard

National Army

Wheeler

281

Pike

•5Q 7

Beauregard . . .

2< 4

. . . 19.9

Bowie

21 I

Funston

... 16 3

Sevier

1C C

Travis

... 15.3

PREVENTIVE MEDICINE AND THE WAR 331

National Guard

National Army

Cody 12.7

Doniphan 11.9

Shelby 8.6

Kearney 8.1

Sheridan 2.8

Hancock 2.6

Wadsworth 2.5

McClellan 2.4

Logan 2.3

Lee 10.8

Dodge 9-1

Taylor 9.0

Gordon 7.8

Sherman 5.4

Upton 5-3

Custer 5.1

Lewis 4.1

Meade 3-9

Grant 3.8

Devens ' 37

Dix . 2.9

By comparing tables i and 2 it will be seen that 13 camps
had a lower death rate than New York and St. Louis for the
age group of 20 to 29 years and in some this rate was about
one-half that of these cities.

The diseases responsible for the greatest number of deaths in
the army during the period now under consideration are the
acute respiratory diseases. These are named in the order
in which they caused death as follows : pneumonia, meningitis,
measles, scarlet-fever and diphtheria. With the addition of
tuberculosis these caused 77 per cent, of all deaths. Sixteen
per cent, were due to other diseases ^and seven per cent, to
mechanical injuries. Assuming the conditions in the registra-
tion area for 1915 to be fairly representative of other years
we may express the relative fatality between civilian and army
life during the six winter months as follows :

Pneumonia was 12 times greater in the army.

Meningitis was 45 times greater in the army.

Measles was 19 times greater in the army.

Scarlet-fever was 6 times greater in the army.

Diphtheria was 2 times greater in the army.

Tuberculosis was 13 times greater in civil life.

The low tuberculosis rate is due to the elimination of those
in the active stage of this disease and most of the deaths from

332 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

this cause were due to the activation of latent stages by acute
respiratory diseases.

By comparing the morbidity and mortality in our army dur-
ing the six months of 1917-18 with the records for the first six
months of the Civil War it appears that the advance in medi-
cine and sanitation has prevented one half million cases of dis-
ease and some ten thousand deaths. During the Spanish- Ameri-
can War the annual death rate from typhoid fever in our camps
per 100,000 was 879; during the six months of 1917-18 it was
1.3. In 1898 there was not a regiment in the United States
Army which did not suffer from typhoid fever and in most
regiments from 10 to 20 per cent, of the strength acquired this
disease. In 1917-18, twelve divisions had not a case. If
typhoid fever had prevailed in our camps in 1917-18 to the
same extent as it did during the same time in the State of Dela-
ware there would have been in the army over 50,000 cases and
more than 5000 deaths from this disease alone. The morbidity
from typhoid fever in Camp Dix, the mobilization camp for
Delaware troops, was less than four times the mortality from
this disease among civilians of that State. And if the mortality
among the civilians had been calculated for the group included
in the draft age there would be but little difference between
the figures indicating morbidity from typhoid in Camp Dix
and mortality from the same disease among the civilians. It
is quite certain that every case of typhoid that occurred in our
camps during the winter of 1917-18 was due to the fact that
the man reached the camp and received his typhoid vaccination
after he had already contracted the disease. There is no evi-
dence that there was a case infected in any camp. The degree
of protection furnished by this vaccine will be discussed later.

In the winter of 1917-18 our large camps were occupied by
National Guard and National Army troops, the former in tents
and the latter in barracks. The figures given in Table 2 show
that this difference in quarters had no recognizable effect on
the death rate. It is desirable at this point to set before the
reader the information contained in Table 3.

PREVENTIVE MEDICINE AND THE WAR 333

TABLE 3

Location of National Guard and National Army Camps, Together with
the States from which Men are Drawn

October, 1917, to March, 1918
NATIONAL GUARD

Camp Site Source of Troops

Beauregard . . . Alexandria, La Arkansas, Louisiana, Missis-
sippi

Bowie Ft. Worth, Tex Oklahoma, Texas

Cody Deming, N. M Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska,

South Dakota

Doniphan Ft. Sill, Okla Kansas, Missouri

Hancock Augusta, Ga Pennsylvania

Kearny Linda Vista, Cal Arizona, California, Colorado,

New Mexico, Utah

Logan Houston, Tex Illinois

McClellan Anniston, Ala Delaware, District of Colum-
bia, Maryland, New Jersey,
Virginia

Sevier Greenville, S. C. North Carolina, South Caro-
lina, Tennessee

Shelby Hattiesburg, Miss. ... Indiana, Kentucky, West Vir-
ginia

Sheridan Montgomery, Ala. ...Ohio

Wadsworth . . . Spartanburg, S. C. ... New York

Wheeler Macon, Ga Alabama, Florida, Georgia

NATIONAL ARMY

Custer Battle Creek, Mich. . . Michigan, Wisconsin

Devens Ayer, Mass Maine, New Hampshire, Ver-
mont, Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, Connecticut, New
York

Dix Wrightstown, N. J. . . Delaware, New Jersey, New

York

Dodge Des Moines, Iowa. . . Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota,

North Dakota

Funston Ft. Riley, Kan Arizona, Colorado, Kansas,

Missouri, Nebraska, New
Mexico, South Dakota

334 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

NATIONAL ARMY — Continued

1 Gordon Atlanta, Ga Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee

Grant Rockford, 111 Illinois, Wisconsin

Jackson Columbians. C. .... Florida, North Carolina, South

Carolina

Lee Petersburg, Va Pennsylvania, Virginia, West

Virginia

Lewis American Lake, Wash. Alaska, California, Idaho,

Montana, Nevada, Oregon,
Utah, Washington, Wyoming

Meade Annapolis June., Md.. District of Columbia, Mary-
land, Pennsylvania

Pike Little Rock, Ark. ... Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana,

Mississippi

Sherman Chillicothe, Ohio .... Ohio

Taylor Louisville, Ky Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky

Travis F. Sam Houston, Tex. Oklahoma, Texas

Upton Yaphank, L. I., N. Y. New York

NOTE: The States indicated represent the chief source of troops at
each place. There are small increments from other points in a number
of camps.

1 This camp was occupied by the troops indicated less than two
months, when these troops were sent to Wheeler and replaced at Gordon
by draft men from many States.

By comparing Tables 2 and 3 it may be seen that climate
had no recognizable influence on the death rate. Take a map
of the United States and locate the camps. It will be found
that those with high, intermediate and low death rates enjoy
much the same climate ; for example, \Vheeler, rate 28.3 ; Jack-
son, 19.9; Sevier, 15.5; Hancock, 2.6 lie in the same region.
Now, take another map and locate the camps not where they
are but in the region from which their troops come. Then, it
will appear that that portion of the United States east of the
Mississippi, and north of the Ohio and Potomac rivers contains
no camp with an annual death rate of 8 per 1000. Moreover,
every camp with similar low death rate, with two exceptions,
lies in this area. One of the apparent exceptions, Camp Gor-

PREVENTIVE MEDICINE AND THE WAR 335

don, is really not an exception. On the second map it also
should be moved to this region (see footnote to Table 3.)
Lewis is the only real exception. Why did the soldiers from
this great north-eastern section of the United States bear the
camp diseases of the winter of 1917-18 better than those from
other sections of our country? Are they physically superior
men? No, the draft records show their physical inferiority.
Moreover, the per cent, of rejections in the draft was larger
in this section than in either the South or West. There is one
answer to this question and it is to my mind quite satisfactory.
The diseases which caused the greatest number of deaths in our
camps during that winter were the acute respiratory diseases
already mentioned and which we may properly denominate
" Crowd diseases." The section designated is the most densely
populated part of our country, and a larger proportion of the
men coming from it had acquired a greater degree of resistance
to these diseases than was possessed by their more rural com-
rades. Before mobilization of the army the pneumonias, as
the vital statistics show, were urban diseases, reaping their
greatest harvests in the crowded cities. Those who had lived
under urban conditions had acquired a degree of immunity
not possessed by those who had never come in contact with the
bacteria which cause these diseases.

While difference in susceptibility to the acute respiratory in-
fections influenced the death rate between divisions, it was
equally in evidence among the organizations of the same
division.

Camp Cody reports that disease incidence was 48 per cent.
higher in the I34th Infantry than in the I33rd. The latter was
made up of troops from the larger cities of Iowa. The former
included troops mainly from the smaller towns of Nebraska.

Similarly, disease incidence was 51 per cent, greater in the
1 36th Infantry made up from the smaller towns of Minnesota
than in the I35th Infantry made up of men from the larger
cities of this State.

The excess among rural troops of such diseases as measles,

336 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

mumps and scarlet fever has been observed at Camp Custer
and at Camp Wheeler.

Camp Wadsworth reports that their division made up of
Guardsmen from the larger cities of New York State was
practically free from disease until March when about 1500
draft men from the mountains of Tennessee and Kentucky
were received. Their arrival had a marked effect upon the
disease rate. These men soon developed meningitis, pneu-
monia and the minor communicable diseases. Their nonef-
fective rate was three times that of the original division.

The epidemiologist at Camp Doniphan points out the un-
usually low disease incidence among city troops as compared
with those from the country. The I38th Infantry and I28th
Machine Gun Battalion were recruited from St. Louis, Mis-
souri. Their annual pneumonia morbidity rates from October
to March were 15 to 25 respectively. The I37th Infantry and
1 29th Field Artillery were from the small towns of Kansas.
Their corresponding rates were 65. and 50. respectively.

Of course the men who lived through the winter of 1917-18
in our large camps became thoroughly urbanized so far as con-
cerned their reactions to crowd diseases. There is probably
no city in the world in which contact between individuals is so
close and so intimate as in a large military camp. It is gener-
ally believed that the greatest dangers from over crowding,
so far as the spread of disease is concerned, are found in the
sleeping quarters. This certainly was not true of our camps.
The most dangerous contact is during the waking hours, at
mess, at drill, in canteens, in assembly halls, when every one
is coughing and each inhaling the spray from his neighbor.
There is no evidence that cramped sleeping quarters played
an important role in the spread of disease in our camps. In-
deed, some camps with the most crowded sleeping quarters
had low death rates. The writer was in an assembly hall, with
every one of quite 5030 seats occupied and it seemed that at
least every other man was coughing. Measurements were
made and it was found that the greatest possible distance be-

PREVENTIVE MEDICINE AND THE WAR 337

tween the noses of adjoining neighbors either laterally or from
front to rear was less than 26 inches. The whole atmosphere
was filled with the spray of coughing and no radical changes
would have been secured by removing the walls and roof of
the hall. In other words, men may be dangerously crowded,
so far as exposure to disease is concerned, while out of doors,
and moreover, camp crowding, when new men are being made
into seasoned soldiers as quickly as possible, is a necessity and
the morbidity and mortality resulting therefrom must be ac-
cepted as one of the conditions imposed upon itself by any
nation which neglects military preparation until the last mo-
ment and then hastens to do what could be better done without
such haste. Our draft men were assembled directly from their
homes in their ordinary clothing, bearing multiple and varied
infective agents, the clean brought into contact with the un-
clean, crowded on to troop trains and sent to camp. Not a
troop train reached Camp Wheeler in the fall of 1917 which
did not have one or more cases of fully developed measles,
with unknown numbers of exposures, when it reached camp.
The control of infectious diseases under these conditions is a
different problem from that which the civilian health officer
has to deal with in a more stabile population. These men
should have been assembled in groups of not more than 30,
bathed and barbered, clothed in sterilized uniform, held in
quarantine for 14 days and sent to camp in these small groups
and then held under quarantine for at least 10 days longer,
before being allowed to mingle with other groups. But the
exigencies of the situation did not admit of this procedure.
The purpose was of necessity to convert civilians into effective
soldiers as soon as possible and not to make a demonstration in
preventive medicine and this was done more effectively and
with less loss in sickness and death than has been accomplished
in any previous war. At the beginning of the Civil War com-
panies and larger organizations had to be disbanded and sent
home temporarily after assembly, on account of outbreaks
of infectious diseases.

338 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

THE SUMMER OF

During this period the great majority of the men who oc-
cupied the camps during the preceding winter went to France
and their places were filled by newly drafted men. Moreover,
the plan of the preceding fall by which men from definite sec-
tions were sent to certain camps was abandoned and the dif-
ferent camps were devoted to training in special lines of serv-
ice. One became an Artillery, another an Engineer camp, etc.

The proportion of seasoned men left in the different camps
varied greatly and this had a marked influence on the death
rate in the different camps in the fall of 1918.

The annual death rate per 1000 for the summer months
was 5.7, practically the same as that of civilians in the age
group 20-29 years during the winter months. For the cor-
responding five months of the summer of 1916 the death rate
from all causes for this age group in civilian life is estimated
at 4.6. Consequently the rate of 5.7 for the army is still a
trifle above that of civilian life. This is a remarkable showing
for although the army is composed of men selected on account
of superior physical qualities and who might be expected to
have a lower death rate than the average among those of their
own age, still when we consider the hazard that is always as-
sociated with the mobilization of large numbers for military
service, the rate of 5.7 for the Summer Season may be pointed
to with pardonable pride.

During the summer season pneumonia continued to be the
chief cause of death. However, the greatest mortality oc-
curred during the months of April and May and was most
manifest among new increments from civil life. Contrary
to the experience of the preceding winter the pneumonias pre-
vailed most extensively in the middle western camps. Measles
was much less prevalent and was confined to new men because
it had exhausted the susceptible material among the troops
which had passed the winter in service. It was expected that
typhoid fever and dysentery would be more in evidence dur-

PREVENTIVE MEDICINE AND THE WAR 339

ing the summer, but neither became epidemic. The annual
death rate for typhoid fever during this season was 3.3 per
100,000. When we compare this with the death rate of 897
per 100,000 in the summer of 1898 we can have some appre-
ciation of the great advance in the prevention of this disease
which for many centuries has been the captain of the cohorts
of death in the armies of the world. Even this showing would
have been surpassed had not some men reached the camps in
an infected state. Typhoid fever was prevented by the
chlorination of the water supplies and by specific vaccination.
Incidentally the first of these proceedings prevented dysentery,
diarrhea and similar gastro-intestinal ailments. Although
some of the camps were located in malarial districts, so effi-
cient was the destruction of mosquitoes that there is no evi-
dence that any soldier was infected by these pests in any camp.
There were a few cases but all such brought the infection with
them and proper treatment made short-shift of these, undesired
guests.

THE AUTUMN OF 1918

Early in September came the great pandemic of influenza
with pneumonia. This is the most deadly pestilence which
has ever visited us and it ranks high among the epidemics of
history as is shown in Table 4.

Preventive medicine is making rapid progress. Malaria
and typhoid fever, once the scourges of armies, are well in
hand. Typhus is no longer an enigma but still requires close
watching. The pneumonias remain and constitute at present
the greatest cause of death in all armies. Protective inocula-
tion against the pneumonias has been tried only recently, and
the results are promising. The combination of influenza and
pneumonia has been most distressing and disastrous both in
military and in civilian populations. During the Autumn Sea-
son of 1918, civilian communities suffered greatly but on ac-
count of the high concentration of susceptible material in our
camps, the death rate among soldiers has been higher than

340

THE NEW WORLD QF SCIENCE

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PREVENTIVE MEDICINE AND THE WAR 341

among civilians. No part of the world has escaped this great
scourge. In the past, there have been pandemics, but none,
so far as we have statistical evidence, has wrought such heavy
destruction as this over so wide an area. Hitherto the pan-
demic of 1889-90 has been looked upon as the most widespread
and probably the most fatal. At that time more than 40 per
cent, of the population of Massachusetts was affected but the
death rate was not so high. The pandemic of 1918, when com-
pared with that of 1889-90 is estimated to have caused six
times as many deaths.

During the four autumn months of 1918, 338,343 cases of in-
fluenza were reported to the Surgeon General. This means
that in the camps of this country one out of every jour men
had influenza.

The combination -between influenza and pneumonia during
the fall of 1918 seems to have been closer and more destructive
than in any previous pandemic. During the autumn season
there were reported to the Surgeon General 61,691 cases of
pneumonia. This means that one out of every twenty-four
men encamped in this country had pneumonia.

During the same period 22,186 men were reported to have
died from the combined effects of influenza and pneumonia.
This means that among the troops in this country one out of
every sixty-seven died.

This fatality has been unparalleled in recent times. The in-
fluenza epidemic of 1918 ranks well up with the epidemics
famous in history. Epidemiologists have regarded the dis-
semination of cholera from the Broad Street Well in London
as a catastrophe. The typhoid epidemic of Plymouth, Pa.,
of 1885, is another illustration of the damage that can be done
by epidemic disease once let loose. Yet the accompanying
table shows that the fatality from influenza and pneumonia at
Camp Sherman was greater than either of these. Compared
with epidemics for which we have fairly accurate statistics, the
death rate at Camp Sherman in the fall of 1918 is surpassed

342 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

only by that of Plague in London in 1665 and that of yellow
fever in Philadelphia in 1793.

The Plague killed 14 per cent, of London's population in
seven months' time. Yellow fever destroyed 10 per cent, of
the population of Philadelphia in four months. In seven weeks
influenza and pneumonia killed 3.1 per cent, of the strength at
Camp Sherman. If we consider the time factor, these three
instances are not unlike in their lethality. The Plague killed
2 per cent, of the population in a month, yellow fever 2.5 per
cent and influenza and pneumonia 1.9 per cent.

In four months typhoid fever killed 1.5 per cent, of the sol-
diers encamped in this country during the war with Spain.
Influenza and pneumonia killed 1.4 per cent, of the soldiers in
our camps in 1918 and it also covered a period of four months.

During the Winter of 1917-18, Camp Pike showed the high-
est death rate of the larger camps; this was due for the most
part to pneumonia to some extent following measles. In four-
teen weeks Pike lost 0.9 per cent, of its strength. This is about
one third of Sherman's loss, but the deaths at Sherman oc-
curred in one-half the time. In the Winter of 1917-18, Camp
Beauregard showed the highest weekly incidence for measles.
It amounted to an annual admission rate per 1000 of 2,700.
In the fall of 1918 Beauregard had an influenza admission rate
during one week of 15,000. The 1917 epidemic looks insig-
nificant compared to that of 1918 and yet at the time it was
regarded with grave concern. Philadelphia headed the large
cities in influenza fatality in this country, losing 0.8 per cent,
of its population. This is about one-fourth of the loss at
Sherman.

The pandemic of influenza in 1918 seems to have been more
closely associated with the pneumonias than appears in any
previous pandemic. From reports sent to the Surgeon Gen-
ral's Office, it appears that uncomplicated influenza was not
by any means a fatal disease and that the high death rate was
due to the pneumonias which followed. Pneumonia is a seri-
ous disease at all times. Recent records for the United States

\
PREVENTIVE MEDICINE AND THE WAR 343

Army show that the case morbidity rate for this disease has
been as follows during the different periods of the last two
years :

The year of 1917 11.2 per cent.

6 Winter months 1917-18 23.1 per cent.

5 Summer months 1918 18.8 per cent.

4 Autumn months 1918 34.4 per cent.

(influenza period)

It is not strange that once pneumonia secured a foothold in
patients already weakened by influenza their chances of recov-
ery were lessened.

The pneumococcus has been long regarded as the chief cause
of pneumonia. Of this organism four distinct types are rec-
ognized in this country. The fourth type is in reality a
heterogeneous group which includes many organisms which
may cause pneumonia and yet whose agglutinations and other
reactions have not been recognized with a sufficient degree of
accuracy to be accepted as a means of identification. During
the past year, it has been impressed upon us more forcibly
than before that other organisms than the pneumococcus may
cause clinical pneumonia. The streptococcus and the staphy-
lococcus, at least certain varieties of these organisms, have
produced clinical pneumonia in our camps. One reading the
reports that have been sent in from army camps in all parts of
the country is impressed by the lack of agreement as to the
bacteriology which has been responsible both for influenza and
the accompanying pneumonia. So far as influenza is con-
cerned, the descriptions of the clinical symptoms agree. There
is no question but that the same disease clinically has existed
in Massachusetts, Kansas and California. In one place, how-
ever, the Pfeiffer bacillus, in another the streptococcus hemo-
lyticus and in a third some form of the pneumococcus has been
believed to be the cause of the disease. Suspicion has also
been cast upon various strains of streptococcus, the micro-

344 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

coccus catarrhalis and the staphylococcus. In one laboratory
there has been no difficulty in isolating the Pfeiffer bacillus
from the throats of influenza patients; in another this organ-
ism has not been found and good reason is furnished to sup-
port the belief that the disease is of purely streptococcic origin.
These differences of opinion with respect to the initial cause
of the infection have existed to a like degree in the case of
the pneumococcic organisms which have been recovered from
the throats of the sick. One camp reports more of one type
of pneumococcus than another. There is agreement merely
in the excessive numbers of type four, but we must remember
that this is only a " waste basket " group. Pneumococci which
do not respond to reactions characteristic of type one, two,
or three are placed in group four. It follows, therefore, that
the information that type four has prevailed during the epi-
demic is not altogether satisfactory.

In the face of these contradictory reports, not only from
army camps but from civilian laboratories as well, we are handi-
capped in determining the true cause of the disease. Basing
our opinion on the information at hand, we make the following
tentative statements :

1. Influenza is an acute, highly infectious disease of unknown
origin, characterized by the production of a marked leuco-
penia which results in withdrawal of the natural defenses of
the body and the opening up of the paths of invasion for other
pathogenic organisms which may be present. .<

2. We are of the opinion that one reason for the variation
in the manfestations and course of the disease in different com-
munities has been due to difference in the combinations of
organisms which have worked symbiotically with the specific
cause of influenza. This accounts for the finding of one
organism prevalent in one place and another organism domi-
nant in another.

3. We are of the opinion that the epidemic of influenza which
occurred in the fall of 1918 was not a new entity but a recur-
rence or reappearance in a more virulent form of a disease

PREVENTIVE MEDICINE AND THE WAR 345

which had prevailed in the various army camps during the
previous year. Our justification for this statement is that
there are many incidents of people who largely escaped the
disease in the fall and who had experienced or lived through
a similar but much milder epidemic during the previous spring.
In other words, we may say the soldiers who had clinical in-
fluenza in camp prior to August and those who, although hav-
ing no clinical manifestations of the disease, lived through
such an epidemic, were less gravely affected when the more
virulent organisms reached them in the fall.

4. We believe that the largest single factor influencing the
spread of influenza is the susceptibility of the individuals among
whom it has been introduced. If these individuals have been
once attacked by the disease even in a mild form or lived
through a mild epidemic without showing clinical symptoms,
they suffer less when the disease is again introduced. Among
communities not previously exposed to influenza, this dis-
ease has usually involved from 20 to 50 per cent, of the per-
sonnel. The exact number affected is determined by the num-
ber of people who are naturally immune or have secured im-
munity by previous exposure.

5. It appears that natural immunity gives way before ex-
posure, over-work and fatigue, as was demonstrated years ago
by Pasteur in his experiments on birds with anthrax. Like-
wise, it is possible for human beings to have their resistance
lowered by exposure to unaccustomed environment so that al-
though naturally immune, the standard of immunity is re-
duced to the point where the influenza virus gains admittance,
and overcomes the lowered resistance.

6. We believe that not only the rapidity with which the dis-
ease spreads, but its virulence is in direct proportion to the
density of the susceptible population. In communities such
as army camps and large cities, the contact of individuals is
so close and so intimate that even though extra precautions
are taken it is quite impossible to prevent disease from ul-
timately reaching all persons. Precautions such as quaran-

346 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

tine, spreading out of the personnel, closing places of assembly,
delay the progress of the disease but fail wholly to prevent it.

The death rate from disease was lower in the A. E. F. than
in the camps in this country. The more susceptible had been
eliminated by sickness or death before the Divisions pro-
ceeded to France. However, the rates for individual diseases
showed some interesting variations both in morbidity and mor-
tality. There was, quite naturally, but little measles in the
A. E. F., for the simple reason that the susceptible material
had been practically consumed in the camps in this country.
On the other hand the morbidity from scarlet fever and menin-
gitis was higher in the A. E. F. There were probably several
factors involved in this. One of these was the greater diffi-
culty in the early recognition of cases and in their speedy and
effective isolation. We have no data concerning the preva-
lence of these diseases among the civilian and military popu-
lation of France in areas occupied by our troops and conse-
quently we cannot evaluate this factor. Typhoid fever and
dysentery were constantly more prevalent in the A. E. F.
The purification of drinking water in an active battle area
must be unsatisfactory. Intense thirst drives men to drink
water from any and every available source. Moreover, ex-
perience demonstrates that the protection against typhoid fever
furnished by vaccination is not absolute and may be overcome
by massive doses of the infection. While the morbidity rate
from this disease in the A. E. F. at no time approached that
of former wars it was quite constantly higher than in our home
camps. No bacterial vaccination, not even one attack of the
disease, gives unlimited protection. Typhoid, when it de-
velopes among the vaccinated, is in no constant and essential
way different from the same disease among the unvaccinated.
Complications and death rate are essentially the same in the
two conditions.

Venereal diseases increased in every camp with each incre-
ment from the civilian population. Indeed, one can look at
the venereal chart of any division and tell from its peaks just

PREVENTIVE MEDICINE AND THE WAR 347

when recruits were received. These diseases showed much
higher rates in the home camps than in the A. E. F. While
this curse was by no means eliminated in our armies in France,
the low rate is a credit to the morals of our sons and the ef-
ficiency of medical officers.

Naturally there was but little malaria in the A. E. F. Those
who came into the home camps bearing the parasites of this
disease were for the most part sterilized with quinine before
going to France.

Pneumonia was the most prolific cause of death in all our
armies in every country and at all seasons. The morbidity
rates from this disease ran from October, 1917, to September,
1918, about on the same level, crossing and recrossing, but
never separating widely, in the A. E. F. and the home camps.

With the advent of the virulent influenza in September, 1918,
both lines made an abrupt ascent, but the peak of the curve
representing the home troops reaches nearly six times the
height of that for the A. E. F. Why this great difference?
The divisions constituting the A. E. F. in October, 1918, had
occupied the home camps the winter before and had left their
most susceptible men in the hospitals and cemeteries in this
country when they went abroad. Those who filled the home
camps in the fall of 1918 were for the most part recently drawn
from their scattered homes in which they had never come in
contact with the bacteria of crowd diseases. Our statistical
data, morbidity and mortality curves, fail to give us the real
facts. They do not show the relative percentage of immunes
in the two bodies which we are comparing nor do they indicate
the losses by sickness and death incurred in the transforma-
tion of new into seasoned troops.

Seasoned soldiers, as represented by our troops in France,
bore even a new infection — that of influenza — better than
their raw comrades in this country. This suggests that there
exists a non-specific immunity, which is of value, but is tran-
sitory, fluctuating in its protective power and hardly comparable
with specific immunity such as has been secured in typhoid

348 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

fever. At the present time one seems forced to conclude that
the control of the pneumonias is most likely to be found in some
form of vaccination and since these diseases are caused by
multiple bacteria, the vaccine, must, as is the case in typhoid
fever, be polyvalent.

THE ROLE OF PSYCHOLOGY
IN THE WAR

XX

*/

HOW PSYCHOLOGY HAPPENED INTO THE WAR1
ROBERT M. YERKES

IT has been said that the application of psychology to adver-
tising rendered it respectable and that its applications to
war advertised it widely and favorably and created an un-
precedented demand for its services. The name itself seriously
interfered with early developments in the army because of
very common misconceptions and confusions. Psychology
meant to the average army officer something wholly intangible,
even mysterious. He thought of its methods as akin to those
of the spiritualist, the devotee of psychical research, or those
of the " medium." There also occurred very naturally serious
confusion of psychology with psychiatry in the minds of non-
medical officers. This worked to the disadvantage of both
subjects, because of their diverse aims, requirements, and

1 The following reports present complete accounts of the various
lines of psychological service in the army and the navy:
Psychology in Relation to the War, by Robert M. Yerkes. Psycho-
logical Review, Vol. 25, 1918, pp. 85-115.

Report of the Psychology Committee of the National Research Coun-
cil. By Robert M. Yerkes. Psychological Review, Vol. 26, 1919,
pp. 83-149.
Army Mental Tests. Edited by C. S. Yoakum and R. M. Yerkes.

Pp. xiii-303. Henry Holt & Co., 1920.

Psychological Examining in the United States Army (official report).
Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. XV., Wash-
ington, D. C. (in press).

The Personnel System of the United States Army. Vol. I, History
of the Personnel System; Vol. II, The Personnel Manual. Pub-
lished by the War Department, Washington, D. C., 1919.

351

352 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

relations. Fortunately alike for the science of psychology
and the army, the practical work which is to be described in
these chapters over-rode the disadvantages of its name and
ultimately converted psychology into a word to conjure with
in the United States Army.

There probably were few greater surprises in the war than
the conspicuously important service of psychology. Aside
from the few who were professionally engaged in the subject
no one thought of the study of mental life as having any pos-
sible practical bearing on the problems of war. The writer
well remembers listening to General Squier present before a
meeting of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington
in the spring of 1917 the necessity for the study of problems
of military clothing. Among the many problems whose so-
lution, in his judgment, would favorably affect the efficiency
of our army there were several which the writer recognized as
primarily psychological. It happens that neither the War
Department nor the scientists of the country, through their
instrument of organization, the National Research Council,
succeeded in getting around to any of these problems, but had
time sufficed and opportunity for such work appeared, psycholo-
gists would have cooperated with physiologists, and chemists
and physicists, in the careful determination of kind and quality
of materials to be used, most serviceable, sightly, and comfort-
able style and cut, and numerous other special characteristics
of the assemblage of garments which constitute the soldier's
outfit of clothing.

The National Research Council had made only small head-
way toward the solution of military problems before it met
certain definite needs which called for the psychological ex-
pert. As a result a committee for psychology was organized
and from that hour the psychologists of the country worked
side by side with investigators representing the medical sciences,
various branches of biology, anthropology, geology and
geography, physics, chemistry and engineering. Throughout
this large and heterogeneous group of investigators there ex-

PSYCHOLOGY 353

isted a splendid spirit of cooperation and of appreciation of
one another's efforts to serve.

One of the first obviously psychological problems which was
brought to the attention of the National Research Council by
the Government was the need of reliable methods for selecting
the best men to serve as lookout and gun pointers on armed
merchant vessels. This, like many other suggestions and re-
quests for assistance from the navy and the army, was referred
to a competent scientist, who finally succeeded in developing
highly useful methods. It is fair to say that the efforts of
psychologists to make themselves useful in the war were suc-
cessful from the very start. The authorities of the National
Research Council recognized this fact, but they were never-
theless greatly surprised, at first by the ambition of the psycho-
logical profession to help win the war, a little later by the
psychologists' expectations of success, and finally by the actual
achievements.

Even before war had been declared individual psycholo-
gists had been thinking of ways in which their science might
be applied to military problems. On April 6, 1917, a group of
experimental psychologists, then in session at » Cambridge,
Massachusetts, appointed a committee to consider the relation
of psychology to military affairs and to further its application
to practical problems. This was the beginning of concerted
action. From that day the psychologists of the country acted
unitedly as well as disinterestedly and whole-heartedly. In
other countries psychologists served conspicuously, but always
as individuals and seldom in their professional role.

The national psychological association of this country imme-
diately interested itself in the question of service and commit-
tees were speedily appointed to work systematically on such im-
portant tasks as (i) the assembling and digesting of psychologi-
cal literature relating to military affairs so that we might make
use of the latest and the best information from all parts of the
world; (2) the psychological examination of recruits; (3)
psychological problems of aviation; (4) the selection of men

354 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

for tasks requiring special mental aptitude; (5) problems of
recreation and amusement in the army and navy; (6) problems
of vision; (7) pedagogical and psychological problems of mili-
tary training and discipline; (8) problems of incapacity, in-
cluding those of shell shock and reeducation; (9) problems of
emotional instability, fear and inadequate self-control; (10)
methods of influencing the morale of the enemy; (n) problems
of hearing affecting military activities; (12) tests of deception.

This list will give the reader some idea of the range of in-
terest in military problems which existed among psychologists
even before they had had opportunity to observe directly the
needs o^the army and the navy. Altogether during the war
more than a score of committees of psychologists furthered the
applications of their science to the military situation. Most
of them rendered effective service. But it was shortly dis-
covered that committee action and the work of civilian psy-
chologists would not suffice. In many instances, it was abso-
lutely essential that the scientists who wished to serve even in
their professional capacity should become parts of the military
machine. There was no hesitation about accepting such re-
sponsibility, although it often entailed serious personal sacri-
fice. There existed everywhere faith in the possibility of use-
fulness, determination to serve successfully, and a desire to
get together and cooperate effectively.

The spring and summer of 1917 saw little progress toward
psychological military service beyond that of organization.
There were few good leads and the unprejudiced observer of
the activities of American psychologists might fairly have con-
cluded that all their eagerness and busyness would contribute
nothing to our military success unless these scientifically in-
clined individuals exchanged their habitually professional roles
for that. of the combatant soldier.

By the middle of summer the situation began to change
rapidly, for the War Department had become aware of cer-
tain possibilities of psychological service. The first success-
ful approach by psychologists was made on the Medical De-

I

PSYCHOLOGY 355

partment of the army through the National Research Council.
This was rendered possible by the breadth of view, faith, and
optimism of Colonel Victor C. Vaughan, Colonel William H.
Welch, and Surgeon General William C. Gorgas. The second
important contact, made a little later, was with the Adjutant
General of the Army. This was due to the insight and energy,
as well as the faith and enterprise, of Colonel W. D. Scott,
Doctor E. L. Thorndike, Mr. F. W. Keppel, later Third As-
sistant Secretary of War, Secretary of War Baker and General
McCain. Almost simultaneously relations were established
with the navy through the National Research Council which en-
abled Doctor, subsequently Lieutenant Commander, Raymond
Dodge to serve that branch of the military organization to
excellent advantage over a period of nearly two years.

Thus during July, August, and September of 1917 the psy-
chological war organization of the country was transformed
into an effective military organization. It is true that psycholo-
gists were used both in the Medical Department of the army
and in the office of the Adjutant General as civilians, but in
the majority of cases the active members of the profession were
ultimately given military appointment either in the army or
the navy.

Viewed in retrospect the three principal lines of psycho-
logical service are: psychological examining, conducted under
the direction of the Surgeon General of the Army and affecting
all arms of the military service; the classification of personnel
in the army, conducted under the Adjutant General, and sim-
ilarly affecting the entire army; and, finally, the study of spe-
cial psychological problems in the army and the navy. The
principal achievements of psychologists in the military service
will be presented in the following chapter under these three
heads.

It would be almost as unfair to the army and the navy as
to the psychologists of the country to make it appear that the
development of really important service in this entirely untried
field of application was agreeably easy. Instead it was at many

356 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

times and in various directions almost impossible. A few lines
of work progressed from the start smoothly, steadily, and even
rapidly. Others, equally deserving of success, met obstacles
which were either insurmountable or wasteful of precious time.
In many instances there were discouraging disapprovals and
heartbreaking delays, misunderstandings and opposition, which
wasted time of officers who should have been engaged in in-
creasing military efficiency.

As a fitting introduction to the chapter on achievements a
brief statement may be made concerning the psychological per-
sonnel for the three principal lines of service which have been
mentioned.

For psychological examining, the War Department first au-
thorized a preliminary trial of methods. In order to make this
preliminary experiment about thirty well trained psychologists
were given either military appointment in the Sanitary Corps or
civilian appointment to work in National Army cantonments
or in the office of the Surgeon General of the Army. After
this preliminary work had satisfactorily demonstrated the prac-
tical value of results, psychological examining was rapidly ex-
tended to the entire army. For this purpose a large number
of military psychologists were needed. A school for military
psychology was promptly established at the Medical Officers'
Training Camp, Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, where properly
qualified psychologists might be given intensive training in
military drill as well as in army methods of psychological
examining. During the existence of this school approximately
one hundred officers and more than three hundred enlisted men
were trained. At least two hundred of these may fairly be
listed as professional psychologists. Many of these men served
in the army either as civilian appointees or as soldiers for from
one to two years. By some they have been stigmatized as
" non-combatants " and have been subjected to the unfair
criticism of choosing a safe service. It is only just to point
out that a considerable number of the psychologists of the
country preferred combatant service and were kept from such

PSYCHOLOGY 357

service only by the insistence of administrative authorities that
their professional services were incalculably more important to
the army than their possible help as combatants.

The committee on Classification of Personnel in the army
likewise organized special schools in which large numbers of
personnel adjutants were trained and subsequently men for the
conduct of trades tests.

Although psychological work received a large amount of
unsought publicity during the war and many points ef method
were thus brought to the attention of lay readers, it may not
be amiss to describe very briefly the principal methods of classi-
fication which were used by psychologists.

When a man is sent to a military training camp he has al-
ready passed the preliminary draft examination, but before he
can qualify as a soldier he must also pass a rigid medical ex-
amination. Assuming that he qualifies on the basis of medical
examination, the following additional information about him
is necessary if the army is to assign him intelligently and use
him to advantage. There is, first, measurement of his mental
alertness or intelligence. This is supplied by the psychological
examination. Second, the determination, by personal inter-
view or by actual measurement, of the man's occupational train-
ing, experience, and proficiency. Assignment should always
take into account physique, degree of intelligence, and occupa-
tional value, for the army is an extremely complex social or-
ganization which has need of almost all of the common occupa-
tions engaged in by civilized man, and, in varying proportions,
of all of the grades of intelligence and degrees of physical
development and endurance which men possess.

If the best possible use is to be made of an individual in the
army, and for that matter anywhere else in society, he must
be placed where his physical qualifications can be used effec-
tively, where his intelligence is adequate but not wasted, and
where his special occupational training and experience are
needed. To put a well educated, highly intelligent young fel-
low who is gifted with the power of leadership into the ranks

358 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

to serve as a private is inexcusably wasteful, and, on the other
hand, to commission as an officer a man of meager education,
less than average intelligence, and mediocre ability as a leader
is a criminal blunder.

The army needed (and it was quick to recognize the need),
these several sorts of information about each man. It needed
also the sort of machinery which would make use of this in-
formation in assigning and training men. The ideal course
of things, toward which events moved rapidly during the prog-
ress of the war ran somewhat as follows: There was, first,
reliable rating of a man and resulting classification in ac-
cordance with physical characteristics, mental ability, and oc-
cupation. In the light of this information he was assigned
to his place in the military machine. He was then, if things
fell out properly, suitably and efficiently trained and instructed
in the duties of a soldier. Subsequently he was skilfully con-
trolled and directed, inspiringly led and heartened in the day's
work, and technically as well as socially supported both in the
drudgery of drill and in the demands of action.

The theory of psychological service was that human factors
should be appreciated, measured, and intelligently used, that so
far as feasible chance, personal whim or bias, and convention
should be replaced by action in the light of reasonably accurate
and thorough information. In a word, that the army should
utilize what may be called " human engineering," just as it
attempts to utilize other forms of engineering which have to do
primarily with non-living things.

Methods of psychological examining suitable for use in the
army were not available at the beginning of the war, but they
were prepared speedily by a small group of experts in much
the same fashion that the Liberty Motor was developed; that
is, by intensive, highly coordinated work based upon the best
information that could be assembled from all available sources.
The group of psychologists charged with the development of
methods promptly decided that it would be entirely too slow

Group of soldiers at Camp Lee, Virginia, taking the army psy-
chological examination for literates. This was before benches
were provided in the examining room!

Soldiers scoring psychological examination papers

Figure 4
EXAMINATION ALPHA

PSYCHOLOGY 359

a process to examine soldiers individually and that consequently
the only feasible procedure was examination by large groups.
Group methods were therefore prepared and methods of in-
dividual examining were arranged to supplement as necessary
the use of the group methods. The methods finally adopted
and used throughout the army differ in many respects from
those originally prepared and recommended. They may be
described very briefly as follows :

There are four principal systems or stages in the examina-
tion. First comes the procedure of segregation, by means of
which the original group, which may, if examining rooms per-
mit, include as many as five hundred men, is split into two
sub-groups: (a) the literates, men who can speak and read
English fairly well, and (b) the illiterates, men who are rela-
tively unfamiliar with the English language. These two
groups must necessarily be treated somewhat differently, there-
fore the literates are given a group examination known as
Alpha, which consists of eight markedly different tests. This
examination, although it requires almost no writing on the
part of the subject, does demand facility in using written and
oral instructions. The illiterate group is given an examina-
tion know as Beta, which is in effect Alpha translated into
pictorial form. In this examination pantomime and demon-
stration supplant written and oral instructions.

Each group examination requires approximately fifty min-
utes. Subjects who fail in Alpha are ordinarily given oppor-
tunity to improve their ratings by taking Beta, and subjects
who fail in Beta are given individual examination in order that
they may be more accurately and justly rated than in the group
examination alone.

Any particular individual may have to take one, two or
three of these types of examination. Thus, for example, a man
of low grade literacy who happens to get into examination
Alpha may also have to take Beta and some form of individual
examination.

360

THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

FORM ft

CONFIDENTIAL. Tbe publication o< npfoduetion of fete docuaottl It Ior»i4d«»
by the tcrai ol the E«plou<« Act of June 15, 1917, undo peMMy ola tin* «< aM
t ol not mott ihm two ran. or MIL

GROUP NO..

GROUP EXAMINATION ALPHA

In what country or state born?.

Regiment.

Rank , Age

_ Ann Division

Years in U.S.? Race.

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TEST1

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Figure 4. The first test of the group examination for literate sol-
diers, known as array Alpha.

PSYCHOLOGY

361

FORM 0

Name

CONFIDENTIAL. Tl* pab&atfea or Kpndoctfao of thfc docaxnt ta ferfcMdra
bytheuratortlwbpwiMccActarjuoet!. 1917, OKtcrpawHr oT • flnc cf BM
aort tfaa 810.000 or imprimuaatt <rf not Mara Omt Me JTMC*. or botb.

GROUP EXAMINATION BETA
Rank

Company __
la what country or state bom ?

Regiment.

Arm Divi»ioa

Years in U.S.? Race.

Weekly Wag«

Schooling: Grades, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8: High or Prep. School, Year 1,2,3, 4-. College, Yearl.2,3,4.

TESTS

B

3.

6.

9.

ia

, JaJr 10. !»»*, WO.OOO

Figure 5. The eighth test of the examination for illiterate soldiery
known as army Beta.

362 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

Examination papers for both Alpha and Beta are scored
rapidly by the use of stencils and the resulting rating is
promptly reported to the appropriate military authority.

By means of this system of examinations it is possible for an
examining staff consisting of four psychologists and a force
of scoring clerks to examine as many as one thousand men
per day.

Every man examined by one or more of the procedures de-
scribed is assigned a numerical rating and in addition a
letter grade which indicate his general intellectual ability or
mental alertness. The numerical rating is used only for sta-
tistical purposes, the letter grade for practical military pur-
poses. The latter alone is reported ordinarily to military of-
ficers and recorded on the soldier's service record and quali-
fication card.

The letter grades which are in use are defined as follows:
A, designates very superior intelligence ; B, superior intelli-
gence ; C +, high average intelligence ; C, average intelligence ;
C — , low average intelligence ; D, inferior intelligence ; D — ,
very inferior intelligence. The letter E has been reserved for
the designation of men whose mental ability is seemingly in-
adequate for regular military duty.

Commissioned officers usually possess and obviously should
possess A or B intelligence. Many excellent non-commissioned
officers possess C or C + intelligence, but in the main this
group is composed of men with C + or B ratings. The great
body of privates grades C. Men with D or D — intelligence
are usually slow to learn and rarely gain promotion. Many
of them, especially the D — individuals, cannot be used to ad-
vantage in a military emergency which demands rapidity of
training. The results of army mental testing indicate that
the majority of D — and E soldiers are below ten years mental
age. A few fall as low as three or four years.

The contrast between A and D — intelligence becomes im-
pressive when it is shown that men of A intelligence have the
requisite mental ability to achieve superior records in college

PSYCHOLOGY 363

or professional school, whereas D — individuals are rarely
able to pass beyond the third or fourth grade of an elementary
school, however long they may attend.

The methods developed for the classification of personnel
under the Adjutant General of the Army and for the solution
of special problems are entirely too varied for description
here. In the first instance they are primarily adaptations of
business methods, many of which were improved and supple-
mented by the application of psychological knowledge and ex-
perience.

In the case of special psychological problems it was usually
a matter of analyzing the military situation carefully and of
drawing upon the resources of psychological laboratories, or
more often of psychological skill, for the particular variety
of apparatus or technique which promised to solve the prob-
lem. Ingenuity was at a premium, but it could not be used
successfully until the military situation had been skilfully ana-
lyzed and its important factors or requirements brought into
clear light. Several psychologists were eminently successful
both in analysis and in devising or -adapting methods to cover
the results of analysis.

XXI

WHAT PSYCHOLOGY CONTRIBUTED TO THE WAR
ROBERT M. YERKES

WITH the preceding chapter on methods as an introduc-
tion, an attempt will be made in the present chapter to
state very briefly what psychology accomplished during the
war. It is impossible to give a complete account of the work,
but results and practical applications may be sampled in such
a way as to give the reader a fair idea of the nature and sig-
nificance of this new kind of military service.

- — - Entitled Men ( 13792 } -Relatively Illiterate

• Enlisted Men (82936) Literals

..-^---» Corporsh (4023)

i i Sergeant* (3393)

O.T.C (9240)

— — Officers (8819)

0- D C.- C C + B A

Fio. 1. — DISTRIBUTION or INTELLIGENCE RATINGS IN TYPICAL ARMT GROUPS,
BHOWINO VALUE OF TESTS IN IDENTIFICATION OF OFFICER MATERIAL. ILLITERATE
GROUP GIVEN BETA; OTHER GROUPS, ALPHA.

Figure i. Distribution of intelligence grades for typical army groups.

The first thing which appeared in the results of the psycho-
logical examination of soldiers was remarkable difference in
the intelligence of individuals and of army groups. This fact
was no surprise to psychologists, but it created a profoundly
important impression in the minds of military officers who were
relatively unfamiliar with methods and results of mental
measurement. The two figures, i and 2, will suffice to indicate

364

WHAT PSYCHOLOGY CONTRIBUTED 365

the extent of these differences. The one of these figures, i
represents the distribution of the various grades of intelligence
in such important military groups as enlisted men, non-com-
missioned officers (corporals and sergeants), students in officers'
training camps (O. T. C.), and officers. The letter grades, as
has already been stated in the previous chapter, designate from
A to D — degrees of intelligence which range all the way from
very superior (A) to very inferior (D — ). Commissioned
officers of the United States Army,with few exceptions, possess
superior or very superior intelligence. A few of the good
officers fall in the C -f- class and a still smaller number, almost
invariably unsatisfactory to the service, possess only average
intelligence, designated by the letter C. By contrast with the
officers, illiterate enlisted men usually possess inferior intelli-
gence. Many of them are very inferior and relatively few
rise above the high average represented by C -f. The average
literate enlisted man possesses that middle grade ability which
is designated by C.

Another method of representing differences in intelligence
between important military groups is used in Fig. 2. In this
case the several grades are thrown into three groups which
may be designated conveniently high, medium, and low. It is
noteworthy that commissioned officers are found only in the
medium and high groups, that students in officers' training
camps, who by virtue of this fact are candidates for appoint-
ment as officers, occasionally fall in the low intelligence groups.
White recruits are rather more frequently found in the low
than in the high groups, although the great majority of them
are of medium intelligence. Those soldiers who are least satis-
factory for military service and most expensive are more often
than not found to have low intelligence. The figure in ques-
tion roughly represents the results for four such groups: dis-
ciplinary cases, men ranked by their officers as poorest in their
company, men of low military value as judged by their officers,
and unteachable men.

The results of psychological examination as sampled by these

366 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

two figures indicate the distribution of intelligence which existed
when psychological work was undertaken. The meaning of
this distribution is that by various selectional processes, more or
less cumbersome, time-consuming, and expensive, highly intelli-
gent men become commissioned officers, somewhat less able

D.D-.E O.C.C- A and B

Commissioned Officers
8819

0,T. S.Students

9240 <m™mmtmimmmB™™mim.

| ] i miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Sergeants
3393

Corporals
4093

"Ten Best Privates
606

White Recruits
77299

Disciplinary Cases

491 Camp Dlx

"Ten Poorest"Prlvates

"Men of Low Military Value"

147 Camp Curttr
I I B

"(Jnteachablc Men"

266 Camp Hancock

Figure 2. The proportions of low, average, and high grade men in
typical army groups.

men become sergeants or corporals or excellent privates, while
the least intelligent of all worry along as poor privates or as
relatively unteachable.

Army officers to whom such results as these were presented
saw the point immediately and, admitting marked differences

WHAT PSYCHOLOGY CONTRIBUTED 367

in intelligence among men, they went right to the practical point
by asking the psychologist what relation intelligence has to the
ways of using men in the army and to general military value.
Luckily it was not difficult to answer this question definitely
and satisfactorily and that not by the statement of some
psychologist's opinion but by the presentation of results of
measurements made in the army itself and exhibited in their
relations to the judgments of experienced officers. A number
of pictures of these results will enable the reader to grasp
quickly the significant points.

ABC+CC-D

Percent
Success

Percent
Failure

(XTC.

1375
Men

Figure 5. The relation of intelligence to success and failure in of-
ficers' training schools.

Figures 5 and 6 indicate the relation of intelligence to
success and failure in officers' training camps and in non-
commissioned officers' training camps. Again, it should be
emphasized that the students in these camps had been admitted
prior to psychological examination and practically without
reference to their intelligence. The psychological ratings were
obtained and subsequently were compared with the records of
success and failure in the schools. It is notable that in both
types of school, the proportion of failures increases steadily

368

THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

and rapidly from the very superior group to the very inferior
group. In fact, the chance that a man rated as A in intelligence
will fail is just about the same as the chance that a man who is
rated D in intelligence will succeed in the work of the school.
Almost all of the A and B groups and fully three-fourths of the
C + grouP pass. Almost all of the inferior or very inferior men
fail in the officers' training schools, although a considerable pro-
portion succeed in passing the examinations for non-commis-

ABC+CC-PD-

Percent
Success

Percent
Failure

Figure 6. The relation of intelligence to success and failure in non-
commissioned officers' training schools.

N.C.O.

1458
Men

sioned officers. These figures make it clear that if men were
admitted to such schools partly on the basis of intelligence a
considerable saving could be effected. The rule might reason-
ably be made that no men grading below C— in intelligence
should be admitted to an officers' training school, and similarly
that no men grading lower than D in intelligence should be
admitted to a non-commissioned officers' school.

Turning for a moment to an entirely different sort of evi-
dence, we have in Fig. 7 the results of officers' ratings com-
pared with intelligence ratings. In this instance nearly four
hundred men of twelve different companies were rated by their

WHAT PSYCHOLOGY CONTRIBUTED 369

officers on their general value to the service as very poor, poor,
fair, good, or best. These same men were independently rated
by psychological examiners. The average degree of intelli-
gence in each of the five groups is roughly represented by the
length of the heavy line and by the numerical rating printed

Median Score

Good

Best

Figure 7. The median intelligence scores (by points) of groups of
soldiers who were rated by their officers as " very poor " to " best "
in military value.

beneath each line. Thus, for example, whereas the intelligence
of men rated as very poor is indicated by the number 28, that
of men designated as best is indicated by 99. The contrast is
unquestionably significant and it is clear that the army would
have profited greatly had the very poor group been excluded
from service on the basis of intelligence measurements.

A similar picture is presented in Fig. 8, which indicates the
contrast between men judged of low military value by their
officers and the complete draft quota from one of the camps.
The most common grade of intelligence in the unsatisfactory
group is slightly above D; that is, inferior, whereas for the
entire draft quota the most common grade is between C and C-(--

THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

In the preliminary trial or stage of psychological examining
it was discovered only by accident that companies and regiments
which were built up in the ordinary military fashion without

o/o

40

20

(0

RATING D-D c- c c+ B A

Figure 8. The intelligence of men of low military value as compared
with that of the complete draft quota for a certain camp.

special reference to the intelligence of the men differed ex-
tremely, both as to average intellectual ability and the distribu-
tion of the different grades of ability. This fact finds ex-
pression in Fig. 9, which represents the proportions of high

WHAT PSYCHOLOGY CONTRIBUTED 371

grade and low grade men in the several companies of an
infantry regiment. The intermediate grades of intelligence
are omitted as irrelevant and the figure represents the per-
centage of A and B men in each company, and, by contrast,
the percentage of men who are illiterate or of foreign birth.
The first of these groups is, in the long run, highly valuable
because of ease of training, general adaptability, and service-

23

Per Cent

16 16 16

Rated

Ur

A or B

5 6

Lu

i

hi

4

Company

I K L

M M.G.Sup.Hdq.

(

1

11

15

18

18

24 2*4

29

28

51 33

8^39

42

Illiterate

Foreign

46

Figure 9. Inequalities of intelligence among the companies of an in-
fantry regiment.

ability for responsible tasks. The second is generally undesir-
able from the officers' point of view because it requires more
time and patience for training, supplies relatively few men for
the duties of officers or for other responsible tasks and, in a
word, is often extremely difficult to train satisfactorily because
of a certain proportion of very slow, dull, or unwilling men.
The contrast between C company and E company in this

372 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

particular regiment is startling. The one has three per cent,
of highly intelligent men ; the other, twenty-nine. The one,
thirty-eight per cent, of illiterate or foreign-born soldiers ; and
the other, only nine per cent. Yet the captains of these two
companies are expected and required by their commanding
officer to produce in the shortest possible time practically
equivalent fighting machines. The captain of C company has
by comparison with the captain of E company an extraordi-
narily difficult task.

It required no arguments to convince army officers of the
undesirability of this state of affairs. Indeed they had no
sooner been shown such pictures for companies, batteries, and
regiments as that of Fig. 9 than they demanded reorganization
in order that the various units should have approximately equal
mental strength and similar distribution of intelligence. Be-
yond this it was but a step to suggest, then to request, and
finally to effect the assignment of men to organizations so that
intelligence should be properly distributed, or if not properly
distributed, at least much more satisfactorily distributed than
formerly.

In some divisions of the United States Army the use of mental
ratings was based upon specifications for different types of
organization. It was decided, for example, that the infantry
regiment could use a certain percentage of low grade men and
that it should have for efficient training and action a certain
minimum percentage of men of high intelligence. These
specifications naturally differed somewhat for different types of
organization. Their principal values were the facilitation of
training and the avoidance of such inequalities of distribution
as have been described.

The evidences of the practical relations of intelligence to
military value which have been presented up to this point are
primarily objective, but it must be admitted that the phenomenal
success of this sort of psychological service in the army was
due in part to the opinions of officers. Usually these opinions

WHAT PSYCHOLOGY CONTRIBUTED 373

were based upon more or less satisfactory evidences of practical
usefulness.

Following the official trial of psychological methods in four
National Army cantonments during the fall of 1917, the
opinions of officers concerning the value of the results was
sought and it was found that nearly 75 per cent, were favorable
to the continuance of the service. Somewhat more than a year
later similar inquiries in many divisional training camps indi-
cated that this percentage had increased to 90. Of thirty
statements received from commanding officers of camps or
divisions twenty-seven were definitely favorable and many of
them exhibited keen interest in the work and a desire to further
its development.

The following statements, chosen almost at random, are
representative :

The psychological work done and being done by Captain

in this camp has been consistently good and has proven of much
practical value.

At first, due to the innate conservatism of line and even medical
officers, his task was a rather uphill one ; but now, largely due to
his own energy and tact, and to the thoroughness and honesty of
his work, practically all officers here have been convinced of its
practical value and unique assistance in rating, sorting, and dis-
posing of the divers kinds of men as well as officers who pass
through such a camp.

In addition to his ordinary duties of testing and rating the
personnel of organizations, he has been employed in making
numerous special examinations, where the handling and disposi-
tion of men whose cases involved obscurities of mental and physical
peculiarity or weakness were in question. The lucid solving of
such human problems by the methods of his peculiar art and his
personal acuteness and persistence have often relieved such per-
plexities.

I consider such an expert and his specialty among the most use-
ful aids lately given the army toward the scientific and non-waste-
ful utilization of man power.

374 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

And from another officer:

I am of the opinion that the psychological service is an excellent
thing.

During the present war officers are thrown in contact with large
numbers of other officers and enlisted men, to whom they are com-
plete strangers. It is impossible to quickly form a knowledge of
any one's ability. Time, personal association or accident may show
that a certain officer or enlisted man is worthy of advancement.
•We are constantly looking for intelligent men. The psychological
test gives us something to start on, and I have used these psycho-
logical ratings on many occasions in the absence of a knowledge
of the individual concerned. While I am firmly of the opinion
that the psychological rating is excellent among new men, it does
not take the place of the final judgment formed of an individual
by personal contact and observation under difficult conditions. I
would, therefore, consider it of the greatest importance for a.< just
test of new men to subject them first to the psychological test.
The final decision with reference to men who have passed such
test will depend upon the result of the judgment formed of the
individual after sufficient time had elapsed during which they
were under observation. From my experience in different camps,
I am of the opinion that enlisted men who rate below A and B
class should not be considered as candidates for the officers' train-
ing schools.

The extent of the service of psychological examining and its
relation to military efficiency and expenditures have not thus
far been appreciated, chiefly because the public has been ignor-
ant of the facts. The following summary statements are taken
from the official report of the service :

The work of mental examining was organized finally in 35 army
training camps. A grand total of 1,726,966 men had been given
psychological examination prior to January 31, 1919. Of this
number about 42,000 were commissioned officers. More than
83,500 of the enlisted men included in the total had been given
individual examination in addition to the group examination for
literates, for illiterates, or both.

WHAT PSYCHOLOGY CONTRIBUTED 375

Between April 28, 1918, and January 31, 1919, 7800 (0.5 per
cent.) men of the 1,556,011 examined were reported for discharge
by psychological examiners because of mental inferiority. The
recommendations for assignment to labor battalions because of
low grade intelligence number 10,014 (0.6+ Per cent.). For a&-
signment to development battalions in order that they might be
more carefully observed and given preliminary training to discover,
if possible, ways of using them in the army, 9487 (0.6 -f- per cent.)
men were recommended.

During this same interval there were reported 4780 men with
mental age below 7 years; 7875, between 7 and 8 years; 14,814,
between 8 and 9 years; 18,878, between 9 and 10 years. This
gives a total of 46,347 men under 10 years' mental age. It is
extremely improbable that many of these individuals were worth
what it cost the government to maintain, equip, and train them
for military service.

Psychological examiners were not responsible for discharges.
They merely reported on the intelligence of each soldier. It
remained for the medical officer and the commanding officer
of camp or division to decide what should be done. Certainly
a considerable proportion, although by no means all, of the men
who were too inferior in intelligence to be worth training for
military purposes were discharged. It is probable that no less
than 50,000 men were designated by psychological examiners
for discharge, for service in labor organizations, or for assign-
ment to development battalions. Most of these men were so
inferior in intelligence that they could be trained only with
extreme pains and very slowly. Well above 10,000 of them,
possibly as many as 15,000, possessed less intellectual ability
than the average eight-year-old child.

Assuming that the psychologists discovered 10,000 men not
otherwise discovered, who, because of low grade intelligence,
were not suitable for regular military service, and assuming
further that the cost to the United States Government of equip-
ping, training, and sending a soldier over-seas was approxi-
mately $2500, it is a simple matter of arithmetic to determine

376 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

that $25,000,000 would be expended on this next to useless
human material if it were not either rejected or promptly dis-
charged on the discovery of the mental condition.

By contrast with this possible saving it is interesting to know
that it cost the government less than 5oc. per man to conduct
psychological examinations. Thus it would appear that on the
basis of rejection or discharge alone, leaving out of account
possible increases of rapidity of training and in military
efficiency by reason of better placement of men and more satis-
factory selection of commissioned officers and non-commis-
sioned officers, the service of psychological examining might
have saved the United States Government, had it been used to
the utmost throughout the war, many millions of dollars.

Of the many unexpected and startling results of psychological
examining in the army only a few can be mentioned. First in
importance is the frequency of illiteracy in this country. It
was originally assumed by psychological examiners that at least
nine in ten of the young men who had been drafted could read
and write English well enough to take the written group exami-
nation. But, as a matter of fact, more than twice this number,
that is above 20 per cent., were so inexpert in reading and
writing that they could not do themselves justice in an examina-
tion which required either. It is undoubtedly safe to say that
one-quarter of the drafted men are, or rather were at the time
they were mustered into the service, incapable of reading and
writing English to a really useful extent. They could merely
speak it. There is a lesson in this exhibition of illiteracy which
the government and the people of the United States will not
be slow to appreciate and to profit by.

A second fact which was brought into clear relief by the
wholesale examining of colored and white men in the draft
is the intellectual inferiority of the negro. Quite apart from
educational status, which is utterly unsatisfactory, the negro
soldier is of relatively low grade intelligence. The accompany-
ing table presents the contrast of white with black in respect
to the distribution of intelligence. This also is in the nature of

WHAT PSYCHOLOGY CONTRIBUTED 377

a lesson, for it suggests that education alone will not place
the negro race on a par with its Caucasian competitors.

Number

of Intelligence Grades

Cases A B C+ C C— D D—

White

officers 15,385 55.9 % 28.5 % 12.5 % 3.3 % 0.4% o % o %
White

draft. .94,002 4.1% 8.0% 15.2% 25.0% 23.8% 17.0% 7.1%
Negro
draft .. 18,691 0.1% 0.6% 2.0% 5.7% 12.9% 29.7% 49.0%

Officers of different arms of the military service are surpris-
ingly unlike in nature and degree of intelligence. Compari-
son of the data for engineers with those for medical officers
indicates at once differences of two sorts: the engineers make
higher scores in each test but almost without exception the
higher their score in a particular test the lower the score for
the medical officers. The chaplains differ markedly from both
the engineers and the medical men, especially in the departure
of their scores from the standard (50 percentile). These great
differences for important professional groups of officers may
be due either to heredity or to education and experience. In
the former case they will probably prove to have important
vocational significance ; in the latter, similarly important educa-
tional significance.

Of the many other interesting discoveries concerning the
relations of intelligence to race, to length of residence in the
United States, to education, to fitness for military service, to
age, and to military rank, nothing can be said here because this
is a chapter and not a book. But, in view of its quite excep-
tional practical importance, the relation of intelligence to army
occupations may be described very briefly.

In the course of psychological examining it became apparent
that the intelligence of men of different occupations varied not
only with the individual but also in quite as definite a way with
his occupation. The intelligence ratings of groups representing

378 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

some sixty occupations which occurred in the army were, there-
fore, brought together. The principal facts are indicated in

[ :

I D- I D I C- I C I C+ I B I

laborer . .

/-^ I Con. miner . . »
0 ] Teamster . , . .

I Barber |

Horseshoer . . . __ — «.

C

Bricklayer . . ., (_

Cook |

Baker ...... '

Painter _

Gen. blacksmith . . _— ___
Gen. carpenter . . . ____»__

Butcher . — — _

Gen. machinist ... -
Hand riveter .... -

Tel. & tel. lineman . j.

Gen.pipefitter .... I

Plumber I

Tool and gauge maker . . I

Gunsmith ]

Gen>. mechanlo • . • . --

Gen. auto repairman . .* |
Auto engine mechanic » • . — —
Auto assembler » — — .

Ship carpenter ...... j

Telephone operator |

o

Concrete const, foreman

Stock-keeper

Photographer

Telegrapher [

l.R. clerk
Piling clerk
Gen. clerk .

Army nurse |

Bookkeeper . . . , I

Dental officer . . .
Mechanical draftsman
Accountant .....

Civil engineer ........... _L

Medical officer » _

-{"Engineer officer

I D- | D I C- | C I C+ I B I A I

Figure 10. Occupational intelligence standards, showing the relation
of soldiers' intelligence to their occupations.

Fig. 10, which represents the distribution of intelligence of the
middle fifty per cent, in each occupation. The vertical cross-

WHAT PSYCHOLOGY CONTRIBUTED 379

bar indicates for a given occupation the median intelligence.
It is not difficult to discover important relations of these facts
to vocational guidance.

Consideration of army occupations naturally brings us to the
second main division of this chapter, which is the classification
of personnel in the army with respect especially to occupation
or trade and its military usefulness.

In the summer of 1917 a group known as the Committee on
Classification of Personnel in the Army was organized by the
War Department to work under the immediate direction of
the Adjutant General of the army. For the work of this com-
mittee an initial appropriatoin of $25,000 was made and, as the
success of its work led to the constant increase of its responsi-
bilities, additional appropriations were approved until the total
amounted to more than three-quarters of a million.

The big task of this committee was'the occupational classifi-
cation and placement of enlisted men. Officers charged with
personnel duties were placed in all army divisions, depots, train-
ing camps, and various other stations. A special card system
was devised to render available information concerning the
educational, occupational, and other military qualifications of
every man. With a minimum of clerical work this system was
used to select nearly a million soldiers for transfer to such
technical units as the engineers, aviation, the ordnance, and
other staff corps, and for the transfer of even more men within
divisions or camps. Approximately 450 officers and 7000 men
were engaged in this work. The number of soldiers inter-
viewed by trained members of the personnel staff and classified
according to army usefulness approximated three and one-half
million.

The allotment branch or central clearing-house of the com-
mittee in Washington received from the camps information
about the numbers of skilled tradesmen in each contingent of
the draft and assisted in distributing these men among the
various camps in accordance with their supply of skilled
workers. Up to November n, 1919, requests for about 600,000

380 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

men with definite occupational qualifications had been filled.
Thus the committee materially aided in securing the most
profitable distribution or placement of the members of essential
occupations.

As a further aid in assignment the committee prepared
definitions of the several hundred different trades needed in
the army and brought them together in a book known as " Army
Trades Specifications," which became indispensable for staff
corps and personnel officers in securing skilled men.

Tables were prepared which show in detail the needs for
skilled workers in each kind of battalion, company, regiment,
or other military unit. These tables were carefully studied,
criticized, and after repeated modification, approved by army
units in France, and they later served as a basis for the rapid
organization of divisions. From these occupational tables there
finally developed a system of personnel specifications for the
enlisted men of four hundred different types of organization.

Qualification cards for officers were devised and put into
general use. These, like the similar cards for enlisted men,
supplied a complete record of educational, occupational, and
military experience, and, in addition, a rating by superior
officers. These cards were filed in Washington and duplicates
were supplied to division commanders for their assistance in
assigning their officers.

A uniform system of rating commissioned officers was de-
veloped. This was first installed in the officers' training camps
as an aid in selecting candidates for commissions. Later it
was used also in selecting from among candidates for admission
to the schools. In the same direction definitions of the duties
and qualifications of no less than 500 different kinds of officers
in the various arms of the service were prepared under the
direction of the committee. These specifications for commis-
sioned officers are used in locating officer material, in selecting
men for training as officers, and in assigning officers to duty.
Important studies on the basis of the data secured by the com-
mittee have been made concerning the significance of age, edu-

WHAT PSYCHOLOGY CONTRIBUTED 381

cation, civil earnings, intelligence, and certain other qualifica-
tions of officers in the different corps and arms of the service.

The Committee on Classification of Personnel cooperated
with several other departments or divisions within the military
establishment, thus helping to coordinate its important activities
with closely related work and at the same time steadily increas-
ing the efficiency of methods of handling personnel.

But most interesting and perhaps most important of all of
the achievements of this successful committee was the trades'
test. The prospective importance of this achievement for
American industry is so considerable that the work will be
described at much greater length than the other and more
strictly military tasks of the group. The following account
of the development of trade testing within the army is quoted
from " Measuring a Workman's Skill ; the Use of Trade Tests
in the Army and Industrial Establishments," which was pre-
pared by Lt. Col. W. V. Bingham for the National Society for
Vocational Education :

" The development of trade testing has been one of the useful
by-products of the war. It had long been recognized that waste
of human life and human skill through misplacement in the
army or in industry is a futile, costly extravagance ; yet it re-
quires the stress of war to make people act on this conviction
that the conservation of carpenters, welders, and turret lathe
operators is really more important than the conservation of
water power and timber land, and that rich returns would
accrue to an investment of money and talent directed toward an
improvement of the technique of human classification and place-
ment. Of the improvement in personnel technique, which has
emerged from army experience, perhaps no phase has greater
promise of worth for industry than the development of
standardized trade tests.

*' The standardized trade tests were first introduced into army
practice last June [1918] when there was pressing need, espe-
cially for the truck driver's and auto mechanic's tests, to deter-
mine whether the ammunition and supply trains of the divisions

382 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

that were about to be sent to France really had the skilled
personnel necessary to get the supplies up to the front under
battle conditions. By the time that mobilization ceased in
November, standardized tests in about eighty of the more im-
portant trades were in use.

'* The cost of production and standardization of the tests was
on the average roughly a thousand dollars a trade. But as it
worked out, this was an extremely economical investment for
the War Department. A conservative estimate was made last
October of the saving in the cost of pay and subsistence of
recruits, which was at that time being effected as a direct result
of the use of these trade tests. Data gleaned from the twenty
cantonments in which the trade test stations were operating,
indicated that in each station the tests were saving the Depot
Brigade personnel officers from making about ten erroneous
assignments a day. Since it takes at least two weeks on the
average to discover that a soldier, who has been sent to a
technical unit is not fully competent and to effect the necessary
replacement, each avoidance of such a mistake meant a saving
of $42. The trade tests were then saving the army about
$210,000 a month on this item alone. But of course the real
economies were not of money but of time. Correct initial
placement meant speedier organization and more rapid progress
of training. Trade tests had their share in the rapid shaping
of army units which were ready ahead of schedule to meet the
demands of Foch and Pershing on the western front.

'*' In devising a standardized trade test it is first necessary to
study the trade to find out through analysis of typical jobs, what
are the elements of skill and information and judgment which
combine to constitute real proficiency. The Army Trade Test
Division began by assembling information from such sources
as the archives of the U. S. Department of Labor, state and city
civil service commissions, and the like. Suggestive typical
tasks and numerous trade questions and answers were accumu-
lated through conference with officials of trade unions that
maintain standards of proficiency among their membership,

WHAT PSYCHOLOGY CONTRIBUTED 383

and also from employment managers of large establishments.
But no amount of this accumulated material could take the
place of analysis made by actual observation of skilled and
partly skilled tradesmen at their work.

'* After analysis of the trade comes construction of a tentative
test. This sometimes takes the form of a performance test, a
job arranged so as to require of the candidate a demonstration
of his manual proficiency and his judgment in the use of the
main tools of his trade.

" Other tests are entirely oral, consisting of questions to elicit
definite bits of trade knowledge, to sample the range of the can-
didate's practice, and to try the soundness of his judgment on
typical matters.

" A third type of test, similar in principle to the oral test, pre-
sents to the candidate pictures of tools, machines, materials and
products of his trade, and requires him to identify them and to
indicate uses. Thus in one of the horseshoer's tests are in-
cluded pictures of a fullered horseshoe and a stamped horse-
shoe ; a shoe to prevent interfering, and a toe weight shoe ; a
pad and a hoof plate, a mule shoe, a winter shoe, and a racing
plate. Besides identifying these or telling differences in their
use, the candidate is shown pictures of, and asked to name or
tell the use of, a pritchel, clinch tongs, a fitting hammer, a driv-
ing hammer, and a buffer ; a straight hardie and a round hardie ;
a cold chisel and a hot chisel; a hoof expander, a toe calk,
and other things familiarity with which is found to differentiate
the more experienced from the less experienced horseshoer.
Pictures of horses' feet in various conditions enable the candi-
date to show his good judgment as well as his trade knowledge,
by telling how each should be treated. The examiner, keeping
an exact score on the candidate's responses and referring to
the standard ratings, can in ten minutes assure himself with
reasonable accuracy as to whether the soldier knows as much
about the horseshoeing trade as most experts, journeymen,
apprentices, or novices, as the case may be.

384 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

" Similarly, in an oral test for horseshoers, the soldier is
asked such questions as these :

" 4 How does a deep-seated corn usually show on a sole ? '
' Red/ is the answer which experienced horseshoers univers-
ally give to this answer.

'* l What is the fullering in a shoe ? ' ' Groove * and * crease '
have both been found to be acceptable answers.

'* ' How do you shoe a horse that has a bone spavin ? '
' Lower the toe and raise the heels/

" Questions likely to provoke narration of processes or de-
scriptive answers that are both time-consuming and difficult to
evaluate, are omitted. Only those questions are included which
seem simple, clear, direct and unambiguous, and which promise
to elicit answers that can be accurately scored and that will be
genuinely diagnostic of trade proficiency.

" After a tentative test containing sixty, eighty, or even a hun-
dred distinct elements has been assembled it must be tried out.
It is first used in testing from five to twenty men whose high
proficiency in the trade is known. During this preliminary
tryout the test undergoes progressive revision and refinement.
Ambiguities and localisms of terminology are eliminated. Ele-
ments that require too much time or that prove to be repetitive
of other elements, or that are not sufficiently diagnostic, are
dropped.

" The revised test is now subjected to a second and much
more thorough tryout. With adherence to rigorously uniform
procedure, it is administered in various establishments and in
different industrial regions of the country, to no less than eighty
men whose proficiency is known. Of these, twenty are experts
in the trade, twenty are journeymen, and twenty are men rated
as apprentices of at least fourteen months and less than three
years' standing. The remaining twenty are novices, persons of
good education and intelligence but with no experience at the
trade in question. The testing of these novices is necessary in
order to discover and eliminate the elements of the test which

WHAT PSYCHOLOGY CONTRIBUTED 385

an educated non-tradesman could pass, on the basis of his
general knowledge or intelligence.

" All of these test records, which show exactly what each of
the eighty or a hundred men did with every element of the test,
are turned over to the. statistician who computes for every ele-
ment its diagnostic value. He then chooses those elements
which are found to differentiate most sharply between novice
and apprentice, apprentice and journeyman, or journeyman
and expert. He determines the best numerical weighting to be
attached to each of these selected elements. And finally, com-
bining these scores, he ascertains the critical rating which is
found to separate the largest number of known apprentices,
from the novices, the journeymen from the apprentices, and
so on. This stage of the process we have called * calibrating '
the test. Like the calibration of a thermometer, the critical
points of the test score are located, not by theory or by the
opinion of the deviser of the test, but by actual trial. Only
thus are we confident that the test will really measure trade
proficiency with the degree of reliability required by the army.

" Not infrequently the tentative formulation of the test has
proved inadequate, and after all the labor and expense of an
elaborate tryout it had to be thrown into the waste-basket and
a fresh start made. Only after a test had been devised which
was found on thorough trial to measure up to the requirements,
was it turned over for use with the soldiers.

4< While these trade tests were being developed, two astonish-
ing discoveries came to light. The first of these is the rarity,
the practical nonexistence, of the exclusively motor-minded type
of tradesman, the man who can do the job with his hands but
cannot tell you about it in words. In beginning the trade test
development we had expected to meet numerous difficulties due
to the prevalence among manual laborers of this variety of
mental constitution. We expected to find that the oral type
of tests would prove useful with the more verbally minded
men; but we anticipated meeting many tradesmen of high

386 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

proficiency and skill who could do little or nothing with these
oral questions. This expectation proved to be wholly at vari-
ance with the facts. The problem here suggested, as to
whether the so-called pure type of motor-mindedness is really
only a mythical abstraction, is respectfully referred to the
laboratories of educational psychology.

" The other discovery, not wholly unrelated to the first, was
the fact that in a majority of the trades the oral tests yielded
more accurate differentiations of proficiency than did the per-
formance tests. In other words, the journeyman and the ex-
pert differ from the apprentice not so much because they have
greater manual skill and dexterity as because they excel in judg-
ment, technical information, or trade knowledge.

" Of course this is not the case in some occupations, 'such as
truck driver or typist. Here oral tests are futile. The candi-
date must be given a chance to demonstrate his skill through
actual performance. But in most of the trades the actual
performance testing of the man on the manual job can be
omitted without great loss to our knowledge of the man's
proficiency."

Finally, the third chief division of this chapter should present
the work of psychologists on special military problems. Many
such were formulated by officers of the army, by scientific men
in the National Research Council, and by psychologists who
were in the midst of military duties. In the majority of in-
stances the attempts to deal with special problems were con-
spicuously successful, in that they yielded immediately
serviceable results.

There are no better examples to be found to illustrate prob-
lems, methods, and achievements, than the work of Lieutenant
Commander Raymond Dodge, who has already published else-
where fascinating accounts of the professional work of military
psychologists.

We quote from an article on " Mental Engineering," pre-
^V" pared by this officer for the American " Review of Reviews "
(May, 1919) :

WHAT PSYCHOLOGY CONTRIBUTED 387

Let me illustrate this kind of war work by a single concrete
instance in which the details are not military secrets. The first
problem that was referred to the sub-committee on vision was
the question whether we had any way of selecting those naval
recruits who could be trained most quickly as gun-pointers for
the armed merchant ships.

The first step was to learn exactly what a gun-pointer had to
do. The next was to reduce the more or less complicated pro-
cesses of gun-pointing to their simplest neuro-muscular terms.
It was a definite problem for analysis ; and, because of the perfect
systematization and high specialization of naval tasks it was rela-
tively simple. The third step was to adapt approved scientific
technics to the study of this particular complex of neuro-muscular
processes. For this purpose an instrument was devised that would
show all the following facts on a single record line: i, the time
that it took a sailor to start his gun-pointing reaction after the
target at which he was aiming started to move; 2, the accuracy
with which he was able to " keep on " the moving target ; 3, the
time that it took him to respond to a change in the direction of
motion of the target ; 4, the ability to press the firing key when he
was on; 5, the effect of firing on his pointing. (See frontispiece.)

All these data were so simplified that they could be accurately
estimated from simple measurements of a single line without
elaborate computations. A succession of records indicated the
probable quickness with which the sailor would learn the new co-
ordinations. The final step was to test the probable military value
of our instrument and its records by performances of expert and
inexpert gun-pointers.

The first trials proved the usefulness of the device. It clearly
differentiated between the qualified gun-pointers, the partially
trained, and the untrained. It picked a number of promising
novices and indicated the faults of some who were slow to improve.
Predictions based on the records were uniformly corroborated by
subsequent experience. Somewhat later it was possible to con-
struct a robust training instrument along similar lines that was
rather enthusiastically reported on by various naval officers, and
was widely reproduced by the navy for use in the Naval Training
Stations.

At a time when every available gun was needed for service

388 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

afloat, the utility of our relatively simple and inexpensive training
instrument that closely reproduced the coordinations of actual
service needs no emphasis.

In the navy, precisely as in the army, the solution of one
problem almost inevitably led to the formulation of numerous
related problems. The task thus became endless and at the
same time intensely exacting as well as stimulating. In a
summary official report to the National Research Council
Lieutenant Commander Dodge writes as follows concerning
the relation of his study of problems of gun-pointing to other
tasks :

In view of these reiterated suggestions, and in view of the wide
scope of the permission granted me by the Honorable Secretary
of the Navy to visit the fleet for analysis of the naval tasks, I
undertook to do for the plotting room what I have done for gun-
pointing. After observing the various tasks of the plotting room,
I tried to reduce them to their simplest psychological terms, then to
devise corresponding test methods, and finally to combine them
in a single form or blank that would disclose at a glance, without
elaborate computation, the relative fitness of the several recruits
for plotting room service.

The tests finally recommended were : the ability to repeat
clearly by telephone, a series of ordinary commands that were re-
ceived by telephone, the ability to remember and repeat numerals,
to read a circular scale, to read a plotting scale and to lay off
distances to scale, together with neatness and accuracy in drawing
and sub-dividing simple geometrical figures. All these data, except
the telephone test, were arranged on a single blank which could
be estimated at a glance as good, medium, and poor.

Again in an entirely different connection the psychologist's
skill was found serviceable in selecting men to be trained as
listeners for anti-submarine work.

One of the minor but necessary tasks of the Training Section of
the Bureau of Navigation was to find properly equipped men for
the new Listeners' School without robbing other training schools
of their regular quotas. It was a relatively simple problem in the
economy of human material and personnel, but one for which

WHAT PSYCHOLOGY CONTRIBUTED 389

no data were available. At the request of Captain Bennett
U. S. N., Chief of the Training Section, I analyzed the require-
ments of the Listeners' School.

On the basis of that analysis, I elaborated a series of tests for
candidates for the Listeners' School and was sent to various train-
ing stations to pick students from the enlisted personnel. After
correcting the tests from the school experience with the first few
quotas, I was able to make a detailed recommendation for the
examination of candidates. With the cordial assistance of naval
medical officers in the several districts, these testa afforded the
Listeners' School a selected student personnel fr,om which 80 per
cent, to 95 per cent, of each class passed the course, all without
seriously affecting the supply of suitable men for other naval
schools.

Space fails us to describe similarly the psychological problems
relating to the intelligence service in the army, the aviation
service, the chemical warfare service, for all of which important
tasks were undertaken.

RELATIONS OF THE WAR TO PROGRESS IN
SCIENCE

XXII

THE POSSIBILITIES OF COOPERATION IN
RESEARCH

GEORGE ELLERY HALE

NO one can survey the part played by science in the war
without reflecting on the ultimate influence of the war
on science. Able investigators have been killed or incapaci-
tated, and with them a host of men who might have taken high
places in research. Sources of revenue have been cut off, and
the heavy financial burdens permanently imposed upon indi-
viduals, institutions, and governments must tend to reduce the
funds available for the advancement of science. On the other j
hand, the usefulness of science is appreciated as it never has r
been before, and some newly enlightened governments have K*,
already recognized that large appropriations for research willj
bring manifold benefits to the state. The leaders of industry ,
have also been quick to appreciate the increased returns that
research renders possible, and industrial laboratories are multi-
plying at an unprecedented rate. The dearth of available
investigators, and the higher salary scale of the industrial world,
have seriously affected educational institutions, members of
whose scientific staffs, inadequately paid and tempted by offers
of powerful instrumental equipment, have been drawn into the
industries. On the other hand, industrial leaders have re- ,
peatedly emphasized the fundamental importance of scientific
researches made solely for the advancement of knowledge, and
the necessity of basing all great industrial advances on the re-
sults of such investigations. Thus they may be expected to
contribute even more liberally than before to the development

393

394 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

of laboratories organized for work of this nature. Educational
institutions are also likely to recognize that science should play
a larger part in their curriculum, and that men skilled in re-
search should be developed in greatly increased numbers. The
enlarged appreciation of science by the public, the demand for
investigators in the industries, and the attitude of industrial
^A leaders of wide vision toward fundamental science, should
facilitate attempts to secure the added endowments and equip-
ment required.

On the whole, the outlook in America seems most encourag-
ing. But the great advance in science that thus appears to be
within reach cannot be attained without organized effort and
much hard work. On the one hand, the presenF inferest of
•* the public in science must be developed and utilized to the full,
and on the other, the spirit. of cooperation that played so large
a part during the war must be applied to the lasting advantage
of science and research. Fortunately enough, this spirit has
not been confined within national boundaries. The harmony
of purpose and unity of effort displayed by the nations of the
Entente in the prosecution of the war have also drawn them
more closely together in science and research, with conse-
quences that are bound to prove fruitful in coming years.

The Honorable Elihu Root, who combines the wide vision
of a great statesman with a keen appreciation of the importance
and methods of scientific research, has recently expressed him-
self as follows :

Science has been arranging, classifying, methodizing, simplifying
everything except itself. It has made possible the tremendous
modern development of the power of organization which has so
multiplied the effective power of human effort as to make the
differences from the past seem to be of kind rather than of degree.
It has organized itself very imperfectly. Scientific men are only
recently realizing that the principles which apply to success on a
large scale in transportation and manufacture and general staff
work apply to them; that the difference between a mob and an

THE POSSIBILITIES OF COOPERATION 395

army does not depend upon occupation or purpose but upon human
nature; that the effective power of a great number of scientific
men may be increased by organization just as the effective power
of a great number of laborers may be increased by military dis-
cipline.

The emphasis laid by Mr. Root on the importance of organ-
ization in science must not be misinterpreted. For many years
he has been President of the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie
Institution of Washington, and an active member of its Execu-
tive Committee. Thus kept in close touch with scientific re-
search, he is well aware of the vital importance of individual
initiative and the necessity of encouraging the independent
efforts of the original thinker. Thus he goes on to say :

This attitude follows naturally from the demand of true scientific
work for individual concentration and isolation. The sequence,
however, is not necessary or laudable. Your isolated and concen-
trated scientist must know what has gone before, or he will waste
his life in doing what has already been done, or in repeating past
failures. He must know something about what his contemporaries
are trying to do, or he will waste his life in duplicating effort.
The history of science is so vast and contemporary effort is so
active that if he undertakes to acquire this knowledge by himself
alone his life is largely wasted in doing that; his initiative and
creative power are gone before he is ready to use them. Occa-
sionally a man appears who has the instinct to reject the negligible.
A very great mind goes directly to the decisive fact, the determin-
ing symptom, and can afford not to burden itself with a great
mass of unimportant facts; but there are few such minds even
among those capable of real scientific work. All other minds need
to be guided away from the useless and towards the useful. That
can be done only by the application of scientific method to science
itself through the purely scientific process of organizing effort.

It is plain that if we are to have effective organization in
science, it must be adapted to the needs of the individual worker,
stimulating him to larger conceptions, emphasizing the value
of original effort, and encouraging independence of action,

396 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

while at the same time securing the advantages of wide
cooperation and division of labor, reducing unnecessary dupli-
cation x of work and providing the means of facilitating re-
search and promoting discovery and progress.

A casual view of the problem of effecting such organization
of science might lead to the conclusion that the aims just
enumerated are mutually incompatible. It can be shown by
actual examples, however, that this is not the case, and that an
important advance, in harmony with Mr. Root's conception,
is entirely possible.

It goes without saying that no scheme of organization,
effected by lesser men, can ever duplicate the epoch-making
discoveries of the Faradays, the Darwins, the Pasteurs, and
the Rayleighs, who have worked largely unaided, and who will
continue to open up the chief pathways of science. Even for
such men, however, organization can accomplish much, not by
seeking -to plan their researches or control their methods, but
by securing cooperation, if and when it is needed, and by ren-
dering unnecessary some of the routine work they are now
forced to perform.

Let us now turn to some examples of organized research,
beginning with a familiar case drawn from the field of as-
tronomy, where the wide expanse of the heavens and the natural
limitations of single observers, and even of the largest observa-
tories, led long ago to cooperative effort.

In the words of the late Sir David Gill, then Astronomer
Royal at the Cape of Good Hope, the great comet of 1882
showed " an astonishing brilliancy as it rose behind the moun-
tains on the east of Table Bay, and seemed in no way diminished
in brightness when the sun rose a few minutes afterward. It
was only necessary to shade the eye from direct sunlight with
a hand at arm's length, to see the comet, with its brilliant white
nucleus and dense white, sharply bordered tail of quite half a
degree in length." This extraordinary phenomenon, more
brilliant than any comet since 1843, marked the beginning of

1 Some duplication is frequently desirable.

THE POSSIBILITIES OF COOPERATION 397

celestial photography at the Cape of Good Hope. No special
photographic telescope was available, but Sir David enlisted
the aid of a local photographer, whose camera, strapped to an
equatorial telescope, immediately yielded pictures of exceptional
value. But even more striking than the image of the comet
itself was the dense background of stars simultaneously regis-
tered upon these plates. Stellar photographs had been taken
before, but they had shown only a few of the brighter stars,
and no such demonstration of the boundless possibilities of
astronomical photography had ever been encountered. Always
alive to new opportunities and keen in the appreciation of new
methods, Sir David adopted similar means for the mapping of
more than 450,000 stars, whose positions were determined
through the cooperation of Professor Kapteyn of Groningen,
who measured their images on the photographs.

Stimulated by this success, the Henry Brothers soon adopted
photographic methods for star charting at the Paris Observa-
tory, and in 1887 an International Congress, called at Sir
David's suggestion, met in Paris to arrange for a general survey
of the entire heavens by photography. Fifty-six delegates of
seventeen different nationalities resolved to construct a photo-
graphic chart of the whole sky, comprising stars down to the
fourteenth magnitude, estimated to be twenty millions in num-
ber. A standard form of photographic telescope was adopted
for use at eighteen observatories scattered over the globe, with
results which have appeared in many volumes. These contain
the measured positions of the stars, and are supplemented by
heliogravure enlargements from the plates, estimated, when
complete for the entire atlas of the sky, to form a pile thirty
feet high and two tons in weight.

The great cooperative undertaking just described is one that
involves dealing with a task that is too large for a single institu-
tion, and therefore calls for a division of labor among a number
of participants. It should be remembered, however, that a very
different mode of attacking such a problem may be employed.
In fact, although the difference between the two methods may

398 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

seem on first examination to be slight, it nevertheless involves
a fundamental question of principle, so important that it calls
for special emphasis in any discussion of cooperative research.
One of the great problems of astronomy is the determination
of the structure of the sidereal universe. Its complete solution
would involve countless observations. Nevertheless, Professor
Kapteyn, the eminent Dutch astronomer, resolved many years
ago to make a serious effort to deal with the question. In order
to do so, as he had no telescope or other observational means
of his own, he enlisted the cooperation of astronomers scattered
over the whole world.

In organizing his attack, he recognized that the inclusion of
only the brighter stars, or even of all those contained in the
International Chart of the Heavens, would not nearly suffice
for his purpose. He must penetrate as far as possible into the
depths of space, and, therefore, thousands of millions of stars
are of direct importance in his studies. Moreover, it is evident
that if he were to confine his attention to some limited region
of the sky, he could form no conclusion regarding the distribu-
tion of stars in other directions in space or such common
motions as might be shown, for example, by immense streams
of stars circling about the center of the visible universe.

As the measurement of the positions, the motions, the bright-
ness, and the distances of all the stars within the reach of the
most powerful telescopes would be a truly Utopian task, Pro-
fessor Kapteyn wisely limited his efforts, and at the same time
provided a means of obtaining the uniformly distributed obser-
vations essential to the discussion of his great problem. His
simple plan was to divide the entire sky into a series of 206
Selected Areas, thus providing sample regions, uniformly spaced
and regularly distributed over the entire celestial sphere. Con-
clusions based upon the observation of stars in these areas are
almost as reliable, so far as large general questions of structure
and motion are concerned, as though data were available for all
the stars of the visible sidereal universe.

As already remarked, Professor Kapteyn depends entirely

THE POSSIBILITIES OF COOPERATION 399

upon the volunteer efforts of cooperating astronomers in various
parts of the world. One of these astronomers assumes such
a task as the determination of the brightness of the stars, of
a certain range of magnitude, in the Selected Areas. Another
deals with their positions and motions, another with their
velocities measured with the spectroscope, etc. Each observer
is able to take a large number of Selected Areas, covering so
much of the sky that he may separately discuss the bearing of
his results on some important problem, such as the distribution
of the stars of each magnitude with reference to the plane of
the Galaxy, the motions in space of stars of different spectral
types, the velocity and direction of the sun's motion in space,
the dependence of a star's velocity upon its mass. Moreover,
each observer is free to use his utmost ingenuity in devising
and applying new methods and instruments, in increasing the
accuracy of his measures, and in adopting improved means of
reducing and discussing his observations. He also enjoys the
advantage of observing stars for which many data, necessary
for his own purposes, have been obtained by other members
of the cooperating group. Outside the Selected Areas, such
data are usually lacking, because so small a proportion of the
total number of stars has been accurately observed.

In physics, as well as in astronomy, there are innumerable
opportunities for cooperative research. A good illustration is
afforded by the determination of the exact wave-lengths of lines
in the spectra of various elements, for use as standards in
measuring the relative positions of lines in the spectra of
celestial and terrestrial light-sources. This work was initiated
in 1904 by the International Union for Cooperation in Solar
Research, and is now being continued by the International
Astronomical Union. The spectrum of iron contains thou-
sands of lines, many of which are well adapted for use as
standards. The work of determining their positions was under-
taken by the members of an international committee, in accord-
ance with certain specifications formulated by_the Solar Union.
But those who took part in the investigation were not bound

400 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

by any rigid rule. On the contrary, they were encouraged to
make every possible innovation in the manner of attack, in
order that obscure sources of error might be discovered and
the highest possible accuracy in the final results attained. The
outcome demonstrates most conclusively that organized effort
and freedom of initiative are by no means incompatible. Im-
portant instrumental improvements of many kinds were effected,
sources of error previously unsuspected were brought to light,
and means of eliminating them were devised. A by-product of
the investigation, of great fundamental interest, was the dis-
covery that the peculiar displacements of certain lines in the
spectrum of the electric arc, which are greatest near the nega-
tive pole, are due to the influence of the electric field. These
displacements, previously unsuspected, are sufficient to render
such lines wholly unsuitable for use as standards unless rigor-
ous precautions are observed. The international committee, in
the light of the new information thus rendered available, will
now have no difficulty in completing its task of determining the
positions of standard lines with an accuracy formerly unattain-
able.

The variation of latitude is another subject in which inter-
national cooperation has yielded important results. It was
found some years ago by astronomical observations that the
earth's axis does not maintain a fixed direction in space, but
moves in such a way as to cause the earth's pole to describe
a small but complicated curve around a mean position. The
change in the direction of the axis is so small, however, that
the most accurate observations, made simultaneously at differ-
ent points on the earth, are required to reveal it. These were
undertaken at several stations widely distributed in longitude,
in Italy, Japan, and the United States. A new photographic
method has recently been devised which will probably render
unnecessary the use of more than two stations in future work.

An extensive cooperative investigation planned by the Divi-
sion of Geology and Geography of the National Research Coun-
cil involves the joint efforts of geologists and chemists in the

THE POSSIBILITIES OF COOPERATION 401

study of sediments and sedimentary deposits. This is of great
importance in connection with many aspects of geological his-
tory, and also because of its bearing on economic problems,
such as the origin and identification of deposits or accumula-
tions of coal, oil, gas, phosphates, sodium nitrate, clay, iron,
manganese, etc.

The essential requirements are sufficient information on ( I )
modern sediments and deposits, and (2) changes in sediments
after deposition and the causes of such changes.

In the study of sediments now in process of formation it is
important to learn the mechanical state and shapes of particles
of different sizes, their mineralogical and chemical composition,
the arrangements of the material composing the deposit, the
source of the material, the transporting agencies, and the cause
of precipitation. Modern deposits must be studied in the scores
of forms in which they are laid down: in deserts and arid
regions and in humid climates, in the beds of great lakes, in
the track of glaciers, and in marine beds off the coast, in deltas
and bays, or on submarine plateaus, in lagoons, and on reefs
in subtropical and tropical waters.

In much of this work chemical investigations are essential,
especially on the composition of the waters flowing into the
ocean, yielding data on the chemical degradation of the con-
tinent and the amount of soluble material discharged into the
sea.

In undertaking this extensive investigation, which would
include the studies just cited and others on ancient deposits, the
following procedure is proposed: (i) To make a more com-
plete survey than has yet been made of the investigations that
are at present under way in the United States and Canada.
(2) To prepare, in the light of present geological knowledge,
a program for the investigations needed to supply an adequate
basis for interpreting sediments. As knowledge advances, the
program will have to be modified. (3) To canvass the field for
existing agencies that are suitable for prosecuting such investi-
gations. (4) To assign problems to those institutions or indi-

402 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

viduals prepared properly to prosecute researches of the kind
needed. (5) To provide additional agencies for the study of
problems of sedimentation and thereby make possible investiga-
tions for which there are either no provisions or only inadequate
provisions at present.

It is easy to see how an investigator choosing to deal with
some aspects of this large general problem would be assisted
by information regarding related work planned or in progress,
and how readily, as a member of the group, he could render
his own researches more widely useful and significant.

Another interesting piece of cooperative research, which
involves the joint activities of geographers, physicists, zoolo-
gists, and practical fishermen, is centered largely at the Marine
Biological Laboratory at La Jolla, California. Systematic
measurements of the temperature of the Pacific near the coast
show occasional upwelling of cold water. Simultaneous bio-
logical studies reveal a change in the distribution of microscopic
organisms with the temperature of the water. This has an
immediate practical bearing, because the distribution of the
organisms is a dominant factor in the distribution of certain
food fishes. The source of the temperature changes, and their
influence on meteorological phenomena, are other interesting
aspects of this work.

In the field of engineering, the possibilities of cooperative
research are unlimited. The fatigue phenomena of metals have
been chosen by the Engineering Division of the National Re-
search Council, acting in conjunction with the Engineering
Foundation, as the subject of one of many cooperative investi-
gations. Metals and alloys which are subjected to long-
repeated stresses frequently break down, especially in aircraft,
where the weight of the parts must be reduced to a minimum.
The elastic limit and, to a lesser degree, the ultimate strength of
steel can be raised by working it cold, provided that a period of
rest ensues after cold-working. The tests indicate, however,
that increased static strength due to cold-working does not
necessarily indicate increased resistance to fatigue under re-

THE POSSIBILITIES OF COOPERATION 403

peated stress. In the case of cold-stretched steel, for low
stresses the fatigue strength is actually less than for the same
steel before stretching.

These phenomena, and others that illustrate the complexity
of this problem, afford abundant opportunity for further re-
search. The membership of the committee includes representa-
tives of educational institutions, the Bureau of Standards, and
several large industrial establishments. The work was divided
among the members, two dealing with its metallographic
features, two with machines for testing, two with mechanics of
the materials involved, and one with a survey of the subject
from the standpoint of the steel manufacturer. The results
already obtained promise much for the future success of this
undertaking.

Scores of other illustrations of effective cooperation in re-
search might be given, especially in astronomy, where each of
the 32 committees of the International Astronomical Union
(p. 412 ff.) is constituted for the purpose of organizing coopera-
tive investigations. In spite of the length of this list of com-
mittees, it cannot be said that astronomy offers any unique
possibilities of joint action. The division of the sky among
widely separated observers is only a single means of coopera-
tion, which may be paralleled in geology, paleontology, geog-
raphy, botany, zoology, meteorology, geodesy, terrestrial mag-
netism and other branches of geophysics, and in many other
departments of science. Most of the larger problems of physics
and chemistry, though open to study in any laboratory, could
be attacked to advantage by cooperating groups. In fact, it
may be doubted whether research in any field of science or its
applications would not benefit greatly by some form of coopera-
tive attack.

As for the fear of central control, and of interference with
personal liberty and individual initiative, which has been enter-
tained by some men of science, it certainly is not warranted by
the facts. Cooperative research should always be purely
voluntary, and the development of improved methods of obser-

404 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

vation and novel modes of procedure, not foreseen in preparing
the original scheme, should invariably be encouraged. They
may occasionally upset some adopted plan of action, but if the
cooperating investigators are following the wrong path, or
neglecting easily available means of improving their results,
the sooner this is discovered the better for all concerned.

XXIII

THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF
RESEARCH

GEORGE ELLERY HALE

THE progress of research, and the rapid advance of knowl-
edge along particular lines, have naturally resulted in
the highly specialized organization of science of the present
day. Two centuries ago the Royal Society of London and the
Paris Academy of Sciences could easily embrace the whole
range of science, and include in their membership essentially
all of the able investigators of England and France., The
establishment of the Linnean Society in 1788 marked the begin-
ning of a dispersive movement that has continued ever since.
The Geological Society was instituted in 1807 and the Royal
Astronomical Society in 1820, partly as the result of the ac-
cumulation of valuable observations too extensive for the Royal
Society to publish. One by one the recognized branches of
science took definite form, developed a large group of adherents,
and a special society resulted. Engineering and medicine ex-
perienced the same progress, large general societies being
followed by special organizations occupying particular fields.
Civil, mechanical, mining, and electrical were the first great
subdivisions of engineering, but recent years have brought
increased specialization, and we now have societies of naval,
illuminating, automotive, and refrigerating engineering, fol-
lowed within the past year by a society devoted to electric
welding. Medicine has also divided into many elements, and
it is safe to predict that new special bodies will continue to
arise as workers multiply.

405

406 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

This rapid progress of subdivision indicates, of course, a most
healthy condition of affairs. Without intense concentration of
interest and effort science and its applications could never have
attained their present advanced position. Specialization in
research, and the association of specialists in groups, must,
therefore, be regarded as signs of progress. But the conse-
quences of this movement are not wholly advantageous. The
separation of investigators of somewhat different tastes has
deprived them of many mutual benefits. In each branch of
science instruments and methods are devised to meet particular
needs. These may have many applications, direct or indirect,
in other quarters, but for the most part they remain the undis-
puted possession of those acquainted with the special journals
in which they are described. How often does the physicist
consult the proceedings of a psychological society, or the
engineer a journal of physiology? Yet problems often arise in
which the experience gained in remote fields would be invalu-
able. More often, when some large problem is open to attack,
its aspects are so various that investigators representing a dozen
branches of science may be needed to deal with it effectively.
It then appears most clearly how the artificial partition of
knowledge, and the erection of barriers between those con-
cerned with its increase and those most interested in its applica-
tions, must hamper effort and delay progress.

Without specifying other reasons, it is plain that the increase
of specialization, instead of rendering unnecessary organiza-
tions dealing with science as a whole, has served to emphasize
their possibilities. In fact, it may be doubted whether there
was ever a time in the history of science when such bodies
could render a greater service. The rise of astrophysics and
physical chemistry is evidence enough of the advantage of
bridging the gaps between diverging branches, and the great
national academies of science are in a position to contribute in
large measure toward this end.

In a previous chapter (i) we have seen how the National
Academy of Sciences, acting on the approach of war, estab-

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION 407

lished the National Research Council. The immediate purpose
in view was to effect a working federation of research agencies,
without regard for the distinctions which have divided them
into classes, and kept them from acting together. The organ-
ization then effected was a temporary one, designed for war
service, and open to reconstruction to meet the needs of peace.
In chapter 24 Dr. Angell describes the present organization of
the Council and the nature of its work. We may therefore
turn to the question of the international organization of science.
• The international scientific associations that existed before
the war were of several distinct types. Some devoted their
efforts to the establishment of uniform standards of measure,
others organized cooperative researches, while the majority
held occasional congresses for the personal interchange of
views. The most important body of the first type is the Inter-
national Metric Commission, with its International Bureau of
Weights and Measures at Sevres, chiefly concerned with funda-
mental standards of length and mass. Other bodies of this
class dealt with electrical units and standards, the standardiza-
tion of the nomenclature and ratings of electrical apparatus and
machinery, uniformity in the methods of testing materials,
annual revision of the tables of atomic weights, annual publica-
tion of physical and chemical constants, the science and art of
illumination, collaboration in the publication of astronomical
ephemerides, uniformity in meteorological observations and
their reduction, the determination of standards of wave-length,
the classification of stellar spectra, and the unification of time
standards.

Men of science interested primarily in cooperative research
organized the International Chart of the Heavens, observations
to determine the variation of latitude, seismological observa-
tions, explorations of the sea, solar observations, studies of
the brain, and other investigations. Other international
organizations dealt with agricultural information and statistics,
physiological instruments, the telegraphic distribution of astro-
nomical information, the preparation of a joint map of the

408 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

world on a uniform scale, agreements regarding telegraphy and
wireless telegraphy, and the preparation of the International
Catalogue of Scientific Literature.

Periodic international congresses, chiefly for the interchange
of views, were held in mathematics, chemistry, mining and
related subjects, engineering, radio-activity, botany, geology,
zoology, entomology, ornithology, physiology, anatomy, anthro-
pology, medicine, surgery, cancer research, medical radiology,
and geography.

Finally, without attempting to refer to all international scien-
tific and technical organizations, mention should be made of the
International Association of Academies, in which most coun-
tries were represented by a single leading national Academy,
though Germany exercised exceptional influence because of the
inclusion of the Academies of Berlin, Gottingen, Leipzig, and
Munich.

Many of these international bodies were formed to meet some
special need, and they had become so numerous that men of
science interested in the larger aspects and relationships of
their personal researches were often unable to attend meetings
of importance to them. Thus in astronomy independent bodies
dealt with the International Chart of the Heavens, solar obser-
vations, Kapteyn's Selected Areas, time standards, astronomical
ephemerides, distribution of astronomical telegrams, minor
planets, and other subjects, and there was no appropriate
organization to initiate new projects falling outside of certain
limited fields. In chemistry five distinct organizations existed,
and yet there was little international cooperation in research.
In geophysics separate bodies were concerned with geodesy,
meteorology (almost exclusively from the standpoint of official
routine), terrestrial magnetism (without real activity), seis-
mology, and other branches of the subject, and there was no
means of securing common consideration of major problems
embracing several aspects of this extensive science. The Asso-
ciation of Academies was not sufficiently representative of the
countries it included, was without permanent headquarters or

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION 409

adequate funds, had no contact with the great majority of
international scientific organizations, and was almost completely
inactive between its triennial meetings.

With such considerations in view, the Royal Society called
an Inter-Allied Conference on International Scientific Organiza-
tions, which opened in London on October 9, 1918. Belgium,
Brazil, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Serbia, and the
United States were represented by delegates. The first act
of the London Conference was to define the attitude of the
bodies represented toward the question of future relations with
the men of science of the Central Powers. The declaration
unanimously adopted pointed out that after the opening of
hostilities men of science were still able to hope for an immedi-
ate resumption of scientific relations between enemy countries
on the conclusion of peace, in harmony with previous experi-
ence. Unfortunately, however, the atrocities committed by
Germany and her allies have created a new situation in the
present war. The work of international scientific associations,
unlike business dealings or formal diplomatic procedure, results
from personal meetings between friends, who must act together
in harmony and personal regard. Such personal relations, espe-
cially with the men whose families and acquaintances have
suffered such shameless brutality in the invaded countries, are
manifestly impossible at present, and they cannot be resumed
until Germany and her allies have been readmitted to the
concert of civilized nations, and have renounced the political
methods which have led to the atrocities that have shocked the
civilized world.

No one who is familiar with the nature of international scien-
tific organizations, and has learned by personal visits to the
devastated countries something of the feeling of their scientific
men, can doubt the necessity of this conclusion. The men of
science of these countries cannot be expected to entertain cor-
dial regard toward the invaders, and they unanimously refuse to
meet them personally. Those who do not sympathize with this
attitude will still be compelled to choose between association

4io THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

with our Allies or with the Germans. Moreover, even if per-
sonal meetings were immediately possible, they would delay
rather than hasten the ultimate resumption of friendly relations,
because of the bitter arguments that would certainly occur.

Under the circumstances, the Conference decided to recom-
mend withdrawal from former international organizations and
the formation of new ones, in which nations that had been
neutral in the war would be invited to take part. It was recog-
nized, of course, that some of the old organizations would
doubtless be reconstituted and these need not be duplicated.
But in other cases, as the illustrations just cited sufficiently in-
dicate, there were important reasons for complete reorganiza-
tion, notably in astronomy, geophysics, and chemistry. There
was also a strong demand for a body with more general func-
tions, to carry out the tasks that the International Association
of Academies had failed to perform.

A plan for the establishment of an International Research
Council, prepared by the Council of the National Academy of
Sciences, was presented to the London Conference by the
American delegates. This proposed the organization, by the
'"National Academy of each of the countries represented, of a
National Research Council, so constituted as to be a federation
of research agencies. The details of organization were to be
left to each country, but the general principle of uniting re-
search interests in a single representative body was approved.
The International Research Council would then consist of a
federation of these National Research Councils.

A second Inter-Allied Conference was held in Paris under
the auspices of the Paris Academy of Sciences from November
26 to November 29, 1918. Delegates were present from the
countries represented in London, and also from Poland, Portu-
gal, and Roumania. The International Research Council, pro-
posed in the resolutions adopted in London, was provisionally
constituted of the delegates attending the Paris Conference,
with the understanding that the various National Research
Councils, as soon as formed, would take their place in the

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION 411

federation. An executive committee of five members, repre-
senting France, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy, and the United
States, was appointed to study in detail the questions presented
to the Conference and to undertake other duties, especially those
relating to the formation of new international organizations.

Provisional statutes were adopted for an International Astro-
nomical Union and an International Union of Geodesy and
Geophysics. Plans for an International Chemical Union were
also presented for subsequent consideration and action.

The International Research Council and its associated bodies,
the International Astronomical Union, the International Geo-
detic and Geophysical Union, and the International Union of
Pure and Applied Chemistry, were formally inaugurated at the
Palais des Academies, Brussels, at a meeting held July 18-28,
1919. Tentative statutes were also adopted for the following
bodies, which will be organized as soon as circumstances war-
rant, and with such modifications as careful consideration may
render advisable : International Unions of Mathematics,1
Physics, Radiotelegraphy, Geography, Geology, Biology and
Medicine, and Bibliography.

The objects of the International Research Council, as defined
at the Brussels meeting, are :

(i). To coordinate international activities in the various
branches of science and its applications.

(2). To encourage the formation of international Associa-
tions or Unions needed to advance science.

(3)- To guide international scientific activities in fields where
no adequate organization exists.

(4). To establish relations with the governments represented
in the Union for the purpose of interesting them in
scientific projects.

The General Assembly, consisting of the accredited delegates
of the various countries represented in the International Re-

1 Already in process of organization.

4i2 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

search Council, meets triennially at the permanent headquarters
in Brussels. Between meetings the work is conducted by an
Executive Committee, now comprising one representative each
from France, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, and the United
States, but soon to be enlarged by the addition of other mem-
bers. In accordance with the plan presented by the National
Academy of Sciences to the London Conference, the United
States is represented in the International Research Council by
its National Research Council.

The International Astronomical Union unites in a single body
those who formerly took part in the work of the International
Chart of the Heavens, the International Union for Cooperation
in Solar Research, the International Union, for the Determina-
tion of Time and Longitude, International Conferences on
Ephemerides, the centralization of astronomical telegrams, and
other groups, formally or informally constituted, that dealt with
international cooperation in astronomy and its applications.

The objects of the Union are to facilitate international
cooperation in research, and to advance the study of all branches
of astronomy. Each country represented in the Union organ-
izes a National Committee, preferably in conjunction with its
National Research Council, for the purpose of aiding and
coordinating its astronomical activities, with special reference
to the requirements of international cooperation in research.
These Committees also select the delegates to meetings of the
International Union.

The range and variety of international activities in astronomy
may be illustrated by an enumeration of the cooperative re-
searches and projects already initiated by the Astronomical
Union. Thirty-two committees, comprising in their member-
ship the leading investigators of all the countries represented
in the Union, have undertaken to deal with the following sub-
jects: relativity; the republication of astronomical classics;
notation, units, and economy of publication; cooperation in
the publication of nautical almanacs and astronomical
ephemerides; abstracts and bibliographies; the distribution of

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION 413

astronomical telegrams ; dynamical astronomy and astro-
nomical tables ; meridian circle observations, including the
study of atmospheric refraction ; optical investigations, both
theoretical and applied, relating to astronomical problems and
the physical study of instruments ; solar radiation ; registration
of the velocities of solar vapors; the solar atmosphere; ex-
peditions for the observation of eclipses and other astro-
nomical phenomena ; standards of wave-length and solar
spectrum tables ; solar rotation ; physical observations of
planets ; nomenclature of lunar phenomena ; determination of
longitudes by wireless telegraphy ; variation of latitude ; minor
planets ; comets ; meteors ; the International Chart of the
Heavens ; stellar parallaxes ; stellar photometry ; double stars ;
variable stars ; nebulae ; classification of stellar spectra ; stellar
radial velocities ; time standards and determinations ; and the
reform of the calendar. This bare enumeration can give lit-
tle conception of the importance of the work of the Astro-
nomical Union, but if it were feasible in the available space
to outline the work of some of these committees, and to indi-
cate the advantages that must result from a combined attack
on astronomical problems, in which the ablest investigators
will utilize the instrumental resources of scores of great ob-
servatories in accordance with a general plan of operations,
the true possibilities of such united effort would become ob-
vious.

The scope of the International Union of Geodesy and
Geophysics is no less comprehensive. Its objects are to en-
courage the study of problems relating to the figure and physics
of the earth, to initiate and coordinate investigations requiring
the cooperation of several countries, and to facilitate special
investigations, such as the inter-comparison of instruments.
The Union is constituted of six Sections, dealing with (i)
Geodesy, (2) Seismology, (3) Meteorology, (4) Terrestrial
Magnetism and Electricity, (5) Physical Oceanography, (6)
Volcanology. Each of these Sections appoints special inter-
national committees, similar to those of the Astronomical Union,

4i4 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

to organize cooperative researches in their respective fields.
Action has necessarily been delayed in some of the Sections,
but a preliminary list of projects already initiated by the Sec-
tion of Terrestrial Magnetism and Electricity will serve to in-
dicate the character of the cooperative work to be undertaken
in this branch of the Union. These involve the comparison
of the magnetic instruments in use in different countries, and
the determination of the best method of measuring the mag-
netic elements in absolute units ; the study of atmospheric elec-
tricity by a joint committee of the Section of Meteorology and
the Section of Terrestrial Magnetism and Electricity; coopera-
tion with the proposed International Union of Scientific Radio-
Telegraphy in the investigation of the electric phenomena of
the higher atmosphere; the systematic exchange of magnetic
curves ; the appointment from time to time of special commit-
tees to investigate and report on specific problems in the field
of the Section; and cooperation with the International As-
tronomical Union in investigating the relationships between
solar and terrestrial magnetic and electrical phenomena.

The American branch of the International Union of Geodesy
and Geophysics was organized by the Division of Physical
Sciences of the National Research Council. Out of this has
grown the American Geophysical Union, which officially repre-
sents the United States in the International Union and retains
organic connection with the Division of Physical Sciences.

The rapid development of chemistry in recent years, and the
limitless variety of its applications in the arts have led to a
great advance in the public appreciation of this branch of
science. The possibilities of international cooperation in
chemical research are at least as great as in astronomy and
geophysics, but prior to the war only a beginning had been made
in utilizing them. The organization of the International Union
of Pure and Applied Chemistry, in which the United States is
represented by the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Tech-
nology of the National Research Council, supplies the means

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION 415

of securing the cooperation of chemists engaged both in funda-
mental investigations and in industrial research.

The objects of this Union are to provide for permanent co-
operation between the chemical societies of the nations repre-
sented, to coordinate their scientific and technical procedure,
and to contribute to the advancement of chemistry in all of its
aspects.

The first task to be undertaken by authority of this Union
will be the preparation and publication, under American
auspices, of a critical compendium of physical and chemical
constants, as part of the contribution of the United States
toward an international program of documentation which will
be developed as rapidly as possible. The National Research
Council, with the support of the American Chemical Society
and other national societies, has been requested to organize
the editorial board and secure funds for this large project,
which will naturally involve considerable expense. This board,
while charged with complete responsibility, will conduct the
work on an international basis, with the aid of assistant editors
and collaborators in the principal nations of the International
Union. Other large cooperative projects will be taken up later.

The International Research Council provides the long-
desired means of coordinating the activities of international sci-
entific bodies, which in the past have almost invariably worked
independently — a condition no longer possible if real efficiency
is to be expected. Similar confusion has prevailed in each
of the participating countries, where no agency has existed to
bring together men engaged in different classes of international
research. In the United States this difficulty has been over-
come by the organization of the Division of Foreign Relations
of the National Research Council. This division, the organiza-
tion of which is more fully described on page 424, acts for the
National Research Council in dealings with the International
Research Council, promotes cooperation in matters of common
interest between the American National Committees or other

416 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

•
national representatives of international organizations, aids in

the initiation of new international unions, keeps the State De-
partment in touch with pending scientific and technical ques-
tions in which the Government may be interested, and publishes
annual summaries of international activities in science and
technology.

If space permitted, it would be interesting to survey the
work of other important international organizations in which
the United States takes a prominent part, such as the Inter-
national Electrotechnical Commission, the International Con-
ference on Electrical Units and Standards, the International
Commission of Illumination, and of such bodies as the National
Research Council Committee on Pacific Exploration, whose
projects are of international scale. Since it is manifestly im-
possible, however, to cover such extensive ground, this chapter
has been confined to a sketch of some developments resulting
from the war which have led to a new and promising unifica-
tion of research activities, in harmony with the spirit of the
times.

XXIV

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
JAMES R. ANGELI/

UNTIL the organization of the National Research Council,
scientific research in the United States had been carried
on by a group of agencies working for the most part in inde-
pendence of one another. Research in pure science has beerT^
chiefly cultivated in the universities and in a small group of
privately endowed research institutes. The scientific bureaus
of the Federal Government and certain of the scientific agencies
of the several states have from time to time devoted themselves
to investigations in this field ; but in the main, they have almost
inevitably been monopolized by problems of applied science
possessing the urgency of pressing practical necessity. The
sum total of the scientific work carried on by these state and
federal agencies (e. g., the federal Department of Agricul-
ture, the state experiment stations, state geological surveys,
etc.) has been very large, and its significance for the welfare
of the public has been of the highest consequence. The re-
search aspects of applied science have also been represented
to some extent in the industrial laboratories of the country,
certain of which have been developed to a very high degree of
efficiency, although the number of such laboratories is lament-
ably small when compared with the need and the opportunity.

Merely to state the foregoing facts is to suggest the valid ,
conclusion that the best results in research can never accrue
under conditions so lacking in unity and coherence of purpose. ,
The National Research Council, created by the relentless pres-
sure of the war, is endeavoring to secure in times of peace the

418 . THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

close cooperation, both in the planning and execution of re-
search, requisite to bring to the nation the largest possible re-
wards from scientific investigation. Clearly, there are other
methods than those represented by the Research Council
whereby to achieve these desired ends, and a few words of
comment may serve to exhibit the considerations which have
justified the course pursued.

The policy adopted by certain other countries, notably Great
Britain, Japan, Italy, the Dominions of Australia and Canada,
might with modifications have been imitated. In this case,
research in its largest bearings would be made dependent upon
the control and financial support of the Federal Government,
which might create its own agencies through which to work or
might allot subventions for purposes of research to extant
organizations, whether directly under Government control or
not. Assuming that Congressional appropriations might be
secured in necessary amounts, this type of plan might be ex-
pected to produce results upon a large scale more rapidly than
any other, but experience has shown that under the actual con-
ditions in the United States, direct federal supervision of scien-
tific work is likely to carry with it substantial limitations which
would in the long run seriously reduce the efficiency of re-
search.

Another possible method would be the creation through pri-
vate benefactions of a colossal endowment to be administered
vlike certain of the present research institutes. The great dif-
ficulty here is the magnitude of the capital required to cover so
wide a field as is represented by the National Research Council.
The institutes referred to follow as a rule only a single branch
of work. On the other hand, the Council as a federation of
scientific agencies would be free from the objection sometimes
urged against these research foundations, i.e., that they are
purely private organizations, and as such, are likely to be auto-
cratic and arbitrary in their methods.

In its present organization, the National Research Council
represents the attempt to accomplish in a democracy, and by

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 419

democratic methods, results of the most lasting national benefit
in the field of research in pure and applied science. For rea-
sons of the kind indicated above, it has not been thought ad-
visable to make it directly dependent upon the Government,
although it does enjoy an important measure of Government
recognition through its Government Division, through its con-
tact with the State Department, explained at a later point, and
through its relation to the National Academy of Sciences,
which possesses a federal charter, and which by the Executive
Order of President Wilson on May n, 1918, created the
Council as an official agency of the Academy. The Council
has achieved its democratic element by arranging that its mem-
bership shall be controlled by the great scientific societies, of
which upwards of forty are now represented in its constitu-
ency. These societies elect to the scientific and technical Divi-
sions of the Council a majority of their representatives, and
these representatives in turn select the administrative officers
who shall direct the actual scientific enterprises which the Divi-
sions undertake. These directing officers, known as Chair-
men, receive salaries from funds of the Council which have
been secured by private benefactions, and serve normally for
one year at a time with residence in Washington.

Following the traditions of the National Academy of Sci-
ences, the field of work of the National Research Council has
for the present been restricted to the physical and natural
sciences. The lines which divide the sciences from one another
in any generation are necessarily somewhat arbitrary, and the
organization of the Council reflects something of this arbitrary
character. There are accordingly seven sub-divisions devoted
to the following groups of sciences: (i) the physical sciences,
including physics, mathematics, and astronomy; (2) engineer-
ing in all its branches; (3) chemistry and chemical technology;
(4) geology and geography; (5) the medical sciences (both
the clinical aspects and those of the underlying pure sciences) ;
(6) biology and agriculture; (7) anthropology and psychology.
These groups may be conceived as furnishing the foundations

420 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

upon which the great mass of the research interests of the
Council is based. They also represent the vast preponderance
of the personnel operating through the Council, for it is upon
the membership of the scientific and technical societies that
the Council is ultimately grounded, as has been explained in an
earlier paragraph.

The informed reader will observe that these Divisions relate
in part to the pure sciences ; physics, chemistry, mathematics
are cases in point. In part, however, they reflect the interests
of applied science, as in the case of engineering, of chemical
technology, and to some extent each of the other Divisions.
The distinction between pure and applied science is one which
has been frequently debated, and upon which substantial di-
versity of opinion is still entertained. But from the point of
view of the conception upon which the work of the Council is
actually administered, this distinction may be regarded as al-
most wholly psychological in character. The worker in pure
science is seeking primarily to enlarge the field of knowledge,
and to gratify his own intellectual curiosities, whereas the
worker in applied science has as his motive the solution of
some concrete practical problem. Both men are scientists, and
both may be engaged in bona fide research of the utmost im-
portance.

Despite the fact that the distinction just mentioned is from
the theoretical point of view of relatively secondary conse-
quence, its practical aspects give it great significance, and this
fact has been explicitly recognized in the organization of the
Council, as will be pointed out in a moment.

In view of the exposition in the opening paragraphs of the
actual extant conditions surrounding scientific research in this
country, it will be readily appreciated that the scientific work
of the Divisions already described must be intelligently related
to a considerable group of interests and agencies. To accom-
plish these results, the Council has established a group of six
so-called General Divisions designed to meet this need.

I. Government Division. In the first place, it is highly es-

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 421

sential that the Council should operate in the closest possible
contact with the scientific agencies of the Federal Government.
Not only because of the magnitude and variety of the enter-
prises conducted by government scientists, but also because of
the close connection thus afforded with issues of crucial mo-
ment for the public welfare. It is quite indispensable, if the
. Council is to achieve its intrinsic purposes, that it should be
kept in intimate relations with all this work. To achieve this
end, the so-called Government Division has been formed, upon
which, by appointment of the President of the United States,
are representatives of each of the scientific and educational
bureaus of the federal service. These include not only such
scientific groups as are represented by the Bureau of Standards
of the Department of Commerce and the Bureau of Chemistry
of the Department of Agriculture, but also the scientific and
technical services of the army and navy.

The constituency of this Division at the present moment is
made up of forty-one members. Several beneficial results are
hoped for from the work of the Division. As indicated above,
it will serve as a liaison agency to keep the several Divisions
of the Council in touch with the scientific work which is being
done by the Government. It will also afford opportunity for
the converse of these advantages in bringing constantly before
the notice of representatives of the Government the more im-
portant scientific projects which are going forward under other
auspices both in this country and abroad. Finally, it is believed
that the Division may serve to perpetuate and develop a full
and frank cooperation among the scientific forces of the Gov-
ernment, such as was successfully initiated by the Council
during the war, but which prior to that time had not generally
existed. Moreover, it may be hoped to offer a channel through
which cooperative enterprises may be launched. These may
affect either the relations among the Government bureaus
themselves, or the relations of these bureaus to outside scien-
tific agencies with which they have not hitherto been in active
contact. There is, in other words, obvious opportunity for

422 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

team-play which has not up to this time been at all fully de-
veloped. Incidentally, it seems not too much to hope that a
fuller knowledge among representatives of the scientific bureaus
of the Government, each regarding the work of the others, may
exercise a highly beneficial influence in discouraging radical
and inexpedient legislative action such as has been more than
once threatened in the ill-informed attempt to avoid duplica-
tion of government work where only the appearance and not
the fact of such duplication is involved.

2. Foreign Relations Division. For many years past there
have been international organizations of a scientific character,
certain of which have enjoyed the official recognition and sup-
port of the Government, others of which have been conducted
independently of any such support. It appears at once, upon
the most superficial inspection, that certain types of scientific
problems can only be effectively attacked by international co-
operation. Astronomy, seismology, and meteorology afford
abundant instances of such problems. Prior to the Great War,
various international scientific unions had been developed, some
of which conducted extensive cooperative researches. These
organizations were inevitably shattered by the effects of the
war, and to take their place, there was created at Brussels in
July, 1919, an International Research Council, composed of
representatives of the Allied powers. To this organization
several of the neutral countries have already declared adher-
ence, and in due time it may be expected that the Central Pow-
ers will also be admitted.

In the establishment of this International Research Council,
our own Council exercised a large measure of initiative, and
with the establishment of the new organization, the national
council has become its official American representative. Com-
plete details of the international organization are still in process
of development, but in general, the plan involves a series of
constituent unions, e. g., astronomy, mathematics, biology,
chemistry, etc., as described by Dr. Hale in Chapter XXIII.

To the Foreign Relations Division of the National Research

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 423

Council is confided responsibility for the administration of the
joint international interests of the several American organiza-
tions represented in the International Council, and also the
supervision of any other desirable international scientific mat-
ters. A representative of the State Department (at the mo-
ment, the Honorable William Phillips) acts as one of the vice-
presidents of the Division, and thus assures organic contact
with the affairs of that Department. The Division as at pres-
ent constituted includes the President and Foreign Secretary
of the National Academy of Sciences; the President or other
representative of the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science, of the American Philosophical Society, and
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; representa-
tives of the Department of State ; representatives of the leading
international scientific and technical organizations in which
the United States participates; certain officials of the National
Research Council; and a group of members at large, chosen
for their nationally representative qualities.

The work of this Division is not only of signal consequence
from the strictly scientific point of view, it is also pregnant of
political consequences of prime importance, for nowhere are
sympathetic and appreciative international relations so easily
cultivated as in the realm of science. How sorely the new
world stands in need of such friendly bonds is already pain-
fully apparent.

3. States Relations Division. In many states of the Union
there are important scientific and technical activities under state
control, dealing with geology, public health, fisheries, forestry,
and other subjects. During the war the formation of State
Councils of Defense brought representatives of such agencies
into groups, comprising also representatives of educational and
other institutions. In some instances, of which California
affords a notable illustration, very efficient Research Commit-
tees thus resulted, which dealt successfully with war problems
arising locally or making demands upon the natural resources
or agencies of the State in question. Some of these committees

424 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

have been perpetuated, and in other instances similar commit-
tees are to be formed. The Division of States Relations of the
Research Council, which began its work during the war, has
now been permanently established with the following functions :

1. To obtain information as to the most effective types of
organization which may represent the group of departments
concerned with research within a state government. The
method by which these groups can be brought together may not
be the same in all cases. This has been done by a central com-
mittee in California, and in part by a Board of Natural Re-
sources and Conservation in Illinois. Still other variations of
method may be expected in accomplishing this coordination in
other states.

2. To obtain an acquaintance with the best methods of co-
operation between the departments of the state government
and the institutions within the state, — educational, commer-
cial, industrial, and governmental, — which are concerned with
research. Close connection between the work of the Division
of States Relations and the Division of Educational Relations
will be essential, as educational institutions are important cen-
ters for research work.

3. To consider the most effective methods of research co-
operation between states, and to study also the problem of the
relations between the scientific agencies of the states and those
of the Federal Government.

The success of the work of this Division will necessarily be
in large degree contingent upon the response of the scientific
and political authorities of the several states. The Council
is in no position to employ any coercion in the matter, and if it
were, would not desire to do so. The response, however,
which has already been accorded to the suggestion that the
States Relations Division should exercise the functions men-
tioned has been very cordial and very wide-spread. There is
unquestionably a general recognition of the need for some dis-
interested and competent agency to meet the purposes de-
scribed, and it seems reasonable to hope that substantial as-

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 425

sistance may be rendered the individuals and agencies concerned
in their attempts to serve the public welfare in the most ef-
fective manner.

The present membership of the Division comprises, in addi-
tion to representatives of the several other Divisions of the
National Research Council and certain groups of representa-
tives chosen at large, six regional representatives of state re-
search committees and representatives from organizations
particularly concerned with state research problems, to wit,
the Association of American State Geologists, the Society of
American Foresters, the American Association of State High-
way Officials, and the International Association of Game, Fish,
and Conservation Commissioners.

4. Educational Relations Division. The institutions of
higher learning in the United States represent two important
groups of research interests. In the first place, a considerable
proportion of the research in pure science is carried on in these
institutions ; and in the second place, they are the sole sources
from which there is to be derived trained personnel for ad-
vanced scientific work. It is obvious that as in the case of the
other Divisions of General Relations, the several Divisions of
Science and Technology, mentioned earlier in the chapter, sus-
tain the most intimate affiliations with the Division of Educa-
tional Relations, representing the educational institutions.
Even during the war, therefore, a definite effort was made to
organize the research interests in these educational institutions ;
and the peace-time organization of the Council has seen in this
field one of its largest opportunities, and one of its most press-
ing obligations. Again, as in the case of the work of the
States Relation Division, there is and can be no question of a
coercive attitude on the part of the Council. It stands to these
institutions purely in the relation of a wotald-be helper, un-
selfishly devoted to the development in them of the best condi-
tions for productive research and the training of research men.
The Division has initiated its work by a careful study of the
facilities for research work in the major institutions of the

426 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

country. It is hoped on the basis of the results of this study
that it may be possible to suggest methods of improving fa-
cilities for research and its conduct.

To mention but a single point illustrative of the possibilities
in this direction, attention may be called to the present entire
lack of cooperation and mutual understanding among the uni-
versities of the country regarding the development of research
facilities, both in equipment and in personnel. At present,
it may be said to be the common ambition among the stronger
ilniversities to develop research in practically every direction
of science. This policy, if continued unmodified, is bound to
lead to the most wasteful expenditure by the needless dupli-
cation of costly plants and the multiplication of personnel, con-
siderable portions of which will necessarily be of inferior
quality. While in some branches of science, it may for a long
time to come be difficult to produce the necessary number of
trained research workers, and while in these cases multiplica-
tion of facilities is not likely to be wholly unwarranted, there
are many lines of scientific work in which a small number of
institutions would be entirely adequate to produce the necessary
personnel, and to carry forward a justifiable amount of scien-
tific research. Only on the basis, however, of some mutual
understanding among the authorities of these institutions can
it be hoped that a saner and a more judicious program can be
adopted. It is not altogether Utopian to hope that the National
Research Council may be of assistance in focusing public
opinion upon this issue, and in stimulating definite and progres-
sive action. Unlike most of the other agencies concerned, the
Council occupies an entirely disinterested attitude, and is in a
position to assist in deciding upon the intrinsic merits of the
case.

In addition to certain members chosen at large to represent
a broad diversity of interests and certain representatives of
other Divisions of the Council, the Division is at present com-
posed of representatives of the following associations, i. e., the
Association of American Colleges, the National Association of

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 427

State Universities, the Association of American Universities,
and the American Association of University Professors.

5. Division of Research Extension. There is something of
a paradox in the fact that despite the reputation of the United
States for fertility in mechanical inventiveness, the substantial
productivity of the country, in what may be seriously entitled
scientific industrial research, has with the exception of a few
industries been conspicuously small. The experiences of the
war brought out with a vividness nothing else could have done
the backwardness of the country in this field of industrial re-
search. Whether the high tariff walls which have generally
existed to protect our industries, or the fact that we have had
an adequate outlet for our industrial energies in our own na-
tional commerce, had concealed the real conditions, it remains
true that the fact of our backwardness had been screened from
general public recognition. Nothing is more certain, however,
than that if we expect to gain and retain our fair share of the
control of foreign markets, especially as regards Germany and
Great Britain, we must arouse to the necessity of basing our
great scientific industries more fully than heretofore upon
sound scientific foundations. We must also appreciate the
fact that to keep them abreast of the times, we must make per-
sistent use of scientific research. Recognizing the urgency of
this general situation, the National Research Council has estab-
lished a special Division (originally called the Division of In-
dustrial Relations, but now known as the Division of Research
Extension), devoted to the promotion of a wider appreciation
of the true facts of the case and to the stimulation among the
industries, wherever possible, of active research enterprises.

The problem here subdivides somewhat naturally into two
main issues. There is, on the one hand, the case of the great
corporations controlling one or more of the large essential in-
dustries ; and there is, on the other hand, the case of the small
manufacturer who may or may not be engaged in an industry
already occupied by dominating corporations. In the first case,
the problem is one of persuading the directors of these larger

428 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

concerns to put into their organization program provision for
adequate research laboratories and personnel. It might be
supposed that the purely selfish interests of such organizations
would already have led them to go as far in this direction as
current industrial circumstances warrant. There are not a
few conspicuous instances in which this is true. But there are
many others in which for various reasons a fundamental un-
willingness to encourage the establishment of research organiza-
tions is deeply ingrained. Among these reasons ranks high
a not altogether intelligent conservatism ; and the dread of be-
ing obliged to discard extant equipment and methods, despite
the possibly increased profits, also figures conspicuously. Cer-
tainly from the point of view of public welfare and the national
position in times of peril, it is highly desirable to induce these
industries to adopt an enlightened and generous policy of re-
search.

The case of the small producer is quite different. It is out
of the question for him to establish a laboratory on any scale
which is likely to promise justification in terms of immediate
financial return. There is, however, no reason why he should
not combine with other small manufacturers in his own line
of work to finance investigations of a kind directly beneficial
to himself and his colleagues. This plan has actually been tried
both in this country and abroad, and with very considerable
success. The Research Extension Division of the Council has
had the good fortune to be a prime mover in a number of
projects of this general type, and while the specific details are
likely to vary, in view of the peculiar conditions met with in
the different industries, the general principle of cooperative
work has apparently come to stay.

Not the least interesting of the developments which are to
be hoped for from this stimulation of industrial research is
-^/ I a recognition on the part of the industries of their obligations
to the discoveries of pure science, which in every case under-
lie successful improvements in industrial practice. It seems
hardly too much to believe that in the not remote future this

;

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 429

obligation will be recognized in the form of permanent annual
contributions to the institutions and individuals competent to
carry on fundamental research in pure science. For while
it is never possible to predict at just what point a discovery
in pure science may assume practical significance of a large
kind, it is abundantly demonstrated that only through such dis-
coveries are essential improvements in scientific technique to
be obtained, and no investment of financial resources is so likely
in the long run to be productive of fundamental improvement
in the conditions of human life. While such an investment
of money is in a certain sense philanthropic or often specula-
tive, it is in the long run an investment more certain than any
other to be productive of the highest values which can be ob-
tained by human ingenuity.

6. Research Information Service. Despite the careful study
given in recent years to the general problems of bibliography,
it is still true that for many of the purposes of scientific research,
the present available resources for the prompt securing of essen-
tial information are lamentably defective. The intricacies of
modern science have produced a situation in which accurate
and exhaustive knowledge of the scientist's own special field
frequently is insufficient to serve his purposes. Again and
again it becomes necessary for him to secure quickly and accu-
rately information from other cognate fields of science, and in
such instances the present machinery for the speedy attainment
of reliable information is extremely unsatisfactory.

This description, which applies conspicuously in the field of
pure science, is even more significant in the ranges of applied
science in the industries. Many of the industries have felt
this need, and have made sporadic efforts to meet it. The
engineering fraternity has also made a beginning at the main-
tenance of a bureau to supply certain types of information, but
all these efforts are thus far of a fragmentary and non-compre-
hensive character. The Germans had built up at Grosslichter-
felde a great organization to meet precisely these needs, and
had achieved signal success in their undertaking. It is our

430 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

intention to surpass, if possible, the merits of that institution.
The success which was attained during the war in establishing
certain features of this Information Service, reference to which
will be found in Chapter 3, encourages us to believe that our
dream may come true, and that an effective organization can be
developed to meet the necessities in times of peace.

Without attempting to portray in minute detail the several
aspects of the work of this Division as it is now planned, a
brief description may be offered.

(a) Provision will be made for a catalogue of research
laboratories, and already we have a list of such covering
approximately 5000 entries. This catalogue includes
both laboratories devoted to pure science and those deal-
ing with industrial activities. In addition to the name
and address of the organization, there will be given the
name of the director, the personnel of the staff, the
chief lines of research pursued, the space available, the
approximate annual expenditure, and in short, all infor-
mation necessary to give a clear picture of the type of
the work which the laboratory may be expected to be
competent to undertake.

(b) A catalogue of current investigations will be developed.
The idea of rendering available information regarding
current research is decidedly novel, and at first sight,
is likely to be thought impracticable. There is no doubt
that the possibilities of the plan vary very widely in the
different fields of science and in the different industries ;
but there is also no question that in certain fields it is
entirely practicable, and that wherever it can be brought
about, it is sure to possess high value. So long as scien-
tific investigation is carried on in a purely individualistic
way, and surrounded with the atmosphere of the trade
secret, such a project has, of course, no status. Not
only are the possibilities of cooperative research becom-
ing rapidly more widely appreciated, but there is also an

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 431

increasing recognition of the extent to which scientific
men can be of assistance to one another by frank and
full interchange of knowledge regarding current work.
At present, there is no central agency which can serve
as an exchange for such information. The saving of
time and expense represented by the ability to draw upon
such a source of knowledge can hardly be overestimated.
It pre-supposes on the part of the individual investigator
not only the willingness to make periodic communication
regarding his own work, but also the willingness to take
the small amount of time necessary to fill out the enquiry
cards which must inevitably be used if the information
supplied is to be rendered promptly and easily available
to others.

Naturally the industrial laboratories working on prob-
lems which directly affect their competitive relationships
will not find it possible to participate very fully in this
type of interchange of information. In so far, however,
as work which they carry on has significant relations to
the issues of fundamental science, there is reason to be-
lieve that they too will be willing to cooperate in this
program.

(c) There is in preparation a catalogue of research personnel
which when complete will supply full and accurate infor-
mation regarding the professional equipment and accom-
plishments of all scientific research men, with their
addresses. The Research Information Service has
already received so many important enquiries covering
this field as to make it clear that there is a very genuine
need for information of this character. If a university
or industrial concern desires a competent research man
in a special field, there is at present no means of getting
the necessary information save by slow correspondence
with a considerable group of individuals or agencies,
where the information may or may not be actually avail-
able. It is hardly necessary to argue the utility of a

432 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

service of the proposed type. The labor of preparing
the data in an accurate way, and the difficulties of keep-
ing it up to date, are obvious, but they are in no sense
insuperable.

(d) It is planned to develop a library of sources of research
information. This would include bibliographies, syste-
matic abstracts, digests, hand books, and other conveni-
ent periodical or special sources of information concern-
ing research. There has already been prepared as a
preliminary step a catalogue of bibliographic and abstract
periodicals of the world.

(e) For the use of the several Divisions of the Council, there
has been prepared a catalague of scientific and technical
societies with information concerning the time and place
of meeting.

(f) An index of approximately 12,000 cards has been pre-
pared, covering all foreign reports received by the Re-
search Information Service.

(g) A plan has been devised for improving the status of
scientific publications, and especially for rendering ab-
stracting and the construction of hand books more
satisfactory. It involves cooperation with the several
Divisions of the Council in the conduct of systematic
enquiry concerning the status of publications in special
fields and possible methods of improvement.

With respect to bibliographic listing and abstracting
the following features of the general plan deserve re-
mark:

(i) Formulation of carefully considered and thoroughly
tested rules for the preparation of abstracts in any
given field of science. The inadequacy of indices
is due chiefly to the fact that the title of an article
is assumed to be an accurate and complete guide
to its contents, which is very rarely the case. It is
highly desirable, therefore, that a system be devised
which will present in the briefest and most precise

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 433

form the actual significant contributions in a paper
regardless of its title.

(2) The editorial requirement that a suitable abstract
prepared in accordance with these rules be submitted
with a manuscript when offered for publication.

(3) That this author's abstract, after proper editing, be
published in a periodical abstract journal (possibly
monthly) for the appropriate science.

(4) That all abstracts be held in type for at least one
year, in order that the materials may be reclassified
according to subject and reprinted as an annual
topical review. /

(5) That as essential parts of this annual topical review
for any given field of science, there be also published
complete author and subject lists.

(6) That such lists be accumulated and published in
separate volumes at intervals of five or ten years.

The ideal execution of this general plan will de-
mand international cooperation by developing
methods, and by the assistance of special scientific
groups, to establish suitable abstract or other
periodicals. As a matter of fact, encouraging prog-
ress has already been made with several of the more
important scientific journals which have adopted the
substance of the proposals involved in this program,
(h) Although this Division is in no sense primarily re-
sponsible for the publication policies of the Council,
it has contributed substantially to their development.
These policies involve the publication in a bulletin series
of important scientific papers which do not find any
natural place in extant scientific journals, and also the
circulation of reprints of important papers published in
media reaching but a limited circle of readers. Already
there have appeared several reprints and the following
bulletins: Number i, " The National Importance of

434 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

Scientific and Industrial Research," by George Ellery
Hale and others ; Number 2, " Research Laboratories in
Industrial Establishments of the United States of
America," compiled by Alfred D. Flinn; and Number 3,
" Periodical Bibliographies and Abstracts for the Scien-
tific and Technological Journals of the World," compiled
by R. Cobb. It may be added in this general connection
that the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences constitute the official organ of the National
Research Council, and that in addition to the record of
the Council's transactions, there are here published cer-
tain of its scientific contributions, including reports of its
more important committees.
*********

It is out of the question within the limits of space available
to enter in any complete way upon the work of the seven Divi-
sions of Science and Technology, mentioned in the opening
paragraphs of this chapter. Including, as these do, the interests
of physics, mathematics, astronomy, geodesy, meteorology,
seismology, vulcanology, engineering in all its branches,
chemistry and chemical technology, geology and geography, the
medical sciences, zoology, botany, and agriculture, anthropology
and psychology, it would obviously be impracticable to attempt
any detailed description of the scientific research work which
is being developed. Two considerations, however, deserve
explicit emphasis.

In the first place, these Divisions are composed of scientific
men, selected by their peers for their reputation as competent
investigators in their several fields of work. These groups
come together and discuss with exhaustive detail the most
urgent needs in their own research fields and the most prac-
ticable methods of meeting these. The projects which they
then decide upon as deserving immediate attention represent
the most mature and well-considered opinions of the men best
qualified to judge. In this sense the projects to which the

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 435

Council commits itself are based upon a scientific concensus
of opinion such as has never before been available in this
country.

The second consideration, and one of perhaps equal impor-
tance, is that the Council in its effort to stimulate and promote
research has found one of its largest fields in the development
of cooperative research enterprises, for which there has also
been hitherto no adequate national provision. This cooperation
may occur as between individual scientists working in the same
field, for example, physics or chemistry, as between scientists
in different fields, as between research organizations like uni-
versities and government bureaus, as between state agencies or
state and federal agencies, and finally, as between the con-
sumers, so to speak, of research represented by the interests of
commerce and industry. Every one of the great fundamental
problems confronting modern society leads out in the effort to
solve it into a large group of related but often distinct sciences.
For example, the problem of fuels is in part one of chemistry,
in part one of geology; in some portions of the world one of
forestry, in part one of transportation, etc. Food production,
distribution, and consumption similarly involve a wide range
of scientific problems, partly zoological, partly botanical and
agricultural, partly chemical, partly bacteriological, etc.
v The organization of the Council is peculiarly adapted to per-
mit the easy assemblage of groups of competent scientists to deal
with such fundamental issues as these, with which no single
government agency and no other single scientific agency is at
the moment at all competent to cope. One or two illustrations
of the kind of thing the scientific Divisions of the Council are
attempting to accomplish may be permitted.

We may take one instance from the field of cooperation
among scientists and one from that of cooperation among the
users of scientific research in the industries. The cases are
chosen to exhibit the possibilities of cooperation, because it is
at that point that our present national organization of research
is most defective, and the need for an agency such as the

436 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

Council most conspicuous. During the war, the Council was
able to bring about a large number of cooperative research
undertakings, but these were mainly represented by the appoint-
ment of committees, each of whose members was a specialist
in the same scientific field, and they worked together by dividing
the problem and allocating its several phases to one or another
of their members. This is a highly profitable form of pro-
cedure where time is of crucial importance, as in war, but it is
less likely to commend itself to scientists in time of peace.
Meantime, there are abundant problems, and among them many
of fundamental national importance, which can only be solved
cooperatively and by the joint action of specialists representing
quite diverse scientific interests.

The Division of Biology and Agriculture has created a com-
mittee for the study of the problems of food and nutrition.
The general field of work has been subdivided into that of
human nutrition and of animal nutrition. A group of some
fifteen eminent scientists have come together and made a pre-
paratory survey of the general problem. These scientists
represent chemistry, physiology, zoology, physiological and
biological chemistry, vital statistics, agriculture, animal hus-
bandry, and household economics. If, as their work develops,
need arises, they will take in representatives of other branches
of science. The war made it quite plain that there is a prob-
lem of national nutrition quite distinct from that of merely
individual nutrition, and to this the committee will also give
attention. It will at best be several years before the full fruits
of this work will begin to come in, but the coercive and essenti-
ally practical character of the problem is evident the moment
one faces the facts, and particularly in our own country, where
the preparation of large parts of the food material of the people
is in the hands of a few great industries. The old-fashioned
community lived mainly upon its own immediate neighborhood.
The modern community puts under contribution for its food
the remotest corners of the earth. The committee has already
made an excellent beginning in its work, the cost of which will

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 437

probably be largely met by the more directly interested indus-
trial concerns.

The Institute of Baking may serve to illustrate cooperation
among the consumers of research. The big industrial concern
can often afford to establish its own research laboratory, and
many instances of such procedure might be cited. But the
small manufacturer cannot afford this luxury, and he must
either go without it or join with other small concerns to estab-
lish a cooperative research enterprise. The National Research
Council has been carrying on an active campaign to introduce
the formation of such cooperative arrangements in a consider-
able group of industries, and thus far with very encouraging
success. The Instittfte of Baking is one in which the Council,
through its Research Extension Division, has had some part.

The Institute has secured the use of an admirably equipped
laboratory, has engaged a scientific director, who has entered
into advisory relations with the Council, where he can command
suggestions from the ablest men in the country in the various
problems of physics, chemistry, bacteriology, etc., involved in
the industry. The 28,000 members of the baking trade in this
country will be the direct beneficiaries of this work, and in-
directly the entire community will profit by it.

Many other instances of research work inaugurated by the
Divisions of Science and Technology might be adduced, but
these must suffice, and may serve to convey some impression
of the character of their activities.

Through its system of publications, to which reference has
already been made, the Council attempts to give some publicity
to its own work and to the scientific results which accrue from
it, although the extant agencies for scientific publication will
no doubt care for the larger part of such requirements. In
addition, however, to this attempt to bring its work before the
public, the Council has entered upon a system of exhibits, which
deserves brief mention.

In a new building, which will serve as a permanent home for
the National Academy of Sciences as well as for the Council,

438 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE

there will be certain permanent exhibits of fundamental scien-
tific interest, but perhaps more significant will be the system
of rotating exhibits designed to show the latest discoveries in
pure and applied science in ways readily intelligible to the
general public. These exhibits will then be shown in other
large centers throughout the country wherever satisfactory
arrangements can be made. At the present moment, there is
being shown a most striking exhibit of the wireless telephone
and of the essential discoveries in pure science which have led
up to its perfection. This exhibit has been prepared by the
American Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company and the
Western Electric Company, with assistance from the Signal
Corps of the army. •

It is hoped by these methods to arouse a much deeper and
more widely disseminated public appreciation of the progress
which is constantly going on in scientific work, and of the sig-
nificance of this work for the prosperity of the commonwealth.
If the Council can accomplish some fraction of the general pur-
poses which have been outlined in this chapter, it may well
feel that it has served its purpose. Its organization is plastic,
and can be made to conform to the changing needs of successive
generations. It is based upon an unselfish devotion to the de-
velopment of human welfare through the most energetic prose-
cution of the resources of science.

INDEX

Abstracts, scientific, 432
Academy of Sciences, Paris, 3 ff.
Aerogoniometry, improvements

in, 242

Agriculture, research in, 29
Airplane, direction finding from,
242

engines for, 260

photography, 46, 91 ff.

radio communication, 235
Ammonia, absorption of, 161
Ammunition, production of, 134,

254

Amplification, principle of, 44-45

Angell, J. R., 417 ff.

Antennae, tree, 244

Anthrax, 298

Artillery, and meteorology, 54

Association, of academies, inter-
national, 408

Astronomy, cooperation in, 396

Audition, principle of, binaural,
42-44

Aviation, charting air for, 58 ff.
photography in, 89 ff.

Balloon, for military use, 25
Ballooning, principle of, 46, 50 ff.
Bingham, W. V., 381
Bone grafting, 324
Bumstead, H. A., scientific at-
tache, London, 36

Calories, in army rations, 275
Camera, airplane, 94 „
Camps, and source of troops, 333
Cannon, manufacture of, 254
Carbon monoxide, 159
Cartography, 181 ff.

Charcoal, and gas warfare, 156
Chemical warfare, casualties, 286

results of, 172

service, 148 ff.

history of, 150
Chemistry, analytic research, 167

inorganic research, 166

of explosives, 123 ff., 134 ff.

organic research, 163

union for, 414
Chemists, census of, 149
Chlorine, use of, 152
Civil War, science in, 8

photography in, 89
Color photography, 97
Commission, Food, 267
Conference, of Divisions of Phys-
ical Sciences and Engi-
neering, 36

Congresses, international scien-
tific, 408
Cooperation, in research, 393 ff.

international, 19
Cooperative research, 427, 435

examples of, 396 ff.
Council, of National Defense, 16

Davis, W. M., Handbook of

Northern France, 190
Death rate, in A. E. K, 346

in army, 330

in camps, 331
de Tocqueville, Democracy in

America, 8
Diseases, communicable, 329

infectious, 293

prevalent in army, 291 ff.

respiratory, 302

venereal, 346

439

440

INDEX

Division of Physical Sciences, of
National Research Council,

34

executive committee of, 34
problems of, 37
Dodge, R., Mental Engineering,

386

Educational Relations, Division
of, National Research
Council, 425

Engineering, cooperation in, 402
sanitary, 281
services of, 103, 221
Engines, airplane, 260
England, scientific activities of,

39 ff.
Epidemics, comparative toll of,

340

Examination of recruits, 357
Exhibits, scientific, 438
Explosives, nitrogen products for,

123 ff.

quantities of, 146
problems of, 139 ff.
production of, 134 ff.

Food Administration, 273
Commission, 267
problem, 265 ff.

Foreign Relations, Division of,
National Research Council,
422

France, development of science in,
3 ff.

Gangrene, anti-gas serum, 301

gaseous, 300
Gas, casualties from, 286

mask, types of, 162

poisoning, treatment of, 287

service, 151
Gaseous gangrene, 300

Geography, contributions of, 177

ff.

Geology, and water supply, 198 ff.
contributions of, 196 ff.
cooperation in, 400
German orders concerning, 211-

214

uses in warfare, 201 ff.
Geophysics, organization for,

413, 414

Goniometry, 238

Government Division, of Nation-
al Research Council, 420
Gregory, H. E., Introductory

Meteorology, 190
Military Geology and Topog-
raphy, 190

Syllabus in Geography of Eu-
rope, 190

"Gun and Howitzer Club," 252
Gun factories, 253
pointers, selection and training
of, 387

Hale, G. E., 3, 13, 393, 405
Handbook, of Northern France,

TOO
Handbooks, prepared by National

Research Council, 26, 190
Hanner, J. W., 311
Helmet, cooperation in develop-
ing, 24

development of, 257
History, of Chemical Warfare

Service, 150
of explosives, 134 ff.
of optical glass, 103 ff.
of Psychological Service, 352 ff.
of signalling, 221 ff.
Hospitals, reconstruction in, 289
Howe, H. E., 103 ff.
Howe, H. M., 247 ff.

Illiteracy, in army, 376

INDEX

441

Infectious diseases, 293

jaundice, 297
Influenza, 305, 306 ff., 339 ff.

causes of, 344-346
Intelligence, and military value,

367 ff.

and occupation, 378
individual differences in, 365
of negro, 376

International Astronomical Un-
ion, 403, 412

organization of research, 405 ff.
Research Council, formation of,

409 ff.

objects of, 411
scientific organization, 407
Institute, of Baking, 437

of Egypt, 5
Ives, H. E., 89 ff.

Jaundice, infectious, 297
Johnson, D. W., 177 ff.

Kapteyn, cooperative study of

stars, 398

Kellogg, V., 265 ff.
Kennelly, A. E., 221 ff.

Lachrymators, 166
Lyster bag, use of, 281

Map, making, 193
of system of wires, 224

Maps, geological, 205
in aerial photography, 93
military uses of, 181 ff.

Measles, 305

Medical Corps, personnel of, 277
Department, Division of Food

and Nutrition, 273
examination and rejection, 285

Medicine, in the war, 277 ff.
preventive, 328 ff.

Mental age, of recruits, 375

Metallurgy, contributions of,

247 ff.
Meteorology, applications of, 46,

49 ff-

Millikan, R. A., 33 ff.
Munroe, C. E., 134 ff.
Mustard gas, 153

Napoleon, science under, 3 ff.
National Academy of Sciences,

founded, 9

Institute of France, 5
Research Council, and Govern-
ment Bureaus, 38
and Psychological Service,

352

National Research Council, Di-
vision of Physical Sciences,

34
of Science and Research of

Signal Corps, 22
divisions of, 419
membership of, 434
organization and functions of,

417 ff-
Research Information Service,

34, 429

scope of, 419
services of, 13 ff.
Negro, intelligence of, 376
Nerves, surgical treatment of, 325
Neuroses, of war (shell-shock),

291
New London, scientific work at,

39
Nitrogen, fixation processes,

125 ff.
Northcliffe, Lord, and submarine

problem, 38
Noyes, A. A., 123 ff.

Occupation, and classification, 379
in relation to intelligence, 378

442

INDEX

Optical glass, for war needs,
103 ff.

history of, 103 ff.

problem of, 95, 114 ff.
Ordnance, production of, 251
Organization, of research, 405 ff.

of science, 394

Organizations, international scien-
tific, 407, 416

national scientific, 405
Orthopedics, 319

Peace Conference, and geogra-
phy, 192
Personnel, classification of, in

army, 379

of Medical Corps, 277
Physical science, role of, 33 ff.
Physics, cooperation in, 399
Photography, airplane, 46, 91 ff.
color, 97
wartime, 89 ff.

Plate, for aerial photography, 96
Pneumonia, 302
cause of, 343

Preventive medicine, 328 ff.
Problems, of Division of Physi-
cal Sciences, 37 ff.
of explosives, 139 ff.
of food, 265 ff.

of food and nutrition, coopera-
tive study, 436
of nutrition, 273
of optical glass, 95, 114 ff.
psychological, 386 ff.
Psychological examining, cost of,

376

methods of, 358 ff.
summary of, 374
ratings, values of, 373
service, principal lines of, 355
theory of, 358
value of, 375
Psychology, 351 ff.

contributions of, 364 ff.

reports concerning military,

351

Publications, scientific, 432-433
Pyrotechnic, 171

Radio communication, 230
airplane, 235

precision and range, 245
goniometry, improvements in,

238

Ratings, psychological, 362
Ration, for average man, 270
Reconstruction, and surgery, 326

in hospitals, 289
Re-education, and surgery, 326
Research, cooperation in, 393 ff.
Extension, Division of, Na-
tional Research Council,
427

Research, organization of, 405 ff.
Information Service, of Nation-
al Research Council, 34,
35, 429

inception of, 34-37
Laboratories, 430
personnel, 431
Respiratory diseases, 302
Root, E., on organization of sci-
ence, 394
Russell, F. R, 277 ff.

Sanitary engineering, 281

School for military psychology,
356

Scientific attache, office of, 35, 36

Selective service, 284

Serum, anti-gas gangrene, 301

Shells, cast-iron, 259

Shell-shock, (war neuroses), 291

Shock, investigation of, 27
surgical, treatment of, 317

Signal Corps, Division of Sci-
ence and Research of, 22

INDEX

443

Signaling, and vacuum tubes, 231

b: radio, 230

b? light and sound waves, 47

hstory of, 221

ii the war, 221 ff.
Smoke, production and use of, 169
Sneezing gas, 153
Soda lime, in gas warfare, 158
Sound-ranging, 41-44

accuracy of, 84

development of, 63 ff.

history of, 66

principles of, 70

results of, 87

Specialization, in research, 405 ff.
Squier, Gen. G. O., relation to In-
formation Service, 35
Ststes Relations, Division of, Na-
tional Research Council,
423

Steel, stainless, for airplane en-
gines, 260

Submarine detection, devices for,
21 ff., 40-44

problem, 38
Surgery, advances in, 311 ff.

of chest, 321

Tank, leak-proof, for airplanes,

47 '
Telegraph lines abroad, 225

ground, 243

Telephone lines abroad, 225
Topography, and strategy in the

war, 190
Trade tests, cost of, 382

in army, 381

types of, 383
Trench foot, 295
Trowbridge, A., 63 ff.

/

ignalling. 231

Vacuum tubes, and signall
Vaughan, V. C, 328 ff.

War neuroses, 291
Water, purification of, 281

supply, and geology, 198 ff.
Weather, relations to war, 49 ff.
Welch, W. H., 15
West, C. J., 148 ff.
Wilson, Woodrow, letter, 15
Wounds, splinting of, 318

surgical treatment of, 312 ff.

Yerkes, R. M., 351 ff.

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