Research Laboratories, Industrial

Research Laboratories, Industrial. Organized research on new products and processes began in large business organizations in the last decades of the nineteenth century. The pioneers were companies in the new fields of electricity, chemistry, and telecommunications, which faced stiff international competition and rapidly changing technology. Until Thomas Edison established his famous Menlo Park laboratory in New Jersey in 1876, industrial laboratories concentrated on product‐testing and improvement rather than exploring new technology. Edison's innovative idea was that organized research could develop new products in a wide range of fields and that the process could be managed like any other industrial endeavor. His Menlo Park and West Orange laboratories proved his point by producing a steady flow of innovations, including the incandescent electric light, phonograph, and motion‐picture camera.

The scope and scale of Edison's laboratories provided an example for others to follow. By 1900 his West Orange laboratory employed over a hundred workers who experimented in areas as diverse as motion pictures and automobile storage batteries. Edison organized his laboratory to move into promising new areas. Companies such as General Electric and American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) also sponsored industrial research but never matched the scale or the ambitions of Edison; their goals were to improve existing products and seek out new technologies to serve established businesses. The commercial rewards of new types of light bulbs and long‐distance telephony convinced these companies that industrial research was not only a vital part of their core business but also the key to new and more profitable endeavors. AT&T's Western Electric laboratories opened up the fields of wireless communication and sound films for the parent company in addition to maintaining its dominance in telephony.

While industrial research laboratories in the big companies involved extensive facilities at several sites staffed by large numbers of workers, many smaller businesses maintained modest laboratories employing only one or two experimenters. The independent research laboratory pioneered by Edison virtually died out in the twentieth century as the corporation became the primary source of new technology. In 1885 only 12 percent of patents were issued to corporations, but by 1950 this figure had risen to 75 percent. Industrial research had become an activity carried out by large, integrated companies that could afford the high cost of research.

While Edison had hired both formally trained scientists and skilled craftsmen, industrial research laboratories tended to hire engineers and scientists with advanced degrees. The presence of well‐known scientists such as Charles Steinmetz and William Coolidge at General Electric's laboratories gave that institution great prestige; Bell Laboratories could later claim several Nobel Prize laureates in its employ. Industrial research laboratories also helped business organizations increase their public visibility and sell products.

The union of business and academe in industrial research grew dramatically closer during times of war, when the U.S. government took over the laboratories and accelerated the pace of technological development. Government involvement in research began in World War I and grew substantially during World War II, when industrial research was carried out on an unprecedented scale. The Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb used the same research principles established by Thomas Edison but employed an army of scientists and engineers at a cost of some three billion dollars. After the war, government‐sponsored industrial research remained at high levels and contributed to numerous important technologies such as space exploration and computers.

In the post–World War II economy, companies large and small carried out industrial research. As dramatic technological advances captured the American imagination, “new and improved” became something that every company wanted to claim for its products, even though it might not have employed industrial research. Industrial giants such as General Electric, Radio Corporation of America (RCA), and DuPont used well‐known research laboratories to differentiate their products from those of their competitors and impress their customers. Slogans such as “Better Living through Chemistry” (DuPont) became the foundation for advertising campaigns aimed at connecting industrial research with the benefits of new technology. The U.S. government used the same strategy to promote nuclear power and to justify massive federal expenditures on research and development. By the end of the twentieth century, industrial research had become a vital part of modern life, viewed as essential to a healthy economy. It served as a barometer of economic well‐being and helped set the standards of scientific education.
See also Chemical Industry; Electrical Industry; Industrialization; Space Program; Telephone.

Bibliography

David Noble , America by Design: Science, Technology, and the Rise of Corporate Capitalism, 1977.
Leonard Reich , The Making of American Industrial Research: Science and Business at GE and Bell, 1985.
George Wise , Willis R. Whitney, General Electric, and the Origins of U.S. Industrial Research, 1985.
Andre Millard , Edison and the Business of Innovation, 1990.
Ronald R. Kline , Steinmetz: Engineer and Socialist, 1992.

Andre Millard