THE OUTLOOK FOR RESEARCH AND INVENTION T CHAPTER I The Spirit of Research HE delight to mankind, the only toolusing or fire-making animal, which accompanies discovery is undoubtedly one of the most satisfying and romantic. Archimedes, who lived 237 B.C., is said to have been so thrilled by his discovery of the law of floating bodies, while taking his bath, that he ran to King Hyro, without waiting to dress, shouting, "I have found it I have found it!" Whereas this joy is felt in both the great fields of military and industrial research, it has been especially true in matters of offense and defense on land and sea and in the art of mechanical flight. Although the instinct of self-preservation has been called the first law of nature, the instinct of workmanship has ever stood near the top and is widespread throughout the animal world, but man is the only animal of con trivance and with the use of language as an instrument of thought with which to record and transmit his activities. And the mainspring of the human motor in research is believed to be a natural instinct, often amounting to a ruling passion. Let us examine this phenomenon a little before proceeding farther, to ascertain if it is not really a strong part of even the lay reader's equipment. If we grant that most of us have this propelling power, then the steering rudder to success only remains to be provided. The lower animals possess instinct to even a higher degree than man, but man's powers of reason and contrivance more than make up for this inferiority. It is this instinct of instrument contrivance, to further his natural love for workmanship, which, more than any other intellectual activity, places man so far above the beasts. Among all the instincts with which man is endowed, psychologists ascribe the highest survival value to the instinct of industrial driving force, and the instinct of instrumental contrivance. The pine-warbler constructs its nest at the top of a tall tree without tools, from a natural instinct which fills its heart, and the true research worker, since the days of the Hermit Philosophers and Alchemists, fashions his inquiry, sometimes with the simplest, and often |