Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

Progress in Electronics The jollouing text is taken jrom tin tuUress by Brig. General David Sartioff, Chairman of the Board of RCA, at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehototh, Israel. }i4ly 27, 1952. Th -HE spearhead of pioneering and the gateway to progress is research. From it stem new knowledge, new inventions, new priKlucts, new services. It brings re- newed vitality to business, increases opportunities for employment and provides higher standards of living for the people. Research is a creative effort that enlarges man's horizons and thus leads him onward toward new achievements. In a sense, the pattern of modern life is largely the product of scientific research and technological develop- ment. The wonderful thing about research is the more of it you do, the more of it there is left to do. Each piece of research opens new fields for further exploration. More I'nndatnenlal Knowledge Needed In the words of Dr. Samuel Johnson, "The future is purchased by the present." And 1 know of no better way for industry, whether in America or in Isr.iel, to assure its future than to join wholeheartedly in the full utilization of scientific research for the common good. In recent years our scientific emphasis has been heavily concentrated in applied research, in engineering, and not enough attention has been devoted to pure, or basic research. As a consequence, there is, in a number of important areas, a shortage of the fundamental knowl- edge that is the raw material for engineering develop- ments. Therefore, we must develop more fundamental knosvledge. The saferv- and progress of the free countries of the world depend upon it. The scientist bent on basic research is usually given little credit and, frequently, lacks the money and tools to continue his search of the unknown. It is not easy in industry nor in Government, to justify appropriations for pure research. It is hard to answer the question, "Of what value is a program of abstnict science without a definite goal/" It is important, therefore, that we culti- vate "science appreciation" much as we do "music appreciation." The task of advancing the cause of pure science is made more difficult by world conditions. The barriers of secrecy are serious deterrents to scientific progress. Unquestionably, the world of science has suffered much RADIO AGE 5 because the requirements of national security necessarily rcNtrict the free (low of scientific information. B,isic to the advance of science is a free and un- limited exchange of information. In the growth of fundamental knowledge over the centuries, it often has been true that the report of a scientific discovery made in one part of the world stimulated important advances along the same line in other sections of the world. There has been no such chain reaction in numerous vit.il areas of science for many years. The more basic facts and fundamental knowledge we uncover, the greater and the sooner will be our progress through applied research. Indeed, it is fundamental research that uncovers new phenomena and opens new vistas that are far-reaching in their applications. For example, recent studies in electronics of solids, as contrasted to elec- tronics in a vacuum, are making possible an entirely new device—the transistor—a tiny electronic device made of single-crystal germanium. As an instrument capable of performing many of the functions of an electron tube, the transistor promises to open a new era of development which bids fair to surpass electronics achievements of the past. Transistor .M</i Increase Use of Tubes In creating wider horizons for the electronics art, the transistor does not necessarily supplant the electron vacuum tube. On the contrary, the new applications made possible by transistors may actually increase the use of electron nibes. Apparatus used in research at Weizmann Institute.