Focus on R&D

In the mid-20th century, the nation started to focus on the importance of schools and universities and their importance to the advancement of science.  The nation seemed not to notice, however, the growing importance played by the industrial research laboratory in the science field.  The Depression of the 1930s brought to America's focus statistics on scientific progress - and the connection employment and prosperity had to it.

By the mid-50s America spent over $3.5 billion on Research and Development (R&D) - twice what was spent on all higher education.  R&D had entered the American language and by 1965 over $13 billion was spent on scientific discovery in the lab, with more than half that amount coming from private funding.

Although America wasn't the first to invent R&D - from ancient times men have gathered to share knowledge and discover how to use that knowledge - the United States' modern industrial research laboratory followed no precedent and would lead the world in discovery and innovation.  It began with the individual research laboratories of inventors such as Thomas Edison, who made their dreams become realities in the laboratory. 

Next time...The R&D Dreamers
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Today in Pioneer History: "On April 30, 1897, British physicist J.J Thomson, announced his discovery that atoms were made of of smaller components, changing the scientific world of physics.  Thomson referred to them as 'corpuscies' but we know them as electrons.