Little's Research Palace

Arthur D. Little, pioneer of the private consulting lab, moved into one of the first buildings specifically designed for industrial research in the United States in 1916.  It wasn't long until it was known as Little's Research Palace.  Within those walls he and his team experimented with such things as petro-chemicals, glass containers, stencil paper and battery boxes.  During WW I they improved airplane glue and designed better gas mask filters.

Little left the ownership of his company to MIT upon his death in 1935.  In 1942 the company helped the government carry out the program Operation Bootstrap which promoted Puerto Rico's industrialization and improvement of economy.  During WW II the company developed the Kleinschmidt method for making drinking water from sea water.  

Other projects conceived in Little's Research Palace included techniques for liquefying oxygen, cryogenics, and the hydrogen bomb.  In 1966, along with Model Cities Program, the company devised a plan for East Cleveland that improved everything from the city government, transportation, schools, child care, garbage removal - even the color of lampposts.  

"Research is the mother of industry," Little said.  "The United States is an aggregation of undeveloped empires, sparsely occupied by the most wasteful people in the world."  If Little was anything, he was a man of strong opinions.  Today his company is still one of the leaders in management research.

Next time - making a silk purse from a sow's ear

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Today in Pioneer History: "On June 8, 1913, the century's first 'Quincy', used forensic medicine to solve a two year old crime and became the father of forensic medicine."