Science at the Factory

Abstract

The boost given by the First World War to the organisation and development of research led in the West to increasing discussion of the role of research laboratories and strong emphasis was placed on the need for organised factory research. Writers of the early 1920s¹ suggested that enterprises needed three types of laboratories: those carrying out analytical control over materials, processes and products; secondly, laboratories working on improvements in products and processes, and on new products; and finally laboratories investigating the fundamental sciences associated with the industry — research with no specific commercial object. With the development of a network of independent research institutes serving Soviet industry, the Soviet factory did not need to play such a comprehensive role in R&D and the scientific servicing of production. Clearly it was likely that fundamental research of interest to industry would be concentrated in such institutes, which would have an overview of the general problems of the development of a branch of industry. The main question concerning the role of factory facilities in the R&D system that was to be established in the Soviet Union was to be the extent of its involvement in applied research and the development of new products and processes. However, prime importance in the early years of the Soviet period had to be given to the establishment and restoration of laboratories to provide the necessary scientific control over production.