By NEVIL MONROE HOPKINS "OVER THE THRESHOLD OF WAR" Personal Experiences of the Great European Conflict J. B. Lippincott Company Philadelphia and London "EXPERIMENTAL ELECTROCHEMISTRY" The D. Van Nostrand Company New York RESEARCH AND INVENTION WITH AN APPENDIX OF PROBLEMS BY NEVIL MONROE HOPKINS, M.Sc., PH.D " Fellow American Institute of Electrical Engineers, Member American A PREFACE MERICA now undoubtedly stands upon the golden threshold of her greatest era of industrial research, invention and development. Will she profit by her powerful strategic position, and develop her full possibilities as the horrors of the great war fade into gray ghosts of the past? Germany, undoubtedly the greatest organized research nation in the world, before her rulers criminally elected war, and attempted her abhorrent world domination, has enjoyed her ascendency, and now, with prompt and efficient action, it is possible for the United States to lead for all times in research and discovery. We must not lose sight of the fact for a moment, however, that great German committees are now preparing elaborate programmes, and with proverbial German foresight and thoroughness for organized research and industrial warfare. The object in writing this little book at this time is to stimulate a more general interest, not so much perhaps in what has been known as Yankee invention, but in the broader and more |