MASTERS IN SCIENCE

The death of Dr. Samuel W. Stratton, following so closely upon that of Edison, is symbolic of a relationship in the public service of two great scientists. Edison, pioneering in applied science, worked in the early days when one man could begin with the germ of an idea like the incandescent light, and single-handed, carry it through to a practical industrial completion Today, the vast knowledge of the laboratory must be codified by an intermediate agency and passed on to industry as needed. As long ago as 1901, far-sighted Dr. Stratton saw this coming need and met it splendidly by creating the United States Bureau of Standards, which he left in 1923, an organization of a thousand workers. The impetus that Edison gave to American invention, Stratton converted into an effective force in industry. For example, when the supply of German optical glass was cut off during the war, it was the Bureau of Standards that set to work and made a glass the equal of Germany's to the incalculable benefit of the government. In 1923, Dr. Stratton devoted himself to the future of American engineering by taking over the headship of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was his achievement to bring the curriculum into more close relationship with industry. The Daniel Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory is only one of his many additions.

The country has lost a great scientist; the Institute its greatest president.