In the United States, the last three decades of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth constituted an explosive era of population growth, industrial expansion and technological change. It was a critical period in the relationship between science and practice, with theoretical science (especially electromagnetism and organic chemistry) creating whole new industries yielding profits and products new manufacturing techniques, quality control and organized industrial research. This paper examines the implications of these changes for the organization of research and its relationship to the larger economy in the period 1870-1914.

Dramatic changes in daily life (lighting, refrigeration, telephone, radio, steel for rails and skyscrapers, the airplane, etc.) gave rise to a new operational definition of “progress” and raised to startling levels the prestige of science and science-based technology. The demand for human resources---trained experts—to ensure scientific-technical progress was translated into the creation of new institutions of higher learning and research. This was the era that witnessed the birth of the technological university including Case, Armour Tech, Carnegie Tech, and Caltech), many industrial and government laboratories, and private, entrepreneurial research organizations such as Battelle and the Research Corporation. Changes in science itself such as the emergence of hybrid disciplines and multidisciplinary practices forced the reorganization of the funding of scientific and technological research, and led to a reorientation of the tacit partnerships between universities, industry and government.