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ReseaRch a n d developmenT In T h e na v y 47
Oil Corporation, both located in Pittsburgh, and the Battelle Memorial Institute
in Columbus, Ohio. 31
Researchers in the Michelson Laboratory gradually assumed control of the
management, content, and scope of internal R&D programs. 32 Special attention
focused on pursuing a broad program of fundamental research to support the
short-term work on weapons development underway in the engineering and
testing laboratories. Concerned about the imbalance between these two categories
of research, the laboratory’s research director told the station commander in
1947, “It is considered of great importance that a certain amount of fundamental
research which offers promise of support for development programs of the future,
be sponsored by this station. . . . The benefits to be derived from close association
with work of this kind are very great from the standpoint of the stimulation of
the applied research and development programs.” 33
One outcome of this dialogue between the civilian technical staff and the
naval officers that managed the site on behalf of the Bureau of Ordnance was the
establishment in 1948 of a special discretionary fund for undirected scientific
research. This fund was to be distributed among the laboratory’s six major
divisions (chemistry, metals, electronics, photography, aerodynamics, and physics
and optics) as overhead on specific development projects. Initially set at 3 percent
of the budget for each individual R&D project, the fund later increased to 5
percent and became a permanent line item in the station’s annual appropriation.
By the early 1950s, a similar discretionary research program had been set up at
the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, as well as other Navy R&D facilities operated
by the three material bureaus. 34
The expansion of fundamental research under civilian rather than military
control at China Lake and other Navy laboratories also aided efforts to recruit
first-rate scientists and engineers who otherwise might have been tempted to
pursue more lucrative—and in some cases intellectually challenging—careers
in academia and industry. “The Research Department [at China Lake],” Civil
Engineering reported in 1948, “pursues fundamental research studies, not only
in the interests of scientific objectives, but also to attract and retain outstanding
scientists . . . and to enhance the prestige of the station and the Navy in the
scientific world.” 35 Like the Army arsenals, the Navy laboratories experienced
recruitment shortfalls and high attrition rates among its most talented
31 Gerrard-Gough and Christman, The Grand Experiment at Inyokern, 34–36.
32 Control of the R&D program at China Lake became a contentious issue between civilian scientists and
engineers, who worked in the laboratory, and the military personnel, who managed the station for the Bureau
of Ordnance. Civilian R&D managers maintained that the programmatic functions of the laboratory should
be independent of the military command structure. Otherwise efforts to recruit first-rate scientists would
suffer. See Gerrard-Gough and Christman, The Grand Experiment at Inyokern, 255–64, 269.
33 Gerrard-Gough and Christman, The Grand Experiment at Inyokern, 244–45, 305–6 (quote),
305–06.
34 Ibid.,244–45, 305–6 (quote), 328–29.
35 “Navy Dedicates New Research Laboratory at Inyokern, Calif.,” Civil Engineering 18 ( June 1948):
88. On the disparity between industrial and government pay scales, see, for example, “Federal Labs Lose
Key Men,” Chemical and Engineering News 37 (11 May 1959): 42–43.