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The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge PDF
The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge PDF
derive from the radio or however wireless and Maxwell were geniuses without
and the radio may have added to human thought of use. Marconi was a clever
life, Marconi's share was practically inventor with no thought but use.
negligible. " The mention of Hertz's name recalled
I shall not forget his astonishment on to Mr. Eastman the Hertzian waves, and I
this occasion. He asked me to explain. suggested that he might ask the physicists
I replied to him somewhat as follows: of the University of Rochester precisely
"Mr. Eastman, Marconi was inevita- what Hertz and Maxwell had done; but
ble. The real credit for everything that one thing I said he could be sure of,
has been done in the field of wireless namely, that they had done their work
belongs, as far as such fundamental credit without thought of use and that through-
can be definitely assigned to anyone, to out the whole history of science most of
Professor Clerk Maxwell, who in 1865 the really great discoveries which had
carried out certain abstruse and remote ultimately proved to be beneficial to
calculations in the field of magnetism mankind had been made by men and
and electricity. Maxwell reproduced women who were driven not by the de-
his abstract equations in a treatise pub- sire to be useful but merely the desire to
lished in 1873. At the next meeting of satisfy their curiosity.
the British Association Professor H.]. S. "Curiosity?" asked Mr. Eastman.
Smith of Oxford declared that 'no mathe- "Yes," I replied, "curiosity, which
matician can turn over the pages of these mayor may not eventuate in something
volumes without realizing that they con- useful, is probably the outstanding char-
tain a theory which has already added acteristic of modern thinking. It is not
largely to the methods and resources of new. It goes back to Galileo, Bacon,
pure mathematics.' Other discoveries and to Sir Isaac Newton, and it must be
supplemented Maxwell's theoretical work absolutely unhampered. Institutions of
during the next fifteen years. Finally in learning should be devoted to the culti-
1887 and 1888 the scientific problem still vation of curiosity and the less they are
remaining-the detection and demon- deflected by considerations of immediacy
stration of the electromagnetic waves of application, the more likely they are to
which are the carriers of wireless signals contribute not only to human welfare
-was solved by Heinrich Hertz, a worker but to the equally important satisfaction
in Helmholtz's laboratory in Berlin. of intellectual interest which may indeed
Neither Maxwell nor Hertz had any con- be said to have become the ruling passion
cern about the utility of their work; no of intellectual life in modern times."
such thought ever entered their minds.
They had no practical objective. The
II
inventor in the legal sense was of course
Marconi, but what did Marconi invent? What is true of Heinrich Hertz work-
Merely the last technical detail, mainly ing quietly and unnoticed in a corner of
the now obsolete receiving device called Helmholtz's laboratory in the later years
coherer, almost universally discarded." of the nineteenth century may be said of
Hertz and Maxwell could invent noth- scientists and mathematicians the world
ing, but it was their useless theoretical over for several centuries past. We live
work which was seized upon by a clever in a world that would be helpless without
technician and which has created new electricity. Called upon to mention a
means for communication, utility, and discovery of the most immediate and far-
amusement by which men whose merits reaching practical use we might well agree
are relatively slight have obtained fame upon electricity. But who made the
and earned millions. Who were the fundamental discoveries out of which the
useful men? Not Marconi, but Clerk entire electrical development of more
Maxwell and Heinrich Hertz. Hertz than one hundred years has come?
546 HARPER'S MAGAZINE
The answer is interesting. Michael phasize the fact that the part played by
Faraday's father was a blacksmith; science in making war more destructive
Michael himself was apprenticed to a and more horrible was an unconscious
bookbinder. In 1812, when he was al- and unintended by-product of scientific
ready twenty-one years of age, a friend activity. Lord Rayleigh, president of
took him to the Royal Institution where the British Association for the Advance-
he heard Sir Humphrey Davy deliver ment of Science, in a recent address
four lectures on chemical subjects. He points out in detail how the folly of man,
kept notes and sent a copy of them to not the intention of the scientists, is re-
Davy. The very next year, 1813, he sponsible for the destructive use of the
became an assistant in Davy's laboratory, agents employed in modern warfare.
working on chemical problems. Two The innocent study of the chemistry of
years later he accompanied Davy on a carbon compounds, which has led to
trip to the Continent. In 1825, when infinite beneficial results, showed that the
he was thirty-four years of age, he became action of nitric acid on substances like
Director of the Laboratory of the Royal benzene, glycerine, cellulose, etc., re-
Institution where he spent fifty-four years sulted not only in the beneficent aniline
of his life. dye industry but in the creation of nitro-
Faraday's interest soon shifted from glycerine, which has uses good and bad.
chemistry to electricity and magnetism, Somewhat later Alfred Nobel, turning to
to which he devoted the rest of his active the same subject, showed that by mixing
life. Important but puzzling work in nitro-glycerine with other substances,
this field had been previously accom- solid explosives which could be safely
plished by Oersted, Ampere, and Wol- handled could be produced-among
laston. Faraday cleared away the diffi- others, dynamite. It is to dynamite that
culties which they had left unsolved and we owe our progress in mining, in the
by 1841 had succeeded in the task of in- making of such railroad tunnels as those
duction of the electric current. Four which now pierce the Alps and other
years later a second and equally brilliant mountain ranges; but of course dynamite
epoch in his career opened when he dis- has been abused by politicians and sol-
covered the effect of magnetism on polar- diers. Scientists are, however, no more
ized light. His earlier discoveries have to blame than they are to blame for an
led to the infinite number of practical earthquake or a flood. The same thing
applications by means of which electricity can be said of poison gas. Pliny was
has lightened the burdens and increased killed by breathing sulphur dioxide in
the opportunities of modern life. His the eruption of Vesuvius almost two
later discoveries have thus far been less thousand years ago. Chlorine was not
prolific of practical results. What dif- isolated by scientists for warlike purposes,
ference did this make to Faraday? Not and the same is true of mustard gas.
the least. At no period of his unmatched These substances could be limited to
career was he interested in utility. He beneficent use, but when the airplane
was absorbed in disentangling the riddles was perfected, men whose hearts were
of the universe, at first chemical riddles, poisoned and whose brains were addled
in later periods, physical riddles. As far perceived that the airplane, an innocent
as he cared, the question of utility was invention, the result of long disinterested
never raised. Any suspicion of utility and scientific effort, could be made an
would have restricted his restless curi- instrument of destruction, of which no
osity. In the end, utility resulted, but it one had ever dreamed and at which no
was never a criterion to which his cease- one had ever deliberately aimed.
less experimentation could be subjected. In the domain of higher mathematics
In the atmosphere which envelopes the almost innumerable instances can be
world to-day it is perhaps timely to em- cited. For example, the most abstruse
THE USEFULNESS OF USELESS KNOWLEDGE 547
mathematical work of the eighteenth liquid helium has brought the side-tracked
and nineteenth centuries was the "Non- Einstein concept to new usefulness. Most
liquids increase in viscosity, become stickier and
Euclidian Geometry." Its inventor, flow lesseasily, when they become colder. The
Gauss, though recognized by his con- phrase "colder than molasses in January" is the
temporaries as a distinguished mathe- layman's concept of viscosity and a correct one.
matician, did not dare to publish his Liquid helium, however, is a baffling excep-
tion. At the temperature known as the "delta"
work on "Non-Euclidian Geometry" for
point, only 2.19 degrees above absolute zero,
a quarter of a century. As a matter of liquid helium flows better than it does at higher
fact, the theory of relativity itself with all temperatures and, as a matter of fact, the liquid
its infinite practical bearings would have helium is about as nebulous as a gas. Added
been utterly impossible without the work puzzles in its strange behavior include its
enormous ability to conduct heat. At the delta
which Gauss did at Gottingen, point it is about 500 times as effective in this
Again, what is known now as "group respect as copper at room temperature. Liquid
theory" was an abstract and inapplicable helium, with these and other anomalies, has
mathematical theory. It was developed posed a major mystery for physicists and
chemists.
by men who were curious and whose
Professor London stated that the interpreta-
curiosity and puttering led them into tion of the behavior of liquid helium can best be
strange paths; but "group theory" is explained by considering it as a Bose-Einstein
to-day the basis of the quantum theory of "ideal" gas, by using the mathematics worked
spectroscopy, which is in daily use by out in 1924-25, and by taking over also some
of the concepts of the electrical conduction of
people who have no idea as to how it metals. By simple analogy, the amazing
came about. fluidity of liquid helium can be partially ex-
The whole calculus of probability was plained by picturing the fluidity as something
discovered by mathematicians whose akin to the wandering of electrons in metals to
real interest was the rationalization of explain electrical conduction.
gambling. It has failed of the practical Let us look in another direction. In
purpose at which they aimed, but it has the domain of medicine and public health
furnished a scientific basis for all types of the science of bacteriology has played for
insurance, and vast stretches of nine- half a century the leading role. What is
teenth century physics are based upon it. its story? Following the Franco-Pros-
From a recent number of Science I quote sian War of 1870, the German Govern-
the following: ment founded the great University of
The stature of Professor Albert Einstein's Strasbourg. Its first professor of anat-
genius reached new heights when it was dis- omy was Wilhelm von Waldeyer, subse-
closed that the learned mathematical physicist
developed mathematics fifteen years ago which quently professor of anatomy in Berlin.
are now helping to solve the mysteries of the In his Reminiscences he relates that among
amazing fluidity of helium near the absolute the students who went with him to Stras-
zero of the temperature scale. Before the bourg during his first semester there was
symposium on intermolecular action of the
American Chemical Society Professor F. Lon-
a small, inconspicuous, self-contained
don, of the University of Paris, now visiting youngster of seventeen by name Paul
professor at Duke University, credited Professor Ehrlich. The usual course in anatomy
Einstein with the concept of an "ideal" gas then consisted of dissection and micro-
which appeared in papers published in 1924 scopic examination of tissues. Ehrlich
and 1925.
The Einstein 1925 reports were not about paid little or no attention to dissection,
relativity theory, but discussed problems seem- but, as Waldeyer remarks in his Remi-
ingly without any practical significance at the mscences:
time. They described the degeneracy of an
"ideal" gas near the lower limits of the scale of I noticed quite early that Ehrlich would work
temperature. Because all gases were known long hours at his desk, completely absorbed in
to be condensed to liquids at the temperatures microscopic observation. Moreover, his desk
in question, scientists rather overlooked the gradually became covered with colored spots of
Einstein work of fifteen years ago. every description. As I saw him sitting at work
However, the recently discovered behavior of one day, I went up to him and asked what he
548 HARPER'S MAGAZINE
was doing with all his rainbow array of colors on ether-alcohol, and that he pressed this viscous
his table. Thereupon this young student in his solution through capillaries into water which
first semester supposedly pursuing the regular served to coagulate the cellulose nitrate fila-
course in anatomy looked up at me and blandly ment. After the coagulation, this filament
remarked, "Ich probiere:" This might be freely entered the air and was wound up on bobbins.
translated, "I am trying" or "I amjustfooling." One day Chardonnet inspected his French fac-
I replied to him, "Very well. Go on with your tory at Besanon. By an accident the water
fooling." Soon I saw that without any teach- which should coagulate the cellulose nitrate
ing or direction whatsoever on my part I pos- filament was stopped. The workmen found
sessed in Ehrlich a student of unusual quality. that the spinning operation went much better
without water than with water. This was the
Waldeyer wisely left him alone. Ehr- birthday of the very important process of dry
lich made his way precariously through spinning, which is actually carried out on the
greatest scale.
the medical curriculum and ultimately
procured his degree mainly because it
III
was obvious to his teachers that he had
no intention of ever putting his medical I am not for a moment suggesting that
degree to practical use. He went subse- everything that goes on in laboratories
quently to Breslau where he worked will ultimately turn to some unexpected
under Professor Cohnheim, the teacher practical use or that an ultimate prac-
of our own Dr. Welch, founder and tical use is its actual justification. Much
maker of the Johns Hopkins Medical more am I pleading for the abolition of
School. I do not suppose that the idea the word "use," and for the freeing of the
of use ever crossed Ehrlich's mind. He human spirit. To be sure, we shall thus
was interested. He was curious; he kept free some harmless cranks. To be sure,
on fooling. Of course his fooling was we shall thus waste some precious dol-
guided by a deep instinct, but it was a lars. But what is infinitely more impor-
purely scientific, not an utilitarianmotiva- tant is that we shall be striking the
tion. What resulted? Koch and his shackles off the human mind and setting
associates established a new science, the it free for the adventures which in our
science of bacteriology. Ehrlich's ex- own day have, on the one hand, taken
periments were now applied by a fellow Hale and Rutherford and Einstein and
student, Weigert, to staining bacteria and their peers millions upon millions of
thereby assisting in their differentiation. miles into the uttermost realms of space
Ehrlich himself developed the staining and, on the other, loosed the boundless
of the blood film with the dyes on which energy imprisoned in the atom. What
our modern knowledge of the morphol- Rutherford and others like Bohr and
ogy of the blood corpuscles, red and Millikan have done out of sheer curiosity
white, is based. Not a day passes but in the effort to understand the construc-
that in thousands of hospitals the world tion of the atom has released forces which
over Ehrlich's technic is employed in the may transform human life; but this
examination of the blood. Thus the ultimate and unforeseen and unpre-
apparently aimless fooling in Waldeyer's dictable practical result is not offered as a
dissecting room in Strasbourg has become justification for Rutherford or Einstein or
a main factor in the daily practice of Millikan or Bohr or any of their peers.
medicine. Let them alone. No educational ad-
I shall give one example from industry, ministrator can possibly direct the chan-
one selected at random; for there are nels in which these or other men shall
scores besides. Professor Berl, of the work. The waste, I admit again, looks
Carnegie Institute of Technology (Pitts- prodigious. It is not really so. All the
burgh) writes as follows: waste that could be summed up in de-
veloping the science of bacteriology is as
The founder of the modem rayon industry
was the French Count Chardonnet. It is nothing compared to the advantages
known that he used a solution of nitro cotton in which have accrued from the discoveries
THE USEFULNESS OF USELESS KNOWLEDGE 549
of Pasteur, Koch, Ehrlich, Theobald same category: both were made by thor-
Smith, and scores of others-advantages oughly scientific men, who realized that
that could never have accrued if the idea much "useless" knowledge had been
of possible use had permeated their piled up by men unconcerned with its
. minds. These great artists-for such practical bearings, but that the time was
are scientists and bacteriologists-dis- now ripe to raise practical questions in
seminated the spirit which prevailed in a scientific manner.
laboratories in which they were simply Thus it becomes obvious that one must
following the line of their own natural be wary in attributing scientific discovery
curiosity. wholly to anyone person. Almost every
I am not criticising institutions like discovery has a long and precarious his-
schools of engineering or law in which the tory. Someone finds a bit here, another
usefulness motive necessarily predomi- a bit there. A third step succeeds later
nates. Not infrequently the tables are and thus onward till a genius pieces the
turned, and practical difficulties en- bits together and makes the decisive con-
countered in industry or in laboratories tribution. Science, like the Mississippi,
stimulate theoretical inquiries which may begins in a tiny rivulet in the distant
or may not solve the problems by which forest. Gradually other streams swell
they were suggested, but may also open its volume. And the roaring river that
up new vistas, useless at the moment, but bursts the dikes is formed from countless
pregnant with future achievements, prac- sources.
tical and theoretical. I cannot deal with this aspect ex-
With the rapid accumulation of "use- haustively, but I may in passing say this:
less" or theoretic knowledge a situation over a period of one or two hundred
has been created in which it has become years the contributions of professional
increasingly possible to attack practical schools to their respective activities will
problems in a scientific spirit. Not only probably be found to lie, not so much in
inventors, but "pure" scientists have in- the training of men who may to-morrow
dulged in this sport. I have mentioned become practical engineers or practical
Marconi, an inventor, who, while a bene- lawyers or practical doctors, but rather
factor to the human race, as a matter of in the fact that even in the pursuit of
fact merely "picked other men's brains." strictly practical aims an enormous
Edison belongs to the same category. amount of apparently useless activity
Pasteur was different. He was a great goes on. Out of this useless activity
scientist; but he was not averse to at- there come discoveries which may well
tacking practical problems-such as the prove of infinitely more importance to
condition of French grapevines or the the human mind and to the human spirit
problems of beer-brewing-and not only than the accomplishment of the useful
solving the immediate difficulty, but also ends for which the schools were founded.
wresting from the practical problem some The considerations upon which I have
far-reaching theoretic conclusion, "use- touched emphasize-if emphasis were
less" at the moment, but likely in some needed-the overwhelming importance
unforeseen manner to be "useful" later. of spiritual and intellectual freedom. I
Ehrlich, fundamentally speculative in have spoken of experimental science; I
his curiosity, turned fiercely upon the have spoken of mathematics; but what I
problem of syphilis and doggedly pur- say is equally true of music and art and of
sued it until a solution of immediate every other expression of the untram-
practical use-the discovery of salvarsan meled human spirit. The mere fact that
-was found. The discoveries of insulin they bring satisfaction to an individual
by Banting for use in diabetes and of soul bent upon its own purification and
liver extract by Minot and Whipple for elevation is all the justification that they
use in pernicious anemia belong in the need. And in justifying these without
550 HARPER'S MAGAZINE
of younger men who during the past six I replied: "You have .no duties-only
years have come under the influence of opportunities. "
this distinguished group and are already An able young mathematician, having
adding to the strength of American spent a year at Princeton, came to bid me
scholarship in every section of the land. good-by. As he was about to leave, he
The Institute is, from the standpoint remarked:
of organization, the simplest and least "Perhaps you would like to know what
formal thing imaginable. It consists of this year has meant to me."
three schools-a School of Mathematics, "Yes," I answered.
a School of Humanistic Studies, a School "Mathematics," he rejoined, "is de-
of Economics and Politics. Each school veloping rapidly; the current literature is
is made up of a permanent group of pro- extensive. It is now over ten years since
fessors and an annually changing group I took my Ph.D. degree. For a while I
of members. Each school manages its could keep up with my subject; but lat-
own affairs as it pleases; within each terly that has become increasingly diffi-
group each individual disposes of his cult and uncertain. Now, after a year
time and energy as he pleases. The here, the blinds are raised; the room is
members who already have come from light; the windows are open. I have in
twenty-two foreign countries and thirty- my head two papers that I shall shortly
nine institutions of higher learning in the write."
United States are admitted, if deemed "How long will this last?" I asked.
worthy, by the several groups. They enjoy "Five years, perhaps ten."
precisely the same freedom as the pro- "Then what?"
fessors. They may work with this or "I shall come back."
that professor, as they severally arrange; A third example is of recent occur-
they may work alone, consulting from rence. A professor in a large Western
time to time anyone likely to be helpful. university arrived in Princeton at the end
No routine is followed; no lines are drawn of last December. He had in mind to
between professors, members, or visitors. resume some work with Professor Morey
Princeton students and professors and In- (at. Princeton University). But Morey
stitute members and professors mingle so suggested that he might find it worth
freely as to be indistinguishable. Learn- while to see Panofsky and Swarzenski
ing as such is cultivated. The results to (at the Institute). Now he is busy with
the individual and to society are left to all three.
take care of themselves. No faculty "I shall stay," he added, "until next
meetings are held; no committees exist. October."
Thus men with ideas enjoy conditions "You will find it hot in midsummer,"
favorable to reflection and to conference. I said.
A mathematician may cultivate mathe- "I shall be too busy and too happy to
matics without distraction; so may a notice it."
humanist in his field, an economist or a Thus freedom brings not stagnation,
student of politics in his. Administra- but rather the danger of overwork. The
tion has been minimized in extent and wife of an English member recently
importance. Men without ideas, with- asked:
out power of concentration on ideas, "Does everyone work until two o'clock
would not be at home in the Institute. in the morning?"
I can perhaps make this point clearer The Institute has had thus far no
by citing briefly a few illustrations. A building. At this moment the mathe-
stipend was awarded to enable a Harvard maticians are guests of the Princeton
professor to come to Princeton: he wrote mathematicians in Fine Hall; some of the
asking, humanists are guests of the Princeton
"What are my duties?" humanists in McCormick Hall; others
552 HARPER'S MAGAZINE
work in rooms scattered through the who from time to time can be lured to
town. The economists now occupy a Princeton from distant places. Among
suite at The Princeton Inn. My own these Niels Bohr has come from Copen-
quarters are located in an office building hagen, von Laue from Berlin, Levi
on Nassau Street, where I work among Civita from Rome, Andre Weil from
shopkeepers, dentists, lawyers, chiro- Strasbourg, Dirac and G. H. Hardy from
praetors, and groups of Princeton schol- Cambridge, Pauli from Zurich, Lemaitre
ars conducting a local government survey from Louvain, Wade-Gery from Oxford,
and a study of population. Bricks and and Americans from Harvard, Yale,
mortar are thus quite inessential, as Columbia, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Chi-
President Gilman proved in Baltimore cago, California, and other centers of
sixty-odd years ago. Nevertheless, we light and learning.
miss informal contact with one another We make ourselves no promises, but
and are about to remedy this defect by we cherish the hope that the unobstructed
the erection of a building provided by the pursuit of useless knowledge will prove
founders, to be called Fuld Hall. But to have consequences in the future as in
formality shall go no farther. The In- the past. Not for a moment, however,
stitute must remain small; and it will do we defend the Institute on that
hold fast to the conviction that The In- ground. It exists as a paradise for
stitute Group desires leisure, security, free- scholars who, like poets and musicians,
dom from organization and routine, and, have won the right to do as they please
finally, informal contacts with the schol- and who accomplish most when enabled
ars of Princeton University and others to do so.