In his biography of Cottrell, Vannevar Bush noted that at the end of World War I, Cottrell chaired a “small committee of scientists and engineers assigned the task of collecting chemical and metallurgical information for the government.” He left on the ship “America” on February 21, 1918, and landed in France on March 3. Attached to Cottrell’s passport was the statement: “Frederick G. Cottrell, a citizen of the United States, Chief Metallurgist, United States Bureau of Mines, is about to visit European countries on official business.”
His travels took him to England, France, Italy, Germany, Czechoslovakia and Belgium. During this visit, Cottrell noted the many plants, mines, smelters and cities that had been damaged during the war. One of his diary entries read: “drove up….to see destruction where 60,000 shells dropped in six days…. destruction very impressive.”
During his travels, Cottrell not only represented the National Academy of Sciences and the American Chemical Society at the Interallied Chemical Conference, but also represented these organizations at sessions of the International Research Council.
According to the July 1919 issue of “The Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry,” the Interallied Chemical Conference “outlined the relations that should exist between the different chemical associations of the allied countries and allowed also the chemical societies of the neutral countries an equal right to take part in the Confederation.”
Never one to waste an opportunity, while in Europe Cottrell also made inquiries for the Smithsonian into the progress of projects for an international auxiliary language.