Funded with a $25,000 grant from RC, Research Associates’ purposes were to be the development of inventions.
A 1934 entry in Cottrell’s diary noted: “He [Chester G. Gilbert] suggested organizing new separate corporation of younger men to VdG [Van de Graaff], [Ernest] Lawrence, [Merle] Tuve, [Frederick] Brackett with if possible others like [economist and engineer] Stuart Chase and some from business field to be primarily financed and backed by Res Corp to take on the development of new things, leaving Research Corporation itself to run the Precip business and perhaps later take over some of the new developments after they get well underway and established.”
Cottrell took Gilbert’s advice to heart and, funded by “grants” from Research Corporation, Research Associates was organized January 1, 1935, with 10 employees and offices on the campus of American University in Washington, D.C. Research Associates was an effort by Cottrell to create another Research Corporation, which would in time become self-supporting through returns for its services and products. Among its projects were Brackett Headlights, Heat Wave Roasting of Fullers Earth, the Greger Fuel Cell and Royster Stoves and Deodorizers.
Vannevar Bush, in his obituary for Cottrell, published in “National Academy Biographical Memoirs” in 1948, noted, “The purpose of [Research Associates] was to conduct scientific and social research and to eliminate as far as possible the time lag between the perfection of scientific ideas and their introduction into the national life. The period of Research Associates’ activity, from 1935 through 1938, was a most stimulating one.”
In “The Social Responsibility of Engineers,” published by the Western Society of Engineers in 1937, Cottrell noted that Research Associates was working on projects such as non-glare automobile headlights, improvements in soap and detergents and heat exchange, but added “…the new corporation, though an interesting and lusty youngster, is still distinctly not out of its swaddling clothes and, even in this modern age the old adage that ‘children should be seen but not heard’ is still reasonably applicable. Junior, I trust, may, with this brief mention, be allowed to retire again to the nursery until there are more definite accomplishments to report.”
For many reasons, the organization eventually floundered. In a letter dated September 18, 1951, J.W. Barker, then president of Research Corporation, discussed “the main problem at Research Associates Inc. – the complete inability of this brilliant heterogeneous group of prima donnas to stick sufficiently long on any line of investigation to determine either that it would or would not work. It seemed as if the moment any particular experiment was started everyone, including Cottrell particularly, lost all interest in that experiment. Sparks began flying about some other experiment and dropping the older one without any specific determinations, off they would go after the new spark.”