The Importance of Coordination in Scientific Research

The old conditions are allowed to continue largely because it is no one's direct interest to put a stop to them. No university has been far-sighted enough to invest in an instrument plant of its own which would both supply its own departments and pay for itself quite handsomely into the bargain. Nearly all apparatus is bought by individual departments out of the grants and generally at the retail rate. The result could easily be avoided if every university or group of institutes bought through a buyer at wholesale rates. Such a policy would in the long run pay universities and manufacturers alike as far more apparatus would be purchased.