Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
margins of the Fisher letter indicate that Davis immediately asked vari-
ous grocers associations for suggestions of potential guests. Fisher con-
tinued the pressure with a telegram: “WOULD APPRECIATE ANY IN-
FORMATION RE ADVENTURES IN SCIENCE APRIL 8 DEALING
WITH EARLIER SUGGESTION MADE TO YOU RE INTERVIEW-
ING SCIENTISTS IN LABORATORIES OF GROCERY FIRMS.”
50
Davis, who was on the road, wired that Science Service staff should lo-
cate a guest with an acceptable industry connection: “PROBABLY
SAFEST GROCERY PROGRAM WOULD BE SOME REPUTABLE
SCIENTISTS CONNECTED GENERAL FOODS ... KINDLY EX-
PLORE BUT KEEP IT NONCOMMERCIAL.” On his return to Wash-
ington, Davis wired Fisher: “WE ARE WORKING ON A FOOD PRO-
GRAM FOR THE APRIL 8 ADVENTURES IN SCIENCE TO TIE IN
WITH THE GROCERS' PARADE OF PROGRESS, IN ACCOR-
DANCE WITH YOUR SUGGESTION.”
51
They eventually scheduled
Lewis W. Waters, Vice-President of General Foods, who spoke about
“Better Meals Tomorrow” and assured listeners that “Food scientists
and the food industry are helping to build a bigger and better America of
tomorrow”.
52
The most unusual broadcast that year involved a chemist who did not
appear. That program exemplifies the attempts to sensationalize science
while also emphasizing its role in national preparedness. It also offers an
example of how scientists' attitudes to popularization had evolved since
Science Service had been founded. On Saturday afternoon, November
13, 1939, after his usual four-minute news segment (
e.g.
, world's highest
and lowest-recorded temperatures, new building insulation materials, and
discovery of a new undersea mountain off the Alaska coast), Davis de-
clared “now let's turn to the war.” One question “most often asked in
connection with the war,” he said, is about “the delay in using gas war-
fare”: “The failure to use gas is puzzling to those of us who read about
every man, woman, and child in warring countries of Europe fitted out
50
Sterling Fisher telegram to W. Davis, March 8, 1939; SIA RU7091, Box 385, Folder
15.
51
W. Davis to Sterling Davis, March 11, 1939; SIA RU7091, Box 385, Folder 15.
52
Draft outline of talk by Lewis W. Waters; SIA RU7091, Box 385, Folder 15.
