of the thing sought for, and new researches are begun with definite ends in view. Thus it has come about that the communication engineer has become an original investigator and is extending the boundaries of human knowledge and supplementing the advances of pure science to find solutions for his various and sundry problems.
Hence, while well equipped physical and chemical laboratories are still a necessary part of the communication engineer's equipment, he is equally active in pushing his investigations in many other directions. Questions involved in the making of proper rate schedules and adequate fundamental plans for new construction are originating profound researches in such fields as political science, psychology and mathematics. A casual examination of recent technical literature dealing with electrical communication would show articles which touch upon almost every branch of human activity, which we designate as science.
With this intense and growing interest in the proper application of scientific methods to the solution of the problems of electrical communication, it is natural that a widespread desire should have arisen for a technical journal to collect, print or reprint, and make readily available the more important articles relating to the field of the communication engineer. These articles are now appearing in some fifteen or twenty periodicals scattered throughout the world and in the majority of instances receive their first and last printing in these widely separated mediums. The need already felt for such a journal will grow keener as new developments extend the scope of the art and the specialization of its engineers of necessity increases. It is hoped that the Bell System Technical Journal will fill this need, and as implied above, it is intended that the range of subjects treated in the Journal will be as broad as the science and technique of electrical communication itself.
While many of the articles which will appear in the Journal will be original presentations of some phase of the research or development or other technical work of the Bell System, it is not intended that the Journal should be the sole means by which this work is presented. Just as in the past, original articles and papers will continue to be presented before various societies and in different technical and non-technical magazines. Moreover, the Journal will reprint articles on important research and development work in the communication field generally so that the results of such work may be given greater publicity and become of greater value to communication engineers.
