Of 1940 to 1960, he first points to the rise in research, citing that "the number of scientific personnel in industrial research laboratories has nearly doubled since 1940." Following ongoing trends of research, Kettering then foresees an era marked by research and further development of atomic fission, petroleum refining, metallurgy and plastics, the
breaking of the sound barrier, studies using the recently-invented electron microscope, and advances in treatment of disease.