Industry was funding most of them, not universities. Because they were interested in all of the various applications to metallurgy, design of engines, new compo

Industry was funding most of them, not universities. Because they were interested in all of the various applications to metallurgy, design of engines, new compounds and medicines, etc. To the degree that the public funded research, it was military labs and industries contracted by the military. The idea of universities funding basic research really took off in the postwar era when we funneled trillions of dollars into universities, massively expanding them and reshaping them. Prior to that, universities were much smaller and did not have a substantial body of faculty doing research, they focused on education and training. In modern universities, the faculty focuses on research and teaching is done by teaching assistants and non-tenured faculty, often working on short term contracts. That is all a consequence of the flood of government grants unleashed after the 1940s. Prior to the 1940s, most research was done by private enterprise or the military.