NOTES 49i 



Industrial Research, that " Industry is the basis of national prosperity, and that 

 every science should be used to facilitate its progress," deserves the careful 

 consideration of all those concerned with the future welfare of our race and 

 empire. The wonderful progress of German industry during the last thirty 

 years and the resulting economic prosperity is a phenomenon which is now 

 fully appreciated by all. It is a commonplace to-day to say that, had Germany 

 continued the process of peaceful penetration into our industries that she had 

 used during the last twenty years, there would have been no need for her to go 

 to war ; ten years hence her position as a world-power in industry and commerce 

 would have been supreme. Those who know what was done in the production 

 of scientific apparatus and the improvement of technical appliances cannot but 

 be impressed by her efforts, and they realise that, although scientific and industrial 

 research were by no means the sole reasons for her success, they contributed no 

 small share to that result. In the meantime, America has been learning the 

 lesson thoroughly, and the description given in the pamphlet referred to above 

 should open the eyes of those in this country who still fail to appreciate the 

 importance of applying all the available scientific skill and knowledge as much 

 as possible to the development of industrial processes. 



Research work is carried out in America by the manufacturers themselves as 

 well as by the Universities and other national institutions. Naturally manu- 

 facturers devote most of their energies to industrial problems, while the 

 Universities and the National Bureau of Standards specialise on pure science 

 and fundamental principles. There is, however, no hard and fast line ; the 

 Universities are taking up industrial problems, and are providing special facilities 

 for dealing with them either in special departments or in already existing 

 laboratories, while the work of the General Electric Company and the research 

 laboratory it has established at Schenectady, which occupies itself very largely 

 with work of a purely scientific kind, are so well known that it is unnecessary 

 to describe them more fully here. It is the most striking example that exists of 

 the recognition by a manufacturing firm of the influence that research work in 

 pure science must have on manufacture. The work done by manufacturing 

 corporations is divided by Mr. Fleming into five classes : 



(1) Research designed to eliminate manufacturing troubles. 



(2) Research having some new and special commercial object, such as the 



development of a new process for manufacture. 



(3) Research in pure science made without any direct industrial object, but 



simply with the idea of enlarging the boundary of human knowledge. 



(4) Research by public supply companies with the view of finding new uses for 



electrical energy. 



(5) Research for the purpose of establishing standard methods of testing and 



standard specifications for raw material. 



Although there is no doubt that manufacturers in this country must develop, 

 ultimately, laboratories of the type described by Mr. Fleming, his memorandum 

 will do much to stimulate their interest in this direction. One of the most 

 important developments that may be expected in the future is a closer co-operation 

 between the Universities and Technical Colleges of University standing with 

 industry and manufacture. The tradition of British Universities in the past, 

 based on Oxford and Cambridge, is becoming gradually altered by the more 

 modern creations. It is no longer thought to be essential that the subjects of 

 instruction should be non-utilitarian. There existed, and still exists in some 

 quarters, the idea that a subject is only of educational value, and fit to be taught 

 in a University, when it has no direct practical application in every-day life. The 



