494 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



done in national institutions should be published for the benefit of manufacturers 

 in other countries than those in which the work has been done is recognised 

 as impracticable, though it is equally obvious that to carry out such work solely 

 for the benefit of an individual firm to the detriment of other manufacturers in 

 the country engaged on the same work, is also open to question. 



One of the most interesting institutions described in this survey is the now 

 well-known Mellon Institute, established by the Mellon Brothers, and affiliated to 

 the University of Pittsburg. This Institute is devoted exclusively to Industrial 

 Research, and is intended to provide manufacturers, who may not be in a position 

 to carry out specific researches in which they are interested in their own 

 works, with facilities for carrying out such experiments in a well-equipped and 

 well-staffed laboratory. Separate laboratories are provided in which research 

 fellows work, these fellows being paid and the whole expense of the research 

 borne by the manufacturers interested. A great deal of useful work has been 

 done in the Institute under these conditions, and it is laid down in the agreement 

 between the manufacturer and the Institute that the results of such work shall 

 not be published until three years after the completion of the research ; the 

 publication may be delayed still further " if it can be shown by the manufacturer 

 that such publication would be inimical to his interests." This Institute has been 

 established with the intention of overcoming one of the greatest difficulties 

 involved in the carrying out of Industrial Research in public institutions, and 

 the greatest legal purist who may be inclined to object to the use of national 

 institutions for the furtherance of the interests of individual manufacturers would 

 find it difficult to cavil at this arrangement. The director of the institute provides 

 the necessary persons for the conduct of the work (they are, in nearly every 

 case, graduates with technical degrees who have shown their ability as research 

 workers by obtaining such a degree as the Ph.D.), and there his responsibility 

 ends. The whole cost of the work is borne by the firm concerned, and it is held, 

 not unreasonably, under these conditions, that the benefit derived from the results 

 of the research should be the property of the firm who has initiated and paid for 

 the carrying through of the work. Some such arrangement will be essential in 

 the future, if our national institutions are to take their share in the carrying on of 

 Industrial Research. 



The full programme suggested by Mr. Fleming is of great interest. He 

 proposes as alternatives : 



(a) Research laboratories in industrial works. 



(b) Research laboratories for a group of works in the same industry. 



(c) The centralisation of research in the Universities and Colleges. 

 (d) An imperial centralised laboratory for the whole industry. 



Although these arrangements are suggested as alternatives, it seems likely that, 

 in the end, nearly all the types of laboratory proposed will be utilised. It seems 

 very much open to question whether much is to be gained by an attempt to 

 centralise all work of this kind for all industries in a single institution. The needs 

 of the various industries are so different, and the equipment required for the 

 carrying out of the work so varied, that little would be saved by such an attempt. 

 There is, of course, an immense amount of work which is of such a nature that it 

 can best be done in such an institution as the National Physical Laboratory, 

 greatly developed and extended. No one will question the necessity for an 

 extension in the work of this laboratory. For a country with such vast industrial 

 interests, and engaged in such varied classes of manufacture, the National 

 Physical Laboratory is hopelessly starved and under-equipped ; but the work that 



