ESSAYS 



SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY (Prof. R. A. Gregory) 



Science provides the means for great industrial advances long before they are 

 actually used. Vested interests and political ineptitude always place obstacles in 

 the way of national progress. Mr. A. A. Campbell Swinton, Chairman of the 

 Council of the Royal Society of Arts, pointed out recently in an address to 

 the Society that in 1882 this country was as far advanced in everything per- 

 taining to the application of electricity as any other country in the world ; but the 

 development of this new scientific industry was then impeded by Parliamentary 

 interference, and for six years the supply of electric power was practically at a 

 standstill. Other countries went ahead until legislative amendments in 1888 

 enabled the electrical industry to make a start here under reasonable conditions. 

 The application of mechanical power to road locomotion was similarly retarded 

 for fifty years by hostile legislation. " When, moreover, a new beginning was 

 made," says Mr. Swinton, referring to automobilism, "the first start did not take 

 place in England, its original home, where it was prohibited by law, but in 

 France, where legislation was more enlightened. In this way, owing entirely to 

 the politicians, we lost an opportunity of becoming pioneers throughout the world 

 of a completely new and what proved to be a gigantic industry, which might have 

 brought to our manufacturers much wealth and to the working-classes much 

 lucrative employment." 



A Sub-Committee of the Reconstruction Committee has lately submitted to 

 the Prime Minister a report in which the institution of a national system of 

 electric power distribution in this country is recommended. The scheme follows 

 lines laid down by Lord Kelvin forty years ago. Speaking at the Institution of 

 Civil Engineers in 1878, Lord Kelvin said: "The economical and engineering 

 moral of the theory appeared to be that towns henceforth would be lighted by 

 coal burnt at the pit's mouth, where it was cheapest. The carriage expense of 

 electricity was nothing, while that of coal was sometimes the greater part of its 

 cost. The dross at the pit's mouth (which formerly was wasted) could be used 

 for working dynamo-engines of the most economical kind, and in that way the 

 illumination of great towns would be reduced to a small fraction of the present 

 expense. ... It might be expected that, before long, towns would be illuminated 

 at night by an electric light produced at the pit's mouth or by a distant waterfall. 

 The power transmissible by the machines was not simply sufficient for sewing- 

 machines and turning lathes, but, by putting together a sufficient number, any 

 amount of horse-power might be developed." 



Had Lord Kelvin's advice been taken, the country would have saved many 

 millions of tons of coal per annum, and there would have been enormous de- 

 velopments in the application of electric energy to industry. The Reconstruction 

 Sub-Committee proposes to divide the country into sixteen districts, in each of 

 which there would be several large inter-connected super-stations for generating 

 electric power. The stations would be either near the pit's mouth, where coal 



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