64 burgess: science and aeter-war period 



and has been active for nearly two years: (i) It has been 

 encouraging firms in well-established industries to undertake co- 

 operative study of the scientific problems affecting their processes 

 and raw materials, and has at its disposal a sum of one million 

 pounds for grants on the basis of an equal subscription from indus- 

 try; (2) the Department has further prepared to undertake at the 

 public cost investigations of general interest; (3) the importance to 

 industries of the establishment of standards on a scientific basis 

 is recognized and the financial control of the National Physical 

 Laboratory has been taken over, with provisions for pensioning 

 the staff; (4) efforts are being made to increase the numbers of 

 trained research workers, which had reached a dangerously low 

 ebb in 1915 as recognized by Lord Burleigh's committee, who 

 found but forty qualified, unattached persons available for 

 research in the United Kingdom. 



Very substantial results have already been achieved in these 

 several fields and hardly a copy of Nature can now appear which 

 does not record some new grant, technical committee, industrial 

 research association, or other advance in the interdependence 

 of science and industry under governmental supervision. It is 

 also especially significant to note that some of the industries are 

 also standing on their own feet and establishing their own re- 

 search laboratories along cooperative lines. 



There is also the recently founded British Science Guild with 

 a distinguished membership which maintains lectureships and 

 does much to foster the dissemination of the aims of research 

 among the public. 



This spirit of organized research has been contagious through- 

 out the British Empire and there are being established similar 

 associations, institutes, and laboratories in Canada, Australia, 

 South Africa, and elsewhere. 



Rather curiously in the democratic British communities, it is 

 the Government that appears to be taking the lead in the stimula- 

 tion of scientific research, particularly in its relation to industry. 

 It is probable that the reasons for governmental initiative are 

 in part a result of the abnormal conditions of the nation at war 



