212 THE PATH OF SCIENCE 



tion had demonstrated its value; on the other hand, it is 

 very difficuk for a research association to do this until it has 

 the funds. After the first ten years' work of the department, 

 the advisory council in their review in 1925-1926 said that, 

 when they reflected how trivial in relation to the total output 

 of an industry is the expenditure needed, they could not be- 

 lieve that private enterprise would fail to maintain on an 

 adequate basis the associations that had already shown their 

 value. Nevertheless, the council believed that voluntary con- 

 tributions would be inadequate and favored the introduction 

 of some kind of compulsory levy. After this report had been 

 issued, there was a gradual improvement in the financial sup- 

 port of the associations, and under war conditions it has in- 

 creased, although it is still inadequate. 



The Nuffield report goes on to discuss the objectives of the 

 research associations. Should they, for instance, undertake 

 long-term programs of applied research, study the scientific 

 facts on which the processes of the industries are based, and 

 merely publish their results, leaving it to the firms to apply 

 them to their own work? Or should the research association 

 translate as much as possible of its work into results that can 

 be applied by the industry even though the individual firms 

 have no adequate scientific staffs? Again, should the associa- 

 tions devise their own research programs or should they be 

 ready to study problems proposed by any subscribing firm and 

 advise such firms how to deal with their o^vn specific prob- 

 lems? The conference felt that there could be no uniform 

 answer to these questions. The answer would depend upon 

 the industry. Modern scientific industries such as the elec- 

 tric or scientific instrument industries need a different policy 

 from that of the older technologies, such as the textile or 

 leather industries. In the more technical industries, the in- 

 dividual firms have their own laboratories, and they allot to 

 the research association only long-term problems suitable for 

 collective effort. In the older industries, where the processes 

 are still largely based on tradition, the research associations 

 have a double function. On the one hand, they must study 



