656 Mr. Bichard T. Glazebrook [May 24, 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 

 Friday, May 24, 1901. 



The Duke of Northumberland, K.G. D.C.L. F.R.S., 



President, in the Chair. 



Eiohard T. Glazebrook, Esq., M.A. D.Sc. F.R.S. M.R.I. 



The Aims of the National Physical Laboratory. 



The idea of a physical laboratory in which problems bearing at once 

 on science and on industry might be solved is comparatively new. 

 The Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt, founded in Berlin by the 

 joint labours of Werner von Siemens and von Helmholtz during the 

 years 1883-87, was perhaps the first. It is less than ten years since 

 Dr. Lodge, in his address to Section A of the British Association, 

 outlined the scheme of work for such an institution here in England. 

 Nothing came of this ; a committee met and discussed plans, but it 

 was felt to be hopeless to approach the Government, and without 

 Government aid there were no funds. 



Four years later, however, the late Sir Douglas Galton took the 

 matter up. In his address to tbe British Association in 1895, and 

 again in a paper read before Section A, he called attention to the 

 work done for Germany by tbe Reichsanstalt and to the crying need 

 for a similar institution in England. 



The result of this presidential pronouncement was the formation 

 of a committee which reported at Liverpool, giving a rough outline of 

 a possible scheme of organisation. A petition to Lord Salisbury 

 followed, and as a consequence a Treasury Committee, with Lord 

 Rayleigh in tbe chair, was appointed to consider the desirability 

 of establishing a National Pbysical Laboratory. The committee 

 examined more than thirty witnesses, and then reported unanimously 

 " that a public institution should be founded for standardising and 

 verifying instruments for testing materials and for the determination 

 of physical constants." 



It is natural to turn to the words of those who were instrumental 

 in securing the appointment of this committee, and to the evidence it 

 received, in any endeavour to discuss its aim. As was fitting, Sir 

 Douglas Galton was the first witness to be called. It is a source of 

 sorrow to his many frionds tbat he has not lived to see the Laboratory 

 completed. 



And here I may refer to another serious loss which, in the last 

 few days, the Laboratory has sustained. Sir Courtenay Boyle was a 



