PHYSICAL LABORATORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 343 



3. Systematic measurements and examinations <>f the properties of 

 substances under all conditions. 



4. The precise determination of physical constants. 



5. Observational work, testing instruments. 



6. Constructional work (gratings, optical glass). 



7. Designing new and more perfect instruments. 



Such were the views of those who took a prominent part in the 

 founding of the institution. 



It is now realized, at any rate by the more enlightened of our leaders 

 of industry, that science can help them. This fact, however, has been 

 grasped by too few in England; our rivals in Germany and America 

 know it well, and the first aim of the laboratory is to bring its truth 

 home to all, to assist in promoting a union which is certainly necessary 

 if England is to retain her supremacy in trade and in manufacture, to 

 make the forces of science available for the nation, to break down by 

 every possible means the barrier between theory and practice, and 

 to point out plainly the plan which must be followed, unless we are 

 prepared to see our rivals take our place. 



"• Germany," an American writer, a who has recently made a study of 

 the subject, has said, kW is rapidly moving toward industrial supremacy 

 in Europe. One of her most potent factors in this notable advance is 

 the perfected alliance between science and commerce existing in Ger- 

 many. Science has come to be regarded there as a commercial factor. 

 If England is losing her supremacy in manufactures and in commerce, 

 as many claim, it is because of English conservatism and the failure to 

 utilize to the fullest extent the lessons taught by science, while Ger- 

 many, once the country of dreamers and theorists, has now become 

 intensely practical. Science there no longer seeks court and cloister, 

 but is in open alliance with commerce and industiy^." It is our aim to 

 promote this alliance in England, and for this purpose her National 

 Physical Laboratory has been founded. 



It is hardly necessary to quote chapter and verse for the assertion 

 that the close connection between science and industry has had a pre- 

 dominant effect on German trade. If authority is wanted, I would 

 refer to the history of the anilin dye manufacture, or to take a more 

 recent case, to the artiticial indigo industry in which the success of the 

 Badiche Company has recently been so marked. The factory at Lud- 

 wigshaven started thirty-five years ago with 30 men. It now employs 

 over 0,000, and has on its staff 148 trained scientific chemists. And 

 now when it is perhaps too late the Indian planters are calling in sci- 

 entific aid and the Indian government is giving some £3,500 a year to 

 investigation. 



As Professor Armstrong, in a recent letter to the Times, says: "The 

 truly serious side of the matter, however, is not the prospective loss 



a Prof. H.S. Carhart. 



