Research in Engineering Colleges 53 



it is undesirable that this practice should be followed to any considerable 

 extent. In the first place, the amount of industrial research work taken 

 up by these colleges should not, in aJny case, be so much as would inter- 

 fere w^ith the regular use of the laboratory equipment for teaching, and, 

 in the second place, the psychological influence of industrial research in 

 a college laboratory is undesirable, and is opposed to the spirit of a public 

 institution for teaching and learning. Industrial research differs from 

 research in applied science only in its ethical purpose. Research in 

 broadly applied science is conducted for the benefit of all industries and 

 all nations alike. Ihsofar as it leads to useful results, those results are 

 at once opened to the instructors, the students, and the engineermg 

 world. On the other hand, industrial research is conducted in the im- 

 mediate interests of an industry, and those interests may properly 

 require that any useful results attained should be kept secret, for the 

 more exclusive benefit of the corporation that has incurred the expense. 

 No corporation would be likely to undertake strictly industrial research, 

 unless it believed that the attempt would pay. The successful results 

 would probably not pay if disclosed forthwith to competitors. Con- 

 sequently, any considerable amount of strictly confidential industrial 

 research, carried on in a technical college laboratory, introduces an air 

 of mystery and secrecy, which reacts unfavourably upon the intellectual 

 atmosphere of the institution. The purpose and history of academic 

 institutions has always been to make know;ledge open to all earnest 

 enquirers on equal terms. "Thou mayest know what I know" is the 

 motto of every educational establishment worthy of the name. Am.ong 

 all the embargos, trusts, monopolies and esoteric associations of all time, 

 it is doubtful if any college or institution of learning ever established a 

 barrier to the interchange ot knowledge within its walls, and among its 

 own members, whatever may have been its relations to the outside 

 world, as, for instance, among the Pythagoreans. 



It is, therefore, desirable that confidential industrial research should 

 be carried on, as far as possible, in laboratories outside of the technical 

 colleges. These colleges can, however, assist in finding the right men 

 to undertake such work, either from their own staff, student body, 

 alumni, or from their knowledge of other persons in the technical world. 

 There can be no harm in the teaching staff taking part in industrial 

 research outside of the colleges, provided that such work does not take 

 up too much time and interfere with the regular work of teaching. 



On the other hand, it is eminently desirable that the technical colleges 

 should carry on applied-scienjce research in their laboratories, partly for 

 the benefit of those colleges, by spreading their reputation for scientific 

 achievement, partly for the benefit of the teaching staff, by enabling 



