414 PHYSICO-TECHNICAL INSTITUTION IN CHARLOTTENBURG. 



their standards and instruments of precision. The first day the writer 

 spent at the Reichsanstalt he was consulted with reference to an 

 extended correspondence ])etween the director of the technical division 

 and the officials of the Brookljni Navy- Yard relative to the calibration 

 of a large number of incandescent electric lamps for use in our Navy 

 Department. The spectacle of a Government bureau going to a for- 

 eign imperial institution for standards in an industry whose home is 

 in the United States is a humilitating one. Yet the proceeding was 

 entirely })roper and justifiable, because there is in this country no 

 standardizing bureau for the purpose desired. Are the representa- 

 tives of the American people willing to have this state of ati'airs con- 

 tinue? 



Again, tiic iiigher interests of the industrial utilization of scientific 

 knowledge require the establishment in Washington of an institution 

 similar to the Reichsanstalt and in no degree inferior to it. We are 

 an inventive people and may justly claim renown in the prompt and 

 efficient utilization of the discoveries in physical science. It is highly 

 improbabk' that a practical limit has already been reached in the field 

 of applied physics. We are not estopped from making further dis- 

 coveries. Still it may be affirmed with confidence that the most 

 important and promising work to be done, except in rare instances in 

 which genius makes a Ijrilliant discoveiT, will consist in the more per- 

 fect adaptation of known physical laws to the production of useful 

 results. It is precisely this field which has not been extensively culti- 

 vated as yet in the Ignited States. We ha\'e explored the sui'face and 

 presumably gathered the largest nuggets and the most brilliant gems. 

 To inci'ease the output we nuist now delve deeper and scrutinize more 

 closely. To drop the metaphor, what will be required for futui'e pre- 

 eminence is the more intensive and exhaustive study of the scientific 

 conditions \n the industrial utilization of phj'sical laws. This study 

 will re(|uir<> the best talent of our technical schools, aided and sup- 

 port(xl ])y an authoritative national institution, itself far removed 

 from patents and connnercial gains, but jealous of our national renown 

 and eager to cooperate with manufacturers for the sake of national 

 prosperity. 



Germany is rapidly moving toward industrial supremacy in Europe. 

 One of the most potent factors in this notable advance is the perfected 

 alliance between science and commerce existing in Germany. 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 Germany, 

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

 practical. Science there no longer seeks court and cloister, but is in 

 open alliance with commerce and industr}'. This is substantially the 



