PHYSICAL RESEARCH AND THE 

 WAY OF ITS APPLICATION 



By W. H. BRAGG, F.R.S. 



Quain Professor of Physics in the University 

 of London. 



Perhaps the need for writing this essay arises 

 from the fact that there is considerable misappre- 

 hension of the way in which the discoveries of science 

 are made and applied. It is simple and fascinating 

 to suppose that a new invention is found as com- 

 plete and clean as a nugget of gold, as unexpected 

 and as unconnected with its surroundings, and 

 finally as readily convertible into cash. The truth 

 is very different. Science does not increase by the 

 constant addition of new facts to old, as a museum 

 collection increases by the addition of new speci- 

 mens. Science grows like a tree which shoots out 

 new branches continually, and at the same time 

 strengthens the old; twigs become boughs, and 

 boughs become great stems, while the tree is always 

 growing higher into the light and more firmly 

 based below. Science is like a tree also in this, 



