en. x PRACTICAL PURPOSE 257 



It comes as a surprise to most men to be told that in 

 scientific circles usefulness is never adopted as the 

 standard of value ; and that even if not a single practical 

 result is reached by an investigation, the work is worth 

 doing if it enlarges knowledge or increases our outlook 

 upon the universe. This proposition, of course, leaves 

 the practical man cold ; yet it is all that science desires 

 to offer in justification of its activities. While the 

 discovery of truth remains its single aim, science is free 

 to pursue inquiries in whatever direction it pleases ; 

 but when it permits itself to be dominated by the spirit 

 of productive application it becomes merely the galley- 

 slave of short-sighted commerce. Almost all the investi- 

 gations upon which modern industry has been built 

 would have been crushed at the outset if immediate 

 practical value had determined what work should be 

 undertaken. Science brings back new seeds from the 

 regions it explores, and they seem to be nothing but 

 trivial curiosities to the people who look for profit from 

 research, yet from these seeds come the mighty trees 

 under which civilised man has his tent, while from the 

 fruit he gains comfort and riches. 



Industrial research is concerned not with the discovery 

 of truth but with the production of something which 

 will be of direct service to man and from which pecuniary 

 profit may be secured. It is the province of the inventor 

 rather than that of the man of science. Such research 

 and that carried on with no ulterior motive are com- 

 plementary to one another. Science has done its part 

 when it has made a new discovery ; constructive 

 engineering renders good service when it shows how 

 the discovery may be chained to the chariot of industrial 

 advance. To foresee the possibilities of a discovery, to 

 transform a laboratory experiment into the mechanical 



G.D. R 



