4 CHEMICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION 



of scientific knowledge is the main cause of their deficiencies. 

 That this has been known to chemists during the last forty years 

 is made evident by the numerous speeches, papers, and presi- 

 dential addresses which have been issued by some of the most 

 eminent professors of chemistry in the United Kingdom. Now 

 that the dyehouses of Yorkshire and Lancashire are almost 

 brought to a standstill for lack of material, the manufacturers 

 in the north of England have begun to realise that the position 

 is serious, and in response to the call for assistance the Govern- 

 ment has assigned a sum approaching a million sterling to an 

 attempt to resuscitate the dye industry, and to provision for a 

 department of research in connection with the making of colours 

 from coal tar hydrocarbons. And further it was announced in 

 the House of Commons on May 13th, 1915, by Mr. Pease, the 

 then Minister of Education, that the Government intended to 

 institute forthwith an Advisory Council on industrial research 

 with the object of bringing the British universities and technical 

 colleges into closer association with industry. He promised that 

 for the current year a sum between 25,000 and 30,000 would 

 be placed on the estimates for this purpose. He added that the 

 demand for money in this direction would increase as time goes 

 on, and that if the scheme is to succeed it must depend on the 

 State for help in the years to come and that State help must 

 steadily progress. The chief advantage to be expected from 

 this scheme is, however, probably not to be found in the subsidy 

 itself and the actual development of industrial research in the 

 universities and colleges. It is rather to be hoped that this 

 tardy though substantial recognition of the importance of 

 training a larger number of young men in scientific method, will 

 operate in stimulating public interest in such matters and 

 rousing it out of the state of indifference which has so long 

 prevailed. 



This movement, however valuable as an encouragement to 

 reform, will not afford a permanent guarantee of commercial 

 success unless the spirit of respect for accurate scientific know- 

 ledge and its daily application by highly qualified chemists within 

 the works themselves are diffused generally among the manu- 

 facturers. It has been alleged that the universities have not 

 provided the sort of instruction required by students who look 

 forward to employment of a technical character, that the 

 subjects taught have been too far removed from possible applica- 



