April 27, 191 1] 



NATURE 



;oi 



facturers will quote at most about twenty-five diflferent 

 meltings, Schott of Jena, and Parra-Mantois of Paris will 

 quote anything between loo and 150. It may be men- 

 tioned that the University of Jena has benefited to the 

 extent of about loo.oooZ. by the success of the firm of 

 Zeiss. At the present time the firm of Zeiss employs 

 about fourteen graduates who are either mathematicians or 

 medical men. 



Imperial Physical-Technical Institute. — Very great assist- 

 ance has been rendered by the Imperial Physical-Technical 

 Institute in Charlottenburg, which, as above mentioned, 

 should not be confused with the Technical University in 

 the same town. It was founded in 1887, and is concerned 

 partly with physical research and partly with the develop- 

 ment, standardising, and testing of fine instruments of 

 almost every description. Its relations to the optical 

 industry are numerous and intimate, and the manufacture 

 of optical instruments has benefited accordingly. 



The British Optical Society. — Some account may be given 



J of the Optical Society on account of its relations to the 

 optical department at the Northampton Institute and the 

 trade generally. 



The society was founded in i8qq, and has over 400 

 members in London and the provinces at the present time. 

 It has kept alive the interest of the different branches of 

 the trade in the technical optics classes at the institute, 

 and has for a series of years contributed about iio^ per 

 annum towards the expenditure for the same. 



It has also been instrumental in placing the trade in 

 communication with the institute with regard to the details 

 of optical work. In iqoi it appointed an educational com- 

 mittee for the purpose of inquiring into the question of 

 optical education generally. In 1902 Prof. Silvanus 

 Thompson read an important paper on " Technical Optics " 

 before the Society of Arts, in which he strongly urged the 

 establishment of a real optico-technical institute either at 

 the Northampton Institute or elsewhere. The same con- 

 clusion was arrived at by the Education Committee of the 

 Optical Society. The committee pointed out that it was 

 only by the provision of such educational facilities that the 

 optical trade of this country could be expected to compete 

 with its foreign rivals, and that the Northampton Institute, 

 with its teaching staff and equipment, would be the suitable 

 place for the new optico-technical institute. 



The German industry has received much more benefit 

 from its association than the British industry from the 

 corresponding association in England. Finally, as the 

 German research and standardising institute at Charlotten- 

 burg came into existence long before the corresponding 

 English institute, it has consequently been enabled to get 

 into closer and more fruitful touch with the optical industry. 



The Optical Convention in 1905. — The convention dealt 

 not only with scientific and trade subjects, but devoted 

 considerable attention to the problem of optical education. 

 On this last point it adopted the following resolution : — 



" That the Optical Convention hereby expresses the 

 cordial approval of the project of founding an optical 

 technical institute for the training of opticians in the 

 scientific principles of optics and their technical applications 

 which it regards as a matter of industrial importance to the 

 nation ; and in view of the backward state of optical 

 teaching in this country it urges the London County Council 

 to push forward, as a matter of pressing need, the founda- 

 tion of such an institution on the lines of the scheme which 

 was under the consideration of the late Technical Education 

 Board." 



The Paramount Importance of the Optical Industry for 

 Industrial, Scientific, and National Purposes. 



It may be urged that the expenditure contemplated 

 (amounting to 35,000/., together with an annual mainten- 

 ance grant rising eventually to 5000/.) is comparatively 

 large in proportion to the extent of the optical industry, 

 its capital, number of employees, and production. But 

 this objection can scarcely be maintained when the problem 

 is studied in all its far-reaching aspects. 



In the first place, there are very few industries where 

 the ultimate value of the goods produced represents so much 

 in wages for the skilled designers and workmen and so 



!lc in the actual scrap-value of the materials employed. 



NO. 2165, VOL. 86] 



It is difficult to find an eifact parallel in other branches of 

 manufacture. For example, the production of valuable 

 chemical products from certain raw materials as the result 

 of intricate investigation and a long series of reactions. 

 Or, perhaps the case of artistic products in which the 

 actual value of the materials is very little compared with 

 the value conferred by the insight of the artist and the 

 cunning of his hand. 



The overwhelming importance of the optical industry on 

 the larger scientific and national issues involved was very 

 clearly stated by Mr. Conrad Beck on the occasion of the 

 deputation of the optical industry to the Technical Educa- 

 tion Board in 1902. He pointed out that the number of 

 instruments, for the manufacture of which optical know- 

 ledge is required, was very great indeed, ranging from 

 ordinary spectacles, opera glasses, field glasses, telescopes, 

 nautical instruments, microscopes, photographic lenses, 

 photographic apparatus, and so forth, to surveying instru- 

 ments, astronomical instruments, lanterns, range finders, 

 gun sights, lighthouse prisms and reflectors, heliographs, 

 periscopes, and almost every kind of optical instrument. 



These instruments are widely used in the prosecution of 

 science, in industrial processes, in the exercise of many 

 important professions, in our shipping trade, the greatest in 

 the world, and in the nation's naval and military lines of 

 defence. 



It cannot be too clearly understood that the success of 

 the manufacture of all the instruments mentioned depends 

 upon a thorough knowledge of practical optics on the part 

 of designers and managers, and upon a constant supply of 

 skilled foremen and workmen. 



In times of peace the War Office and the Admiralty prob- 

 ably require something like 25,000 field glasses and 

 telescopes per annum, and much larger number in times 

 of war ; the numbers sold to private individuals are, of 

 course, much greater. Both the War Office and the 

 Admiralty have been approached with regard to the influ- 

 ence which the proposed optical institute will have upon the 

 production of the finest kinds of optical instruments used 

 in the army and navy. 



Spectacles, sooner or later, are worn by large numbers of 

 persons. Field glasses and telescopes alone constitute a 

 large business. .All medical, biological, and many other 

 students require microscopes ; every ship's officer requires a 

 sextant. Engineers require large numbers of levels and 

 theodolites. The number of photographic lenses sold 

 annually is extremely large. The illustrations of maga- 

 zines, newspapers, and the majority of books are produced 

 by photographic printing processes, largely depending for 

 success on optical principles. 



The advent of long range guns has been responsible for 

 a special section of the optical industry concerned with the 

 manufacture of elaborate optical gun sights and special 

 telescopes of peculiar construction ; new methods for range 

 finding by optical instruments are being constantly sought. 



In various industries a microscope is becoming each year 

 of greater importance. It is us(;d in the testing of steel and 

 iron and for brewing, butter making, silk and textile 

 manufacture, sugar making, and in numerous other in- 

 dustries. The photographic industry alone, which has 

 assumed such great dimensions during recent years, is 

 entirely dependent upon optical principles. Although large 

 amounts of chemicals are used in photography and various 

 materials for the construction of cameras^ all the work 

 employed would be entirely useless without the proper 

 designing of the lenses employed. 



Finally — although it cannot be definitely stated in con- 

 crete terms — there would appear to be some relation between 

 the general efficiency of a nation and its manufacture of 

 the finest instruments of precision for purposes of observa- 

 tion, research, measurement, and control. The material 

 development of a nation is largely concerned with the 

 utmost utilisation of the natural forces and materials at its 

 disposal, and both pure and applied science are becoming 

 increasingly dependent upon the help afforded by the finest 

 instruments. A nation should have for this purpose ar) 

 ample supply of the finest instruments. It should manu- 

 facture these itself for its own sperial purposes, and keep 

 itself in a condition to repair and improve existing instru- 

 ments and invent and construct new ones. It is significant 

 to observe that both England and France have fallen behind 

 Germany in this respect. 



