November 



J' 



1 910] 



NATURE 



3^ 



iirst, then, science may justly look for assistance from 



State. In England this is given in a grudging way. 



irliament allots 4000Z. to the whole range of the physical 



\ natural sciences. The fund is administered by the 



ival Society, and the biggest slices out of it are taken 



n the form of contributions to the expenses of expeditions. 



Then there is the National Physical Laboratory, with an 



■xpenditure of about 25,000/. a year, of which 7000/. comes 



rom the Treasury. This seems to be all that comes 



lirectly from the national purse ; but science is endowed 



o a certain extent by her friends. This assistance is 



epresented by the equipment of certain schools and 



!!eges by the Guilds of London, and by the small re- 



rch funds of the Chemical Society and the British 



^ociation. 



Something more systematic is, however, wanted, and I 



1 strongly that some of the rather large funds given 



the form of scholarships to young students could be 



rt advantageously used if applied to the maintenance of 



. :oved investigators to make them independent of the 



i-essity to earn a living by teaching or other professional 



rk. I recognise, however, the difficulties which would 



nd any such scheme. In the first place, discoveries 



not be made to order. An able, industrious, and 



iscientious man might work for many years without 



ducing definite results, and a few cases of that ^kind 



J Id destroy or shake public confidence. It would also 



necessary to provide incomes large enough to retain the 



- .-vices of the most able men available. 



With regard to the application of science to industry, I 



■nk our manufacturers have made some progress during 



last thirty years. But they still suffer from delusions. 



mistake most commonly made arises out of a mis- 



rehension of the methods, powers, and promises of 



nee. It still seems to be too often supposed that a 



ntific man. called into hurried consultation, can at once 



:come a diliiculty in a manufacturing process or can 



se an improvement which, if adopted, would represent 



ly thousands of pounds profit to someone. If this 



e so scientific men would be better off than thev usually 



are. What is wanted is a general recognition of "the prin- 



•riole that improvements can be expected onlv as the result 



the use of scientific methods, which are simply the 



hods of reason applied to the materials provided bv 



^^rience. 



\ hat every manufacturer wants is to begin with a 



ntific education, if not for himself then for his sons 



successors, so that those who are at the head of affairs 



\ understand fully the problems before them and in 



•^hat direction to look for help towards improvement. 



Failing this he will be dependent on the services of paid 



-■^tants, and those services cannot be expected to pro- 



^ the desired results unless thev are paid for on a 



_-al scale. In this country there has not hitherto been 



sufficient attraction to draw into the field of technologv 



a due share of the best brains of the nation. The prospect 



of ultimately reaching a salary of two or three hundred 



a year at the utmost is not sufficient to induce a voung 



man of first-rate ability to spend several vears of his life 



and a thousand pounds or so of capital in scientific and 



technical studies; and so the supplv of the highest class 



of scientific assistance is at present far from what it ought 



to be. *• 



But suppose conditions to improve, a question arises as 

 to the best way of turning such assistance to account. 



A suggestion has latelv been made that a new societv 

 should be formed, to be' constituted of trade committees 

 associated with experts in various divisions of science, to 

 carry on experiments confidentiallv in the interests of the 

 manufacturers who become members of the society. It 

 seems to me that any suggestion is better than none if 

 It results in the closer association of industry and science: 

 but I think this particular proposal would' not be found 

 to work in practice. The requirements of different indus- 

 tries are too numerous and complicated to be met by an 

 arrangement so simple, for each committee would ' find 

 Itself occupied with so many different problems that 

 nothing would be accomplished, unless, indeed, the staff 

 were very large. In my judgment each manufacturer 

 must endeavour to work out his own salvation. More- 

 over, the experience of the German manufacturer, and 

 to some extent also of the American, shows that it can 

 NO. 2140. VOL. %^ 



be done effectively. The most famous example known to 

 me is the case of the great Badische colour works at 

 Ludwigshafen, on the Rhine. There is a factory which 

 employs some 5000 men, and which pays, and has always 

 paid, 25 to 30 per cent, or more on its ordinary capital. 

 The great feature of its organisation is to be seen in the 

 direct association of manufacture with research conducted 

 by a staff of highly skilled scientific men. 



In England arrangements so complete are unknown, and 

 the number of highly qualified chemists and physicists 

 employed in works is very small. I say nothing about 

 engineers, with whom I am not so well acquainted, but 

 the greater number of the chemists are merely testers 

 doing routine work, and because such men, receiving the 

 wages of a clerk, have not been able to advance the indus- 

 tries with which they are connected, their employers have 

 in too many cases in the past come to the conclusion that 

 science is of no use. In the meantime many things have 

 happened. The neglect of organic chemistry in England 

 forty years ago led to the complete removal of the ooal- 

 tar dye industry to Germany, where since that time has 

 sprung up the equally important manufacture of synthetic 

 drugs. The saccharin, the antipyrin, the artificial per- 

 fumes consumed in England are not made here, and it 

 now looks as if the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen in 

 the form of nitrate, so imp>ortant from the agricultural 

 and industrial points of view, was going to be taken 

 possession of by Germany and America acting together, 

 England being left out. 



Such things have been said over and over again for 

 the last thirty y«ars or more, and I am not aware that 

 such statements have been shown to be fundamentally 

 mistaken, nor has there ever been any public excuse or 

 explanation of the indifference so commonly displayed. 



The link between science and industry must be estab- 

 lished by the masters of industry themselves. I do not 

 believe in the efficacy of much of the technical instruc- 

 tion which is talked about, and I fear that much money 

 is being wasted in the attempt to imitate industrial opera- 

 tions in schools and colleges. What is wanted is the 

 highest and most complete kind of instruction in pure 

 science, following a good general education conducted on 

 such lines that the fittest only are passed forward to the 

 university or scientific school. Young people educated in 

 this way form the material which should be utilised by 

 the manufacturer. But he must not expect that a man 

 so prepared is going to earn his salary the first year or 

 two. He has got to learn his business, and must have 

 facilities for doing this, or such talent as he has cannot 

 be turned to account, and this can only be done by taking 

 him into the works. This is a subject on which a great 

 deal might and should be said, but such a discussion is 

 not suited to the present occasion. 



In conclusion, I may perhaps be allowed to give a few 

 minutes to a glance at the future — not that I can pretend 

 to descry very much. 



We must remember that there is no finality in physical 

 science. The farther we go the wider does the horizon 

 before us become, but every discovery of a new fact or 

 principle gives us a new instrument to help on to higher 

 things. Hence we may reasonably suppose that, wonderful 

 as the past has been, the future will be more wonderful 

 still. 



Here I will venture to draw a distinction between inven- 

 tion and discovery, and to invention there is probably no 

 limit. It may be said to consist in making new combina- 

 tions and permutations in the elements of knowledge 

 already acquired. Among the inventions which have 

 affected the condition of mankind, those which are con- 

 cerned in locomotion stand first. It may truly be said 

 that life is lengthened, not only by years, but by oppor- 

 tunities, and from this point of view quick travelling, pro- 

 vided by steam and electricity, is a great advantage. It 

 would be unwise to utter any predictions as to what may 

 hereafter be done with big ships and aeroplanes, only the 

 old-fashioned type of nervous system — already shrinking 

 from the increased noise and bustle of the town — shudders 

 at the thought that neither distant valley nor mountain 

 top, from the tropic to the pole, can now be expected to 

 provide an asylum where peace secure from intrusion is 

 to be found. 



In Samuel Butler's " Erewhon," a remarkable book 



