570 



NATURE 



[June 30, 192 1 



■steels," contained from 3^ to 4 per cent, of man- 

 ;ganese. Nickel steels containing from 5 to 6 per cent, 

 of manganese and from 20 to 25 per cent, of nickel 

 have been largely used for many years for electrical 

 resistance wires. But the output has fallen away con- 

 siderably. India is now our great source of supply of 

 manganese. The output from that country was, how- 

 ever, for 1919 only about five-eighths of that for 1913, 

 •and the cost of production has greatly increased owing 

 to the increased rate of wages demanded by the native 

 labourers. The rupee exchange and high freights 

 also hamper the export trade. The value of the ore 

 for metallurgical purposes, as indeed in the case of 

 the ores of nearly all metals, depends on three 

 factors : — 



(i) The percentage of the metal contents (the metals 

 in the case of manganese being manganese and iron). 



(2) The percentage of the impurities (wjiich in the 

 •case of manganese are phosphorus, silica, alumina, 

 •copper, cobalt, lead, zinc, barium, etc.), 



(3) The physical condition in which the material is 

 •delivered to the furnace. 



There are fairly extensive deposits of low-grade and 

 impure manganese ores which research might render 

 available, if not for metallurgical, then for chemical 

 uses. 



The position of zinc is interesting. The British 

 zinc industry is in a very depressed state, and to this 

 matter the Imperial Mineral Resources Bureau has 

 "been devoting much anxious thought. The Bureau 

 was fortunate in having the benefit of the views on 

 this subject of Mr. Gilbert Rigg and other well- 

 known experts. Mr. Rigg, in a paper which he con- 

 tributed on the subject of the position of the zinc 

 industry at the close of 1919, points to the successful 

 application of the electrolytic reduction of zinc ores 

 in the face of much scepticism as to its commercial 

 possibilities, and concludes his paper with these 

 words: — "What is going to be the position of Eng- 

 land's spelter industry in the next five years? If we 

 are going to compete successfully, having regard to 

 the high cost of fuel and materials and high cost of 

 labour and labour difficulties, we must start to put 

 •our house in order. Fuel and labour are going up in 

 price all over the world. The relation of labour to 

 the general scheme of production is changing, and 

 generating more or less friction in the process, and 

 the successful competitors will be those who have 

 tackled the problem of spelter production most 

 radically and with least regard to hampering tradi- 

 tion." Wise words these. 



Another instance of the value to the mineral indus- 

 try of scientific research of possible far-reaching results 

 may be mentioned. Mr. Picard, in his admirable pre- 

 sidential address to the Institution of Mining and 

 Metallurgy in 1919, covering a wide survey of recent 

 metallurgical progress, said : — " In the province of 

 general rhetallurgy the increasing use of the Cottrell 

 process deserves special inention. As an example of 

 painstaking research in developing a practical process 

 from long known, but unused, scientific fact it has 

 few equals. We have to go back to 1870, to the work of 

 Tyndall, for the first disclosure of the phenomenon 

 on which the process is based. This was further 

 ■examined by Frankland, Lord Rayleigh, and Oliver 

 Lodge ; but for the useful application of the principles 

 involved we had to wait for Dr. Cottrell. He first 

 applied the method to depositing sulphuric acid pro- 

 duced in the contact process, and it is still being used 

 for this purpose. It is satisfactory to report that the 

 merits of the invention have been recognised in this 

 country, the first plant to be erected here in 1917 

 T)eing at one of the Government acid plants. It is 

 also in use here for the precipitation of fumes from 

 inetallurgical works, following established practice in 



NO. 2696, VOL. 107] 



America; its further application in this country seems 

 certain. The advantages of the process are far- 

 reaching ; not only are valuable products recovered, 

 but agriculture in the neighbourhood of the operations 

 is saved from serious damage." 



The Cottrell electrostatic recovery process of flue- 

 dust and furnaces consists, as you are doubtless 

 aware, in separating solid and liquid substances from 

 gases in which they are held in suspension and 

 electrically precipitating them. 



There are many more fields of research on minerals 

 which I should have liked to discuss had time 

 permitted, such, for instance, as the extraction of 

 aluminium from clays and from the felspar labra- 

 dorite ; the possible utilisation of magnesia cement 

 for the protection of mine timber; the use of ferro- 

 boron in making remarkably strong and tough steels ; 

 the possibility of extracting on a commercial scale 

 potash from orthoclase felspar ; the cheapening of 

 the production of thorium nitrate from monazite — 

 large residues of cerium compounds are obtained as 

 a by-product, formerly regarded as useless, but now 

 used for supplying the cerium required in the manu- 

 facture of the alloy ferro-cerium used in sparking 

 devices — and so on. But all minerals present a field 

 for research, and time does not permit my passing 

 these fields in review. The few instances I have given 

 have been selected with the view of emphasising the 

 point I started off with, namely, that scientific re- 

 search is one of the factors, and an important one at 

 that, necessary to the development of the mineral 

 industries and to our commercial prosperity. Much 

 more extensive research work is necessary if we are 

 to take full advantage of our mineral resources (with 

 which a bountiful Providence has provided us) by 

 rendering available ores and products therefrom which 

 cannot now be used, and extending the use of those 

 already in commercial consumption and producing 

 them more cheaply. 



How should research be organised and carried out? 

 Empirical investigations must be based upon a 

 scientific foundation if they are to be of ultimate and 

 practical value. It has, however, been well said that 

 if an investigator does not possess the inventive 

 faculty as well as the purely scientific, the value of 

 the work is apt to be largely lost. The discovery of 

 new facts or principles is one thing, and is a charac- 

 teristic of the academic type of mind, whereas the 

 discovery of new uses for such facts or principles 

 is another thing, and is typical of the commercial 

 mind. 



In this work of research the universities are 

 peculiarly fitted to take an important, a leading, part. 

 The research should not necessarily be pursued along 

 definite lines with a definite object in view ; the great 

 discoveries were not made in that way. The Depart- 

 ment of Scientific and Industrial Research might well 

 endow university scientific research on chemical, 

 metallurgical, and engineering work, supervising and 

 co-ordinating and publishing the results. Effort is 

 largely commensurate to the prize offered, and the 

 discoverer should be rewarded for his labour and 

 genius ; but that would be a matter easy of arrange- 

 ment. A certain amount of overlapping in scientific 

 work is not inadvisable, but the Department would 

 see to it that there was not undue overlapping. I 

 offer the suggestion for what it is worth. Research 

 associations undoubtedly perform useful, even highly 

 valuable, functions, but the wind of science bloweth 

 where it listeth, and the time is ripe for a realisation 

 of the fact that scientific research cannot profitably be 

 hampered by restrictions confining the efforts of those 

 who are employed therein. It is of the essence of 

 research that it should be free and untrammelled. 



The Imperial Mineral Resources Bureau is not a 



