Aug. 19, 1875] 



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307 



per horse-power per hour. I see that there are very 

 many leakages or loss in steani-engines in the very best 

 way that we make them at present. The knowledge that 

 was gained by Joule's experiments a few years ago seems 

 to me to have been of immense value. Those experi- 

 ments that he carried out for himself were the sort of 

 thing which I think the Government should have done 

 for the sake of the country. He did more to make engi- 

 neers thoroughly dissatisfied with their present knowledge 

 with regard to what they can do with steam than any- 

 thing which had been done before. I believe that what 

 Mr. Joule did will do more ior this country than even 

 what James Watt did. The part that James Watt took 

 was very great, and the world gives him full credit for it, 

 but the world is scarcely willing to give credit to Joule 

 for what he will do ; but he has made all engineers dis- 

 satisfied. They know that the best steam-engine is not 

 doing one-sixth of the work which it ought to do and can 

 do. That is a sad state of matters to be in when we 

 know that we are so far wrong, but yet no one will go to 

 the trouble of going to the end of the question so as to 

 improve the steam-engine as it might be done ; in fact, 

 it will cost a great deal of trouble and a great deal of 

 expense, I have no doubt." 



With regard to the question whether it is " desirable 

 that the Government should establish any laboratories 

 for carrying on those investigations," he thus stated his 

 opinion ;— 



" I should like to see a grand laboratory fitted with 

 everything that would go towards the investigation of 

 such matters, and at the same time a testing apparatus 

 for getting at the physical facts as well. To get up the 

 proper plant would be very expensive, but still I should 

 like the nation to have it, so that any public department 

 could go to this same laboratory and ask them for assist- 

 ance to investigate any doubtful point." 



Mr. Anderson's evidence finds a parallel in that given 

 by Mr. E. J. Reed, M.P., late Chief Constructor of the 

 Navy. He says : — 



" I think that there are many branches of science 

 remaining undeveloped at present, the development of 

 which would be of great advantage to the country. I 

 base that opinion partly upon the experience which I 

 acquired at the Admiralty, in which I continually found 

 that great and important questions were undeveloped for 

 the want of organisation and of the means of developing 

 them." 



"... A second illustration which I should like to give 

 is this : the present condition of the marine steam-engine 

 and boiler is very unsatisfactory. It is unsatisfactory to 

 such an extent that I believe if the manufacture of iron 

 and steel were improved with reference to its use in the 

 construction of engines and boilers, and if improved 

 material were applied by improved methods, a saving of 

 one-half of the present weight would be attained ; and 

 when I siy one-half, I know that 1 am speaking greatly 

 within the limits which some persons who have thought very 

 much about this question would be prepared to express. 

 Of course, if that be so, if we are carrying about in our 

 mercantile and other steamships twice the weight which 

 is essential for the production of the power, that is so 

 much taken off either from the further power and speed 

 which might be obtained, or from the freightage and com- 

 mercial value of the vessel. 



" I may mention that in the manufacture of shafts, for 

 instance, of the marine engine and of stern posts, and 

 other large forgings for ships, the method of production 

 is comparatively rude, and it very much needs develop- 

 ment. ... So much has the subject been neglected, that 

 at this moment I have the responsibility of seeing some 

 very large forgings indeed made for certain ships, and the 

 most effectual manner in which I can give effect to my 



responsibility is that of selecting the very best working 

 smith that I can find, and putting him into the manufac- 

 tory where those things are being made, for him to do the 

 best that his experience enables him to do, in order to see 

 them properly constructed. I believe that if a regular 

 independent scientific investigation were applied to a 

 manufacture of that nature, enormous advantage would 

 at once result." 



The Standards Department of the Board of Trade is 

 another department requiring advice in varied scientific 

 subjects. The Warden of the Standards (Mr. Chisholm) 

 states that there is no scientific authority to which he is 

 entitled to appeal. 



Sir WiUiam Thomson, in reference to the subject of 

 standards, says : 



" The conservancy of weights and measures is a subject 

 involving questions of the most extreme scientific nicety. 

 Faraday made statements showing how completely un- 

 known at present are the properties of matter upon which 

 we depend for a permanent standard of length. One of 

 the very first objects that should be undertaken in con- 

 nection with the conservancy of the standards of weight 

 and length is secular experiments, on the dimensions of 

 metals and solids of other classes under various condi- 

 tions of stress, temperature, and atmosphere. Those 

 would involve scientific experiments of an extremely diffi- 

 cult character, and also operations extending from year 

 to year. There ought to be just now a set of experi- 

 mental specimens of solids laid up which should be 

 examined every year, or every ten years, or every fifty 

 years, or every hundred years, the times when observa- 

 tions are to be made from age to age being regulated 

 by the experience of the previous observations. This 

 would not be a very difficult or expensive thing to insti- 

 tute in such a way as eventually to obtain good results, 

 but it would be an operation of a secular character, which 

 could only be carried out by the Government." 



Dr. Frankland thus refers to the various requirements 

 of Government involving chemical investigations : — 



"... The State requires many important investiga- 

 tions to be carried on. Such investigations are being 

 continually conducted in buildings often very ill-adapted 

 for the purpose, and which are fitted up for the purpose 

 at a great cost. The laboratory of the Rivers Commis- 

 sion, for instance, which we have occupied for four years, 

 was constructed in a house in Victoria Street ; a rent of 

 200/. a year is paid for it, and it is literally nothing more 

 than a moderate sized room,'and two smaller ones, very 

 ill-adapted for the purpose. Consequently, this labora- 

 tory is not so efficient as a building erected for the 

 express purpose of conducting such investigations would 

 be." 



We pass now to 

 II. — The Assistance given by the State towards the 

 Promotion of Scientijic Research. 



It may be convenient to consider the assistance given 

 by the State towards scientific research as being either 

 permanent or occasional. 



Our museums of natural history are examples of the 

 first. These afford to the students of those branches of 

 science aid analogous to that afforded to students of 

 literature and art by our national libraries and galleries. 



No similar facilities are provided for the student of the 

 physical sciences— such collections of instruments as 

 exist being wholly inadequate both as to character and 

 completeness. Moreover, as the Commissioners remark, 

 " a mere collection of instruments, however complete, 

 without working laboratories, is of little use to the student 



