62 



NATURE 



[September 9, 1920 



Although we made but few determinations of the 

 physical properties of the alloys, it is needless to say 

 how much they vary with the temperature and 

 with the rapidity with which they are heated or 

 cooled. 



From a consideration of the singularities in the 

 liquidus curve, coupled with the microscopic 

 examination of slowly cooled and chilled alloys, we 

 were able to divide the copper-tin alloys into certain 

 groups having special qualities. 



So far I have directed attention to some of the 

 difficulties encountered in the examination of binary 

 alloys. When we come to ternary alloys the difficul- 

 ties of carrying out an investigation are enormously 

 increased, whilst with quaternary alloys they seem 

 almost insurmountable ; in the case of steels con- 

 taining always six, and usually more, constituents we 

 can hope at present to get information only by purely 

 empirical methods. Large numbers of the elements 

 and their compounds, which originally were labori- 

 ously prepared and investigated in the laboratory 

 and remained dormant as chemical curiosities for 

 many years, have, in the fullness of time, taken their 

 places as important, and indeed essential, articles of 

 commerce. I may remark that even during my own 

 lifetime I have seen a vast number of substances 

 transferred from the category of rare laboratory pro- 

 ducts to that which comprises materials of the utmost 

 importance to the modern metallurgical industries. A 

 few decades ago aluminium, chromium, cerium, 

 thorium, tungsten, manganese, magnesium, molyb- 

 denum, nickel, calcium and calcium carbide, car- 

 borundum, and acetylene were unknown outside the 

 chemical laboratory of the purely scientific investiga- 

 tor; to-day, these elements, their compounds and 

 alloys, are amongst the most valuable of our indus- 

 trial metallic products. They are essential in the 

 manufacture of high-speed steels, of armour-plate, of 

 filaments for the electric bulb lamp, of incandescent 

 gas mantles, and of countless other products of 

 modern scientific industry. All these metallic 

 elements and compounds were discovered, and 

 their industrial uses foreshadowed, during the 

 course of the purely academic research work 

 carried out in our universities and colleges ; all 

 have become the materials upon which great and 

 lucrative industries have been built up. Although the 

 scientific worker has certainly not exhibited any 

 cupidity in the past, and has been content to 

 rejoice in his own contributions to knowledge and 

 to see great manufacturing enterprises founded upon 

 his work, it is clear that the obligation devolves upon 

 those who have reaped in the world's markets the 

 fruit of scientific discovery to provide from their 

 harvest the financial aid without which scientific 

 research cannot be continued. 



The truth of this statement is well understood by 

 those of our great industrial leaders who are engaged 

 in translating the results of scientific research into 

 technical practice. As evidence of this I may quote 

 the magnificent donation of 2io,oooZ. by the British 

 ml companies towards the endowment of the school 

 of chemistry in the University of Cambridge; the 

 noble bequest of the late Dr. Messel, one of the most 

 enlightened of our technical chemists, for defi-aying 

 the cost of scientific research; the gifts of the late 

 Dr. Ludwig Mond towards the upkeep and expansion 

 of the Royal Institution, one of the strongholds of 

 British chemical research; and the financial support 

 given bv the Goldsmiths' and others of the great City 

 of London Livery Companies (initiated largely by the 

 late Sir Frederick Abel, Sir Frederick Bramwell, and 

 Mr. George Matthev) to the foundation of the Im- 

 perial College of Science and Technology. The men 



NO. 2654, VOL". 106] 



who initiated these gifts have been themselves 

 intimately associated with developments in both 

 science and industry ; they have understood that the 

 field must be prepared belore the crop can be reaped. 

 Fortunately, our great cliemical inaustries are, for 

 the most part, controlled and administered by men 

 fully conversant with the mode in which technical 

 progress and prosperity follow upon scientific achieve- 

 ment ; and it is my pleasant duty to record that within 

 the last few weeks the directors of one of our greatest 

 chemical manufacturing concerns have, with the con- 

 sent of their shareholders, devoted ioo,ooo2. to re- 

 search. Doubtless other chemical industries will in 

 due course realise what they have to gain by an 

 adequate appreciation of pure science. If the effort 

 now being n^ade to establish a comprehensive scheme 

 for the resuscitation of chemical industry within our 

 Empire is to succeed, financial support on a very 

 liberal scale must be forthcoming from the industry 

 itself for the advancement of purely scientific re- 

 search. This question has been treated recently in 

 so able a fashion by Lord Moulton that nothing now 

 remains but to await the results of his appeal 

 for funds in aid of the advancement of pure science. 



In order to prevent disappointment and a possible 

 reaction in the future in those who endow pure re- 

 search, it is necessary to give a word of warning 

 It must be remembered that the history of science 

 abounds in illustrations of discoveries, regarded at the 

 time as trivial, which have in after-years become epoch- 

 making. In illustration I would cite Faraday's discovery 

 of electro-magnetic induction. He found that when a 

 bar-magnet was thrust into the core of a bobbin of 

 insulated copper wire, the terminals of which were 

 connected with a galvanometer, a momentary current 

 was produced ; while on withdrawing the magnet a 

 momentary reverse current occurred— a purely 

 scientific experiment destined in later years to develop 

 into the dynamo and with it the whole electrical 

 industry. Another illustration may be given : Guyton 

 de Morveau, Northmore, Davy, Faraday, and 

 Cagniard Latour between 1800 and 1850 were engaged 

 in liquefying many of the gases. Hydrogen, oxygen, 

 nitrogen, marsh gas, carbon monoxide, and nitric 

 oxide, however, resisted all efforts until the work of 

 Joule and Andrews gave the clue to the causes of 

 failure. Some thirty years later, by careful applica- 

 tion of the theoretical considerations, all the gases 

 were liquefied. The liquefaction of oxygen and 

 nitrogen now forms the basis of a very large and 

 important industry. 



Such cases can be multiplied indefinitely in all 

 branches of science. 



Perhaps the most pressing need of the present day 

 lies in the cultivation of a better understanding 

 between our great masters of productive industry, the 

 shareholders to vt'hom they are in the first degree 

 responsible, and our scientific workers ; if, by reason 

 of any turbiditv of vision, our large manufacturing 

 corporations fail to discern that, in their own interest, 

 the financial support of purely scientific research 

 should be one of their first cares, technical advance 

 will slacken, and other nations adopting a more far- 

 sighted policy will forge ahead in science and techno- 

 logy. It should, I venture to think, be the bounden 

 duty of everyone who has at heart the aims and 

 objects of the British .Association to preach the 

 doctrine that in closer sympathy between all classes 

 of productive labour, manual and intellectual, lies our 

 only hope for the future. I cannot do better than 

 conclude bv quoting the words of Pope, one of our 

 most characteristically British poets : 



By mutual con6dence and mutual aid 



Great deeds arc done and great discoveries made. 



