MATURE 



65 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 1922. 



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British Scientific Instruments. 



THE exhibition of British scientific instruments 

 held under the auspices of the Physical 

 Society and the Optical Society at the Imperial 

 College of Science and Technology, of which a 

 description was given in our columns last week, is 

 a timely reminder of the importance of scientific 

 instruments in the national economy. Modern civil- 

 isation is based, and must be increasingly depen- 

 dent, on the extension of scientific knowledge and 

 its applications to industry; and in these develop- 

 ments scientific instruments are an essential and 

 predominant factor. 



Of the part played by scientific instruments in 

 the advancement of scientific knowledge there is 

 no need to speak. The laboratories of the universi- 

 ties and kindred institutions where scientific re- 

 search is prosecuted would be disabled were they 

 without scientific instruments of the highest trust- 

 worthiness and precision. The variety and extent of 

 the industrial purposes served by scientific instru- 

 ments are so great that there is probably no im- 

 portant industry in the country which is not depend- 

 ent on scientific instruments of one kind or another 

 for the performance of its productive functions. 

 Moreover, the field of application of scientific in- 

 struments is constantly widening; the uses of the 

 microscope in the textile and steel industries, of the 

 polarimeter in the sugar and essential oil industries, 

 of the pyrometer in the metallurgical industry, and 

 of X-rays in the iron and steel industries, are but 

 a few of the many examples that could be cited to 

 illustrate the invasion of scientific instruments into 

 NO. 2725, VOL. 109] 



fields of industry in which they were at one time 

 unknown. That the industries gain in sureness and 

 accuracy and in a deeper and wider knowledge of 

 the fundamental scientific principles involved is 

 obvious. And the process continues and must con- 

 tinue. To-morrow new instruments will be devised 

 and new uses found for old instruments. 



Moreover, as was stated in the leading article 

 published in Nature of February 10, 192 1, the 

 scientific instrument industry, springing directly 

 from the loins of science, and progressing as scien- 

 tific knowledge widens, is one of the most highly 

 skilled industries we have. Its expansion means a 

 definite increase in the numbers of academic and 

 technical scientific workers and of the most highly 

 skilled artisans; and the national wealth, in any 

 comprehensive conception of the term, must be en- 

 larged by the increase of the numbers of such 

 educated and skilled classes. 



For these and other reasons a flourishing and 

 efficient scientific instrument industry is vital to the 

 nation, whether in peace or war. And, although it 

 is obvious that the users of scientific instruments, 

 whether in the industrial or academic domain, must 

 not be prejudiced or hampered by being unable to 

 obtain the best instruments, from whatever source, 

 it would be a disaster of the first magnitude if 

 British scientific instruments should not be produced 

 equal to the best that the world has to offer. 



If in some classes British scientific instruments 

 fall somewhat below the standard of foreign instru- 

 ments, in others they are unquestionably superior. 

 It would be invidious to particularise minutely, but 

 the following statement by the manager of a British 

 firm of optical instrument makers, writing in the 

 Morning Post of October i last, may be given in 

 illustration : — 



" In connection with the manufacture of optical 

 instruments for research, a search has been made 

 throughout the premier journals of the world 

 devoted to physical science for the years 19 10 to 

 1914. In each of them, in the Proceedings and 

 Transactions of the Royal Society and in the 

 Philosophical Magazine (Great Britain) ; in the 

 Physical Review and the Astrophysical Journal 

 (United States) ; in the Comftes rcndus (France) ; 

 and in the Annalen der Physik (Germany), there 

 were without exception more references to instru- 

 ments made by my firm here in London than to 

 those of any other makers whatsoever. In the case 

 of the Annalen der Physik there were 50 per cent, 

 more references to my firm than to any other, the 

 firm mentioned next in order of frequency being a 

 well-known German one." 



Facts like these are not so widely known, even 

 among British scientific workers, as thev should be. 



