April 8, 1922] 



NA TURE 



457 



The British Cotton Industry Research Institute. 



^PHE new laboratories of the British Cotton Industry 

 A Research Association, at the Shirley Institute, 

 Didsbury, Manchester, were formally opened by 

 II.R.H. the Duke of York, K.G., on March 28. His 

 Royal Highness was welcomed by the Chairman of 

 the Council, Mr. Kenneth Lee, and the Director of 

 Research, Dr. A. W. Crossley, in the presence of 

 about 1500 guests, including representatives of most 

 of the Universities. Mr. Kenneth Lee gave a brief 

 review of the development of mechanical skill in 

 the cotton trade, and explained how it was that the 

 present leaders in the industry had become so con- 

 vinced of the need for scientific inquiry on a large 

 scale that, with the help and encouragement of the 

 Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, 

 they had established an Association for research on 

 a co-operative basis. He spoke appreciatively of 

 the help which University laboratories could con- 



centres of industry." These conditions are admir- 

 ably fulfilled in the Shirley Institute, to which 

 brief reference has already been made in Nature 

 (1920, vol. cvi. pp. 411-413). The house and 

 laboratories are nearly 250 yards from the main road, 

 the grounds are bounded on the south by open fields, 

 the prevailing winds leave the air free from the 

 smoke clouds of both Manchester and Stockport, 

 and the centre of the city can be reached in about 

 half an hour. 



The new laboratories have been designed to secure 

 maximum adaptability, since it is almost impossible 

 to predict which will be the predominant department 

 in a few years' time. A " unit size " room has been 

 created, and the separate laboratories are made in 

 multiples of this unit. All the equipment is, so far 

 as possible, uniform in design, and future extensions 

 of the laboratories will be carried out on the same 



Shirley Institute for Cotton Research. 



tribute, and pleaded for their sympathetic co-opera- 

 tion, but he explained that the application of scientific 

 methods and discoveries which were so much needed 

 by the industry could be rendered most effectively 

 by a group of scientific workers making their experi- 

 ments in a special institution where they could obtain 

 a closer knowledge of the processes involved than can 

 be gained during an academic career. 



His Royal Highness, in declaring the Institute 

 open, congratulated the Association on securing the 

 loyal support of the vast majority of the firms 

 engaged in the industry and the various organisations 

 of Labour, and emphasised the Imperial value of the 

 close union which existed between the Research 

 Association and the Empire Cotton-growing Corpora- 

 tion. 



So far back as May 23, 191 7, the opinion was 

 expressed at one of the meetings of the provisional com- 

 mittee which organised the Cotton Industry Research 

 Association that " the site of the Research Institute 

 should not be less than live acres in extent ; that 

 it should be in pleasant surroundings, free from 

 vibration due to traffic, and easily accessible both 

 from the University (of Manchester) and from the 



plan, so that the physics department, for example, 

 could be moved to another portion of the building 

 with the knowledge that all its furniture would fit 

 into the new rooms. 



The ground plan of the new laboratories, repre- 

 senting two-fifths of the projected scheme, is given 

 in Fig. 2. The completed portion is a one-storey 

 building, divided into a central block 170 ft. x 54 ft., 

 and an end block 83 ft. x 32 ft., the former being 

 subdivided by the entrance hall and a long corridor 

 into four departments each 22 ft. wide, which are 

 partitioned off by breeze-block walls into one-, two-, 

 or three-unit rooms as best adapted to the special re- 

 quirements of the department. The outer walls, 21 in. 

 thick, and the walls of the corridor bear the weight of 

 the saw-tooth roof, which provides for north lighting. 

 The span of each section of the roof is 10 ft. 6 in., 

 and therefore the " unit room " is 22 ft. x 10 ft. 6 in. 



All the supply lines, including 4-in. gas and water 

 mains, hot-water, steam, and compressed air circuits, 

 electric lighting and power cables, lead from the 

 special battery of twenty two-volt " Exide " cells, 

 and telephone wires are carried along a passage 5 ft. 

 high under the central corridor. The branch lines 

 for the different rooms of the central block are 



NO. 2735, VOL. 109] 



