128 



NATURE 



[September 30, 19 15 



worth anything is immediately known in other coun- 

 tries, but I need not argue to this section that the 

 country which actually produces the inventions is at ai 

 great advantage quite apart from the royalties pay- 

 able on foreign patents. The foundation of the Muni- 

 tions Invention Panel is a step in the right direction 

 and will doubtless be followed later on by Government 

 Committees for peace inventions. Such Committees 

 or Government Departments dealing with various in- 

 dustries will be assisted by suggestions from a body 

 like this. Take, for instance, the present state of 

 Colonial patents; within the last few years one Com- 

 monwealth patent has been made to cover the whole 

 of Australia, instead of there being, as of old, separate 

 patents with different regulations and fees for each 

 separate Colony. South Africa has not yet conferred 

 a similar boon upon inventors, and we might do 

 something to expedite this desirable innovation. But 

 this touches the much wider question of Colonial Patent 

 Laws as a whole. These are all different and differ 

 from those of the Mother Country. It would be a 

 splendid thing if we could bring, about a conference 

 leading to unification of these diverse Patent Laws and 

 have one comprehensive Patent Law for the whole 

 Empire. 



A matter in which the German system has 

 certain advantages, is in having two classes of 

 patents. One of these Is the patent "proper," which 

 is only granted after the .most severe search and criti- 

 cism and holds the usual period when granted. The 

 other is a secondary patent granted for the shorter 

 term of six years, and is given for one of the hundred 

 and one niinor improvements and devices which, 

 though of real value, only constitute small modifica- 

 tions in detail and not new applications of principle. 



(The president stated that he believed German 

 patents were fairly granted to foreign applicants, 

 but the common view to the contrary was sup- 

 ported by such statements as in the prospectus ot 

 the Deutsche Maschinenfabrik, which runs as fol- 

 lows : — "With the present-day competition every firm 

 is compelled to protect its new designs by means of 

 patents, and watch that no other patents are granted 

 which would seriously effect {sic affect) it.") 



There are other matters, such as the question of 

 giving wider powers to our Comptroller to refuse a 

 grant where novelty is less than microscopic. Here 

 again the German system of demanding that some 

 definite principle is applied to produce some definitely 

 new effect, mig^ht to some extent be followed, especially 

 in view of the constant accumulation of published 

 devices, some patented and others not. 



I will conclude this section, which is far from ex- 

 haustive, by pointing- out what a debt of gratitude 

 engineers and others owe to the Patent Office for the 

 manner in which the work of producing illustrated 

 abstracts of all patents has been, and is being, done, 

 and the weekly issue of the Patent Journal, but this 

 may be associated with the suggestion that it would be 

 a real convenience if, instead of the delay which often 

 occurs, the abstract appeared at the same time or 

 Immediately after the publication of the complete 

 specification. 



Organisation. 



This, I venture to think, is by far the most impor- 

 tant question of any I have raised, and I will go so 

 far as to say that I believe it to be the all-important 

 one, as it practically embraces the others. If you do 

 not agree with me, I feel sure it is because we do not 

 understand the same thing by the word " organisa- 

 tion." When you speak of organisation to most 

 people they immediately seize upon some small feature 

 which may be to them of more immediate interest. 

 It may be the general arrang-emont of their accounts, 

 NO. 2396, VOL. 96] 



their system of store-keeping, of dealing with their 

 workmen, of the sales department, of fifty other minor 

 details. If you take this narrow view of organisation 

 you will, of course, at once say that a scientific man 

 has very little to do with it, and indeed the manu- 

 facturer as a rule, thinking of his works organisation, 

 scouts the idea that a man of science can either 

 know or have anything to say about it which is of 

 any value. 



Let me therefore take the dictionary definition. To 

 organise is to "arrange or constitute interdependent 

 parts, each having a special function, act, office, or 

 relation with respect to the whole." If we accept this 

 definition, which as a matter of fact we must, there 

 is no question as to the all-important nature of organ- 

 isation, for you will notice there are two outstanding 

 things. The first " interdependent parts " ; and the 

 second their "relation to the whole." Thus the sub- 

 ject of organisation really includes the whole of in- 

 dustry. It includes science and its relation to manu- 

 facture. It includes the relations between the em- 

 ployers and employee. It includes the workman, and 

 his attitude towards new devices, labour-saving appli- 

 ances, and output. It includes the whole question of 

 the supply of raw materials, and even the sale and 

 delivery of the finished article. Taking these different 

 features, is there any doubt that the man of science 

 in this country can hold his own, and more than hold 

 his own, with that of any other? The history of 

 invention is quite enough to give a final answer to 

 this question. Again, the British employer and man 

 of affairs has always shown himself individually in the 

 forefront of enterprise ; as for the workman himself, 

 he is admitted, in the matter of intelligence, physical 

 endurance, and skill, to have no superior; while with 

 regard to materials for manufacture, and the power 

 of delivering goods, it need scarcely be said that the 

 British Empire, if we take it as a whole, is the richest 

 country in the world in raw materials, and its means 

 of delivery of its good is expressed by the enormous 

 preponderance of its mercantile marine. 



When we come, however, to these interdependent 

 parts and their relation to the whole, it is there that 

 we find the weak joint in the armour. It is in this 

 respect that Germany can teach us a striking lesson 

 in the arrangement of these interdependent parts with 

 respect to the whole. From the top to the bottom the 

 whole forces of their industries are so thoroughlv 

 organised that they get all that is humanly possible 

 out of the various factors. I do not limit this merely 

 to the wonderful organisation of any works, like 

 Krupps, or the Deutsche Maschinenfabrik, or hundreds 

 of other works, but I include the organisation of all 

 the Government Departments, together with the bank'^. 

 the railways, and the shipping, so that every facility 

 is afforded for the world commerce of the German 

 Empire. 



This co-ordination in Germany is carried out in 

 every industry in. a way we generally have little idea 

 of. For instance, the other day at a deputation to 

 the Government, Mr. Runciman remarked that the 

 difficulty _ of connecting the manufacturers with the 

 commercial staffs in this country is deep-seated, but 

 perhaps not altogether incurable. Further, that the 

 manufacturer must realise what he can get from the 

 universities, and the university must know what the 

 works require. Dr. Forster, the treasurer of the 

 Chemical Society, also said that " the Germans were 

 so imbued with the need of pursuing modern and 

 efficient methods of education, in applying science^ to 

 industry, that they hold in contempt a country which 

 notoriously neglects such processes " : and he attri- 

 buted this contempt as partly contributory to their 

 cheerfulness in entering into the war with us. 



