1 84 



NATURE 



[October 14, 1915 



from eager inventors and that their work was con- 

 fidential, but this argument is scarcely valid because 

 the names of the members of other inventions com- 

 mittees, such as those afterwards appointed by the 

 Admiralty and the Ministry of Munitions, were made 

 public. The publication of the names of members in 

 no way necessitates the publication of information as 

 to their work. In the formation of such committees 

 the important qualification should be not merely scien- 

 tific or theoretical learning, but sufficient practical 

 knowledge of the matters considered. 



The men whose opinions are valuable on war inven- 

 tions are the men who have to use them, namely, 

 experienced military and naval officers. Again, the 

 value of an invention can usually only be estimated 

 by a practical trial, and this means expenditure. It 

 is an almost impossible matter to judge of an invention 

 merely from a written description. An idea may be 

 old or a method mav be familiar, and yet it may be 

 carried out in detail in such a manner as to have 

 great practical value under certain conditions. The 

 ability to form a correct judgment of an enp-ineering 

 invention requires a very wide experience, since it is 

 not easy to appreciate the good points or anticipate 

 the defects of an invention or suggestion or idea which 

 has not been put to the test of practice. Nevertheless, 

 the experts appointed by the Ministry of Munitions are 

 doing valuable work in sifting out the useful ideas 

 from the hundreds already submitted to them. 



It is beyond any doubt that this war is a war 

 of engineers and chemists quite as much as of 

 soldiers. 



The 42-cm. Krupp gun which smashed in a few 

 days the fortifications of Li^ge, Namur, and Antwerp, 

 which were confidently expected to hold out for 

 months, is only a piece of heavy engineering. The 

 complete gun weighs 87 tons, and the foundations or 

 carriage 37 tons. Two hundred men are necessary to 

 erect and work each gun, which requires twelve 

 railway wagons for its transport and is composed of 

 172 parts. It takes twenty-five to twenty-six hours to 

 erect in place. The projectile or shell weighs 8 cwt., 

 and is 5' 4" long and i6|" diameter. It is fired elec- 

 trically from a distance of about a quarter of a mile, 

 and each shot costs 550Z. The range at which the 

 Li^ge forts were destroyed was fourteen miles. The 

 mere transport and erection of this gun, let alone its 

 manufacture, demands engineering knowledge of a 

 special kind. It is the same with smaller arms. The 

 rifle, except as a support for a bayonet, has almost 

 become obsolete in face of the machine gun. 



To win this war we have to achieve engineering 

 feats. The mammoth howitzer, the great armoured 

 triple-engined aeroplane, and the quick-firing machine 

 guns are all products of the engineer's workshop, and 

 the pivot round which all Germany's maleficent power 

 turns is Krupp 's works at Essen, and the chemical 

 and ammunition factories in Westphalia. The knock- 

 out blow will be given at those points, and they must 

 be reached through the air if trench work proves too 

 slow. 



But in addition to the concentration of engineer- 

 ing knowledge and skill on the problems of the war, 

 we have to think as well of what will come after. 

 What is required is not merely opinions on inventions 

 already made, but the proper organisation of inventive 

 power and scientific research to bring about new and 

 useful results. This is only to be achieved by bring- 

 ing to bear adequate combined inventive or scientific 

 power on definite problems which are not too far 

 removed from practical possibilities. 



We have as yet made scarcely any progress in the 



creation of a disciplined army of scientific workers 



which shall embrace all the abilities in the Empire. 



We are still in the stage which by comparison with 



NO. 2398, VCL. 96] 



an army is that of a mob of civilians equipped for 

 war with shot guns and sticks. 



One reason tor this, I think, is because our chief 

 scientific body, the Royal Society, has not taken upon 

 itself more the function of guiding and assisting the 

 general direction of research and invention. 



The real function of the Royal Society should be to 

 organise, direct, influence, assist, and promote scien- 

 tific research, and to do it by an efficient organisation 

 embracing the whole of its fellows. It represents, or 

 should represent, the very best ability in all depart- 

 ments of scientific knowledge, and it should be 

 organised into grand committees of subjects, 

 as suggested by Prof. Armstrong, on one or 

 more of which every fellow should have his place. 

 The work of these grand committees should be to 

 guide and instigate research in their own departments, 

 to organise general discussions on leading questions 

 in the manner undertaken of late years by the British 

 Association, and to help to direct towards common and 

 important ends the powers of scientific investigation 

 in our universities and colleges. 



_ The special and technical societies provide the facili- 

 ties required for the reading of papers. A paper on 

 physics, chemistry, or engineering as a rule receives 

 better discussion and criticism if read at the Physical, 

 Chemical, or Engineering Societies than at the Royal 

 Society, and the discussion on a paper, if proper time 

 and notice are given, is often quite as valuable as the 

 paper itself. Although the individualistic method of 

 research in which each scientific worker takes up 

 whatever kind of research he pleases has produced 

 good results in the past and is in agreement with our 

 national characteristics, it is a serious question whether 

 we shall not have to put limits to it in the future. 

 The problems which await solution require in many 

 cases combined or co-operative research. One of the 

 most useful improvements in the proceedings of our 

 learned societies would be the devotion of more time 

 to well-organised and predetermined subjects of debate 

 with the object of advancing knowledge at the boun- 

 daries of cognate sciences. 



This applies to the purely scientific problems, as 

 well as to the problems of industrial research. It 

 must be remembered that, after this war is over, in a 

 military sense we shall immediately commence another 

 war of a different kind, in which the weapons will 

 not be bullets and shells, but our national powers of 

 invention, scientific research, commercial organisation, 

 manufacturing capabilities, and education, and these 

 will be pitted against those of a highly organised 

 Germany determined to win back in commerce by 

 any and every means, fair or foul, that which has been 

 lost in war. 



That commercial and industrial war will be waged by 

 our enemies with the same ruthlessness and neglect of 

 all scruples as their military operations. We have said 

 good-bye now and for ever to those easy-going amateur 

 British methods which have held us in' the past. What 

 we require is to obtain a higher percentage efficiencv 

 in all our operations. We have to attain larger and 

 better results in education, scientific research, and 

 industrial work to increase our national output in 

 every way. 



We have been buying dyes, chemicals, optical instru- 

 ments, and drugs from Germany, glass from Austria, 

 arc light carbons, electric machinery, and a hundred 

 other things we have no need to buy, and the reason 

 is that we have been shirking the effort and research 

 necessary to make them as cheaply or as well at home. 

 But the England with a national debt of 2000-3000 

 millions sterling will be a different kind of place to 

 live in from the England of the year before last, and 

 we shall have to adapt ourselves to the new conditions 

 bv new methods of work. 



