NATURE IL 



419 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1915. 



INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH LABORATORIES. 



THE application of science to industry is a 

 subject which the war has brought to the 

 lorefront in the most striking- way possible; and 

 it is beg-inning to be understood how essential to 

 industrial development is scientific research, 

 whether carried on purely with the motive of in- 

 creasing natural knowledge, or in laboratories 

 where financially profitable solutions of practical 

 problems are the chief aims. 



One of the most interesting characteristics 

 of the development of industrial organisations 

 during recent years has been the establish- 

 ment of industrial research laboratories. A 

 laboratory for the testing of the materials em- 

 ployed, and of the finished products of a manu- 

 facturing firm, is an essential part of every 

 modern works. The newer laboratories, how- 

 ever, show that manufacturers are realising the 

 necessity for scientific research in those branches 

 of science with which their industry is most 

 closely connected. They realise that it is not 

 enough to ensure that the apparatus and machin- 

 ery that is manufactured is up to standard, and 

 to effect those minor improvements in detail 

 which become evident from careful and systematic 

 tests; but that it is necessary for the advance- 

 ment of their work to carry out scientific in- 

 vestigations, A great deal can be said in favour 

 of this work being done by central State institu- 

 tions adequately equipped and provided with an 

 efficient staff for carrying out such researches as 

 may be desired by the manufacturers. Such 

 laboratories exist at present in this and other 

 countries. 



The work of the National Physical Laboratory 

 is known to all, and the value of what has been 

 done in making tests and measurements on all 

 kinds of material and apparatus is universally 

 recognised. In America the Bureau of Standards 

 is now established on a scale princely in com- 

 parison with our laboratory at Teddington. In 

 Germany the " Reichsanstalt " and the "Ver- 

 suchsanstalt," for investigating the properties of 

 materials used in engineering structures, have 

 proved of enormous value. The engineering and 

 scientific laboratories of the universities and 

 higher technical schools have also contributed no 

 small share to the increase of our knowledge of 

 facts essential to the advancement of industry. 



In such investigations as those on the proper- 

 ties of materials, standardisation of specifications, 

 NO. 2407, VOL. 96] 



and work of a character which necessitates strict 

 impartiality as between different manufacturers, 

 there is no doubt that State institutions provide 

 the only practical method of doing what is re- 

 quired. For experiments on a large scale where 

 it is necessary to use the manufacturing facilities 

 of a large factory to the utmost, for example, in 

 the development of new types of engine or of 

 improved constructional work, it seems equally 

 clear that the manufacturer is the only person 

 who can undertake the research work that may 

 be required effectively. 



The war has already led to a more intimate 

 association between the scientific worker and the 

 manufacturer than has ever existed before in this 

 country ; a result which has been due very largely 

 to the overwhelming evidence which Germany 

 has provided of the effects such co-operation has 

 been able to produce on her industries. 



To carry out researches in a factory requires 

 the service of scientifically trained men who will 

 undertake investigations in a scientific way, and 

 will co-ordinate the results with the least possible 

 expenditure of time and energy. If time is to 

 be saved by eliminating suggested improve- 

 ments which are not based on sound scientific 

 principles, it is essential that the work should be 

 done by people who have a thorough groundwork 

 of scientific knowledge. They need not neces- 

 sarily be highly skilled in the technique of the 

 process they are investigating, though a good 

 knowledge of applied science is an invaluable 

 asset to such an investigator. 



Most manufacturers will acknowledge that it 

 is to scientifically trained men working in well- 

 equipped research laboratories that the greater 

 part of industrial progress is due. Such men 

 must be endowed with a critical scientific faculty 

 and be able to avoid the pitfalls that trap the un- 

 trained inventor. In an article by Mr. Little in 

 the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chem- 

 istry, some facts are given about the progress of 

 these laboratories in the United States. He cites 

 the famous Edison laboratories as an example 

 of what has been done in this direction. The 

 Eastman Kodak Company has large laboratories 

 for purely scientific investigations. The Du Pont 

 Powder Company employs 250 trained chemists 

 with laboratories spread over sixty acres of 

 ground. But perhaps the most interesting example 

 of what is being done in this direction by large 

 firms in America is the research laboratory of 

 the General Electric Company of Schenectady. 



This laboratory started on quite a small scale 

 about fourteen years ago. It now occupies a 



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