3^4 



NATURE 



[February 14, 1901 



Dr. Sorby. spoke as follows : — 



What he proposed that evening was to say something with 

 regard to the interdependence of the different branches of 

 knowledge. He would speak only of physical science, and he 

 would confine his remarks to what bore directly on the Technical 

 School. He was very sorry to say that as things were at present 

 many looked upon the University College as quite a distinct 

 thing from the Technical School. Unfortunately there were 

 two buildings, and he thought that had something to do with 

 the idea. But he did hope that before long there would not be 

 two buildings. He hoped they would succeed in erecting a 

 University College that would include all the branches, and he 

 would very much like to see written over the door: " Scienlia 

 una et indivisa." 



He took it that he might assume that knowledge such as they 

 were trying to teach in the University College might be divided 

 into two divisions — what they might be pleased to call science, 

 theoretical and practical. Now he maintained that the division 

 between theory and practice was perfectly evanescent. It might 

 be convenient to divide them, as it was convenient to divide 

 yesterday and to-morrow ; but when to-morrow came, to-morrow 

 would not be to-morrow. It was the same with theory and 

 practice in science. What was looked upon to-day as abstract 

 theory, and of no practical use, would probably be to-morrow 

 the foundation of some most important practical question which 

 would revolutionise the whole world. He could not call it a 

 feud, but the division of these two branches — theory and practice 

 — was now non-existent. He was afraid that a good many 

 people looked upon some branches of the subjects which were 

 studied in the college as of not very much use, simply because 

 they did not enable them to make puddings or construct any- 

 thing else. He maintained that that was a very false view of the 

 matter. Now, he had often heard in years gone by that theory 

 was no good ! What was wanted was good practical know- 

 ledge. In illustrating that idea, he would refer to a matter he 

 recollected when we were carrying on the war in the Crimea. 

 It was said that when the Russians built Sebastopol they fur- 

 nished the labourers with wheelbarrows. The men had never 

 seen a wheelbarrow before, and they filled them with earth and 

 carried them on their backs. They could very well imagine 

 some accomplished Russian officers pointing out the advantage 

 of the wheelbarrow, and telling them how much labour might be 

 saved by pushing the barrows instead of carrying them. Some 

 of those labourers might have replied that they did not care a 

 bit for what the officer said ; what they really wanted was a good 

 practical knowledge of how to carry the wheelbarrow on their 

 backs. It was not so many years ago that one heard similar 

 remarks to this in reference to a great many other subjects than 

 wheelbarrows. He thought he might even say that in some 

 cases pure theory was much more practical than practice. 



There were cases where they could obtain a result with ease 

 and accuracy by calculation, and if they attempted to do it by 

 practice they would not do it so easily, and they would not do it 

 with anything like accuracy. In such a case he held that theory, 

 after all, was the much more practical of the two. He had been 

 talking to Dr. Hicks about a subject for a lecUire which he 

 hoped to give from that desk in time to come, and he suggested 

 as the title of that lecture, " The value of knowledge thought 

 to be useless." There were no end of interesting illustrations to 

 be found, and he was sure it would be a very good subject for a 

 popular lecture. He could not help slightly trenching on that 

 lecture because it had a lot to do with what he was trying to 

 point out that evening. Some 2500 or 3000 years ago it was 

 iound that if )ou rubbed amber on cloth or anything of a 

 similar nature it would attract little bits of paper. The Greek 

 word for amber was " Electron." What would anybody have 

 thought in those days if any one had said that if you only 

 studied that peculiarity a little more you would be able to have 

 iramcars with; halfpenny fares ? He need not describe what 

 would have been the opinion of people in those days on that 

 subject. Then again, the lodestone was called by a word which 

 ultimately led to the word " magnetism." It was known that 

 lodestone would attract bits of iron, and he believed it was Pliny 

 who said that it had "such a great love for iron that it pulled 

 pieces of iron to it." No doubt that idea and very little more 

 than that notion existed for something like i5chd years. Then 

 somebody found out that you could magnetise a needle, and that 

 it would point to the north, and shipping was entirely revolu- 

 tionised. Then again, Galvani, fortunately, was taken ill, and 

 it was thought it would be a very good thing for him to have 



NO. 1633, VOL. 63] 



some frogs for dinner. When the cook placed the frogs' legs on 

 the pewter plate on which they were served she noticed that they 

 began to kick. She thought this very curious and drew Galvani's 

 attention to it. The result was the discovery of Galvanism. These 

 things were known for a very long time. He remembered the time 

 before the principle of electro-plating was discovered. He recalled 

 the man who discovered how to electro-plate with silver. They 

 used to entertain themselves with making galvanic batteries and 

 trying experiments. He remembered very well that his friend 

 said, " Well, now, Sorby, I don't see any reason why we should 

 not study these things, although people say that electricity is a 

 thing that can never be of any use to anybody." What would 

 anybody say if that remark were made to-day? 



About thirty-six years ago he pointed out how very important 

 was the investigation of the microscopical study of iron and 

 steel. He read a paper at the British Association meeting at 

 Bath, and his specimens were exhibited before the Royal Society. 

 They were very much admired, and thought very pretty, but for 

 twenty-three years nobody did anything ; nobody took the 

 slightest interest in the subject. Eventually the Iron and Steel 

 Institute asked him to read a paper on the subject. He did so, 

 and the result was that the study of the microscopic structure of 

 iron and steel was now thought of great importance. One felt 

 very pleased to think that things had moved so, because this 

 microscopic investigation, which was so long dormant, was now 

 employed in almost every civilised country, and he was very 

 proud to think that the Sheffield Technical School was at the 

 front so far as this subject was concerned. Prof. Arnold, whom 

 he very greatly regretted was ill, was selected by the Admiralty 

 to make an investigation into the structure of the steel 

 shaft which failed _ on one of H.M.'s torpedo boats. Prof. 

 Andrews was also an authority on the structure of steel rails, and 

 he was often consulted in connection with railway accidents. 

 He did not want to occupy too much time, but what he did wish 

 to impress on his audience was this, that judging by the experi- 

 ence of years gone by there was nothing that you could discover 

 that might not turn out to be of the greatest possible value. 

 You could not say that it would, but you could not say that it 

 would not. As an example, some few years ago a friend of his 

 was examining under the microscope with a very high power the 

 blood discs in the blood of frogs, and he discovered in these 

 blood discs certain curious little things which were found to be 

 very minute parasitic animals. If they had mentioned this to 

 the man in the street he would have thought that it was a most 

 absurd idea to pay much attention to a thing like that. But a 

 further study of that subject had led to the knowledge of the 

 real cause of a disease which in India killed annually about as 

 many people as the whole of the population of England, and 

 not only had they learned the cause of the disease, but there 

 was every probability that they would succeed in putting a stop 

 to it. The magnitude of the result was almost incomputable. 



He could liken them all to a small colony on a big continent. 

 They made a few roads and settled down. But if they were 

 content with these few roads and never troubled themselves 

 about the backland, how would they progress? Some other 

 country would take the backland. What they wanted was to 

 explore the unknown ; to march to the top of some mountain 

 and look down on the country never seen before by civilised 

 eyes. They would then find valuable gold mines, coal, and all 

 manner of things. If they were content with what they knew 

 they would make no progress. They might hold their own, 

 but he did not know whether they would do that. They should 

 try to learn fresh things. His friend, Alderman Clegg, was 

 about to distribute the prizes, which were all very well in their 

 way, but he should like to see them win prizes for original 

 research, to make discoveries and invent new industries, and 

 conquer the trade of the world. They ought to develop the 

 manufactures in this city in such a way that they might beat the 

 Germans and the Americans, so that they might capture the 

 trade of the whole world in their particular department. This 

 electric railway in London — the only thing that was English 

 about it was the tunnel. The only thing about that railway that 

 was made in England was the tunnel. Everything else was 

 American. It has even been said that it was surprising that the 

 tunnel had not been sent to America to be made. But they did 

 not want that sort of thing to go on, and in order to prevent it 

 they must have no rivalry between theory and practice in science. 

 He hoped they would be able on another occasion to meet in a 

 building worthy of the town, and where all these different 

 subjects would be correlated and united in one. 



