NATURE 



[March 28, 19 18 



dwelling-room decoration, the writer having kept a 

 plant in excellent condition for twenty-six years. 



In connection with the insular distribution of palms, 

 it may be added that New Zealand, the Kermadec 

 Islands, Norfolk Island, Juan Fernandez, and Ber- 

 muda each possess one species of palm, which seems 

 to indicate a very ancient vegetation. The coconut 

 is left out of consideration here, because Mr. O. F. 

 Cook seems to have proved beyond doubt that it is of 

 American origin, and that it owes its present distribu- 

 tion almost entirely to human agency. 



W. BOTTING HeMSLEY. 



NATWNAL LABORATORIES AND 



INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT.^ 



I. 



A National Industrial Research Laboratory. 

 Q OME seventeen years ago I spoke in this room on 

 *-^ " The Aijns of the National Physical Laboratory." 

 1 endeavoured to make clear the reasons for its estab- 

 lishment and to indicate some of the work we hoped 

 to accomplish. I concluded :— " It has been my wish 

 to state in general terms the aim of the laboratory to 

 make the advances of physical science more readily 

 available for the nation, and then to illustrate the way 

 in which it is intended to attain these aims. I trust 

 I may have shown that the National Physical Labora- 

 tory is an institution which may deservedly claim the 

 cordial support of all who are interested in real pro- 

 gress." 



Much has happened since then ; how far we can 

 assert that we have made good is for others to say. 

 At any rate, our growth and the generous aid we have 

 been given by many valued friends are evidence that the 

 support for which I asked has not been wanting. And 

 now that another great change in our position is about 

 to take place and, as I trust, a wider sphere of useful- 

 ness is offered to us, it is not unfitting to put on record 

 something of what has been done and to indicate, 

 though it must only be in general terms, plans for the 

 future. "Plans for the future": to-day it is hard to 

 plan; one thought only fills all our minds, and everv 

 effort is needed to secure that victory without which 

 future plans are useless. 



Let me commence, then, with a few statistics as to 

 growth and work. In 1901 the staff consisted of three 

 scientific assistants working in some small rooms at 

 the Kew Observatory, and the former observatory staff ; 

 the income was perhaps 5000^. When I lectured last 

 arrangements were in progress for moving the labora- 

 tory to Bushy House, Teddington. To-day — or rather 

 from April i, 19 18 — we shall be organised in eight 

 different departments, each with its own superinten- 

 dent and a large staff of scientific assistants and ob- 

 servers. The staff now numbers well above 500 per- 

 sons, of whom about 180 are women. The expenditure 

 during the current financial year will be considerably 

 above loo.oooZ. 



As to finance, it may be of interest to give some 

 figures. The ordinary expenditure— excluding sums 

 spent on capital account — increased from 5479!. in 1900 

 to 38,003^. in 1913-14, the total income from January, 

 1900, to March 31, 1914, being 282,545?. The sources 

 •of this income were distributed thus : — 



Treasury grants to the laboratory 

 Treasury grants for aeronautics 



Receipts for work done 



Donations 



;^8o,5oo 



20,182 



166,633 



15,230 



;^282,S45 



^ Abridged from two lectures delivered at the Royal Institution on 

 February 26 and March 5 by Sir R. T. Glazebrook, C.B., F.R.S. 



NO. 2526, VOL, lOl] 



During the same period the capital expenditure was 

 156, 198^., provided thus: — 



;6>5>94i 



• 55.967 



24,290 



From Treasury grants 

 From private donations 

 Provided out of income 



;^ 1 56,19s 



The enormous growth in expenditure from 38,000/. 

 in 1913-14 to more than 100,000/. this year is, of 

 course, due to the war. 



During this period the ultimate control of the labora- 

 tory has rested in all particulars with the president and 

 council of the Royal Society. They have been respon- 

 sible for the finances of the institution. Any loss — I 

 am glad to say there has been no loss — would have 

 fallen on the funds of the society; the laboratory, in 

 spite of its name "National," has really been a private 

 concern of the Royal Society, supported most cordially 

 throughout by six of the leading technical societies, 

 and dependent for part of its income on a grant-in-aid 

 from the Treasury, but in the main from th6 receipts 

 from fees. 



From April i of this year there is to be a change. The 

 scientific control of the laboratory is still to be exer- 

 cised by the president and council of the Royal Society ; 

 the property of the laboratory is to be vested in the 

 Imperial Trust for the Encouragement of Scientific and 

 Industrial Research — it is now vested in the Royal 

 Society. The income of the laboratory, including re- 

 ceipts from fees, is to be vested in, and is to be under 

 the control of, the Committee of the Privy Council for 

 Scientific and Industrial Research. The laboratory 

 will be managed by an Executive Committee appointed 

 as heretofore, and containing representatives of the 

 great technical societies. In this manner it is hoped 

 to secure financial stability and to retain at the same 

 time the great benefits which have come from the 

 close connection with the Royal Society. 



In the future, as in the past, the laboratory will en- 

 deavour to discharge two functions ; it will be a labora- 

 tory of industrial research, and a national testing in- 

 stitution or proving house. To-day we deal with the 

 laboratory of industrial research. 



Industrial research — what is it? In recent years 

 much has been written on this subject; the idea of a 

 laboratory devoted to industrial research is by no means 

 novel, and the steps by which, ordinarily a scientific 

 discovery develops into a manufacturing process are 

 generally recognised. First and foremost we have the 

 research student impelled by his thirst for knowledge ; 

 his desire to penetrate ever deeper into the mysteries 

 of Nature; he does not work with the deliberate inten- 

 tion of making something of service to humanity. 

 Faraday's discoveries of electromagnetic laws, made in 

 this building, were at first as useless as the new-born 

 babe, but had vv'ithin them that power and potency 

 whicii have transformed the industry of the world. 

 Rontgen, when he discovered X-rays, or J. J. Thom- 

 son, when he tracked down ions and corpuscles in the 

 manner he has often demonstrated here, thought little 

 of their application to surgery and the countless bene- 

 fits they have brought to suffering humanity. 



There must be institutions where research work is 

 carried on for its own sake, where — to apply Sir J. J. 

 Thomson's recent remark — men may make discoveries 

 which may revolutionise and not merely reform the 

 world, where they may train students in those funda- 

 mental law's and principles which must be at the root 

 of every successful endeavour to apply science to in- 

 dustry. But there is a wide gap between such homes 

 of science and the works of the manufacturer, and it 

 is to fill this that laboratories of industrial research are 

 needed. 



