March 28, 19 18] 



NATURE 



75 



Or, again, looking at our problem from the opposite i 

 ?i'le, a manufacturer has some question to solve — the j 

 utilisation of a waste product which, if it were not . 

 waste, would make all the difference between com- 

 mercial failure and success, the discovery of a material | 

 sith some special properties — e.g. a light alloy of 

 jieat strength at a high temperature — needed before a 

 <w machine can be completed. Such a man must 

 .tve access to a laboratory fitted and equipped for the 

 urpose with a trained staff having stored experience 

 us the result of previous work or researches on cog- 

 nate questions. Let me try to indicate some of the 

 methods in which the National Physical Laboratory 

 has endeavoured to fulfil these duties. 



Three of the researches referred to in my earlier 

 lecture related to the production of optical glass, the 

 • work of the Alloys Research Committee of the Insti- 

 tution of Mechanical Engineers, and the measurement 

 of wind pressure on various structures and surfaces. 

 On all these subjects much has been done. It was 

 some time before the authorities could be persuaded 

 that in neglecting to study the production of optical 

 glass in England they were adding seriously to the 

 risks and dangers of war. Many years ago a strong 

 committee, formed under the chairmanship of the 

 late Sir David Gill, took the matter up and laid before 

 the Government a scheme for a complete study of the 

 problem. Nothing was done until war taught us the 

 need for attending to key industries, but since then real 

 idvances have been made, not only at the laboratory, 

 ■ ut elsewhere also, and some of the more serious 

 difficulties of the problem have been overcome; it is 

 hoped that in the near future it may be possible to 

 introduce changes of procedure which will greatly 



t simplify the process of manufacture and lead to an 

 increased output. Closely bound up with this is the 

 study of the properties of refractory materials used in 

 furnaces and elsewhere. 



But it is sometimes urged: "Why do you need a 

 special laboratory for such work? Can it not be done 

 equally well in one of the university or technical 

 college laboratories? Is it not enough to multiply and 

 organise these, to bring the teachers into direct con- 

 tact with the manufacturers of their districts, and to 

 encourage the students at an early stage to interest 

 themselves in the scientific problems they will have to 

 solve later in their daily work?" To this my answer 

 would be that it is not enough. The primary work 

 of the professor is to teach and to advance knowledge, 

 while that of the student is to learn how to research and 

 to apply his knowledge. The professor will no doubt 

 keep in close contact with the industry, and take his 

 illustrations from the manufactures of his district, but 

 before his students can usefully engage in industrial 

 research they must have a thorough grasp of the prin- 

 ciples underlying all research and of the methods of 

 employing them. Industrial problems are usually too 

 complex for students, and, moreover, the answers are 

 wanted too rapidly to make them subjects of a 

 student's exercise; he will learn by failures; by the 

 inexperienced the right road is found at last only after 

 many tempting tracks leading nowhere have been 

 vainly tried. The manufacturer who comes with a 

 problem which cannot wait will be more sure to find 

 .1 solution if he applies to men whose daily work it 

 is to attempt such problems, and who have the experi- 

 ence of the past to guide them. Moreover, the plant 

 and equipment required are special ; the industrial re- 

 search laboratory must be fitted on the industrial 

 >cale. A rolling-mill is not an adjunct required in 

 every technical school where the principles of metal- 

 lurgy are taught, and vet without a rolling-mill the 

 study of the light alloys at the National Physical 

 Laboratory could not hav€ been brought to the pitch 

 NO. 2526, VOL. lOl] 



it has been. The plant and equipment of an industrial 

 research laboratory are provided for the purpose of 

 applying science to industry. The requirements of 

 students and the educational value of the apparatus 

 need not be studied. There must, of course, be many 

 specialised laboratories of industrial research; much 

 more than the National Physical Laboratory is re- 

 quired. 1 will return to that point later. At present 

 1 merely wish to urge that university and technical 

 college laboratories cannot fill all our needs. 



And now let me come back to another illustration 

 of the industrial research done at the laboratory closely 

 connected with our original work on wind pressure. 

 The Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was first 

 appointed in 1908 by Mr. Asquith, then Prime Minister. 

 It owes its inception to Lord Haldane, and much of 

 the experimental work which it has initiated, and 

 which has had so marked an effect on the efficiency 

 of British aircraft, has been carried out at the labora- 

 tory. At present there are five air channels in prac- • 

 tically continuous use, and more are being erected. 

 Some years ago I gave some account here of the work 

 by which Bairstow and Busk, starting from Bryan's 

 theory, had solved the problem of stability. It is 

 impossible to tell at present of the progress made since 

 that time, but when the day comes on which the tale 

 can be told it will form a striking example of the work 

 of a laboratory of industrial research, and the results 

 obtained for purposes of war will bear fruit in the 

 rapid progress of civilian aircraft. 



And now, turning to the future, let us consider what 

 is to be the position of the institution as a central 

 laboratory of industrial research. 



In a lecture delivered in Birmingham rather more 

 than a year ago, shortly after Lord Crewe had an- 

 nounced the formation of the Department of Scientific 

 and Industrial Research, I referred to such labora- 

 tories, and I said : — 



"There must be more than one; in many cases an 

 industry can be best served by a laboratory near its 

 principal centre. Large firms, again, may each prefer 

 to have their own trade secrets — this must be so to 

 some extent — and trade jealousies may interfere with 

 full co-operation, but a private laboratory on a really 

 sufficient scale is expensive ; too often it becomes little 

 more than what I have called a works laboratory for 

 testing the products of the factory, and, for the smaller 

 firms at least, the only way to secure the full advan- 

 tage of scienti|fic advance is by co-operation — co- 

 operation in the laboratory, co-operation, with special- 

 isation in production, in the works themselves. . . . 



"The body controlling industrial science research 

 must have access to a laboratory in which may be 

 studied the many problems which do not require for 

 their elucidation appliances of the more specialised 

 ' works ' character, or opportunities onh' to be found 

 in particular localities ; where a staff is available, able 

 and experienced, ready to attack under the advice of 

 men skilled in industry the technical difficulties met 

 with in applying new discoveries on a manufac- 

 turing scale or to develop ideas which promise future 

 success. 



" Such a rdle the National Physical Laboratory 

 should be prepared to play ; such is the future which I 

 trust may be in store for it." 



This work has already been begun. The various 

 trades associations have been, or are being, formed for 

 the promotion of research on matters of interest to the 

 members of the trade. 



Each such association will probably require its own 

 laboratory, situated, for preference, at the centre of the 

 trade concerned. This will deal with the special 

 problems of the trade, problems which need intimate 

 association with works conditions for their solution 



