SEPTEMBER 6, I917] 



NATURE 



( lENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH. 

 PHE second annual report of the Committee of the 

 -•■ Privy Council for Scientific and Industrial Re- 

 search for the year 1916-17 was published last week 

 (Cd. 8718; price 3d. net). It consists of an introductory 

 statement by Lord Curzon, as Lord President of the 

 Privy Council, the report of the Advisory Council, signed 

 by Sir William McCormick and Sir Frank Heath, and 

 appendices giving Orders in Council, terms of the 

 Imperial Trust, documents relating to research asso- 

 ciations, and names of members of committees attached 

 to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Re- 

 search. Lord Curzon points out in his introduction 

 that the foundation of the department led to the 

 creation of the Imperial Trust for the encouragement 

 of scientific and industrial research. 



The trust holds on behalf of the department the 

 sum of one million sterling which Parliament has 

 voted for the purposes of the department. The nego- 

 tiations of the Advisory Council with the leading manu- 

 facturers in the various industries showed that it would 

 not be possible to develop systematic research on a 

 large scale unless the Government were in the position 

 to assist financially over an agreed period of years. 

 These considerations led the Government to place a 

 fund at the disposal of the Privy Council Committee to 

 be spent over a period of five or six years afforded 

 the best means of dealing with the problem. During 

 the past year negotiations have been concluded with 

 the Royal So'ciety for the transfer of the property of 

 the National Physical Laboratory, together with the 

 responsibility for its maintenance and development, to 

 the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. 

 The scientific management of the laboratory will re- 

 main in the hands of the Executive Committee under ! 

 the chairmanship of Lord Rayleigh, a member of the 

 ^.Hvisory Council. j 



The committee reported last year that grants had | 

 v.n approved to a number of individual students and ' 

 research workers for the year 1916-17 to an amount ! 

 not exceeding 6oooi. The amount actually expended '< 

 under this head, however, was not more than 3550Z. 

 upon thirty-six workers. Throughout the work has i 

 suffered in amount owing to the war, and the com- j 

 mittee was unable to expend more than 14,524^, out of 

 the 4o,oooL placed at its disposal by Parliament for I 

 the financial year 1916-17. During the current year a ■ 

 sum of 38,050/. was taken in the estimates, in addi- 

 tion to the fund of a million referred to already. The i 

 annual vote is intended to cover (a) the cost of those j 

 researches which will not be undertaken by the pro- 

 posed research associations ; (b) the grants to indi- 

 vidual research workers, both students and others; and I 

 (c) the cost of administration. 



The second annual report of the Advisory Council 

 records the considerable progress made during the past 

 year, and some of the matters referred to in it are sum- , 

 marised below. 



In our report of last year, covering the period from 

 July 28, 1915, to July 31, 1916, we attempted to de- 

 scribe the nature of the problems by which we were 

 faced, and the conditions which appeared to us neces- 

 sary for their solution. We discussed the vital need 

 of research at the universities, especially in pure 

 science, and the urgency of prompt measures for in- j 

 creasing the number of their students. We referred to : 

 the beginnings of association among manufacturers, 

 and expressed our belief in co-operation between capi- I 

 tal, management, science, and labour, as the best | 

 means of financing and directing the extended labora- 1 

 tory investigations and the large-scale experimentation I 

 required for industrial research. Above all, we empha- 



NO. 2497, VOL. 100] 



i sised the necessity for patient effort, cautious prepara- 



I tion, and co-ordinated attack upon the problem from 

 all sides. 



1 The experience of another year of work has cdn- 



! firmed our first estimate of the position. We have 

 made progress. The establishment in December last 



■ of a separate Department of State entrusted with the 

 organisation of scientific and industrial research has 

 brought encouragement to our efforts and the neces- 

 sary financial support. 



i VVe have addressed ourselves during this year in the 

 main to the organisation of industrial research, first, 



; because we felt the paramount importance of arousing 

 and securing the interest of manufacturers in the appli- 

 cation of science to industry, and, secondly, because 

 the influence of the war has created in industry an 

 atmosphere conducive to the growth of new ideas, 

 whereas it has unfortunately made the prosecution of 

 work in pure science and in its organisation a matter 

 of extreme difficulty. 



The Million Fund for Trade Research Associa- 

 tions. 

 The one question of policy, to which throughout the 

 year we have continuously devoted our attention, is the 

 working out, with all the care and advice we have 

 been able to command, of the policy of co-operative 

 industrial research foreshadowed in our last report. 

 Lord Crewe, who was at that time Lord President 

 of the Privy Council, received a deputation of the 

 Board of Scientific Societies on December i last, at 

 which he outlined the policy of the Government in 

 regard to industrial research. He announced their in- 

 tention to ask Parliament to place a large fund — a 

 million sterling — at the disposal of the department to 

 enable it to co-operate with the industries of the coun- 

 try in the foundatign and maintenance of approved 

 associations for research during the next hve years or 

 so. After these initial years it is expected that the 

 larger industries, at any rate, will be able and willing 

 to carry on the work of the associations without assist- 

 ance. The intention of the Government is to make a 

 contribution to the assured income of such associations 

 from the subscriptions of their members, varying in 

 amount according to circumstances, and with a normal 

 maximum of pound for pound, though in ven* excep- 

 tional cases this limit may be exceeded. Lord Crewe 

 also announced that the Board of Inland Revenue 

 would be prepared to instruct surveyors of taxes to 

 allow as a working expense for income-tax purposes 

 the contributions by traders to industrial associations 

 formed for the purpose of scientific research for the 

 benefit of the various trades. The allowance would 

 be subject to certain conditions; that is to say, the 

 association must be under Government supervision and 

 the trader's contribution must be " an out and out 

 payment, made from his trade profits and giving him 

 no proprietary interest in the property of the associa- 

 tion." Since this decision includes war profits and 

 excess profits taxes, it offers a considerable induce- 

 ment to firms affected by these taxes to act promptly. 



Research Association for Cotton. 



Substantial progress has already been made towards 

 the establishment of a National Research Association 

 by the great staple industry of cotton. 



In view of the establishment of the Cotton Com- 

 mittee we have postponed the consideration of several 

 applications for aid to researches bearing on the cotton 

 industry, some of considerable importance and interest. 

 But in one case we have taken immediate action of 

 an interim kind, because there was a risk that useful 

 research work actually in progress might be inter- 

 rupted. With the approval of the Secretary of State 

 for the Colonies, we have asked the Government of 



