NATURE 



[September 6, 191 7 



the Island of St. Vincent to second one of their 

 officers, who has been making an investigation into 

 sea island cotton, for work under Sir Francis Watts, 

 the Imperial Commissioner for Agriculture in the West 

 Indies. We have offered the Commissioner a grant 

 of. money to meet the cost of labour and necessary 

 apparatus, and we have offered to pay the research 

 worker an adequate salary on a rising scale. We hope 

 that this arrangement may enable the new Research 

 Association to take over the investigation in due 

 course. Incidentally we shall have put a research which 

 was in danger of coming to an end upon a more satis- 

 factory basis. 



Associations in Prospect. 

 We are glad to report that the woollen and worsted 

 manufacturers of Great Britain have already appointed 

 a Provisional Committee to draft the constitution of a 

 Research Association. The Irish flax spinners and 

 . weavers have decided to take the same step ; the textile 

 industries are therefore well to the fore. The Scottish 

 shale oil industry and the photographic manufacturers 

 have decided to establish associations immediately, the 

 electrical engineering firms and the British Society of 

 Aircraft Constructors, in conjunction with the Aero- 

 nautical Society, have the matter under consideration, 

 the Scottish shipbuildin<^ and steel industries are mov- 

 ing, and we have hopes that it may be possible to 

 establish an association for research into the non- 

 ferrous alloys in the near future. We understand that 

 the British iron puddlers and the Diesel engine manu- 

 facturers have independently established research 

 organisations for the benefit of their respective indus- 

 tries. The coal-mining industry is interested, but it 

 will necessarily take time to organise this huge indus- 

 try on a national basis. Several other industries, 

 among them the pianoforte manufacturers, the master 

 printers, and the cocoa industry, have approached us. 

 But there is a number of industries which for one 

 reason or another are not so circumstanced that their 

 firms are able to combine in this manner. In some 

 cases the leading firms realise to the full the value of 

 science and of a combined attack, but they cannot as 

 yet carry the industry with them. This is the position, 

 for instance, of the papermakers, who are urging us to 

 establish a State laboratory to the initial and main- 

 tenance cost of which they are anxious to contribute. 



Other Cases. 

 In other cases the industry may be prosperous and 

 the leading firms possessed of what they believe to be 

 valuable and exclusive information, which they fear 

 might be endangered by co-operative research. We 

 have remarked that those industries which call for the 

 most complex organisation and are most in need of 

 scientific guidance, if they are to meet modern condi- 

 tions successfully, are for the most part those in which 

 the smallest progress has been made towards research 

 on a co-operative basis. We refer to that large group 

 of what may be called the chemical industries. At 

 one end of this group we find a growing movement 

 towards financial combination, e.g. among the highly 

 developed heavy chemical and allied industries. Finan- 

 cial combines or fusions of scientific industries on the 

 scale we are witnessing will certainly render co-opera- 

 tion for research alone less attractive, if not unneces- 

 sary. At the other end of the scale are industries, like 

 those of pottery and glass, which have been driven by 

 adversity to seek the aid of science, and have only 

 been able to meet the cost by operating together. Be- 

 tween the two extremes is a large number of indus- 

 tries, some of them wealthy, which appear to be un- 

 certain in which direction to move, and would probably 

 pref) •■ to move in neither. 



NO. 2497, VOL. 100] 



Rese.arches Unsuited for Co-operative Action. 



There will remain, however, important fields for 

 industrial research which we can never hope to cover 

 by means of research, associations. Research into fuel 

 is' one of these. Every home in the land, as well as 

 almost every industry, is directly concerned in the 

 economy of fuel, and for that reason it is simpler and 

 more just that all should contribute through the taxes 

 to the cost of the research. The Committee of Council 

 have accordingly established the Fuel Research Board 

 as a part of the department. Similarly, we think the 

 argument for a national board of research in timber 

 will prove overwhelming; in both cases, however, we 

 may hope to receive assistance, if not contributions, 

 from some of the industries more immediately in- 

 terested. The researches we are conducting through 

 the British Fire Prevention Committee and the Con- 

 crete Institute respectively into the fire-resisting pro- 

 perties and into the general physical properties of 

 different Jiinds of concrete, are also cases which call 

 for national action. We have been assured that the 

 same considerations hold good for the scientific 

 problems underlying illuminating engineering and cold 

 storage. 



The National Physical Laboratory. 

 There is still another class of scientific problems of 

 gieat importance to industry, not susceptible of treat- 

 ment by associations for research. We refer to the 

 determination of constants and standards, whether 

 physical, chemical, or bacteriological, and the accurate 

 testing of manufactured products in the interest both 

 of manufacturer and consumer. The range and im- 

 portance of this work and of the research which it 

 entails are certain to grow rapidly in the future. The 

 experience of other countries goes to show that it is 

 work which the State must itself undertake, or at least 

 control, if it is to be adequately served. VVe welcome 

 accordingly the arrangement recently made by the Com- , 

 mittee of Council with the Royal Society under which ' 

 the department will become financially responsible for 

 the maintenance of the National Physical Laboratorv. 



Three Methods of Financing Research. 



It will be noticed, from what we have said above, 

 that there seems to be room in the industrial world for 

 three methods of financing research. There is research 

 which the individual firm finds it remunerative to 

 undertake at its own expense. Secondly, there is re- j 

 search which is financed on a co-operative basis, and . ! 

 lastly, there is research which must be financed by the ' 

 State if it is to be done at all. 



Is any distinction in kind to be drawn between these 

 three classes of research which would justify this differ- 

 ence of treatment? If there is, and if it can be clearly 

 stated, it should greatly assist the sound administration 

 of public funds and be a useful guide to our own policy. 

 We suggest that the distinction is to be sought in the 

 probable nature of the results to be obtained from an 

 investigation. If the research is one which a single 

 firm can finance and which, if successful, will yield ., 

 results that a single firm can exploit to the full, there 

 is no case in normal circumstances either for co-opera- 

 tion with other firms or for assistance from the State. 

 The more powerful the firm and the greater the variety 

 of its activities the more far-reaching will be the nature 

 of the research it will be justified in undertaking. But 

 as we pointed out in our last report, British manufac- 

 turing firms are not as a rule at the same time both 

 large and complex. In the great cotton industry, where 

 some of the firms have capital funds to be reckoned in 

 millions, the organisation is " horizontal," not "ver- 

 tical," and manufacturing success has been obtained 

 by specialisation in a narrow range of processes. Far- 



