388 



NATURE 



[May I'], 1920 



a research on soap an ignoble and degrading occupa- 

 tion ; as though atoms ^er se were inherently dignified 

 and only became disreputable when associated with 

 other atoms to form the molecules of a useful, if 

 homely, commodity. There are many forms of snob- 

 bery. Pure science itself has had to put up with a 

 good deal of classical snobbery, as Mr. Wells has more 

 than once testified. I doubt whether matters will be 

 mended by a development of such a form of scientific 

 snobbery as seems often to be the inspiration of the 

 disparagement, in academic circles, of applied science 

 and industrial research. 



Fortunately this attempt to erect an arbitrary and 

 artificial barrier between pure and applied science is 

 becoming progressively discredited as the nature of 

 industrial research and its dependence on pure science 

 are becoming better known. Every research in applied 

 science, if it is to be thorough, involves some research 

 in pure science. An industrial problem may be, and 

 often is, the starting-point of a research that may 

 widen the bounds of knowledge as much as any re- 

 search born of a conception in pure science. Applied 

 science and industrial research have been developed 

 more widely in America than in any other country, if 

 we except Germany. How does American experience 

 confirm the view that to foster industrial research is 

 to starve pure research? In the paper on "Industrial 

 Research in the United States of America " by Mr. 

 A. P. M. Fleming, published for the Department of 

 Scientific and Industrial Research, there is abundant 

 testimony to the recognition, by firms and institutions 

 engaged in industrial research, of the importance of 

 pure science research. Such an industrial leader as 

 Dr. J. J. Carty, vice-president of the American Tele- 

 phone and Telegraph Co., in his presidential 

 address to the Institute of Electrical Engineers in 

 1916, emphasised this view : " By every means in our 

 power, therefore, let us show our appreciation of pure 

 science, and let us forward the work of the pure 

 scientists, for they are the advance guard of civilisa- 

 tion. They point the way which we must follow." 

 Mr. ElihuRoot, chairman of the board of trustees 

 of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, in a paper 

 on the need for organisation in scientific research, 

 makes the same point : " While the solution of specific 

 industrial problems and the attainment of specific 

 industrial objects will be of immense value, the whole 

 system will dry up and fail unless research in pure 

 science be included within its scope.'' Mr. W. A. 

 Harmor, assistant director of the Mellon Institute of 

 Industrial Research, University of Pittsburgh, bears 

 similar testimony to the needs of pure science: "The 

 wide view is novv taken that, in considering the needs 

 o'f industry, pure science investigation has as essential 

 a contributory function as that specifically devoted to 

 the attainment of some technologic objective." One 

 could multiply almost indefinitely such tributes^ to the 

 primary and paramount necessity of investigations in 

 pure science from men and organisations concerned 

 mainly with industrial research. Prof. Soddy's argu- 

 ment that for the million of money which the Govern- 

 ment has exoended or earmarked for scientific re- 

 search pure science has got little or nothing is, there- 

 fore, based on a misconception of the nature of 

 industrial research, and is directly contradicted by 

 past experience and present knowledge. 



The assumed antagonism between pure and applied 

 science is baseless in fact and mischievous in tendency. 

 As Mr. Harmor has well said : " Both pure and 

 applied research are of the same order of importance 

 and each has its own related field." The alleged 

 inferior character of applied research as compared 

 uMth pure research has no better foundation in fact 

 than the alleged inferiority of scientific studies, as 

 NO. 2639, VOL. 105] 



instruments of intellectual training, to classical studies. 

 As Mr. A. W. Mellon, president of the Mellon 

 National Bank of Pittsburgh, in an article on the 

 value of industrial research, aptly expressed the 

 matter: "The fundamental differences between pure 

 research and industrial research are, indeed, trace- 

 able to the differences in the poise and personality 

 of the representatives of each type of scientific in- 

 vestigation. Success in genuine industrial research 

 presupposes all the qualities which are applicable to 

 success in pure science, and, in addition, other quali- 

 ties, executive and personal, more or less unessential 

 in the pure research laboratory." 



It would be strange if it were not in line with other 

 experience that every time an attempt is made to 

 extend and foster applied science and industrial re- 

 search someone raises the cry that pure science is 

 thereby being neglected and starved. This is to argue 

 as though the total fund, both of money and energy, 

 available for the purposes of scientific education and 

 research were a fixed fund, so limited that any 

 amount devoted mainly to the purposes of aoplied 

 science must thereby lessen the sum available for 

 pure science. It is a fallacy on a par with the trade- 

 union notion that increased production by the indi- 

 vidual worker will increase unemployment, and, by 

 augmenting the profits of the employers, diminish 

 the wages of the employees ; and it is a proof, if 

 proof were needed, that academic trade unionism can 

 be as selfish and short-sighted as anv other kind. 

 Yet, just as the present condition of Europe affords 

 a plain proof of the economic truth that the weakness 

 of one nation impairs the strength of all, so will the 

 cause of pure science not be bettered, but rather 

 worsened, by attempts to crab the progress of indus- 

 trial research. 



The Department of Scientific and Industrial Re- 

 search, as Sir Frank Heath has well said, is engaged 

 on a great adventure. Thanks largely to its efforts, 

 already the spirit of science is stirring among the 

 drv bones of industries to which it was previously 

 little known. The research associations formed and 

 to be formed, which will cover a wide and diversified 

 area of British industry, are attracting, and are 

 destined to attract, scientific workers of the highest 

 distinction and widest outlook, among them, no doubt, 

 many of the members of the National Union of 

 Scientific Workers, under whose auspices Prof. Soddv 

 made his attack on the Department and the research 

 associations. I submit that the cause of pure science 

 is not well served by inconsiderate attacks _ on this 

 indu^Jtrial research movement, which is admittedly a 

 novel experiment, beset by unforeseen, because un- 

 precedented, difficulties, but the success of which 

 must react to benefit pure science as well as to redeem 

 British industry. J. W. Williamson. 



26 Russell Square, W.C.i, May 6. 



A Rainbow Inside Out. 



In February last Mr. P. H. Hepburn directed my 

 attention to some surprising lig-ht-bows he had 

 observed on several occasions on the surface of one 

 of the ponds on Hamostead Heath. On February 24 

 we examined them together. A footpath lighted by 

 three electric street-lamps runs along the southern 

 edge of the pond. As one passed along- this path 

 bright bows of stran.<^e forms cast by the lamps were 

 seen to soring out from the edere. The night was 

 dark, the 'air still and slightly foggy, and the water 

 smooth and covered with a film of scum extendmg 

 as far as we could see in the dim light. There was 

 no frost. The bows were judged to be on the surface 



