204 



NATURE 



[Al'RIL 14, 1910 



The latter periodical, which is issued by the students of 

 the Cardiff Technical School, published a short article 

 dealing with the value of science in industry by Principal 

 Grifliths, which he elaborated in his address. 



Principal Griffiths said that personally he prefers the 

 words technical education rather than technical instruc- 

 tion, because we want in a technical school to do some- 

 thing more than the beginnings of a trade ; we also want 

 to expand the horizon, increase knowledge, and increase 

 their abilities apart from the increased power it gives the 

 students of earning their living later in life. We are, he 

 continued, passing through a time in which there are certain 

 difficulties naturally arising. There is no doubt that in 

 the last ten years there has been a marked change in the 

 aspect in which the question of education is regarded by 

 the people, and those who need it. In such a time of 

 change, as well as the advantages, there are dangers. We 

 are spending an enormous sum of money — 26,000,000/. — 

 from Imperial sources in educating children to read, write, 

 learn arithmetic, and so on. Into the hands of these 

 children weapons are being put, and then they are not 

 taught how to use them. It is a fearful blot on the whole 

 educational system of the country that we spend millions 

 and millions of pounds in laying foundations, and do 

 nothing further. A great portion of the money is wasted, 

 and if it were not for the existence of technical schools 

 and the continuation classes the situation would be worse 

 still. The time must come, said Principal Griffiths, when, 

 if the educational system of the country is to be used 

 to the best advantage, it must be recognised that young 

 people, on leaving primary schools, and not able to get 

 the advantages of secondary education, must be compelled 

 to give a certain portion of the time between the ages of 

 sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen to studying something 

 which may be of value to them in after life. 



Dealing with technical education, he insisted that the 

 prosperity of this country depends upon its industries, and 

 that its industries are dependent on the application of 

 science. The truth of the former statement, he said, will 

 be generally admitted, but as regards the latter there is 

 some scepticism. It is difficult, for example, to see the 

 direct connection between the zoologist peering through 

 his microscope and dissecting the minutest insects, and the 

 progress of a great commercial undertaking. The con- 

 nection is, however, close and real. Take, for example, 

 that great work now in process of accomplishment, the 

 Panama Canal. The man who successfully constructed 

 the Suez Canal was defeated in Panama, not by the 

 physical, or even the political, difficulties, but by malaria 

 and yellow fever. It has been stated that in the enormous 

 work which was done before the project was abandoned 

 by the French, a human life was sacrificed for every cubic 

 yard of earth excavated. This is now a story of the past, 

 and the death-rate amongst the workers to-day but slightly 

 exceeds that prevalent in many of the American States. 

 How has this change come about? No small part has 

 been played by the School of Tropical Medicine established 

 b\- the University of Liverpool. 



An elaborate and prolonged investigation, in the course of 

 which valuable lives were unfortunately sacrificed, resulted 

 in the discovery that the dissemination of both malaria 

 and yellow fever is due to so insignificant a creature as 

 a certain species of mosquito, a discovery which will un- 

 doubtedly have a profound effect, not only on such under- 

 takings as the Panama Canal, but on the marcli of 

 civilisation in the future. 



It is interesting to reflect that this discovery, like many 

 others which have profoundly affected the commercial 

 community, has been made by men without any thought 

 of financial return, but who have been prompted solely by 

 their love of research and their desire to add to the common 

 stock of knowledge of mankind. It is not too much to 

 say that every increase in natural knowledge will ultimately 

 prove to have its use and application in the affairs of daily 

 life. 



Faraday was the first to establish the fact that an electric 

 current may be generated by the movement of a conductor 

 in a magnetic field. When he first exhibited at the Royal 

 Institution the crucial experiment which vindicated^ his 

 reasoning in this matter, a lady afterwards inquired, 

 " But if so, Prof. Faraday, what is the use of it? " His 

 reply was a memorable one, " Madam, will you tell me 



NO. 211 1, VOL. 83] 



the use of a new-born child? " Reflect for a moment on 

 the fruits of Faraday's discovery. True, numerous 

 improvements have been made in the practical application 

 of the principle by many workers, but all the applications 

 of electricity which are now so frequent as to be regarded 

 as familiar are based on the production of electricity by 

 the expenditure of mechanical energy. Wherever a dynamo 

 is used, there you have an application sprung from th" 

 brain of Faraday. 



Mr. Stanley Jevons has made an approximate estimate 

 of British capital invested in electrical undertakings 

 which may be regarded as dependent on the mechanical 

 generation of electrical power. It is safe to say that 

 at least 185,000,000/. of capital are thus employed, and 

 profitably employed, not only in increasing the comfort 

 and welfare of the population as a whole, but in affording 

 employment which otherwise would be wanting. 



Examples of a similar kind could be multiplied almost 

 indefinitely ; but they are mentioned not so much to 

 establish a proposition as to direct attention to the import- 

 ance of scientific investigation, not only on its academic 

 side, but also from a practical point of view. 



It is by a recognition of this truth that Germany has 

 in recent years outstripped us in some respects in the in- 

 dustrial race, and it is to such institutions as our technical 

 schools and the laboratories of our colleges that we must 

 look for the supply of men who are in the future to restore, 

 if possible, the supremacy which seems to be passing from 

 us. It must be remembered that not only must research 

 receive encouragement, but we must train men in whom 

 this country, as compared with both Germany and the 

 United States, seems somewhat deficient — men who have 

 sufficient scientific knowledge and ability to comprehend 

 the discoveries of others and to apply such discoveries to 

 the practical affairs of life. Men who can act as inter- 

 mediaries between the laboratory and the market-place it 

 is the special mission of our technical schools to supply. 



In conclusion. Principal Griffiths commented on the_ fact 

 that the man of business is not now as cynical of science 

 as once he was, and, observing that no scientific discovery 

 is useless, he added that there is nothing more likely to 

 advance science than the institution of technical schools. 



ANY sensation of " wind " felt in a dirigible balloon is 

 only that due to the independent speed of the 

 bafloon. It will always be the same, whether it be a 

 following or a head wind, neither more nor less intense, 

 because the surrounding wind is nothing but a movement 

 of the atmosphere in which the balloon is submerged. 

 Relatively to the ground below, a dirigible balloon may be 

 going with the wind at 100 miles per hour, or against the 

 wind making headway only at five miles an hour. If its 

 engine be working at the same power in each case, the 

 speed of the vessel relatively to the atmosphere is the 

 same. Its envelope is only calculated to sustain the speed 

 of which its engines are capable, and its stability depends 

 upon a certain pressure of air not being exceeded. Bear 

 in mind that wind is a body of calm air moving more or 

 less rapidly. To the aeronaut wind does not exist. He 

 is in calm : the earth is moving. A dirigible balloon may 

 be in a current of air moving, say, from west to east 

 at twenty miles per hour. With whatever speed \\. may 

 be capable of, the balloon can move freely about in that 

 current. The flow of air is always from the bows to the 

 stern, and it is always of exactly the strength given by 

 the independent speed of the airship. 



No analogy of any marine vessel except the submarme 

 is of any use to us'; for in the ship you have either got 

 a sail giving vou leverage on the air, or you have 

 the leverage of 'vour keel or propeller giving you power 

 against the wind. An airship cannot " tack " after the 

 manner of a marine vessel. Nothing is to be gamed by 

 adopting a zig-zag course. 



In mechanical flight the action of the air on the upper 



1 Abridged from Reports of Cantor Lectures delivered at the Royal 

 Society of Arts by Mr. C. C. Turner and published in the Journal of the 

 Society. 



