44 



NA TURE 



[May io, 1900 



every other case years have elapsed between discoveries and 

 their application. It is especially the object of this address to 

 call attention to the cause of this and to the lessons to be learnt 

 from it. 



Within the first decade of the century, electrolysis and the 

 electric light were discovered ; but, except on a small scale in 

 electro-plating, it was reserved for the last quarter of the 

 century to see their application to the general use of mankind. 

 Before her Majesty began to reign, Faraday had discovered how 

 to generate electric currents by magnetic actions ; but, except 

 to generate currents to light a couple of lighthouses, no applica- 

 tions of Faraday's discovery to generate electric currents on a 

 large scale was made till Wilde, Gramme and Siemens worked 

 at it, more than thirty years after its discovery. The applica- 

 tion of electric currents to transmit power on a small scale was 

 made in the electric telegraph years before any applications were 

 made on a large scale. Except for a few experiments by Jacobi 

 and others, the transmission of power by electric currents on a 

 large scale is the work of the last twenty — one might almost say 

 of the last ten— years. 



. Consider now what are the characteristics of the applications 

 which developed continuously, and what were those of the 

 applications which lay dormant for years. Maybe we can learn 

 from this consideration how to arrange that, in the future, our 

 discoveries may not lie for years dormant. 



The most noticeable difference between the applications of 

 electricity that developed and those that lay dormant is that 

 those that developed were useful on a small scale, while those 

 that lay dormant were nut useful until developed on a large scale. 

 Electro-plating and telegraphy were useful on quite a small 

 scale. Experiments as to their efficiency could be conducted on 

 the laboratory scale with quite cheap apparatus, and thus they 

 were actually developed. 



A recognised authority, who is fond of poking paradoxical 

 fun at professors, has recently stated that " the progress of 

 telegraphy and telephony owes nothing to the abstract scientific 

 man." I do not know exactly what he means by the abstract 

 scientific man, but I do know that telegraphy owes a great deal 

 to Euclid and other pure geometers, to the Greek and Arabian 

 mathematicians who invented our scale of numeration and 

 algebra, to Galileo and Newton who founded dynamics, to 

 Newton and Leibnitz who invented the calculus, to Volta who 

 discovered the galvanic cell, to (Ersted who discovered the 

 magnetic action of currents, to Ampere who found out the laws 

 of their action, to Ohm who discovered the law of the resist- 

 ance of wires, to Wheatstone, to Faraday, to Lord Kelvin, to 

 Clerk Maxwell, to Hertz. Without the discoveries, inventions 

 and theories of these abstract scientific men, telegraphy as it 

 now is would be impossible. 



We have seen that electro-plating and telegraphy were capable 

 of development on a small scale, and were consequently largely 

 developed by laboratory research. The development of dynamos 

 from Faraday's discovery required expensive experiments, and 

 to test their ellficiency on a large scale required very expensive 

 experiments indeed. It was not possible to conduct experiments 

 that would be of much practical use on the small scale on which 

 laboratory experiments have to be conducted, on account of the 

 miserable pittance that is at the command of scientific laboratories. 

 The only opportunity of conducting experiments on a large 

 scale is when an inventor can control capital, as, for example, 

 if he himself is in the position of an engineer to some wealthy 

 body wiiose money he can employ on experiments. Jacobi and 

 others spent a good deal of money, no doubt, on experiments 

 in power distribution by electro- magnetic engines, but their 

 expenditure, though quite considerable as compared with the 

 usual run of laboratory experiments, was as nothing compared 

 with the enormous sums spent by the pioneers of modern electro- 

 magnetic machinery on their experiments. 



What we have found, then, is that development depended on 

 whether or no people experimented energetically upon how to 

 render each discovery of practical utility ; where experimenting 

 was energetic, development was rapid ; where experimenting was 

 not energetic, development was slow. We have further lound 

 that the energy of experimenting depended on the money 

 available ; where little money was required, development was 

 rapid ; but it was slow where large sums of money were required 

 in order to perform valuable experiments. 



We may further inquire how it happened that money and time 

 became available for costly experiments. Money is available 

 for laboratory experiments by the beneficence of private and 



NO. 



1593. VOL. 62] 



public endowment, and time is available by the devotion of 

 scientific men to the advancement of natural knowledge. These 

 have been available because some few men have had faith in the 

 desirability of knowledge both for its own sake and for the 

 material and moral advantage of mankind. Money has been 

 available in England on a large scale in the past because of the 

 enthusiastic faith of some very few men in the possibilities oi 

 scient ific d iscoveries. One of the most remarkable instances of this 

 faith was in the case of the great experiment of laying the Atlantic 

 cable. A few men with strong faith impressed their belief on a 

 few capitalists, and after years of most expensive experimental 

 work they at last brought their great undertaking to a successful 

 issue ; the general body of capitalists meanwhile lookingon with 

 amused incredulity. The development of the dynamo depended 

 similarly upon the strong faith of individuals, who spent immense 

 sums of money and much time and energy on the subject because 

 they had faith in its possibilities. It is remarkable how many 

 of the developments of scientific discoveries of the latter years 

 of the century have been due to foreigners or firms with foreign 

 leaders, such as Siemens Brothers. This has been largely 

 due to the fact that foreigners are far in advance of us 

 over here in their faith in the possibility of using scientific 

 discoveries. The rapid advance of the applications of science in 

 the last quarter of this century has been very largely due to the 

 growth of this faith. It has grown to a strong conviction in the 

 ordinary public of America and the Continent, and is growing 

 daily stronger over here, but is still far weaker here than in other 

 parts of the civilised world. The result of this has been that 

 while the germs of many of the greatest inventions have been 

 made within the British Isles, we have not been pioneers in any 

 great advance in the applications of electricity since the develop- 

 ment of submarine telegraphy. Possibly another cause has been 

 our obstinate retention of our abominable series — one cannot call 

 it system — of weights and measures. It is with great hopeful- 

 ness that I see public opinion gradually growing in favour of 

 the metric system. 



How does it happen that one of the foremost countries in 

 advancing science has been one of the last to appreciate the 

 possibilities of applied science ? This has been due partly, no 

 doubt, to our great success as manufacturers and as mere mechanical 

 inventors. No doubt Watt was a truly scientific inventor, and 

 even mere mechanical inventors are appliers of scientific know- 

 ledge that was discovered, in the most part, by scientific men 

 centuries ago ; but most of our success as manufacturers has been 

 due to mechanical inventions and to our well-trained and expert 

 artisans, and not to the useful application of recent scientific 

 discoveries. This great success, and the absence of scientific 

 training in our schools, and the want of contact between manu- 

 facturing and scientific society, have all contributed to prevent a 

 due appreciation of the value of scientific discovery and experi- 

 ment as a means of advancing the material wealth of society. 



When can we expect the country or generous benefactors to 

 learn that science on a large scale is at the basis of the material 

 prosperity of the country, and that science on a large scale is very 

 expensive. Of what use is 200/. a year in making experiments 

 on a commercial scale ? Ten thousand pounds a year would be 

 more like the figure required ; and 10,000/. a year could be most 

 profitably spent on experimental work here in Ireland, on the one 

 subject of utilising our bogs. It is most probable that the 

 energy of their combustion could be transmitted to our towns to 

 provide them with light and power ; but the preliminary esfperi- 

 ments are lar beyond the capabilities of a scientific laboratory. 



Then there are the questions of three-wire tramways, leaky 

 telegraph lines, submarine relays, sun engines, of flying machines 

 which Lord Rayleigh considers can be constructed if money 

 enough were forthcoming, and of vacuum tubes as a means of 

 illumination, and of numberless other matters already ripe for 

 application, to say nothing of the innumerable scientific dis- 

 coveries that have not yet been even suggested as having practical 

 applications. 



Besides these industrial laboratories, all our Government 

 departments, such as the army and navy, should have large 

 experimental organisations where any invention that promised 

 success would be developed and seriously tried. The decision 

 of what to try should not be left to mere officials, however dis- 

 tinguished, but should be referred to independent .'scientific 

 advisers — persons who were not tranmielled by official traditions, 

 but were in touch with scientific advance and enthusiastic 

 believers in it. If the country spent a couple of millions per 

 annum on experimental work of this kind it would bear much 



