64 More rapid advance of other nations. 



Recent International Exhibitions however, and 

 the migration of various branches of our trade to the 

 Continent and America, have shown that the degree 

 of our relative superiority in manufacturing skill is 

 diminishing. Other nations, especially the German 

 and American, perceiving the dependence of inven- 

 tion upon research, and the enormous pecuniary and 

 other advantages gained by us, by the application of 

 scientific knowledge to manufacturing and other 

 purposes, have within the last few years aroused 

 themselves, and are now pursuing pure science much 

 more energetically than ourselves. A few years ago 

 the relative number of original researches made per 

 annum in England, France, and Germany were in 

 the "proportion 127, 245, and 777. Many of those 

 made in Germany were valuable ones, and were 

 made by Students in order to obtain a degree. Other 

 nations are rapidly gaining upon us in the application 

 of science to industrial purposes, and have even 

 surpassed us in the extent of some of their manufac- 

 turing and technical operations. Many persons who 

 have visited Europe and America at intervals during 

 the last twenty years have testified to this. 



The Vielle Montagne Zinc Company in Belgium 

 employ 6,500 workmen, and produce annually 32,000 

 tons of zinc. The John Cockerill Company, engine- 

 builders, Seraing, near Liege, employ nearly 8,000 

 men. Krupp, the great engineer at Essen, near 

 Dusseldorf, employs about 10,000 workmen ; his 

 works at Essen alone cover 450 acres, and 1,000 tons 



