68 Without Research we lose our foremost position. 



It has been objected that Continental nations, the 

 Germans in particular, have pirated our patents, in- 

 fringed our designs, imitated our labels, used our 

 names, and taken our improvements wholesale, and 

 this may be true. But we still have had by far the 

 largest portion of the reward of our greater energy 

 and inventive skill ; we have had the great advantage 

 of being first in the markets of the world ; and that 

 advantage can only be retained by our being the first 

 in the pursuit of original research, as we have so long 

 been in the application of science to industrial arts, 

 and not by purchasing foreign inventions, nor by 

 accepting gifts of unrecompensed researches. 



Nations as well as individuals are apt to push to an 

 extreme the means by which they have succeeded in 

 gaining either riches or power. We have devoted 

 ourselves relatively too much to the pursuit of money 

 and too little to the pursuit of knowledge. The desire 

 for wealth is in this country so great, that probably 

 nothing but a loss of that wealth will ever make us 

 properly encourage the pursuit of new knowledge. 



Whilst research is being neglected, manufacturers 

 and others in all directions are asking for improve- 

 ments in their machines and processes ; employers of 

 steam engines want to obtain more power from the 

 coals; makers of washing soda wish to recover their 

 lost sulphur ; copper smelters, want to utilize the 

 copper smoke ; glass makers wish to prevent bad 

 colour in their glass ; iron puddlers want to economise 

 heat ; gas companies are desirous of diminishing the 



