July 20, 19 16] 



NATURE 



433 



he interest of the laboratorj- staff in pure science be 

 iiaintained. It is doubtful if the importance of main- 

 lining the full interest in theoretical science of a 

 <boratory staff has been fully realised. When the 

 len come to the laboratory they are usually interested 

 niefly in the progress of pure science, but they rapidly 

 ■ come absorbed in the special problems presented to 

 lem, and, without definite effort on the part of those 

 sponsible for the direction of the laboratory, there is 

 ,reat danger that they will not keep up to date in 

 v.hat is being done by other workers in their own and 

 allied fields. Their interest can be stimulated by 

 journal meetings and scientific conferences, but the 

 j^reatest stimulation is afforded by the requirement that 

 they themselves should publish in the usual scientific 

 journals the scientific results which they may obtain. 

 Another reason for publication is that when a piece of 

 work is written up for publication the necessity for 

 linishing loose ends becomes manifest, and that work 

 which is published is therefore more likely to be pro- 

 perly completed. 



With some laboratories publication is rendered diffi- 

 cult by the industrial organisation ; while nominally 

 manufacturing companies are usually willing that re- 

 sults of scientific interest should be published, the organ- 

 isation of the company frequently requires that they 

 should be passed on by the heads of several departments, 

 such as the sales, patent, advertising, manufacturing, 

 and so on, and the heads of these departments, pos- 

 sibly not understanding the subject, and being afraid of 

 passing material which might prove detrimental, fre- 

 quently err very much in the direction of withholding 

 entirely harmless information from lack of sufficient 

 knowledge. It is much more satisfactory, if possible, 

 for one responsible executive to pass on all matter 

 submitted for publication, and this will inevitably 

 result in a much more liberal policy than where the 

 responsibility is delegated to a number of representa- 

 tives of different departments of the company. 



In addition to these scientific papers special tech- 

 nical reports for the information of the staff of the 

 company itself should be circulated by the laboratory, 

 and in the case of the Kodak laboratory an abstract 

 bulletin is published monthly giving information as to 

 the more important papers appearing in the technical 

 journals associated with the photog'raphic industry and 

 also of all photographic patents. It is often advisable, 

 also, to prepare special bulletins dealing with the appli- 

 cation of scientific investigations, which have already 

 been published, to the special needs and interests of 

 the company. 



Since the evidence points, therefore, to the establish- 

 ment of really large research laboratories as the most 

 economical and efficient way of increasing the applica- 

 tion of science in industrial work, the question arises 

 as to how these large laboratories are to be supported. 

 In the United States the great manufacturing cor- 

 porations, who can afford the necessary capital and 

 expenditure for maintenance, and are willing to wait 

 for the results, have already undertaken the establish- 

 ment of a number of large research laboratories. Such 

 concerns as United States Steel, General Electric Com- 

 pany, United States Rubber, Du Pont de Nemours, and 

 many others are supporting large and adequately 

 equipped research laboratories, the staffs of which are 

 engaged in work on the fundamental theorv of the 

 industries in which they are interested, and undoubtedly 

 more and more such laboratories will be established 

 in the course of the struggle for increased industry 

 which the United States is preparing to waire. There 

 are a Iarg:e number, however." of smaller ifirms, who 

 cannot afford the great expenditures involved, but who 

 are anxious to benefit by the application of science to 

 their work, and it seems that the onlv solution of the 



NO. 2438, VOL. 97] 



problem of providing for such firms is in the direction 

 either of co-operative laboratories serving the whole 

 industry, as has already been done in the case of the 

 National Canners' Association and the National Paint 

 Association, and no doubt in some others, or of 

 national laboratories devoted to special subjects con- 

 nected with industry and corresponding to such institu- 

 tions dealing with special branches oi pure science as 

 the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution. 

 Schemes l€r industrial scholarships tenable at universi- 

 ties do not meet the case at all, since work done under 

 such arrangements must necessarily be directed towards 

 a definite practical end rather than towards the general 

 acquisition of knowledge connected with the under- 

 lying principles on which an industry rests. In the 

 same way consulting laboratories, Hke industrial 

 scholarships, are interested in the development of re- 

 sults for immediate practical application, and both 

 these methods of work are substitutes for the practical 

 industrial laboratories belonging to my second general 

 division rather than for the large laboratories here 

 discussed. 



In England the co-ordination of industry has not pro- 

 ceeded as in the United States, and there are very few 

 corporations who would be willing to maintain a large, 

 fully equipped research laboratory of the type dis- 

 cussed, although a few such laboratories are well 

 known to be in existence, but British industry has 

 been brought very much together during the past 

 eighteen months, and the organisation of industry is 

 already a familiar phrase. Why, then, should England 

 not establish a National Industrial Research Labora- 

 tory to assist all British manufacturers, and to de- 

 velop -the theory underlying the great fundamental in- 

 dustries on which British work depends? Such a 

 laboratory could take the theory from the universities, 

 or, where the theorj- was lacking, develop it and apply 

 it to the separate industries, working out the results 

 on a semi-manufacturing scale, and finally passing it 

 on to the manufacturer. It may be of interest to 

 glance at the possible size and scope of such an 

 organisation, and I have attempted to formulate a 

 scheme which will represent the minimum which would 

 be required. 



A laboratory on the smallest scale adequate to 

 British industry would, at the beginning, require a 

 staff of about two thousand men, one thousand of them 

 scientifically trained and the other thousand assistants 

 and w-orkmen. It should have about three or four 

 hundred men of the rank of professor or assistant 

 professor in the universities, or of works manager or 

 assistant manager or chief chemist in the factory. It 

 wx)uld require land and buildings costing about 

 6oo,oooZ., and its annual upkeep with allowance for 

 expansion would be about 8oo,oooZ. 



Vast as these figures are, they are infinitesimal com- 

 pared with the value of the industries which they 

 would serve. They represent a charge of less than 

 I per cent., and probably not more than i/5th per cent., 

 of the net profits of British industry ; moreover, after 

 the initial period had been paid for, such a laboratoPi' 

 might be self-supporting, and might, indeed, finally 

 make a very handsome profit on the original invest 

 ment. 



Suppose that such a laboratory patented all inven 

 tions and licensed manufacturers to use them, then, 

 I think, it is not too much to expect that after the 

 first five or six years it would be paying for itself, 

 and that five years later it would be able to establish 

 a great many subsidiary institutions from its profits; 

 at any rate, such a vast laboratory would produce far 

 more results at lower cost than would result from any 

 other expenditure of a oomoarable sum of money on 

 industrial research bv the British industries. 



