520 



NA TURE 



[September 19, 1901 



manufacturers to be marvellously low. When we look into the 



matter we find that the chief difference between the manufac- 

 turer of America and the manufacturer at home is that, whether 



it be steam-engines, tools, agricultural machinery, or electrical 

 machinery, the American invariably manufactures goods in large 

 quantities to standard patterns, whereas we rarely do so here, at 

 any rate to the same extent. Where we turn out articles by the 

 dozen the American turns them out by the hundred. This 

 difference in the extent to which an article is reduplicated 

 is caused by the Americans having realised to a far greater 

 extent than we have the advantage of standardisation of types of 

 machinery. They have felt this so strongly that we find in 

 America that work is far more specialised than it is here, 

 so that a manufacturer as a rule provides himself with a com- 

 plete outfit of machinery to turn out large numbers of one 

 article. He lavishes his expenditure on special machinery 

 to produce every part sufficiently accurate to dimension to secure 

 thorough interchangeability ; consequently the cost of erect- 

 ing or assembling the parts is far less than it is here. One 

 reason why the American manufacturer has been able to impose 

 on his purchasing public his own standard types, whereas we 

 have not been able to do so, is that very rarely in America does 

 a consulting engineer come between the manufacturer and the 

 user, whereas here it is the fashion for the majority of purchasers 

 of machinery to engage a consulting engineer to specify and 

 inspect any machinery of importance. By this I do not impute 

 any blame to our consulting engineer ; he considers the require- 

 ments of his client, and insists that they are to be adhered to as 

 closely as possible ; to him the facility of the production of 

 articles in large quantities is of no moment. In America it 

 seems to be understood by the purchaser that it is a distinct 

 advantage to everyone concerned, both manufacturer and pur- 

 chaser, that the purchaser should to some extent give way and 

 modify his requirements so as to conform with the standard 

 patterns turned out by the manufacturer. Although manufac- 

 turers all hope for this simplification of patterns, yet, for the 

 reasons I have given, it will be some time before their hope is 

 realised. But on other matters it is quite possible for manufac- 

 turers to combine, so as to obtain some standardisation of parts 

 which they manufacture which will reduce costs and be of 

 advantage to everyone concerned. Many years ago Sir Joseph 

 Whitworth impressed on the world the importance in mechanical 

 engineering of extreme accuracy, and of securing the accurate 

 fit and interchangeability of parts by standard gauges. But in 

 spite of his idea being so widely known and taught, how seldom 

 it has been acted upon to the extent that it should be. We 

 pride ourselves on having all our screws made of Whitworth 

 standard, and yet how many of the standard bolts and 

 nuts made by different makers fit one another ? I my- 

 self have sat on a committee of this Association which 

 was called together twenty years ago, with Sir Joseph 

 Whitworth as a member of it, to fix on a screw gauge which 

 would be a satisfactory continuation of the Whitworth screw 

 gauge down to the smallest size of screw used by watchmakers. ' 

 It has taken all these years to carry out the logical outcome of 

 Sir Joseph Whitworth's original idea, viz. the providing of 

 standards to be deposited in care of a public authority to act as 

 standard gauges of references. The complete interchangeability 

 of parts which I have above referred to, and which is so desir- 

 able in modern machinery, can, of course, be obtained within 

 the limits of one works by that works providing and maintaining 

 its own standards to a sufficient degree of accuracy. But if the 

 articles be such as watches or bicycles, motor-cars, &c. , it is 

 very desirable that all parts liable to require replacement should 

 be made by all manufacturers to one standard of size, and in 

 order that the gauges required for this purpose should all be 

 exact copies of one another it is necessary that they should be 

 referable to gauges deposited either with the Board of Trade or 

 with some body specially fitted to verify them and maintain 

 their accuracy. 



Up to the present the Board of Trade has dealt with the 

 simple standards of weight, capacity, and length, but in other 

 countries National .Standardising Laboratories have been pro- 

 vided, viz. by the Germans at their Reichsanstalt at Charlotten- 

 burg, and with the happiest results ; here at last, through the 

 exertion of the Council of the Royal Society, our Government 

 has been moved to give a grant in aid and to cooperate with 

 ilie Royal Society to establish a National Physical Laboratory 

 for this country. About ten years ago Dr. Oliver Lodge gave 



1 A report of this committee will come before you during tllis meeting. 



NO, 1664, VOL. 64] 



the outlines of a scheme of work for such an institution. Later 

 .Sir Douglas Galton, in his Presidential Address to this Associa- 

 tion, called attention to the good work done by the Germans 

 and the crying need that existed for such an institution in this 

 country. The matter has since progressed. A laboratory is 

 already in existence, and will soon be at work, at Bushey House, 

 Teddington ; it is a large residence, which was once occupied 

 by the late Duke of Clarence and afterwards by the Due de 

 Nemours. It will make an admirable laboratory, as it has 

 large and lofty rooms and a vaulted basement in which work 

 can be carried on where it is important to secure the observer 

 against changes of temperature. 



The aims of a National Physical Laboratory have been well 

 put forward by Dr. Glazebrook in a recent lecture at the Royal 

 Institution, in which he points out how little science has up 

 to the present come to be regarded as a commercial factor 

 in our commercial world. The position of manufacturers of all 

 classes must be helped and improved by a well-considered series 

 of investigations on the properties of materials, measurements 

 of forces, and by the careful standardisation of and granting 

 certificates to measuring apparatus of all classes. Until the 

 question is fairly faced and studied, few manufacturers realise 

 how helpless individual effort or individual investigations must 

 be when compared with comprehensive and continuous investi- 

 gations which can be carried on by a National Laboratory so as 

 to deal with the whole of each subject completely and ex- 

 haustively, instead of each investigation being limited by the 

 temporary need of each manufacturer or user. 



As an example Dr. Glazebrook showed how much has been 

 done at Jena and afterwards at the Reichsanstalt in the develop- 

 ment of the manufacture of glass used in all classes of scientific 

 apparatus. The German glass trade has benefited enormously 

 from these investigations. The microscopic examination of 

 metals, which was begun by Sorby in 1864, has been much 

 worked at by individual investigators in this country, but its 

 further development, which is probably of enormous importance 

 to arts and manufactures, is clearly the duty of a National 

 Laboratory. We owe much to the investigations of the Alloys 

 Research Committee of the Institution of Mechanical Engin- 

 eers ; but, again, this is work for the National Laboratory. As 

 regards the measurement of physical forces how little is accu- 

 rately known of the laws governing air resistance and wind- 

 pressures, and the means of measuring them. Who can 

 formulate with any certainty a law for the air resistances likely 

 to be met with at speeds in excess of eighty miles an hour, 

 the importance of which I have already noticed ? 



I have already alluded to the verification, care, and mainten- 

 ance of ordinary standard gauges of accuracy. In this electrical 

 age the accuracy of electric standards is of supreme importance. 



These are only a few of the directions in which we can foresee 

 that the establishment of a National Physical Laboratory will 

 be of the greatest use and assistance to our country in enabling 

 it to hold its own in scientific and engineering matters with its 

 energetic rivals. The work has been commenced on a small 

 scale, but it is to be hoped that its usefulness will become at 

 once so evident and appreciated that it will soon be developed 

 so as to be worthy of our country. 



NOTES. 



An expedition to Patagonia has been undertaken, under the 

 auspices of the French Minister of Public Instruction, by M. A. 

 Tournouer, whose purpose is to continue his study of the Tertiary 

 mammals of South America. 



The last number received of the Victorian Naturalist states 

 that, on July 19, Prof. Baldwin Spencer telegraphed from Alice 

 Springs that his expedition had finished its work at Barrow 

 Creek, where six weeks had been spent among the Kaitish and 

 Ummatjera tribes. Much valuable information relating to tribal 

 organisations, totemic systems, &c., had been collected, and a 

 fine series of photographs of sacred ceremonies, types of natives, 

 L*^c., secured. The next main camp was to be formed at Ten- 

 nant's Creek, about 150 miles further north (latitude 19° 30' S.). 

 The members of the party were in excellent health, and well 

 pleased with the results of their work. 



