438 



NATURE 



[September i, 1904 



through these bore-holes very cold brine is circulated, thus 

 freezing the rocks and quicksands and the water therein, 

 and when this process is completed the sinking of the shaft 

 is easily accomplished. 



In our case this process would be maintained not only 

 on the shaft bottom, but also for some time on the newly- 

 pierced shaft sides, until the surrounding rock had been 

 cooled for some distance from the face. 



As to the cost, rate of boring, and normal temperature 

 of the rock, an approximate estimate has been made, based 

 on the experience gained on the Rand, but including the 

 extra costs for air-locks and cooling : — 



Cost Time i i Temp. 

 £^ Years of Rock 



For 2 miles depth fiom the surface. 500.000 10 122° F. 

 „ 4 „ ,, ,, ,, „ . 1,100,000 25 152° 

 ,, 6 ,, „ ,, ,, ,, . i.Sooooo 40 liS2° 

 ,, 8 ,, ,, ,, ,. ,, ■ 2,700,000 55 212° 

 1, 10 ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, .3,700,000 70 242° 

 ,1 12 ,, „ ,, ,, ,, . 5,000,000 S5 272° 



1 hope I have succeeded in showing in the short time at 

 our disposal that an exploration to great depths is not an 

 impossible undertaking. But my main object in discussing 

 the enterprise at some length has been to show that a 

 pioneer company would not acquire any subsequent monopoly 

 of similar works under the existing patent laws or the laws 

 of any country. 



In the scheme as I have described it, there appears to be 

 nothing that could be patented ; but let us suppose that 

 some good patent could have been found that was abso- 

 lutely essential to the success of the undertaking, it would 

 certainly have expired before the pioneer company could 

 have reaped any substantial return, and probably before the 

 first enterprise had been completed. It follows therefore 

 that at the present time there is no adequate protection, or 

 indeed any protection at all, for the promoters of many 

 great and ijiiportant pioneer enterprises, some of which 

 might prove of immense benefit to mankind. 



Let us ask what change in the laws would place great 

 pioneer research works on a sound financial basis. A 

 Government grant, except for very special purposes, seems 

 to be out of the question, seeing that the benefits to be 

 derived are generally not confined to any one country. An 

 extension of the life of patents, which is now from fourteen 

 to si.xteen years in different countries, would be undoubtedly 

 a step in the right direction. It would be of great benefit 

 generally if some scale of duration of patents could be fixed 

 internationally, the scale being fixed according to the 

 subject-matter, the difficulty of the attack, and the past 

 history of the subject, but more especially in view of the 

 utility of the invention. 



One of the chief objections raised by the Privy Council 

 against the extension of patents in this country has rightly 

 been that undue prolongation is unfair to the British public, 

 seeing that abroad no prolongations are granted. There- 

 fore, if the duration of patents for important matters is to 

 be extended at home it must also be extended abroad. In 

 other words, such prolongations, to be effective, should 

 necessarily extend to other countries. They should be inter- 

 national, and concurrent in all the countries interested. 



One possible solution of this difficult question would be 

 to place such matters under the jurisdiction of a Central 

 International Committee, who would have the apportion- 

 ment of the life and privileges of patents and of the ex- 

 tension or curtailment of their duration, according to their 

 handling by the owners. I would ask, Why has a patent 

 a life of only fourteen to sixteen years, while copyright is 

 for forty-two years? Why has a pioneer company making 

 a railway under Act of Parliament generally rights for ever 

 unless it abuses its privileges, or the requirements of the 

 district necessitate the construction of competing lines, while 

 a patent has in comparison a life of infinite shortness? 



I might also cite gas companies, electrical supply com- 

 panies, under Act of Parliament, or provisional orders of 

 forty-two years' duration ; and this reminds us of the fact 

 that until the term of life for electric supply companies had 

 been extended from twenty-one years to forty-two years by 

 the bill of 1884, it was impossible to find capital for such 

 undertakings. 



Now, it may be urged that the grant of a patent is a 



NO. 18 18, VOL. 70] 



different thing from the grant of power to u railway 

 company, a gas or electric supply company. But the object 

 of this Address has been to show that a patent, to be fair 

 to the patentee, ought in many cases to be analogous to an 

 Act of Parliament or a provisional order. Would it not place 

 matters in a fairer position, especially in the case of ex- 

 pensive and lengthy researches, to grant to those who pledge 

 themselves to spend a suitable and minimum sum within 

 a stated period on the research a reasonable and fair 

 monopoly, so that such person or syndicate might in the 

 event of success be in the position to reap a reasonable 

 return for their expenditure and risk? 



Some such measure would unquestionably give an immense 

 stimulus to research and invention by enabling capital to 

 be raised and works started on commercial lines in fields 

 of great promise at present almost untouched. 



1 pass over the disadvantages to the British inventor of 

 the hostile patent tariffs of Continental nations and of the 

 protective patent laws of some of the British dependencies, 

 disadvantages greater than those imposed by protective 

 tariffs on the ordinary British manufacturer. 



There is, however, another aspect of the question to 

 which I would briefly allude : it is the great benefits that 

 the world at large has derived from the work of inventors 

 in the past. 



Think of the multitude and power of the great steam- 

 engines and gas-engines that drive our factories, and pump 

 the water out of our mines, and supply our cities with 

 water, light, and power; of the great steamships scattered 

 over the ocean and the locomotives on the railways. 



Think of the billions of tons of steel that have been made 

 by the Bessemer, Siemens-Martin, and Thomas Gilchrist 

 processes, and of the great superiority and less cost of the 

 material over the puddled iron which it superseded. 



Think of the vast work performed by the electric tele- 

 graphs and telephones ; and we must not fail to include the 

 great chemical and metallurgical processes carried on all 

 over the world, besides the countless other inventions and 

 labour-saving appliances. 



Can we form any idea of the commercial value of all 

 these gigantic tools that past inventors have left as a 

 heritage to the human race, and can we venture to place 

 any order of magnitude on so vast a sum ? 



if we take as our unit of value the whole of the money 

 spent on all inventions, both successful and unsuccessful, 

 I think we shall be much below the rhark if we assume 

 that the value of the benefits has on the average exceeded 

 by ten-thousandfold the money spent on making and intro- 

 ducing the inventions. 



If this is so, let us see what it means. It means that for 

 every unit of capital spent by the inventors and their friends 

 on invention they have in some cases received nothing back. 

 In some cases thev have just got their capital back, in 

 some cases two or threefold, occasionally tenfold, very 

 rarely a hundredfold. Whereas the world at large has 

 received a present of ten-thousandfold greater value than 

 all the money spent and misspent by the small band of past 

 inventors. 



In conclusion, let us hope that the inventor will in the 

 future receive more encouragement and support, that the 

 patent laws will be further modified and extended, that the 

 people at large will consider these matters more closely and 

 recognise that they are of first importance to their progress 

 and welfare, and that in the future it may be easier, nay 

 in some cases possible, to carry on many great researches 

 into the secrets of Nature. 



SECTION H. 



anthropologv. 



Opening Address by Henry Balfour, M..\.. 



President of the Section. 



It has frequently been remarked, and not without some 



justification, that Anthropologv is an exceedingly diffuse 



science, and that it lacks the compactness and relatively 



well-defined field of enterprise enjoyed by most other sciences. 



This characteristic has even been employed by many as an 



argument against regarding Anthropology as a subject of 



any considerable value for educational purposes, the 



suggested lack of cohesion being thought to militate against 



