OcroBER 26, 1916] 
NATURE 
159 
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT 
NEWCASTLE. 
SECTION G, 
ENGINEERING, 
OPENING ADDRESS (ABRIDGED) By GERALD STONEY, 
B.A.I. (Dus.), F.R.S., M.Inst.C.E., PRESIDENT OF 
THE SECTION, 
Ar times such as these the mind naturally turns to 
problems to be considered both at the present time and 
after the war, and in considering such problems a 
review of some of the errors committed in the past is 
most necessary. Such a review enables methods which 
should be adopted both now and in the future to be 
considered. As this is an address to the Engineering 
Section of the British Association for the Advancement 
of Science, only such problems will be considered as 
affect engineering and its allied industries. 
One thing which has handicapped our industries is 
the reluctance of firms to utilise highly educated labour 
or to adopt scientific methods. In looking round the 
industries of the district one is struck by the small 
number of men who have undergone a thorough scien- 
tific training at one of the universities or at one of the 
leading technical colleges, and who occupy a prominent 
place in the firms in this district. 
The general complaint is that university and college 
men are too theoretical and not practical. It is the 
usual thing for a bad workman to blame his tools, 
and is it not because employers do not know how to 
make use of such labour that they utilise it to such 
a small and imperfect extent? 
_ Things are very different in some other countries with 
which we have competed in the past, and with which 
there will be in all probability still fiercer competition 
in the future. There we find the fullest use made of 
highly ‘educated scientific labour. 
How many engineering firms in this district have 
a skilled chemist on their staff, and what percentage 
of these pay him a decent salary? And how many 
heads of firms have sufficient chemical knowledge to 
appreciate the worl and utilise the services of such a 
man? because unless there is appreciation of the work 
done by such a man his services are useless and he 
becomes discouraged, generally finding himself up 
against the blank stone wall of there being no appre- 
ciation of his services, and yet chemical problems are 
continually cropping up in engineering work. There 
is the question of the supply of materials; as a rule the 
manufacturer trusts to the name of the contractor and 
assumes that he gets materials of the composition and 
purity he ordered. Every now and then something 
goes wrong and the question arises, Why? Without 
a chemist to analyse the material it is often most diffi- 
cult to say. Apart from this question of the analysis 
of raw or partly manufactured materials received, there 
is the chronic question as to the mixtures of the metals 
in both the metal and brass foundry, and large 
economies can be effected by systematic analyses. 
Another direction in which scientific labour is in- 
valuable is in seeing that instruments are in proper 
order, and that tests are accurately carried out. Tests 
carried out with inaccurate instruments and without 
proper scientific precautions to see that they are accu- 
rate and trustworthy are worse than useless, and, in 
fact, most misleading and dangerous, as entirely un- 
trustworthy inferences may be drawn from them and | 
far-reaching troubles caused in the future. Under 
scientific supervision arrangements are made to avoid 
such troubles and get trustworthy results which can 
be depended on for future designs. 
What is the case with pressure gauges and the 
measurement of pressure applies, of course, to all other 
NO. 2452, VOL. 98] 
instruments and measurements,. In most works it 
may be said with sorrow that the only moderately 
accurate measurements that can be made are those of 
dimensions and weight. It is only by accurate testing 
of existing plant tnat trustworthy deductions can be 
drawn enabung safe progress to be made in future 
designs, 
One of the great things which helped forward the 
steam turbine in the early days was accurate and 
full testing of each plant as soon as it was completed 
and before it left the works, The late Mr, Willans 
| Was probably the first, or one of the first, to recognise 
the importance of accurate testing of steam plant, and 
the success his_ well-known engine had was largely 
due to this, From the earliest days .of the steam 
turbine Sir Charles Parsons recognised the necessity 
of such testing, and the test-house has always been a 
prominent feature of Heaton Works. And then in 
the higher ranks of an engineering works it requires a 
scientific mind to draw safe conclusions from tests 
carried out and to see in what directions progress can 
safely be made. Such methods have enabled the steam 
turbine during the writer’s acquaintance with it, now 
extending over some twenty-eight years, to grow from 
50 horse-power to some 45,000 or more in each unit, 
and the steam consumption to be reduced from 4o Ib. 
per h.p.-hour to about 74 lb., or less than one-fifth, 
And closely allied to such work in engineering works 
is the general question of scientific research, and here 
a trained scientific mind is of the utmost importance 
to see that trustworthy results are obtained and to 
make true logical deductions from those results, With- 
out suitable training a man is liable to be unable to 
grasp all the conditions of an experiment and to make 
deductions from the data obtained which are totally 
unjustified and often lead to most disastrous results 
in the future. 
Such research is generally carried out in four places 
—engineering works, private laboratories, engineering 
colleges, and national laboratories. The first has 
already been dealt with. The second is of compara- 
tively small importance in practice. 
As regards the third, a great deal of good work 
has been done in engineering colleges, often under 
great difficulties for want of plant and money, and it 
is greatly to the credit of our professors and others 
that they have succeeded in doing so much with the 
very inadequate appliances at their disposal, and handi- 
capped for want of funds. How inadequate their 
income is can be understood when it is remembered 
that Leipzig University alone has an annual income 
from the German Government of 100,000l., as against 
a total Government grant to all the universities here 
_of about 45,o00l., or less than half. 
Of national laboratories we have only one, the 
National Physical Laboratory at Teddington, and here 
again the support given to it is totally inadequate. 
The total income from all sources last year was only 
40,000l., and of this 23,0001. was charges for work 
done, such_as testing meters and other instruments 
and similar commercial work; the Government grant is 
only 7oool. a year, and besides this 75001. was received 
for experiments in connection with aeronautics, which 
is really war work. The balance was made up of 
subscriptions, grants from technical societies, and mis- 
cellaneous receipts. Compare this with the German 
equivalent, the Reichsanstalt of Berlin, which has an 
income of 70,o0ol. a year from the Government, or 
ten times that given to our N.P.L. The Bureau of 
Standards, the similar institution in the U.S.A., has a 
Government grant of 140,000l., or twenty times ours. 
In the Civil Service Estimates there is an ‘allowance 
of 40,0001. for research, an increase of 15,0001. over 
that allotted last year. The total estimates are more 
