38 NATURE 

dependent for the supply of synthetic dye-stuffs upon 
Germany and Switzerland. 
The importance, however, of a large supply of scienti- 
fically trained men, especially in chemistry, and the 
production of synthetic colouring matters on a large 
scale, sufficient to entitle it to rank as a chief key 
industry, have not merely an industrial significance ; 
they have military aspects as well, since the dis- 
coveries and the applications of science may be used 
for evil purposes as well as for good, as the history of 
all wars shows. During the great war the Germans 
resorted to the use of poison gas, and thus started 
a course of “chemical warfare.” The production of 
poison gas in its many forms was made possible 
because Germany had a fully developed dye-stuff 
industry, not merely in its personnel, but also in the 
perfection and extent of its plant, and the organic 
substances which were used and the methods employed 
were closely related to those required in the manu- 
facture of synthetic colours. The Allies entered upon 
similar methods of attack, but in order to provide 
the means, except in the case of one large manu- 
facturing firm producing dye-stuffs in Manchester, 
they had to erect special factories for the purpose. 
If,@however, we succeed in establishing coal-tar 
dye industries on a scale sufficient to meet the demands 
of our manufacturers, alike in quality, quantity, and 
price to those of our foreign competitors, we shall no 
longer have any cause for fear either in respect of 
our industries or in the event of war. But in order 
to achieve this and other desirable aims, we have to 
emulate the spirit and adopt the means and methods 
of the most progressive nations for the encouragement 
of scientific research and its application, together 
with the opportunity of advanced education for all 
who are worthy to receive it. The experience to be 
gained from previous exhibitions on a similar scale 
held at home and abroad, and the results accruing 
therefrom, should not be overlooked. The British 
Empire Exhibition to be held at Wembley, if it is not 
to miss a serious and fundamental purpose, must 
awaken a spirit of emulation for a wider extension 
of the means of knowledge and better conditions 
whereby its fruits can be achieved. 
The Great Exhibition of the Industries of All 
Nations, of 1851, was remarkable from the fact that 
the building covering twenty acres of ground was 
erected of glass and iron after the designs of Joseph 
Paxton—a fine example in itself of the genius of the 
English engineer and a triumph of his technical skill. 
The exhibits were arranged under four heads: 1. 
Natural productions ; 2. Machinery ; 3. Manufactures ; 
4. Works of Art. It was attended by upwards of six 
million people of all nations. It was a financial 
NO. 2776, VOL. 111] 

[JANUARY 13, 1923 

success, the profits of which were invested in land 
at South Kensington on which numerous institutions 
for the advancement of science and art have been 
placed. ‘‘ There began with it,” says J. Scott Russell 
in his book on “‘ Systematic Technical Education,” “a 
series of competitive trials of intelligence and skill 
between the citizens of the different civilised nations 
of the world.’”’ We were supreme in the sphere of 
modern manufacturing machinery, but in respect of 
matters of taste and artistic design and skill we were 
far behind the French. The direct fruit of it all was, 
so far as this country was concerned, to be found in 
the organisation of the Science and Art Department 
(1853), whereby was brought within the reach of the 
workman, whether engaged in a mechanical or artistic 
handicraft, the means of study and experiment in 
the principles of his occupation. It reacted similarly 
on the educational policy of foreign nations, especially 
in France and Germany. They established schools 
of applied science according to the special needs of 
the town or industrial centre, the results of which 
were seen in the exhibition held at Paris in 1855, and 
especially in the International Exhibition held at 
South Kensington in 1862. There was abundant 
evidence that while we had progressed greatly in 
artistic taste and skill in design and workmanship, 
other nations had advanced in the industrial applica- 
tions of science. There was Prussia with her ingots 
of Krupp steel, Switzerland with her fine display of 
Schénbein aniline colours, America with her automatic 
machines, Italy with her manufactures of classic 
earthenware, France with her fine steam-engines for 
her marine service. 
“Tt was [however] the exhibition of 1867 in Paris,” 
says J. Scott Russell (he was one of the English jurors), 
‘which gave the nations, and especially England, a 
final lesson. By that exhibition we were rudely 
awakened and thoroughly alarmed. We then learnt, 
not that we were equalled, but that we were beaten— 
not on some points, but by some nation or other on 
nearly all those points on which we had prided our- 
selves.” 
There was shown the engineering products of a 
great establishment at Creusot in Eastern France 
concerned with mining, smelting, locomotive building, 
and other branches of commercial machinery in serious 
competition both in quality and price with like products 
from England. In addition to abundant raw material 
on the spot, coal and iron ore, the workers had the 
advantage of a systematic o ganisation of technical 
schools, which contributed very largely to the satis- 
factory results produced. 
The Centennial Exhibition, held in Paris in 1900; 
furnishes another example of the value of these inter- 
