344 
“NATURE 
= 
[Marcu 10, 1923 


a] 
Physics in Industry at the Wembley Laboratories. 
TT°HE General Electric Company, Ltd., is now a 
very large organisation, which employs some 
twenty thousand workers. It has engineering works 
at Birmingham, where it manufactures all kinds of 
electrical machines. At Stoke, near Coventry, tele- 
phones are manufactured. At the Osram lamp works 
at Hammersmith, lamps and valves of all kinds are 
made. At Erith, the company took over a few years 
ago the works of Messrs. Fraser and Chalmers, which 
manufacture steam turbines and mining plant. At 
Southampton, electric cables of all kinds are manu- 
factured, and the company has glass works at Leming- 
ton-on-Tyne. Mainly on the initiative of Mr. Hugo 
Hirst, the managing director, it was decided some six 
years ago to establish a central laboratory to carry 
out the scientific and industrial researches which are 
essential for the progress of industry. Mr. Clifford 
Paterson, who was then the head of the electro- 
technical department of the National Physical 
Laboratory, was appointed superintendent, and he is 
now helped by a staff of physicists and engineers 
many of whom have world-wide reputations. — 
The opening of the research laboratories on 
February 27 was a very interesting function. Lord 
Robert Cecil, speaking at the opening ceremony, said 
that the immediate task of the country is to repair the 
waste of the war. To do this the first and most 
essential requirement is to use every endeavour to 
increase the output of human energy and skill. This 
can only be done in two ways, namely, by reducing 
expenditure and by increasing the efficiency of pro- 
duction. Research, by making every man’s skill go 
further, adds to the world’s wealth. Science has no 
territorial boundaries. By promoting research the 
relations between this country and the world are 
improved. Sir J. J. Thomson, who also spoke, pointed 
out that it is absolutely necessary that a research 
laboratory should have a highly efficient staff. The 
capacity for the highest kind of research is rare. 
Training may increase the efficiency of a researcher, 
but it cannot put insight and originality into him. It 
is also certain that no research laboratory can guar- 
antee delivery. The output of such a laboratory is 
always highly irregular and spasmodic. Sir Joseph 
Thomson also dwelt on the importance of cultivating 
the thinking powers of the community to the utmost. 
The research laboratories are situated near Wembley 
and have a total floor area of 80,000 square feet, but 
they have ample room for expansion. The building 
has a north-light roof and nearly all of it is only one 
storey in height. The upper floor galleries carry most 
of the electric cables and the hydraulic pressure, 
steam, gas, and vacuum pipes required by the experi- 
menters. : : 
These galleries carry the arterial system essentia| 
for the laboratory without the necessity for conduits 
or ducts. This greatly increases the flexibility of the 
whole system. : : 
The machinery in the central sub-station supplies 
the electric power, keeps the gases in circulation, and 
maintains the vacuum in the vacuum pipes through- 
out the building. Power at a pressure of 2850 volts 
and on the three-phase system is supplied by the North 
Metropolitan Electric Supply Co., and is converted 
into various pressures, both direct and alternating, 
for the distributing mains by means of motor gener- 
ators and transformers. The lighting system is 
permanent, and is not touched for experimental 
purposes. “The method of arranging the experi- 
mental distributing system is an extension of that 
which Mr. Paterson used at the National Physical 
Laboratory. 
NO. 2784, VOL. 111] 


In addition to the electric machinery the sub- 
station contains the vacuum and compressor plant. 
Two rotary compressors feed into a horizontal boiler 
placed in the gallery, and this stores the compressed 
air which is required for experimental purposes. 
There are also three vacuum pumps driven by motors" 
which are in continuous operation. These exhaust 
a fine vacuum main to the low pressure of 0-5 mm. of 
mercury and rough vacuum mains to pressures down 
to 6 mm. of mercury. There are also high-pressure 
hydraulic mains, compressed-air mains, and a one- 
inch hydrogen main. d 
There are two splendidly equipped workshops, one 
for metal and one for wood. These make the special 
apparatus required by the staff. They also engage in 
research work of their own, devising and improv- 
ing automatic machinery and suggesting means of 
accelerating and improving the methods of production. 
In the vacuum physics laboratory, X-ray analysis 
and analyses for detecting traces of gases are made. 
A novel question that is being investigated is the 
X-ray danger that may exist in connexion with the 
use of valve tubes at high voltages. For example, 
when these tubes are being exhausted, pressures of 
10,000 volts and upwards are sometimes applied. 
Ordinary bulb glass which contains about 18 per cent. 
of lead is impermeable to these rays, but the special 
silica tubes often used in valve work are permeable ; 
it is therefore necessary to know whether the work 
is dangerous or not. The problems produced by the 
static charges and other high voltage effects produced 
in bulbs are also being studied. 
Some of the laboratories, for example the one for 
measuring the life of lamps, are used for routine 
testing. There were 800 lamps undergoing life tests 
simultaneously. They were of all kinds, carbon 
filament, metal filament, neon lamps, etc. Some of 
the neon lamps produce very novel effects and they 
are in great demand at present in physical laboratories. 
In photometry the equipment is very complete, and 
the various problems of illumination are being 
investigated by most scientific methods. A novel 
photometer was shown in operation which measured 
the absorbing power of various surfaces for light. By 
the use of this instrument the “ blackness’ of the 
inside coatings of lamp bulbs tarnished by use can be 
measured. f 
A specially novel and interesting feature of the 
laboratories is that they contain four small experi- 
mental factories for making electric lamps, tungsten 
wire, thermionic valves, and primary batteries, and 
_these laboratory factories are regarded as tools which 
any of the research staff can use in connexion with 
the further development of a research. Its inadvis- 
able to specialise research to too great an extent. 
Lamp research, for example, is not confined to the 
intensely interesting work on vacuum physics. It is 
equally concerned with metallurgical research, glass 
research, radiation from solids and gases, and high 
tension electrical phenomena in general. In a 
research laboratory it is necessary that the staff 
should be interested in practically every kind of 
research. 
Many other interesting researches are being carried 
out at Wembley, and some of the work done has 
already proved of great commercial value in the 
factory. The importance of physics in electrical 
development may be illustrated by the case of the 
ordinary switch for the electric lamp. In the old 
days, an ominous bluish light sometimes made its 
appearance when the switch was turned off, and 
occasionally a switch was burnt out, The base of 
