446 
work would not be undertaken on a comprehensive 
scale. Unfortunately, the monopolies granted in our 
country in the past for this kind of work were granted 
to German industries, and not to our own, and large 
profits were made out of British patents by the German 
dyestuff works. A similar research system, if suffi- 
ciently supported on the commercial and technological 
side and directed with sufficient knowledge of the 
requirements of the industry, and with some imagina- 
tion, can be made to payin England just as in Germany, 
where this combination existed. It is important to 
remember that firms employing this modern com- 
mercial weapon were large, for the amount of money 
that can be spent on research is a function of the 
- turnover. 
It is further true that to build laboratories, to 
engage for them a number of chemists, are not alone 
sufficient for our success. 
If the stream of chemical invention can be induced 
to flow in this country in the future not less sluggishly 
than in Germany, we shall gradually build up new 
industries as the Germans built up theirs. 
In this country we rely too much on our staple 
‘industries and look too little for new inventions to 
find food and employment for our people. In the 
Report of the Department of Scientific and Industrial 
Research, 1921-22: 
“|. It is well recognised that for four-fifths of 
their food and for a great part of the necessary raw 
and semi-manufactured materials for industry the 
people of these islands are dependent on supplies from 
overseas. These supplies can only be obtained if this 
country is able to carry on its exporting industries in 
future with greater efficiency than the restoftheworld.”’ 
The Department spent in this year more than half a 
million pounds with this purpose in view, and pro- 
vision is made for expenditure on a similar scale for 
the current year. Under its auspices no less than 
24 Industrial Research Associations have been formed, 
of which 22 are licensed by the Department, and 
received more than 86,oo0o/. in grants during the year 
in question. Broadly speaking, the work of the De- 
partment and of the Research Associations with which 
it collaborates is to ensure the best utilisation of our 
natural resources and of the raw materials which we 
buy from abroad for our staple industries, with the 
view of increasing the efficiency of those industries 
and enlarging the demand for their products. in 
customer countries. 
This work does not replace that of private firms, 
but is complementary to and ought to stimulate it. | 
There is a radical difference between industrial re- 
search carried out by a company and that by a 
Research Association, or by a Department of State. 
Patents taken out by chemists who receive part of 
their emoluments from the Department, belong 
apparently to the Government. Patents which may 
be taken out by a Research Association would pre- 
sumably be available for all subscribers and could not 
easily become a profitable monopoly for any one 
member. For this reason it appears likely that in the 
future, as in the past, the dyestuffs industries and the 
allied fine chemical industries will be the main source 
from which chemical discoveries will be transferred 
from the laboratory to the factory. 
Running through all this is one common factor 
which must be realised if the expectations of the State 
are to be satisfied. The industry must be big. There 
must be large factories containing plant capable of 
producing great quantities of organic chemicals, staffed 
by an adequate number of experienced and well- 
trained chemists. Moreover, the factories must be 
growing. It is an industry which cannot succeed if 
it be static. It must be ever increasing its plant and 
the number of its chemists and ever spreading its 
NO. 2787, VOL. III] 
NATURE 


[Marcu 31, 1923 
tentacles wider and deeper into the markets of the 
world. 
It follows that if the industry is successful there will 
be a continual flow of students from the universities 
and technical schools to the industry. Two distinct 
classes of chemical students are required: (a) for 
factory and research, and (b) for the dyehouse and 
technical sales. It is customary in aniline dyestuff 
factories to recruit the chemists for plant supervision 
from their own research department. The young 
chemist engaged on leaving the university is first 
placed in the research department for at least a year 
before a permanent engagement is made. The train- 
ing required of a dyestuff works chemist is usually 
identical, whether he intends to devote himself after- 
wards purely to research, or, as in the majority of 
cases, to become actually employed in the factory. It 
is of the first importance that chemists should have a 
good general secondary education. After taking his 
degree the student should cary out, under direction, 
original work for one or, preferably, two years. What 
branch of organic chemistry he studies is compara- 
tively immaterial. A special knowledge of dyestuffs 
chemistry is not very important. 
Undoubtedly a knowledge of chemical engineering 
is useful, but subjects added, however useful, will be 
at the expense of chemistry. The recent formation of 
the Institution of Chemical Engineers is welcome. 
Good chemical engineers are invaluable in any chemical 
industry, but, above all, good organic chemists are 
wanted in the dyestuff industry. 
There is also a considerable demand for another 
type of chemist. All aniline dye works have a dye- 
house which fulfils a treble function—the control of 
the production, the valuation of new specimens sent in 
from the research department, and the supply to the 
sales organisation of technical information and assist- 
ance in the application of dyestuffs. The technical 
salesman is a person of great importance in the 
industry. Heshould preferably take a pure or techno- 
logical science degree, followed by a course in dyeing, 
printing, paper-making, etc., at a technical college. 
There is a constant demand for such men in a flourish- 
ing dyestuffs industry, the more so as the experience 
obtained in the experimental dyehouse is so varied, 
that such men are afterwards sought for as managers 
or as assistant managers in print-works, dyehouses, 
paper-works, and the like. 
The foundation stones of our scientific industries 
were laid by those responsible for the creation of our 
great technical institutions and University Colleges. 
If that is so, we should expect to see during the years 
which have elapsed since 1914 a corresponding develop- 
ment in the chemical schools of this country. The 
progress in the study, teaching, and research in pure 
chemistry has been at least as striking as the progress 
of those sections of chemical industry such as fine 
chemicals and dyestuffs in which we were not particu- 
larly strong before the War. Twenty or thirty years 
ago the German organic schools were as pre-eminent 
in research and in teaching as the German dyestuff 
and fine chemical industry. To-day one may fairly 
say that there are several organic chemical schools in 
this country equal to that of any organic chemical 
school in Germany. Brilliant original work is being 
done here. Students are attracted to schools where 
good research is being done, and so round each head 
is formed a coterie of young men deriving inspiration 
from their chief, to strengthen the ranks of industry. 
Probably there has never been such a concentration 
of chemical talent as that which gathered round 
A. von Baeyer in Munich thirty or forty years ago, but 
something of the kind is happening in Great Britain 
to-day, and not in one centre alone. 
Thirty years ago, institutions comparable, for 
