94 



NATURE 



July 20, 191 1 



no other education work for the Treasury to do, and there 

 was unfortunately a certain amount of overlapping, because 

 technological work came under the Board of Education, 

 and it was felt that for administration in these mat! rs 

 and, 1 think, also for the simplification of regulations under 

 which modern universities work, it was of the first im- 

 portance to avoid waste in administration and overlapping, 

 and the universities themselves agreed. Willi that object 

 the Government have decided to transfer the distribution 

 of this annual grant to the Board ol Education, and now 

 the only Government department modern universities have 

 ti> deal with is the Board of Education. 1 am glad to 

 think this meets with the approval of modern universities, 

 and in tin- many conferences I have had with their repre- 

 sentatives they have shown the desire to do their best to 

 work with us for the common end, the extension and 

 efficiency of the work falling under their guidance and 

 control. 



" I cannot pretend to say that the Board of Education is 

 at the present time sufficiently equipped to do the whole 

 of the work undertaken by the advisory committee ap- 

 pointed by the Treasury. I have, therefore, set up a small 

 advisory committee to deal with the distribution of these 

 grants. 1 .mi glad to say I have secured the service of 

 Sir William McCormick as chairman, who is well known 

 for his services under the Carnegie bequest, and was one 

 of the most active members of the Treasury committee. 

 Associated with him are Sir J. A. Ewing, C.B., F.R.S., 

 Sir William Osier, F.R.S., Miss Emily Penrose, Sir 

 Walter Raleigh, Sir John Rhys, and Sir Arthur Riicker, 

 F.R.S. They are a small and, 1 may add, a very distin- 

 guished committee, anil they have already started their 

 meetings, one of their first arrangements being to give 

 Hartley College, Southampton, now struggling to exist as a 

 university college, another year in which to accumulate 

 funds for carrying on university college work." 



APPLICATIONS OF SCIENCE TO INDUSTRY. 

 ""THE annual meeting of the Society of Chemical Industry 

 •^ was held at the Cutlers' Hall, Sheffield, on Wednesday, 

 July 12, the president, Mr. Walter F. Reid, being in the 

 chair. In "his presidential address, Mr. Reid dwelt on the 

 rapid developments of the application of science to in- 

 dustry, and said it was quite impossible for anyone to keep 

 up to date - in all branches of applied science. But, though 

 the tendency of tin- present age was towards specialisation, 

 too minute sub-division had its disadvantages, and there 

 would always be a demand for trained men who had a good 

 general knowledge of science and of the methods of apply- 

 ing it. Manufacturing chemists frequently receive advice 

 from those engaged in other industries to employ more 

 skilled assistants in the factories. Mr. Reid quoted some 

 figures given by Mr. Barker North, in his recent presi- 

 dential address to the Association of Teachers in Technical 

 Institutions at Southport, showing that the chemical fac- 

 tories stood at the ln.nl of .ill urn greal industries as 

 rds tin' proportion of skilled supervision employed. 

 Th.- value of the net annual output per brad of those em- 

 ployed in the manufacture of chemicals, coal-tar products, 

 drugs, and perfumery, was also considerably in excess "I 

 tli.it in any other of the nine chief trades of the country, 

 thi amount being [85Z. per year, while th.. next was iron 

 .iihI steel with tiS/. 



Ii '.'i sometimes alleged thai the nature of the training 

 given in students in ibis country was not of a sufficiently 

 practical character, anil that some foreign nations were 

 superior to us in ibis respect. He did not think it could 

 at present be said thai the facilities for acquiring know- 

 ledge were less in Great Britain than in any other country 

 - in Fact, in some ol out institutions thej were superior 

 The most important piece of evidence upon which a final 

 judgment could be passed, however, was wanting. They 

 bad no information as to the careers of Students after they 

 left iln- colleges 01 universities. This alone was the final 

 measure ol - ss. Degrees or examinations were bul 



mil. slim. - along the road, although they were sometimes 

 quoted as if they Were the main 1 nil to i. Each 



of tuition could, no doubt, give the names of some 

 formei students who had been successful in their careers, 

 but what interested him mosl was the ultimate fate of the 

 rank and file, who supplied the bulk of the assistants in 



NO. 2 1/7, VOL. 87] 



factories. Frequently he had had to engage assistants for 

 various industries, and in one respect they were all de- 

 hrii hi. They did not realise that the object of the indus- 

 trial chemist, like that of the alchemist, was to produce 

 gold, and that every factory operation must yield a profit, 

 bailing which it must inevitably cease. In this direction 

 their German colleagues were, perhaps, more advanced, for 

 " Waarenkunde," or knowledge of merchandise, was a recog- 

 nised snbjecl ol tuition, and current price lists were not 

 unknown to students. 



In another way, students met with difficulty at the be- 

 ginning of their career ; they were not taught what kind of 

 apparatus and plant was likely to be available for them in 

 practice. Teachers who had not worked in factories could 

 not properly teach students practical work in industrial 

 chemistry. The problem for the student was how to acquire 

 practical knowledge at the commencement of his career. In 

 this be thought employers might materially assist by giving 

 their younger employees more leisure to attend meetings of 

 societies such as tin- Society "f Chemical Industry, and by 

 procuring journals and other literature which tin- assistant 

 was unable to purchase. A good factory library was of the 

 greatest pecuniary benefit both to employer and employed, 

 but in how many factories did they find one? The rapid 

 march of progress necessitated continuous study. They 

 must all remain students. Sometimes an apparently casual 

 observation might lead to important results if it was 

 followed up, but if the factory chemist was taught to con- 

 sider himself merely as a kind of teaching machine, and 

 original observation was discouraged, business could not 

 progress. 



Mr. Reid recalled how many great industries had arisen 

 from very small beginnings. The fixation of atmospheric 

 nitrogen as an industry was still in its infancy. In 17S1 

 Cavendish lound that, on passing an electric spark through 

 a mixture of carbon dioxide and hydrogen, nitrous acid was 

 produced. He communicated his observation to Priestley 

 and Lavoisier, neither of whom could obtain the same 

 result. Cavendish's observation was more accurate than 

 his method, for be made his experiments in vessels con- 

 taining only .1 partial vacuum, and the nitrogen and the 

 residual air yielded nitrous mid. In 17X4 R. Kirwan 

 repeated lie experiment with atmospheric air. and again 

 found acid. Here we had the English origin of what was 

 1I1 stined to become one of the great industries of the world, 

 but which was being developed chiefly in foreign countries. 

 When Tyndall made bis classic researches on glaciers, he 

 little imagined thru factories would arise in the Alps with 

 1 glacier at one end of the system and nitric acid of oS per 

 rent, running into carboys at the otli- 1 . 



The history of the development of modern smokeless 

 powder had never been told. Soon after graduating at 

 Berlin. Mr. Reid was commissioned by the Argentine 

 Government to report on the mineral resources of that 

 country. In carrying out the work, he had to penetrate 

 into a wild region where his gun was the chief source "i 

 the daily food. There were few opportunities for cleaning 

 the gun when work was finished, and as a result the gun 

 was ruined by rust. When he returned to England, he 

 endeavoured to find some moans whereby rust might be 

 prevented. Ho heard of the work don. by Von lank with 

 gun-cotton, and he also heard from the officials of the 

 Patent Safety Gun-cotton Co., Stowmarket, that the manu- 

 facture of powder for firearms had been abandoned because 

 of the great irregularity of the explosion- ami the number 

 of accidents thai li.nl happened. He made a long series of 

 experiments, and finally found that by gelatinising nitro- 

 cellulose, either completely ^r oartiallv, tie explosion could 

 be rendered Quite uniform. Some ol the firsl experiments 

 wen 111. nil. with a paste forced through a perforated plate 

 similar lo those used in the gutta-percha industry. The 

 iln.. nls thus produced were cut into short lengths, and gave 



1 results. But in those days, when cartridge rases and 



gun or rifle chambers were adapted to black powder, which 

 was twice the bulk of the new product, there was a great 

 disinclination to make th,- necessary alterations. A par- 

 i'iIN gelatinised, bulk\ powder bad, therefore, to be made 

 for thi- market. It was called " E.C." powder- the initials 

 of the Explosives Co., I. id., who were th' " owners of the 

 Stowmarkel Works. It was only recently that sporting 

 guns and cartridge cases had Iv n soecially made to suit 

 the fully gelatinised powder, which had now almost sup- 



