September io, 190S] 



NA TURE 



453 



to arrive at some conclusion as to the kind of training 

 whicli is required for the future worlvs-chemist. On con- 

 sulting the opinions of the manufacturers it would seem 

 that they attach great importance to what is called the 

 " practical side "; they believe that, in addition to a know- 

 ledge of theoretical chemistry, the prospective works- 

 chemist should also have some acquaintance with engineer- 

 ing, should understand the apparatus and machinery used 

 in the particular manufacturing operations with which he 

 is going to deal, and should have had practical experience 

 in working the given process. It is from this point of 

 view that we build and equip large technological chemistry 

 departments, such as those in the Universities of Birming- 

 ham and Leeds and in the Manchester Municipal School 

 of Technology, departments fitted up with complete 

 apparatus and machinery for carrying out operations on a 

 miniature manufacturing scale. 



The arguments in favour of this view, that it is a 

 hybrid chemist-engineer who is required in a chemical 

 works, seem to me to be fundamentally unsound, and the 

 kind of training suggested by them for the works-chemist 

 can only result in the production of a sort of combined 

 analytical machine and foreman. A two or three years' 

 course of science, followed by one year's practical work 

 in the dye-house, in paper-making, or in some other techno- 

 logical department, is quite inadequate if the student 

 trained in this way is expected to do anything beyond 

 routine analytical work and supervision. 



We cannot possibly expect such a poorly trained Jack- 

 of-all-trades to run a chemical works successfully in the 

 face of competition directed by a large staff of scientific 

 experts in chemistry and in engineering. It is no use 

 spending immense sums of money on expensive machinery 

 of the newest type in order that the works-chemist may 

 be able to tell his future employer that the machinery 

 used in his employer's works is completely out of date. 

 In the course of time, moreover, unless expenditure is 

 practically unlimited, the reverse conditions will obtain, 

 and the technological department of the university or other 

 institution will become more of the nature of a museum 

 of antiquities. The great cost of the upkeep and of the 

 working of such plant is also a very serious matter ; is it 

 possible to believe that the educational results of running, 

 say, a large puddling furnace, such as is fitted up in 

 Birmingham University, are in any way commensurate 

 with their cost? The conditions in a chemical works 

 cannot be successfully imitated in a university or poh'- 

 technic ; attempts to do so can only lead to mistaken con- 

 clusions, and thus have the effect of rendering the works- 

 chemist quite helpless when he passes from the elegant 

 models of his educational apparatus to the workaday 

 appliances of the manufactory. 



Here, it seems to me, we touch the bed-rock of our 

 trouble. The state of our chemical industries must be 

 attributed to the erroneous views which have been and 

 still are held as to the functions, and consequently as to 

 the training, of a works-chemist. We have failed to realise 

 that industrial chemistry must be based on a foundation 

 of continuous and arduous research work. In the past we 

 have sent out from our universities and other institutions 

 students who no doubt were qualified to undertake routine 

 analytical work, but the great majority of whom knew 

 nothing of the methods of research. We are doing the 

 same to-day. Just when a student has reached a stage 

 at which his specialised scientific training should begin his 

 course is finished, and whether he has been to a university 

 or to a polytechnic matters little; he joins the band of 

 those who subsist on but who do nothing to advance 

 chemical industry. He enters a works ; the manufacturer 

 does not realise exactly what his chemist ought to do, but 

 he expects some immediate results, and in consequence is 

 generally disappointed ; the lack of success of the chemist 

 is put down to his ignorance of practical matters, and 

 there is an outcry for technical education ; science is most 

 unjustly discredited, and any suggestion of spending money 

 on research work is scouted as a mere waste. 



The consequence is that if there is a scientific problem 

 which intimately concerns all the members of some large 

 industry what course do they adopt? Through their trade 

 journal, and as an association representing a total capital 

 of which I should not like to hazard a guess, they offer 



NO. 2028, VOL. 78] 



a bronze or possibly a silver medal, or may even offer the 

 extravagant sum of 2oi., to the happy person who will 

 provide them with a solution. It is dithcult to imagine 

 the class of solvers to whom these princely rewards may 

 appeal, more difficult still to believe that any useful result 

 can be attained, and it is almost incredible that such 

 methods should be adopted by any influential industrial 

 organisation. This way of attempting to get research 

 work " on the cheap " is certainly not unknown even in 

 more enlightened countries, but that is hardly a sufficient 

 justification for its employment. 



Contrast these methods with those adopted by the 

 Badische .Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik and Meister, Lucius, 

 and Briinig in their attempts to solve the problem of the 

 commercial synthesis of indigo. Could there be a greater 

 antithesis? If five thousand copies of Brunck's Paper on 

 this subject ' could be circulated among the manufacturers 

 of this country — a task which might be fittingly undertaken 

 by the Society of Chemical Industry — the study of the 

 truly magnificent results attained by the systematic applica- 

 tion of pure science, and of the indisputable evidence of 

 their commercial value, might prove an object-lesson far 

 more effective than argument for the accomplishment of a 

 sorely needed reform. 



Now if we are to meet successfully the very formidable 

 scientific and commercial organisation opposed to us in 

 chemical industry, we must perforce adopt the methods of 

 our competitors ; not only must we learn patience and 

 perseverance, but we must also call to our aid the best 

 brain-power available. We must recognise clearly that the 

 scientific works-chemist, the only man who is likely to 

 make discoveries of commercial value, must be thoroughly 

 trained in the methods of research by those best qualified 

 to do so, and we must not imagine that when he enters 

 the works he should or could immediately become an 

 engineer and a commercial expert ; his place is in the 

 research laboratory. The practical man — that is to say, 

 the man who has a thorough and useful knowledge of 

 some particular manufacturing process — must be trained 

 under practical men in the works, and we must not imagine 

 that a course of evening classes will convert him into an 

 expert chemist. The ideal man who combines high scien- 

 tific training and sound practical knowledge cannot be 

 produced unless the period of his education is extended to 

 half a life-time, and even then only through the cooperation 

 of the chemistry teacher and the manufacturer. 



.Admitting the truth of these statements — and I do not 

 think that they can be successfully controverted — we have 

 now to consider what steps can be taken to provide these 

 highly trained works-chemists, and to ensure for them a 

 cordial reception on the part of the manufacturers. 



The first fact which we have to bear in mind is that 

 the great and rapid development of chemistry in recent 

 times has lengthened the period which is required for 

 the collegiate study of the subject. In order to acquire 

 the necessary knowledge of facts and theory, and after- 

 wards to devote even the minimum time to gaining experi- 

 ence in research methods, the future works-chemist must 

 be prepared to continue at the university or other institu- 

 tion during at least five years. The course of study during 

 the first three years might be on the lines now adopted by 

 many of our universities for the B.Sc. pass e.xamination, 

 but to grant this degree in one or two subjects only, and 

 then to call it an Honours degree, is in my opinion a 

 serious mistake, as is also the admission of research work 

 at this stage, both of which proceedings lead to far too 

 early specialisation. The pass degree should be regarded 

 merely as an indication of a sound general education in 

 science, and the future works-chemist should then devote 

 at least two years more to research and to special work in 

 chemistry, on the results of which the Honours degree 

 might be awarded. Every encouragement in the form of 

 low fees, free admission, research scholarships, and so on, 

 should be offered to such students, according to their merit 

 and circumstances, in order that they may prolong their 

 studies ; the cost of these remissions or awards would not 

 he very serious, and the monev would be well spent. 

 Teachers should then refuse to recommend, and manu- 

 facturers should refuse to employ, as a works-chemist, any 

 student who had not passed through such a course satis- 

 :, ' Bl)\^ iQ^o, i., l.xxi. 



