PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 651 



islands — one or all, can learn to be plodding and patient, and to appreciate the 

 importance of theory. We may be encouraged in our eilbrts to do so by the 

 opinions of others, countrymen of Professor Duisberg, eminent in pure or applied 

 science. Professor Ostwald, discussing this subjecr, said tliat he was sure the 

 difficulties were considerable only in the beginning,' while Professor Lunge, in 

 an address to the Royal Institution,^ made use of the following words : ' Seeing 

 that in pure science the people of Great Britain have never lagged behind any 

 other nation, and that, on the contrary, the land of Newton and Faraday has 

 been a beacon to all others at more than one epoch, there is absolutely no 

 valid reason why she should now, or at any other time, be behind any other in 

 the combination of science with practice.' 



Here, indeed, is encouragement, and from one who has had ample opportunity 

 for studying the conditions which obtain in this country. Surely, therefore, 

 we ought to have some confidence in ourselves and try our best to regain a 

 strong and healthy position rather than fold our hands in a spirit of hopeless 

 resignation. 



The new Patent Act which came into force this year, and for which the 

 country is so much indebted to the strenuous advocacy of Mr. Leviustein and 

 Sir Joseph Lawrenfce, seems to many to have inaugurated a new era, and to have 

 removed one of the principal causes of the decline o; our chemical industries ; if 

 this be so, it is all the more impoi-tant that the representatives of chemical 

 science should be ready and willing to join hands with the manufacturers in 

 order to assist in the process of regeneration. 



The principal changes which have been introduced by the new law are, of 

 course, familiar to all. The most important one, which came into operation on 

 August 28 last, is that which requires that the article or process which is 

 protected by the patent must be manufactured or carried on to an adequate 

 extent in the United Kingdom after the expiration of four years from the date ot 

 the patent. If this condition is not fulhlled, any person may apply for the 

 revocation of the patent. 



Some of the results of this amendment, and some indications of the great 

 industrial changes which it will bring about, are already obvious. Foreign firms 

 or individuals who hold British patents and who have not sufficient capital to 

 Avork them in this country, or who do not think they are worth working here, 

 are attempting to sell their British patent rights. Others are building or buying 

 Avorks in Great Britain, and it has been estimated that in the immediate future a 

 sum of at least 25,000,000/. of foreign capital will have been thus invested in 

 order to comply with the new law. 



We need not stop to consider the economic effiicts of this transfer of capital 

 on the genei-al trade of this countr}-, but we may well pause a moment in order 

 to try and forecast the consequences of these new conditions in so far as they 

 concern our chemical industries. 



The prospective establishment of branches of two of the largest German 

 chemical works at Ellesmere Port and at Port Sunlight respectively are already 

 matters of common knowledge, and it may be presumed that these firms will aA'ail 

 themselves to a large extent of British labour. If this be the case, and if they 

 are successful — as they, no doubt, will be — the complaint that the inferior 

 technical education of our artisans is responsible for our lack of success will 

 thereby be proved to be groundless. Even if we admit that at the present time 

 the British workman is an inferior operative in a chemical works, and only 

 capable of undertaking the less-skilled labour, these firms will gradually raise a 

 considerable number of trained men who will be ready to undertake more 

 responsible duties under our own manufacturers when the good time comes; 

 a school for chemical operatives will be created in our midst, and, as in the past, 

 we shall reap the benefit of knowledge and experience brought to our shores. 

 It also seems reasonable to expect that, as is the case abroad, these works will be 

 equipped with laboratories and stalled by chemists, although possibly only so far 



' Jour. Soo. Chevi. Ind., 1906, 1019. ^ March 15, 1907. 



