632 TRANSACTIONS OP SECTION G. 



I will conclude this section, which is far from exhaustive, by pointing out 

 what a debt of gratitude Engineers and others owe to the Patent Office for the 

 manner in which the work of producing illustrated abstracts of all patents has 

 been and is being done, and the weekly issue of the 'Patent Journal,' but this 

 may be associated with the suggestion that it would be a real convenience if, 

 instead of the delay which often occurs, the abstract appeared at the same 

 time or immediately after the publication of the complete specification. 



Organisation. 



This, I venture to think, is by far the most important question of any T 

 have raised, and I will go so far as to say that I believe it to be the all- 

 important one, as it practically embraces the others. If you do not agree 

 with me, I feel sure it is because we do not understand the same thing by 

 the word ' organisation.' When you speak of organisation to most people 

 they immediately seize upon some small feature which may be to them of more 

 immediate interest. It may be the general an-angement of their accounts, 

 their system of store keeping, of dealing with their workmen, of the sales 

 department, or fifty other minor details. If you take this narrow view of 

 organisation yon will, of course, at once say that a scientific man has very little 

 to do with it, and indeed the manufacturer as a rule, thinking of his works 

 organisation, scouts the idea that a man of science can either know or have 

 anything to say about it which is of any value. 



Let me therefore take the dictionary definition. To organise is to ' arrange 

 or constitute interdependent parts, each having a special function, act, office, 

 or relation with respect to the whole.' If we accept this definition, which as 

 a matter of fact we must, there is no question as to the all-important nature of 

 organisation, for you will notice there are two outstanding things. The first 

 'interdependent parts' and the second their 'relation to the whole.' Thus 

 the subject of organisation really includes the whole of industry. It includes 

 science and its relation to manufacture. It includes the relations between the 

 employer and employee. It includes the workman, and his attitude towards 

 new devices, labour-saving appliances, and output. It includes the whole ques- 

 tion of the supply of raw materials, and even the sale and delivery of the 

 finished article. Taking these different features, is there any doubt that the 

 man of science in this country can hold his own, and more than hold his 

 own, with that of any other? The history of invention is quite enough to give 

 a final answer to this question. Again, the British employer and man of affairs 

 has always shown himself individually in the forefront of enterprise; as for the 

 workman himself, he is admitted, in the matter of intelligence, physical endur- 

 ance, and skill, to have no superior ; while with regard to materials for manu- 

 facture, and the power of delivering goods, it need scarcely be said that the 

 British Empire, if we take it as a whole, is the richest country in the world 

 in raw materials, and its means of delivery of its goods is expressed by the 

 enormous preponderance of its mercantile marine. 



When we come, however, to these interdependent parts and their relation to 

 the whole, it is there that we find the weak joint in the armour. It is in this 

 respect that Germany can teach us a striking lesson in the arrangement of these 

 interdependent parts with respect to the whole. From the top to the bottom 

 the whole forces of their industries are so thoroughly organised that they get 

 all that is humanly possible out of the various factors. I do not limit this 

 merely to the wonderful organisation of any works, like Krupps, or the Deutsche 

 Maschinenfabrik, or hundreds of other works, but I include the organisation of 

 all the Government Departments, together with the Banks, the Railways, and 

 the Shipping, so that every facility is afforded for the world commerce of the 

 German Empire. 



Taking only one of these details, I remember, when at Liverpool, and the 

 battle of the Manchester Ship Canal was being fought, what facts came out as 

 to the difficulties in the transhipment and handling of goods. The late Mr. 

 Alfred Holt, for instance, was one of the most earnest in pointing out that the 

 want of co-operation and organisation in getting goods from our manufacturing 

 centres was adding largely to their cost, and actually exceeded the cost of 



