PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. u7o 



not be lacking, for, as the result of a conference convened by the President and 

 Council of the Royal Society, a Conjoint Board of Scientific Societies has been 

 cuustituted, for the furtherance of the following objects : — Promoting the co- 

 operation of those interested in pure or applied science ; supplying a means 

 whereby scientific opinion may find effective expression on matters relating to 

 science, industry, and education ; taking such action as may be necessary to 

 promote the application of science to our industries and to the service of the 

 nation ; and discussing scientific questions in which international co-operation 

 seems advisable. 



In an Address given to the Society of Chemical Industry last year, I indi- 

 cated another way in which chemical manufacturefs can help themselves and 

 at the same time promote the interests of chemistry in this country. In the 

 United States of America individual manufacturers, or associations of manufac- 

 turers, have sliown themselves ready to take up the scheme originated by the 

 late Professor Duncan for the institution of industrial research scholarships 

 tenable at the universities or technical colleges, and the results obtained after 

 ten years' experience of the working of this practical method of promoting co- 

 oijcration between science and industry have more than justified the anticipation.'? 

 nf its originator. Tlie scheme is worthy of adoption on many grounds, of which 

 tlie chief are that it provides definite subjects for technical research to young 

 themists qualified for such work, that it usually leads to positions in factories 

 for chemists who have proved their capacity through the work done while holding 

 .-icholarships, and that it reacts for good on the profession generally, by bringing 

 about that more intimate intercourse between teachers and manufacturers whi-ch 

 is so much to be desired. 



In this connection the recent foundation of the Willard C4ibbs Chair of 

 research in pure chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh is extremely 

 significant, for it shows that even in such a purely industrial community as 

 Pittsburgh it is recognised that the most pressing need of the day is the 

 endowment of chemical research and the creation of research professorships. 

 Mr. A. P. Fleming, who recently made a tour of inspection of research labora- 

 tories in the United States, points to the amount of work done by individual 

 firms and the increased provision now being made for research in universities and 

 technical institutions. He reports that at the present time there are upwards 

 of fifty corporations having research laboratories, costing annually from 

 20,000?. to 100,000?. for maintenance, and states that ' some of the most striking 

 features of the research work in America are the lavish manner in which the 

 laboratories have been planned, which in many cases enables large scale opei'a- 

 tions to be carried out in order to determine the best possible methods of 

 manufacturing any commodity developed or discovered in the laboratories ; tlio 

 increasing attention given in the research laboratories to pure science investiga- 

 tion, this being, in my opinion, the most important phase of industrial research ; 

 and the absorption of men who have proven their capacity for industrial research 

 in such places as the Mellon Institute, the Bureau of Standards, &c., by the 

 various industries in which they have taken scientific interest.' It is evidently 

 the view of American manufacturers that industrial research can be made to pay 

 for itself, and that to equip and maintain research laboratories is an excellent 

 investment. 



It cannot be too often reiterated that no branch of chemical industry can 

 afford to stand still, for there is no finality in manufacturing processes ; all are 

 capable of improvement, and for this, as well as for the discovery and the 

 application of new processes, the services of the trained chemist are essential. 

 Hence the training of chemists for industrial work is a matter of supreme 

 importance. We may therefore congratulate ourselves that the opportunities for 

 chemical instruction in this country are immensely greater than they were thirty 

 years ago. The claims of chemistry to a leading position have been recc^nised 

 by all our universities, even the most ancient, by the provision of teaching 

 staffs, laboratories, and equipment on a fairly adequate if not a lavish scale. 

 and in this respect many of the technical colleges fall not far behind. The 

 evening classes conducted in a large luunber of technical institutions are hardly 

 fitted to produce fully trained chemists, if only because lack of the necessary 

 time prevents the student from obtaining that prolonged practice in the labora- 



