B. — CHEMISTRY. 59 



bridge, the noble bequest of the late Dr. Messel, one of the most en- 

 hghtened of our technical chemists, for defraying the cost of scientific 

 research, the gifts of the late Dr. Ludwig Mond towards tlie upkeep 

 and expansion of the Eoyal Institution, one of the strongholds of British 

 chemical research, and the financial support given by the Goldsmiths' 

 and others of the great City of London livery Companies (initiated 

 largely by the late Sir Frederick Abel, Sir Frederick Bramwell, and 

 Mr. George Matthey), to the foundation of the Imperial College of 

 Science and Technology. The men who initiated these gifts have been 

 themselves intimately associated with developments both in. science 

 and industry ; they have understood that the field must be prepared 

 before the crop can be reaped. Fortunately our great chemical indus- 

 tries are, for the most part, controlled, and. administered, by men fully 

 conversant with the mode in which technical progress and prosperity 

 follow upon scientific achievement ; and it is my pleasant duty to record 

 that within the last few weeks the directors of one of our greatest 

 chemical-manufacturing concerns have, with the consent of their 

 shareholders, devoted £100,000 to research. Doubtless other chemical 

 industries will in due course realise what they have to gain by an ade- 

 quate appreciation of pure science. 



If the effort now being made to establish a comprehensive scheme 

 for the resuscitation of chemical industry within our Empire is to 

 succeed, financial support on a veiy liberal scale must be forthcoming, 

 from the industry itself, for the advancement of purely scientific 

 research. This question has been treated recently in so able a fashion 

 by Lord Moulton that nothing now remains but to await the results of 

 his appeal for funds in aid of the advancement of pure science. 



In order to pi'event disappointment, and a possible reaction in the 

 future, in those who endow pure research, it is necessary to give a word 

 of wai'ning. It must be remembered that the history of science abounds 

 m illustrations of discoveries, regarded at the time as trivial, which have 

 In after years become epoch-making. 



In illustration I would cite Faraday's discovery of electro-magnetic 

 induction. He found that when a bar magnet was thrust into the 

 core of a bobbin of insulated copper wire, whose tei-minals were con- 

 nected with a galvanometer, a momentary current was produced ; 

 whilst on withdi-awing the magnet a momentary reverse current 

 occurred ; a purely scientific experiment destined in later years to 

 develop into the dynamo and with it the whole electrical industiy. 

 .\nother illustration may be given : Guyton de Morveau, Northmore, 

 Davy, Faraday and Cagniard Latour between 1800 and 1850 were 

 engaged in liquefying many of the gases. Hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, 

 marsh gas, cai'bon-monoxide, and nitric oxide, however, resisted all 

 efforts, until the work of Joule and .\ndrews gave the clue to the causes 

 of failure. Some thirty years later by careful application of the 

 theoretical considerations all the gases were liquefied. The liquefaction 

 of oxygen and nitrogen now forms the basis of a very large and 

 important industry. 



Such cases can be multiplied indefinitely in all branches of 

 science. 



