152 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



whole time to researcli while others carry the spirit of research into the 

 ordinary problems of industry and engineering. Employers, public 

 authorities, and governments must utilise this research ability, and more 

 men should find their way into industry from the research institutions. The 

 Universities, however, cannot do this most important work of training 

 researchers unless they are adequately equipped and staffed to give 

 members of the staff the necessary time for research and to devote them- 

 selves to the training of students in research. To this end sufficient 

 funds must be provided from private and public sources. 



In the time allotted to this address it has been impossible to do other 

 than refer briefly, and perhaps unconvincingly, to the importance of re- 

 search in engineering. It has not been possible to refer, nor should it be 

 necessary, to the indebtedness of engineering to craft ability, upon which 

 success so often depends. One word, however, should be said about the 

 desirability of training engineering craftsmen to the appreciation of the 

 scientific problems underlying their craft. When this can be done, and 

 much more is possible than at present, it leads to an increase in efficiency 

 and adaptability, to a greater tolerance and interest in new methods, and 

 in the immediate task. It also leads them to appreciate the relationship 

 of their problems to the great world of nature, and thus to a widening of 

 that interest to which the work of this association is directed. 



The engineer is faced with many unsolved problems. Nevertheless he 

 must find immediate, if only approximate and tentative, solutions to many 

 of them, and in the solution he often has to deal with many types of men. 

 If experimental science and mathematics cannot give him an exact solution 

 he must still carry on, and in this way much has been achieved. It is for 

 this reason that the engineer has to learn much by actual experience in 

 the workshop, in the field, and frequently he becomes impatient of science 

 and lays too great emphasis upon experience. Manufacturers wish to see 

 returns upon their capital and remuneration for their energy, but as an 

 effective guarantee of future progress and in the solution of many problems 

 in design, in processes, in materials, as well as in the discovery of new 

 methods, it is necessary, as Francis Bacon would to-day remind us, ' to 

 apply natural philosophy to particular problems and particular problems 

 must be carried back to natural philosophy.' 



