10 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS, 



tions, formed in alliance with the same number of the principal industries 

 of the country, for the purposes of scientific investigations connected with 

 those industries. No attempt can be made here to review the whole field 

 of work of these various bodies ; but a few examples may be chosen for 

 the purpose of pointing out what may be called their homely application. 

 First, then, as to the building of the home. The Building Eesearch Board 

 was created in 1920, and in 1925, at the request of the Ministry of Health, 

 considerably extended its activities. Researches are concerned with the 

 study of materials from the chemical and geological aspects, their strength, 

 weathering, moisture condensation on wall coverings, acoustics, and various 

 other problems ; these inquiries, together with the collection and supply 

 of information both by publication and through an intelligence bureau, 

 represent (as the report states) ' an attempt to create a real science of 

 building, to explain and supplement the traditional knowledge possessed 

 to-day in the industry.' It can scarcely be questioned that industrial 

 Britain inherits a legacy of discomfort in the housing of its workers, with 

 all which that implies, dating from a period when the building of the home 

 lacked scientific as well as aesthetic guidance. We need that guidance no 

 less to-day, when the saving of labour is one of the main objectives of the 

 ' ideal home ' and its fitments. 



Next, a further word as to our food supplies. The Food Investigation 

 Board directs committees concerned with meat and fish preservation, 

 fruit and vegetables, oils and fats, and canned foods. There is also a 

 committee for engineering problems associated with the investigations ; 

 conditions of storage have been investigated on ships between this country 

 and Australia, and problems of heat-conductivity at the National Physical 

 Laboratory, while chemical substances suitable for refrigerants have been 

 studied at the Engineering School here in Oxford. At Cambridge a low- 

 temperature research station has been established on ground given by the 

 University, and is working in co-operation with the University bio- 

 chemical, botanical, agricultural, and other laboratories. As for the 

 investigations upon fruit and vegetables, the report may again be quoted, 

 for it illustrates in a sentence something approaching the ideal of scientific 

 co-operation brought to bear upon one particular home necessity, and 

 (what is more) upon a particular and important branch of Imperial 

 commerce. ' There is (it says) a closely knit scheme of work, which rests, 

 on the one hand, in university schools of botany, and, on the other, in 

 commercial stores scattered all over the country, where accurate records 

 of results and conditions have been kept, and extends to the conditions 



