10 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



properties, all of which were practically unknown until recent researches 

 of the metallurgists brought them to light. The motor car is connected, 

 too, with the laboratories in which chemistry and physics are applied to 

 the study of rubber. Here again is a whole story in itself, which would 

 tell of the work done on the intricate consequences of various kinds of 

 mixings and of treatment, of the vulcanising and of the use of ' fillers.' 

 Not many know the story ; they are only aware that motor car tyres last 

 longer than was once the case. 



The aeroplane, like the motor car, has become possible because of the 

 advent of the internal combustion engine ; but it has a unique feature — 

 its element of romance, its motion through the air. The laws of aero- 

 dynamics are becoming better known, and with every advance in their 

 knowledge the efficiency of the aeroplane increases. Their intricacy is 

 gradually resolved, but the process demands, in the first place, mathe- 

 matical skill, and in the second the fascinating research that is carried 

 on in the wind channels of our laboratories. On this splendid work the 

 progress of the aeroplane depends. I saw not long ago in a London 

 shop window a coloured print of a flying machine. From across the 

 street it might easily have been taken for a drawing of a modern aeroplane ; 

 a closer view showed still the same general spread of wings, the same 

 whirling screws, the same discharge from the exhaust, a boat not at all 

 untrue to modern design, and wheels to bear it when on land. Moreover 

 the proportions were quite familiar. Yet the date was 1843. For all 

 its resemblance to the modern aeroplane, how far it was from flying not 

 only in time but in capacity ! The difference between old and new in 

 the form and materials of the wings may not be obvious to the casual 

 observer, but in reality a wealth of trial and calculation lies between the 

 crude projections of the old invention and the modern machine that flies. 

 The turn of a line in the sectional outline of the wing may make the 

 difference between success and failure, though it is only one of innumerable 

 and equally essential details. The scientific worker grasps the meaning 

 of that turn, and the airman tries it out, and that is the combination which 

 brings success at last. The point is that the construction of the flying 

 machine is a new industry based directly on knowledge recently acquired 

 in the laboratories and continually growing under laboratory experiment. 

 Everything depends on this careful, well-informed concentration on 

 essential details. 



If we enter the chemical province we find that there are thriving 

 industries based on recent scientific discovery ; instances at least as 



