THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 15 



proposed to the company as worth trying. It was tried, and proved to 

 be a complete success. The sound ranging of the British armies was based 

 upon it, with results which have already been described and are fairly 

 well known. 



It is clear that the all-important suggestion could only have been made 

 by a man who had had scientific training and experience. That is one 

 point of the first significance. The second is that it could only have been 

 made by such a man actually on the spot. He could not have realised the 

 details of the problem if he had been anywhere else. 



It is worth while to consider this last point a little more closely. What 

 precisely was the difficulty which could only be resolved by a combination 

 of knowledge and of being on the spot ? It was really the difficulty of 

 making a true estimation of quantities. It was a question of magnitudes 

 and measurements. Anyone possessed of scientific knowledge could have 

 said, if asked, that a gun must make an air pulse, and that an air pulse 

 would chill a hot wire to an extent which might or might not be 

 measurable. But there is all the difference in the world between such 

 vague general knowledge on the one hand, and, on the other, the realisation 

 that such a method is likely to work and give the desired result. It is the 

 difference which so often escapes attention, but everyone of experience 

 knows that it is to be reckoned among the essentials. It is so easy to talk 

 generalities or to think of them, and so difficult to get down to the details 

 which make the effort a success. It may be the last little adjustment of 

 magnitudes that turns the scale, and the last step the one that counts. 



Are we, then, in this country, putting our scientific knowledge into the 

 position where it is really effective ? I would draw your attention to a 

 most interesting and important movement which is attaining a notable 

 magnitude. 



A new class of worker is growing up among us consisting of the men 

 engaged in research associations and industrial research laboratories 

 throughout the country. We must place a high value on their services, 

 for they are actually and personally bringing back with them into 

 craftsmanship the scientific knowledge which is one of its essentials. They 

 bring the interest and the outlook of scientific inquiry into touch with 

 both employer and employed, and I cannot but think that they may be to 

 some extent the flux that will make them run together. For they can 

 speak with the employer as men also trained in University and College, 

 exchanging thought with ease and accuracy. And, at the same time, 

 they are fellow workers with those in the shops and can bring back there 



