SECTION B.— CHEMISTRY. 



A STATE EXPERIMENT IN CHEMICAL 



RESEARCH. 



ADDRESS BY 



PROF. G. T. MORGAN, O.B.E., D.Sc, F.R.S., 



PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 



At the Bristol meeting of 1875 my predecessor, Prof. A. G. Vernon 

 Harcourt, spoke to this section on the teaching of chemistry, and in the 

 course of his very inspiring address he remarked that ' the science of 

 chemistry would advance more rapidly if it were possible to organise 

 chemists into working parties having each a definite region to explore,' 

 and he went on to inquire : ' Is sucJi an organisation in any degree 

 possible ? 



I propose this morning to describe the attempt recently made by a 

 department of State, namely, the Department of Scientific and Industrial 

 Research, to give effect to Prof. Vernon Harcourt's prophetic vision. 

 The answer to his question is in the affirmative. Such an organisation is 

 in some degree possible, and has actually become an accomplished fact. 

 I must, however, leave for one of my successors in this Chair the further 

 inquiry, Can such an organisation become permanent and still retain its 

 primary and paramount function of chemical exploration ? 



Origin of the Chemical Research Laboratory. 



The work of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research 

 began in 1915, and during the ensuing ten years the Department had at 

 various times become interested in investigations of a chemical nature, 

 such, for example, as (1) large-scale researches on the chlorination of 

 methane, (2) large-scale researches on the production of formaldehyde, 

 (3) investigations on the production of glycerine, (4) investigations on 

 the manufacture of chemical products from fish residues, (5) general 

 researches on the corrosion of metals, (6) general researches on high- 

 pressure reactions, including the reactions i)etween carbon monoxide and 

 hydrogen. 



These investigations, which were undertaken mainly under the auspices l 

 of the Chemistry Co-ordinating Research Board, were carried out by'j 

 isolated groups of workers, who were often located in widely separated! 

 laboratories. One group studied the corrosion of metals at the Royal 

 School of Mines, another examined fish products in the Imperial College 

 of Science and Technology, whereas a third experimented on the chlorina- 

 tion of methane and on the recovery of formaldehyde from waste liquors 

 of wool-scouring at the Royal Naval Cordite Factory in Dorsetshire. 



