40 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



engineering assistant and ten members of the artisan, clerical and 

 general stafi. 



The frontage to the half unit was commenced in November 1927 and 

 completed for occupation by Easter 1928, and the staff was then increased 

 gradually to its present total strength of about sixty. 



Beyond a small addition for stores and workrooms completed in 1929 

 there has been no further extension of the building, so that after five years 

 rather more than half of the first unit has been erected and put into 

 commission. There has been no attempt to force the growth of this 

 State laboratory, which is still to be regarded as being at an experimental 

 stage. 



Administration and Control. 



The work of the laboratory is conducted under the guidance of a 

 Chemistry Eesearch Board, which has taken over certain functions of the 

 older Chemistry Co-ordinating Research Board. This Board is charged 

 with the duty of advising the Department on the programme of work to 

 be undertaken at the laboratory and of exercising general supervision over 

 its execution. 



At the outset executive control was exercised by a part-time director 

 of chemical research and a whole-time superintendent, but from 1927 

 to the present this responsibility has been vested in a whole-time director. 



Programme of Research. 



At the present time the scientific and technical staffs are occupied on 

 six specific items of research prescribed on the advice of the Chemistry 

 Research Board, and ' working parties of exploration ' are detailed to 

 these mandated researches by the Director. 



Now since these explorations were started at different times and in 

 various circumstances, I propose to describe them simply in the order in 

 which they have come under my notice. This arrangement is purely 

 chronological, and has no bearing whatsoever on any order of merit or 

 importance. Moreover, it is essential to success in any research laboratory 

 that each researcher should regard his own investigations as the most 

 interesting and important in the world. 



When thus arranged, the six mandated researches are as follows : 

 synthetic resins, low temperature tar, high-pressure chemistry, corrosion 

 of metals, chemotherapy and research on water pollution. In addition to 

 these prescribed investigations a certain amount of general research is 

 carried out at the discretion of the Director. 



Synthetic Resins. 



The growing importance of synthetic resins in chemical industry is 

 gauged by the fact that the world's production of formaldehyde resins 

 which was of the order of 9,000 tons in 1921 had increased to 13,000 tons 

 in 1926, of which Great Britain was responsible for 16 per cent., as against 

 40, 24 and 8 per cent, derived respectively from the United States, Germany 

 and France, other countries accounting for the remaining 12 per cent. 

 Such resins are employed in the manufacture of moulding powders and 

 electrical components. The production by industrially available means 



