G.— ENGINEERING 153 



The year 1900 is, too, an important dividing line in another sense. The 

 National Physical Laboratory was founded just before it ; and two years 

 after it, 1902, the British Engineering Standards Association was estab- 

 lished, by the co-operation of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the 

 Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Institute of Naval Architects, 

 and the Iron and Steel Institute, under the chairmanship of Sir John 

 Wolfe Barry, the great civil engineer. Since 1900 research has been on 

 the whole, recognised as a question of national importance. 



The history of the National Physical Laboratory has been one of con- 

 tinual expansion. From Kew it removed immediately to Teddington to 

 have greater space. In 1901 the Engineering Laboratory was completed. 

 In quick succession followed departments dealing with Electrotechnics, 

 Electrical Standards, Optics, Thermometry, Pyrometry, Tide-Predicting, 

 Road Materials, Physics, Metallurgy, Aeronautics, Ship Model Testing, 

 to mention only a few of its manifold activities. By 191 8 when it became 

 part of the larger organisation known as the Department of Scientific and 

 Industrial Research, it had already an expert staff of 600. It has now 

 over 1,900. 



The original committee of eight, under the chairmanship of Sir John 

 Wolfe Barry, that controlled the British Engineering Standards Asso- 

 ciation, has now expanded into a body of 870 committees with 4,850 

 members. 



In later years, co-ordination has become recognised as essential. ' In 

 any earlier age,' said Mr. Thomas Midgley, on the occasion of the award 

 to him this year of the Perkin Medal of the Society of Chemical Industry, 

 ' when science and industry were simple individualistic processes, it is 

 conceivable that some person, by his efforts alone, could have advanced 

 applied chemistry to have justified your Committee to bestow upon him 

 the Perkin Medal. To-day this is no longer so. To advance applied 

 chemistry even a little requires the organised efforts of many individuals. 

 Since you have chosen me as the recipient of the Perkin Medal for 1937 

 it is only fitting that I acknowledge at this time the aid which I have 

 received from others in solving the two problems for which you are 

 rewarding me.' Such ascription of merit would have to be made by every 

 research worker of to-day. 



The same is true generally in industry and manufacture. Every im- 

 portant industry and many manufacturers devote considerable expenditure 

 to research. It is in fact the only means of continuous progress in an 

 increasingly competitive world. It is almost the exception now to find 

 a firm of any standing that has not its research department, and some of 

 the most extensive and elaborate laboratories in the country are under the 

 control of great manufacturing firms. The modern State is founded on 

 scientific research — not like the French judge in 1794, who, in sentencing 

 to death Lavoisier, one of the founders of modern chemistry, said that 

 the Republic has no need of scientists ! 



Nowadays a vast amount of State-aided research is being carried out by 

 State Departments, private Research I-aboratories, Research Associations, 



