158 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 



assess over a period of twelve months the change that is taking place,' 

 vv'rites Lord Rutherford in the Report I have already quoted. ' Comparison 

 of the attitude of to-day with that of ten years ago indicates more definitely 

 what is happening. In one field of our work industry affords each year, 

 clear and tangible evidence, that the forward movement which it has been 

 our aim to encourage is gathering momentum. The steady increase in the 

 total sum which industry as a whole provides annually for the development 

 of Research Associations gives us good reasons for taking an optimistic 

 point of view.' 



In the year 1932-33 a total sum of £,i(>7,37o was supplied by all the 

 industries concerned for the support of the Research Associations organised 

 by them. In 1935-36 the figure had grown to ^^232,468 ; an increase of 

 40 per cent, in three years. But even so the position is not yet satisfactory, 

 and industry still lags behind in its support of these Associations, in spite 

 of the liberal encouragement of Government. I have no doubt, however, 

 that this stage of affairs will not last. In the past year several important 

 steps forward have for instance been taken, the opening of the splendid 

 new laboratories of the Printing and Allied Trades Association, the 

 Perivale Laboratories of the Electrical Research Association, the new 

 laboratories of the Research and Standardisation Committee of the Institu- 

 tion of Automobile Engineers, the extensions to the Shirley Institute and 

 the Research Station of the Paint Research Association at Teddington. 



We have been experiencing a revival, and hopes are high again. This 

 always makes it easier to get money. Unfortunately, when industry is 

 depressed, and when research is all the more necessary, the necessary 

 support is not forthcoming. I might instance the William Froude 

 Laboratory. The work of the Institution was made possible by the 

 benefactions of two leading members of the ship-building industry, 

 Sir Alfred Yarrow in its early days, and Sir James Lithgow in its more 

 recent developments. The maintenance of the research work, however, 

 depends largely upon the provision of funds by the shipping and ship- 

 building industries. Actually, the major portion of the expenditure has 

 been met by payments for tests by individual members, while the industry 

 as a whole has contributed only about ;^2,ooo a year, an inadequate sum 

 to deal with the immense field that has to be covered. In the years 

 1935-6, 73 ship designs involving the making and testing of 160 model 

 hulls were dealt with. Four of the designs were improved in hull and 

 propeller by more than 20 per cent., and effective improvements were 

 made in 54 out of the 73 designs. ' It has been calculated,' we are told, 

 * that if only one ship were built to each of the improved designs resulting 

 from one year's work at the Tank, the annual saving in the cost of operating 

 the vessels would be more than enough to cover the cost of running the 

 William Froude Laboratory for a year.' 



Of course, here as always in research, it is the case that the greater the 

 success of research, the more immediate and drastic the effect on existing 

 plant and equipment. That is where the rub sometimes lies. Millions are 

 necessarily sunk in fixed assets, which may in a year or two be made obsolete 



