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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1135 



touch with the progress of chemical knowl- 

 edge and to facilitate the development of 

 new British industries and the extension of 

 existing ones; and to encourage the sym- 

 pathetic association of British manufac- 

 turers with the various universities and 

 technical colleges. 



Needless to say, the progress of this im- 

 portant movement will be assisted by every- 

 one who is interested, either directly or in- 

 directly, in the welfare of our chemical 

 industry, and, moreover, the support of 

 the scientific societies will not be lacking, 

 for, as the result of a conference convened 

 by the President and Council of the Royal 

 Society, a Conjoint Board of Scientific So- 

 cieties has been constituted, for the fur- 

 therance of the following objects: Promo- 

 ting the cooperation of those interested in 

 pure or applied science ; supplying a means 

 whereby scientific opinion may find effec- 

 tive expression on matters relating to sci- 

 ence, industry and education; taking such 

 action as may be necessary to promote the 

 application of science to our industries and 

 to the service of the nation ; and discussing 

 scientific questions in which international 

 cooperation seems advisable. 



In an address given to the Society of 

 Chemical Industry last year, I indicated 

 another way in which chemical manufac- 

 turers can help themselves and at the same 

 time promote the interests of chemistry in 

 this country. In the United States of 

 America individual manufacturers, or asso- 

 ciations of manufacturers, have shown 

 themselves ready to take up the scheme 

 originated by the late Professor Duncan 

 for the institution of industrial research 

 scholarships tenable at the universities or 

 technical colleges, and the results obtained 

 after ten years' experience of the working 

 of this practical method of promoting co- 

 operation between science and industry 

 have more than justified the anticipations 



of its originator. The scheme is worthy of 

 adoption on many grounds, of which the 

 chief are that it provides definite subjects 

 for technical research to young chemists 

 qualified for such work, that it usually 

 leads to positions in factories for chemists 

 who have proved their capacity through 

 the work done while holding scholarships, 

 and that it reacts for good on the profession 

 generally, by bringing about that more 

 intimate intercourse between teachers and 

 manufacturers which is so much to be 

 desired. 



In this connection the recent foundation 

 of the Willard Gibbs chair of research in 

 pure chemistry at the University of Pitts- 

 burgh is extremely significant, for it shows 

 that even in such a purely industrial com- 

 munity as Pittsburgh it is recognized that 

 the most pressing need of the day is the 

 endowment of chemical research and the 

 creation of research professorships. Mr. 

 A. P. Fleming, who recently made a tour 

 of inspection of research laboratories in the 

 United States, points to the amount of 

 work done by individual firms and the in- 

 creased provision now being made for re- 

 search in universities and technical insti- 

 tutions. He reports that at the present 

 time there are upwards of fifty corpora- 

 tions having research laboratories, costing 

 annually from £20,000 to £100,000 for 

 maintenance, and states that "some of the 

 most striking features of the research work 

 in America are the lavish manner in which 

 the laboratories have been planned, which 

 in many cases enables large scale opera- 

 tions to be carried out in order to deter- 

 mine the best possible methods of manu- 

 facturing any commodity developed or dis- 

 covered in the laboratories; the increasing 

 attention given in the research laboratories 

 to pure science investigation, this being, in 

 my opinion, the most important phase of 

 industrial research; and the absorption of 



