164 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VI. No. 1181 



pany devotes something' under 1 per cent, of 

 its profits, and the £80,000 to £100,000 a year 

 spent by the General Electric Company of 

 Schenectady. Mr. Fleming gives particulars 

 of what is being done by each of some twenty 

 corporations, but the list could easily be m^de 

 very much longer. Most of these laboratories 

 have sprung up in quite recent years; and 

 their number is constantly increasing. The 

 increase is not merely in number. It is as 

 remarkable in its growing breadth. The lab- 

 oratories of these firms undertake not merely 

 the routine of testing of materials and prod- 

 ucts and the more or less empirical adventures 

 after new products that was formerly the bus- 

 iness of a works' laboratory. At the one end 

 of the scale they carry out experiments on the 

 discovery of new products and the elaboration 

 of new designs into the full manufacturing 

 scale, and the laboratory supplies the needs 

 of the market as if it were itself a works, until 

 they outgrow the capacity of its plant and call 

 for a new works of their own. At the other 

 end of the scale they undertake inquiries into 

 questions of pure science, of the solution of 

 which no one can see any industrial applica- 

 tion. They keep men investigating such prob- 

 lems constantly and perseveringly, and give 

 them admirably equipped laboratories for the 

 purpose. This sort of thing is being done in 

 works after works, and every year adds to their 

 number and the elaboration of their equip- 

 ment. All the time, in spite of the enormous 

 sums that are being spent on what at first 

 sight is not only unproductive work, but work 

 which tends to subordinate the wholesome rule 

 of practise to the fantastic and costly demands 

 of laboratories, the thing pays. The fact that 

 the habit has grown so far is good prima-facie 

 evidence that it must pay, for American bus- 

 iness houses do not fling good money after 

 bad. But there is no need to depend on in- 

 ference or prima-facie evidence. The indi- 

 vidual experience of those who have tried it 

 shows that in fact it has paid, and the air in 

 America is thick with plans to extend the prac- 

 tise of applying science to help industry; for 

 great as is the extent of what has been done 

 already, it is only a tiny fraction of what in 



American industry there is still room and the 

 intention to do. 



Side by side with these corporations and 

 firms three groups of institutions are work- 

 ing to the same ends. Mr. Fleming quotes a 

 dozen or more separate industries with their 

 trade associations, each of which is under- 

 taking research for the coramon benefit of their 

 members; sometimes in their own common 

 research laboratories, sometimes in those of 

 their members, sometimes through university 

 or the Bureau of Standards staffs. An ex- 

 cellent instance of an important trade of 

 which all members, great as well as small, 

 have gained greatly by research work com- 

 municated to all alike, is that of the canners. 

 The Canners' Association spends some £6,000 

 or £7,000 a year on its central laboratory, 

 besides a good deal more on work done in the 

 factories of individual members; and it is 

 considered that the largest members have as 

 much interest as the small in the results being 

 made common to all, because the risk of the 

 whole trade being discredited by imperfect 

 production is thus minimized. Over a dozen 

 universities and colleges, again, are now 

 running laboratories devoted not only to 

 investigations in pure science which may ulti- 

 mately find a practical application, but to 

 industrial researches for which the application 

 is waiting as soon as the solution of the prob- 

 lems is found. In many instances such work 

 is done not on the strength of foimdations, 

 but at the request and expense and for the 

 benefit of commercial fijms and other indus- 

 trial bodies, such as railway companies. — Lon- 

 don Times. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Use of Mean Sea Level as the Datum for Ele- 

 vations. (Special Publication No. 41.) By 

 E. Lester Jones, Superintendent, U. S. 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey, Washington, 

 Government Printing Office. 1917. 

 This pamphlet presents a very strong case 

 in favor of the adoption of a single datum for 

 the elevations of the country in order to elimi- 

 nate the confusion which results from the em- 

 ployment of arbitrary planes of reference. 



