February 24, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



201 



scientific knowledge and its applications to in- 

 dustry; and in these developments scientific 

 instruments are an essential and predominant 

 factor. 



Of the part played by scientific instruments 

 in the advancement of seientiflc knowledge 

 there is no need to speak. The laboratories of 

 the universities and kindred institutions where 

 scientific research is prosecuted would be dis- 

 abled were they without scientific instruments 

 of the highest trustworthiness and precision. 

 The variety and extent of the industrial pur- 

 poses served by scientific instruments are so 

 great that there is probably no important in- 

 dustry in the country which is not dependent 

 on scientific instruments of one kind or an- 

 other for the performance of its productive 

 functions. Moreover, the field of application 

 of scientific instruments is constantly widen- 

 ing; the uses of the microscope in the textile 

 and steel industries, of the polarimeter in the 

 sugar and essential oil industries, of the pyro- 

 meter in the metallurgical industry, and of 

 X-rays in the iron and steel industries, are but 

 a few of the many examples that could be cited 

 to illustrate the invasion of seientiflc instru- 

 ments into fields of industry in which they were 

 at one time unknown. That the industries 

 gain in sureness and accuracy and in a deep- 

 er and wider knowledge of the fundamental 

 scientific principles involved is obvious. And 

 the process continues and must continue. To- 

 morrow new instruments will be devised and 

 new uses found for old instruments. 



Moreover, as was stated in the leading ar- 

 ticle published in Nature of February 10, 

 1921, the scientific instrument industry, spring- 

 ing directly from the loins of science, and pro- 

 gressing as scientific knowledge widens, is one 

 of the most highly skilled industries we have. 

 Its expansion means a definite increase in the 

 numbers of academic and technical scientific 

 workers and of the most highly skilled artisans ; 

 and the national wealth, in any comprehensive 

 conception of the term, must be enlarged by 

 the increase of the numbers of such educated 

 and skilled classes. 



For these and other reasons a fiourishing 

 and efficient scientific instrument industry is 



vital to the nation, whether in peace or war. 

 And, although it is obvious that the users of 

 scientific instruments, whether in the indus- 

 trial or academic domain, must not be pre- 

 judiced or hampered by being unable to ob- ■ 

 tain the best instruments, from whatever source, 

 it would bs a disaster of the first magnitude 

 if British scientific instruments should not be 

 produced equal to the best that the world has 

 to offer. 



AN ENGLISH JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC 

 INSTRUMENTS! 



Nature may be continuous and the divisions 

 of time and space no more than artificial ar- 

 ticulations devised to suit the human intellect. 

 Nevertheless, physical science is based on 

 measurement, and proceeds only by the use of 

 selected units of time, space, quantity, and 

 so forth. Every new branch of science leads 

 to the creation of a new set of units, and 

 according to the latest theory it would appear 

 that energy itself is most conveniently regarded 

 as divided into "quanta" — measurable and 

 related units. Many of the most illuminating 

 advances in theory and actual discoveries of 

 fact have come about by more refined methods 

 of weighing and measuring. By these, argon, 

 radium, and many new elements have been 

 isolated and identified; by these the structure 

 of the atom and the new alchemy which trans- 

 mutes one element into another have been re- 

 vealed. In every laboratory a new research 

 implies the devising of new apparatus or the 

 detection of deficiencies in existing apparatus. 

 The literature in which such advances in techni- 

 cal methods are published is scattered all over 

 the civilized world. It is written in many 

 languages and at present there is no adequate 

 system of indexing or recording it. Doubtless 

 the patent offices contain sufficient descriptions 

 of improvements with actual or possible com- 

 mercial value; but even this field is so vast 

 that applicants have to employ special agents 

 before they can guess if their claims are novel. 

 But for a large proportion of the methods de- 

 vised in the prosecution of research patents are 

 neither sought nor desired. Sir Richard Glaze- 



1 From the London Times. 



