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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX, No. 1263 



actively engaged in establishing such associa- 

 tions, and licences have already been issued 

 by the board of trade to three. Among them 

 is the British Scientific Instrument Eesearch 

 Association, founded through the efforts of the 

 optical industry; the department has guaran- 

 teed a total expenditure by this association, in 

 accordance with an approved scheme, of not 

 more than £40,000 during the first five years. 

 In accordance with the terms of the agreement 

 with the Eoyal Society, the department be- 

 came responsible for the maintenance of the 

 ISTational Physical Laboratory on April 1, and 

 has given special attention to the salaries of 

 the scientific and technical staff. Hitherto the 

 laboratory to balance its expenses, has been 

 obliged to rely in the main upon fees paid to 

 it for testing ; as a result its officers have been 

 seriously underpaid, and the best of its senior 

 men are continuously being attracted away 

 from it. It is now recommended that the 

 scales of salaries should be completely over- 

 hauled, and that adequate provision should be 

 made for superannuation. 



One of the subdepartments through which 

 the Department of Industrial and Scientific 

 Eesearch works is the Food Investigation 

 Board, of which Mr. W. B. Hardy, secretary 

 of the Eoyal Society, is director. This board 

 has several subcommittees — on fish, on meat, 

 on fruit and vegetables, on oils and fats, and 

 on engineering. It has been giving particular 

 attention to the preservation of food, especially 

 by cold storage. It is acting in close consulta- 

 tion with the Food (War) Committee of the 

 Eoyal Society, and the work has grown rapidly. 

 On this head the report contains the following 

 significant observation : " Events have justified 

 the rapid decisions which we took in the sum- 

 mer of last year, while experience has shown 

 that the appointment of a responsible director 

 to organize a group of researches of national 

 importance assisted by an advisory board of 

 distinguished men of science and affairs 

 greatly facilitates prompt action and the 

 proper coordination of all the work in accord- 

 ance with a definite scheme. Eesearch work, 

 like other forms of creative activity, will not 

 flourish under committee rule." 



Last year, at the invitation of the Home 

 Office, the department appointed a committee, 

 of which Dr. J. S. Haldane is a member, to 

 inquire into the types of breathing apparatus 

 used in coal mines. This committee has just 

 presented its first annual report,^ in which it 

 draws attention to certain serious defects in 

 existing mine rescue apparatus, and in the 

 training of men to use them. The defects, it 

 is stated, are mainly matters of detail, and 

 suggestions are made for their improvement, 

 for the fixing of standards of achievement, and 

 for preparing the ground for further progress 

 in experimental investigations. Experimental 

 work is being carried on for the committee at 

 the Heriot Watt College, Edinburgh, under 

 the direction of one of its members. Dp. Henry 

 Briggs, who has established a physical testing 

 station which will be run by a military staff 

 attached to the Scottish command. For the 

 War Office the committee has examined and 

 reported on several sets of captured enemy 

 breathing apparatus, and has advised that 

 special inquiries should be made into the 

 storage and supply of liquid and compressed 

 oxygen, and other gases. In conjunction with 

 the Admiralty and the War Office a research 

 clearing house committee has been appointed 

 to coordinate the investigations into gas prob- 

 lems conducted by the different departments, 

 and to ensiu-e rapid interchange of knowledge 

 and experience, questions of particular diffi- 

 culty being referred to the science department. 



The department has also established, jointly 

 with the Medical Eesearch Committee, an in- 

 dustrial fatigue research board with Professor 

 Sherrington as chairman. With the board is 

 associated a panel of representative men and 

 women from each of the industries being stud- 

 ied, who will join the board as each trade in 

 turn comes under review. It will investigate 

 "the relations of the hours of labor and of 

 other conditions of employment, including 

 methods of work, to the production of in- 



3 Department of Scientific Industrial Eesearch. 

 First Eeport of the Mine Eescue Apparatus Ee- 

 search Committee. H.M. Stationery Office. Price 

 Is. 9d. net. 



