November 9, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



707 



can not fail to foster a vigorous and healthy 

 growth in science, to which we already owe 

 so much of our national prosperity and re- 

 nown. 



In the second place Congress should be 

 stimulated to take action because of national 

 pride. It is not creditable for a capable 

 and self-reliant nation to continue to de- 

 pend on foreign countries for its standards 

 of measurement, for the certification of its 

 instruments and for the calibration of its 

 normal apparatus for precise work. Differ- 

 ent departments of our Government and 

 offices under its control must at present 

 appeal to foreign bui'eaus for the certifica- 

 tion of their standards and instruments of 

 precision. The first day the writer spent 

 at the Reichsanstalt he was consulted with 

 reference to an extended correspondence 

 between the Director of the technical di- 

 vision and the officials of the Brooklyn 

 l>ravy Yard relative to the calibration of a 

 large number of incandescent electric lamps 

 for use in our Navy department. The 

 spectacle of a Government bureau going to 

 a foreign imperial institution for standards 

 in an industry whose home is in the United 

 States is a humiliating one. Yet the pro- 

 ceeding was entirely proper and justifiable 

 because there is in this country no standard- 

 izing bureau for the purpose desired. Are 

 the representatives of the American people 

 willing to have this state of affairs continue ? 



Again, the higher interests of the indus- 

 trial utilization of scientific knowledge re- 

 quire the establishment in Washington of 

 an institution similar to the Reichsanstalt, 

 and in no degree inferior to it. We are an 

 inventive people and may justly claim re- 

 nown in the prompt and efficient utilization 

 of the discoveries in physical science. It is 

 highly improbable that a practical limit has 

 already been reached in the field of applied 

 physics. We are not estopped from making 

 further discoveries. Still, it may be affirmed 

 with confidence that the most important 



and promising work to be done, except in 

 the rare instances in which genius makes a 

 brilliant discovery, will consist in the more 

 perfect adaptation of known physical laws 

 to the production of useful results. It is 

 precisely this field which has not been ex- 

 tensively cultivated as yet in the United 

 States. We have explored the surface and 

 presumably gathered the largest nuggets 

 and the most brilliant gems. To increase 

 the output we must now delve deeper and 

 scrutinize more closely. To drop the met- 

 aphor, what will be required for future 

 preeminence is the more intensive and ex- 

 haustive study of the scientific conditions 

 in the industrial utilization of physical laws. 

 This study will require the best talent of 

 our technical schools, aided and supported 

 by an authoritative national institution, 

 itself far removed from patents and com- 

 mercial gains, but jealous of our national 

 renown and eager to cooperate with manu- 

 facturers for the sake of national prosperity. 



Germany is rapidly moving toward in- 

 dustrial supremacy in Europe. One of the 

 most potent factors in this notable advance 

 is the perfected alliance between science 

 and commerce existing in Germany. Sci- 

 ence has come to be regarded there as a 

 commercial factor. If England is losing 

 her supremacy in manufactures and in com- 

 merce, as many claim, it is because of Eng- 

 lish conservatism and the failure to utilize 

 to the fullest extent the lessons taught by 

 science ; while Germany, once the country 

 of dreamers and theorists, has now become 

 eminently practical. Science there no 

 longer seeks court and cloister, but is in 

 open alliance with commerce and industry. 

 This is substantially the view taken by Sir 

 Charles Oppenheimer, British Consul-Gen- 

 eral at Frankfurt, in a recent review of the 

 status and prospects of the German Empire. 



The Reichsanstalt is the top stone of 

 Germany's scientific edifice. It has also 

 contributed much to her industrial renown. 



