September i8, 1891.] 



SCIENCE. 



161 



ENDOWED RESEARCH IN PHYSICS." 



There is a subject which has long been in my mind, and 

 wliich I determined to bring forward whenever I had a ca- 

 thedral opportunity of doing so; and now, if ever, is a suita- 

 ble occasion. It is to call attention to the fact that the fur- 

 ther progress of physical science in the somewhat haphazard 

 and amateur fashion in which it has been hitherto pursued 

 in this country is becoming increasingly difHcult, and that 

 the quantitative portion especially should be undertaken in 

 a permanent and publicly-supported physical laboratory on 

 a large scale. If such an establishment were to weaken the 

 sinews of private enterprise and individual research it should 

 be strenuously opposed ; but, in my opinion, it would have 

 the opposite effect, by relieving the private worker of much 

 which he can only with great difficulty, sacrifice, and ex- 

 pense, undertake. To illustrate more precisely what I mean, 

 it is sufficient to recall the case of astronomy. The amateur 

 astronomer has much work lying ready to his hand, and he 

 grapples with it manfully. To him is left the striking out 

 of new lines and the guerilla warfare of science. Skirmish- 

 ing and brilliant cavalry evolutions are his natural field; 

 he should not be called upon to take part in tbe general in- 

 fantry advance. It is wasting his energies, and he could 

 not do it in the long run well. What, for instance, would 

 have been the state of astronometry — the nautical almanac 

 department of astronomy — without the consecutive and 

 systematic work of the National Observatory at Greenwich ? 

 It may be that some enthusiastic amateurs would have de- 

 voted their lives to this routine kind of work, and here at 

 one time and there at another a series of accurate observa- 

 tions would have been kept for several years. Pursued in 

 that way, however, not only would the effort be spasmodic 

 and temporary, but the energy and enthusiasm of those am- 

 ateurs would have been diverted from the pioneering more 

 suited to them, and have been cramped in the groove of rou- 

 tine, eminently adapted to a permanent official staff, but not 

 wholesome for an individual. 



Long-continued consecutive observations may be made by 

 a leader of science, as functions may be tabulated by an 

 eminent mathematician; but if the work can be done almost 

 equally well (some would say better) by a professional ob- 

 server or computator, how great an economy results. 



Now all this applies equally to physics. The ohm has 

 been determined with 4-figure, perhaps with 5-figure, accu- 

 racy; but think of the list of eminent men to whose severe 

 personal labor we owe this result, and ask if the spoil is 

 worth the cost. Perhaps in this case it is, as a specimen of a 

 well-conducted determination. We must have a few specimens, 

 and our leaders must show us the way to do things. But 

 let us not continue to use them for such purposes much 

 longer. The quest of the fifth or sixth decimal is a very 

 legitimate, and may become a very absorbing, quest, but 

 there are plenty of the rank and file who can undertake it if 

 properly generalled and led; not as isolated individuals, but 

 as workers in a National Laboratory under a competent head 

 and a governing committee. By this means work far greater 

 in quantity, and in the long run more exact in quality, can 

 be turned out, by patient and conscientious labor without 

 much genius, by the gradual improvement of instrumental 

 means, by the skill acquired by practice, and by the steady 

 drudgery of routine. Paris has long had one form of such 

 an institution, in the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, and 



1 Abstract of an address before the section of Mathematics and Physics of 

 the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at Cardiff, August, 

 1891, by Professor Oliver J. Lodge, president of the section (^Nature, Aug. 30). 



has been able to impose the metric system on the civilized 

 world in consequence. It can also point to the classical de- 

 terminations of Regnault as the fruits of just such a system. 

 Berlin is now starting a similar or a more ambitious scheme 

 for a permanent national physical institute. Is it not time 

 that England, who in physical science, I venture to think, 

 may in some sort claim a leading place, should be thinking 

 of starting the same movement? 



The Meteorological and Magnetic Observatory at Kew (in 

 the inauguration of which this association took so large a 

 part) is a step, and much useful quantitative work is done 

 there. The new Electric Standardizing Laboratory of the 

 Board of Trade is another, and, in some respects perhaps, 

 a still closer approximation to the kind of thing I advocate. 

 But what I want to see is a much larger establishment 

 erected on the most suitable site, limited by no specialty of 

 aim nor by the demands of the commercial world, furnished 

 with all appropriate appliances, to be amended and added to 

 as time goes on and experience grows, and invested with all 

 the dignity and permanence of a national institution : a 

 physical laboratory, in fact, precisely comparable to the 

 Greenwich observatory, and aiming at the very highest 

 quantitative work in all departments of physical science. 

 That the arts may be benefitted may be assumed without 

 proof. It is largely the necessity of engineers that has in- 

 spired the amount of accuracy in electrical matters already 

 attained. The work and appliances of the mechanical engi- 

 neer eclipse the present achievements of the physicist in 

 point of accuracy, and it is by the aid of the mechanician 

 and optician that precision even in astronomy has reached 

 so high a stage. There is no reason why physical determi- 

 nations should be conducted in an amateur fashion, with 

 comparatively imperfect instruments, as at present they 

 mostly are. Discoveries lie along the path of extreme accu- 

 racy, and they will turn up in the most unexpected way. 

 The aberration of light would not have been discovered had 

 not Bradley been able to measure to less than 1 part in 10,- 

 000 ; and what a brilliant and momentous discovery it was ! 

 He was aiming at the detection of stellar parallax. This is 

 the type of result which sometimes lurks in the fifth decimal, 

 and which confers upon it an importance beside which the 

 demands of men who wish to serve the taste and the pocket 

 of the British public sink into insignificance. 



In a national observatory accuracy should be the one great 

 end ; the utmost accuracy in every determination that is de- 

 cided on and made. Only one thing should be more thought 

 of than the fifth significant figure, and that is the sixth. 

 The consequences fl.owing from the results may safely be 

 left; such as are not obvious at once will distil themselves 

 out in time. And the great army of outside physicists, as- 

 sured of the good work being done at headquarters, will (to 

 speak again in astronomical parable) cease from peddling 

 with taking transits or altitudes, and will be free to discover 

 comets, to invent the spectroscope, to watch solar phenom- 

 ena, to chemically analyze the stars, to devise celestial pho- 

 tography, and to elaborate still more celestial theories : all 

 of which novelties in their maturity may be handed over to 

 the national observatorj-, to be henceforth incorporated with, 

 and made part of, its routine life; leaving the advance 

 guard and skirmishers free to explore fresh territory, secure 

 in the knowledge that what they have acquired will be 

 properly surveyed, mapped, and utilized, without further 

 attention from them. 



As to the practical applications, they may in any case be 

 left to take care of themselves. The instinct of humanitv in 



