SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
Applied Science: What it Connotes. 
By Sir GERARD MUNTZ. 
In works practice in most manufactories thére is a regrettable absence of 
scientific application. The chemist, the metallurgist, the electrician, and the 
mathematician are, if present at all, relegated to inferior positions, and only 
allowed to exercise a stultified control. These establishments are managed and 
run usually by commercial gentlemen having no other practical knowledge than 
such as they have picked up in casual’ observation or at second-hand through 
conversation with managers and foremen. 
Many works managers have been promoted from foremanship or clerkship, and 
from the circumstances of their case have not had opportunities for that extended 
education which modern business conditions demand. Some of these managers, 
alas! all too few, have taken the trouble to take up technical study at evening 
classes, and thereby improve themselves. These are certainly the best men, but 
after a heavy day’s work and long hours what is the state of a man’s brain for 
absorbing and mastering intricate and involved subjects? The available hours 
are all too short, and he starts too late in life, 
The antagonism between the scientist and the ordinary foremen and managers 
is one of the greatest difficulties which the management of a business has to 
contend with. Both think that the knowledge the other possesses is of no useful 
value, but both are wrong. The practical knowledge acquired during long years 
of works practice is immense and diverse, and can be acquired in no other way. 
Experientia docet is as true to-day as it was 2,000 years ago. 
The practical man sees something wrong and knows how to reetify it, though 
he probably does not know the reasons which cause either the defect’ or the cure 
of it; the scientist could possibly in many cases tell him the reasons, though he 
could not himself do the job, or, as a pure scientist, apply the knowledge which 
he has to producing something useful. The man who has learnt to apply his 
science to practical ends is the man needed. 
What is the difference between what are commonly known as pure scientist and 
as applied scientist? Very little really, except that the latter has learnt to use 
his science for some useful purpose, whereas the former spends his time, in labora- 
tory or study, working out abstruse problems which, if of value, will ultimately 
be usefully applied elsewhere by his more practical colleagues. What is chiefly 
needed to-day in British manufacture is the combination of practice. and science; 
at present the men who possess both attributes are lamentably scarce. 
Young scientists must be brought in and taught practice, and, on the other 
hand, as far as possible, the young practical man must be encouraged to take up 
scientific studies in his own particular branch; he. will probably never become 
a real scientist, but he will obtain a sufficient knowledge to enable him to give 
intelligent and valuable assistance in carrying out the scientist’s ideas and 
improvements. In practice the scientist will obtain many unlooked-for sidelights 
from his less educated fellow man. Immense possibilities are to be found in every 
works from the loyal co-operation of -practice and science. Waste products may 
often be turned into money, processes may be cheapened, quality improved, regu- 
larity of grades assured, and innumerable mysteries and vexations cleared up 
and avoided. 
The position of the scientists in the manufacturing world requires reconsidera- 
tion and regrading. The time is coming when all the best establishments will be 
managed and controlled by men who have been scientists first and became manu- 
facturers and business men later. The scientific mind is trained on the best lines 
to produce the best effects in business; habits of method, the power to analyze 
cause and effect, to look beyond the immediate present, and to seek discovery 
rather than allow that things are impossible. The tendencies of the age are 
towards science and progress; the old order and the old ways and the old- 
fashioned man are passing away. If old England means to hold her own in the 
new world she must arm herself in the new way to meet the new conditions. Old 
England and the long bow gave place to English hearts of oak; to-day it is British 
steel and British pluck which keep things going. To-morrow it must be Imperial 
Britain’s brains plus brawn. 
Io 
