SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
National Physical Laboratory. 
How British Industry Has Been Helped. 
By W. M. HOLMES, M.A.,° B.Sc. 
In the following article no attempt has been made to set out in 
detail all the advantages accruing to the nation from the establishment 
of the National Physical Laboratory in London, but rather to describe 
*in broad outline the organization of research work which is carried out 
and to indicate in a general way the more important activities and their 
effect upon British industry and national well-being. Its splendid 
achievements during the war are now too well known to require further 
reference. That its scientific staff and equipment will continue to 
exert a strong influence upon the industrial progress of the nation is 
almost certain. Four years after the establishment of the Laboratory 
the Deutsche Mechaniker Zeitung issued the warning, “Our Ger- 
man instrument-making trade has every cause to watch carefully the 
development of the National Physical Laboratory and to take timely 
precautions before the advantages which it has already secured against 
_ English competition are too seriously reduced.” Many branches of 
British industry now gratefully acknowledge the assistance which the 
National Physical Laboratory has been able to render. The writer’s 
connexion with the Laboratory was limited to part of the war period, — 
and to four months after the armistice. His impressions are based only 
on the experience gained during that time, and the story of the work 
of the various departments does not represent normal activities. 
The history of the National Physical Laboratory up to 1919 is 
bound up with the work of the first Director, Sir Richard Glazebrook, 
who retired from that office on 18th September last, having reached the 
age limit of sixty-five. In an appreciation of his labours, Mr. F. E. 
Smith, in National Physical Laboratory Review, described the growth of 
the Institution :— The establishment of a National Physical Laboratory 
was first suggested by Sir Oliver Lodge at the British Association meet- 
ing in 1891, at which time Sir Richard Glazebrook was Secretary of the 
B.A. Committee on Electrical Standards. Subsequently other prominent 
~ men drew attention to the need of such an Institution, and largely due 
to the strenuous advocacy of the Royal Society, the Laboratory was 
established in 1900. Sir Richard Glazebrook’s great interest in 
standardization work and his wide outlook on physical science specially 
fitted him for the post of first Director. 
Originally it was intended that the Laboratory should be developed 
at Richmond, but for various reasons the site in the Old Deer Park was 
abandoned, and the Government offered Bushy House, Teddington, for 
the purpose of a laboratory. Extensive alterations were undertaken, 
and in Bushy House provision was made for divisions of electricity, 
thermometry, metrology, chemistry, and metallurgy. — Metrology occu- 
pied one small room in the cellars. Chemistry occupied the south-west 
wing (formerly the chapel) of Bushy House, and Metallurgy was — 
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