SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2964, 30 December 1916, Page 3

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

WHAT BRITAIN IS DOING A PHASE OF THE TRADE WAR TJio first, report of the Committee of the Privy Council for Scientific and-; Industrial Research is an important and. interesting document. This committee, which Las associated with it somo of thd foremost men, of science and captains of industry in the United Kingdom, was • brought into oxistenco in July, 1915, after the lessons of the war had emphasised tlio need for such' an organisation. "The shock of tho .war'niado manifest tho need for tho promotion and organisation of scientific research with a viow to its application to trade and industry," says tho Advisory Council in surveying the work that has been done. "The outbreak of war found us unable to .produco at homo many essential articles and materials. Wo were making less' than a couple of dozon kind's of optical glass out of over a hundred made by our enemies. Wo could hardly make a tithe of tho various dyestuffs needed for our textile- industries, with an annual output worth over £250,000,000 a year. We wero dependent upon Germany for magnetos, for countless drugs and pharmaceutical preparations, oven for the tungsten .used 'by our great steelmakers, and' for the zinc smelted from the oies our own Empire produced." The committeo has not confined its operations to tho making good of immediate necessities of tho kind indicated. "Tho brains, even tho. very processes, that to-day are necessary to tho output of munitions were 'yesterday needed, and will bo needed again to-morrow, for tho arts of peace," it states. "This is tho essential fact which justifies tho establishment of now machinery in the midst of a struggle that is absorbing the whole energies of tho nation in a. way no previous war has done. \ . We cannot hope to improviso an effective system at tho moment when hostilities cease, and unless during tho present poriod wo aro ablo to make a substantial advanco wo shall certainly bo unable to do what is necessary in the equally difficult period of reconstruction which will folj low tho war." The Advisory Council, a highly qualified expert body, was instructed, therefore, to devise a schemo of research designed'to operate over a period of years. The Government had undertaken to provide a sum of £100,000, spread over ten years, and other financial backing was available.- The council had for its. goal "tho successful organisation of research on a national scale," and it considered that tho most hopeful method of procedure would bo "a period of careful inquiry and, consultation, followed by-a gradual and systematic attack upon a, wide and carefully selected front."

I Since beginning its work, the council "has/covered, a very wide field indeed. Its first task was to savo certain researches which had been in progress at tho-outbreak of war, and wore in danger- of being abandoned. Grants were nuido where necessary, and 'tho AVar Oflico was induced to release for scientific work some investigators who had been drawn into the Forces. Then conferences with professional and other societies were arranged, in order that effort might be co-ordinated arid a general survey made of. tho research workalready undertaken or proposed. A register of researches was made and manufacturing firms in all branches of industry wero invited to inform the council in confidence of the problems that they had in hand or that required solution in tho interests of industry. Tho manufacturers co-operated heartily, and ono immediate result, was an increased tendency towards the ex-' ichange of information and 'even of 'trado secrets. The firms realised that •their most dangerous enemies were not their trade rivals in their own country but the powerful combinations of manufacturers in other countries, supported by 'every device" of rate and tarilf that their Governments' could provide. Then the council interested itself in the research work that was being dono in educational institutions. It had long been a reproach against the Unitcft Kingdom that tho State lent little or' no encouragement to students of tho universities and technical colleges in conducting investigations of importance of industry. The brightest young,minds of tho nation were not encouraged to busy .themselves wit!) practical problems, either by the payments of subsidies or by the granting of facilities. The council, at an early stage of its work, was ablo to recommend that grants should bo inado to some forty individuals engaged in important scientific investigations. It placed itself in touch with the educational institution?, and proceeded to forge links of -various kinds with the object of • securing moro systematic.: effort, . shocking: ..useless duplication, and stimulating thought. The task is. complex, and tho council is careful to omphasise -the continued importance of puro science as apart from mere technical problems,' in the case of students and teachers. ' But it hopes to "create such an atmosphere that tho new generation of students will cease to draw a distinction 'between theory and practice, and technologists of all ranks will through them attain to tho view that sound practice is only theory tempered by compromise." Tlio council has set up some important standing committees for the study of particular branches of industry. Among them are committees of metallurgy, miuing, and engineering. Those bodies are to be subdivided as may bo necessary, and already there is contemplated tho establishment of committees on' fuel, rubber,, cotton, paper, wool, and sillc. These committees contain exports, representative of tho industries concerned, and tlioir special duty is to advise tho council regarding research effort.' "It is'not often in our historv that tho nation has found time to think," comments tho council. "Now. by a curious paradox, while the flower of her youth and strength are fighting for her freedom and her life, the others havo a chance of thinking out the best use to which that life and freedom can be put when they are safe once more."

Many pluses of the subject aro mentioned in the report of the council. The increasing tendency towards tho formation of trade associations by British manufacturers, and tho undertaking of research work by theso associations aro noted with • approval. Details aro given of research work that lia-3 been undertaken already or that has been shown to be necessary, and the efforts of various societies and organisations, many of them co-operating with the council. A chapter is devoted to a discussion of "liosearch and tho Empire." "It seoms probablo that one of the first and most necessary preliminaries to joint research (between tho United Kingdom and tSo Dominions) will be found to ho tho making of a systematio survey of tho mineral and other resources of the Empire," states tho council. "Our attention has already been drawn to this need from many sides. Tho right organisation for tho purpose is not easy to devise. . . . Tho wholo question will bo considered by tho committee appointed by tho Prime Minister to' consider tho commercial and industrial policy to bo adopted after tho war, with special roforonco to tho conclusions readied at tho Economic Conference of tho Allies and to a number of other questions, along with which are: To what extent and uy what means the resources of tho Empiro should and can bo developed, and to what extent and by what means the sources of supply within tho Empire "can bo prevented from falling iunder foreign control."