SCIENCE HELPING IN TRADE WAR.

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 238, 2 July 1919, Page 9

SCIENCE HELPING IN TRADE WAR.

SIR A. KEOGH'S BIG PLANS.

Science, which.helped w greatly to w:'in the .war against Germany, is now helping Great Britain to win the world war for trade. Sir Alfred Keogh, R«ctor of the Imperial College of Science and Technology at South Kensington, tlie brilliant Ir:'shman who mnde the British Army Aledical Service the.best ill the world, described recently .some of the ways in which tho Imperial College is working: "We are training scientific moil," lie said, "to aid industry by re.ducinff'cost, impioving processes, and iu, vestijating new problems. "Bc-foro the .war we established, a department to, deal ,with the physiology nnd pathology of plants. One student wont out to a rubber plantation and at once dealt with, a disease which was. ruining the' industry. He followed this uo by the discovery that a certain condition, of rubber which -.nvolved an expensive "refining process, was du.o to a fungus, and ho ciiretl that. Two promising . departments have. bieii established, since the war or are on the point: of be;ng established—one for optical' engineering and applied optic?, '.bo other for aeronautics. As for aeronautics, we. !:ave kid a scheme beforo tho Government, nnd ive hope before long to have a grent. school of research and education capable of carrying out large expeririients in aeronautics, • .

"Oar , plans'for opUc.il work are far advanced. This is a scientific trade of Hie highest' importance which the war hns brought tbic'k to England. We can retain it only by study and research and the training, of men' of every grade. Everyone knows by this time that ft the beginning of the war oiw new submarines could not go to sea for laclc of periscopes, which were not made. ill England then,. Now we have a.complete scheme, all. tho appliances .we'want, n.tfd a committee representative' of the. trade nnd workshop as'well as.the Army and. Navy, to Kindo lis. During .war lesearch work on wireless and submarines was done here and full use was made of our newly-built hydraulic . lalwratory. and research' .rooms, .which will now. 1 evert to their original uses. We have rebuilt the School of Mines and .spent enormously. 011 equipment. To-day, in all our brandies, we are as well 'equipped as-.any place in Germany or America." ■ In drrangijig. its course of instruction th"; college is, t;uided -V the lale.-t requirements of the industries which it desires to help and in which its ftudents will find employment l as scientific and technical, adviser.? and managers.. Sir Alfred.-Keogh's guiding ma.\im is "Copy nothine—trust yourselves." As a result the College of -Science is fighting th« bnttle of British industry with .the latest nnd most original weapous. Sir Alfred's' one grept desire is that' the college should haS-c the right to grant degrees. Parliament' will shortly be askedto giv" it tlr'fi privilege, wliicli wilt place its graduates, and post-graduate students on a level in the eyes of tho world with men from the universities of the United Stales and' Germany.