The Guardian (And Evening Star, with which is incorporated tho West Coast Times.) TUESDAY, MAY 15th, 1923. RESEARCH WORK.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 May 1923, Page 2

The Guardian (And Evening Star, with which is incorporated tho West Coast Times.) TUESDAY, MAY 15th, 1923. RESEARCH WORK.

Apropos of tho value of research werk ns a branch of Government action, Dr Thomson writes to the press that so far as the manufacture of insulators is concerned, tho resarches of Dr Farr and Air H. I’hilpott of New Zealand, are epoch-making. That is the opinion expressed by Mr Evan Parry, Chief Engineer of the English Electrical Company, than whom there is no ono more qualified to speak. On high-ten-sion transmission lines insulator failures were at ono time not- infrequent, and of course involved breakdowns in the service until n new insulator could he put in. The Lake Coleridge system had its fair share of these insulator failures, which was the reason Dr Farr took up> an enquiry into the causes of failure in the Physical Laboratory of Canterbury College. But the lasses in New Zealand were a mere lleabite compared with the losses caused hv breakdowns in the gigantic power schemes of the United States, and the ]<elaud Stanford University and tho General Electrical Company were carrying out. researches on insulators on a large scale, employing buildings as extensive as the whole of Canterbury College. Tlie Americans believe in scientific and industrial research and do not stint it for lack of funds. Very often in science, however, it is not the highly equippied laboratories that produce the best results, and this proved so in ibis case. Dr Farr had only a small grant of £IOO from the Research Fund entrusted by the Government to the New Zealand Institute. Nevertheless be was able to demonstrate the true cause of the failures and to provide a means of testing insulators before putting them into service which has reduced the failures to a minimum. The much more severe tests of course, put manufacturers on their mottle, and it is satisfactory to British pride to know that the outfit of the British makers has stood up to the tests much better than that of American manufacturers, due no doubt to the better supply of skilled workmen and to the excellent quality of the raw material. In America many of the transmission lines are subject to grent extremes of temperature and of humidity, and these conditions were suspected” to be the causes of the failures and gave n direction to much of the research. In New Zealand these conditions did not exist, and yet similar failures took place indicating that some other cause was operative. It was Mr Parry himself who suspected that the fundamental cause might be porosity in the porcelain of the insulators, whilst Mr Birks, who at that time was in charge of the Lake Coleridge supply •took u{T the matter with Dr Farr, who invented a method of testing the porosity bv subjecting fragments of the insulators to a high hydraulic pressure in n bath of coloured water. It was found that the insulators that had failed took up the stain in the flawed parts, proving that they were imperfectly vitrified and porous. The porous parts b v capillarity take" up moisture * . • r • ...

from tho air and so lose their nonconducting characters, develop leaks, and finally shatter and cause a shoit circuit. By the aid of the research grant, IJr Farr built a metal container capable of taking a whole insulator and übmitting it to a pressure of 20001 b to the square inch. It was thus possible to test the insulators before service, and to impose much more iigorous conditions in the specifications. Previously insulators bad been tested only .inder a pressure of 2001 b. to the square inch. Dr Farr’s preliminary results were published in the New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology, and his final results in the Journal of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. They have been everywhere hailed with satislaction by electrical engineers, 'and will cause a saving of hundreds of thousands of pounds by preventing breakdowns in transmission lines with consequent dislocation of industry. In New Zealand alone they have probably already saved more money than has been spent by tlie Government in the last live years on scientific and industrial research. There are three lessens w hich the New Zealand public and their industrial and political leaders should take to heart from this example. First tnat the scientific men of New Zealand arc quite capable of bolding their own in industrial research, if given the opportunities. Secondly, that the industrial leaders should, -bring their problems to the scientists, and so indicate the linos in which research is needed. Thirdly, that some form of Government organisation and endowment of scientific and industrial research is justified merely as a sound investment if on no other grounds.