SCIENTIFIC METHODS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 10 January 1931, Page 7

SCIENTIFIC METHODS

THEIR IMPORTANCE EMPHASISED

‘LONDON, 4th December. Lord Rutherford (President of the Royal Society) spoke on Wednesday at a iuncheon of the Research Association of British Paint, Colour, and Varnish Manufacturers. He said the Association bad done as much in its four and a half years of existence for the British industry as its counterpart in tho United’States had done in 20 years. That industry was much older than many thought, and they were probably not aware how much their industry had been responsible for modern civilisation. A distinguished anthropologist once informed him that the use of paste paints by the ladies was really responsible for the modern scientific age. His friend said they had definite evidence that the ladies at the dawn of Ef'-otian civilisation adorned their features with a paint made from malachite. It was easy to understand how some husband might have become irritated with his wife’s adornments and thrown some malachite into a fire. Hence the copper and bronze age ! At a later age women were addicted to use of rouge, and when rouge was thrown into a charcoal fire iron would result. Hence the iron age ! (Laughter.) That line of arguihent might In' fanciful, hut there was one thing of which they were certain—that the origin of their industry was based on scientific knowledge.

If there was a time when manufacturers should adequately support the scientific side of their work it was surely in a time of difficulty like the present. There would he fiercer competition between the nations of the world in industry, and it was the nation that applied scientific methods most successfully that would succeed. At a subsequent meeting a resolution Was carried that the Association should be carried on for a further period of five years.