GREAT SCIENTIFIC WORK

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8356, 17 February 1913, Page 10

GREAT SCIENTIFIC WORK

WITH INDIFFERENT APPARATUS

The most notable scientific advances of late years have emauated from iaboratories equipped on anything but a lavish scale. Argon was discovered in the private laboratory of Eord Rayleigh, cathode particles were weighed in the Cavendish laboratory, and radium was discovered in the Paris Municipal School of Physics and Chemistry. It may, moreover, be pointed out that Lord Rayleigh’s . work is reckoned amongst that small fraction of the scientific output of the world to which common consent accords the honour of being precise to one decimal _ place more than is customary. In this connection reference may also be made to an address delivered last January by Professor Emil Fischer, who attributed the small part played by Germany in radioactive research to the costliness or radium. The work of Rutherford and Soddy with thorium, however, proves conclusively that the true cause was net that the material was wanting, but the man. Reference may also be made here to Quinche’s classical researches on surface tension, which were carried out with apparatus which was almost rudimentary. When the Institution of Electrical Engineers visited Weber’s laboratory in Switzerland a few years ago, the members were struck by the extraordinarily complete scale of the equipment; but the remark was passed that a student accustomed to work there would prove nearly useless if called upon to make shift with the meagre, though sufficient, apparatus to bo found in a laboratory attached to a works or manufactory. It may be added that one of our leading authorities on wireless telegraphy, after expatiating with longing on the magnificent equipment provided for experiment on this subject in certain German institutions, confessed, when pressed, that in actual fact, when all was said and done, work of more fundamental importance was being successfully carried out here in laboratories where it was often necessary to improvise apparatus. Of course, it may be claimed that time is lost in preparatory work of this kind which might bo saved for the main research were the equipment more complete. This view sounds plausible at first sight, hilt anyone who has operated in these conditions will, we think, agree that time thus spent is very tar indeed from being wasted. Whilst making the preliminary arrangements, the investigator’s mind is “ intended ” on his subject, to the great benefit of the final investigation. If, as we believe, a very lavish equipment is rather a drawback than an aid to scientific researches of fundamental importanve, this is still more the case with mechanical engineering laboratories. —“ Engineering.”