The Daily News. MONDAY, JULY 27, 1914. RESULTS OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 56, 27 July 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, JULY 27, 1914. RESULTS OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

Few people realise the far-reaching el- \ fects which have resulted from the work of that tireless and painstaking tiaiul of students who spend the best part of their lives in patient research for the benefit of humanity. More rare still are those who recognise and justly appreciate the beneficial results that have accuiv.il from the wooing of science. \ new discovery is heralded with great acclaim for tlie moment, and so is a novel invention; but what of many failures after years of devoted toil? The men who succeed are made famous though their triumphs may be due to the accident of moment, but the men who fail remain in obscurity though tlieir work up to a point may have been of greater value than that of their more fortunate co-workers. 'Professor Perry, in his "England's Neglect of Science," remarks: —"One thing that seems to be quite exasperating is that almost all of the most important, the most brilliant, the most expensively educated people in England: oar poets and novelists; our legislators and lawyers; our soldiers and sailors; our great manufacturers and merchants; our (clergymen and schoolmasters; are quite ignorant of physical science; it may . also be said that in spite of the.se clever I ignorant men —through the agency of men who are not ignorant—all the conditions of civilisation are being constantly transformed." The truth of this statement is so obvious that it may be readily accepted. It is given to the few to be qualified researchers in science. The large majority of the human race display no desire to undertake workthat locs not show a tangible result, yet wo have only to look around in order to realise the important effect science has had upon civilisation, but no one who pays intelligent attention to this subject can fail to be impressed with the lapse of time that has elapsed between the original researches and their practical application. For instance, in 17«0 Cavendish investigated the effects of passing sparks through a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen in the presence of alkalis, and we are now manufacturing calcium nitrate at the rate of thousands of tons a year as the result of his discovery. The manufacture of aluminium is another striking example. VVohler obtained some globules of this substance about as large as a pin's head in 1827, and to-day its manufacture is an industry employing millions of capital and thousands of workers. As far back as 1009 Brandt, of Hamburg, discovered phosphorus which was regarded for over a century as a wonder of nature, and it was not till 1834 that it was first utilised in the manufacture, of matches, an industry which lias grown to vast proportions. One firm alone in the present day turn out about forty billion wooden matches | and 7.i0 tons of wax vestas. Sodium carbonate is another instance. Dr. llamel in 1790 first demonstrated the base of common salt with mineral alkali, as sodium carbonate was then called, but it was not till 1790 that Leblanc (who died by his own hands a pauper ten years later) made a practical application of the industry which has since made many fortunes, nearly a million tons being produced in Wngland annually. Chlorine for bleaching, cerium, zirconium and thorium for incandescent lamps, vanadium and molybdenum for producing high-grade tools; calcium carbide and carborundum were all discovered many years, some of them over a century before they were utilised commercially. The world owes an everlasting obligation to such scientific investigators as Humphrey Davy, Farraday, Tyndall, Pasteur, Lister, Hertz, Kelvin, many and varied manufacturers, and others too numerous to mention. New Zealand and Australia aru especially indebted to the science researchers for the means of refrigerating. No one ever supposed that when Thompson and Joule in 1849 were engaged in determining the fall in temperature of a gas under high pressure, when issuing from a fine orifice, they were not only enabling mankind to secure a greater efficiency in all heat oil engines, but were also laying the foundations of those industries by which we are now able to supply almost unlimited stores of oxygen to many and varied manufactures," and rendering it possible, by mechanical refrigeration, to deliver the meat, butter, cheese, fruit and other produce of the dominions at the doors of the working men of Great Britain and elsewhere'. There are still men able and willing to harness science to the world's chariot, and there are ample fields of operation' always open. Of recent years, the pace I at which the work of the scientists has been turned out is beyond all parallel, and yet it is not fast enough for the' present generation. All honor to the men who devote their lives to the endowment of mankind.