VALUE OF RESEARCH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 June 1938, Page 9

VALUE OF RESEARCH

“The National Physical Laboratory has many duties,” said Professor W. L. Bragg, the eminent scientist, in a recent broadcast talk. “It provides the nation with precise and reliable standards of measurement, and it tests and checks instruments of all kinds. It assists first to solve their individual difficulties in manufacture. It carries out much of the fundamental research work on which improvements of industrial processes must depend. May I give a few examples which show how our work affects you personally? I wonder —is your household meter measuring correctly how much 'electricity you use? Your local supply company must now check its customers’ meters against standards which the National Physical Laboratory certifies as correct. You are guarded against paying too much, although the company is unfortunately also guarded against charging you too little. Have you really got ’flu, or docs your temperature appear to be up because the thermometer is not reading correctly. If the thermometer is one of the half-million certified each year by the laboratory you may depend upon its verdict. In hospital operating theatres where floors or rubber or other non-conducting substances, and in which the ail - has been made dry by air-conditioning, there is a risk of explosion of anaesthetics owing to electric sparks. Research carried out in the laboratory has lead to recommendations which greatly reduce this risk.”