Art. 13.-INDUSTRIAL-SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. 1. Board of Education. Scheme for the Organisation and Development of Scientific and Industrial Research. (Cd. 8005.) London: Wyman, 1915. 2. An Experiment in Industrial Research. Educational Pamphlet (No. 30), published for the Board of Educa tion. London: Wyman, 1915. NATIONAL characteristics are exemplified in the history of the industrial applications of science. The success of the Germans in this field, which has been unpleasantly demonstrated by the war, is a token of their faith in education and science, their foresight and patience, their confidence and thoroughness, and their prodigality in the training and use of human material. Mobility of capital and freedom from hampering commercial traditions have also been contributing factors. The Englishman, by comparison, appears complacent and surfeited with prosperity. Before the war, he stolidly refused to be disturbed by the exhortations of professors on the national importance of scientific research; and statesmen were content to whistle for the wind of public opinion The war showed that Great Britain was almost entirely dependent upon Germany for dyes; and Parliament was induced to offer public assistance in support of a scheme for the establishment of the dye manufacturing industry in this country on a firmer basis. A few months later. Mr Pease, and his successor as President of the Board of Education, Mr Arthur Henderson, were able to forma late and secure acceptance of the scheme for the pro motion of scientific and industrial research described in the White Paper mentioned above. Conditions in the United States show points of simi larity and of contrast. One is impressed by the popular enthusiasm for education, but, still more, by the spontaneity of initiative and the sense of individual responsibility which are characteristic of the people. Mr Carnegie, Mr Rockefeller and others who have profited by industrial success come forward with benefactions for the promotion of scientific research with a liberality which renders State assistance of secondary importance and the work is taken in hand with a vigour and élan which promise surprising results. The pamphlet 'An Experiment in Industrial Research,' describing the work of Prof. R. K. Duncan for the promotion of industrial research, illustrates the same point. Within a space of some eight or nine years before his untimely death, in 1914, Prof. Duncan was able to work out his scheme for associating manufacturers with industrial research in Universities and to secure the co-operation of manufacturers and the support of benefactors. The result is to be seen in the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research in the University of Pittsburgh, a new building, admirably equipped and providing accommodation for seventy research workers, in which research into scientific problems of an industrial character is now in progress. Any enquiry into methods of industrial research must start with the admission that the most important discoveries have arisen from the work of men of science who have drawn their inspiration from the 'supreme delight of extending the realm of law and order ever farther towards the unattainable goal of the infinitely great and the infinitely little.' Wohler, by his classical experiments on the synthetical production of urea, originated a new branch of science which has formed the basis of innumerable industries connected with dyes, foods, drugs, explosives and other commodities. An English chemist, Sir William Perkin, discovered in 1856 the first aniline dye, mauvine,' and thus laid the foundation of a great industry. In his essay on the Functions of a University, Sir William Ramsay remarks that it would have been impossible to predict, when Hofmann set Perkin as a young student at the Royal College of Chemistry to study the products of oxidation of the base aniline, produced by him from coal-tar, that one dye factory alone would at a later date possess nearly 400 buildings and employ 350 chemists and 5000 workmen. Other examples quoted by the same writer are, in the chemical field, the work of Schönbein, a Swiss schoolmaster, whose investigation into the action of nitric acid on paper and cotton resulted in the production of nitro-cellulose; and, in the physical field, Faraday's work on induced currents, upon which are based electric light and traction and the Vol. 224.-No. 445. 2 M utilisation of electricity as a motive power and for the transmission of energy. The history of science shows, however, that the work of the 'pure' scientist generally breaks off at a point before the industrial application of his discoveries is reached, either because he has no interest in or aptitude for this aspect of the work, or because the industrial application has to wait for some scientific advance in another direction. The chemist who discovers some new metal may not consider himself under any obligation to investigate its utility in the hardening of steel; or the discoverer of a new rare earth may have no interest in its applicability for the purpose of illumination. Some pause between scientific discovery and its industrial application is indeed almost inevitable. Consider, for instance, the history of aluminium, which was discovered by Wohler in 1827. For some twenty years the new element remained of academic interest only. In 1855 Henri Sainte Claire Deville's study of the metal, encouraged and subsidised by the Emperor Napoleon III, reduced the cost of production to 181. a pound; and, by improvements in the method of manufacture, the price was further reduced to 21. 10s. a pound in 1888. In this year Kastner's new process for the manufacture of sodium brought about a further reduction of the price of aluminium to 16s. a pound. But this success was soon eclipsed, for in the following year the electrolytic method of producing aluminium revolutionised the industry. The output of aluminium produced by this method is estimated at 50,000 tons a year and its value at 4,000,000/ Another familiar and often-quoted example comes from the artificial production of indigo. The work of Liebig and Baeyer on the constitution of indigo was elucidated and developed through Kekulé's theoretical work in 1869 on the arrangement of the atoms in the molecule of indigo; and in 1880 Baeyer discovered a method for the industrial production of the dye. The problem was taken over by the famous firm of chemical manufacturers-the Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik of Ludwigshafen. It is said that twenty years of patient investigation and an expenditure of about 1,000,000l. were devoted to the work. The artificial production of indigo is now carried out on an enormous scale, the value of the exports to Asia alone amounting in 1909 to nearly 2,000,000l. Occasionally, the scientific worker undertakes the commercial exploitation of his discoveries. The establishment of the celebrated Jena glass works at Leipsic resulted from the investigations of Abbe, assisted by Schott, on the chemico-physical principles which underlie the manufacture of optical glass. Abbe recognised from the first that the position of the optical glass industry, which depended at that time upon a few individuals, was unsatisfactory, in view of the possible stoppage of supplies indispensable to many of the sciences; but he doubted whether private initiative, without strong backing, could meet the case. The researches were, however, subsidised by the Prussian Bureau of Education and the Diet of the Kingdom; and, when completed in 1883, the necessary capital was forthcoming and an important industry was established. Turning to the most familiar English example, we find that the attempt to establish a dye factory in this country, at the time of Sir William Perkin's discoveries, ended disastrously. The real reason why the industry left this country, according to Mr H. A. Roberts, was the death of the Prince Consort, who had induced Hofmann to accept an appointment at the Royal College of Chemistry in London. After the death of the Prince, Hofmann was attracted back to Berlin; his companions followed him, and took with them much of the expert knowledge of aniline dyes. Mr W. F. Reid, who spoke in the discussion which followed the reading of the paper, controverted this opinion with respect to Hofmann's influence on the dye industry. He said that at that time English chemists controlled the dye manufacturing business by their patents, and made so much money out of it that they ceased to care whether the industry developed further or not; and that, when the thing dropped, the Germans took it up and by skill and patience developed it to an enormous extent. Enough has been said to indicate how important is the part which the academic worker has taken in the development of applied science. It should not be inferred, however, from the examples quoted, that valuable results * See his paper read before the Royal Society of Arts, Feb. 28, 1912. are obtained only from scientific workers of the highest intellectual powers. Many examples could be given of discoveries by young and inexperienced men of factory processes of great commercial value but comparatively simple in character. A young American graduate, Charles M. Hall, whose work was contemporaneous with that of Paul L. V. Héroult in France, discovered the use of cryolite as a suitable solvent for alumina in the electrolytic production of aluminium, a process which has been developed on an enormous scale in works at Niagara Falls and by the British Aluminium Company. The mercerisation of textile fabrics is based on a simple chemical and mechanical process; and the very valuable method of waterproofing paper and canvas to produce Willesden paper and Willesden canvas consists in applying ammoniacal copper hydroxide to the surface of the fabric. Nor can it be said that discoveries are always the result of deliberate and carefully organised experiment. Chance plays an important part both in applied and pure science. It is said that when Sir William Perkin discovered the first coal-tar dyes, he was really working on the constitution of quinine, but the investigation took an unexpected turn. The commercial manufacture of indigo, one stage of which required the oxidation of naphthalene to phthalic acid, was rendered possible by the accidental breaking of a thermometer, the mercury of which brought about the required reaction. The hypnotic property of sulphonal was discovered by chance; and the physiological action of antipyrine was examined on account of its supposed relation to kairine and allied febrifuges. The profits from the discovery of the therapeutic property of antipyrine are said to have amounted to 60,000l. in one year. Prof. Franklaud, in his paper on the Chemical Industries of Germany,* quotes the case of the important cyanide industry, which may be said to have taken its origin from the accidental discovery of Prussian blue by Diesbach, of Berlin, in the first decade of the 18th century. Germany's annual production of cyanide is now estimated at 10,000 tons (valued at 650,000l.), or * Read before the Birmingham and District Section of the Society of Chemical Industry (Nature,' March 11, 1915). |