COMMERCIAL SCIENCE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 805, 30 April 1910, Page 4

COMMERCIAL SCIENCE.

It is becoming more apparent than ever that science is. the great handmaid of industry and commerce. What may .be . termed "commercial or economical science" has in recent years achieved wonderful results. It is, perhaps, because commercialism to a very large extent now dominates' the scientist and inventor, but whatever may be the cause of the activity of. the latter, tie sum of the results is to benefit mankind. The aim in almost all cases is to cheapen commodities or increase their usefulness. English files by a recent mail give details of new processes which will servo to illustrate this point. Before the Royal Society of Arts, Me. A. Eosenberg described a novel system of electroplating, which, apart from its great scientific interest, promises to be of considerable general utility. Several eminent. scientists have testified \to the genuineness of the process, which appears to be riot only simple, but satisfactory in. its resuite, and particularly so. with nickel, a most difficult metal for the ordinary, electroplating bath. It appears that thq process is a true example of electroplating, and will have considerable- value for certain special classes of work, and for re-' plating damaged or .worn articles. The Bosshardt casting process is an-, other scientific achievement that is of great economic value. The Bosshardt process, it is asserted, solves a hitherto, baffling problem; and provides the : engineering: l ..industry with the very material for which it had, been long and .vainly seeking. The ' problem has, been to provide, a cheap buii' t effective . substitute for malleable ,jron and. steel—in other, words, to 'produce castings as ductile as wrought iron, yet as tough as, the best forged steel. The ' Bossharivt process, it is. contended, not only provides the long-sought but actually imbues- it with- increased : resistance and ' superior quality. It does so without recourso to the long and tedious, process of. and the castings arc ready for use as.soon as they leave the mould, and need no hardening. Thus it is claimed that in cases of emergency castings may be removed from the sand and put into full. use within two or three hours. Castings of any weight may be produced by the process from a quarter of an ounce up to the capacity of the crucibles employed. The process appeals strongly to all branches of the engineering trade, inasmuch as it can be employed for the manufacture of all kinds of articles, .for motors and locomotives, turbines, pumps, railway material, mining details,, propellers,, agricultural implements, hydraulic machinery, electric plant, and general hardware. In almost every branch of industry the application of science and inventive skill are producing new, and oftentimes quite unexpected, methods of treatment, or are providing more efficient machinery, and the limit is not in sight, and perhaps never will be. At the moment there,are three matters which are receiving the concentrated attention of scientists and inventors. Aviation probably stands first in the list, and already wonderful progress has been mado in the direction of perfecting the airship, the biplane, the aeroplane, and the dirigible balloon. Wireless telegraphy and the wireless telephone, the turbine, and the mono-rail have all reached more or less the commercial stage, but thsre is still " the "cheap" process to be provided, and that, there can be no doubt, will,be provided in due course. Commercial science, indeed, bids fair to solve.many of tho problems which at present puzzle.the greatest of our statesmen. Cheap production means cheap living, and science as applied to industries and agriculture may even yet forestall the Socialist, who claims that man can live comfortably on the prodnct of four hours' labour per day. The road to easy times, opened,up by the aid of science and invention, is certainly a more attractive one than that which involves the despoiling of one's fellow men and the destruction of, individual liberty.