SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 108, 3 November 1926, Page 15

SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY

WHERE FOREIGN NATIONS LEAD

With the co-operation of seventeen allied organisations, the Society of Chemical Industry has inaugurated a congress of chemists in London in connection with its annual meeting. _ Not, only British but international chemical interests are strongly represented, and the congress promises to be a convincing demonstration of the great progress made in chemical research, technology, engineering, and industry since the war.

An important event in connection with

the gathering was the presentation of. the Messel medal to the Earl of Balfour by the Duke of York. The first Messel Lecturer and Medallist was a chemist. Professor H. E. Armstrong; the second an industrialist, the • ■ late : Viscount ' Leverholme; and the third , and; present recipient of tlie honour, Lord Balfour, who though neither a chemist nor an industrialist, has always shown a keen appreciation of the vital part played by pure and applied" science in the. national; wellbeing.' In the course of an interesting speech, Lord Balfoflr referred to some recent scientific developments. Coal supplemented by air and water, he said, was more and more becoming the material of some of the most''valuable-'products of human industry. For instance,'.the great process of synthetic ammonia,- which had only come inttt being since the war, was now a vast and a. growing industry, ministering to agriculture and other things. It required essentially nothing except coal (i water," and air. The most valuable insulators for electrical works and the most charming handles for ladies' umbrellas, carved or moulded, and of admirable texture, were made from the same three constituents. HYDROGENATION OF COAL. Speaking of"^coaL as the foundation of new fuels to replace natural oil, Lord Balfour said much was expected from the process of the low temperature carbonisation of.coal, but he could not resist the suspicion that it was not so much in Jhat direction that we should have great fuel developments as in some, process that would lead to the direct hydrogenation ,of coal. Sooner or later he was, convinced that would be accomplished. fault of the public was that they knew nothing whatever of science or the resources of science, and that when they were told science was on the way to do something—thia or that great discovery—for the benefit of man-, kind, they always seemed, to think it was going to be done the day after to-morrow. (Laughter.) . These things were not done in a clay, but they were done in time. He did not doubt that sooner or later^-and it might be sooner—we should- see a great development which would show how enormously thia country,' poor ,as it might seem in a certain variety of raw material,

had nevertheless the kind of raw material from which the chemical industry could give us products of the most varied kind, and thereby immensely further not merely the prosperity of great corporations' and give employment to vast numbers of workers, but add'to the. comfort of-every .individual- within our narrow and crowded frontiers. ■ ■ .- ■ ' FOREIGN INVENTIONS. Of modern and striking inventions that were successful or on the road to success, most were of foreign origin. The relation between scientific results, and practical industry.required serious consideration. A scientific process commercialised needed perpetual adjdstmcnt, and demanded an immense supply of - trained technical assistants. In some cases we found, it impossible to.hold our own against competitors, not because we. had. any material disadvantages to contend with, but because lor some reason or another, Sve did not use to tlie best advantage the resources which were in a measure at our disposal. He was certain that to conduct great modern developments of industry needed not only ability and probity, but scientific imagination. He was not making an attack

upon the great business community of this country—far from it. He yielded to none in his admiration of their business capacity, their incomparable directness, and their moral and intellectual, qualities, which had given them a special place in the economic working of the world. He thought, however,' they were in some respects in some quarters lacking in that combination of : Bpecial scientific knowledge with the broad and imaginative outlook which was more or less possessed by some great industrial countries with whom wo were brought into the closest relations not merely of friendship but competition 85, Fleet street.