The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1928.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 October 1928, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1928.

SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. Tins Prime Minister’s references in his election speeches to the activities of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research touch a question to which no progressive country can afford to' be indifferent. It is interesting in that connection to turn to the presidential address delivered last rap nth at Glasgow by Sir William Bragg before the British Association for the Advancement of Science. This ■ stimulating discourse, under the title “Craftsmanship and Science,” seems with admirable vision to herald a. perceptible enlargement of the horizon in industrial research work. It is a remarkable fact, Sir William Bragg observes. that the most active of our modern industries are those founded on modern dndusrial research. Of that view practical illustration is provided in various directions —in electrical engineering for instance, which is being “continually guided, strengthened, and extended by unremitting research, in the motor car industry, in the evolu-

tion of the .aeroplane, and in the great development of chemical industries in Great Britain, from dyes to artificial silk. The bearing of this on the depression of the older “basic” industries is shown by Sir William Bragg in an illuminating reference to mass production, under which certain industrial processes are stereotyped and used to their utmost capacity. While conceding that the results are excellent for a time, Sir William finally sums up mass producions as “temporary lulls in the movement of imagination and knowledge.” As a,n example, very suitable for Glasgow, of the creative wort: of science he chose a first-class Clydebuilt ship, the whole structure and mechanism of which, from the wireless' aerial aloft to the refrigerating apparatus below, is “linked by innumerable ties to the research work of the laboratories.” The theme of this address is generally one of considerable importance in its relation to the effective utilisation of craftsmanship and the stimulation of industry should be manifest. Why asks Sir William Bragg, should not the policy be to take advant. ,ge of the admittedly fine qualities of skill and intelligence in the craftsmen of a country like Great Britain by “continually seeking for fresh industries or fresh adaptations of the old?” In such a policy the use of scientific knowledge and discovery must play a dominant part, and it can only do so “in direct practical contact with the problems to lie solved.” This implies that the sphere of the industrial research worker could be advantageously made considerably more extensive and that the importance of his function should be much more generally recognised than it is. Nothing in the progress of science, more particularly of modern science, is so impressive, we are reminded, as “the growing appreciation of tlie immensity of what awaits discovery.” Tlie I>est protection of all for tbe. industry of a country. Sir WWliam Bragg suggests, is tbe knowledge and skill that will enable it to produce what other countries must ask it for. liecau.se they cannot so well make it themselves. To those who are disposed to look askance at science as inhuman his answer is: “The proper employment of scientific research is so necessary to our welfare that we cannot afford to allow misconceptions to hinder it-; and the worst of all are those which would suppose it to contradict the highest aims. Science is not setting forth to destroy the soul of the nation, but to keep body and soul together.”