SCIENTISTS’ PART

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24431, 17 October 1940, Page 8

SCIENTISTS’ PART

WARTIME PROBLEMS;: AID FOR INDUSTRY SYDNEY COMMITTEE’S WORK (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, Oct. 5. A valuable contribution to the Australian war effort is being made by a joint technical committee under the aegis of the University of Sydney and the Chamber of Manufacturers, which brings together the manufao turer’s war problem and the appropriate scientist to solve it. The, demand of modern warfare, that every man in uniform needs four or five men'm overaffs behind him, has set great problems before Australian industry Some firms are turning ever their - plants to the making of unfamiliar goods, and are meeting technical difficulties outside their experience. Other firms are being asked to make bricks without straw, for some of the raw materials needed are not available in Australia, and substitutes have to be found. Resources Mobilised

The joint Sydney committee at first covered only the University of Sydney, but its work has been so successful that it has been extended to include* the Technological Museum, the Technical Colleges of Sydney arid New castle, the Australian Chemical Institute, and the Institute of Engineers. By this means the greater part of the scientific resources here have been brought into the' national war effort. The committee deals with technical problems of all manufacturers arising from the fulfilment of - war -contracts, and it has assisted many firms. The Ministry of Munitions enlists the sei> vice of the committee as problems arise. There is no risk of any lack of co-ordination .with other scientific activities, as the committee co-operates with the Council’ of Scientific and' Industrial Research, a Federal Government body, and with special Government committees dealing with scientific war problems. -,v-;v-Y;: ~ Professor Eric Ashby, of the University of Sydney and a. member of the committee, said: “It is. . commonly .sup i ; posed that there is a contrast between the scientist and the ‘practical man’; the one puts forward hopelessly unpractical schemes from his laboratory, while.-.the other ‘ gets things done.’ It is, in fact, sometimes the scientist who is the practical man and the manufacturer; . who ' is' : hot. If something goes wrong in; a "technical process, the properly-trained scientist will find the. cause, step by step,' and, set things.right’, at the source;., the layman may try this and try , that, in the hope of bypassing the- problem, or reaching a solution';' i And he may not be lucky. Which method is really thb more' practical’? Value of Collaboration “The truth is that the scientist and the manufacturer talk different jargons. Once this initial difficulty of language has been overcome they both have everything to gain, in peace as, well as in war, by collaboration. It. is not_a coincidence that so many advances in science have .been made, even, though indirectly, in response to the demands of life, nor is it ah extravagance that big manufacturing firms spend large sums of money on their research departments. Science loses none oi us cultural value through contact with world affairs, and in these days the- • practical man ’ has everything to gain. through contact with the scientist.