RESEARCH WORK

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 72, Issue 6238, 5 June 1946, Page 3

RESEARCH WORK

DOMINION PHYSICAL LABORATORY AVAILABLE TO HELP INDUSTRIES There were bigger branches of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research than the four-man Dominion Physical Laboratory started in Molesworth Street a few months before the war started, but there was none which was to experience a more meteoric rise. By the end of the war the staff had increased nearly 40fold, and today it is swinging over to peacetime operations on a scale that has nothyig to lose by comparison with what has been achieved in Australia, South Africa, Canada and India.

The laboratory is today situated in Gracefield Street, Lower Hutt. The site was picked out as long ago as 1928 by Sir Frank Heath, then director of Scientific and Industrial Research in Great Britain. He chose the location because of its proximity to the railway workshops, probably little dreaming from the evidence then available that the Hutt Valley would today be the greatest industrial centre of the Dominion, and the centre of where much of the laboratory staff’s work will be done.

And what of that staff? It comprises principally physicists, engineers, and their helpers. Physicists are the scientists who have studied electricity, heat, light, sound, etc. for five years at a university, and have applied in a practical way the fundamental research of the physicists. In a word, the physicist is responsible for fundamental research as, for instance, into atomic energy; it is the province of the engineer to adapt everyday life in all possible forms. No country has been quicker than New Zealand during and since the war to appreciate that the combination of these two types of professional men is a powerful one. Though they may not have had any experience in a particular industry, they can, by employing fundamental principles, attain considerable success in overcoming difficulties. Exceptional facilities and equipment have been provided for their use at the laboratory. These are used mainly in measurement of distance, weight, of the intensity of light, the power of a magnet, or the flow of electricity. All these measurements enter vitally into many aspects of industrial production now being carried out in the Hutt Valley and elsewhere. But let Dr. E. R. Cooper, M.Sc., Ph.D., director of the laboratory, give an indication of the work it is now undertaking for industry, as apart from its wide field of activity for State departments.

“In the circumstances existing during the war,” said Dr. Cooper in an interview, “when supplies were obtainable only with great difficulty, and local manufacture was being extended to the utmost, the Dominion Physical Laboratory was called on to make tools, gauges, and scientific instruments of all typesNow the war is over, and overseas supplies are coming in more readily, the Dominion Physical Laboratory does not intend to design and make which may be purchased from Great Britain, the United States and other countries unless the character of the work provides the laboratory staff with an opportunity to acquire knowledge and experience which will be of benefit to the New Zeal an d com mun ity.

The laboratory is, however, concerned with making such types of tools, instruments, or other instalations which would in any case have to receive special consideration in design and construction by overseas firms. The latter type of equipment could be made more economically here than anywhere overseas. If, therefore, equipment is required that is not a stock line overseas, the Dominion Physical Laboratory will be very pleased to assist. It goes without saying that should any New Zealand firm be willing to undertake the manufacture of special equipment, the laboratory will do everything in its power to assist industry on these lines.

“Quite apart from making things, we hope to assist industry by carrying out investigations into special problems, although such investigations usually involve making new equipment, clectolic devices and incorporating new ideas. Only by keeping a very close watch on overseas literature can one keep abreast of modern developments which are sweeping along so quickly. The Department of Industrial Research is endeavouring to meet that difficulty in conjunction with the Department of Industries and Commerce by a publication to New Zealand manufacturers summarising the main points of overseas literature coming into this country.

“One cannot stress too highly the value to New Zealand manufacturers of approaching the Department of Industries and Commerce to obtain standards for products they may be making. The standards specifications contain valu’able information that it is well worth manufacturers’ while to study if wo are going to keep goods up to a high quality. Any manufacturer, by applying to the Dominion Physical Laboratory, can get all the assistance it can give in literature—it has a very fine library—or in discussing manufacturing processes. Manufacturers may also secure confidential tests in the quality of their products, and any special equipment which can be made as economically in New Zealand as overseas.”