INDUSTRY AND SCIENCE

Taranaki Daily News, 1 August 1931, Page 12

INDUSTRY AND SCIENCE

“A MARVEL OF THE AGE.” GREAT SCOPE STILL. The increasing dependence of industiy upon scientific knowledge was emphasised by- Lord Rutherford in an address at the opening of new premises for the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research' Association. Remarking that much had been done by the association to simplify the results achieved by research to the industrial mind, he said he regarded this as au important matter, because it restricted, the inevitable time lag that occurred. between scientific discovery and its use in industry. In estimating the results of scientific research there was always a danger of taking too narrow a view of the work. They could not expect in research work a certain definite return every month. One of the marvels L of the age was the development of the motor-car since 1900, on which tens of thousands of men were engaged to-day, and for which special steels, special alloys and many other materials were required, each of them representing a. great deal of research work. Of the 60 or 70 metals available for research only six or seven had been investigated by the association. Wliat about the other 60? It was obvious that an enormous amount of work remained to be done. There was probably, not a single process that was going on in the industrial world that would not be capable of improvement if it were studied scientifically. He was quite sure that 90 pei’ cent of the processes used in industry could be improved by the application of science. He thought that in the years to come only those industries would survive in the world which had shown their power of applying scientific knowledge to improve their methods of production.