PRESS-THE-BUTTON AGE ARRIVES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17864, 4 June 1926, Page 4

PRESS-THE-BUTTON AGE ARRIVES.

WONDERS OF SCIENCE NOT APPRECIATED. (Special to the “Star.”) LONDON, April 22. It often strikes me, said Mr Baldwin in opening the Optical Convention in London on April 13, that few of us realise the extent to which our dailv hfe is directed and facilitated by various branches of science. \V e are too apt to take things for granted, and in those famous words which might be taken almost as the text of the century, “We press the button and somebody else does, the rest.” How many men of those who travel into London every day in the train and m the tram ever give a thought to the inventive brain and to the skill of hands that made such rapid and comfortable transit a possibility. I doubt if they ever look at the engine or the trolley wire, or think of what lies behind. And if such obvious .sights escape their attention, how little wonder that these smaller and less obvious instruments escape them—instruments which minister to the multifarious furniture which has become part and parcel of our daily life. Science lays our course for us when we travel by land. We could not travel on the sea or in the air without its aid. In peace it is necessarv in the civilisation which we now enjoy; in war, it is vital. It may be that the hedonist may Say i’ T • TOe have the luxuries of life and I will dispense with the necessithe hedonist himself prol>ably little realises that without the microscope, without the polarimeter, without the ref tactometer, he would get no beer fit to drink. (Laughter.) And when he had turned with disgust from the proffered beverages and tried to seek relaxation in the kinema he would find that, without lenses, there would be but a poor entertainment. Now during the greater part of the last century British work in this great optical industry was predominant not only in the quality of the goods made but also in the development. It was not until the latter part of the century that we were first threatened, and finally nearly overwhelmed by foreign competition. The most formidable competitor was German}-. I believe we are only at the beginning of the discoveries that will be made to combat more dangerous and more lasting foes—disease, cancer—and in work with the X-ray and the microscope the aid that this industry can give will be needed, and will, I believe, be found. If one may look ahead, it will only be through such developments as may come in this industry that we may ultimately penetrate some of the profoundest secrets of our universe. The results so far achieved will delight and captivate the interest of the people who are fortunate to see them in these few days. But beyond and above that there is the appeal to our imagination, which I think will stir and stimulate us.