PROGRESS OF SCIENCE.

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17501, 7 September 1928, Page 7

PROGRESS OF SCIENCE.

INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH. THE HOPE FOR THE FUTURE. AID TO CRAFTSMANSHIP. (By Telegraph—Press Assn. —-Copyright.) (Australian Press Association.) LONDON, September 5. The annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science was opened to-day at Glasgow. Sir William Bragg, president, was m the chair. In his address the president asserted that modern craftsmanship, with all its noise and ugliness, was giving food, clothing, warmth and interest to millions of people who otherwise must die. In England to-day-there was a new class of workers in research foi associations and firms. These workers were springing up throughout the country and were bringing interest of outlook and scientific inquiry inLo touch both with the employers and the employees. To some extent these research workers were the flux which made them run together. The reason of this was that, as university men, they could exchange thoughts easily and accurately with tlie employers and yet they were fellow-workers with the operatives. These they were inspiring with an understanding of the purposes and methods proper to employment. Scientific research was so necessary to the welfare of the nation that even misconceptions could not be allowed to hinder it. Science was not setting forth to destroy tlie soul of the nation, hut Lo keep its body and soul together. It was a remarkable fact that most of the active industries were founded upon recent scientific research. _ The electrical engineering industry might be said to have had its source in a single laboratory experiment, namcly i Faraday’s discovery of electro-magnetic induction. It had grown hy the continuous adaption of fresh streams of knowledge. Much of the hope for the future of industry must he built upon Hie work of research • organisations. British craftsmen p° sscssuti t lle * u " telligence, skill and accuracy which made improvement possible. Therefore their industrial policy should be to take advantage of the country’s qualities hy continuity seeking new industries and fresh adaptions of the old ones. The latter could be bolstered up by political methods, but the best protection was the knowledge and.skill which would enable them to produce what otliers could not make. Sir William then referred lo the suggestion made by tlie Bishop of Ripon at the meeting of the association in 1927 that, science might lake a 10-years’ holiday. He said that would he impossible. They could not prevent interested men making inquiry. No one knew what was over the hill. Tlie vanguard would march on without any thought' of what lay before it. Therefore, if tlie,. march of science was to he conducted in an effective and an orderly way, there must always be a number ,Ojf laboratories where scientific rcscarqli had no immediate thought of its possible applications. lie instanced motor-engine problems connected with fuel and combustion which, ho said, were important examples of dependence on the most intricate problems on which intense research was being conducted. Sir Arthur Keith, Hunterian Professor, Royal College of Surgeons, said scientific men stood out as an isolated body of servants, not only of knowledge, but of the Empire. Their standard of life no longer depended upon acreage, but upon the brain capacity of science. That was why businessmen must support science. They constituted tlie army in the field and scientists were the men in reserve, making ammunition for the businessmen.