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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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not on the past experience of the Institute but upon an anticipated accession of work which may or may not be realised, and in any case does not require to be immediately provided for. This view is confirmed by the fact that it is proposed to attach a staff of the same size to each group, although the work hitherto has been very unequally divided amongst the groups.

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10. It is important to observe in this connection that a somewhat sharp distinction is drawn between "fundamental scientific research" which has in the past occupied no inconsiderable part of the time of the staff, and "laboratory investigation

necessary in connection with the preliminary work needed to gauge the suitability of materials for commercial use.' No provision is made for research in the estimate of the sum necessary to meet future require- ments. Any work of this kind must, it is distinctly stated, be separately financed, and it is apparently anticipated that it will be possible to arrange for this through the new Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

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11. The decision to make special arrangements in future for "fundamental scientific research appears to be sound. The work of this kind which might be usefully carried out in connection with the examination of raw materials is practically without limit, and it is impossible to gauge beforehand either the time or the staff necessary to carry through a single research. Dr. Henry mentioned in his evidence before the Dominions Royal Commission one case in which the investigation of a single poisonous plant occupied two experts for one or two years.

It is obvious that when members of a staff are detailed for such purposes the ordinary work of a laboratory must suffer, and this is probably one of the main causes of the difficulty that the Institute has experienced in the past in coping with its work without exceeding its income.

12. It appears then that the work provided for under the new scheme is confined to what is" necessary to gauge the suitability of materials for commercial use," and it is in connection with the arrangements for this work apparently that the explanation of the large increase of staff and expenditure proposed is to be found. Generally speaking, the basis of the examina- tion, for the above purpose, is chemical, the chemical tests being supplemented by microscopical The equipment and apparatus examination and the determination of certain physical constants. necessary are those which are to be found in every laboratory, and a highly specialised staff is not required, the operations involved being such as every well trained chemist is competent to perform. In nearly every case this examination is sufficient to show for what purpose the material is likely to prove useful. But something more is aimed at by the Institute. It is explained in one of the memoranda furnished to the Committee that small scale trials of industrial processes are also carried out in the laboratories and that to cope with this type of work technical plant on a small industrial scale is being installed. In other words, in addition to the chemical laboratories, technological laboratories are being established at the Institute for the examination of each class of raw material. This part of the Executive Council's scheme was subjected to a considerable amount of criticism by the witnesses who appeared before the Committee. They generally took the view that a technical examination such as the Institute aims at can only be conducted with advantage in close touch with the industries concerned. Samples of raw materials of the same class frequently differ widely in quality, and so little is known accurately as to the characters upon which the use of some materials depends, that it is only by actual trial under industrial conditions that the manufacturer can decide which Until, therefore, more samples are and which are not suitable for his particular purpose. progress has been made with the standardization of such materials it is impossible to gauge their quitability for commercial use by such an examination as is contemplated by the Institute.

13. Further, well-equipped technical institutions already exist for the examination of many of the raw materials included in the several groups of the Investigations Branch. The staffs of such institutions being specially selected with reference to their technical knowledge of some one class of material and being exclusively occupied with that class acquire experience in dealing with it, which it would be impossible for the staff of an Institute concerned with practically every kind of raw material to acquire. Moreover, the number of samples of any one kind passing through the hands of the staff at the Imperial Institute is, in some at all events of the groups, small and, being limited as to their origin to the British Empire, they do not afford the same variety of experience as samples drawn from all possible sources.

14. The provision of technological laboratories at the Institute leads also in some cases to overlapping which it is difficult to defend. A striking instance of this was brought under the notice of the Committee. Machinery for testing timber, which was described by one of the witnesses as being of a "bulky nature" and involving "considerable expense to set up," has, it appears, been installed both at the Imperial Institute and the Imperial College of Science The Committee are not and Technology, which are on opposite sides of the same street. acquainted with the precise circumstances under which this has come about, but they understand that the installation at the Imperial College is of earlier date than that at the Imperial Institute.

15. Having carefully weighed the evidence bearing upon this subject, the Committee are of opinion that the question of the scope of the technological examinations undertaken by the Institute requires reconsideration with a view to determining how far such examinations should

• It appears from the Executive Council's statement (Heading II, Requiremente, paragraph 2) that the number of detailed reports on investigations issued in 1907 was 400 and in 1916, 480-an increase of only 15 per cent, in nine years.

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be carried out in the Institute itself and how far it would be advantageous to entrust them to other institutions. They recognize that the chemical examination of materials of very diverse character can usually be conducted economically in one and the same laboratory, because the same analytical operations are applicable to a great variety of materials and can be performed with the same apparatus and by the same staff. But the position is reversed when the examina- tion is carried beyond this stage and requires in respect of each different kind of material the application of special methods, special appliances, and assistants possessing the requisite technical skill to use them. Here the advantage lies, not in concentrating as many samples for examina- tion as possible in one place, but in distributing them to those centres where special facilities exist for their examination. When it is remembered how great the variety of products is with which the Institute is concerned, it is obvious that the cost of making provision within the Institute for small-scale trials of industrial processes in connection with each of them would be very serious. It would seem desirable, therefore, that the Investigations Branch should make the fullest possible use of the services of other institutions for purely technical or industrial tests and also for chemical tests where these lie outside the usual range and demand highly apecialized skill. To take the various classes of raw materials with which the proposed Raw Products Department would deal:-TIMBER could be sent to the Imperial College of Science for any tests which could not be carried out by means of the plant recently installed at the Imperial Institute, supposing that it is not found more economical to dispose of that plant when opportunity offers and have all tests carried out at the Imperial College of Science. FOOD- STUFFS:-It is clear to the Committee from the evidence which was taken that little, apart from the ordinary chemical analyses, can be done under this head except by an Institution possessing bio-chemical laboratories and experimental stations, such as the Animal Nutrition Institute at Cambridge. The same remark applies to OIL SEEDS and OILS in so far as they are utilized for feeding stuffs. For TANNING and NATURAL DYES there are the Leather Industries Laboratories at Leeds and a similar institution at Bermondsey for the former, and for the latter the University Dyeing Departments at Leeds. As regards FIBRES the only pre- liminary work possible beyond the chemical examination is of the simplest kind and is frequently carried out in the chemical laboratory, TOBACCO, the Committee were assured, offers no scope for special investigation with a view to gauging its suitability for commercial use.

In the case

of GUMS and RESINS, SPICES and PERFUMES the only work possible in this direction is such as can be carried out in an ordinary chemical laboratory. The examination of minerals is also essentially a chemical operation. The case of RUBBER is rather special. While much research is being carried out in the private laboratories of manufacturers, the Committee are aware of no institution the aid of which could be invoked by the Imperial Institute, and see no reason in present circumstances why rubber research within the limited sphere to which the Institute has confined its activities should not be continued on the existing scale.

16. Such a policy of decentralization as is advocated above would not only be more economical, but, in the opinion of the Committee, would be more efficient than one which aims at making the Institute self-contained for such purposes. At the same time the Committee consider it undesirable that the Institute should be altogether precluded from carrying out small- scale technological tests. The objection which they feel is to the setting up for this purpose of special machinery-"techuical plant on a small industrial scale.", As stated above, in many chemical laboratories the testing of fibres as carried out at the Imperial Institute is part of the regular work. Such work requires neither special staff nor special apparatus except of the simplest description and is on quite a different footing from the testing of timber and the vulcanization of rubber,

17. The limitation suggested in the foregoing paragraph would not involve any serious departure from the past practice of the Institute, for an examination of the Reports published in the Bulletin during the last few years shows that, with rare exceptions, the experimental work on which they are based is such as could have been carried out in any chemical laboratory.

18. In arriving at the conclusion that the work of the Investigations Department should be kept within narrower limits than those proposed, the Committee have been influenced mainly by the evidence of the witnesses, but the following considerations have also weighed with them. The claim for a greatly increased grant is based largely on the usefulness of the Institute's work to British manufacturers. A very large sum of money has recently been placed at the disposal of the new Department of Scientific and Industrial Research which is now engaged in the forma- tion of Associations and in promoting other measures to assist the scientific development of the national industries. It seems undesirable, until the relation of the Institute to these new develop- ments can be clearly defined, to subsidize another Department for purposes, some of which at all events come within the province of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. In this connection it was pointed out by one of the witnesses that the operations of the Imperial Mineral Resources Bureau in particular can hardly fail to limit the scope of the Institute in one direction in which in the past it has shown considerable activity.

19. There is a further consideration. It is stated in the Report of the Dominions Royal Commission that the self-governing Dominions are "making strenuous endeavours to strengthen their own scientific and technical departments and to encourage local investigations," and this policy is strongly approved by the Commissioners. Some of the Crown Colonies and Protectorates also possess excellent laboratories, and it seems equally desirable in their case that every encouragement should be given to them to make their local scientific equipment as complete as possible. Undoubtedly the ideal to aim at is that all the more important Colonies should