The Imperial Institute

Abstract

THE annual report of the Imperial Institute, South Kensington, London, for 1947 shows that an unusually large number of economic inquiries and laboratory tests have been made at the Institute for Empire Governments, industrial research organisations and commercial firms in search of new sources of raw materials. In the Plant and Animal Products Department alone, 203 samples were examined and 824 inquiries handled. Three scientific papers were published by the Department recording research work on methods of pyrethrum analysis carried out in collaboration with other authorities. The consultative committees on vegetable fibres, on gums and resins, on hides, skins and tanning materials and on insecticide materials of vegetable origin all met again once during the year, and matters which received attention included manila hemp, the utilization of linseed straw, the possibility of increasing production of rosin, and the insecticidal properties of Cymbopogon giganteus and Neorautenania ficifolia, from Northern Rhodesia. Barataballi latex, from British Guiana, has yielded a coagulum of some promise as an ingredient of the base for chewing sweets. Trials with new insecticides as preventives against hide beetle have been completed, and a report is being prepared. The Consultative Committee on Silk has submitted to the Secretary of State for the Colonies a statement on the need for a programme of seri-cultural experiments in the Colonial Empire, and has also prepared for the High Commissioner for Southern Rhodesia a report on the nature and scope of such experiments that might be undertaken in Southern Rhodesia.