The Relations Between Scientific Research and Chemical Industry 1

Abstract

THE particular branch of science with which I have been asked to deal at this meeting of university extension students—viz. chemistry—is perhaps better calculated to illustrate the intimate connection between scientific research and productive industry than any other subject. I emphasise the term productive industry because it is desirable to distinguish between productiveness and trade, i.e. buying and selling. With the latter I have nothing to do beyond pointing out the very obvious principle that, without something to buy or sell, there would be no commerce, and consequently productive industry must be put into the first rank. Now chemical products of various kinds are absolutely indispensable to all civilised nations. You may remember that many years ago Lord Beaconsfield said that the state of trade could be gauged by the price of chemicals. A writer in the North American Review in 1899 published an article in which he laid it down that the nation which possessed the best chemists was bound to come to the fore-front in the struggle for industrial supremacy. Of course, “there is nothing like leather,” and I am bound to agree with him. Had he been an engineer or an electrician he might perhaps have said the same for mechanical or electrical engineering. At any rate, it is perfectly safe to generalise his statement, and to declare that the nation which possesses the most highly trained technologists is bound to take the lead.