THE SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT INDUSTRY

Abstract

THERE have been many conflicting accounts since the conclusion of the War in regard to the condition of universities, technical institutions and other educational establishments in those European countries which either endured long periods of enemy-occupation or were over-run by the tides of military operations. Nevertheless, little factual information has been available of the extent to which facilities for education in science and technology survived the six years of hostilities. It was to be expected that, in the general destruction of buildings which has taken place on the Continent of Europe, and, incidentally, in Great Britain, educational establishments would have fared no better than other classes of property. On two other counts, however, it seemed probable that the facilities for the acquiring, and the pursuit, of scientific knowledge would have emerged from the War much impoverished. It was known, in the first place, that it was a policy of German occupation forces, certainly in some European countries, to repress and even to eliminate facilities for cultural advancement. In the second place, the scientific nature of the War gave a special value to scientific equipment and, although the capacity of Germany for the production of scientific instruments was very great indeed, it appeared likely that a large-scale removal into Germany of scientific instruments and apparatus might well have occurred in order to swell the German war effort.