Abstract
SCIENTIFIC investigators have long needed a central laboratory where researches can be carried on without interruption, and have urged the establishment of a national physical laboratory for the United Kingdom. Twenty years ago the Duke of Devonshire's Commission recognised the advantages which our national industries would derive from physical and chemical investigations, and pointed out the need of a more generous recognition of such research by the State. Since then the Physikalische Reichsanstalt, at Charlottenburg, has been established, and, through the facilities it offers, Germany is reaping a rich harvest of natural knowledge; but, so far as State recognition is concerned, we have made little advancement. True, a Committee of the British Association has considered the question of a national physical laboratory, and another Committee is now reconsidering it; but there is no immediate prospect that any recommendations they might make will induce the Government to give a substantial grant, either for the extension of an existing institution in the direction of facilities for research, or for the establishment of an institution on the lines of the Reichsanstalt. For the perspicacity which sees in pure scientific research a means of developing industries, and which is content with knowledge accumulated, whether the practical bearings are apparent or not, we have to go to Germany, where many of our national industries have gone as a consequence of neglect by our Government.
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The Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory. Nature 54, 200–201 (1896). https://doi.org/10.1038/054200a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/054200a0