Abstract
THE realisation of the scheme for the establishment of a National Physical Laboratory is primarily due to two addresses delivered before the British Association in 1891 and 1895 by Prof. Oliver Lodge and the late Sir Douglas Galton respectively. The fact that Sir Douglas Galton, when president of the Association, did all in his power to support the proposal originally made by Prof. Lodge, led to the matter being laid before the Prime Minister by a strong deputation. A committee, of which Lord Rayleigh was chairman, was then appointed by the Treasury, and after taking evidence, reported in favour of the establishment of a public institution for standardising and verifying instruments, for testing materials, and for the determination of physical constants. They further recommended that the institution should be established by extending the Kew Observatory in the Old Deer Park, Richmond, and that the Royal Society should be invited to control it and to nominate a governing body, on which commercial interests should be represented, the choice of the members of such body not being confined to Fellows of the Society.
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The National Physical Laboratory. Nature 60, 373 (1899). https://doi.org/10.1038/060373a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/060373a0