Imperial Institute: Technical Reports and Scientific Papers

Abstract

OF the several purposes which the Imperial Institute was designed to serve, there is probably none which has been less regarded by the general public than that of scientific and technical research. Such work, however, was definitely one of the objects the advisory committee had in view when considering the proposed building some seventeen years ago; for, as the late Sir Frederick Abel has recorded, this committee was of opinion that the Institute would “afford accommodation for comparing and examining samples by the resources of modern science.” In the furtherance of this design there has been gradually evolved an experimental branch, which eventually became known as the “Scientific and Technical Department” of the Institute. At the present time the staff includes ten assistants under the direction of Prof. Dunstan, and the chemical laboratories entirely occupy the upper floor of one wing of the Institute buildings, whilst the help of outside specialists, manufacturers, and commercial experts is invoked as occasion requires.

Imperial Institute: Technical Reports and Scientific Papers.

Edited by Wyndham R. Dunstan, with a preface by the late Sir Frederick Abel, Bart, G.C.V.O., K.C.B., F.R.S. Pp. xlvii + 613. (London: Imperial Institute, 1903.)