Abstract
IN his presidential address on September 2 to Section G (Engineering) of the British Association meeting at Nottingham, Sir Alexander Gibb took for his subject "Research and Engineering". He pointed out that engineering began as an art; at a later stage it developed into a somewhat scientific but purely empirical practice; and that it is now at the final stage of applied science. The same transformations may be noted in many other industries, though it must be admitted that there is still a great number of industries yet in the second stage of development, and some even in the first. Nevertheless, there is an increasing attention paid in industry generally—and not only in engineering—to the vital necessity of continuous research as being, to quote the words of Sir Alexander, "the only means of continuous progress in an increasingly competitive world".
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Research and Industry. Nature 140, 437–438 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/140437a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/140437a0