THE COMMERCIAL VALUE OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE.
At the annual meeting of the Birmingham and Midland Institute, England, the chairman, Mr. J. Thackeray Bunce, in the course of his address spoke at some length on what we may term the commercial value of scientific knowledge, or on the value of that kind of information to those engaged in manufactures and industrial pursuits of all kinds. “By a study of science we do not mean study in its highest and best sense, a search after knowledge for its own sake, but that amount of study which is undertaken for the advantage it gives in competition with other manufacturers or professionals, and with other nations. As a nation we must be workers, producers; we cannot afford to wander about the by-ways of learning for the mere pleasure of gaining knowledge; we must, or the great majority of us must, tread the broad roads already graded and laid out by previous workers, picking up all the information we can, and storing it in orderly fashion in our mental wallets for use by and by. Others amongst us—a gradually increasing number—will strike out paths for themselves across untrodden fields, and seek for new treasures with more or less of success. “We cannot all make researches and experiments, nor are we all fitted for the work; but we can all learn something of what is known already, and so prepare ourselves to take advantage of and utilize the discoveries of scientific investigators. Every artisan in the kingdom can, if he will, make himself acquainted with the principles on which the practices with which he is familiar are based, and there is no manufacture and no industry in the country which would not be benefited by such knowledge on the part of its workers. In a few years now, a considerable portion of our workers will be men who are more or less well grounded in theory; they are receiving a technical education, and when they enter the ranks of the industrial army they must, in the natural order of things, occupy prominent places. Even now Whitworth scholars, at present a comparatively small number, make their way readily to the front, and in competition with more rule-of-thumb men gain an easy victory. This patent fact will shortly make an impression on the artisan world, and in a few years we shall see that technical education will be regarded as a necessary part of the training of our mechanics and other workers. “It will readily be understood how important is the possession of both theoretical and practical knowledge by the worker, for, while the scientific man is capable of pointing out improvements in processes, he is so placed in the majority of cases that he is unacquainted with the methods of working; on the other hand, the practical man, looking upon his processes as trade secrets, and being unacquainted with their defects, never seeks the aid which a knowledge of science places at his disposal.” Many instances of a persistence in wrong methods or in wasteful processes might be collected, but one alluded to by Mr. Bunce will sufficiently indicate the commercial value of a knowledge of science. “Birmingham, as is well known, reckons amongst its most important industries the manufacture of jewelry, and in the processes of coloring and refining gold and silver considerable waste of the valuable metals was, and probably is still to some extent, incurred. In the process of coloring gold articles, a minute portion of the valuable metal is washed off; but owing to a want of acquaintance with the chemical processes involved, only a percentage of the gold is recovered from the washing waters. Thus, in recovering silver from the liquor, the usual process is to throw it down as chloride by means of common salt, but the workmen and the employers, being unaware of the fact that an excess of salt redissolves a portion of the silver, have for years been throwing away a considerable quantity of silver. On the authority of Mr. Woodward, the Professor of Chemistry to the Institute, it is stated that one firm has effected a very material saving in this process entirely by the knowledge gained by one of its members while attending the classes of the Institute. Here we have a definite instance of the commercial value of a knowledge of science; but, if the proposition were not obviously true and required to be demonstrated by evidence, many instances might be gathered together.”—Scientific American.