Page:Science and Industry - Glazebrook - 1917.djvu/38

, near Berlin, and, in some aspects of its work, the National Physical Laboratory and the Research Institutions for Glass, Pottery, Fuel, etc., which are coming into existence as part of the work of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

Thus, the task of an institution like the National Physical Laboratory differs from that of either a University or Technical College Laboratory or a Works Laboratory. In the first place it is not educational; every member of the staff is, it is true, learning continually, but he is not there to be taught, but to be asked questions and to find the answers. Its functions are primarily to encourage and initiate the applications of science to the problems of industry. It is, in the words of the Order in Council establishing the Research Department, an institution for the scientific study of problems affecting particular industries and trades.