Welsh Journals

Search over 450 titles and 1.2 million pages

"Industry, Science and Education" with special reference to the conditions in South Wales and Monmouthshire, by Principal E. H. Griffiths Sc.D., LL.D., F.R.S. Price Is. Roberts & Co., Cardiff. This unpretentious volume is the outcome of an invitation, given by a number of well-known gentlemen in South Wales, to Principal Griffiths to initiate by preliminary lectures, a series of private discussions on the subject indicated in the title of the book; the object being to clarify their views on these matters as regards the conditions pertaining in South Wales and Mon- mouthshire. It is the direct outcome of the present struggle, which has brought the public mind, by force of dire need, into a more vivid comprehension of the vital inter-connection of Industry with Science and Education than ever before. The enumeration of the names appended to the invitation indicates this, ranging as they do, from administrators of Public Education, Shipowners, and Engineers, to Controllers of great commercial interests. The three lectures have been retained in that form-the collo- quial and personal-rather than recast into a more formal, academic style for the reason that-as Principal Griffiths in his preface states-" it is unlikely that what has been said will be of interest to those outside the district." We think that possibly this is a too modest view to take, and that nothing a master of physical research of European reputation, such as Principal Griffiths, says, can but be of interest to other than a purely local audience. Quot homines tot sententiae may appear to lead to confusion, but out of chaos comes the reign of order. In the first lecture Principal Griffiths has summarised a large number of instances of the way in which an industrial paying concern has been based upon a purely scientific discovery of apparently no immediate value. For example Clerk-Maxwell proves mathematically in 1865 that light is due to electro-mag- netic waves in the ether; in 1917 after the labours of Lodge, Marconi and others we use wireless telegraphy. Phosphorus in 1677, was to Charles II. a wonder of nature, now one firm pro- duces 400 million boxes of matches per annum. Pasteur proves that fermentation and putrefaction are due to a 1. living organism;" Lister applies this to wounds and we have the preventive medicine and aseptic surgery of to-day. Principal Griffiths shows that between the discovery and the application thereof to industry, a gap has existed in England. Both Germany and the United States of America have realised this and hence in the former country those organised bands of re- search workers, who have by a kind of "mass action" brought about so many of their valuable industrial processes. What is required of the individual unit in the army of research is not extraordinary prescience or insight, but the simple fact that there should be enough of him and that he should be directed by the man who knows." How is this gap to be bridged over ? Principal Griffiths considers this problem in his two following lectures, and his answer is (1) by Education in the ideas of science, and (2) by a closer connection between the University and Industry. With regard to the first point much more has been and is being done by the schools than they are often given credit for. When Principal Griffiths says that Natural Science must cease to be regarded as an 'extra we think that he-as well as many another eminent scientist-is well behind the times. Science in all the modern secondary schools, i.e. those founded since 18% and 1902 respectively in Wales and England, is an essential constituent of the curriculum, and the school would not be recognised by the Board of Education were it not so. Even in the public schools to which Principal Griffiths seems mainly to refer, a large amount of good science work is being done. His horrid example of the young undergraduate atCambridgeand the Principle of Archimides would be impossible now, when all boys verify the Principle and much more besides, practically, in their second year and often in their first when about 13 years of age. As regards, too, his remarks as to the urgent need of reform in our methods of teaching natural science;" within the last twenty years there has been not only a reform, but a revolution in the teaching of mathe- matics, physics, chemistry, botany and geography, the course of which Principal Griffiths could easily follow by turning over the volumes of the School World for that period. There he would find what the Science Masters and Mistresses of Schools have been thinking of and doing "to make science a living reality to our pupils," with oftentimes little recognition, meagre pay and no thanks. In his last lecture Principal Griffiths considers the connection between Science, Industry and Education in South Wales. He suggests that more use could be made of the University for the solution of industrial problems and the institution of more Re- search Fellowships. It is important that his remark that research is not cheap should be kept prominent. We want Technological Institutions of the rank of the Charlottenburg at Berlin, the Massachusetts Institute of the U.S.A., and more of them. Small so-called Technical Institutes dealing only with the elements of science do not meet the case. Above all when industrial con- cerns realize that research pays them they will found their own laboratories and set aside a percentage of the years profits for their upkeep. This is a growing tendency in the United States. The Eastman Kodak Company have a laboratory costing 120,000, the annual upkeep is about the same and yet this is only 0.7 per cent. of the annual profits. The Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany have laboratories and testing plant with an annual main- tenance cost of £ 100,000 and here the cost is only 0'6 per cent. of the value of the materials tested. The final word seems to be Education-Education of all in the ideas of science and of the industrial magnates in the value of science-to use an Americanism-as a commercial proposition. E.H.D. Poems and Plays" by Vaughan Morgan, Abertillery. The South Wales Gazette," Ltd. Pp. 89. Is. It may at once be said of this little book that, as compared with many little books of verse published just now in London at four and five times its price, it gives better value both as to quantity and quality. But that is saying very little we have to attempt to estimate in very brief space its value as poetry. The author has one true poetic gift-that of fancy his themes are suggestive and sometimes not lacking in power, but he seems incapable of embodying his vision and the result is disappointing. He has not the gift of verbal music. Often his lines do not scan and many are faulty in metre. A sonnet line of twelve syllables like- And sees Apollo's chariot riding o'er the brim betrays, we fear, an ear deficient in the sense of metre, though the sonnet on the whole (" An Eagle released ") is by no means poor and contains a striking idea. But to return to the plays-most of them are interesting conceptions but, one or two excepted- they lack action. Some are not plays at all as they contain no dramatis personae and though they are written for children," children would certainly have nothing to do with some of them. In some of his attempts at creating a classical atmosphere the writer positively shocks us with his impotence to throw off the cloak of conventionality-in such lines as- Sometimes he glimpsed the snow-white sheen Of her scented breasts half-veiled in lace In spite of weakness and serious imperfections some of the poems achieve real merit. The best are those tender little songs suggesting home-affections and inspired by the author's great loss-the death of his brothers in action while he himself is apparently sheltered within the castle gate." A.F.