scholarly journals Federation of British Industries: Industrial Research Committee

Nature ◽  
1944 ◽  
Vol 153 (3890) ◽  
pp. 614-615
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Research ◽  
Research Committee

War of words: the public science of the British scientific community and the origins of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, 1914–16

1999 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDREW HULL
Keyword(s):  
National Policy ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
National Physical Laboratory ◽  
Industrial Research ◽  
The State ◽  
State Funding ◽  
Research Committee ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
Science Rhetoric

In late 1916 the British Government finally bowed to pressure from scientists and sympathetic elements of the public to organize and fund science centrally and established the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR). Since just before the turn of the century state funding for science had steadily increased: the National Physical Laboratory was established in 1899, the Development Commission in 1909 and the Medical Research Committee in 1913. The establishment of the DSIR marked an end to piecemeal support and it was therefore a watershed when the statefinally accepted its responsibility to fund science properly, to develop a coherent science policy and thus recognise that science and scientists were crucial components of modern national life; not just in wartime, but in the development of the peacetime economy as well.At least this is how the history of the DSIR is currently still represented. The following analysis is more sensitive than previous treatments as it points out that the state's organization of a centrally planned and funded national policy for science began before the DSIR, and that this new body (in its support of pure research) reflected priorities established before the outbreak of the war. In previous accounts the DSIR was presented as a total break with the laissez-faire past. So, as historians we no longer follow the special pleading of the contemporary science lobby in arguing that the state was deaf to the needs of modern science. However, I want to argue that we are still deaf to the wider concerns of this contemporary pro-science rhetoric, which argued not only for centrally planned and funded science, but also often that scientists themselves should make policy for science.

XI.—Further Tests upon Dewar Flasks intended to hold Liquid Air

1924 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 160-169
Author(s):  
Henry Briggs ◽  
John Mallinson
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Research ◽  
Research Committee ◽  
Research Department ◽  
Rate Of Increase ◽  
Rate Of Decay ◽  
Series Of Experiments

This communication describes a series of experiments carried out at the Heriot-Watt College, Edinburgh, on behalf of the Oxygen Research Committee, Scientific and Industrial Research Department. The experiments may be regarded as continuing a line of inquiry introduced by a paper read before the Society in 1921; their aim was to obtain data in regard to the rate of decay of the vacua (i.e. the rate of increase of the pressure in the vacuum envelope) of metallic Dewar vessels.

X.—An Experimental Analysis of the Losses by Evaporation of Liquid Air contained in Vacuum Flasks

1922 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 97-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Briggs
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Experimental Analysis ◽  
Industrial Research ◽  
Research Committee ◽  
Research Department ◽  
Outer Atmosphere

The experiments here described were made on behalf of the Oxygen Research Committee of the Scientific and Industrial Research Department, and the paper is given by permission of the Department. The fullest acknowledgment is due to Dr J. A. Harker, F.R.S., and to his co-workers, Professor G. W. Todd and Mr S. H. Groom, who have, in a series of able memoirs presented to the Oxygen Committee, analysed the nature of the heat-transfer from the outer atmosphere to the interior of metal vacuum bottles; but for their memoirs the writer's experiments would not have suggested themselves.

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