The British Launderers' Research R. G. Parker, Esq., J. J. Stark, Esq. 1st Oct. 1920
Association,

B.Sc

The British Silk Research Asso- W. S. Denham, Esq., A. B. Ball, Esq.

ciation,

D.Sc., F.I.C.

APPENDIX VI

DEVELOPMENTS IN THE ORGANISATION OF RESEARCH IN OTHER PARTS OF THE EMPIRE

CANADA

The report of the President of the National Research Council of Canada for 1924-25 has been received. The Council has maintained only a comparatively small administrative staff in its offices at Ottawa, and until such time as laboratory facilities are provided for its work, the Council has decided to devote its entire financial resources to the co-ordination, stimulation and prosecution of research work in Canada and to the training of research workers for service in Canadian institutions and industries.

(a) Training of Research Workers

During the eight years ending March 31, 1925, the Council awarded 109 bursaries, 86 studentships, and 42 fellowships, involving a total expenditure of $199, 175.55. These 237 awards were held by 151 persons and at the end of the year 131 grantees had completed their training under these awards. Of these, 15 persons are continuing their studies, 34 are engaged in the teaching profession, 24 are employed in industry, 22 in technical branches of the Government service, and 17 have accepted positions in foreign countries.

(b) Assisted Researches

In the course of the past eight years the National Research Council has granted financial assistance to 80 distinct researches, and of these 26 were completed before April 1, 1924. During the year under review there were in progress, in 19 departments of science at 14 Canadian universities, 54 researches to which financial assistance had been granted by the Council. The number of these investigations carried out in each of the major departments of science were as follows: physics, 10; chemistry, 8; biology, botany and bio-chemistry, 5 each; field husbandry, 4; bacteriology and mining engineering, 3 each; chemical engineering and zoology, 2 each; forestry, plant breeding, entomology, physiology, pathology, geology, metallurgy, mechanical engineering and civil engineering, 1 each. Since the establishment of the Council in 1916 the total amount expended in the assistance of research work in Canada is $304,668.77, and of this sum $154,424.96 was awarded by the Council to assist investigations which were in progress during the year 1924-25, the actual expenditure on this service during the year ending March 31, 1925, being $50,972.25. Despite these extensive activities, the report states that there are a great many important and pressing Canadian problems, particularly those of an industrial character, which it will not be possible for the Council to solve until it is provided with adequate laboratory accommodation. The principal investigations in this field of the Council's activities are the following:—

(1) The inheritance of sugar and starch in corn.
(2) Action of inorganic salts on plant cells.

(3) Insulin-like substances in plant extracts.

(4) Bacteriology of haddock.

(5) Constitution of the bituminous tar sands of Northern Alberta. (6) Production of oil from shale.

(7) Deterioration of concrete in alkali soils.

(8) Chemistry of rubber.

(9) Radio inductive interference.

(10) Low-temperature investigations.

(c) Standing Associate Committees

The Associate Committees of the Council may be divided into two classes. In the first there are the Committees appointed, one in each of the major departments of science, with the main purpose of keeping the Council constantly in touch with important research problems requiring attention and with the advances made from time to time in the particular departments of science which they represent, and also in order that the Council may have the benefit of authoritative advice in connexion with the work in progress. The other group of Associate Committees has been appointed for the specific purpose of undertaking the co-ordination, organization and prosecution of research work on some main problem or group of problems.

Associate Committee on Cereal Grain Rust.-The Council has secured the co-operation of all organizations in Canada which engage in cereal rust research and has ensured a concentrated co-ordinated attack on all phases of the problem.

Associate Committee on Tuberculosis.—In the past, researches relating to human tuberculosis have been undertaken principally in university and sanatorium laboratories, while the most important Canadian investigations on bovine tuberculosis are those undertaken by the Federal Department of Agriculture at Ottawa and by a committee of the Department of Health of the Province of Alberta. The Associate Committee has now assumed the duty of co-ordinating all work now in progress and devising a comprehensive programme for the future.

Associate Committee on Helium.-The Committee has completed a preliminary survey of the helium resources of Canada and has reported that some of the natural gases in Canada contain sufficient quantities of helium to justify the re-establishment in a natural gas station at Inglewood of the helium recovery plant, formerly built and operated at Calgary. The Committee also suggest that the establishment of an experimental helium plant at Inglewood would afford opportunities for the prosecution of an investigation on the production of formaldehyde and carbon black from natural gas.

Associate Committee on the Nutritional Problems of the Fox Industry.— As a result of the researches which have been carried out in connexion with the problems of this industry, both the National Research Council and the Department of Agriculture are convinced of the necessity of continuing the investigation on a permanent basis, and since the Department is now in a position to undertake entire responsibility for this work and to develop an experimental fox ranch to be erected in Prince Edward Island, the National Research Council relinquished all connexion with the work at the close of the year under review.

Associate Committee on New Brunswick Forest Problems.-Realising the importance of forest renewal in Canada, the National Research Council has, from the time of its inception, taken steps to investigate the problems of re-forestation. At the present time the Committee is engaged, in collaboration with the Forestry Branch of the Federal Department of the Interior and the Department of Lands and Mines of New Brunswick, in a research on re-seeding burnt-over and cut-over forest areas in New Brunswick.

Associate Committee on Food Research.-During the year under review, the Committee has continued its work on the isolation of vitamine B. in the Universities of Toronto and Western Ontario.

Associate Committee on Aeronautical Research.-The principal investigations which have been undertaken during the year 1924-25 are the following:

(1) The Turnbull Variable Pitch Air Propellor.

(2) Oleo landing gear oils.

(3) Behaviour of rubber shock absorbers at low temperatures.

(4) Magneto noises in radio reception equipment.

Associate Committee on Accurate Plot Work.-Extensive work on the development of new varieties of cereals has been carried out on all the Government Experimental Farms, in the University Departments of Agriculture, and by a large number of private investigators. It is the purpose of the Committee to standardise methods of testing varieties of cereals in regard to yield, quality, earliness, susceptibility to disease, character of soil best adapted to growth, and other factors.

Associate Biological Committee. The researches undertaken by the Committee in collaboration with the Committee on Marine Piling Investigations of the United States National Research Council, on the geographical extent of the spread of the ship-worm (Teredo navalis) and the gribble (Limnoria lignorum), have been completed and a report has been published. Work has been commenced on the determination of the factors which influence the coagulation and precipitation of fish proteins, as part of a general study of the chemistry of fish muscle.

Associate Committee of Chemists.-The subjects considered by this Committee include the following:

(1) Pitting of cans used for canned fruit, etc.
(2) Manufacture of pulp and paper from straw.

(3) Chemical problems of the grain industry in Canada.

(4) Domestic fuels.

Finance. As in previous years, Parliament granted an appropriation of $120,000 for the use of the Council during the session. The actual expenditure during the year was $121,010-76, and included the following items:

During the period covered by the present Report, important developments have occurred in the organisation of scientific and industrial research in Australia. Following on the Conference convened by the Prime Minister in May, 1925, to discuss the future of the Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry (see page 107 of the last Report), the Commonwealth Government requested the British Government to permit Sir H. Frank Heath, K.C.B., to visit Australia to advise them, particularly with a view to securing the fullest possible measure of co-operation with Government research organisations in Great Britain.

Sir Frank Heath sailed for Australia in September, 1925, and submitted his report, embodying proposals for the reconstitution of the Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry, in January, 1926.

The recommendations contained in the Report were adopted by the Commonwealth Government, and measures to give legislative effect to the scheme in its main features passed into law in June, 1926.*

As the result of the Science and Industry Research Act, 1926, the control of the movement for scientific and industrial research is placed

*Science and Industry Research Act, 1926: An Act to amend the Institute of Science and Industry Act, 1920.

Science and Industry Endowment Act, 1926: An Act to constitute a Fund to be utilised for the purposes of Scientific and Industrial Research.