The Importance of Research in Industrial Science

Industrial jobs rank in desirability at the very bottom of the scientific scale and often below school science teaching. Even opportunities for visiting scientific congresses or going to scientific lectures are considerably restricted. There is also a natural tendency towards an excessive amount of routine work, and of work from which immediate results may be expected. A more immediate cause for the peculiarly unimaginative nature of industrial research is its control by men of purely commercial temperament. Production for profit inevitably distorts the application of science and hence the direction of research.