Abstract
A NOT inconsiderable result of the Great War and its long continuance was the flood of invention which threatened to overwhelm complacent bureaucracy. That procedure, admirably adapted to a Crimean or a South African campaign, was altogether inadequate for coping with the necessities of a nation in arms; and a people whose very existence as an independent State was threatened became more and more apparent, and at length penetrated the inner fastnesses of officialdom. New weapons of offence, improved systems of attack, and almost superhuman devices for stemming murderous onslaughts were demanded. The exigencies of a situation which had become grave, if not critical, compelled the opening of the ranks of a hitherto jealously guarded profession and the unstinted admission of the efforts of the civilian to whom organisation, the employment of scientific method, and the adoption of the latest invention, through keen competition in the open market, had become daily routine. Thanks to the Press and to many another non-official organisation which proclaimed the advent of a new era in military and naval operations, the inventive faculty of the community was aroused and stimulated to action. To such a length did this proceed that it may not be too much to assert that there was scarcely an occasion when a problem definitely and precisel formulated did not result in a solution through well-thought-out invention.
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Inventions and Grants in Aid. Nature 107, 129–132 (1921). https://doi.org/10.1038/107129a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/107129a0