Abstract
IN a recent article in the Journal of the Textile Institute, on “Cotton Research and Academic Physics”, Dr. F. T. Peirce points out that the tendency of men of science to get into ruts of thought is partly responsible for the tardiness of the academic mind to appreciate and interpret the problems of technology in a way that is essential for the inter-penetration of science and industry. On the other hand, while as one consequence of specialisation every research worker is accustomed in his reading to slur over matter which he cannot or need not understand, the industrialist is apt to be offended if he encounters matter which is incomprehensible to him even though the practical conclusions are clear. Without claiming that scientific research is a complete cure for all the troubles of industry, Dr. Peirce urges that it is a method of securing the most effective use of available resources, and shows how, within the experience of the cotton industry, impersonal scientific methods have succeeded in saving efforts and resolving difficulties in the relations of firms or branches of the industry with employees and between service departments. Cooperation may ultimately lead the ideal of team work to merge in that of ‘group work’, groups having only their own ignorance or inefficiency as enemy, and in organisation by technical processes rather than by sciences.
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Research and Industry. Nature 129, 824–825 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/129824d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/129824d0