Abstract
THE Government, through the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, is setting up a special organisation to carry out scientific research in mechanical engineering to meet and, still more, to anticipate, the needs of industry and Government departments. The eventual annual expenditure will be in the region of £250,000-£350,000, although it is unlikely that this figure can be reached for some years because of the present difficulties in obtaining suitably qualified staff and buildings. The activities of the new body are intended mainly to supplement the research carried on in other research organisations in Great Britain, and will largely be confined to those fundamental problems which underlie all mechanical engineering. Thus the subjects in which research is expected to be carried out are : (a) properties and strength of materials ; (b) mechanics of solids, stress, stability and vibration of structures ; (c) mechanics of fluids ; aerodynamics, gas. dynamics and hydraulics in their mechanical engineering applications; (d) lubrication, wear and mechanical engineering aspects of corrosion ; (e) mechanisms, engineering metrology, and noise control ; (f) mechanics of formation of material s; machine shaping of materials ; (g) heat transfer, heat exchange apparatus and applied thermodynamics. The location of the research station has not yet been decided. For the time being much of the work will be carried out at the National Physical Laboratory, while other work will be arranged for at universities and other institutions. It is clear that the new station will have to work in the closest liaison with the N. P. L., which has a long tradition, in its Engineering Division, of engineering research of high quality, and which will provide the nucleus, in due course, of the new organisation. Unfortunately no land is available close at hand for the building of the new station, which will require a considerable area.
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Research in Mechanical Engineering. Nature 159, 769–770 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/159769c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/159769c0