Abstract
OPENING OF NEW LABORATORIES ANEW chapter in the history of the British Scientific Instrument Research Association commenced on July 10, when the new laboratories of the Association at “Sira” Southill, Elmstead Woods, Kent, were formally opened by the Minister of Supply, the Right Hon. John Wilmot. The Association, which was founded in 1918, has been for many years handicapped by its limited resources and facilities. At the time of the inauguration of the Association, it could not do more than adapt a house in Russell Square, London, to laboratory use, and the limited facilities which were established there compelled the Association to direct its activities into certain well- defined channels of restricted operation. These circumstances made it difficult to attempt to establish a membership representative of all scientific instrument interests, and in consequence the Association has in the past prosecuted researches which, although extremely valuable to the particular interests served, have not ranged over the total requirements of the industry. From the commencement of the rearmament programme, many firms not in membership with the Association extended the scope of their activities to an extent which brought them within the field of research covered by it, and in consequence the membership, which at that time included twenty five instrument firms, rapidly increased to more than one hundred. At the conclusion of the War, the Council of the Association formulated a scheme of expansion to permit it to meet the research needs of the enlarged membership in an adequate manner. This scheme was approved by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, which offered very considerable practical support, and it has now come to fruition.
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British Scientific Instrument Research Association. Nature 160, 199–200 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/160199a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/160199a0