Abstract
ONE of the many interesting features of the Brighton meeting of the British Association was a display of the latest scientific instruments, and particularly of electronic equipment, arranged by the Scientific Instruments Manufacturers Association of Great Britain in the Corn Exchange. The stands were well set out in the ample space available, so that visitors were not subjected to the crowding so often occurring at such exhibitions. In opening the exhibition on September 13, the president of Section A, Sir Lawrence Bragg, paid tribute to the enterprise of instrument manufacturers in organising the display at a time when they were actively engaged in participating in the British Exhibition in Copenhagen. He stressed the importance of accurate, and often very elaborate, instruments both in modern scientific research and in the industrial field. The research worker, he said, has outlived the days of home-made apparatus largely constructed of jamjars and sealing-wax and has become more and more dependent upon the skill of the instrument maker; and it is necessary for the two to work hand in hand to secure progress. There was a time, and that not long ago, when the scientific world looked mainly to the United States and Germany for the most accurate instrument work, but to-day Great Britain can hold its own in every section of instrument making, and in many it leads the world ; in this sphere, at least, Britain no longer fears foreign competition. On the following morning, the whole session of Section A was given up to a symposium on instrumentation and control, including industrial applications of electrical devices, opened by Sir Ewart Smith.
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British Association: Exhibition of Scientific Instruments. Nature 162, 445 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162445a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/162445a0