Intense Magnetic Fields and Low Temperature Research^*

Abstract

EXPERIENCE has shown that the encouragement of research by minor grants for special apparatus and material is in reasonable measure provided for by the Government grant to the Royal Society, supplemented from the Society's own research funds. The grants to individual investigators from such sources are usually small but suffice to assist materially important researches of a limited scope. The situation, however, is very different when we consider large scale investigations of a pioneering character, which may require considerable financial support extending over a period of years in order to provide the necessary apparatus and technical assistance to bring the investigation to a definite conclusion. Few of our universities or other scientific institutions are sufficiently well endowed to support large scale researches of this kind, even when the research appears of marked promise and when the idea and the man are forthcoming. In considering the best method of utilising the balance of the Society's present resources, the Council of the Royal Society has decided that it can best help the advance of science by assisting major researches of this character, and, after careful consideration, was impressed with the fundamental importance of the researches at present being carried on by Dr. P. Kapitza, at Cambridge, and the need for continuing this work on a more permanent basis.