The British Empire Exhibition: Exhibition of Pure Science Arranged by the Royal Society.—II

Abstract

THE physics section of the Royal Society's exhibition comprises apparatus illustrating the most important modern work on the structure of matter and the nature of electricity and on the various parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, together with metrological and metallurgical exhibits and some apparatus of great historical interest. Demonstrations are given, and these will be changed from time to time. The exhibition has largely been arranged to show the historical development of existing knowledge and its applications, and brings out clearly the way in which important developments arise in the first instance out of researches undertaken from no other motive than curiosity. It is important for physics that the public should recognise this fact, which is the keynote of the exhibition. Knowledge is often valued less for itself than for the industrial developments which it makes possible, and the capitalist who finances inventions gets wealth while the inventor who applies physical discoveries gets fame, but physics generally finds itself in the position of Cyrano de Bergerac when he wooed the fair Roxane in order that another might climb to her balcony: