THE ESSENCE OF RESEARCH

WE can imagine no one, whether in Great Britain or elsewhere in the world, whose opinions on the carrying out of researches with a view to their direct application to industry would carry more weight than those of MR. HARRY RICARDO—whose name is a household word in research matters and whom we should like to congratulate on the award of the RUMFORD MEDAL by the ROYAL SOCIETY for his work on the internal combustion engine. It was, therefore, with peculiar interest and pleasure that we approached his recently delivered Presidential. Address to the INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS. How richly rewarded we were can be judged from the extended extract from the paper that we publish in this issue. The first portion of the lecture, of which only the latter part appears here, gives a fascinating account of his own early training and development, but we are not reproducing it on account of limitations of space and because it is more with the lessons for others that he draws from these youthful experiences that we are concerned. Those, however, who have the opportunity of doing so should not fail to read the whole paper when it becomes available in the Transactions of the Institution—to whom we are indebted for permission to reproduce so much as appears in these columns.