SIR N. LOCKYER AND TRAINED SCIENTISTS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR...]
Slit,—Sir Norman Lockyer in his recent address to the British Association proposed, by increased endowment of the Univer- sities, to increase the output of trained scientists. Is there, then, a growing demand for young m'en of this type? It seems generally to be assumed that there is, although I do not think the average parent who has gone to the expense of giving his son a scientific training will be inclined to agree. Speaking of chemistry, on which I am in a position to form an opinion, I may say that a young man who has spent three or four years in obtaining a University degree, or in working in the laboratory of an analyst, finds himself in no better a position than a clerk in a business house with nothing like the special training. His earning capacity for several years will not exceed 250-2100 a year, and the man with the University degree finds better employment as a schoolmaster. Even men with a longer course of study and the very best qualifications, as D.Sc. (Lond.), are filling positions of a value of 2150 per annum, perhaps scraping together another 250 in odd ways; and, strange to say, the chemist with a German training, identically that which supplies Germany with her trained chemists, fares no better in this country. I know of an exception or two, but the above represents the general con- dition of affairs. I cannot, of course, give verifiable data from private firms or individuals, but the following example is instructive. When the National Physical Laboratory started a couple of years ago, they advertised for the three heads of departments directly under the Director at salaries, two at 2250 and one at 2200 per annum, and also for two or three juniors at 2150 per annum. They knew that they could get the very first class men at this rate, and did too. For the juniors £150 a year was really lavish ; for 2100 a year they could have got men with First Classes straight from the University. The salaries at the Government laboratories are, on an average, lower still There is no demand for trained chemists, and yet Sir Norman Lockyer would increase the supply, obviously putting the cart before the horse. Until manufacturers and others create the demand by employing chemists where they do not now, and offering a reasonable salary and chances of promotion commensurate with their better training, it is quite useless for our Universities to turn out more men of this class.—I am, Sir, &c.,
M.A., PH.D., F.I.C., &c.
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