| [00:01.54] |
Lesson 15 |
| [00:03.45] |
Secrecy in industry |
| [00:12.27] |
Why is secrecy particularly important in the chemical industries? |
| [00:19.76] |
Two factors weigh heavily against the effectiveness of scientific research in industry. |
| [00:26.40] |
One is the general atmosphere of secrecy in which it is carried out, |
| [00:31.91] |
the other the lack of freedom of the individual research worker. |
| [00:37.00] |
In so far as any inquiry is a secret one, |
| [00:40.77] |
it naturally limits all those engaged in carrying it out from effective contact with their fellow scientists either in other countries or in universities, |
| [00:51.08] |
or even, often enough, in other departments of the same firm. |
| [00:56.75] |
The degree of secrecy naturally varies considerably. |
| [01:01.11] |
Some of the bigger firms are engaged in researches which are of such general and fundamental nature |
| [01:07.94] |
that it is a positive advantage to them not to keep them secret. |
| [01:13.61] |
Yet a great many processes depending on such research are sought for with complete secrecy until the stage at which patents can be taken out. |
| [01:24.58] |
Even more processes are never patented at all but kept as secret processes. |
| [01:31.12] |
This applies particularly to chemical industries, |
| [01:34.96] |
where chance discoveries play a much larger part than they do in physical and mechanical industries. |
| [01:42.16] |
Sometimes the secrecy goes to such an extent that the whole nature of the research cannot be mentioned. |
| [01:49.61] |
Many firms, for instance have great difficulty in obtaining technical or scientific books from libraries |
| [01:56.64] |
because they are unwilling to have their names entered as having taken out such and such a book, |
| [02:02.19] |
for fear the agents of other firms should be able to trace the kind of research they are likely to be undertaking. |