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[00:01.55]Lesson 15
[00:03.09]Secrecy in industry
[00:10.53]Why is secrecy particularly important in the chemical industries?
[00:18.87]2 factors
[00:19.80]weigh heavily against the effectiveness of scientific research in industry.
[00:25.38]One is the general atmosphere of secrecy in which it is carried out,
[00:30.87]the other the lack of freedom of the individual research worker.
[00:35.82]In so far as any inquiry is a secret one,
[00:39.56]it naturally limits all those engaged in carrying it out
[00:43.53]from effective contact with their fellow scientists
[00:46.40]either in other countries or in universities,
[00:50.00]or even,often enough,in other departments of the same firm.
[00:55.55]The degree of secrecy naturally varies considerably.
[00:59.93]Some of the bigger firms are engaged in researches
[01:03.30]which are of such general and fundamental nature
[01:06.45]that it is a positive advantage to them not to keep them secret.
[01:12.31]Yet a great many processes depending on such research
[01:16.14]are sought for with complete secrecy
[01:18.99]until the stage at which patents can be taken out.
[01:23.15]Even more processes are never patented at all but kept as secret processes.
[01:29.70]This applies particularly to chemical industries,
[01:33.46]where chance discoveries play a much larger part
[01:36.87]than they do in physical and mechanical industries.
[01:40.67]Sometimes the secrecy goes to such an extent
[01:44.09]that the whole nature of the research cannot be mentioned.
[01:48.15]Many firms,for instance
[01:49.87]have great difficulty in obtaining technical or scientific books from libraries
[01:55.05]because they are unwilling to have their names entered
[01:57.87]as having taken out such and such a book,
[02:00.70]for fear the agents of other firms should be able to trace the kind of research
[02:05.86]they are likely to be undertaking.