§ Mr. ACLANDasked the President of the Board of Education whether, in view of his statement that the director of the Glass Research Association has a wide and successful experience of scientific research into the problems of the glass industry, he can furnish particulars of the director's academic degrees or other like qualifications for the post; what completed and published researches in the director's name were before the Advisory Council of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research to guide them in approving the expenditure involved in the appointment; and, if there were none, will he explain upon what information his ment was based?
§ Mr. FISHERThe director appointed by the Glass Research Association has no academic degree, but his intimate connection with the industry, both in the practice and research work of glass factories, and as an external consultant for over 20 years are regarded by the Advisory Council for Scientific and Industrial Research as the qualifications proper for this post. When the Advisory Council approved the expenditure involved in his appointment, they took into consideration the facts that no other candidate was available with the wide and prolonged practical knowledge of the glass trade necessary in the present condition of the industry in this country, and that the successful candidate had not only carried out much research work, particularly on the mechanical engineering side of the industry, but had also a thorough knowledge of the manufacture of glass of nearly every type. The list of researches carried out by him is very long, and includes work on furnace design in its relation to the use of various fuels, on the development of heat and electrically re-888W sisting glasses for various purposes, on the utilisation of waste products from other industries, on furnace and pot linings used in making special glasses, on methods of treating, forming and firing refractory materials, on the electrical melting and annealing of glasses, on the development of tube-drawing devices and devices for delivering charges of glass to forming apparatus. He has also published a number of articles on problems encountered in glass manufacture, many of them in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society; on the other hand, many of his investigations have been carried out for various firms, and the results of these are, therefore, not available for publication. I shall be happy to show the right hon. Member a complete list of the researches undertaken by the director and of his published papers.