The University of London and Industrial Progress 1880-1914

In the discussion of the retardation in growth or efficiency of British industry, compared with rising competitors in Germany and the United States before I9I4, both contemporaries and subsequent historians have stressed defects in scientific education as contributing factors. The mood of self-denigration and doubt felt in this area by the late Victorians and Edwardians was fed by the recognition of the superiority of German industry in the production of such chemical-based industries as drugs, dyes, and optical glass, and of the United States in machine tools and other labour and skill saving technologies. All this troubled British entrepreneurs, educators, and politicians, and became crystallized in the public mind and parlance by the 'Made in Germany' scare of the late i88os and the 'American invasion' of the I89os. As we feared Germany as a trade rival, so also we admired her as a paragon in the fields of higher education and science. Her Technical High Schools in applied science and engineering, the pioneering work of her universities in organic, physical, and hydrocarbon chemistry, and the emphasis laid by her large firms on scientific research, were all examples to which numerous British visitors paid tribute towards the end of the century. And yet, in their concern to spur on change at home, many propagandists like Haldane and others

Political science · History · History of Science and Natural History

• Science, technology and industrial work in Britain, 1860–1930

  James F Donnelly•Social History•1991

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