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Applied Research

Applied Research WHEN I first started on research work under Professor Hopkinson at Cambridge, beyond a few thermometers and pressure gauges, we had virtually no suitable test equipment we had to design, and with our own hands and the help of a skilled mechanic, to make, such equipment as we needed. In spite, of this handicapand looking back, I am not so sure that it was altogether a handicapwe managed to cover a great deal of ground in a short time. Today, there is available to the research worker, an almost embarrassing abundance of instrumentation which, on the face of it, should make for greater accuracy and speed, but I have learnt how fatally easy it is to be misled, or become a slave to one's instrumentation. Before one can rely upon any piece of research equipment, one must learn by actual firsthand experience, all its idiosyncrasies, and they may be many and elusive. Again and again I have found that it has taken far longer to get into intimate acquaintance with a new research instrument than to carry out the research without it. This does not, of course, apply so much to homemade equipment, for, in the course of design and construction, one has foreseen, encountered, or at least been warned of many of the pitfalls. I have, too, a horror of any instrument which cannot readily be calibrated in absolute terms, and in a manner which leaves no shadow of doubt, for I have seen far too many false conclusions arrived at as a result of defects in or faulty calibration of the instruments used. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology Emerald Publishing

Applied Research

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology , Volume 16 (11): 2 – Nov 1, 1944
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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
0002-2667
DOI
10.1108/eb031190
Publisher site
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Abstract

WHEN I first started on research work under Professor Hopkinson at Cambridge, beyond a few thermometers and pressure gauges, we had virtually no suitable test equipment we had to design, and with our own hands and the help of a skilled mechanic, to make, such equipment as we needed. In spite, of this handicapand looking back, I am not so sure that it was altogether a handicapwe managed to cover a great deal of ground in a short time. Today, there is available to the research worker, an almost embarrassing abundance of instrumentation which, on the face of it, should make for greater accuracy and speed, but I have learnt how fatally easy it is to be misled, or become a slave to one's instrumentation. Before one can rely upon any piece of research equipment, one must learn by actual firsthand experience, all its idiosyncrasies, and they may be many and elusive. Again and again I have found that it has taken far longer to get into intimate acquaintance with a new research instrument than to carry out the research without it. This does not, of course, apply so much to homemade equipment, for, in the course of design and construction, one has foreseen, encountered, or at least been warned of many of the pitfalls. I have, too, a horror of any instrument which cannot readily be calibrated in absolute terms, and in a manner which leaves no shadow of doubt, for I have seen far too many false conclusions arrived at as a result of defects in or faulty calibration of the instruments used.

Journal

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology – Emerald Publishing

Published: Nov 1, 1944

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