Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire

L.S Applause from audience members. Duke of Edinburgh rises to speak, says :- 'Mr. Chairman, gentlemen, I much appreciate the honour you have done me, by your invitation to open these laboratories of the British Ceramic Research Assocition. It also gives me very great pleasure, because I'm completely convinced that it is only by the rapid and continuous application of the scientific research to industry that we can help to pay our way in the increasingly competitive world. Your industry shoulders a good share of this load. The export of fine British China and other pottery products are of particular value because they are devised from our own raw materials and is worth about twenty million per year.'

MS. Duke continues: 'This is a vital matter, because already in Canada and America it is being said that British goods are getting too expensive. This research association has already made important improvements in refactory materials both from your own ovens as well as for the great furnaces on which the heavy industries of the country depend.'

CU. The Duke continues: 'In all branches of the industry from pottery to bricks, fuel accounts for a large proportion of its cost, and I've been particularly interested to learn, that the study of firing processes has held a prominent place in the work of this association for many years. It is easier to save fuel, than get it. And the good work......in fact I've made some enquiries on this point and I've discovered that the average figure of efficiency in the use of coal for the whole country, is not more than 20 per cent. Coal is being wasted, and in many plants where tests have been carried out, it has been shown that on the average a 22 per cent fuel saving could be made, a 5 per cent increase efficiency would save about 20 million tons. What is more all this could be achieved by the application of scientific knowledge we already possess. The pottery industry, like so many others, is one of a few large firms and many small ones, too small to undertake research on their own. Co-operative research by an association sponsored by the department of Scientific and Industrial Research is the British conception designed to meet just this situation. The idea of co-operative in- dustrial research, however, was not invented by the B.I.S.R. this came from Josiah Wedgewood, one of the early fellows of the Royal Society and one of our greatest industrialists, by uniting craftsmanship with science.'

LS. Duke continues: 'Research done here will prove a great source of strength to your industries, and it is with the greatest pleasure, and with my best wishes, that I declare these new (stutter) laboratories open." (applause).

LS. Duke rising from seat and leaving. (Comb.Lav.)