Records of the Chief Scientist's Division and predecessors

Records reflecting the creating bodies' responsibilities in relation to scientific and technical research and development, including new uses for fuel and the efficient use of fuel and power.

Records of the Chief Scientist's Division are in POWE 25 (which includes minutes and papers of the Scientific Advisory Council and its successor, the Advisory Council on Research and Development) and POWE 67. Minutes of the Safety in Mines Research Board are in POWE 59

• Mines Department, Mining Dangers Research Board, 1920-1922
• Mines Department, Safety in Mines Research Board, 1922-1942
• Ministry of Fuel and Power, Chief Scientists Division, 1948-1957
• Ministry of Fuel and Power, Safety in Mines Research and Testing Branch, 1947-1948
• Ministry of Fuel and Power, Safety in Mines Research Board, 1942-1947
• Ministry of Power, Chief Scientists Division, 1957-1969

Topics

Research

Mining and quarrying

Responsibility for the scientific control and administration of the Safety in Mines Research Board was, from 1921, a function of the Safety and Health Division of the Mines Department of the Board of Trade.

In 1942 the Ministry of Fuel and Power took over from the Mines Department responsibility for the Safety in Mines Research Board. The following year, after consultation with the Treasury and the Miners' Welfare Commission, an arrangement was made for the transfer of financial responsibility for the Board's work from the commission to the Exchequer. This transfer was to be undertaken gradually. The Coal Industry Nationalisation Act made provision for research into safety problems to be conducted by the Ministry and financed by the Treasury, thereby completing the process. In July 1946 the Board's activities and establishments were transferred to the Ministry; in June 1947 the Board was wound up and the organisation became known as the Safety in Mines Research and Testing Branch.

In 1948, the Chief Scientist's Division of the Ministry of Fuel and Power was formed to deal with scientific and technical research into various matters, including new uses for fuel and the efficient use of fuel and power. The Division also took over supervision of the Safety in Mines Research Board (from October 1950 known as the Safety in Mines Research Establishment). Also in 1950 the Safety in Mines Research Advisory Board was set up, to advise the Minister on the general scope, organisation and progress of the Ministry's research work on safety in mines.

The Chief Scientist's Division was organised into two branches: the Scientific Branch and the Fuel Efficiency Branch: The Scientific Branch was concerned with scientific and technical research and the development of new uses for fuel. This was carried out by placing contracts within industry and by sponsoring the work of universities and research organisations.The Fuel Efficiency Branch (which formed part of the Planning Division until 1948) continued to provide the application of existing knowledge over the economic use of fuel and power through various organisations concerned with these matters. The Branch comprised two main sections, one dealing with industrial and the other with domestic and non-industrial uses of fuel and power. The Branch, which also included the Safety in Mines Establishment, appointed successive committees, both during and after the Second World War, which advised the Ministry on specific problems. Notable among these was the Fuel Efficiency Advisory Committee, wound up in 1960 and replaced by a Standing Committee on Fuel Technology.

Work of the Chief Scientist's Division was supplemented by the creation of a Scientific Advisory Council, which was set up under an independent chairman in 1948 to provide the Minister of Fuel and Power with expert scientific advice on fuel and power-related matters, on the relevance to them of new scientific developments, and on problems identified by the Council as requiring scientific investigation. The Council survived the creation of the Ministry of Power, but in July 1960 was reconstituted, with similar terms of reference, as the Advisory Council on Research and Development.

In 1967, the Safety in Mines Research Establishment was constituted as a separate division of the Ministry of Power and continued with research and development into all aspects of safety in coal mines and some aspects of safety in other industries. It remained the testing authority for various types of mining and other equipment. The Safety in Mines Research Establishment Division passed to the Ministry of Technology in 1969 and then to the Department of Energy in 1974. In 1975 it became responsible to the Health and Safety Executive.

Following the merger with the Ministry of Technology (Mintech) in 1969, Chief Scientist's Division became known as CS(E) (Chief Scientist (Energy)) Division. It is important to differentiate this from those Mintech and Department of Trade and Industry Divisions which dealt with computer hardware and software production and were successively known as C (Computers), SA (Systems and Automation) and CSE (Computers, Systems and Electronics) Divisions.