The Seventh Royal Society Technology Lecture: Science, technology, and industry

Physical wealth can stem from two main sources. The first is the natural resources that are available such as minerals, agricultural land, navigable waters or a favourable climate. The second is the ability of man to add value to these natural resources in a multitude of ways. Oil remains in the ground until it is located, tapped, transported and refined. The navigable waters remain a barrier until ships are built, harbours constructed and navigation established. It is therefore not too much to claim that the great bulk of the physical wealth that we associate with ‘a high standard of living’ derives from the application of technology, usually a wide variety of different technologies, to provide added value as a result of human effort. The so-called Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century was primarily the manifestation of a much more rapid application of technology to the process of producing physical wealth.