ICI Magazine December/January 1963/4 Volume 41 Number 315
CONTENTS
page 183 Editorial page 184 A is for Aerosol by Stephen Frankish With the Editor's compliments page 188 Paraquat - a new agricultural tool by Dr. W.R. Boon page 191 Ambassador or -- ? by R ex Roberts page 194 Ou1· Man in Rotterdam. The Editor begs leave to wish readers of the present of a Christmas Tree to the children of a page 196 People and Eve nt s Magazine the compliments of the season. As to workhouse, and she invited me to go with her and page 202 Gardeners' G uid e by Percy Thrower precisely what those compliments ought to be in the assist at the distribution of the toys. There was a page 204 R etirement - a summing up by 7am es M cGuill day and age in which we find ourselves he confesses drive through the early dusk of a very cold page 206 Th e Prodigy by Pa1ric£a Mi les to being in some doubt. In former times, if his Christmas eve, followed by the drawing up of a page 208 Something for nothing by Ja111es Tay lor recollection is to be trusted, they instanced a Merry lamp-lit brougham in the snowy quadrangle of a page 2 10 Billin gh am workshops face t he chall en ge of cha n ge Christmas and a Happy New Year. The signifi grim-looking charitable institution.... We passed page 213 Corvic on record by Tony Capon cance of the distinction, though clearly reasoned, through cold, bleak passages . . . and then . . . we always escaped him. If consulted, he would have were ushered into a large frigid refectory, chiefly preferred it the other way round. But on Christmas illumined by the twinkling tapers of the Christ today, over which, as over so much else of our mas tree. Here entered to us some hundred and national heritage, there still broods the genius of fifty little children of charity, who had been making Charles Dickens, it is more difficult to gauge con a copious dinner and who brought with them an ~ temporary sentiment. Most people would appear atmosphere of hunger memorably satisfied to agree that present-day Christmases are deplor together with other traces of the occasion upon ..Jt.."-"--~ Stephen Frankish W.R. Boon Rex Roberts Patricia Miles Janus Tay/or Tony Capon ably commercialised and would be intolerable but their pinafores and their small red faces .... They for the sake of the children. But if these conclusions filed up and received their little offerings, and then CONTRIBUTORS are currently drawn so they were of Christmases they compressed themselves into a tight infantine William Boon joined Dyestuffs Division in 1936 and was one of the original section set up to do long past. Writing for a Christmas periodical in bunch and, lifting up their small hoarse voices, research on pharmaceutical products. Dr. Boon transferred to Central Agricultural Control as an 1893, a well-known woman writer of the day directed a melancholy hymn toward their bene associate research manager in 1954 and was appointed a visiting director of Plant Protection Ltd., becoming research and development director of that company in 1959· observed: "The talk was of Christmas; and almost factress. The scene was a picture I shall not forget, Tony Capon is internal information officer for Plastics Division and as such edits Plastics Division everybody agreed that the season, considered from with its curious mixture of poetry and sordid prose News. Before joining ICI four years ago he was for nine years a staff reporter with The Birmingham the old-fashioned standpoint, was pure irony. Was -the dying wintry light in the big bare, stale Mail and The Birmingham Post, and in the even more distant past took a B.A. (Hons.) degree at Birmingham University. it not a time of extra burdens, of manifold claims room; the beautiful Lady Bountiful, standing in Stephen Frankish is a section manager in the General Chemicals Division Technical Service upon everybody's purse and care, of great expecta the twinkling glory of the Christmas tree, the Department and is concerned specifically with acids and refrigerants. He joined ICI in 1949 as a tions from all sorts of people, of worry and weari little multitude of staring and wondering, yet research chemist and worked in the General Chemicals Division Technical Department and at ness ? Except for the children! There we were perfectly expressionless, faces." Rocksavage Works before taking up his present post in 1959. unanimous, Christmas was the children's festival Thus Henry James and thus a Christmas in the James McGuill retired in 1962 after 35 years' Company service, all of it at Billingham. He was a rf processman on boiler plants from 1929 onwards and was for some years a T. & G.W.U. shop steward, for us a rush and scramble, and a perpetual paying heyday of the Victorian era. But James had some and a works councillor. ~· away of money; for them a glimpse of Fairy land." observations also upon another facet of English Patricia Miles is married to Francis Miles (Head Office Education Section). She was born and The novelist in question develops the fancy that benevolence, particularly appropriate to the season brought up in Bolton, and graduated in Classics at Somerville College, Oxford, in 1953· She has had several short stories and sketches published, including "The Roman Bargain" in the October 1962 those for whom Christmas could not be graced by of goodwill, which has survived unchanged into issue of the Magazine. the presence of either children or grandchildren our own day. "There is," he wrote, "nothing more Rex Roberts, who is retiring from the Company at the end of the year, has been education officer should hire them for the occasion, but not, as one striking in England than the success with which for ICI Sales Regions since 1953· Before that he was for 20 years with Plant Protection Ltd.; becoming of the characters in her story goes on to suggest, an 'appeal' is always made. Whatever the season or director in charge of advertising and public relations. As a governor of the Central School of Arts and Crafts and as chairman of the Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Society he finds an outlet for his from an Institution-because children from such a whatever the cause, there always appears to be comprehensive interests. source might prove more of a liability than a enough money and enough benevolence in the James Taylor, the ICI Group Director in charge of the Company's metal interests, has often luxury. country to respond to it in sufficient measure-a contributed to the Magazine. As to those selfsame children of an Institution, remarkable fact when· one remembers that there is Front cover: Testing records at the EM! factory, Hayes. (Photo: Brian Price-Thomas) there comes down to us a haunting little portrait never a moment of the year when the custom of from the pen of the great American novelist, Henry 'appealing' intermits." The ICI Magazine, price fourpence, is published every other month. It is printed by The Kynoch Press, Birmingham, and published by Imperial Chemical Industries Limited, Imperial Chemical House, Millbank, James. Writing of the festive season, as seen from But enough! It is clearly time for Scrooge to London S.W.r (VICtoria 4444). The editor is glad to consider articles and photograph$ for publication, and payment will be made for those accepted. the vantage point of a large English country house make way for "Santa." "Over," as they say on the in 1879, he had this to say: "A lady had made a radio, "to the children." A iS for AEROSOL byStephenFran~h
One of those innovations which by term would have seemed exaggerated to For so recently developed an industry European level there exists a central technical arrangements. These functions the privilege of organising the Fourth imperceptible stages effect a transfor the point of absurdity. Not so today. A the aerosol is, too, commendably well body, the Federation of European Aerosol are of considerable importance in a Congress of the Federation at Brighton. mation in our lives is the aerosol-the mere glance at the illustration of a repre organised. Already in Britain, USA, Associations (F.E.A.), to fulfil an analo highly competitive industry. This proved to be the largest congress self-pressurised spray which began as an sentative selection of aerosols available on France, Germany, Spain, Finland and, gous role for the Continent as a whole. The international nature-or perhaps yet held-the last one was at Lucerne insecticide and is now of such variegated the· British home market will convince the more recently, Italy, national as·sociations To these various associations can be it would be more accurate to say the in 1961-and also the most successful, application that it has achieved the status most sceptical that here is no mere manu have been formed to help to harmonise referred such highly pertinent considera continental nature-of the European with a long sequence of lectures, com of an industry on its own. facture of passing novelties, but something the varied interests of those involved, tions as standards, sizes, and the inter section of the industry was strikingly mittee meetings, demonstrations and The aerosol industry! A little while as material to tlie support of the modern from whatever angle, in the industry, and availability of essential fittings and parts underlined last October when the British ago-a bare ten years or less- and the way of life as, shall we say, the T elly. to resolve mutual problems. While on the such as valves, fillers and an infinity of Aerosol Manufacturers Association had Part of an 'Arcton' drum packaging shed
Aerosol packages set out for judging in the IC House cinema
~.• .11 .1-·· 111 -~··
~.I
184 ' Arcton' propellants are shipped by rail direct to many parts of Europe Some of the many attractive containers the aerosol industry has produced. Right: Aerosol valves discussions, covering five days in all. on their type and size) and who des be larger, as their plastic 'Alkon,' which when considered in terms of actual units. In conjunction with the Congress, which illustration clearly ~h~ws,and of a patch it all over the world in cylinders and is just becoming available, looks as if it Western Germany the annual rate is met in Brighton's famous Dome, was an In diversity and particuJ.ality to confuse the drums. Bulk delivery by road tanker is might be the answer to the proverbial about two per head. In the UK, which is exhibition-the biggest so far staged-and assem bly understanding-but all having one thing 'ARCTON ' common in Britain, and increasing use is maiden's prayer for a suitable plastic for still some way behind on a per capita also a separate display of the entries in an in common, a gaseous propellent to expel aerosol package competition, the second propellent made of rail tankers to deliver 'Arcton' in aerosol containers. Some of Nobel Divi basis, some 7 0 million aerosols will be vapour the contents of the package. Western Europe. In the British Isles alone sion's silicones and nitrocelluloses find consumed during 1963 by an ever more of its kind in Europe, which ICI had Dip pipe And here, as suppliers of 'Arcton' the current rate of retail turnover in their way into the contents of a range of aerosol-conditioned public. By 19 7 0 an organised on behalf of the Congress, and aerosol propellents, ICI, or more precisely of which the actual judging by an in aerosols is somewhere between £ 15 mil aerosols, while HOC provide many of the nual production in Britain is expected to General Chemicals Division, comes into lion and million per annum. When solvents and glycols for others otably reach 20 0 million, and so whether it is dependent international panel had taken £20 -n the picture. For General Chemicals home and export sales are taken together for air-fresheners in the case of the glycols. for the original insecticide spray, or for place previously in the cinema of IC Division is Europe's leading manufac House, London. it will be realised the production of Finally, Dyestuffs Division find a market the more recent perfumery, cosmetics, turer of aerosol propellents. 'Arcton' 'Arcton' is one of General Chemicals in aerosols for a wide range of resins for polishes, hair lacquers, air freshening, Here, a bewildering display of every ICI's trade name for a range of chloro Division's more important activities. lacquers. mothproofing, lacquering, painting, phar type, size and contour of aerosol was fluorocarbons, to give them their scientific But, of course, 'Arcton' is by no means All told, then, the aerosol business is maceutical, veterinary or horticultural arranged in groups according to their name- has been on the market for some 14 the end the aerosol story so far as an important one to ICI and, extensive uses (the list is too lengthy to be extended), functions, from the largest and most of years. Today 'Arcton' is verydefinitely"big concerns ICI. Plastics Division have a the aerosol has become, and is destined utilitarian of insecticides to the smallest as it already is, one which may safely be business" for General Chemicals, who stake in the industry with raw materials to become still further, an indispensable and most elegant of scent-sprays, diminu looked upon as a growth industry. In the measure production in thousands of tons for valves and components of various US, by way of illustration, the sale of adjunct-if not indeed a positive symbol tive enough to go in a lady's handbag. ARRANGEMENT OF A FILLED (one ton will fill anything from, say, 5000 AEROSOL SPRAY CONTAINER kinds, including coatings for aerosols aerosols is already over five per head of of what has significantly been called the 18& A positive swarm of aerosols, as the I00 ,000 to or more aerosols, depending made from glass. Their stake may soon population annually- a fantastic figure Press-Button Age. 187 PARAQUATas anew agriculturaltool by Dr. W.R. Boon
Ever since primitive man, or more likely do~btthat in nearly all cases the only spraying of diquat and paraquat with new woman, turned from hunting and the advantages of these practices which can machines which have been devised for collection of wild roots and berries to the be demonstrated are attributable to the the purpose. It has been found that not cultivation of food crops an essential part control of weeds. only can weeds be controlled with much of the operation has involved the distur The discovery of the bipyridylium her less trouble and expense, but that the bance of the soil. Probably the first imple bicide, diquat, has been described by yield from the treated crops can be ment was a stick, which later developed Dr. E. Holmes in the Magazine for increased substantially by avoiding the into a hoe, stages in cultivation techniques January 1962. Paraquat is a substance destruction of the feeding roots of the which can still be seen in certain under closely related chemically to diquat, and crop plants : these increases have varied developed parts of the world to this day. like this substance it will kill all green plant between 20% and 50% for such diverse Later, with the domestication of draught tissue with which it comes into contact. crops as potatoes, strawberries and black animals this simple tool developed into Both products are rendered inactive currants. the early plough, whose development immediately they touch the soil. Diquat With the background of having shown reached its height in north-western is more effective than paraquat in killing that at least one traditional tillage opera Europe with the invention of the mould out broadleaved plants, while paraquat is tion could be dispensed with, attention board plough in the second half of the particularly effective in killing out grasses. was turned at Jealott's Hill, ICI's agri eighteenth century. This implement, These properties immediately fit them for cultural research station, to trying to because ofits scientifically designed shape, use in a very wide range of traditional weed establish new crops without ploughing. enabled the farmer to cut and turn a control operations, but, particularly be- The earliest experiments done were furrow completely over with the mini mum expenditure of power for pulling it through the soil. The mouldboard plough has proved of inestimable benefit where the soil ton ditions and climate are not too different from those of north-western Europe. Elsewhere its great defect of exposing a bare soil surface to erosion by wind and water has often been little short of disas trous. The sufferings of the people dis played so vividly in The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, were almost certainly as much due to the mouldboard plough improperly used as to the villainies of the bankers. An enormous amount of work by the Soil Conservation Service of the United States and elsewhere has gone into devis ing systems of cultivation which aim at avoiding the exposure of unprotected soil Spraying market garden land at Fernhurst Wheat sown at Jealott ' s Hill Rese arch to the elements. A by-product of this to kill weed s before planting winter Station direct into whea t stubble after with the application No. 1 fertilizer. work has been the demonstration that lettuce. As paraquat is inactivated by the deliberately designed to attempt the im wet, or for other reasons. The first experi ofICI 'Gramoxone' W treatment yielded as much rain, falling on a surface protected by soil, lettuce can be planted the next day possible, leaving the merely difficult until ment of any size was done on the slopes In August, one of two matched groups of as plots traditionally ploughed and sown dead plant residues, penetrates the soil without risk or damage later. Impossible, that is, by normal of Aran, near Bala in North Wales. In the six lambs was penned on the treated area, more readily than when it falls on bare cause of their immediate inactivation in agricultural operations. There are in the autumn of 1960 a quarter-acre of moun while the other group had access to the amount of cultivation after spraying. earth. In the United Kingdom over the the soil, they appeared to offer the possi United Kingdom many millions of acres tain pasture (ffrid) was sprayed with whole of the mountainside. During the Sometimes when the old grass mat is very past twenty years or so there has been a bility of a great simplification of agricul of permanent grassland of such low pro paraquat* and left until the following next five weeks the lambs on the improved thick it has been found necessary to great deal of careful research, particularly tural practices by eliminating, or at least ductivity that they offer to animals grazing April. The plot was then treated with lime area gained 93 lb. in weight, while on the break it up with a very shallow rotary at Rothamsted Experimental Station, to greatly reducing, traditional cultivations. on them little more than exercise for the and basic slag and harrowed, after which rest of the mountain the gain was only cultivation, but never to the extent determine the value of traditional cultiva The traditional operation of hoeing to muscles of their legs and jaws. Much of it was sown with a grass/clover mixture, IO lb.! This story, with variations, has been repeated many times in all sorts of con demanded by traditional methods. In tion practices such as ploughing and control weeds in row crops, soft fruit and this land cannot be improved by plough * ' Gramoxone,' sold by Plant Protection ditions, the only major variation being the addition to the use of paraquat on the 119 188 hoeing. It is now established beyond any so on, can be eliminated by directed ing because it is too steep, too rocky, too Ltd., contains paraquat. sites where normal cultivation is impos ploughed strip at the headquarters of straight into old pasture or stubble, fol sible, it can be used with advantage on Plant Protection Ltd. at Fernhurst follow lowingsprayingwith paraquat, by inserting sites where it would be possible. On a ing a very heavy thunderstorm. An the seed into a slot cut into the soil. In Ambassador or adjacent strip treated with paraquat some experiments these two operations ? true economic basis-leaving aside such economic distortions as ploughing-up showed no trace of erosion. have been done simultaneously. One grants-the paraquat method is cheaper Although grass is an extremely impor operation instead of anything up to eight than the traditional method and enables tant crop, the arable crops are, on a world or ten! This work is still at an early by R ex Roberts a farmer to convert old grass to new scale, still more important. Can paraquat stage and will be expanded greatly next grazing in as little as six weeks, against be used to establish such crops without year, but already it is clear that in the probably twelve by traditional methods. ploughing? The answer is "yes" for very short run at least yields as good as those Soil erosion is not commonly con many crops. obtained by the best farmers using all the sidered a problem in the United Kingdom, Work at Jealott's Hill has shown that a traditional skills are attainable. but early this summer it occurred on a number of crops can be established To use a much-hackneyed expression : Is it a break-through ? Yes, it is. These chemicals, and the new ideas in agriculture which they have generated, might well have as big an impact on man's oldest industry as the introduction of the steam What were the basic facts of the selling engine and, later, electric power, had on Years ago I worked for a small manufac good idea what Mr. Y said to you this manufacturing industry. turing company which we will call XY morning" he said. "Well, you can take it situation that confronted the Panel ? Ltd. Let X = one of the two families from me that we have too many damn We have, in the UK, over 700 repre represented on the board and Y = the ambassadors already. Your job is to sentatives, selling our products to custo other. Mr. Y, the senior director, was SELL." mers in every trade under the sun. The Pasture renewal without ploughing. The then in his middle eighties and had vast majority of these customers are strip in the centre is new, productive pas industrial users, to whom our finished ture after the old rough grazing (as in the latterly been confined by Mr. X, the foreground) had been sprayed with forceful managing director, to some of the product is one of their raw materials. In ' Gra moxone ' Wand then resown. Below: less exacting tasks of the business, such addition, we sell paint, garden products, The centre ploughed strip of land at as the drawing and signing of the larger ... over 700 pharmaceuticals, etc., through retailers. Fern hurst shows severe soil erosion fol ' cheques. T his Mr. Y did in an effortless In a single working day £1 ,000,000 of lowing a thunderstorm shortly after new ICI products are sold in the home market. grass was sown. The unploughed, 'Gra copperplate hand which pleasantly re representatives m oxo ne'-treated strip on the left was not called the tranquillity of the Victorian era. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, "some affected. On the right is a section of the One other duty he reserved to himself. If selling business, some risk." Almost all ICI pro old pasture someone on the staff was being trans ducts have to face keen competition. If ferred to new work, especially if this our products • • • ' our products fall below the standard meant promotion, he was, so to speak, which others achieve, if our salesmen are "ordained" by Mr. Y. less well informed, less persuasive and I had been office manager, and Mr. X less pertinacious than the salesmen of wanted me to become sales manager in other companies, this huge turnover is, to due course. He therefore decided, very that extent, in jeopardy. rightly, that before I had charge of our The truth, as ever, lies between these It follows that our representatives need travellers I ought to have been one myself. two extreme views. The young represen to have character, knowledge and skill. So I was allotted a territory and was to tative who, with all the graces that Eton Take the first. I have been for the last start work the following Monday. But and Christ Church have afforded him, ten years concerned with the training of first I was ushered into the presence of thinks, taking Mr. Y's view, that he is in our salesmen, and I am afraid that on Mr. Y. With his customary urbanity he a branch of the diplomatic service, will courses I have thrown them more brick waved me to a chair and began a discur not give much help in keeping our old bats than bouquets. Now that I am about sive review of the firm's history; it had friends "the wheels of production" turn to retire it is a pleasure to say, having met been established in 1777. As he had not ing. On the other hand, the ferret-faced a large number not only of our 700 repre seen a customer for thirty years it was go-getter who will stick at nothing to sentatives but of representatives of other indeed understandable that he did not go secure an order has also misconceived firms, that I have no doubt that, judged into the details of my new work. When the object of the exercise. What is the by their personal qualities, there is no Mr. Y's chronicle had at last reached the object? So far as ICI is concerned I finer sales team in the country than ours. twentieth century he concluded by re think this will become apparent as I ICI representatives are men of integrity, marking "And this, my dear boy, is the narrate (and this is what the Editor has men worth meeting-and are so regarded company you will be representing. You really asked me to do) the discussions and by their customers. It is on their reputa will be one of our Ambassadors." I conclusions of the Panel which the Sales tion to a large extent that the general mumbled a few words, blending humility Controller appointed in March of this goodwill of British industry towards ICI and pride, bowed and withdrew. Two year to study the methods of training has been built up. hours later the managing director gave me salesmen and recommend any desirable What of their knowledge? Most have a peremptory summons. " I have a pretty changes. had a good background of general 191 education and of specialised training (e.g. area he has taken over will have told him as a whole. With his many other responsi in pharmacy or agricultural science) before much about them. Later, when his sales bilities it is not easy for him to keep this they join us. The Divisions supplement manager accompanies him on a whole always in mind. Yet increasingly ICI this by courses which acquaint them with day's work and they discuss each call at sales managers are recognising that if the technical merits of what we sell and the end of the day, the senior man's they want the sales figures for 1966 to the research that lies behind these products greater experience will often enable him exceed those of 1963 they must progres and others which are still "round the to say, "Don't you think with Mr. Jones sively raise the skills of their repre corner." it might have been wiser to put it in such sentatives. and such a way ?" The Sales Training Panel has recom mended that for all new salesmen, before they start, there should be a one-week course explaining the kind of service that ' ... he must 'The powers ICI wants to give to its customers and • • • showing how the representatives' work reJotce in of fits into the whole selling effort of the Company. the diversity persuasion' Then, a year or so later, we shall call these men back in groups drawn from of men ... ' allied selling departments. The selling principles propounded on the first course will be reaffirmed, and then, with the help of sales managers, the methods of apply So much for our representatives' ing these principles in current market All of us concerned with training have character and knowledge. What about conditions will be discussed. been helped to gain an insight into the their skill? All this knowledge has still to By the time this article is read the Sales salesmen's training needs in the course of be translated into the particular benefits Training Panel will have had the help of a giving to over 300 of them the admirable which ICI products can be expected to team of sales managers in hammering out course devised by the Sales Analysis bring to the various industries we serve. the details of Course I and Course II. By Institute of Chicago. This we were most We must look at the product from the this means, early in 1964, we shall have a happy to use pending the development of point of view of the user. comprehensive scheme for the training of our own plans. Supposing you wanted to sell an arm representatives in all aspects of their work. Now let me complete the title of this chair to three different people. To. one The Panel having in September, before article, "Ambassador or -- ?" I think you would emphasise the comfort it completing its report, sent out a detailed the missing words, the true description of would give, to another you would say it questionnaire on training needs to all our the successful representative, are "com was the most durable chair on the market, 700 representatives, feels no doubt of their mercial psychologist." The representa and to a third you would say "It's the co-operation, for its plans have been tive must be a commercially minded man. latest design." No one person would be framed in accordance with their replies. Either he is born with a certain amount of interested in all the chair's merits. business "savvy" or fifty training courses The powers of persuasion lie at the won't give it to him. He must develop a root of success in many professions as well proper degree of self-confidence, skill in as in business. The solicitor whom you stating a case, and a refusal to be too ask whether you can "have the law" on ' ... a comprehen easily discouraged. On ~eother hand, he your next door neighbour whose son has must rejoice in the ~~ersityof men, do just sent his cricket ball through your sive scheme for his best to understan'a them as individuals greenhouse will, if he is worth employing, and (in Lincoln's phrase) "so shape his persuade you that winning your case the training of good words" as to convince each of them. won't in the long run be much help to you Unfortunately for him, he is a psycholo if you intend to go on living in the same representatives ... ' gist whose patients are not prepared to lie house. Even a doctor who knows that you down during their treatment! ought to have an operation may have to All representatives have a tough job. persuade you, who naturally don't wel It lies within the power of every ICI man come the prospect, that it is better to and woman, be they in research, produc undergo the surgeon's knife than to tion, distribution or any supporting remain in poor health. So the salesman But the Panel fully realises that how activities, to help every representative to as a persuader is in good company. ever well the syllabuses of courses may make his work more effective. If anyone How can he learn to persuade more be drawn up they can never provide more is disinclined to do this from altruistic successfully ? than a part of the training the representa motives he should remember that it is :tl.K First he must learn about his customers tive needs. It is the sales manager who has the representatives who bring home the 192 and their business. His predecessor in the the prime responsibility for sales training bacon for every one of us. Our Man in
In matters of commerce the f ault of the out of his own pocket. Apparently without Continent, and represents the fulfilment Dutch much enthusiasm, ICI decided to give of one of van der Hoeven's long-cherished Is offering too little and asking too much. the company one more trial year. Working dreams. Nevertheless, selling-rather than The French are with equal advantage with two assistants from an attic in his making-i s still his real enthusiasm, and content, house in The Hague, and actively helped he sees Rozenburg as a bigger and better So we clap on Dutch bottoms just 20 per throughout by his wife, van der Hoeven source of supply for his force of 30 cent. painstakingly put Kerlen & Co. on its specialist salesmen. Most of these men, This was George Canning's waspish way feet, himself selling ·almost f rom· door to all Dutch, combine ..some .technical quali of announcing to Britain's ambassador door the products of those ICI Divisions fication with selling ability, and they are in The Hague that a whopping duty was having a foothold in the Continental backed by their own technical service to be levied on imports from Holland. market. Things began to look up. He laboratories and those of the ICI Divi Now, 137 years later, the boot is firmly engaged more staff. Then war came, and sions- none of which is more than a on the other foot. As a member of the once more the business dwindled to a couple of hours' plane journey away. EEC, Holland will have to levy on skeleton, held together by little more The goods shipped from Britain are imports from Britain and other 'outsiders' than van der Hoeven's determination to unloaded into the four warehouse floors a tax of some 18% . For companies like keep it alive until the Allied victory. of the Company's headquarters direct ICI, which has enjoyed steadily increas Today, at the head of a company with from cargo ships bertl1ed in the middle ing business in Holland since the war, a turnover of £5t million, he faces the of Rotterdam harbour, so that handling this is a hard blow-all the more keenly latest threat, if not with equanimity, at costs, harbour dues, transport costs and felt because Britain's admission to the least with the same determination. ICI paper work are kept to a minimum. EEC was so recently being taken for (Holland) can offer Dutch industry and Van der Hoeven is probably as unlike granted. agriculture many products that are the man in the street's conception of a The man who faces this situation on cheaper-t ariffs notwithstanding-than super salesman as it is possible to be. He ICI's behalf is Pieter van der Hoeven those made inside the Common Market, is quiet and cultured, favouring books, a tall, ascetic-looking Dutchman with a and many others that simply cannot be music and gardening rather than more mild manner that conceals considerable bought elsewhere. 'Procion' fibre-reactive gregarious pleasures. You might take him commercial toughness and a highly dyes are firmly established in the im for a lawyer and not be wide of the mark, developed instinct for survival. As he portant textile industry. Plant Protec for he read law before taking a job as surveys his "territory" from ICI (Hol tion's exclusive 'Preeglone' pre-emer secretary to the ICI trading company in land)'s impressive building on the Rotter gence weedkiller and 'Reglone' potato Java. He had the steamship ticket in his dam waterfront, he can justly reflect that haulm destroyer are invaluable to Dutch pocket when a commercial crisis in Java he has survived worse storms in the past. growers and farmers. Plasticiser alcohols intervened, and instead he found himself The story of how van der Hoeven and other materials from HOC Division running the Dutch end of the company. rescued ICI's business in Holland from go into all kinds of plastics and paints, While one of his rules of life is not what seemed certain liquidation has and polyurethane materials from Dye to take himself too seriously, van der become almost a legend. The Dutch stuffs Division into the insulation spaces Hoeven would readily concede that he subsidiary- in 1934 called Kerlen & Co. of Rotterdam-built ships. ICI plastics takes the job seriously. He is at his desk -was in such low water that the 25 such as 'Perspex' - soon to be made at the most mornings by 8.30, having driven 40 year-old van der Hoeven received instruc Rozenburg factory near Rotterdam-can miles from his home in South Holland. tions to wind it up. Instead, he came to be seen everywhere. It is to this old family home and its well z London and offered to keep the ailing Rozenburg factory is one of the logical tended garden that he means to retire in
~ company alive by carrying the overheads answers to the new situation on the the not very distant future. M.J.D. 195 In addition, at Burn Hall Works, not Divisional Boards collectively) Fleetwood, Dyestuffs Division is to will be responsible to the Board build a £3 million extension to its for the successful and efficient PEOPLE & EVENTS tolylene diisocyanate plant, doubl operation of their Divisions. They ing capacity for this product, which will account to a committee of the is an essential raw material for Board called a Control Group. manufacture of urethane foams There will be three of these, and used for insulation, upholstery and each will concern itself with three foamback fabrics. This plant is ICI Divisions. Each ICI Director also scheduled for completion by who is a member of a Control the end of 1964. Taken together, it Group will take a special interest is confidently expected that these in one Division without in any projects will have an immediate way being responsible for it. effect on the local employment ICI Directors, relieved as a situation. result of many day-to-day manage m ent problems, will be able to £67,800,000 expenditure devote more time to the overall These new projects bring to a total direction of the Company's affairs. of £67,800,000 the expenditure on Existing functional directorships p~ new ICI projects in the UK sanc are to be retained and a new one- tioned during the first nine Company Organization and Ser months of the year. The compar vices-added. able figure for the corresponding In addition, " field directorships" period of 1962 was £19,400,000. will be created to deal with the Capital projects in this country co-ordination of the Company's already announced this year in activities in fields where ICI' s clude, besides the £IO million interests extend beyond the res extension to nylon polymer capa ponsibiliries of any one Division. city already mentioned, a £21,; million plastic sacks project for the New Division chairman ICI subsidiary British Visqueen Mr. T. B. Clark, who succeeds Dr. Ltd. at Stockton-on-Tees; a £1 ! S. W. Saunders as Chairman of million extension to capacity for Heavy Organic Chemicals Division 'Procion' dyestuffs at Huddersfield on 1st January, is 52 and has been a Works; a £6 million venture in joint managing director of the partnership with BP and Distillers Division for the past 2:} years. to form a new company, Border Apart from war service, he has Chemicals Ltd., to manufacture spent all his working life with the acry lonitril e at Grangemouth; Company, which he joined in 1934 nearly £n million to finance as a chemist in the Research another stage in the multi-million Department at Billingham, after pound scheme for modernising graduating from St. Andrews. and expanding ammonia produc A n ' Ulstron' blanket dramatically tion at Billingham, Heysham and Blankets for winter blues demonstrates its non-absorbent pro- Severnside; and about £IO million A new name for the household perties. at Wilton on a new cracker to pro shopping list this winter is 'Uls duce ethylene from naphth a and to tron.' It is a familiar one already to The Duke of Edinburgh at J ealott's Hill Research S tation (see first story) At present six major suppliers extend capacity for polythene. fishermen, who have been using are offering 'Ulstron' blankets in , 'Ulstron' for a couple of years or so Organization changes their ranges, prices running from in the form of ropes or fishing nets. Royal visitor said he had been " tremendously New capital projects Kellner WorksjR uncorn, a numb er Changes in the structure of the about £2 15s. to 9 guineas for full But 'Ulstron,' ICI's new polypro The Duke of Edinburgh visited impressed" by everything he had As widely reported in the Press in of new insta'llations will be built Board and higher management of sizes and from I 5s. to £ I I 5s. for pylene fibre, has a chameleon-like ICI establishments twice within a seen. October, expenditure of nearly by G eneral •Chemicals Division as the Company were announced last pram and cot blankets. quality. Just as it is tough for ropes week during October. The first His second visit, on the following £30,000,000 has been sanctioned part of a plan to integrate manu month and will be introduced pro and twines, so it can be light and The Mond Di vision occasion was on the afternoon of Thur sday morning, was to Jealott's by the ICI Board on six new capital facture on Merseyside into a major gressively from 1st January 1964. Mr. T. B. Clark luxurious to tempt the housewife. On 1st January the Alkali and the 14th, when he went to Billing Hill Research Station in Berkshire projects in north-west and north complex. Thes e will include a They result from the proposals of Blankets made of 'Ulstron'- the G eneral Chemicals Divisions will be ham Factory. This was part of a and was a private one. As at Bil east England. cracker to produce acetylene from a Board Organization Committee During the war he served as a first of such temptations- are now combined to form the M ond D ivi modified tour of the Tees-side lingham, he arrived by helicopter £1 2:} million will be spent on a naphtha at a capital cost of £ 71,; which took into account the studies brigade major in the Royal Artil on sale. sion of ICI. Mr. Derrick Carter, area made by the Duke alone and was met by the Chairman, Mr. further extension of the existing million, while some £3 million of M cKinsey and Co., the American lery, being mentioned in des Because 'Ulstron' is so light, who has been chairman of both following the cancellation of the S. P. Chambers. After being nylon polymer plants of Dyestuffs more will be spent upon a new management consultants, and of a patches. Returning to ICI in 1945, blankets made from it are warmer Divisions since Mr. K eith Barty's Queen's intended visit. In a hust introduced to memb ers of the Division at Wilton and Billingham vinyl chloride monomer plant, and number of ICI teams which have he served for a period in the for their weight than any others. retirement from Alkali Division ling, crowded, 50-minute tour of Plant Protection Board he was -this is additional to the £IO an expanded chlorinated solvents also been studying organization D evelopment Department at Bil They are shrink-proof and can be last August, will be the new the Billingham site the Duk e shown round the laboratories, million extension announced earlier complex operating new processes. and management efficiency. lingham, becoming the records and hand washed or machine washed at Division's chairman, and he will be inspected the engineering school where he saw the work the Com this year- while about £4 million The naphtha cracker and the The Board's purpose is to ensure research manager of the Southern assisted by three deputy chairmen, (where he accepted for the Queen a pany is doing to produce new and will be spent by H eavy Organic chlorinated solvents plant will be that the Company's organization is Region Sales Organisation in 1952. home, commercially laundered, or the current managing directors of desk calendar and for himself a safer insecticides and herbicides. Chemicals Division, also at Bil the largest individual units in the geared to work effectively in con In 1954 he returned to Billingham dry-cleaned repeatedly. the two Divisions. T hey are Mr. cocktail tray, a condiment set, a He was particularly interested in lingham, on a new plant to produce world manufacturing these pro ditions of rapid technological as organic sales control manager 'Ulstron' absorbs virtually no F. Steadman (Alkali Division) match holder and a cigar piercer, the new products based on mena phenol. A co-product of the pro ducts. At the same time it is change and of the growing diversity and in 1958 became commercial water (for proof see our picture all made by the apprentices) and zon, diquat and paraquat (see cess will be acetone, mainly required proposed to double the capacity of of ICI's own operations, and it has director of the new Heavy Organic above), and so blankets made from and Mr. J. C. Brown and Mr. the new pressure steam reforming article on page 188), and in the for the manufacture of 'Perspex' the chloromethanes plant produc therefore been decided to delegate Chemicals Division. it dry extremely quickly and make J. L. Tedbur y (General Chemicals plant and had presented to him a amount of work on toxicology sheet. The new plant is due for ing methyl chloride, methylene authority as far as the total ICI In July 1960 he was appointed a airing worries a thing of the past. Division). T he chairman and large number of employees in a carried out before any new product completion by the end of 1964. chloride and chloroform at nearby interest will allow. member of the Scientific Advisory Colours are gay- aquamarine, rose deputy chairmen will be located 196 wide variety of jobs. Afterwards he can be marketed. In the north-west, at Castner- Rocksavage Works. In future Division chairmen (and Council to the Ministry of Power. pink, gold, sky blue and white. at Runcorn. 197 The new Division will be representatives is to be left to The teams found that the Ilford organised into five product groups, individual Divisions and Regions. recording paper had survived, but each of which will be controlled by the intense heat had apparently one or more directors and will have Bo a rd a ppoint m e nt destroyed all traces of the image. its own Operations, Sales Control, Viscount Amory, who relinquished However, the Ilford scientists, in Technical Service and Technical his appointment as High Com consultation with their colleagues Departments. Activities such as missioner for the UK in Canada on in the Research Laboratories at Commercial Services, Research Ilford and Mobberley, evolved a and Development, Finance, Per special processing technique and sonnel, etc., will continue to be by I r.30 p.m. on 23nd October all organised on a Divisional basis. processing work had been com pleted, and a full record of the Ready for an ot he r freeze -up flight up to the moment of the With the possibility of another crash was available for examination severe winter ahead, local authori and detailed analysis. ties are building up their stocks of rock salt to an all-time record level. Alkali Division's Salt Sales Control Department estimate that stocks ·now·held by local authorities are of the order of 800,000 tons compared 1 with about 400,000 tons at the same time last year. Viscount Amory A still from a new .film "Six Faces A cedarwood toad, a symbol of good omen, presented to the Chairman by J of 'Terylene'," which is being made roth October, was reappointed to /Cl's 'Terylene' licensees in Japan (see Gift from Japan). for Fibres Division by the IC/ Film the ICI Board last month and will Unit. Amusing "Edwardian" por act as a non-executive director. Gift fro m Japan Industries Ltd., a wholly owned traits are used to linl< sequences and The magnificently carved cedar subsidiary of ICL to point the contrast between the Lord Amory was a director of the rather cumbersome fashions of the Company from December 1960 wood toad (photographed when on The chairman of the new com period and the practical, easy-to until September 1961, when he display in the main entrance hall pany is Mr. G. A. D. Smith of care-for clothes that 'Terylene' resigned to take up his appoint of IC House) was presented to Imperial Metal Industries (Kynoch) makes possible today. ment in Canada. As Mr. Derick Mr. S. P. Chambers, ICI Chair Ltd., the other directors being Mr . Heathcoat-Amory he was Chan man, in Japan last June, as a E. Bowyer and Mr. C. H. Brough cellor of the Exchequer from mark of esteem, by Mr. S. Tashiro, ton Pipkin of BICC and Mr. J. R. January 1958 to July 1960. chairman of Toyo Rayon Ltd., and Crane and Mr. P. F. A. Loffier Mr. S. Ohya, president of Teijin of IMI (Kynoch). Ltd. These two firms are jointly In a statement to the press, Wall paper work sh op licensees for the manufacture of the initial tasks of the new com Withins Paper Staining Co., ICI's 'Terylene' polyester fibre, sold in pany were defined as involving walfpaper manufacturing subsi Japan under the trade name of "the organisation of complemen diary operated by Paints Division, 'Tetoron.' tary research and development recently opened a workshop for Toads have long been regarded programmes." And it was stated : cutting wallpaper printing rollers in Japan as symbols of good omen. "Looking further ahead, BKM is in Kirkcaldy, Fifeshire. Behind For merchants or innkeepers the intended to be the vehicle through Output at the rock salt mine has this announcement is the story of toad was a sign of welcome. About which its parent companies can been increasing rapidly since the one man's enterprise to save his a century ago in a small village ensure, where desirable, further Minister of Transport, Mr. Ernest own job and that of his workmates called Samegai at the foot of Mount joint co-operation both in opera Marples, officially opened the new from redundancy. lbuki, near Kyoto, a certain tion and in investment." extensions in November 1960. At He is Mr. D. Pettigrew, who Hakusui Kawaguchi thought of The Rev. Victor Farmer, a pen that time the production rate was now supervises the shop for BAC One-Ele v en disaster carving a toad from a block cut sioner of IC/ (China), from which he 330,000 tons a year. By the end of Withins. A short while ago he was The BAC . cfne-Eleven aircraft retired as chairman in 1954, has from an aged cedar tree of beautiful joined the staff James' 1962 it had jumped to 500,000 tons. foreman of the block cutting shop which crasi/?'1 22nd October of St. grain. Carving toads of cedarwood on Cathedral at Bury St. Edmunds, Since then output has risen of a large linoleum manufacturer. carried crash-recording equipment became a speciality of Samegai, Suffolk, as an additional chaplain. further, and by the end of the year Learning that his department was loaded with photographic recording and in course of time made it He was ordained priest in 1962. He will be approaching the rate of one to be closed and that the firm was paper made by Ilford Ltd., an is seen here with his daughter, famous throughout Japan. million tons. not able to redeploy him or his men associate company of ICL Gillian, and his son, Robin, who is The carved toad presented to with General Chemicals Division. at their own trade locally, he wrote Mr. Chambers is the work of The recorder, which was en Cen tra l St aff Co nfe renc e to the chairman of Withins pointing closed in a steel crash- and fire Hakusui Kawaguchi the fifth. A ' A General Chemicals Division team This cart, drawn by four miniature horses, won a first The ICI Board announced at the the near identity the tech out of carving of this size is a great rarity, resistant housing, was recovered from Pilkington-Sullivan Works prize when it was entered by Duperial Argentina at a end of October its decision to hold niques of lino block cutters and intact with the paper apparently in the tree from which it was made won the IC/ Trophy for the /Cl recent agricultural show in Buenos Aires. On the day a Central Staff Conference in wallpaper roller cutters and asking good condition, although the in team giving the best performance in the show closed, Duperial Argentina received an invitation being ten feet in circumference. from the organising committee the International Friesian London next July. The Chairman if a shop could be established in strument housing had been sub the London Finals of the Industrial of Fire Protection Association's annual Agricultural Fair of Leeuwarden, Holland, for the cart of the Company will take the chair Kirkcaldy. Link-u p with Bice · jected to very intense heat. fire-fighting competition. They also and midget horses to be shipped complete-all expenses and other Main Board directors will Withins' needs happened to A new company, British Kynoch Anticipating possible difficulties tied with two other teams for second paid-to Holland for exhibition at the fair which opened also be present. The Board want coincide with the skills of his Metals Ltd., has been formed by with the handling of the photo place in the extinguisher drill and on 15th September. Standing beside the cart in the picture are, left to righf, Sr.Julio Falabella, breeder the midgets, to keep the meeting as informal as men, and in a very short space of British Insulated Callender's Cables graphic paper, in view of the severe shared with them two IFPA trophies. of HereMr.F.Jones, Works Fire Officer and Mr. Donald Gregg and Mr. Eric Kember of Duperial possible because they believe this time temporary premises were Ltd. (BICC) and ICI following the conditions to which it had been (second from the right) and two of the Argentina. will help towards a more useful found and work got under way. JO!llt investigation carried out subjected, the Vickers flight test team are seen receiving the trophies exchange of views. The number of The men's jobs have been saved earlier this year of both companies' engineers contacted Ilford's Re from Mrs. J. K. H. Cunningham, representatives will be around mo, and Withins can now get from wife of the Deputy Chief Officer of non-ferrous metal interests. The ·search Department. A team of the London Fire Brigade. drawn from Divisions, Regions and their own people in Scotland many new company has an initial share scientists spent two days and nights
Head Office according to numerical rollers which formerly had to be capital of £250,000, held equally a~sistingthe Vickers engineers in 198 strength. The method of selecting obtained from Germany. by BICC and imperial Metal the processing of the flight records. 199 ,,~
Retirements the oddest spots. On one occasion exchange control. So far as one Mr. E. T. Grint, Head of Central RETIREMENTS Dr. S. W. Saund ers during his rounds he called on remembers it ended after some Personnel Department, writes: Som e recent announc em ents of retire Dr. S. W. Saunders, chairman of Dr. Beards, the Division medical months in an honourable draw, When I joined the Company in m ents include: Heavy Organic Chemicals Division officer, but on entering the main with each side certain he had 1929 John Hay was already an Head Office: Mr. R. Farquharson, ICI Ship for the past six years, retires at the door of the Medical Department demolished the other's arguments, institution, and he continued to be ping Manager (retiring 31st December); Mr end of the year. Mr . C. M . Wright, he was pounced upon by a vigilant since when it is true to say that to those of us who worked with him A. R. Smith, H ead of Economics and Statistics !CI Personnel Director, writes: nurse who looked him up and down relations have been of the happiest. until his retirement at the end of and told him the entrance was at the One also remembers many occa- 1951, after 38 years' service with Departmen t (retired 31st October). Heavy gives me pleasure to pay a It much side door. Sammy obeyed instruc sions when his helpful advice has the Company. Organic Chemi c al s D iv i si on : Mr. J. to his tribute Sammy Saunders on tions and duly joined those waiting been so generously given. Hughes, Director (retired 30th November); retirement after over 37 years' for treatment . Alan is one of the diminishing Dr. S. W. Saunders, chairman (retiring 31st service in the Company. He has been ·a great success as number of pre-1930 vintages of December). Nobel Di vision : Mr F. G. He had a distinguished career at chairman of Heavy Organic Chemi recruitment-with which the Com O'Hanlon, Chief Accountant (retiring 31st University College, London, with a cals Division in building up a pany has, perhaps, a certain reluc December). Chance and Hunt Ltd.: Mr class honours degree chemis rst in strong team in the new Division, tance to part, since he reached H. S. Dean, Manager of Chance and Hunt, try, followed by a Ramsay Fellow with a full recognition of the many normal retirement age some twelve London (retired 30th September). ship and a Ramsay Gold Medal for problems ahead in this developing months ago. He joined the Intelli his research work. Two years ago petrochemical age. He himself has gence Department in 1929, was ap he was elected a Fellow of his also played a major part in the pointed its Head in 1941, and during College in recognition the con of smooth linking up of the Wilton the war period in particular worked siderable contribution he had made Works organisation with that of his on special commissions for the late to the development chemical of the own Division. He can thus look Lord McGowan and Sir John Nich industry in country. the back with pride on the considerable olson. Alan had also, from the outset contribution he has made not only of his career, very close working con The 'Viva' proved the big attraction when cars from Vauxhall Motors' 1964 range were on view to the Company's progress on nections with Sir William Coates, recently at Paints Division's Stowmarket Fac Tees-side but equally to the high a fellow economist, and in 1949/50 tory. !Cl' s Acrylic Car Finish, manufactured at standing of ICI in the whole dis assisted in preparing !Cl's defence Stowmarket, is used on this and other Vauxhall trict. Sammy's many friends in the !Cl /DuPont Anti-Trust trial models. throughout the Company will wish in the USA-anything but an easy The late Mr. John Hay speaking at Central Council to join me in expressing our experience, from which he emerged warmest good wishes to him and to with credit. Outside, his numerous Along with Sir Richard Lloyd his wife for a long and happy contacts grew to include the leading Roberts, with whom he worked for retirement. economists of the day. 20 years, he played a very impor His post-war activities have in tant part both in laying the founda cluded special investigations in Mr. A. R. Smith tions and subsequently in the South America and very effective Mr. A . R. Smith, Head of Econo building up of what is now almost Dr. S. W. Saunders participation in studies such mics and Statistics Department, of universally accepted as the ICI controversial subjects as nationa retired on 31st October after more Labour Policy. For all of those He joined the Company at lisation, international cartels and than 34 years' service. A colleague years Sir Richard was the Chief Billingham in 1926, and apart from monopoly and restrictive practices, writes: Labour Officer and John the three years as chairman of the to mention only a few. His fearless While by reason of the diversity Deputy. If one had tried, it would Lime Division from 1950 to 1953, presentation of what he considered of the Company's interests repre have been very difficult to find two the whole of his career has been a just case has at times aroused sented, conversation in the Seniors people who were so utterly dif spent on Tees-side, the last six of feeling, but Alan has no enemies Luncheon Room will probably ferent in temperament and per which he has been chairman of and a host of friends. remain as general after Alan sonality but who combined so well. Heavy Organic Chemicals Division. Smith's departure, one doubts His interests are equally diverse More than two tons of 'Terylene' have been used We can all, I suppose, admire in the manufacture the largest synthetic fibre Sammy-as he is affectionately business. Apart from cine of whether it will be as stimulating as out of qualities which we ourselves do not nets ever made in Britain. Now installed beneath known to his host of friends-has, photography, he loves making his presence would always ensure. possess. Thi s may well be the the road section of the Firth of Forth road from his earliest days in the Com things, and to the wonder of many bridge, the nets have a total area of roo,ooo To say, therefore, that he will be reason why Rj chard and John got pany, been a most informal sadly missed by his colleagues is no of us can make things that work, sq. ft. The roadway section is 180 ft. above the on so well /; ogether, although I water and is being built out from either side of "character", with no time for cliche but a veritable statement of from model aeroplanes to tele think all
The problem of retirement, in the main, Good industrial relations are very much prefer some organisation which gives a is on
My mother was lucky in me. I was a born sighted man who lived in a big house at violin became stained with tears, partly on climber. I never had any trouble hitching the top of our road and taught music as a account of the knocks I got for playing my wagon to a star-any star. sideline and for the love of it. wrong notes, but just as often because I My mother herself had early taken a His house made a deep impression on was moved by the music. It was mostly stranglehold on success, having as a young me: the rest of the road was not half so pretty moving stuff we went in for, High woman lifted herself from an inadequate grand. Down at the bottom we had land laments and sad Irish songs. When small farm in the south of Ireland into a elderly cottages facing the inevitable Isaac Babel entered the child prodigy modern semi-detached house in a snug dreary mill wall, followed by red-brick stakes he tells us iron filings dripped from z Lancashire mill-town. The electric light, terraces and our few blocks of semis. The his violin: my playing had an altogether 0 .."' the running water, the slowly acquired top of the road brought you to the soapier quality. Smoothness and a pierc :ii 0 :i: carpet in every room gave her conscious extreme edge of the town. Here the moor ing sweetness were what I aimed at. ... pleasure for years. We were very close, came down and bared its fangs at you, and "Transpose it. Up high, up high!" .,:>< ... my mother and I, so when at the age of the houses were regular mansions with urged my mother, accompanying me, self :i:"' eight I had a sudden fancy to take up shrubberies and verandas and black and taught from Smallwood's Piano Tutor. l'"' music she encouraged me, and set about white woodwork. With my aspiring tem Up soared the notes, down poured the ~ finding an instrument straight away in perament I was very susceptible to the tears: feeling, that was my strong point. "§ case I should change my mind. splendours of "Scarisbrick" and "The We began a little mild showing off at ~ We already possessed a funereal black Cedars" and "Loch Broom," and I got a family gatherings and neighbourly sing violin's. Only once did he take a hand in this was the real thing. We sat on the edge I did not stop my lessons immediately: upright piano bequeathed us by my bit muddled between my artistic and songs. My mother had a keen sense of the my musical education, but that fatally. of the cane seats gaping at their fingering, the great musical career petered out father's father, a tough old man who had social pretensions. How pleasant to moon world's hostility to emerging talent: she One evening he read out from the local numbed by their virtuosity. It was like slowly. The war came, and the blackout, sprung fully grown from the murk of along after the lesson and picture myself liked to keep her plans well hidden, and paper an advertisement of a concert to be struggling up a mountain only to find and there were other difficulties. I was Salford with a copy of "Self Help" in his in one of those drawing-rooms, astound veiled a fierce sense of purpose behind given by artists from London in a nearby unsuspected ranges towering ahead. Like in the scholarship class at school, and my hand, and had made money as a cotton ing some classy gathering with my emo a smooth, joking manner. At the first hall. Columbus, we had set out thinking land mother was using the evenings to coach engineer in Russia before the revolution. tional rendition of a gem from "The word of praise from some compassionate "From London!" said my mother. It a good deal nearer. A wave of unease me. It was a much more practicable Somehow I never cared for that piano, World's Grand Opera," or whatever the spectator-"Ay, love,, f ou're as good as was a place she had the greatest respect reached me from my mother: I felt as if dream: anyway, I was getting too old to although we had modernised it to the current weekly piece. Then my mother, Vic Oliver" -thougJ;l !inwardly glowing, for. The next day my father brought us somehow I had misled her. be a prodigy. extent removing the brass candle leaning over our gate, would catch sight of she would abruptly stop showing her home two tickets. We scarcely heard the music, but at the Between us we got a free place at the holders. The truth was, it was too of me and all unknowingly prick the hand. The church hall, which we approached end we clapped as magnanimously as we convent. I couldn't get into the distinctive familiar. any case, I had recently bubble: " What are you coming along the In " It's a nice little accomplishment, but by mean streets, was not in itself pre could, and then came home through those navy and gold uniform quick enough, and happened to hear of the great virtuoso, road scowling like that for ?"-and we you have to be exceptional to make your possessing. A row of damp irises bloomed depressing streets. when September came I immediately would go inside for a different sort of Kreisler. Without any encouragement living at it," so she passed it off. But I against its dingy brick, like aspiration " Bit of an eye-opener, wasn't it?" said took to my new school. Quite a lot of from nature, I identified myself with that performance, raucous but real. began suffering delusions of grandeur. showing its head in unlikely places. It my mother. I had not mistaken her non-Catholics sent their girls just for the noble, leonine man, and I got the violin, In some ways I couldn't help feeling Unknown to my mother, I employed a was a mild spring day and there were reaction. refined tone of the place: it suited me in the three-quarter size, for my eighth was my mother taking the whole thing schoolfriend to wash up the tea-things more people than we expected inside. We "Their presentation lacked glamour," very well. And that was not all. Every birthday. It was lucky that in those days too seriously. My teacher had a funny my job around the house-for twopence found seats, and my mother looked round she declared critically. But she knew, and morning on the way to prayers we passed I had never heard of the young Menuhin, story about a rough little lad called Jacky a week to save my hands. Had I known of with approval at the other members of I knew, such playing had little need of the "roll of honour" listing B.A.s and or I should have been worried about the Jump, a good performer considering his insuring them I might well have pressed the audience. No one looked back. Then glamorisation. We turned into the bottom M.A.s in gilt letters, and leaving space casual approach, pretty annoying for year or two I'd let slip. It was a great for a policy to be taken out. three men and a woman came out on to of our road by the dreary mill wall and for plenty more. I was caught up in a feature of my ambition, the hurry I was dedicated artists like us. His father caught This went on for a couple of years. My the narrow stage and with few prelimi lapsed into a brooding silence. I fell new dream, which I had not the sense to in to do my mother credit. him practising with "The Beano" propped father never knew the half of it, but he naries began to play. behind, dragging my feet. keep to myself. At the end of the first up on the music stand. God help me if I Lessons were fixed up with a teacher put up good-naturedly with the screech The performance was surgical. In a " Oh, come on," said my mother, sud week I went home and proclaimed myself 20& from our church, a large kindly short- tried such tricks. Over the months my ings from the front room, mine and the few brilliant bars they exposed the mad denly exasperated, "you're always in a a "career woman." Some kids never overweeningness of my daydreaming: dream." learn. 207 Something for nothing or you can take it with you
by James Taylor
Something for nothing! The human you will observe the city beachcombers instinct to get something for nothing is searching through the dustbins, and you deeply ingrained. Have you ever steamed can philosophise on the fact that the bears an unfranked stamp off an envelope or of the Canadian National Park in the sat in a deckchair in Hyde Park without Rockies are doing exactly the same in paying sixpence, hastily getting up at the Jasper City. approach of the park keeper and slinking In women the instinct burgeons strong silently away ? Have you ever got free ly-my mother-in-law rolls up pieces of tickets for Sunday Night at the Pal string and keeps them in a string bag ladium ? I have. inconveniently hung on a door knob. My The instinct varies according to the sister goes on cruises to collect cocktail social level. At one end of the scale sticks, revolving pencils and books of hooligans take light bulbs and straps from matches. My secretary is partial to aero British Railway carriages; at the other planes because she can bring home small end, the dowager patronises a particular bottles of liqueurs, perfume, minute luxury hotel because it supplies news tubes of mustard, and those little cylin papers free of charge, and now and ders with salt at one end and pepper at again she appropriates a piece of soap the other which are so useful for picnics. from the hotel bathroom. Even the poor I'm told that even superior females prize millionaires of Mayfair are not above the free cosmetics in the rest rooms, but I cutting in on time-unexpired parking wouldn't know. meters, making the warden's life a -little Something for nothing is not confined harder still. to the West; indeed, its most sophisticated Every year, indeed twice a year in manifestations are of Eastern origin. My most cases, big stores, with psychological Chinese girl friend received gifts of cunning, cash in on this human failing. money-coins wrapped up in red paper Neither my wife nor I can ever resist a called lucky money, a very pretty Oriental bargain at a sale, even if we have no custom-on her wedding day. After conceivable use for it; we are the natural what's been happening recently, however, fodder of auctions, church bazaars and I would advise you Occidental girls to fetes. My wife's instincts are also sharply make sure any coins you get are indeed developed in the art of competitions wrapped in red paper in order to avoid promoted by manufacturers of tooth any misunderstanding. pastes, washing powders and groceries. The male conforms to this instinctive Every morning we use a Tea Master won pattern as does the female of the species. in this fashion, and her loot includes two My son is a doctor, and, as is well known teasets and several teapots. So far she has free samples arrive constantly in the not won a car, but hope springs eternal medico's post. I cannot possibly have all in her human breast. the ailments they are claimed to alleviate The instinct is robust in individuals, or cure, but I'm quite unable to resist but it also manifests itself in groups. trying them out-free gratis. Have you ever observed how bus parties The rich are no more immune than the have brought to a fine art the multiple poor. Financiers seldom fail to take up use of the 1d. loo? One of the most scrip issues of limited companies or the thriving of British industries is the chance of "stagging" a capital gain, and replacement of cutlery lifted from res the Daily Mail "Roll Up" has a big taurants and hotels. Hotels count their following. Above all, for millions of cutlery at the approach of coach groups. males-and a lot of females as well-is If the exigencies of life take you out the glittering something for nothing, or 20s early in the central area of large cities, next to nothing, of the Pools. "The male conforms to this instinctive pattern as does the f emale ••• " Billinghamworkshops face the challenge of change
by advertising their facilities in the tech This is the story of how Billingham Divi which they had been used to keep men all set to make them as well; or an elec be done by outsiders there was no likeli normal wastage and by a few early sion's Engineering Workshops-the lar and machines fully occupied. trical shop for the repair of the factory's nical and trade journals and the careful hood of the Workshops being invited to do retirements. building up of personal contacts. gest workshops in !CI-have met the To dismiss a large number of the men 10,000 electric motors and equipped to work for others. Throughout, the shop In winning orders for high-quality How did all this go down with the men challenge presented by the recent revolu and scrap some of the machines would rebuild them completely if necessary. stewards, works councillors and all levels engineering, the Workshops have reaped on the shop floor ? Good communication tion in the Division's methods of making have been one solution, but this the Visitors may be equally surprised to of supervisors were kept informed. All the harvest of their past. They have been was essential. Everyone must know that a ammonia. Faced with surplus maintenance Division rejected. Far better, it was find a metal spraying shop which not only were well aware how much their liveli given profitable business by a long list of revolution was taking place. Everyone capacity as production patterns based on decided, to continue to employ both the prolongs the life of a great deal of the hood depended on how they met the firms, many of them big names in the must accept that it was not good enough smaller and more compact manufacturing men and the machines if profitable work steelwork in the factory but can reclaim challenge-throughout there has been engineering world. Orders have included just keeping abreast others and that units foreshadowed a drastic cutting down could be found for them. To provide that worn equipment with the very latest arc of if excellent co-operation right down the line. overseas contracts, such as ammonia con Billingham could not do its own main both in men and machines, they have work the Workshops have become in part spraying techniques; an X-ray laboratory Although payroll strength has inevitably verter cartridges for Australia, India and become in effect an engineering business an engineering business, competitive in where radiographers are using radioactive tenance better and cheaper than it could fallen slightly, this has been effected by Norway, equipment for a polythene plant on their own, undertaking work on new projects not only for other Divisions of ICI but also competing for orders from outside customers. The Workshops' history goes back to the early days of Billingham. They began as a maintenance unit for the new plants being built in the 1920s. But very soon their role became extended as Billingham pioneered high-pressure techniques in this country. High-pressure know-how was not at this time available from out side, and "If we want this done, we must do it ourselves" was often the only course in those early days. So the Workshops were required to make as well as mend. As the factory grew, so also did the Engineering Works and with it the Workshops. For more than thirty years this pattern showed little change-Billingham's huge plants, built A pipe being heated prior to hot bending in the Plumbers' Shop to last for many years, requiring quite a corps of maintenance personnel. >I But at last the need for huge plants the open market. Billingham's Workshops materials for examinu/g welds; and equip occupying a great deal of space has come are singularly well equipped for the pur ment for balancing machinery, both in to an end. pose. Probably indeed only the shipyards the shops and on the site, to limits usually The new plants are much larger in are capable of doing expertly under one only possible by well-known specialist output for a given amount of equipment roof such a wide variety of engineering firms. installed, and they need much less main work. The engineering market is an extremely tenance. For example, the Pressure Steam The Workshops look upon themselves competitive affair, and the smallest dif Reforming Plant which occupies about as a kind of engineering commonwealth, ferences in price or quality or delivery 5 acres produces as much as the old plant embracing turners, machinists, black time can lose an order or spoil the which was spread over some 50 acres. smiths, electricians, instrument artificers, chances of another. The Workshops, their Here then was the problem facing the fitters, platers, sheet-iron workers, plum primary role still an immediate repair Workshops. More than a thousand men, bers, patternmakers, foundrymen, metal service for the Billingham Site, did not staff and payroll, a considerable amount sprayers, and many more. Visitors from think they could compete for repetitive of capital tied up in buildings and outside the Company frequently are mass production work, but they did feel machines, an immense store of craftsman amazed at the comprehensiveness of the confident they could compete for quality ship and know-how built up among the shops, for example, not expecting to find jobs. Nor is it easy for a newcomer to break A fan shaft reclaimed by spray in the Metal is welding Spraying of a great deal of the steelwork in the factory, but rebuilds worn men on the shop floor over many years- an instrument shop, responsible for the into such . a market. Billingham have Sh op at Billingham. This workshop not only prolongs the life equipment by the very latest techniques 210 and no longer enough work of the kind to repair of many thousands of instruments, tackled the job with skill and energy, both 211 for Chile, work for the Atomic Energy Authority and the Admiralty-and ex perimental titanium springs for Jack Brabham's racing car. This then is the new age into which the Workshops has moved. And not the Bil lingham Workshops alone. At Wilton a few miles away south of the Tees there is an equally well equipped workshops unit. Although not faced with the pressing problems of Billingham, the Wilton Workshops are also offering their skills on the open market with a view to keeping men and machines fully occupied during periods when there is little maintenance to be done, thus reducing their overall costs. T hroughout ICI there can be pride and comfort in the thought of a challenge successfully met which has safeguarded the jobs of some moo men in an area of Britain currently under the cloud of under-employment.
J The ver y last charge of cat alyst about to be pushed into tre atments w i ll be carried out i n a n ew ele ct ri c furn ace which the old gas-fired furnace in the Workshops. Future heat is t he o nly one of it s size an d type on Te es-sid e
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1M' 'Corvic' on record by Tony Capon
In the world of"tweeters" and "woofers." these materials must work to exact speci sex, to make many of the millions of mono and stereo, today's record fications. Among them is Plastics Divi records-LP, EP and standard-which enthusiasts want the best. Be it Suther sion. they produce each year. The 'Corvic' land or Segovia, the Beatles or Joe At Hillhouse, near Fleetwood in formulation used by EMI has been Brown, they will settle for little short of Lancashire, in modern plants with con specially developed in co-operation with . the highest hi-fi. tamination levels at a minimum and Plastics Division to meet the flow require The record makers know this. In their quality control at a maximum, is produced ments of record moulding presses and competitive world which gets more com 'Corvic,' a white powder PVC copolymer enables a tremendous degree of detail to petitive all the time the search for better which, because of its particular qualities, be reproduced in the moulding. It gives recording techniques and better materials has been chosen by Electrical and Musi the record rigidity, abrasion resistance goes on. The suppliers who can provide cal Industries Ltd. of Hayes, Middle- and a toughness with which to combat the 213 'Corvic' from Hillhouse is delivered stearate, which gives stability. In measured to the Hayes factory of EMI amounts this goes to be heat-mixed. After a second mix it passes through the calender which compresses it to a sheet of given thickness and through cutters which chop off "biscuits" of varying sizes for 7 in., IO in. or 12 in. records. These are tested to ensure that they contain no metal which could ruin one of the dies. They are then packed for export or routed to the presses. In the pressroom, each operator has his supply of "biscuits" and labels. A label is placed in the centre of the top and bottom dies. The PVC is warmed in a small oven, rolled up, ·and put in the centre of the press. With the touch of a button the press closes and another record is ready for testing. Testing is done by sampling from batches of records. In a long row of sound-proofed cubicles girls listen to Records are brought by record after record on some of the most overhead conveyor to the up-to-date playing equipment, and the i nspection department , where slightest defect is reported and checked. they are packed for despatch records are then passed to the to record shops The all over the world Inspection Department, where they are mated with their attractive, well-designed sleeves and packed in boxes in which they will eventually find their way to the shelves of record shops all over the world. Near the production departments at Hayes there is the library, where used "stampers" are stored and where original master copies line hundreds of feet of shelf space. In the catalogue section notes of every record issued or reissued by the company are kept with information on which countries they have gone to and whether or not they have been remade. Nearby, too, are the laboratories, where new batches of 'Corvic' undergo routine tests and where investigation into possible new materials and techniques goes on. The factory at Hayes is a busy place, The most up-to-date playing pressures exerted by the hard stylus point. In the pressroom, the "biscuit" of 'Corvic' representative of an industry which, over equipment is used by these At their Hayes factory EMI make mix is placed between the top and bottom the past decade, has grown out of recog dies of a press a moment before it is made girls in the testing department, records under the labels of HMV, nition to meet an apparently insatiable into a record who take samples from each Columbia, Parlophone, Angel, Verve, demand for music, drama, poetry and batch of records and listen for MGM, Encore, Stateside, Liberty, Uni of pure silver, sprayed on in solution. comedy world over. the slightest defect the ted Artists, Concert Classics, Capitol and There follows a layer of nickel and a final In 1954 gramophone record production Mercury, but the first step is taken in coat of copper. This build-up of silver, in this country was at a level of 50,879,000 their studios, where the number that nickel and copper is peeled away from the a year. In 1962 it reached an annual figure might sell a million records is got down original to form a negative. From this a of 77,544,000. on magnetic tape. An edited version is positive is made and played to check for In 1956 78 r.p.m. discs held a 70% prepared and transferr.ed to the original faults. If it is passed, a number of other share of the market. In 1960 this had "lacquer" -a disc of nitrocellulose negatives are made and go to the presses dropped to l %, with LPs and EP's which will be used at the factory to make as "stampers." taking over. The total value of record the "stampers" (dies of both sides of Elsewhere in the factory quantities of sales last year was £ 17-4 million and is the record for the moulding presses). 'Corvic' have been roughmixed with expected to be some 10% up on that this The original is first coated with a layer carbon black for colour and ·di basic lead year. That is another record! 21s 214