r . it

...

~

THE I.C.I. MAGAZ INE VOLUME

27

N UMBE R

158

NOVE MB ER

1949

The J. C.!. Magazine is published for the interest of all who work in LC.I., and its contents are contributed largely by people in LC.I. It is edited by Henry Maxwell and printed at T he Kynoch Press, Birmingham, and is published every second month by Imperial Chemical Industries Limited, 26 Dover Street, London, W.I. Telephone: REGent 5067- 8. PRICE THREEPENCE

/

THE

LC.I.

MAGAZINE November 1949

WHY INDUSTRY NEEDS CAPITAL- and how

.

.

1t gets 1t

By S. P. CHAMBERS , LC.I. Finance Director

T

Diano/ Shed. Chargehand Fred Hindle (Blackley Works, Dyestuffs Division) takes a sample of 'Monolite' Red CN. The bulk of this product is sold to manufacturers of printing inks

HE words "capital" and "capitalist" are so often bandied about in party politics that we are apt to forget that capital itself, and the need for capital, have very little to do with politics. Capital is needed for modern industry whether we have a socialist, a conservative, or even a communist government. It is just as necessary for an industry which is nationalised as for one which remains under private ownership There is, of course, a good deal of room for argument about the ownership of capital, and about the reward of capital, but before we are really competent to take part in such discussions we ought to know something about the nature of capital itself; why industry needs it; how it gets it; how it affects our standard of living. If,for a moment, we forget all t he complicated mechanism of money and look at t he real things behind money, we can describe the building up and maintenance of capital as the process of postponing the enjoyment of income in the present in the expectation of having a larger income to enjoy in the future. Generally speaking, nobody wants to give up £ 100 this year unless he is reasonably certain of getting something more than £100 back at some future date, or unless in the future he gets a steady, if small, income from his investment of £100. In primitive conditions a farmer may have to choose between putting all his work into the full cultivation of the ground which he has already won from the jungle so as to get the maximum amount of produce that is possible f.rom his existing resources, or devoting part of his efforts

(Photo: Hood, Manchester)

to this work, and part into the task of clearing further land , so that he gets a larger crop in later years. If he chooses the second course, he will be forgoing present income in the expectation of future income: he will be building up capital. Notwithstanding all the complications, the formation of capital for industry in a highly developed country is the same in principle as for our primitive farmer. The more plant, equipment and tools we have, the more we can produce with a given labour force. But the making of this extra capital equipment means, for the country as a whole, the utilisation of labour, materials and other resources which could have been used to produce more goods for immediate consumption (food, clothes, etc.) or to produce goods for export to pay fo r such consumption goods. T here is thus a constant tug of war between consumption and capital fo rmation: how much of our resources ought to be devoted to the formation or maintenance of capital equipment, and how much ought to be devoted to the production of consumption goods ? This struggle goes on, and must go on, whatever political party is in power. There is no disagreement about that, although there may be differences of opinion on such questions as to how the choice should be made, i.e. whether by governmental planning or by the free play of individual decisions to save or to spend. In Britain in 1948 we spent about £z,ooo million on capital formation and capital maintenance out of the total national income of 227

J:,\

THE LC.I. MAGAZINE November

1949

THE LC.I. MAGAZINE November

j

T

million. It is perhaps an oversimplification to say that one-fifth of our national resources, i.e. one-fifth of our annual output of goods and services, was devoted to capital formation and four-fifths to consumption expenditure, because a large part of the resources was utilised by the Government, and it is very difficult to determine how much of government expenditure should be regarded as devoted to the formation of capital which will result in higher living standards. However, a substantial proportion of the £2,000 millionabout one-half- represented expenditure on new factories, plant and machinery, power stations, improved water supply, etc., which are quite clearly of a capital nature. The spending of a large part of our national income on the building of factories, or on the manufacture of new plant and machinery to be used in factories, does not mean that we are adding a corresponding amount to our total capital equipment. The greater part of this expenditure is necessary not for the building of additional factories, or for the manufacture of additional plant and machinery, but for the replacement of old factories, plant and machinery which have become obsolete or worn out. Indeed , at the present time, for manufacturing industry in Britain it is taking us all our efforts to maintain our industrial

£10,000

228

capital by seeing that old and obsolete factories, plant and machinery are replaced, and the net amount of additional capital which is being formed is very small. There is one simple piece of arithmetic which many people forget to do. If £10,000 million represents the sum of the national resources, or, in other words, the sum of the output in one year of our goods and services, and if this £10,000 million is available for(a) the production of food and other current goods, (b) the production of goods for export to pay for imports of food and other current needs, (c) the building of houses, schools, hospitals , government offices, and the maintenance of government activities of all kinds, including defence, and (d) the maintenance and extension of the capital equipment of industry, then the more of these resources which we devote to one of these worthy objects, the less is available for other objects. It is no good saying that we must have, let us say, more schools or hospitals unless we say what must be given up to make it possible to build these extra schools or hospitals. It is just the same with the building of new factories or the installation of new machinery. Fine new factories, with modern machinery, will ultimately mean a

higher average income; but in the meantime each new factory means the use of resources which might have been used for some other purpose, e.g. the making of goods for export to pay for imports. One way in which this competition between capital and consumption can be eased is to increase the total output, i.e. to increase the resources available, so that the "cake" to be divided between Items (a), (b), (c) and (d) is larger. Though output can be increased in the long run by devoting more resources to Item (d), we have seen that the provision of more capital equipment means the immediate cutting down of resources available for present consumption and for government expenditure, so that this method of increasing the total amount of output can only be one of slow development. Greater output by harder work and better management can yield much quicker results, and although, without additional capital, they cannot lead to an ever-growing improvement in our standards of living, their immediate contribution could be of the greatest value. The war left Britain with insufficient resources both to rebuild her peacetime industries and to maintain a ·reasonable standard of living. In other words, so much of the national resources were devoted to the production of armaments and to the actual job of fighting and defence,

which all goes under our heading (c), that the maintenance and expansion of capital for peacetime industry was deliberately neglected, and we found ourselves unable, after the war, to ca~ch up with this necessary capital development, while at the same time devoting sufficient resources to Items (a) and (b), the production of goods for direct consumption or for export in exchange for imports. The need for the most careful apportionment of our available resources after the war was of the utmost importance, and it is a matter of argument whether, given the difficult conditions in which we found ourselves, too great a part of our resources has been utilised for purposes which might be regarded by some people as of secondary importance only. Continental Europe was in much the same position as Britain, and the purpose of the American and Canadian loans and of Marshall Aid was to make good this deficiency between annual output and the needs of both consumption and capital while the capital in industry was being restored to the level necessary to enable us to maintain a reasonable standard of living without assistance from America. Again, it is a matter of argument, with which we are not concerned here, why four years after the end of the war Britain's resources appear to be still insufficient to cover Items (a), (b) , (c) and (d) adequately and satisfactorily, and

_,_____

•

~

~

229

1949

~-- ~ THE LC.I. MAGAZINE

why, in particular, too little appears to be devoted to Item (b), the production of exports to pay for necessary imports of food and raw materials. Whatever explanation we choose to give to that question, the inexorable equation remains: apart from foreign aid, Items (a), (b), (c) and (d) must be met out of the national resources, i.e. from the national output, and whatever is devoted to one purpose is not available for another. Item (d), the maintenance and extension of industrial capital, is the one with which we are most concerned here. If one looks at a particular business, LC.I . for example, it is true that the money to spend on the renewal of plant and machinery, or on the erection of new factories, comes from: (i) Sums set aside as depreciation reserves, in calculating profits. (ii) Profits which have not been distributed to shareholders as dividends, (iii) Borrowing from the bank or from other people, or (iv) Issuing new share capital for cash. But the money side of these operations must not be allowed to hide their true character, which is to enable the Company to direct some part of the productive resources of the country to the maintenance or formation of capital instead of to the production of things for current consumption. For the country as a whole, the only money which is available to be utilised to make capital

230

~"

November 1949 extensions is money which has been saved out of income in one way or another. Sometimes money is saved directly and put into the bank to await investment; sometimes it is saved by insurance companies or pension funds. Sometimes money is taken away by taxation and used for capital purposes by the Government. Some people argue that this latter course is right and proper; others that it is better to let people save of their own free will,. and to invest their money according to their own fancy, so that they take the risk of losing their money according to their own tastes. In principle, capital is required for nationalised industries just as for other industries, but with this difference- that the reward of the capital of a nationalised industry belongs to the State for the people as a whole, and the losses, if the industry fares badly, fall upon the taxpayers as a whole, who are thus the compulsory joint owners of the nationalised industry, whether they like it or not. It is true that if we look either at a single business or at the Government's own activities, it seems possible to get money to spend on building new factories or purchasing new plant without the troublesome business of saving out of income, but, in fact, that saving must be done by somebody, either voluntarily or compulsorily. In the case of the private concern, either the business itself must refrain from distributing all its income as dividends, and thus cut down the money available to shareholders to spend on consumption, or it must borrow or raise

. · :_ ~~~ :::=~ ~~~'

~lit,:;.\-...

::;:--.:::.:.._ . -

~~~

·1

fresh capital from people who, by lending or investing in this way, are refraining from spending as much on ·current consumption as otherwise they would have done. All the complications of the investment and money markets, and of the administration of banking, cannot alter the fact that if we devote more resources to capital investment, less will be available for the production of consumer goods. Where the Government incurs a deficit by spending more than it receives in taxation, its action results in the diversion of resources to government purposes which would otherwise be available for other purposes, and this diversion comes about either through voluntary saving, which means voluntary restriction of consumption, or through the involuntary restriction of consumption due to the higher prices which have to be paid for consumer goods. For all industries taken together, including the nationalised industries, the amount of money made available to be spent on new factories, plant and equipment, however this money is obtained, cannot exceed the amount of resources devoted to the making of this new capital equipment; what goes to one purpose is not available for another, and no amount of financial jugglery can alter the plain fact that different methods of dividing the "cake" do not, by themselves, produce a larger " cake." The one qualification to this general rule-and it is an important one- is that if there is widespread

unemployment, both of labour and capital, there is failure to use all the resources, and that better financial arrangements could reduce the unemployment and bring about the fuller use of these resources, thus increasing the amount of the "cake" to be divided. Thus we come back to the general principle that, in order that industry should have the means to expand the capital equipment at its disposal, some people must consume less than they produce, i.e. less than their full income. For a number of years now people in the United States have been saving more per head for investment in industrial capital than have the people in Britain. Not only is there more capital per head behind the workers in industry in the U nited States than in Britain, but the rate of growth of capital in the United States is greater. There are several reasons for this. One is that with the greater drain which two wars have imposed upon Britain, the amount of resources which in this country could be devoted to capital expansion, without cutting down the st andard of living intolerably, has been much smaller than in the United States. Another reason, which is not wholly unconnected, is that government expenditure of all kinds has been much higher in Britain than in America, and this has meant that in Britain not only has a smaller proportion of the national resources been left available for industrial capital development, but high taxation has been 23 1

THE I.C.I. MAGAZINE November

discouraging, and industrial development has been less vigorous here than in the United States. Given these conditions, and this comparison with the United States, what would happen if we lost heart and watched with apathy the amount of resources devoted to industrial capital becoming smaller and smaller, while the proportion of our resources devoted to other heads (consumption, export, non-industrial capital, government) became steadilv larger ? At first the effects might be small, but two things would happen. The amount of capital per head for workers in Britain would decline, either absolutely or by comparison with the amount per head in other countries, and secondly the capital equipment in Britain would tend to be less modern and less efficient, and this means

(/ ~ 0

that the output per worker would decline in Britain, or would fail to increase as in other countries, such as the United States. For the same amount of work the output would be lower, and the time would come when even for harder work the output would be lower. Britain's competitive position in the world in trying to sell her exports to pay for food and raw materials would get worse because her costs of production would be higher than in the more efficient and more highly capitalised industries abroad. The result would be a fairly rapid decline in standards of living, which might or might not be accompanied by unemployment in industries which were unable to compete successfully with industries abroad. What ought we to do about it, then ? Clearly we must devote more of our resources to the maintenance and development of the nation's industrial capital, even if this means cutting down the amount of our resources which we devote to other purposes. It is important to observe that the use of resources for capital purposes of a non-industrial character does not increase our competitive efficiency and does not lead to an increase in output, and that therefore it is not sufficient to look at the total amount invested in all kinds of capital, including houses, schools, hospitals, t own planning developments, and so on. Some part of our resources must, of course, be devoted to these purposes, but we must remember that resources so devoted are being withheld from the provision of further industrial capital which would increase our total output. The next thing we have to do is to ensure that we get the highest productivity out of our existing resources, so that the amount available for all purposes is as high as it reasonably can be. In plain words, this means that both workers and management throughout industry have got to put their backs into their jobs. It also means that notwithstanding the social security which we now enjoy, we must get back to the habit of saving up for a rainy day. If we do not, I fear that when the rain comes it will be such a downpour that social security and many other good things will be washed away altogether. Finally, it means that the call upon the nation's resources for governmental purposes (our Item (c)) must somehow be cut down, and with it must be cut down also some of the heavy taxation of all kinds which makes it so difficult for people, and for businesses, to save for investment in industrial capital.

J\LTHOUGH in size and scope Silvertown rl..is unspectacular, in the character and spirit of its people it ranks with the very highest that LC.I., and indeed the country, has to show. Much has been written of the heroism and fortitude of the people of London under enemy bombardment during the recent war, but of all those who stood firm against every ordeal that the enemy could contrive, from the first great fire raid of 5th September, 1940, when the factory was in the very centre of the target area, to the last of the rocket bombs in May 1945, none can have acquitted themselves with greater valour and distinction than the LC.I. people at Silvertown. To the visitor to this nearly desolated district it seems almost a miracle that Silvertown Works should have escaped entire destruction. On every side lie acres of open space, swept clear by fire and high explosive. The workers themselves merely say that they were lucky, and with that typical Cockney humour which takes real delight in belittling past adversities recount many a story of what happened when "Jerry dropped one handy like"- ofthe pay-day queue which abruptly scattered to take refuge behind empty caustic soda drums, leaving the wind to play havoc with pay slips and banknotes, of the fire watcher returning from the canteen who, in his sudden dive for shelter, lost his colleagues' tea and was roundly cursed for his carelessness, and a tale told with the utmost relish of the "one of ours" which nearly scored a direct hit, to the special dismay of one of the factory's experts in aircraft identification. In more serious moments they speak with

1949

SILVERTOWN (Photos: Chas. Wormald)

unreserved praise of the women of the factory, who- many of them with homes and families in danger close by- carried on with their work in the packing sheds, the canteen and the office, only going to shelter when planes were actually overhead. They worked part-time, those working in the morning often helping those who came in the afternoon with their shopping, and many things that were hard to come by, ranging from crockery to cucumbers, were brought in through the works gates for the benefit of friends who would otherwise have had no opportunity of buying them. Silvertown today is one of the smallest LC.I. works, and it is engaged on the crystallising and packaging of washing soda. It also acts as storekeeper and distributor in the Southern Region for all the other alkali products of its sister factories in the Division. The present factory is the second to be built on the site. The first Silvertown factory was built by Brunner, Mond in 1893, coming into production two years later. During the first world war it was razed to the ground by the terrible disaster of 1917, when the T.N.T. plant which had been installed there earlier in the war exploded with tremendous violence, causing a number of casualties in the factory and severely

The fro z en Thames, behind the works in February 1895. A memorable incident in the history of the first Silvertown Works

•.

.,,

-.

-

~.,.

:!""..·•

,

_ _::

THE

Part of the site after the great Silvertown explosion of I 917

damaging the whole neighbourh ood. A memorial to those who lost their lives in this calamity, to which the names of those who perished in the 1939- 45 war have now been added, stands at the entrance to the works. Before the second world war most people The Silvertown Memorial

who worked at Silvertown lived close by, and their daily journey to and from the works was quite a simple matter. The bombing destroyed many of their homes, and as yet they have not been replaced, and the great shortage of houses in the London area has forced a large number of them to find accommodation much farther afield, often as much as two hours' travelling time from the works. It is all the more remarkable, then, you will say, that despite this, and despite the small size of the works, and with its recreation room destroyed, Silvertown runs a wide range of social activities. There is a flourishing football team and cricket team, and during the winter months a number of theatre parties and social evenings are arranged. The most outstandin g achieveme nt of the factory in out of working hours activities, however, has been the success of its first-aid team this year. It not only won the Alkali Division cup but was placed fourth in the LC.I. First Aid Competition itself-a distinction for so small a factory, of which its members are justly proud. On 21 typical day at Silvertown as you walk around the works you meet the men and women who have surmounte d all mi~fortunes with an infectious good humour which is irresistible. From Mr. Saunders, the Works Manager, down to the newest recruit they are a happy family, each with a story to tell. Mr. Saunders himself has been at Silvertown since its earliest days. He started work as an office boy straight from school in Silvertown in 1903, eight years after the factory went into production . Jack Brunner, the great John Brunner's eldest son, paid occasional visits to the works and used to dictate letters to him. He worked from 7.40 in the morning until 5.30 in the evening for the princely sum of 9s. a week. "Life was much more ordered and quiet in those days," he says; "people were not in such a hurry." But on the other side of the picture he can remember children without boots or shoes, begging for food outside the works gates. During the first world war Mr. Saunders served in the Royal Artillery and in 1918 was badly wounded by a piece of shapnel, which affected both his sight and his hearing. After his recovery Mr. Saunders returned to Silvertown, which by then had been rebuilt and was once again in full production , to become Office Manager. He became Works Manager in 1944. Sharing his office, but like his chief more often to be found in the works, is the Assistant Works Manager and Process Manager, Mr. H. Postles, an old Winningto n man with a long

LC.I.

MAGAZINE November 1949

From the controls of an overhead travelling crane we are hailed by Mr. Sidney Newall, who has been at Silvertown for more than twenty years, and at one time or another has turned his hand to almost every job in the works. During the war he served in the Royal Artillery in Italy with Queen Mary's Regiment, the Surrey and Sussex Yeomanry, and also went out to Burma. He plays football for his local team at Rainham; Essex, and-like many other members of the factory-cy cles to work every day, in his case a two-hour ride.

Mr. Saunders

family connection with the Company. His grandfathe r was one of the first process underforemen at Winningto n, and was later process foreman at Lostock Works, where he completed more than 45 years' service, while his father retired only last April and was a fitter at Lostock for over 40 years. Mr. Postles himself started his career at Lostock in 1922 as a laboratory assistant, and then moved to Winningto n Laboratori es to undertake research work in alkalis. From 1940 to 1944 he was head of the laboratory of the British Ethyl Corporatio n's factory near Winningto n, which was run as an agency factory during the war by LC.I. He was transferred to Silvertown in August 1944, incidentally bringing with him to the Staff Canteen the Cheshire game of dominoes, which goes up to double nines.

·~ .

Mr. Postles

Mr. N ewall operating a travelling crane

Venturing into the Pan Sheds, where "Music While You Work" is bravely competing with the noise of pneumatic hammers and drills, we

235

Mr. Bettis and Mr. Anderson

Leading Hand Hugh McCoombs

are warmly greeted by Mr. George Anderson and Mr. Jim Bettis, who have both been pan men for more than thirty years and know all there is to know about the business- and that's a good deal. "You've got to know exactly where to hit the soda if you want to get it out at all quickly," they tell you. " It is heavy, thirsty work in summer, and it's cold in the sheds in winter, but you soon warm up when you get going." At the speed they work this is not surprising. They both have the greatest respect for the women who worked in the pan sheds during the war- "They were really tough." German dive-bombers are, it seems, not the only form of aerial attack to which Silvertown has been subjected. They have discovered in the Pan Sheds that members of London's large pigeon population can upset the best calculations for the crystallising of soda ! Mr. Anderson and Mr. Bettis were at school together in Silvertown, and share a lifelong friendship with each other and a common hostility to all pigeons. Continuing our journey through the works, we come across Leading Hand Hugh McCoombs, another versatile member of the factory, who in his 23 years' service has also done almost every job that there is to do there. Mr. McCoombs is now in charge of the centrifugal drying machines. As his appearance might suggest, he is a keen footballer with several

cups to his credit, and is goalkeeper of the works team. Our first introduction to the ladies comes with Miss D. Sweeney, who works on the automatic packeting plant. Miss Sweeney is the only member of her shift who worked on packeting before the machine was shut down in 1940 owing to the shortage of paper. Her experience must have been invaluable when packeting was resumed this summer. She came to Silvertown in 1936.

236

Miss D. S weeney

Outside in the factory yard Mr. Albert Joyce is cleaning an already spotless shunting engine. Mr. Joyce has been driving these engines for seventeen years, and is an old hand at the game. He drove troop trains in France during the 1914- 18 war and before this was a cleaner on the old Great Eastern. In his opinion the Silvertown engines " have plenty of pulling power and are good steam-keepers," a useful combination for "short running," as shunting is known to the railway world. One of Mr. Joyce's ambitions is to go up to Winnington to see the engines and railway layout there that he has heard so much about. No works in these days would be complete without its canteen, and in Mrs. J . Ernstzen Silvertown has a canteen manager who takes a motherly interest in seeing that everyone is well fed. Even during the height of the blitz she and her staff produced meals on time, often cooking them on open braziers while a raid was in progress. She is a great favourite with everyone who likes a good cup of tea, and the women of the factory often profit from her good advice in solving catering problems of their own. Another essential service is that provided by the factory fire brigade, for which Mr. Dick Deering, its leader, is largely responsible. Mr. Deering, whose lively wit belies his 62 years, is one of I.C.I.'s first works councillors, having been a councillor at Silvertown since 1927, when the scheme was started, apart from a short break of a few months. He also takes a prominent part in trade union affairs, and serves on his local branch committee as well as representing the union on the Trades and Labour Council. As one might expect, he is an engaging conversationalist, so engaging in fact that we find it hard to break away. Before he came to Silvertown in 1919 Mr. Deering served in the Royal Navy for seventeen years, and still retains the gait as well as the gags of a seafaring man. A typical and perhaps the most amusing story told in the works is that of the man whowith the utmost seriousness- put for ward what must have been one of the most original excuses for lateness ever offered. " I don't understand it," he said; "I set my alarm clock for the usual time, and it didn't go off until nearly an hour later. I can only think that a mouse must have got into the works and altered the setting. It's a very old clock," he added. (Top) Mrs . "J enny" E rnstz en (Centre) Mr. Dich D eering (Bottom) M iss R. E. S. K irsopp, who has been Worhs Woman Supervisor at S ilvertown since r 944, with Miss D owler, a typist in the Supply D epartment

Mr. H. Bellchamber, the General Foreman, who has been at Silvertown for more than 2 5 years

Mr. V. Hunt, of the warehouse, one of the newest recruits at the works

"

The site of the scheme. Loch Sloy from the south

NEART NAN GLEAN N "The power of the Glens"

Mr. S. Cornwall, Captain of the lVorks Ambulance Team Mr. H. Watson, a dissolver man with 25 years' service

Miss Ivy Burgess, a chargehand o.n the packeting plant, who has r 2 years' service Mr. F . Turner, the maintenance for eman, started work at Silvertown in r 9 r S

!'

~ IYi %

LOCH SLOY is one of the largest of a series of more than one hundred schemes which are proposed by the North of Scotland HydroElectric Board, established by Act of Parliament in 1943, to harness the vast undeveloped water power resources which lie roughly in the north-western two-thirds of Scotland. The object of these schemes is to provide abundant cheap electricity for the Highlands, and to sell the surplus to the "grid" for the benefit of people throughout the rest of Scotland and England. The provision of abundant electricity at low cost will not only assist very greatly in the expansion and improvement of existing industries, agriculture, fisheries, tweed making and so on, but will attract new industries to the Highlands. The Loch Sloy scheme, therefore, and the others which will follow it, are of the first importance to Scotland and to Great Britain as a whole. The Highlands have been underpopulated and occasionally depressed for a long

time, and- to quote Mr. Thomas Johnston, Chairman of the Bo.ard- these hydro-electric schemes represent "possibly the last chance for the Highlands to survive as an economic entity." Bearing this in mind, it is particularly fitting that the Nobel Division of LC.I. should be playing an important part in the great project at Loch Sloy. As could well be expected, in the construction of the big dam which is to harness a catchment area of nearly 32 square miles in all, and in the driving of the 16 foot diameter tunnel which takes the water from the reservoir through lt miles of solid rock under Ben Vorlich to the point where it descends in pipe-lines to the power station on Loch Lomond, there is entailed a very extensive programme of blasting operations. The Nobel Division has supplied many thousands of tons of explosives for this alone, many of the explosives having been specially prepared for the purpose. Furthermore, a team of experts from the Division's Technical Service Department have constantly 2 39

1.

lj

At the tunnel face beneath Ben Vorlich. Iloles are being drilled into the rock face, which will be charged with Nobel explosiv es and fired in a special sequence, using Nobel delay detonators. At each blast the tunnel advances ten feet

.

;

The dam in the early stages of construction. Before building could commence 50,000 cubic yards of stone had to be blasted away to ensure that the foundations were established in solid rock and that the dam was securely keyed into the hillside. When the dam is completed the level of the water in Loch Sloy-seen on the right of the picture--will be raised by well over 100 feet, increasing its volume fifty times. From this reservoir the water will run through a tunnel beneath Ben Vorlich, the Zou-er slopes of which can be seen in the foreground

The scene at the break-through beneath the mountain. The tunnel was driven from both sides of Ben Vorlich simultaneously

been on the site at Loch Sloy to give guidance and advice upon the many dayto-day problems arising in blasting works of such magnitude. Nor is this all. In addition to the actual blasting work, it has been found necessary to quarry thousands of tons of rock from near by to provide material for the huge quantities of concrete required, and for this purpose alone nearly 200 lb. of Nobel explosives have been used every day. When completed the power station will be capable of providing 130,000 kilowatts, and it is worth noting that the same quantity of power, if produced by steam turbines, would require no less than 70,000 tons of coal annually. The pictures which follow show better than words the scale of the operations upon this great undertaking, which will mean so much to so many. A close-up of the dam under construction, showing the massive concrete buttresses. A specially constructed cable-way, which can be seen in the top picture, delivers ready-mixed concrete to the building site at the rate of two tons every minute

The finished tunnel lined with concrete, which provides a smooth surface so that the water can flow with the least possible hindrance. The temporary railway is used to convey materials

The dam nearing completion. In this picture Loch Sloy lies on the other side of the dam

Photos by Ralston L td. (by courtesy of the N orth of Scotland Hy dro- Electricity Board), and R. Westwater, Technical Service Dept. , Nobel Division

240

I

The four turbine generators being placed in position. No less than 220,000 gallons of water a minute will pass through each of them when running at full load

The Inveruglas power station on the bank of Loch Lomond in course of erection. When completed it will be capable of prov iding 130,000 kilowatts, sufficient power to driv e the Queen Elizabeth In the right background can be seen the pipes which will bring I he water down to the power station from the point where the tunnel emerges

W orkmen f ettling out one of the turbine cases. The v anes of the turbine which turn the generator shaft can be seen in the inner circle

The foundations of the power station, showing the intricate reinforced concrete design. Through the large apertures in the centre of the picture the water will be discharged into Loch Lomond after passing through the turbines. Se'l·eral tons of Nobel explosives were used to excavate these founda tions

A close-up of the ten-foot diameter pipes as they enter the power station 242

One of the turbines, which weigh about in course of assembly

200

tons,

II

THE L C.I. MAGAZINE

November 1949

I.C.I. NE W S

One of the workers' canteens and the 'Perspex' plant

LORD McGOWAN OPENS WILTON WORKS An impo rtant stage in the Company 's immense post-war develo pment programme was reached o n Wednesday, 14th September, when the C ha irman , Lord M cGowa n, fo rma lly opened Wilton Works, which he described as the greatest single project in British chemical history. The ceremony was attended by members of the Main Board, representatives from the Divisions, and a number o f distinguished guests from Government departments, Members of Parliament, prominent local businessmen a nd trade unio n officials, as well as representa tives of t he natio na l Press. Features of the opening included the planting of a tree to commemorate the occasio n in t he ga rden of the Piccadilly R estaura nt, a tour of the wo rks, and a luncheon given by Lord McGowan and the Ma in Board of Directors. Speaking in reply to the toast of " The Wilto n Works,' ' pro posed by t he C ha irman of the N o rth Riding County Council, Lord McGowan said: " Some may ho ld the view that this o pening ceremony is somewhat premature, and might have been postponed until mo re of the plants envisaged were in operatio n. To this view J do not subscribe, as W il ton will be in many sectio ns and will take a very lo ng time to develo p. I , fo r o ne, a nd l a m sure others will agree with me, feel that wha t we have done a nd p ropose doing sho uld be made public a t the earliest possible mo ment. " I thin k this inaugura tio n ceremo ny is appropria te at the moment, as t here is a school of tho ught in certain parts of the worl d that Britain 's day is over, tha t we have lost that spir it of adventure, ini tiative a nd imagination which h as cha racterised our race for so many yea rs, that we a re decadent and cannot recover. I had a n example of this when in So uth America a few months ago, a nd I went to partic ular pa ins to sh ow that this impressio n was totally false a nd erro neous; l gave evidence of the immense strides we had made in industrial recovery since t he war fi nished, a nd I think what I sa id had some effect. " In this country,'' the Chairma n went on, '' we ha ve been too prone in the past not to publicise our efforts and achievements. l submit that the day for that attitude of mind is over, and that is another reason why I t hink the t ime is o ppor tu ne for t he inauguratio n of our Wi lto n enterprise, and for t he wh ole world to lea rn of what we a re do ing here. " What we propose doing on t his site certainly shows initiat ive and imaginatio n and confidence in the future,'' the Chairman declared. "This is not an occasio n for expressing political views, but I cannot refrain fro m making the observation that I cannot conceive of Wilton , as we visualise it, being undertaken by a natio na lised company. While by a nd lar ge we are fo llowing a n established practice,

244

elsewhere we a re in some directio ns dipping into the unknown, which is a sine qua non o f t he progress a nd success o f a company of the size a nd im portance of o urs a nd with such wide ramificatio ns. T hat being so, it is difficult to imagine such a vast scheme as t he one in which we are involved not coming under some fo rm of public criticism, such as a Select Committee on Expenditure, or even criticism in the H o use of Commons itself, because of this huge expenditure, some of which is being employed in fo llowing up to the ma nu facturing stage research carried on in the la boratories. " What we have seen this mo rning cannot adequately convey what Wilton will be li ke when o ur ma nufacturing operations are in full swing, " t he C hairma n asserted . ' ' Work has been going· o n here no w for more t ha n three years, but t he project itself is very much older tha n that. I recall t hat we decided to· look for a site o n the south bank of the Tees as Jo ng ago as A pril 1943, and you may remark that 1943 was ha rdly the most propitio us yea r in which to start planning on such a big scale. Victory was then far from assured, though o ur a rmies were doing great things in N orth Africa . But rush design is bad design, and we decided that, simul ta neous with the great effo rts then under way to boost chemical prod uctio n of all kinds for the sake of the national war effo rt, we must begin the equall y im po rta nt task, fro m a natio na l po int of view, of pla nning for the days when Great Britain would o nce again be at peace. " What made us decide to select Tees-side for this, the greatest single project ever in Brita in 's chemical histo ry? "Before the wa r, as yo u will remember, South Wales, together with Scotland and some parts of the north-east of E ngla nd, had come to be regarded as depressed a reas. I n other words, a reas where t here was very considerable unemp loyment- so p rej udicial to the morale of o ur people-d ue partly to the condition of British trade generally, but m ainly to depressio n in the export trades and a conseq uent lack of demand for the ca pital goods produced by t he heavy ind ustries that a re cha racteristic of those a reas. Apart also from natio nal safety or socia l j ustice, I said it was in industry 's own interest to co nvert t he unfortunate inhabitants of those areas, which were depressed, into happy communities of wage-earners, for thereby t he purchasing power of the home ma rket would be immeasurably increased. It was because we were sensible of these considerations that we decided to site the greatest single project in o ur £80,000,000 p ost-war expansion programme in o ne of these areas. " We chose the north-east because n o other area in this special category offered the same easy access to

The Chairma11 planting the commemoration tree

Lord McGo wan say s a few words before the tree-planting cere111011y

Piccadilly Circus. The main intersection of the principal N.- S . and E.- W. roadway s across the factory site

THE L C.I. MAGAZINE N ovember

PRESENTATION TO MR. R. GILLILAND BYMR. J. L. S. STEEL

Tea was ser l'ed to 1000 at a time i11

011e

of the large marquees

The chariot race

~

~~

~

~

c

J

;

11

A hea lthy, strong and progressive industry is an essential background for a strong country. Our founders fifty years ago made thei r contributi o n to a healthy, progressive industry, and we must make ours today. Faith and energy will certainly help us to get on, and these are essentia l qualities if we are to get out of our present national difficulties.' ' Sports and competitions were soon in fu ll swi ng, while for the children there was a special enclosure complete with swings, roundabouts, donkey and ponycart rides, not to mention several performances of Punch arrd Judy. Outside there was music from the full band of t he C heshire Regiment.

At a small cocktail party orga nised for the occasion at the Rubens Hotel on 30th September Mr. J. L . S. Steel presented Mr. R . Gilliland with a gold watch to mark the completion of 30 years' service with the Company. Mr. Gillila nd has been for the past fourteen years Managing Director of S.A. Azamon in Spain, having been before that General Manager of Cia. "Sud-Americana de Explosivos in Chile. Mr. Steel, after mentioning the pleasure "'' given to all concerned by the presence of Mr. Remy Thiebaut. Managing Director of Union Espanola de Explosivos, with whom I.C.I. had had such a long and pleasant association, referred to Mr. Gilliland 's long and valuable services with the Company, wh ich had been spent since 1920 a lmost entirely overseas. He had been responsible for gu iding the affairs of that Company through very difficul t times. Mr. Steel mentio ned the desirability of a closer association between Spain and this country, and emphasised that the close and friendly links which were formed in the way of commerce undoubtedly constituted one of the best means of encouraging friendship and understanding between nations. Mr. Gi lli land referred with warmth to his long association with LC.I. a nd said that in his career i11 Spain he had been particularly fortunate in working in a cou ntry and with people for whom he had a very deep affection.

ALKALI DIVISION

WORKERS ' FRIENDLY SOCIETY

Middlewich Works "At Home" On Saturday, 17th September, Middlewich Works were "at home" to employees, pensioners and their wives and fam ilies, and more than 130 people were conducted in parties round the works. High-spots of the tour included the Boiler House roof and demonstratio ns of the tippling ofl imestone wagons. Arrangements were made for the care of some of the younger children while their parents were touring the works, and afterwards everyone was enterta ined to tea in the Works Social Club.

Full-time employees under 50 years of age on the works payroll are reminded that

BILLINGHAM DIVISION

2nd JANUARY, 1950 is the last date. on which they may apply to join the Society if they have continuous service from before 3rd January, 1949. After that date they will not be eligible for membership. For details apply to your Labour Department.

248

Mossend Following a proposal put forward at a recent Works Cou ncil meeting, an " ope11 evening " was held at Mossend Factory on Wednesday, 7th September. There was a good attendance of workers and staff with their wives, fam ilies and friends . T he first item on the programme was the showing of the Billingham film It 's in the Air, which shows in

simple form how ari1 monia is made. An exhibition of protective clothing and safety equ ipment was on display to the visitors before they proceeded into the factory, where plant managers, engineers and works councillors were ava ilable to assist as guides and to give information when required. The function , the first of its kind at Mossend, was organised by a sub-com mittee of wo rk s counci llors a nd staff and wa s voted a great success. Royal Society of Arts Award to Miss Norma Baxter Miss Norma Baxter, a shorthand-typ ist trainee at Billingham, has distinguished herself in the recent Junior Shorthand Certificate examinatio n of t he Roy.al Society of Arts. Miss Baxter not o nly obtained her certificate but was also awarded the Society's Bronze Medal for obtaining the highest number of marks of a ll the candidates taking the examination throughout the country- a particularly creditable achievement after only eight months' train ing.

CENTRAL PUBLICITY DEPARTMENT The late Mr. J. C. Forbes A long-standing personal lin k between the Central Publicity Department and the Compa ny's agricultura l staff was severed on Sunday, JI th September, by the death of Mr. John Cumming Forbes at the age of 58. Johnny F orbes began his association with the Company by joining t he staff of the erstw hi le N itram Ltd. in August 1927. On the formation of I.C J . a nd the establishment of a n Agricultural Research Advisory Department and , later, Fertilizer Sa les Control, he The late Mr. J. C. Forbes

made many friend ships which proved t hemselves to be lifelo ng. A ready wit, a fl a ir for "the big phrase " and a most entertaining personality soon spread his reputation throughout J.C. House, Thames House a nd every Agricultural Sales Office in l.C. l. ln J936 the amalgamation of advertising, press and publicity services bro ught him into the Cen tra l Publicity Department. He rema ined there- except for a brief period d uri ng t he early years of the war, when he gave invalua ble service to Plant Protection Ltd. and Southern Region Sales Office- unti l ill health enforced his retiremen t some six months ago. His funeral took place on T hursday, 15th September, and was attended by his old a nd much-loved ch ief, Sir William G avin, as well as Mr. Rex Roberts of Plant Protection Ltd.

DYESTUFFS DIVISION "Open Day" at Grangemouth Saturday, 1st October, was chosen by Grangemo uth Works as their "open day" on which wives, sweethearts and friends o f employees could be invited to see t he inside of the factory. This was the second event of such a nature held at Grangemou th; the first took place t hree and a ha lf years ago, when 500 people attended. This ti me 700 people took advan tage of the chance to see how their menfolk earn thei r livi ng and the conditions under which they wo rk. Many employees not on duty also made the factory tour to get a clea rer idea of the work of their col leagues. A series of small exhibitions en route showed detai ls of the complicated processes necessa ry to make some of the dyestuffs and gave im pressions of how the fi nished prod ucts look when applied to various fab rics. The visitors were first relieved of their cigarettes, matches and lighters- a novel "safety" experience for most of them-before they set off in parties o f fifteen accompanied by guides a nd marshals o n their tour of the manufactu ring plants and worksho ps. T here was much of interest to see and to impress, for apa rt from the intermed iates a nd dyestuffs plants where such famo us colo urs as the Solways, Dura nols and Caledons are made, there were the medicina l pla nts wh ich make the anti malaria l drug ' Palud rine,' the sul pha drugs and the im portant anaesthetic Cyclopropane. T he attractive names of some of the co lours used in dress fabrics- Caledo n Jade Green, Caledon Golden Yellow and Caledon Brilliant Purple- ca ught the eyes of the ladies. Brentamine Fast Red T R Base, used to give the red stri pes and patterns in towels and tea-cloths (a nd for the Red Cross markings on nurses' uni forms), gave a very direct link with the home.

GENERAL CHEMICALS DIVISION A Brave Act Mr. R. Faulkner, glucol plant processman, has received many well-earned congratulations on his very ga llant action in saving the life of a boy who had fa llen into the Bridgewater Cana l. Dick , who was at home when he hea rd shouts fo r assistance, ran on to the canal bank, d ived in fu lly dressed, and succeeded in bringing the boy to the side, where after attention he was little the worse for his experience. Mr. Faulkner 's action was a ll the more commendable be(;ause the

249

1949

r ;~.

I'

/~¥

METALS DIVISION Amal Carburettors at the International Motor Cycle Trials The International Six Day Motor Cycle trials which took place in Wales from J 2th to 17th September were a great success for Amal, whose carburettors were fitted to the machines of the British team, who carried off the International Trophy. Of the 89 gold medals awarded, 63 were won by mach ines using Amal carburettors, and further awards included 17 silver and 14 bronze medals.

NOBEL DIVISION Nobel Challenge Trophy for J et-propelled Model Aeroplanes Nobel Division has presented a silver cup for the winners of an a nnual internatio nal competition for jet-propelled model aeroplanes, organised by M essrs. Wilmot, Mansour & Co. Ltd., the makers of the 'Jetex' miniature jet-propelled units, for which the Nobel Division provides the fuel. The fi rst competition was held o n 18th September at Fairlo p, Essex, and there were so many entries that preliminary heats had to be fl own in a number of countries beforehand. The first winner of the trophy, which was presented by Mrs. John Turner, the wife of the head of the Engineering Trades Department, London Office, is Mr. R. A. Twomey of Cardiff, whose plane was a irborne for 9 minutes, 54 seconds.

Mr. T. W. Peacock

Mr. R . Faulkner, Randle Works swirl of water made by the lifting of the paddles of the docks, which were in operation at the ti me, ca used an undertow, which made the rescue more d ifficult. Mr. Faulkner's gallantry has been recognised by the Liverpool Shipwreck a nd Humane Society 's grant of a certificate and a monetary award. Retirement of Mr. T. W. Peacock " Yo u wo n 't stick it for mo re than a couple of weeks ! " That was the forecast Tom Peacock's father made when his eighteen-year-o ld son started work with the United Alkali Co. at Gates head. ln fact Tom has "stuck it" for more than 5 1 years. He joined A ll husen Works in 1898 as a boiler fireman, and worked an average of 56 hours a week on shifts. This job occupied most of his t ime until the 1914- 18 war, when he spent some years as a dilutee fitter. After the war Tom worked in the Cell Room until his transfer to Cassel in J930. This change was fa r from welcome at first, the more so because it meant leaving behind the comfortable li ttle general dealer 's shop that Tom and h is wife had bu ilt up at Gateshead. However, like everyone else he eventua lly settled in his new surroundings, helped by the presence of so many of his own workmates. For t he last thirteen years of his time at Cassel he worked at the Brine Wells. T his involved cycling over ten miles every day- usually seven days a week- and 250

Tom has estimated that during this period he cycled no less than 40,000 miles. H e still cycles a lmost every day, and thinks that this exercise, in a ll weathers, has helped to keep him in such good health.

LIME DIVISION Hindlow Quarry Mr. R obert Bennett, a q uarryman at Hindlow, has retired a fter mo re than 54 years' service. Mr. Roberts started work on 28th September, 1895, his eleventh birthday, at the Harpur Hill Old Kilns, where he worked ha lf-time as a lime-picker. At J 5 he was a wagoner a nd at 18 was given a job with his father, fi lling stone in the Brow Quarry at Harpur Hill. Jn those days the quarrymen used to " leg" stone in o rder to economise in explosives. Legging stone was carried out by tunnelling a distance into the quarry stone heaps so as to drop the heaps by weighting- a very dangerous method of working. He recalls that until he reached the age of 21 he never handled a weekly wage packet- his wages were ha nded to his parents. Mr. Roberts was a fi ller for 35 yea rs, afterwards joining the labouring strength , where he has carried o ut all manner of jobs. He played a good game of footba ll a nd will be remembered as the right-ha lf of the Old H arpur Hill Clu b and, in later years, as a referee in LC.I. football competitio ns. Now his main interest is in gardening, and his flowers and tomatoes have won several prizes at local horticu ltural shows. A keen union worker, he has been a delegate for the past 35 years, a nd last year received a long service medal from his union.

Ardeer Factory meets Billingham Synthonia On Saturday, 24th September, an Ardeer Factory XI travelled to Billingham to play a return game against the Synthonia X l, which they had defeated by the na rrowest of margins at Easter. On the Billingham ground there were some 2000 spectato rs to watch this tussle between the teams. ft was a good game, fu ll of attractive a nd clean football. The result of two goals each was an accurate reflection of the play and a happy solution to this meeting between evenly matched teams. The Ardeer players thoro ughly enjoyed their visit a nd besides playing footba ll saw something of the Billingham factory and enjoyed the amenities of the Synthonia Recreation C lub.

SALT DIVISION Retirement of Mr. T. M. Williams On 4th August the Irish Salt Co. bade farewell to Mr. T. M. Williams o n the occasion of his retirement

At the Stourport Carnival on 10th September, Steatite Works gai11edjirst prize in the " Industrial" chss for their decorated lorry depicting " Productivity"- the general theme being S teatite's contributions to the export trade and tire products this country gets in return for these exports from the Company's Board. On behalf of his many friends in the Divisio n Mr. A. Miscampbell pre,ented Mr. Williams with a Pa rker 51 pen and travelling clock as tokens of the very warm regard in wh ich he was held. In mak ing the presentatio n Mr. Miscampbell reminded his audience that the Irish Salt Co. was Mr. Williams' "baby. " Mr. Williams ' place on the board has been taken by Mr. E. K. Willing-Denton . Mr. Harold Clarke Mr. Harold Clarke, a brine shaftsma n at Winsford who cele brates his 65th birthday next mo nth, has just ''come of age'' in the football world a fter completing 21 years as a member of the Northwich and District Football Association. He was the guest of honour at a recent outing o rganised by other members of the association and received a presentation as a memento of the occasio n. Mr. C larke 's interest in footba ll in genera l, and in amateurs in particular, has been extensive, hi s connection with the game going back over forty years to the days when he played centre half-back for the White Lillies, the Over Association team. When he could no longer take a n active part in the game he served on the executive of t he Mid-Chesh ire League, becoming a member of the Northwich and District Association in 1928. Mr. Clarke has also served on the committee of Winsford United and been cha irman of the Cuddington and District League, whi le more

An impression of one of !he mural paintings on !he walls of M ela ls Division's Wacmarlwyd.1f1ctory canteen which were menlioned in the arlicle 011 the I.CJ . Cateri11g Service in the September issue of !he Magazine. The design loses much of its charm owing to the f:ict !hat !he colour cannot be reproduced. These paintings are the work of Mr. E. Marl in of Waunarlwydd's Drawin Department

THE I .C.I. MAGAZIN E Nove mbe r

1949

recentl y he ass isted in the fou ndi ng of the new MidC hes hire League a nd the No rthwich Juni o r League. Perh aps he will best be remembe red as the found er of the Ba rto n C up Com petitio n, which a nnua ll y a ttracts hun d reds o f youn g spo rtsmen fro m the C hes hire area. It is upo n the tireless effo rts o f men lik e Mr. C la rke that the fo und atio ns of t hi s co un try 's grea t spo rtin g achi evements have been buil t.

Leathercloth Division Foremen at Winsford At the in vita ti o n o f their oppos ite nu mbers in the Salt Di vis io n, fo remen of the Lea therc loth Di vision recentl y pa id a vis it to W insfo rd . T he R ock Mine was ta ken over for the a ftern oo n, a nd M r. T. Willi a ms acted as guide a nd in fo rm a nt, a ll the guests be in g p resented with sa mpl es o f roc k sa lt to co mmemora te their vis it. A fter tea in the ca nteen , to wh ich everyo ne di d full justice, the who le party adjourned to the M eadow Ban k C lub fo r a soc ia l evenin g. M r. Aitken, O ffice Ma nager at H yde, sa id how deli ghted hi s pa rty were wit h the tr ip, a nd expressed hi s th a nk s for the hos pi ta lity they ha d enj oyed . T he Win sford Wo rks M a nager, Mr. J. C. Mo rri s, res po nd ed on beha lf of the hosts.

I llustrated by the author

Cap tain R. H endry, Arran l slander and Mast er Mariner,

The late Mr. R. J . Woods

252

thebrid;;e with First Officer James Rax ter (from Lar;;sJ

Co ast wi se f ram Ca nv ey Isl an d

TECHN ICAL D EP ARTME NT T he dea th o n 25 th August of Mr. R . J . Woods, a membe r of the Cent ra l Sa fety Secti o n , is repo rted with deep regret. T he Britis h peo pl e a re notorio usly reserved , a nd in ind ustry pa rticula rl y o ur assoc ia tion s with eac h other, genera ll y spea kin g, never beco me a nything mo re tha n fo rma l. T o beco me know n by one 's initi a ls in a lmo st every fac to ry in t he Co m pa ny is surel y a most unlikely possibilit y fo r a lmo st a ll of us a nd is a s ign o f a ffection reserved for very few- a nd o ne o f th ose few wa s R. J . Wood s. " R.J. " moved to th e Centra l Sa fety sec ti o n fo urteen mo nths ago from the Billingha m Di visio n, w he re he ha d been fo r twenty-tw o yea rs. He wa s o ne of the first safety officers to be a ppointed in the Co mpa ny, but despite th e ma ny yea rs he spent in th e o ne a rea the re is evide nce o f hi s effo rt a nd enthu s ia sm fo r the wor k to which he devoted so ma ny yea rs in every fac to ry in the Co mpany. T he re a re few people with so ma ny fri end s as " R .J. " a nd very few who will be mi ssed as much as he. M a ny o f us a re not o nl y grateful for the pleas ure o f workin g wi th him o r knowin g him but are a lso inde bted to him if we have been for tuna te en o ugh to have ha d the benefit of hi s ex peri ence a nd wisdom . A keen judge o f c haracter, he was ready to help in a ny way he co uld. A cheerful , in fac t lova ble character, he will be mi ssed in a ll our factories a nd a t our meetin gs a nd co nfe rences . Hi s death was untime ly, for he was o nl y 58 yea rs of age, but the pass in g o f men of the type o f '' R.J. ' ' wo uld a lways be untime ly. We a re fo rtun ate to have materia l ev idence o f t he good wo rk he did in accidentpreventio n in t he Co mpa ny, a nd t hi s will serve as a sp ur to t hose of us wh o a re ca rrying o n thi s wo rk. He left a wi fe a nd sma ll so n, to w ho m we express o ur deepest sympathy. Mr. H. R . Pay ne writes: The oft-repeat ed catch-ph rase '' n obo dy is irrepl acea ble" fa ll s down badl y in the case of M r. R . J. Woo ds. H e had a unique capac ity a nd experi ence in

011

By W. L. B O WEN (Central Publicity Departmen t)

The late M r. R . J. Woods the app lica ti o n of factory la w to p racti ca l wo rks requireme nts, a nd it wa s in thi s directi o n tha t we had hoped to have the benefi t of hi s kno wledge fo r ma ny years. In a rriving at t he true ca uses o f a n acc ident he wa s a lso un excell ed . Hi s c haracte r was ma rkedl y in d ivid ua l, yet he had a deep a nd s hrewd knowl edge o f men. Perh a ps beca use of th at I never hea rd him make a ny perso na l critic ism whi ch was no t kindly o r co nstructive. In hi s own very speci a l way he deserved we ll o f hi s co lleagues, the C om pa ny a nd his co untry. H e is a very grea t loss.

TENTH INTERN ATION AL FESTIV AL OF CINEM ATIC ART AWARDS TO I.C.I. FILMS Three LC. I. documen tary film s- Control of Inf ection in S urgical Dressings (Pa rt Ill), Properties of A cety lcholine, a nd Sterility in Dairy Cattle were selected by t he Associa ti o n of Spec ia li sed F ilm P rod ucers for inclusio n in the British co ntri buti o n to the tenth In tern atio na l Festi va l o f C in ematic A rt held in Venice durin g August. The film Sterility in Dairy Cat tle was awa rded fir st prize in the Veterin a ry Category , a nd the film Contro l of Infec tion in S urgical Dressings received seco nd pri ze in the Medica l Sectio n.

This is Your Concern says that I.C.I. owns 76 river craft and coastal s hips. These vary in size from th e barges used on t h e Ch esh ire can als and sturd y tug-boats to coasters o f severa l h undred tons. Of th is fl eet, 36 vess els appear in Lloyd 's R egister. T h e coasters p ly mainly aro und th e w est coast and th e E ng lish C hann el, carrying raw materials an d expor ts b etween th e Clyde, t h e Mersey, North W ales and Father T hames . T hree of th em carry explos ives, m ainly for export, for the Nobel D ivision. On e of th ese, the s.s. Lady Dorothy (578 ton s gross an d in service since 1916), came recent ly in to th e Thames to discharge some 160 t ons of explosives and 450 cases of detonator s for In dia and C eylon in to t h e Ardeer and other sail in g barges to await r eshipmen t: sh e woul d then call at Falmo uth , on h er way back, with 2,000 cases of fuse powd er for T u ckingmill. The occasion offered a story abo ut LC.I. sh ipp in g. By board ing th e L C. I. steam tug D enton Wo od at G ravesend the L ady Dorothy was fo und rid in g among th e barg es like a d uck with its brood , and h er seam en an d fir em en busy emptyin g on e hold.

"S.byE.a Quarter." With the Mast er at the wheel the pilot sets thet·ours,

(Com1t1ercial explosives are not permitted in harbours and docksJ Normally our coasters meet deep-sea vessels at nominated "powder grounds" on their way out to sea, a mA co alongside to discharge their cargo.)

At dusk on the second evening, a pilot, called by rad ioteleph o ne an h o ur before, came out from Dartmouth to take the Lady Dorothy into harbour for bunkering. And n ot an hour too soon : th e town was preparing for its annual regatta. The R oyal Navy was alread y there, and h arb o ur work- especially jobs so dirty as coaling-was to st op nex t dav. But 50 tons of coal wer e needed to continue the journey a nd the bunkering of them was an example of how to beat both clock and t id e. At 8. l 5 p.m. a steam crane stood ready on the floating w h arf with a coal barge alongside. For t h e next hour the clatter was d eafening, but by IO p.m. the Lady D orothy was out with the ebb, heading fo r the open sea and F almouth, with her bunkers full- and enough coal to keep the h om e fires burning for a week scattered around her deck. The Lady Dorothy can maint a in a steady IO knots o n a bout 85 tons of fu el for ten days' steaming. Her firemen don't see much o f t:-ie sea-th eir time is d i1·i
Jn111es Livingsto11e: acting ns holiday relief for Chief Eugineer

William Glen (with I.CJ. since March 1919), whose father served on the Lady Gertrude Cochrane. Brother of Colin Glen, Master of the Lady Anstruther

Second Officer Thomas Gaw of Saltcoats joined I. CJ. in 1948

Second Engineer A. J. Dunca11, who nlso joined I.CJ. last year, does a match in the engine-room

The Lady Dorothy has a s hip 's company of fifteen to s h are a twenty-four hour round o f duty for seven days a week. With lon g h ours at sea, and very little traffic aro und except when crossing a recognised Atla ntic shipping lane; with temperatures in engine-room and stokehold reaching well ahoYe loo° F.; the routine of life on board is di1·ided into the customary four-hour watches. Master and mates n avigate in turn while the C hief, his second, and a donkeym a n do alternate watches in the engine-room. Four A .B.s change about for periods at the wheel, keep the vessel s hips hape, and operate the w inc h es. Down below, four hours of sto king and keeping up steam are enough. (At the end of that t ime there is no doubt about the coal-black figure with big white eyes who makes for the fo'c'sle or tips clinker down the ash chute. It is one of the three firemen!) As the crew work four h ou rs on and four off, steward 's work seem s to be never-ending. The men feed themselves, that is, each pays the steward l7s. 6d. per week for prov isions, depos its his ration book, a nd is entitled to the full quota a llowed to all seamen. A llowing for mishaps which would rarely occur on land, feeding can be very good. When all is ready we head down channel for the first port of call , dropping our pilot off Dover about ro o 'clock the same evening.

(Left) Cook-steward John Davidson does holiday relief for

Innes, on I .CJ. with 27 years' ser-

At Dartmouth : 50 tons of coal were taken on board in one hour

Cabin-boy Ben McEwan came to the Lady Dorothy i n 1949 from the Printing D epart111ent at A rdeer . Hails fro111 Stevenston

Fireman F. Marlean, of Kifwinning, joined I.CJ. last year

Fireman W. Brown, from Stevenston. Joined I.CJ. in 1949

Fireman A . Park, also from Steve11ston. R etired but acting as reli~f, has been with I .CJ. since 1934

Our berth by the new power house at Hayle

near St. Ives, for a new one---of finished safety fuses -and take it to L iverpool for export to Durban. The weather forecast was not too good, and by the time The Lizard was reached, fog began to cause the first delay. Visibility was so low that St. Ives bay was reached without St. Ives or any part of the coast between there and Land's End being seen. Missin g the evening tide at St. I ves by less than an hour enforced overnight anchorage in the bay. At low tide, the entrance to Hayle- once a flourishing shipbuilding town but now known chiefly for the enormous power station which is to supply electricity to the South West Region-is a narrow gulley confined by sandbanks.

The captain, in his cabin, turns accountant for a few hours to make up pay sheets

(Top) Do11/uyman R. Cook, of Ardrossan, who joined I.C.I. in 1939

Able S eaman Geo. Lamont, of Saltcoats, since 1948 one of the crew of m.v. Lady Anstruther (at present in doch for overhaul)

Seaman W. J. Couch of St. Ives, a temporary member of the crew and the only southerner on board, fixes a rm•er on a ventilator

Able Seaman Neil MacMillan gives a coat of paint (J.C.!. Ship's White) to lifeboats and davits

(Right) Neighbouring ships in St. Just pool Able Seaman D. F. MacDonald keeps a watchful eye on his load as he operates one of the ship's winches Seamen Lamont, MacMillan and Couch, and Fireman Brown uncover one hold while the S econd Officer supervises the unloading of the other

Next morning, in the early hours, Falmouth lay to port and St. M awes to starboard. At eight o'clock, in St. Just Pool, a p icturesque d eep-water an ch orage beyond the town , characteristic Cornish barges hove alongside to carry th e cargo inland . With h atch es opened and Able Seaman D on ald McDon ald at the w inch , a few h ours of brisk activity cleared the holds. Having disch arged her cargo, the Lady D orothy was then to st eam round Land's E nd and call at l-Iayle,

Moored at a quay above the power station (the Company's own granite-built quay at Lelan t- opposite-is under repair), the Lady Dorothy was ready by 7 a.m. to receive delivery from LC.I. road transport. For two days a relaxation of d u ty gave many of the crew a welcome rest and time for a visit to St. Ives and Penzance. Local stevedores were to h andle the cargo of boxes of coils and long, t in-lined coffinlike cases containing five-foot lengths of safety fuse. On Friday evenin g the last cases were over the fore hold and everything seemed perfect. But the tide nearly left without the Lady Dorothy . At 5.30 p .m., when most people were finished for the week-end, the winch operating lever broke and left jib an d load suspended in mid-air. Only skilful manhandling with ropes and pulleys, and a most efficient repair by an obliging local welder, enabled the Lady Dorothy to sail for Liverpool two h ours later, w ith barely thirty minutes to go before sh e would have h ad to tie up for the week-end.

Merrick takes a high shot

FOOTBALL By J. D. GIBSON (Metals Division) Wapping E Basin (Liverpool) Liverpool was reached soon after midnight on Saturday, after another night and day of fog patches. During the entire voyage from the Bristol Channel to Anglesea, only the faintest shapes of the Stacks at Holyhead, South Stack lighthouse, and the Skerries could be seen. For the whole of Sunday the Wapping E basin, where the Lady Dorothy lay at the quay by our warehouse, was almost deserted. But for the watch on board, an occasional police patrol, and, for about an hour, a crew of oriental sailors at rowing exercises, the dock was as quiet as an empty church. Monday morning, one week after leaving Canvey Island, saw the unloading of the safety fuses ready for sending abroad, and, as the last cases were lifted from the depths of the holds, a fresh cargo- drums of glycerine, this time, to make more explosives at Ardeer- being stowed on board. D elivery of these to Garnock Wharf at Ardeer would complete ten days' work. Then, for the next fortnight, the ship would be under the command of First Officer Baxter while the Master spent a long-awaited holiday sitting by the water's edge at the head of a Scottish loch-fishing.

J. D. ("Jimmy") Gibson, ten times capped for Scotland, retiredfrom professionalfootball in May 1936. In the following year he joined the Metals Division at Witton, where for some time he was engaged on time and motion study in the strip rolling mills. In 1940 he was transferred to the Labour Department, and for the past three years has been in charge of the Engineering Labour Office, Witton Works.

}\LTHOUGH it is thirteen years since I laid .rl.aside my boots, the memory of how I started the career of a professional footballer is still fresh. Being the son of a well-known footballer who played for Scotland over twenty times, the game was in my blood , and at school and during adolescence my feet always itched when a ball was about. In my late teens, because of rapid growth, I gave up the game for a time and became a spectator instead of a performer. One day at a local match the home team was a man short, so round the field came the tout to rope someone in- Fate seemed then to point her finger at me. Would I oblige and play for the locals against the crack Glasgow Juniors "Ashfield" ? I did, and got a meat pie and a cup of tea for my trouble- perhaps not a fat fee considering I paid 9d. to get in to the match! My brother Neil at that time was playing regularly in junior football, and on Saturday morning, two weeks later, a telegram from Ashfield arrived asking my father to bring "the

259 Jones (Birmingham) and Howe (Derby County) at Manchester

Fame on theforu:ard line: Matthews, Mortensen, Finney and Hagan

boy" down to Cambusland for a game. We knew that they were really asking for my brother, but as he was not available I went in his place and played for the side which a fortnight ago I had played against. That was in the 1919- 20 season, and marked the beginning of a career which lasted seventeen years. An inside left in those days, my first match was decidedly a bad one, and I remained more or less a "looker-on" until the regular right half of the Ashfield team turned "pro" and it was decided to give me a run in this position. Wing halfback play seemed to suit me, and a few months later I signed professional forms for Partick Thistle. I was still growing very quickly, and despite the assurance to my parents that I would be "nursed," I quickly found myself in the first eleven, and so began six happy years at Firhill Park, during which I played in nearly every position. Coming to Birmingham in 1927, I had the pleasure of playing for the Villa team for nine seasons, retiring in 1936. The question is often asked, "How can I become a professional footballer ? " There is no question of "becoming" a player unless you possess, as part of your natural make-up, acertain amount of footballing ability and are ready to take pains to improve your game. How is this done? Let us consider the ideal player, say Billy Walker. Although he was a natural player, he did not arrive at the top of the ladder merely by playing on a Saturday. Here we had a player who could use both feet for passing, shooting and dribbling, and whose headwork was perfection, and he certainly possessed these requirements at an early age, but only sheer hard work brought 260

fruition- ball practice by the hour for both feet until complete mastery was achieved. But it did not stop there. Any player can attain this standard, but what is much harder to achieve is mastery over a moving ball in all sorts of playing circumstances when being challenged by opponents. In this respect I was fortunate in being a friend of Jimmy McMullen, for so long captain of Manchester City. He and I were clubmates at Partick and used to take a ball out between us, always starting our session by standing six yards apart and varying our distance as we felt like it. The ball had to be played without stopping, with either foot and on the floor, and if either put the ball too wide of the other for playing, the kicker had to fetch it back. This type of practice demanded concentration and no little skill, and had all the elements of playing the ball correctly and with judgment under pressure. Dribbling is another part of the player's makeup which demands practice, and don't confine this to your "clever" foot. Try to control the ball with the front of the foot as well as the sides, and never let the ball be more than two • feet away from you. For heading efficiency it is necessary for two or more players to keep the ball in the air as often as possible , moving all the time, varying the distance so that they meet with all the positions which crop up during play. No matter how great your personal attributes may be, you must remember that there are ten other members of the team, and that they all have to be welded together to ensure a successful combination. Believe me, this is so essential as to be worth really hard work, and players who have

the pride and reputation of the club at heart will get together and pool all their ideas, sacrificing self for team unison. The club captain has a big part to play in this. He has to study each player individually, get his goalkeeper to understand his full back's ideas, the full backs in turn to co-operate with the half-backs, and they in turn with their forwards. Reams could be written on "tactics" policy. A good captain will get his side together before a match, talk over the previous match, formulate plans to eradicate errors, then have a discussion about their next opponents, their strength and their weakness, and thereby form a plan of campaign. But plans of campaign all depend on a sense of understanding between the players, especially between the full back, wing half and inside forward, of what each will do in certain circumstances, such as when the full back takes the ball upfield past the wing half, who in turn becomes the full back until the position rights itself. Likewise when the attacking half goes through on his own, the inside forward will drop back and act as wing half until the ball goes dead. There are a thousand and one such little manreuvres which, carried out correctly, all go to the making of a good side. Another aspect of the game is in trying to read what is in your opponent's mind when he has the ball. Quick thinking is needed here, for you have to size up what you yourself would do if similarly placed, and act accordingly. This, I agree, means taking a chance, especially when playing against an unorthodox player, but the result is more often than not worth the risk. This reminds me of one of the best matches I ever played in, that against the Arsenal in the early thirties. Playing centre half on that occasion, I was opposed by such inside stalwarts as David Jack, Jack Lambert and Alec Jam es. I realised that much quick thinking and a aertain amount of risk-taking were necessary to get the better of them. Before the match I had a talk with Billy Kingdon, our right wing half on that occasion, and asked him to mark Alec James very closely- not to tackle him, but to make sure that James was kept moving towards the centre of the field. Billy agreed, and right well he carried out the request. The result was as desired, because whenever Billy got behind Alec the latter had to move inside, by which time I was up in line; Alec would flick his foot back and forth over the ball before driving it forward, where I was ready to collect. Folks still talk of this match, so it must be a pleasant memory to more than the Villa team of that day.

Leuty (Derby County) at Chelsea Carey holds off Bentley at Stamford Brid{!e

THE LC.I. MAGAZINE NOVEMBER

1949

One could write of other memorable matches - that with the Wembley wizards, for instance, or of another which I won't forget in a hurrya National against Wales-when leading by two goals to one and with only two minutes left, I put through my own goal for the equaliser. Yes, one has to be prepared for the bad game as well as the good, for every player gets both. But a professional footballer's life is not all serious thought and work, and has its lighter moments. Quickly to memory comes a picture of Ben Olney with his killer bulldog, which he brought into the dressing room one morning, instructing the players to keep away from the

J.

Harvey, Neu·castle captain and right half, during a league match with Bolton Wanderers

dog or he would not be responsible for what was likely to happen. Tommy Smart and Joe Corbett, Black Country natives who knew the ways of dogs, had listened casually to Ben, and both set to work when he left the dressing room to do his track work. No one would have recognised the dog half an hour later, for with its ears stuffed with cotton wool, shin guards on each leg, a trailing bandage on its tail and its · body wrapped in a pair of shorts, it looked anything but the killer which Ben made it out to be. Another amusing memory was of Reg Santall, then playing cricket for Warwick, who used to do a spot of training with us. Always immaculately dressed, on the occasion I have in mind he was sporting a smart pair of brogue shoes which he had placed neatly so that he could step into them when dressing. I can.still see Reg's face when he tried to walk away and found he could not move because the shoes had been nailed to the floor. Writing of shoes recalls the memory of one Villa player who had been playing up a bit during a journey home from an away match, with the unhappy result that when he looked for his shoes they were not to be found, and he had to walk up New Street to the bus stop in his socks, followed by a few of the Villa players who did not hide the fact to passers-by. These are only few of the memories ofbehindthe-scenes, and in a profession where high spirits abound there are many such stories to be told. To all young lads who want to take up football as a career I would give this advice. Take yourself seriously, study your body from a training point of view, practise assiduously, and when time permits go and study some of the stars of today. Keepers should study Merrick of the Blues, full backs, Carey of Manchester United and Howe of Derby, centre halfs, Leuty of Derby, Harvey of Newcastle is a fine wing half, and Matthews, Mortensen, Finney, and Hagan provide good models of forward play. Finally, I do wish for the sake of the young players of today that James, Jack, Carter, Walker, Gallacher, Bradford, Hibbs and Crosbie, to name only a few, were available for study, but nearly all these, like myself, are of a past generation.

By courtesy of the Newcastle C hronicle and Journal Ltd.

PICTURES FROM AFAR a second instalment of photographs taken by Mr. P.R. Sandars, Far East Department

SIAM E very sort of provender from the rich riverlands of Siam is on sale to the people of Bangkok, the capital, in this market and many others like it. The small boy with his background in the foreground has wisely decided that clothes are a nuisance in the prevailing climate. The muddy creeks of Bangkok are highways thronged with small craft. In these covered sampans families are born, earn their living, and die. Siam, as an exporter of rice to the hungry millions of south-east Asia, is prosperous, and has a traditional friendship with Britain. Bangkok buses are not streamlined, but they run on in spite of their age. Having a big programme of repair and replacement of worn-out transport facilities, Siam sent a trade delegation to Britain to buy equipment and material.

THE LC.I. MAGAZINE November

/

1949

HONG KONG Hong Kong, British colony and oasis of stability off the southern coast of troubled China, resembles somewhat the Western Isles of Scotland in its beauty of rocks and sea. As the gateway to South China it has gained added importance during the troubles on the mainland. Hong Kong's narrow streets teem with life and the trade that supports it.

Several thousand fishing junks ply from Hong Kong. At night they burn bright lamps to attract the fish, and the scene from th e rocky island heights is of surpassing beauty. H ere fishermen are drying their nets in the little harbour called Aberdeen.

A typical small-town street in central Japan . On the left is a girl in traditional kimono; at th e right is another, doing h er sh oppin g in W estern clothes. In the middle- picturesque but odorifero us-is perhaps

the thing that the traveller will remember m ost clearly of J apa n- bull ock-ca rts carryin g night so il from th e town to the fi elds.

JAPAK

Threshing rice by h and in J apan, w h ere farming is still mostl y don e by m anu al processes, though a highly mechanised industrial system was built up b efore the war. Every grain of rice is vital to Japan now that she has los t th e huge granary of M anchuria, as well as Formosa an d Korea, and h er rapidly growing population must depend on her own small farmin g area- and American suppliesuntil sh e can ea rn imported foods by ind us trial exports.

265

"

i

"'

...

...;; ,.

mm

d

I PEKING A typical Chinese street scene.

The S ummer Palace at Peking, a fantastic retreat, w ith its hundreds of pavilions, miles of terraces, bridges, Jak es, water gardens and the like, was built entirely in the latter h alf of the nineteenth century at the whim of the Empress Dowager, for sixty years the last Imperial ruler of C h ina. She used for it a large sum of money collected for the building of a navy; the only fleet it produced con sisted of pleasure junks for the lak e and a ridiculous marble barge, complete with m a rble paddl e-wh eels, " moored" to the lakesid e.

SHANGHAI Crowded with river shipping, the famous Bund at Shanghai is normally on e of the busiest scenes of the Far East. Little more than a hundr ed years ago S h an ghai was vacant marshland, until treaty rights were given to European s and Americans to develop it as a trading port, and it became one of the greatest centres of trade and shippin g in the world. These

treaty rights were finall y ended in 1943, and Shanghai is now entirely Chinese governed. Shanghai is a city of traffic j ams; Chinese like to drive on their brakes and their horns, an d when there is a hold-up all the h orns bellow in concert until the line moves again. T h is is the scen e in Szechuen Road, outside th e fin e h ead office of I. C. I. (China) .

THE LC.I. MAGAZINE November

11/ustrated hy Alice Lamb

•

A curious thing about Ghosts By

T

J.

ROBIN ALLEN (Alkali Division)

HE man who described dogmatism as "being wrong at the top of one's voice" was not only witty, he was wise. Thus, to dogmatise on ghosts would be foolish. There are at least three schools of thought: those who, like myself, believe in ghosts; the large majority who do not bother very much one way or the other; and the third school, who won't believe in ghosts at any Price. Those of us who belong to the first school have very real difficulty in producing satisfactory proof- proof sufficient to convince the sceptic; but then perhaps we have no particular wish to make converts. Perhaps we suffer from a touch of self-complacency and a slight sense of self-satisfaction that we are not as other folks are. One difficulty is that ghosts cannot be produced at will. I have yet to learn of a ghost who

268

will appear on demand, but the evidence of two witnesses must carry some weight, and the two famous ladies who were on holiday at Versailles and saw a complete re-enactment of an episode in the life of the French Court at the time of Marie Antoinette makes one think. Miss Jourdain related another curious episode when living at Oxford. One day she was walking along Kingston Road and found herself swept along in a crowd of excited people, all of whom were dressed in medieval costume. As with all honest ghost-seers, her first impression was that they were film supers or people taking part in some pageant, but when she found the excitement culminated in a public hanging she felt that it was sufficiently unusual to be unreal. On checking up her facts she found that the place of execution was where hangings took place in the Middle Ages. The sceptic may say "She

knew of such happenings even if she had forgotten, and it was all a figment of the imagination." Ah, well! I have always wanted to see or perhaps hear a ghost that made noises. My own ghost was quite without sound and certainly caused me no fear. Perhaps I should have been terrified if it had moaned or clanked chains. Yet confirmation by more than two people seeing the same ghost, but at separate times, is by no means unusual. A very lovely and yet instinctively sad figure is sometimes seen descending the main stairway at an hotel at Oundle. She is dressed in black with a small black velvet bonnet edged with white, and white at her cuffs and the throat of her
house opposite the Castle gate. One of the daughters of the house fell in love with a young man who was a Catholic and an adherent of the Stuarts. He went out with the '45 and was captur~d and lodged in Lancaster jail. Imagine the position: the girl living in the house opposite the guardroom where her lover was lodged. Now, this young man had never been acceptable to the parents, due to his politics and, I suspect, his religion, and perhaps the father felt that this might be the end of an unfortunate matter. However, the girl was not prepared to give in without a fight, and moved heaven and earth to see what could be done. In the end she decided to write directly to the King and petition him on behalf of her lover. While writing the letter the A very lovely and yet instinctively sad figure is sometimes seen descending the main stairway

1949

11

1:

THE LC.I. MAGAZINE

Women complain of being terrified by feeling a pair of hands gripping them round the neck

father came in and asked her what she was doing. With a high courage she told him, and he snatched the pen out of her hand and smashed it under his foot. No young gir 1 can write a letter in that particular room even to this day. The hand feels cramped or injured, and the pen will not stay in the hand and finally falls on the floor. One interesting and attractive fact is that ghosts appear to be unswervingly conservative. If they were in the habit of passing from one room to another through a door which is now blocked up, they continue to pass through, brick or no brick, whereas if the door continues to exist they use the door. One rather diverting happening is recorded in a famous public school south of the Thames, and is authentic inasmuch as I have met the boys to whom it happened. The particular house is modern but was rebuilt on the foundation of an older house which, in turn, had been converted from a priory. The lavatories were situated as a block at the end of the building, one on each floor and above the other. Towards evening a fairly junior boy on his way to bed went via the "block." Now, the junior boys lived on the ground floor with the senior boys above. Suddenly there was a piercing shriek from the floor below, and the junior house prefect on the first floor jumped up to investigate. He shot out of his study and was considerably disconcerted by the sight of the top half of a figure in 270

a monkish habit coming along the passage towards him. Perhaps he was sufficiently startled to be bereft of speech, but in his own words, "So far as I remember I said nothing but stood still. The man had quite a nice face and then he disappeared, so when I'd pulled myself together I went downstairs to see what the 'houroush' was all about. There was one of the 'nippers' almost incoherent with fright and excitement, and he swore he'd seen the bottom half of a man walking along the passage but his feet weren't on anything." "What did you do?" I asked. "What could I do? I'd seen the top half, so I couldn't say it was all nonsense." "Quite," I replied; "but what did you do?" "Well, we went and saw the house master." "And what did he do?" I queried. "Oh, he looked at us over the top of his glasses like he does and said, 'Well, well, after all, our monkish member of the house didn't do you any harm, and "there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy." ' He teaches English, you know." What must be accepted as a reasonable explanation is that the ghostly monk had returned to his former house and was walking, as was his wont, on the level where the old floor had been. The new floor was some three feet higher, and so divided him, with the result that the "nipper" saw the bottom half and the first-floor boy saw the top. I wish I knew something about poltergeists, those unusual somethings which move pictures, knock ornaments off the mantelpiece, throw the furniture about, and generally behave in a very uncontrolled way. They must be exciting, even though they may be an unsatisfactory inhabitant of the house. My own experience of this sort of physical movement is so faint that it can hardly be accepted as evidence. My wife and I were once locked in our drawing room, and although it is possible that a maid turned the key upon us it is extremely unlikely, and no amount of crossquestioning could produce any such admission. On another occasion my wife found herself fastened in a room where the door was latched

~

November 1949

lected the dog, who had waited for him, and they on the outside by a long hook and staple. Again went home together. That evening he picked it is possible that, by one chance in a million, when shutting the door she "jumped" the hook up his gun and net once again with the dog showing its normal pleasure at the idea of a into the staple and so fastened herself in , but I tried with considerable patience to see if I could hunt, but once they left the road and went through the field towards the spinney the dog reproduce such a happening and found it quite stopped, and nothing would persuade it to go impossible. Most owners of dogs have noted occasions with him. "A funny thing, Maister, but whenwhen a dog appears to see something and either ever I went out with my gun for a bit of shows intense interest or fright in that somerabbiting after that, the dog'd always come with thing which is not apparent to the human eye. me so long as I didn't go to that there spinney, and to tell yer the truth that dog were no fool. I have a country friend who has an interesting I found mysel' not too fond of that place ever story on these lines. after, and what's more I've n'er been there While he would repudiate any suggestion th'lt since. What he saw I dunno, what I felt I he was a poacher, he would admit that the odd rabbit eased the situation in the kitchen. He dunno, but neither of us cared about it." was in the habit of going out "at t'edge o'dark" I know a rather horrid story of a dog which to a spinney to see what was about, and whenever was accidentally shut up for the night in a room in which it was said that devil-raising had been he took his net and gun from the cupboard the dog was always full of excitement. One evening practised, but it is not a pleasant tale, and in any case it is hardly a ghost story. they got to the edge of the spinney and put down their gear. Suddenly my friend was conSome time I must tell you the story of my scious of an intense and abnormal coldness. At own ghost. the same time he noticed that his dog had squatted in the grass and ... through a door which is now blocked up, they continue to pass-brick or no brick appeared to be paralysed with fright. No orders or instructions would be obeyed, and in the end my friend collected his tackle and had to carry the dog away in his arms. A hundred yards away the curious coldness disappeared, th e normal heat of the day return ed, and the dog suddenly woke up to its surroundings. It leaped out of his arms and set off for home as fast as possible. Being a Cheshire man, my friend was not prepared to dismiss the matter lightly. The next morning he set off to see what it was all about, but found that his dog had disappeared . On his way up to the spinney to his surprise he found his clog returning, and it is always possible that the dog had the same sense of curiosity. When they met, the dog was prepared to sit but wou Id not follow him back to the spinney, so he completed the journey by himself. On this occasion there was no apparent change of temperature and nothing to account for the happenings of the previous night. He returned, col-

AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY

The committee judging prints submitted by members for their own monthly comp etition. The points they consider are composition, technique and appeal. Halfyearly awards are made to members gaining the highest marks

As a means of interpreting the appeal of people and scenes, and revealing the world as seen through your own eyes, photography may be considered one of the arts. The satisfaction which comes from creative effort can be enjoyed both in capturing on the negative and again in transmitting to the finished print the changing . moods of nature. Individuality can assert itself in the handling of light a nd shade until the finished picture conveys an impression, flas h of insight, or more intimate understanding of a subject which may have been passed by scores of times without its rea l character being recognised. Photography succeeds whether practised ind ividually or co-operatively, as it often is by the photographic societies and camera clubs. With a flou rishing membership of 45- drawn from all walks of factory life- the Photographic Section of the Billingham Synthonia Recreation Clu b is one of the most successful photographic societies in the north-east. Its president is Division Director Dr. G. I. Higson, who is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, a nd Norman Jefcoat, highly regarded locally as an expert amateur, is its chairman. Chairman Norman Jefcoat and members at work on an enlarger. The section has its own fully equipped darkroom in the Synthonia Club building Mavis Steve.n$on poses for a portrait on one of the evenings set aside for practical photography. Members are split up into three or four groups, each group working separately and taking different subjects On location near Richmond, Yorks. Twice a year- during the summer months- the section has an outing to a nearby beauty spot. Members' cameras range from the humble V.P.K. to a Leica

Members arranging their exhibits in the Northern Counties Photographic Exhibition. Synthonia members always do well in these competitions- have had their work shown in the U.S.A. and Canada and this year p lan to send entries to Holland and Denmark

" Turning ScottW1 Soil. " A choice example of landscape photography by Norman Jefcoat captures the mood of the Scottish countryside M ploughing time

Photography is a serious business-but when visiting lecturer Mr. C. L. Clark of Kodak talks about it, it has its f unny side too. Section rneeting.1· are held fortnigh tly, and lectures by outside experts are arranged at frequ ent intervals

1