Research and the Firm in British Industry, 1919–39

Social Studies of Science

Volumn 2, Issue 2, 1972, Pages 107-151

  Sanderson, Michael ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA   (United Kingdom)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 34247960584     PISSN: 03063127     EISSN: 14603659     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/030631277200200201     Document Type: Article

References (90)

1. Typescript, ‘The Application of Science to Industry: Research Control of Processes by Technologists’ (1928), in the papers of Sir Arthur Fleming of Metropolitan Vickers (GEC), Trafford Park.
2. Sir Frank Heath and A. L. Hetherington, Industrial Research and Development in the United Kingdom: a Survey (London, 1946).
3. J. Jewkes, D. Sawers and R. Stillerman, The Source of Invention (London, 1962).
4. J. D. Bernal, The Social Function of Science (London, 1939), 153-5.
5. George Dodd, The Textile Manufactures of Great Britain (London, 1844), 55.
6. S. B. Saul, ‘The Engineering Industries’, in D. H. Aldcroft (ed.), The Development of British Industry and Foreign Competition 1870-1914 (London, 1968), 216.
7. F. D. Miles, A History of Research in the Nobel Division of ICI (ICI, 1955).
8. J. J. Beer, The Emergence of the German Dye Industry (Urbana, 1959), chapter VIII, ‘The Rise of the Industrial Research Laboratory'.
9. W. S. Turner, ‘Scientific Research, does it Pay in Business?’, Sheffield Telegraph (2 April 1909). Turner wrote a series of articles (23 March-9 April) on this topic; he was the late Professor of Glass Technology at Sheffield.
10. E. K. Muspratt, My Life and Work (London, 1917), 185.
11. A. E. Musson, Enterprise in Soap and Chemicals, Joseph Crosfield and Sons Ltd., 1815-1965 (Manchester, 1965).
12. Edwin J. Beer, The Beginning of Rayon (Paignton, 1962; written 1955).
13. A. E. Harrison, ‘The Competitiveness of the British Cycle Industry, 1890-1914’, Economic History Review, Second Series, 22 (August 1969), 302.
14. P. L. Payne, ‘The Emergence of the Large Scale Company in Great Britain’, 1870-1914, Econ. Hist. Rev., Second series, 20 (December 1967), 529.
15. The Firth Brown Research Laboratories (1937).
16. Iolo A. Williams, The Firm of Cadbury, 1831-1931 (London, 1931), 87.
17. Bristol Times and Mirror (1 January 1929), referring to W. Morgan's research at Daimlers 1906.
18. T. J. Barfield, Scott built a Dynamo (Norwich, n.d.), 18, 28.
19. ‘The New Laboratory’, The Queens Engineering Works Magazine, January 1912 (W. H. Allen, Bedford).
20. S. H. Higgins, The Dyeing Industry (Manchester, 1919; 3rd edition of his book which was first published 1907), 79. His comment was made in the 1900s.
21. K. V. Jones, Life of John Viriamu Jones (London, 1915), 84.
22. W. Ripper, ‘Appreciation of Professor J. O. Arnold,’ Floreamus (Sheffield Student Union Magazine) (June 1930).
23. ‘Planning a Works Research Organisation’, Institution of Electrical Engineers (February, May 1919): W. A. Chamen in the Bristol branch discussion on a paper by Arthur Fleming. This will henceforth be referred to as ‘Research Symposium'.
24. The Times (16 March 1906): Sir Joseph Lawrence's reply to Silvanus Thompson.
25. R. C. University Education in Wales (Haldane), Cd., 8699. 1917 Evidence of H. S. Thomas, Q. 10,055.
26. A. G. Whyte, Forty Years of Electrical Progress (London, 1903), 95 et seq.
27. Natural Science in Education: the Report of the Committee on the Position of Natural Science in the Educational System of Great Britain (Sir Joseph Thomson) (1918), 225-6.
28. The Pharmaceutical Journal, Fourth series, 24 (30 March 1907), 390.
29. John Dummelow, Metropolitan Vickers Electrical Co. Ltd., 1899-1949 (Manchester, 1949), 58.
30. C. H. Ward Jackson, A History of Courtaulds (London, 1941), 121.
31. Sir Harry Jephcott, The First Fifty Years (Glaxo, 1969), 90.
32. A. P. M. Fleming and J. G. Pearce, Research in Industry (London, 1922), 212.
33. ‘The Research Laboratories of GEC Wembley'. The Woman Engineer (March 1926). The GEC research organization began in 1919.
34. J. D. Scott, Siemens Brothers, 1858-1958 (London, 1958).
35. H. A. Price Hughes, BTH Reminiscences (BTH, 1946).
36. Ralph Davis, Twenty One and a Half Bishop Lane, a History of J. H. Fenner and Co. Ltd., 1861-1961 (London, 1961), 56.
37. Kenneth Hudson, Towards Precision Shoemaking: C. and J. Clark Limited and the Development of the British Shoe Industry (Newton Abbot, 1968), 32.
38. F. A. Wells, Hollins and Viyella, a study in Business History (Newton Abbot, 1968), 144.
39. For example, Careers to which Subjects may Lead: Handbook of the Faculty of Science (Birmingham University, 1924): ‘The larger industrial firms also maintain staffs of research chemists…'; also Careers for University trained Men and Women (University of Liverpool, circa 1925): ‘Many of the larger chemical firms already possess well equipped research laboratories'.
40. D. Pearce and D. I. Hodges, Wellworthy: the first Fifty Years (n.p., n.d.; 1969?), 82.
41. Joan Evans, The Endless Webb: John Dickinson and Co. Ltd., 1804-1954 (London, 1955), 209.
42. P. W. S. Andrews and Elizabeth Brunner, Capital Development and Steel (Oxford, 1952), 200.
43. ‘The LMS Research Laboratory’, Journal of the Society of the Chemical Industry, (20 December 1935). Chemistry and Industry Reviews, 13, 1097.
44. Desmond Donnelly, David Browns: the story of a Family Business, 1860-1960 (London, 1960), 61.
45. T. C. Barker, Pilkington Brothers and the Glass Industry (London, 1938), 214.
46. C. E. K. Mees, The Organisation of an Industrial Research Laboratory (New York, 1920) The importance of Dr Mees was more than once impressed upon me. It is also not without interest to note here that Dr Mees’ granddaughter married the son of
47. T. L. Humberstone, An Experiment in Industrial Research (Board of Education Pamphlet No. 30, 1915).
48. Kenneth Lee, ‘Industrial Research: a Businessman's View’, Proceedings of the Royal Institution, 28 (15 December 1933), 115.
49. Hugh Quigley, ‘Engineering in the Economic Development of Manchester’, The Woman Engineer (March 1924).
50. J. G. Pearce in the ‘Research Symposium’, The Woman Engineer (March 1924), note 31.
51. Basil Tripp, Renold Chains: a History of the Company and the Rise of the Precision Chain Industry, 1879-1955, 125 (London, 1956), 141.
52. J. W. Corran and S. L. Lombe, ‘The Research Department Carrow Works, 1924-1949’ (private typescript for circulation to the Board of Directors of Colmans).
53. Fleming's typescript notes, ‘Research in Industry’, an address to Manchester University Physics Society, 8 February 1924, in Fleming's papers.
54. B. Mitchell, Abstract of British Historical Statistics (Cambridge, 1962), 269.
55. Guy Routh, Occupation and Pay in Great Britain, 1906-60 (Cambridge, 1965). 17-18.
56. Industry and Science: a Study of their Relationship… in the Great Manchester Area, 1950-3 (Manchester, 1954), 49, gives evidence from which this is calculable.
57. E. N. da C. Andrade (ed.), Industrial Research (London, 1946), ‘List of Industrial Research Laboratories’, compiled ‘before the end of hostilities'.
58. Calculated from Industrial Research Laboratories: a list compiled by the Association of Scientific Workers, Sir Halley Stewart Trust Publications III (London, 1936).
59. Edwin Mansfield, Industrial Research and Technological Innovation, an Econometric Analysis (London, 1969), 11.
60. ‘The Finance of Research’, The Scientific Worker 10 (November-December 1938), 124.
61. Queens Engineering Works Magazine (1918-1938) and MS Research Record Books of R. T. Rolfe (1918-1939).
62. The Leaf and the Tree (Boulton and Paul, Norwich, 1947).
63. H. Warren, ‘The British Thomson Houston Research Laboratory’, Journal of Careers (May 1939).
64. ‘The Research Laboratories of GEC Wembley’, The Woman Engineer (March 1926), ‘Account of a Visit to GEC Laboratory, Wembley’, Queens Engineering Works Magazine (January 1928)
65. For example, A. P. M. Fleming, ‘Industrial Research’, in Lectures on Industrial Administration, ed. B. Muscio (London, 1920), 237
66. Julian Huxley, Scientific Research and Social Needs (London, 1934), 135. This point was put to him by the ICI research laboratory at Northwich.
67. On the matter of university industrial research and the use of graduates by industry at this time, see Michael Sanderson, ‘The Universities and Industry in England, 1919-39’, Yorkshire Bulletin of Economic and Social Research 21 (May 1969). In that essay I gave the impression that United Dairies were not a significant user of graduates; after examining the papers of their research committee and talking with chemists who were there at the time I am happy to correct that misconception in this paragraph.
68. On Hilditch see ‘Thomas Percy Hilditch, 1886-1965’, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (November 1966). He had formerly been chief research chemist at Crosfields.
69. Science and Labour, ed. T. L. Humberstone. Report of a conference, 30, 31 May 1924: ‘Scientific Research in Relation to Industry’, E. C. Williams, 53-4. Some managers at GEC thought that this was excessive. G. Cheliotti noted of GEC 1920-46 that ‘the men who go into research seem to develop a mentality which is almost as foreign to industry as is that of those who stay in the universities… ‘: report of a Joint Conference of the Management Associations and the AUT, 23 February 1946, 10 (in AUT file, ‘Meetings with Other Bodies').
70. Fleming's Presidential Address to the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, 84 (January 1939), 6. It is interesting to note, however, that Fleming seems to have changed his mind in favour of this view; in 1919 he was not in favour of fundamental research in the firm: ‘Research Symposium’ (1919), Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, note 31.
71. Chaim Weizmann, Trial and Error (London, 1949), chapter VII, 146-8.
72. C. J. T. Cronshaw, ‘Industry and the Universities’, Manchester University Chemical Society Magazine (1932). Cronshaw was joint managing director of the Dyestuffs Group, ICI.
73. ‘New ICI Laboratories at Manchester’, Journal of the Society of the Chemical Industry (15 January 1938). Chemistry and Industry Review. 16, 56.
74. Roy A. Church, ‘The Effect of the American Export Invasion on the British Boot and Shoe Industry, 1885-1914’, Journal of Economic History 28 (June 1968), especially 249.
75. P. W. S. Andrews and Elizabeth Brunner, Capital Development in Steel: a Study of the United Steel Companies Ltd. (Oxford, 1952), 200.
76. Journal of Careers (henceforth J.C.) 5 (June 1926), 37.
77. J.C. 18 (February 1939) 114-15: Cadbury's intake ratios.
78. Maxwell Garnett, speaking at the Second Congress of the Universities of the Empire. A. Hull (ed.), (London: G. Bell and Sons, 1921), 206.
79. Bowie, in J.C. 14 (October 1935), 564.
80. A. P. M. Fleming, in the Daily Dispatch Industrial Survey (1936).
81. D. W. Hughes, Careers for our Daughters (London, 1936), 223
82. also ‘A Woman in Metallurgy’, The Woman Engineer (December 1927).
83. ‘Prospects for Employment for Women Science Graduates-Industrial Research Laboratories’, J.C. 17 (May 1938), 293.
84. Elsie Lang, British Women in the Twentieth Century (London, 1929), 261
85. Journal of the Society of the Chemical Industry, 11 (1933). Chemistry and Industry Review, 2 (1933), 131.
86. R. W. Western, ‘Memorandum on Private Enterprise as a Factor in Industrial Research’, The Scientific Worker 10 (November-December, 1938), 143.
87. ‘Income Tax and Research’, The Scientific Worker 11 (Winter 1939), 106. The ASW pressed this issue from 1933.
88. A. P. M. Fleming, ‘The Economic Consequences of Industrial Research’, his typescript of a speech at the LSE Department of Business Administration, 20 May 1935, in Fleming's papers. He repeated this view at the Oxford Management Conference, 1936.
89. Fifty Years of Sundour, 1906-56 (reprint of a speech by Sir James Morton, 1929, kindly lent by Standfast Dyes).
90. Queens Engineering Works Magazine, ‘Review of Events’ (January 1931), and ‘Marine Work during 1932’ (January 1933).