The royal society, its fellows and industrial R&D in the mid twentieth century

Notes and Records of the Royal Society

Volumn 64, Issue SUPPL. 1, 2010, Pages

  Horrocks, Sally M ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Conversazione; Fellowship elections; Industrial research and development

Indexed keywords

EID: 77955625819     PISSN: 00359149     EISSN: 17430178     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1098/rsnr.2010.0032     Document Type: Article

References (62)

1. 'A tribute of industry to science', Nature 161, 508-510 (1948);
2. 'The 1947 Nobel Prize Winners', Chem. Ind., 218 (1948);
3. British Pathe, 'Industry honours scientists' (see http://www. britishpathe.com/record.php?id=27164; viewed 29 September 2009).
4. British Pathe, 'Industry honours scientists' (see http://www. britishpathe.com/record.php?id=27164, 2009 op. cit. (note 1).
5. See, for example, 'Research and scientific knowledge', Hansard 399, 302-308 (19 April 1944)
6. and Federation of British Industries, Industry and research: the full report of a two-day conference arranged by the Federation of British Industries, p. viii (Pitman, London, 1946).
7. Sally M. Horrocks covers this enthusiasm for industrial research in 'Enthusiasm constrained? British industrial R & D and the transition from war to peace, 1942-51', Business Hist. 41, 2-63 (1999).
8. Although a case could be made for including agriculture, an area of industry to which Fellows made many significant contributions, the focus of this paper is on manufacturing industry.
9. These developments are discussed in Horrocks, Sally M. Horrocks covers this enthusiasm for industrial research in 'Enthusiasm constrained? British industrial R & D and the transition from war to peace, 1942-51', Business Hist. 41, 2-63 (1999), op. cit. (note 3).
10. These developments are discussed in Horrocks, op. cit. (note 3). Many of the speakers were members of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee: Christopher Powell and Arthur Butler, The Parliamentary and Scientific Committee: the first forty years, 1939-1979 (Croom elm, London, 1980).
11. Federation of British Industries, The Parliamentary and Scientific Committee: The first forty years 1939-1979, 1980, op. cit. (note 3), pp. 9-17.
12. Federation of British Industries, Scientific and technical research in British industry, p. 6 (FBI, ondon, 1947).
13. There has been considerable debate among historians about the use of the word 'consensus' in relation to policies developed and implemented during this period. My use of the word here refers specifically to this instance of widespread agreement among elite groups on this particular area of policy and should not be seen as extending more widely.
14. Brian Harrison discusses these debates in 'The rise and fall of political consensus in Britain since 1940', History 84, 301-324 (1999).
15. University of Warwick, Modern Records Centre, CBI Predecessor Archive (hereafter MRC CBI), MSS 200/F/1/1/166, Minutes for the FBI IRC for 11 March and 28 June 1946.
16. Anon., 'Dedication of the Parsons Memorial Window', Notes Rec. R. Soc. 8, 283-290 (1951).
17. FBI, 'Dedication of the Parsons Memorial Window', Notes Rec. R. Soc. 8, (1951)., op. cit. (note 3), p. 3.
18. MRC CBI MSS 200/F/3/T2/7/4 and MSS 200/F/3/T1/266, Minutes of the FBI IRC.
19. FBI, 'Dedication of the Parsons Memorial Window', Notes Rec. R. Soc. 8, (1951), op. cit. (note 3), pp. vi-vii.
20. E. N. da C. Andrade (ed.), Industrial Research 1946, p. 31 (Todd, London, 1946).
21. On the role of senior ICI staff in the war effort see David Edgerton, Warfare state, pp. 155-156 (Cambridge University Press, 2006).
22. Tube Alloys is discussed in detail in Margaret Gowing, Britain and atomic energy, 1939-1945 (Macmillan, London, 1964).
23. Calculated from MRC CBI, MSS 200/F/3/T2/7/4 and figures given in final report, FBI, op. cit. (note 7), p. 9. Three firms - , Anglo-Iranian Oil and John Brown - not listed individually with figures for expenditure and employment on the summary sheets. Tube Alloys is discussed in detail in Margaret Gowing, Britain and atomic energy, 1939-1945, 1964.
24. Charles Sykes, 'Norman Percy Allen', Biogr. Mems Fell. R. Soc. 19, 1-18 (1973)
25. A. G. Ogston, 'Harold Brewer Hartley', Biogr. Mems Fell. R. Soc. 19, 348-373 (1973)
26. D. Gabor and J. Brown, 'Willis Jackson', Biogr. Mems Fell. R. Soc 17, 379-398 (1971)
27. M. L. E. Oliphant and Lord Penney, 'John Douglas Cockcroft', Biogr. Mems Fell. R. Soc. 14, 139-188 (1968)
28. T. E. Allibone, 'Charles Sykes', Biogr. Mems Fell. R. Soc. 29, 553-583 (1983)
29. idem, 'Cecil Reginald Burch', Biogr. Mems Fell. R. Soc. 30, 1-42 (1984)
30. idem, 'Dennis Gabor', Biogr. ems Fell. R. Soc. 26, 107-147 (1980)
31. R. A. Morton, 'Thomas Percy Hilditch', Biogr. Mems Fell. R. Soc. 12, 259-289 (1966)
32. O. A. Saunders, 'David Randall Pye', Biogr. Mems ell. R. Soc. 7, 199-205 (1961).
33. W. S. Feldberg, 'Henry Hallett Dale', Biogr. Mems Fell. R. Soc. 16, 77-174 (1970)
34. Lord Todd and J. W. Cornforth, 'Robert Robinson', Biogr. Mems Fell. R. Soc. 22, 415-527 (1976).
35. Jack Morrell, Science at Oxford 1914-1939: transforming an arts university, pp. 364-368 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997).
36. Or traces that require much research to uncover. Extensive research in the technical press may be one way of establishing these links.
37. Michael Sanderson, The universities and British industry 1850-1970, pp. 339-359 (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1972)
38. V. E. Cosslett (ed.), The relations between scientific research in the universities and industrial research, pp. 135-160 (International Association of University Professors and Lecturers, London, 1955).
39. Percy Dunsheath (ed.), Industrial Research 1956-57, pp. 11 and 363-368 (Todd, London, 1956)
40. ho's who 1955, p. 2747 (Adam & Charles Black, London, 1955).
41. A. Wilson, 'The organisation and planning of research and development in Courtaulds', in Business enterprise: its growth and organisation (ed. R. S. Edwards and H. Townsend), pp. 317-324 (Macmillan, London, 1962).
42. The Maidenhead laboratory is discussed in Donald C. Coleman, Courtaulds: an economic and social history, vol. 3 (Crisis and change 1940-1965), pp. 180-186 and 295-298 (Oxford University Press, 1980).
43. W. J. Feast, 'Clement Harry Bamford', Biogr. Mems Fell. R. Soc. 50, 1-13 (2004).
44. Allibone, Biogr. Mems Fell. R. Soc., op. cit. (note 17)
45. and Gabor and Brown, Biogr. Mems Fell. R. Soc., op. cit. (note 17).
46. On Metropolitan-Vickers and its links with the Cavendish, see Jeffrey Hughes, 'Plasticine and valves: industry, instrumentation and the emergence of nuclear physics', in The invisible industrialist: manufactures and the production of scientific knowledge (ed. Jean-Paul Gaudilliere and Ilana Lowy), pp. 58-101 (Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1998).
47. 'Home-produced substitutes', Hansard 358, cc1992-1997 (20 March 1940), at c1996;
48. certificate of election for John Cadman, ref. EC/1940/4, at http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp= Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch= %28Title%3D%27Cadman%27%29 (viewed 27 May 2010).
49. Edgerton, Hansard, op. cit. (note 15), pp. 108 -172.
50. Certificates of election can be viewed online at http://royalsociety.org/ Biographies-of-Fellows-Sackler-Archive-Resource/
51. Allibone, Hansard, op. cit. (note 17).
52. Dunsheath, Hansard, op. cit. (note 22)
53. Who was who 1941-50 (Adam & Charles Black, London, 1950).
54. On the importance of the Athanaeum to Fellows of the Royal Society see Jeffery Hughes, 'British Society for the History of Science, Presidential Address 2009', Br. J. Hist. Sci. (in the press).
55. Who s who, op. cit. (note 22)
56. Who was who, op. cit. (note 31).
57. Anon., 'The Conversaziones in 1938', Notes Rec. R. Soc. 1, 67-69 (1938).
58. Anon., 'The Conversaziones of 1939', Notes Rec. R. Soc. 2, 127-139 (1939).
59. Anon., 'Conversazione', Notes Rec. R. Soc. 4, 16-18 (1946).
60. Anon., 'Conversazione', Notes Rec. R. Soc. 5, 67-71 (1948).
61. Anon., 'Conversaziones 1949', Notes Rec. R. Soc. 7, 54-60 (1949).
62. Dunsheath, op. cit. (note 22).