1957-08-12 — Page 4

THE CHINA MAIL, MONDAY, AUGUST · 12, · 1957.

The Men Behind Polythene

Greatest Wonder

Britain's

a

They took the gas from fermented molasses; put it in foot long test-tube made of steel; heated the 'bomb' in boiling oll. Then if it didn't explode they counted Themselves lucky and looked for Polythone.

THEY put on the extensa loud mulle scientist's THEY put off the experiment till after tea because if

understatement for Mowing the place up the fewer people around the laboratory the butter.

So as the rest left, three went back; studious Michael (always caked Paul) Perrin, engineer Dermot Manning, a merry man from Suffolk, and young Lawrie Mills, who was the lab. assistant.

They were playing with A gas called ethylue which come from alcohol which came from fermentes molasses, and is main use up to then wuz pre- Serving apples alld putting patients to sleep.

And they were playing with pressures such as the world

new tle about.

The idea was to get ethylene twice as hot as boil water

under a pressure of 30,000 lb. --the pressure side a twenty- five-pouruder shell as it explede -and see if they could make do-

liberately what two colleagusa hnd nude by fortunate neel- aent two years curlier.

By JACK MILLER

kokei like the inside of yabuum fork end was called a bank, appropriate because it was heated in boiling oil-which smelled foul-and whenever it sploded it sploticed the oil everywhere.

grams-hundreds of times more Yet half way through 1960, RL than ever before.

ICI where it all started, so Polythene had been made to official began a report:

"Poly- enter, but with a lot of luck, there Is a hard, white, whxy- From now on It was just u matter kokloz plastle whose name few of improving technique. Work members of the publls win ever for the chemists, but creaning- have heard........" ly a job for the engineers who devised and developed new plant.

Through a 'pilot' plant with bombs now law feet high and a fost Dress-installed

an stand In the River Weaver-

they went on to a full-scale plant like a series of ship's engine rooms.

Research

Today you can't End anybody who doesn't know it. But it sull starts at the plant as a white powder like the stuff 'foot' Gibson Art found.

And if you walk by a polythene plant you may still hear a terri ile thump like a twenty-five- pounder gum. That's just a safety expert Edward Valve 'blowing'--not like in 1938, Hunter hd developed the wories, whim they fitted a safety valve and Professor Airten Michels, but forgot to lead the 'bicw-off" from Amsterdam, a tough-and-into the optu. The safely valve stucky father of nine who had caved the apparatus and blew worked with ICI mai before, the roof off the laboratory,, devised a compressor for con- running. A young tint Englishm:0. Ted Greensmith, improved on it, making it the kind of machine the ordinary protess worker could handle.

Extinguishers were always ready and ro bong put the re- searchers back more than { Fran test-tube to couple of days. But there were normally ten years. Too many blogs, Ethylene wrs had done it in three,

ecled dungerous, on experi- mc, were barued until safer apparatus was ready.

factory is

Reprinted from EVERYBODY'S

DISARMAMENT TALKS

{{ * !

DULLES #★#USAF

FIRST ARCTIC INSPECTION ZONE

Landon Exprese Sereka

This team MEN OF MEDICINE

In 1939 came the first order- 100 tons of polythene to insulate underwater cables. But the Dermot Manning, # metals crbles were delivered years late. expert Eric Colbeck, and Brian because the day the plant was These two- tough rugby- Vigars, another scientist, prepor honded or Hitler marched into playing Hoot Gibson and dour el R. Thick, brick blast Poland. And Sir Robert Watson- Yorkshiremen Elie Fawcet cubicles, with peep-holed steel Watt had a secret which had working under research

chief d

wele buill intu the Evin

greater need of this in- aberatory and the gauges were sulator-redor. wanted outside so that experi- ments could be done by remote

J. C. Swallow, had not been aiming at any t end-produel, just doing pure research in the laboratories newly built by In- perial Chemical Industries, L Winnington, in Cheshire.

control.

And so to Tea-time... Detem- ber 26, 1933. No hot oll row, for Elhylene and 1 sweet-

the bomb was buried in a copper smelling liquid called benzaldeck, plectrically heated. hyde were heated and compre.d- ca to see if they would reset. They wouldn't, bứt when Gibson stripped his epparatus he found pocks of white wax that had not been there befere

Analysts said this was ethylene -battered into a new form by-the pressure. The scientist knows theas new fcrms

On went the pressure, first by pumping a hand lever, then by turning a wheel that forced liquid down the incredibly the pressure pipes that led into the

For 100 Years

UNBREAKABLE

Polythere research has now post £1,000,000, and £20,000,000 has been speni cu plai. In 1938 the pilot plant made a ten a month; now Britain makes 80,000 tons a year. Amerien, with four- teen plants, makes even marc- and pays £3,000,000 a year royalties.

Frill

Copyright in DIE SORTIFIKA

He wandered through the field of science picking up stray facts.

THE

most august body of men in the French scientific world listened with

a mixture of shock and disbelief to the vivid words of a presumptuous twenty-sixe year old newcomer appearing before them one day in 1809,

MAGENDIE

0011

His work

important discoveries. But his the Jog Mogendio

a new world. where so much Hfe-long adherence to the two became an excedient anatomist. walted to be discovered through Francois Magendie was describing the effects principles which be published Medical experiment was not this new approach that his in- in that paper at the age of carried on for its own sake, in vestigations were isolated, often that a poison from Java hud produced upon animals. He was not telling them what might happen,

twenty-six, "distrust of theory, carly-nineteenth-century Paris, almost haphazard. and firm faith in experiment," It was never a physician's lead- lacked method and plan, cs even but what he had seen happen in the experiment ho

helped to open a whole world of ing occupation, and his know he recognised when he described had conducted himself. Magendie was, in effect, modern medical research, and Jedge of physiology suffered himself as a 'chiffunter, a rag- Unti Francols plcker, in the very held of work placed his name at the head of accordingly. showing the Academie des Sciences the very begin-

the Illustrious line of laboratory Magendie burst on the scene he founded, today one of the ning of modern experimental pharmacology.

experimenters which grew to that day before the Academie most highly organised areas of Things were always tricky,

and des Sciences, the Fastcus

that exists: medical The members were probably colleague

study of study who described include Pavlov, and so much was out of the

physiology WAS an organised research. The century which deeply I 1950 Britain exported twice more as polymera, latist control-the purity of"

disturbed, that Magendie as "a rag-picker, who Ehrlich,

dream world, an arrangement has passed since Mugendle's the Beld of The work wes to know this one, the gas, for instance If there as much as in 1955. That's the same year, when they read his wanders through

Francois Magradle was born of reveries systematiques', in death has left less and less roun prevalling science picking up stroy into the dawn of a new era of the eventually, as polythene, or wesn't trough oxygen at all way it is growing, and by 1085 paper attacking the

words of the eminent for the 'rag-picker's opportuni- at theory of vitalism, few world deinrad is estimated

which held fects...." it wis Magendie history, the age which come Aikathene which is ICT's trade they could expert was a

physiologist Claude Bernard les. The development of a singlo specks like Gibun hed g. Tuo 1,500,000 tons.

that life cannot be explained in himself. It is true, he failed to to being from the tumult name for it.

of who came after him?

antibiotic, represents the co- Revolution, Hla nuch uxygen, and there would

terms of physler and chemistry formulate momentous general- the French alone. But it was not an angry lies from

It was In fact in 1313, the crdinated efforts of scores of probably be an explosion.

his many

Isolated, father, an army surgeon and a year of Bernard's birth, when scientists and skilled laboratory

zealous French Republican, was also an ardent follower of Jean Magendie, at the age of 30, gave technicians, And even now, the up all ideas of practicing one knows fully how it works. medielne and

continues under surgery, and sei Research philosopher who had much to out to meet the problems of circumstances which Jenve do, in his way, with changing physiology at Aret hand, nothing to chance, where every each experiment meticulously controlled.

Gibson's Wax and BANG GALORE

In the fast-growing pirsties in- dustry, polythene is the fastest growing plastic, used for wrap- rotecting pi potes and clothes, make water piper, end shopping baskets and hundreds

of other things around the house.

And they were using Afteen

סית:

German scientists have tackled new ways of making it, and four British firms say they are coming the neid, The women m the kitchen knows polythene is betare. Even Manning, who is light, cheap, and dimost escent!rily ploeid man, says breakable. Experts mode wear. "We were a bit cagicus...

and-tear teils and decided

times as much stuff

33 ever

413-

Something went wrong. A washing-up bowl could irst 100 look sumwhere, They pumped years.

Polythene is being used to and pumped but the gauges wenkit say Ming told me

up. The way make Loys, sing-ildies and

"I thought the experiment was a complete salad swishers, beauty boxes,

As an insulter of cables, Les shot. which was the first use they saw for 1 it is supreme. The new Atlantic cable user it.

scent bottles and buckets.

Polythene

The week Birmingham had "There didn't seem much pobit 3,600 lead pipes burst, all their quing en, but we has a limited polythene plumbing stayed in- charge of gas so we thought we fact.

pipes don't Whes Gil.co produced those m'ght en well push it all through. freeze an easily for a start, and Arst specks of wax en Merch

when the thaw comes they don't The rext light 27, 1933, he could have seen show we'd used it up to Efter

rame vu to burst. me of this. But recurch is

Of course there is o snag. costly, and cose under way goes we'd blown the pressure off we Polythene counc! stand fame on until the product is proved to lata the cubicle-feeling a ...cr scrapped. And Gibeon's bully, anyway-and we took 'was' had the scientists intrigued. We apparatus cawn,

"We weren't going to bother to Two days after their expcii- ment, Gibson and Fawcett tried epon it evon, but Perrin suid that sgain but all they got was car having got this far we might as explosion that hattered the well lek inside.

gauges.

"Then...it was a terrife thril, Gibson's 'last tube' was in:de Al he opened the white | of kleel. A toet long and two-and- powder started suilling all round a-quarter inches in diameter, it in. We'd made about twenty.

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BALMORAL

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Fully bound album of 274 pages including

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and normal polythene cannot be sterilised by boiling, either, but there is a form now that cry. So that gives it oven more uses in home and hospital.

I

Jacques

Rousseau.

the

the face of the westem world Through direct experiment and expect of

as Napoleon himself.

Liberty

"The first educalion ought to be purely negative," Nousseau wroto, "Leave your pupil to

himself in perfect liberty, and observe what he does

Francols

edvico

and

observation he sarailed the my is steries of the heart-beat and the

cause

the and methods of bloud's flow, the properties the cerebro-spinal fluid, cision and section of the cere- bellum, the sensitivity

of

Cx-

of

Discipline

Selbutists are tracing absorption

tinues, and the mechanics of into the body by Ingging particles Such radio-kotopes, the digestive tract.

His most with

co-ordinated efforts important discovery

concerned plannet, the the functions of spinal contrase markedly with the only nerves, relating the anterior experimental approaches possible nerves to the body's movement, in carly nineteenth-century this and the posterior nerves to the Faris. the boy senses.

Yet bencath tho traordinary

spying

anything 10

father took

received

Herally

Was

Later, fem,

schooling until he

inspirest

HIL

direct

expérimental

complexity

and

perhaps by what he had seen approach in pharmacology in refinement of modern experl-

medicine, troduced such staples of modern mental In those curly years, the army medical practice as morphine Magendie's "distrust of surgeen persuaded Napoleon's and arched the mine and firm falth is experiment personal physician to take and lodme compounds. But remains the key Francois on as a student, and Francois Magendle was opening advance.

Wonderful Time- RUSSIAN STYLE

BATHED in the Black Sea at Yalta--where Roosevelt

and Winston Churchi met Stalin during the war... and what a place it is!

03

France's

to cach

I'm at the Southend of the Soviet...

Imagine a small town Health Ministry for packed to the brim with sanatoriums or holiday homes wanders through wild woodland ond beautifully planted art thousands of Russians for the workers.

Russians in Moscow can get gardens. from all parts of the Soviet a return railway ticket for Perilous steps, hewn out of Union basking

the 11 5s. There are four hotels, the cock, lead down to the four-

but most Iussions with their yard-wide, rock-strewn beach. brilliant sun on the narrow

families stay at a pension for stretch of beach, if you can

If you want to bathe, you £4 a month per person or rent must be up early to bag a place. call it that, or staying at one of the many sana- toriums trying a cure for some illness,

by PATRICIA. SMYLLIE

Fat women bask like whales ices costing a shilling. People. Russian martial music or to in skimplest of underclothing, weigh themselves for 41⁄4d, or jazz, which they seem to prefer. then follop lazily into the sen. test their strength by pulling Quite a guy place.

Nudists have their own egrinst a rope for sixpence. Russians don't call a holiday fenced-off spots, Entrance:

Chocolate bars are expensive a holiday nowadays, The word Trade 10. Bd.

seems to be

two-ounce hor costs now means "to rest,” The old brisk. The places are packed. nearly 48.

word for holiday went out of mlik sold for 15. 3. a glass; a Other promenade Hems: Meres*

Help-yourself cales chargo vogue after the Revolution. 7a, Bd. for an English-type drink called Kwasse, made of breakfast of ham, eggs, toast

wear them, hals, trimmed

or Panoma-

mineral water and raspberry Juice, costs 14.; cigarettes 2s. for and tea, Lanch of salad, soup, meat and frult costs 175., and 20. Next month Mr' Aneurin a room or a flat which may call

Gay white umbrellas protect Pleture hats are popular. Men in the evening. salad, soup, steak, and lee-cream costs £1, And wernen Bevan and his wife, Jennie anything from £3 159. to people from the blazing sun. Lee, are expected. I think C11 55. a month.

The place is so packed that Caucasian felt

with lamb's wool they will enjoy themselves; that Government officials und it is dëßeult to lie down,

like straws, they like lots of other V.I.P.s-the category for alone stretch out your legs. people around all doing that. Devan-have a special hotel looks rather like a long dy There is no seclusion here at de-luxe class, but not too ex- paper covered with flies. Yalta,

15

Peaches

γου

You cannot compare Yalta with British resorts, In come ways it is slightly like South

pensive,

Jet

It

I must say that Russian balk-

It stands slightly out of town, ing certainly shook me, It i

Colour

Dancing

WHAT is there to do in the

evening? People walk up

A

Laughter

MANY workers

get their

V▲ helldays free "as à bonus for good work during the year," Bald the Intourist gulde who showed me round town.

I like the place it only because all the Russians aro

to friendly.

mo

They stop me on the pro- and down the promenade, menade, ask me if I'm English wear bright, loose. few bathe, bút only a fow

or American, then shake a magnificent duck egg blue forbiddon to walk round the WOMEN building set among the pine and town or promenade with bare summer, frocks, somewhat Seata in an open-air cinema very warmly by the hand. ↑

shoulders....but on the beach floppy. They cypress trees.

carry often

cost le. d. to is., or you can And they laugh as I plaster coloured the rule socims to be "anything briliantly

Chinese see a travelling ermpany at the myzelf with sun-tan lotion (33. umbrellas. Cost: £3 each. theatro, Cost: 45. to 11s. 3d. Od for a small, perfumed goes."

Moat

bathe Jn Little kicks covered

Army "bands play in the wood- bottle) and agree that I am. with.

part of the umbrellas sell land

promenade, beginning to look a bit like a Yaltas promenade in Irregu rassieres and pants, with the enormous white

cone-shaped Hundreds with dots

of steps. It children wearing nothing at all. chocolate-covered

The suites include a drawing room, bathroom, study, and two bedrooms,

| end or Brighton--because of the

amusements told --but

10 lar looks more like places in the South of France or the Spanish Riviera, because of the houses and brilliant flowers,

It is a pretty pinle and blue and whito town, . nesting simong the Crimean mountains, The roads ATO NAITO, with hairpin bends, and most of the traffic is one-way.

AID

Sub tropical flowers everywhere, Cypress trees and

PRICE: $12.00 mimosas shelter each house and

peach trees grow up the walls. Houres of Rusalan nobility have been taken over by the

Сити

women

of couples dance to lobster,