Wool Industries Research Association : Mr. B. H. Wilsdon

Abstract

THE resignation of Mr. B. H. Wilsdon offers the opportunity to place on record some of the work accomplshed during his fourteen years directorship of the Wool Industries Research Association. His experience before going to Torridon included research at oxford, varied activities as professor of chemistry at Lahore, and five years as superintendent of laboratories at the Building Research Station of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. He found the vitality at Torridon at a low ebb; but under his stewardship the output of research increased steadily in volume and quality, and the chief successes of the teams he gathered together and encouraged are impressive. Torridon became the birthplace of partition chromatography. Described by Sir Robert Robinson as the greatest advance in protein chemistry since the work of Fischer, it spread rapidly to many important laboratories faced with complex mixtures of organic and inorganic substances. By its aid and by ojher methods, significant contributions were made to our knowledge of the chemical constitution of wool. In the more technical field, the dry chlorination process for producing non-felting wool was ready at the outbreak of war in 1939, together with the 'Warnorm' certification mark, to help ensure the unshrinkability of the socks and underwear supplied to the Forces. Another war-time activity, carried forward with great energy, was the impregnation of fabrics with active charcoal, originally as an anti-gas measure, but later used extensively to absorb bad odour from anaerobically dressed wounds. Noteworthy advances were also made in the application of physics: a clearer insight into the physical factors underlying the comfort of wool clothing was gained, and studies on machinery and operational research pointed the way to postwar economies in woollen carding and worsted drawing. In addition, statistics was brought to bear on testing methods and on wool metrology. All this work was widely appreciated in Australia and in the United States, but less so in Great Britain. This is a common occurrence in the life of a growing institution ; even the active workers do not appreciate the full value of their collective efforts. Later recorders will, it can be safely assumed, point to Mr. Wilsdon's directorship as a very bright period in the scientific history of Torridon.