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Monday 22 September 2014

SILBERRAD, Oswald(1878-1960)

Worker

Oswald Silberrad,

born: 1878 at Buckhurst Hill, Essex

died: 17 June 1960

buried at the parish church in Loughton.

studied chemistry at the City and Guilds Technical College.

1898-1900 he attended the University of Würzburg.

1901-1906 superintendent of research, Royal Arsenal, Woolwich,

younger brother of the writer Una Lucy Silberrad.

Simon Coleman National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists (University of Bath) ...

The paper resulted from the speaker's work at the National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists, Bath, on the archive of this little-known industrial consulting chemist and the research laboratory that he founded. The paper highlighted some of Silberrad's important contributions to munitions research at the Royal Arsenal while he was still in his early twenties. An experimenter of rare ability, Silberrad discovered a new means of detonating high explosive shells by using a substance known as 'tetryl'.

He also demonstrated that TNT worked well as a high explosive shell filling, possessing advantages over the lyddite then in use. ---Royal Navy ordnance,a practice that was already well known in Germany.

Successfully developed and tested a 'flameless' artillery propellant for small calibre guns. The archive contains part of Silberrad's unpublished memoirs, which document this period of his career, in particular his difficult relations with the War Office which resulted in his resignation as Superintendent of Research.

The Silberrad Papers are held by the Science Museum- Library".2014.08.29 Greenwich Industrial History

 

1901 appointed chemist to the Government Explosives committee. Later he took the position as head of the committee’s research institute at Woolwich.

This committee had been set up after the Boer War to investigate the shortcomings of British explosives.

 

1904 lived ...

Hill Top, Shrewsbury Lane, Plumstead

1906 he left the institute, and in 1907 founded the Silberrad Research Laboratories, first at 22 Stag Lane, Buckhurst Hill, and later moved to Loughton, where he had a special laboratory block added to his new house. As a consulting chemist, he mainly focused on the study of explosives. He also developed a new alloy, solving the problem of the erosion of warships' bronze propellers. In 1921 he campaigned unsuccessfully for a position at the Royal Society.

1960 lived ...

Dryad's Hall,


2014-09-23

Sunday 21 September 2014

VOCE, James(1865-1933)

worker:


VOCE, James

Born:1865 in  Salisbury, Wiltshire, England  

Death 10th January 1933 of Middle Park, Eltham

 

 

1911census
30 Ancona Road, {in 1919 at 160 Ancona may be due to renumbering?
VOCE, James engineers turner gun manufacturing.
Wife; 
JACKSON, RosalieThirza(1866-1917)
Children; 
 MabelFrances;  DorothyMartha;  EdwardJohn;  RosalieHannah;  Beatrice;  FredrickLeonard;

 

secretary of the shop stewards {Royal Arsenal

 

Chairman of All Grades Movement and an All Grades Committee. {Royal Arsenal
Following the First World War, local Labour activists launched a campaign to find alternative work within the Royal Arsenal that would utilize the skills of the workers and now idle machinery -i.e. the making of non-munitions during peacetime.  

 

Local Councillor {London Borough of Woolwich 

 

1939 Road in Plumstead renamed after him

 

 

 

Monday, 22 September 2014 {Deborah O’B. 

Thursday 18 September 2014

1907 explosion


Go to home page — National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa.    

THE EXPLOSION AT WOOLWICH.

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 101, 9 April 1907, Page 6

See ...
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=OSWCC19070409.2.29


2014.09.19 Reproduced Newspaper artical

Monday 15 September 2014

Britain's lost munitions factories



4 September 2014
Home Front Legacy project logo
The UK-wide Home Front Legacy project, coordinated by the Council for British Archaeology, is calling on volunteers to help track down a series of lesser-known ‘National’ munitions factories created to kickstart the war effort. These sites..........................................
see ...
http://new.archaeologyuk.org/news/britains-lost-munitions-factories?dm_i=10MV,2RPOL,8BB1WV,A2V13,1

Munitions worker  a munition worker

2014-09-16

Sunday 7 September 2014

STREATER, Florrie()

worker
Spotted in Royal Artillery Museum, as part of their WW 1 exhibition.



Is she a real person?
Who is the  person pictured?
The "Ammunition worker" was she a volunteer or conscripted?


1911census Florrie aged 15year daughter of Ann and John STREATER described himself as a Hair Dresser working at home in Seven Sisters Road, Tottenham.

1911census FlorenceMaudeBeatriceMary STREATER aged 17year Employed as a Nurse/housemaid in Twickenham. (In 1914 a Miss F STREATER nursemaid went to South Africa.)



2014-09-07