can go to ‘Le Rossignol’ proportions before we have a dangerous mixture, we
would still have a hard time convincing the public. Robert’s early idea naturally ignores our modern psychological concerns. Are the savings made by
using a mixture of hydrogen and helium worth all the trouble and effort it
takes to convince everyone that the mixture is safe? It is simpler to avoid the
question altogether. Robert’s airship patent therefore may not have widely
been adopted but he was about to enter a period of his professional life that
produced 30 more patents in as many years (Appendix F). In early 1919,
shortly after his return from Germany, Robert Le Rossignol joined the newly
formed GEC Laboratories at Hammersmith in London. Industrial research
laboratories were rare in those days but their work was eclectic and admirably
suited to his talents. Over the next three decades he rose to a very senior
position within GEC and in addition to his profound contribution to the
fixation of nitrogen and the engineering of ‘glow lamps’, he was to influence
other ‘cutting edge’ technologies, ones that laid the foundations of the
modern telecommunications world we inhabit today and the success of the
Allies in the Second World War.
15.3 The GEC Laboratories
11
The GEC
12 Research Laboratories were formally opened on 27 February
1923 by Sir J. J. Thomson and Lord Cecil, but they had come into being in
1919, and the idea for their formation was at least as early as 1915/16. In
1906 GEC had collaborated with the DGA of Berlin
13 to import Osram
filaments from Germany to include in their own light bulbs, the scientific and
technical resources however remained in Germany. By 1909 GEC had made
a substantial investment in bulbs and completed the Osram Lamp Works at
Hammersmith, London, to manufacture high quality Osram bulbs, offering
one-third shares to the German and Austrian patent holders as enticement
(Plate 15.1).
However, by 1915 with the war in its second year, the large German
shareholding in the Lamp Works had provoked a very negative press. Mr.
Hugo Hirst, the Chairman and Managing Director of GEC and Chairman of
Osram, told a company meeting of GEC that because of the increasing
vulnerability that many felt at being dependent on German science, a way had
been found that would keep future control of the works in British hands viz,
the creation of their own industrial research laboratory to serve all of the
Osram Lamp Work’s needs. Soon after in January 1916, Mr. Christopher
Wilson, the General Manager of Osram together with Mr. Driver the Works
15 The Post-war Years 1919–1930
323
would still have a hard time convincing the public. Robert’s early idea naturally ignores our modern psychological concerns. Are the savings made by
using a mixture of hydrogen and helium worth all the trouble and effort it
takes to convince everyone that the mixture is safe? It is simpler to avoid the
question altogether. Robert’s airship patent therefore may not have widely
been adopted but he was about to enter a period of his professional life that
produced 30 more patents in as many years (Appendix F). In early 1919,
shortly after his return from Germany, Robert Le Rossignol joined the newly
formed GEC Laboratories at Hammersmith in London. Industrial research
laboratories were rare in those days but their work was eclectic and admirably
suited to his talents. Over the next three decades he rose to a very senior
position within GEC and in addition to his profound contribution to the
fixation of nitrogen and the engineering of ‘glow lamps’, he was to influence
other ‘cutting edge’ technologies, ones that laid the foundations of the
modern telecommunications world we inhabit today and the success of the
Allies in the Second World War.
15.3 The GEC Laboratories
11
The GEC
12 Research Laboratories were formally opened on 27 February
1923 by Sir J. J. Thomson and Lord Cecil, but they had come into being in
1919, and the idea for their formation was at least as early as 1915/16. In
1906 GEC had collaborated with the DGA of Berlin
13 to import Osram
filaments from Germany to include in their own light bulbs, the scientific and
technical resources however remained in Germany. By 1909 GEC had made
a substantial investment in bulbs and completed the Osram Lamp Works at
Hammersmith, London, to manufacture high quality Osram bulbs, offering
one-third shares to the German and Austrian patent holders as enticement
(Plate 15.1).
However, by 1915 with the war in its second year, the large German
shareholding in the Lamp Works had provoked a very negative press. Mr.
Hugo Hirst, the Chairman and Managing Director of GEC and Chairman of
Osram, told a company meeting of GEC that because of the increasing
vulnerability that many felt at being dependent on German science, a way had
been found that would keep future control of the works in British hands viz,
the creation of their own industrial research laboratory to serve all of the
Osram Lamp Work’s needs. Soon after in January 1916, Mr. Christopher
Wilson, the General Manager of Osram together with Mr. Driver the Works
15 The Post-war Years 1919–1930
323