The Story of Fused Silica

JSGT 1955 V39 T037-T047

The men to whom reference will be made in this story of fused silica were not, save perhaps one, colourful personalities in the sense of the "Onslow Family" of whom the reviewer was writing; but they were men with the admirable qualities of perseverance, imagination and vision, who tried one experiment after another to achieve their purpose; their imagination and their vision showed them new fields into which the young industry could move. They were generally young men whose names are, perhaps, not so well known as they should be, and this deficiency can now be rectified because there are few cases in scientific and industrial progress, except within the last decade or so, where only three years elapsed between the inception of a research and the position when, as in this instance, a young company was exporting its products to other countries, including the USA. These men were certainly possessed of vision. One reads that "where there is no vision the people perish." This is as true of an industry as of a nation or race, and it is the author's hope that by the time the reader reaches the end of this paper he will appreciate what great efforts were made by these pioneers to avoid calamity during their personal struggles.

G. E. Stephenson