Summary of fundamental research into coal, coke and carbon: fifty-four years of study by the Northern Carbon Research Laboratories, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
✍ Scribed by William A. Campbell; Harry Marsh
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1980
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 620 KB
- Volume
- 59
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0016-2361
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The Northern Carbon Research Laboratories have functioned for fifty-four years. They have operated entirely within the organization of what is now the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. A brief description of the social and industrial conditions of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1926 is given and this, together with a description of personalitites of the University at that time, enable an impression to be created of the forces existing in industrial management which led to the creation of the Laboratories.Management of the Laboratories by The University with strong representation of industry in the policy-deciding Northern Carbon Research Committee ensured that the work of the Laboratories maintained a relevance to the coal, coke and iron-making industries. Past projects to 1976 are listed and recent projects relevant to coal-to-coke transitions are described more fully. Fiscal and managerial aspects of the Laboratories are summarized. Comment is made about the usefulness of this type of research.
It is considered that this description of a regional organization within the United Kingdom may have international relevance now that a resurgence of coal research is occurring.
Collaboration
between academic and industrial institutions has been widely discussed and strongly urged during the past decade. In Newcastle upon Tyne, however, it has been practised for more than half a century, in fact since May 11th 1926 when the Northern Coke Research Laboratories were opened in the Chemistry Department of Armstrong College, University of Durham. Although somewhat similar developments took place at Sheffield and Glasgow, the subsequent and continuing history of the Newcastle laboratories is sufficiently different to be worth recording.