[Permutit
Around September 1951, I had the good fortune to find work with
Permutit Ltd, the most well-known company dealing in water treatment, both
domestic and industrial, by means of ion-exchange resins. My job was the
most routine and laborious of the four jobs in the analytical laboratory,
but I enjoyed it. Set against the wall in the corner of the room was a set
of large-bore glass tubes filled with various resins. Some of these simply
softened the water; others removed all ions from it, leaving a purified
water similar to distilled water. For some purposes it was superior to
distilled water. When fresh, it did not contain dissolved carbon dioxide,
for example. However, dissolved traces of organic impurities may not all
be removed. However, most water supplies did not contain such impurities,
so this was not a major disadvantage.
Shortly after taking this job, I moved away from Mrs Butcher and took a
furnished room in Chiswick. The room was dingy, had one gas-ring contained
in a cupboard and no running water. However it was handy for travelling to
Permutit's which was no more than half an hour's bus ride away. I thought
the work at Permutit's interesting, and liked the other staff in the
laboratory. These were Christine, who analyzed industrial waters, Kitty who
analyzed domestic waters, and John Ungar, who apparently did odd jobs, such
as maintaining the supplies of standard chemical solutions. He taught me
the work on the ion exchange resins, and how to do simple titrations, and
to analyze the effluents from the columns of resin periodically, throughout
the day. He was Hungarian and wore dark glasses. This dark, romantic look
appealed to me.
My job required considerable manual dexterity, as I had to fill the
tubes with measured quantities of resin, regenerate them with sodium
chloride (for the water softening resins) or hydrochloric acid for the
cationic resins or sodium hydroxide for the anionic resins. There was a
mixed bed, containing in one tube all the ion-exchange materials necessary
to produce de-ionised water. It was partly regenerated with one reagent,
partly with another, then mixed and water treated by the usual method of
allowing the water to percolate through it.
Christmas came, and this year I spent it with Aunt Violet and Leonard
at
Perham Road.
Aunt Violet had come home from hospital for Christmas and
was managing fairly well.
I was still seeing Margaret Butcher, and went out as usual collecting
money for charity at Christmas, in support of the church choir, of which
Margaret was a member. The choir went from street to street singing
carols, while two of us knocked on adjacent doors. These two people were
Aunt Violet and myself.
I had left the Children of Mary, because I found the meetings boring.
Usually two members spent the time discussing their marriage plans, and the
rest of us listened. Miss Francis, the group leader encouraged this, and I
found her too dominating. I remained a member of the Young Christian
Workers, which I found far more interesting. We were all about the same
age, and discussed the work of our group on an equal footing.
We continued to visit the Catholic Blind People's Home, accompanying
some of the residents on walks. Usually I took Mr Ely, the deaf-blind rug-
maker, with whom I could communicate fairly well, by "felt" sign language.
He talked somewhat indistinctly, but I was able to understand him.
Another thing the "Young Christian Workers" did was to go from door to
door attempting to sell a newspaper called the "Catholic Worker". This was
an English newspaper started in the 1930's attempting to fulfil the same
role in England that the famous American paper also called "The Catholic
Worker" which was started by the Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin of the
"Catholic Worker" movement.
I had joined the "Young Christian Workers in 1950. I was then 22. Most
of the members were about 18. I was probably the oldest, the latest age for
joining being 25. We were expected to resign on reaching 30. Our little
group contained about six members. Sheila was the leader; there was Rose,
who shortly got married. There was Margaret Butcher and myself, and another
young Irish girl called Margaret. There was another young woman, who got a
job in a jeweller's shop. There might have been one or two others who I
have forgotten. The Brook Green branch of the society broke up about the
end of 1951. I do not know whether it was ever reformed. The English
version of the Catholic Worker folded up about this time. We were finding
that people bought a copy the first time we offered it, but did not come
back for a second copy.
Margaret, the young Irish girl returned to Ireland. Shortly
afterwards, I was saddened to get a letter from her family to say that she
had died of tuberculosis. I had thought that TB was extinct in Britain.
I remember going to a Head Office meeting or rally of the "Young
Christian Workers" at Somers Town shortly after it folded up in Brook
Green. This function was interesting but was my last contact with the
YCW. Sheila, our group leader married a lawyer and moved away.
I was attending evening classes three nights a week by then, so no
longer had much free time.
1952
What I remember about 1952 is working at Permutit's. Every day I
caught the bus from my room in Chiswick. Three nights a week I went to
evening classes. On the other two nights I went home and prepared my
evening meal on a gas-ring hidden in a cupboard. In these modern times such
cooking arrangements would be considered inadequate and unsafe! Originally
I had shared the room, which was twin bedded, with a factory worker called
June. She told me her work consisted only of pressing buttons, and yet she
earned at least as much as me, who was on £5 per week. June spent
most of
her evenings out. One day the landlady said she had given her notice, and
I could now have the room on my own. When I asked why, the landlady said
she had caught June "canoodling" with her boy-friend just near the house. I
wondered what this meant. However, I said nothing as certainly, having the
room to myself was more convenient for me. June had not been much company
for me, though I had not got on too badly with her. We just had nothing
much in common, but she had never worried me. Unfortunately this meant
paying more rent and I found I was paying £2 5s per week, a large
chunk out
of £5. I managed to keep myself on £1 per week. This left
£1 for canteen
meals and fares. A tight squeeze. I did not buy many clothes. One item I
did buy was a few ounces of pure nylon, with which to knit a jumper. I was
always anxious to try new things. The jumper proved to be thin and
unserviceable. It was in the early days of nylon.
I went to Mass on Sundays in the big square brick church in Chiswick. I
was always a dutiful Catholic, but at this time was so busy that I had not
time for church societies. At a later date I joined the "Legion of Mary"
which involved calling on Catholics in their homes.
I was not keen on getting married; never met anyone I liked who was
suitable. In church societies, it was difficult to meet the opposite sex.
Apparently the only method was to go to dances, and I had no enthusiasm for
that, and never went to dances.
Leonard, my cousin started going to dances, as he wanted to meet a
suitable young woman. These dances were in Hammersmith, at a Catholic
Church Hall. However he told me that he never met his wife at these
dances. He first met Teresa while standing about and chatting after Mass
at Brook Green Catholic Church.
In the meantime I was getting on well at work, or so I thought. Kitty
took a fortnight's holiday, and I was allowed to shut down my tube
experiments for this period, and do Kitty's work, which was interesting for
me, and meant learning more about water analysis. Kitty did the analysis of
domestic waters. These were bottles of water sent in by customers, who
wanted to order water softeners, or de-ionisers, tailored to suit their
particular water supply. Kitty showed me the how to do the ten tests done
on most sample bottles of water. Such tests as acidity and chloride by
titration, water hardness by titration with the very new reagent called
EDTA, pH and conductivity by meters, turbidity and water colour and
possibly sulphate and iron salts. These were entered on standard forms,
one for each customer, as soon as completed. Usually there were between 10
and 12 bottles of water requiring testing each day. Sometimes it was hard
to complete the day's work, and sometimes there was a slack day. Kitty also
had the job of cleaning out the fish tank each week. The fish tank was kept
purely for the entertainment of the laboratory workers, and had no
commercial function. We were lucky! The staff bought the fish when they
could afford them. I was not earning sufficient to be asked to buy fish.
Kitty bought two "guppies" - tropical fish. They were well looked after in
a temperature-controlled aerated tank.
When Kitty came back from holiday, she announced that she had got tired
of lab work in chemistry and was going to look for another job. I was
sorry to see Kitty go. She had being doing some evening classes in cooking,
and had achieved a high standard in complex cuisine, and imagined that this
would be useful. However, two weeks after she left, she came back unhappy,
having got work in a works canteen, and was finding the cooking very plain,
the work very hard, and her qualifications useless. In the meantime I had
hoped for promotion to Kitty's analytical job. I was disappointed when
they brought in a new young man to do the work. I was now the only woman in
the laboratory apart from Christine, who had worked at Permutit's
throughout the war and was in charge.
Now I became more lonely, having no-one to chat to in the tea-breaks.
John Ungar was preoccupied with teaching the new man his work. Occasionally
a chemist from the pilot plant visited my corner, wishing to use some of my
reagents for a silica test, and occasionally I had a few words with him.
I told people that I was studying "A" level in chemistry, but they seemed
uninterested.
The summer came and I had a break from evening classes. Though I had
left the Butcher's nearly a year ago, I had promised Margaret that I would
go to Lourdes with her and had booked a holiday. It was in mid-August.
We went by ferry across the Channel, and did the long journey across France
by train, travelling partly at night. It took us 24 hours to reach Lourdes.
We were given rooms in the Astorias Hotel. I found I was sharing with an
Irish lady called Kathleen. Margaret was put with someone else. However I
met her each day for the day's activities. Each day was the same. In the
morning we went to the demesne for the Mass of the Sick. This took place in
the open air. Back to the Hotel for lunch with the afternoon free. We
usually spent time looking round the numerous souvenir shops. One day we
went into the Pyrenees on a short coach trip, with a few members of our
party, including a priest. With us were two young women who were sisters, a
teacher and a civil servant, who both liked music. The priest was also very
keen on music. He knew little about photography, as he lined everyone for a
photo with their backs to the sun! This meant sunlight pouring into his
lens. When I protested no-one took any notice.
"They won't come out," I said.
A few days later the folks said "You were right, Joan".
I took a few photos of my own, including one of the group with my new
35 mm camera. I was using transparencies. They needed a viewer to inspect,
but the negatives did not need to be printed, which at that time was too
expensive for me. The mountain scenery was lovely. We saw a few people
taking donkey rides, but there was no time for us to hire a donkey, even if
we had been confident enough to do so. Unfortunately, I dropped my light
meter, which was separate from the camera somewhere in these foothills of
the Pyrenees.
After the evening meal at the hotel, which was excellent, we went to
the demesne for the torchlight procession. This was the most dramatic part
of the day with everyone carrying candles in cardboard shades to keep them
from blowing out. We sang the Lourdes hymn in French. The words were
printed on the outside of our candle-holders. Thousands of people of many
nationalities walked in procession round the huge concrete area of the
demesne. We looked back at the beautiful trail of lights formed by the
multitude of candles being carried. Each of us passed through Our Lady's
Grotto, which was the actual spot where The Virgin Mary had appeared to
Bernadette. It was an exuberant end to the day. We went home tired.
On another afternoon, we visited the baths. These were baths taken by
the sick primarily, but well people were allowed in after all the sick
people had bathed. After queuing up for two hours, Margaret and I got our
chance.
The routine was that we took off our clothes and donned a white robe;
then dipped in the bath quickly in the cold water, and kissed the crucifix
at the end of the bath. We were told that we were not allowed to dry
ourselves, but must put our clothes on directly. I did this and did not
feel wet. Afterwards we filled our water-bottles at the Spring which was
directed into a pipe connected to a row of taps. This holy Lourdes water we
took home to our friends and relations. We only had five full days at
Lourdes. It was an interesting and memorable experience. I felt that I
would like to visit Lourdes again at a later date.
When I got back to work at Permutit's it was suggested that I was not
quite normal and should see "a doctor". I agreed to this because I wanted
to keep my job at Permutit's, but looking back, it did seem like a
disastrous move for me. I had no reason why they told me this. It might
have been that I was over-conscientious, or untidy, or did not easily mix,
or talked about religion occasionally.
Kitty visited the lab again and this time seemed much happier. She was
now doing laboratory work again, but this time in biology. She was doing
some work with animals, but I don't know what this involved.
By November 1952 I was seeing a doctor, and it was arranged that I
should go into the local general hospital for a course of electric shock
treatment. I am not sure why I landed up like this. The upshot was that I
lost my job at Permutit's.
I do not know why I stayed in Hammersmith Hospital for 3 months. At
first I had electric shock treatment. However I was given only about four
shocks. Then they told me this treatment was unnecessary. I do not want to
describe this, but only to mention some of the friends I made on the ward.
It was a general hospital ward. People there had various types of illness.
It was not a specialist ward. There were only two beds for psychiatric
patients, in the middle of the ward with no curtains. This was because such
people were physically fit usually, having no need of nursing attention,
such as needed privacy.
In the mornings I was the first patient to rise at about 6 am. I went
out to the kitchen and made about 30 cups of tea, enough for all the
patients. Then I tried to hurry round with these before they got cold. I
volunteered for this job, being glad to have something to occupy my time.
In one corner were two patients in their 50's with rheumatoid arthritis.
They were friends and devout Christians. I did not enquire what
denomination, or tell them that I was Catholic; just said that I was a
Christian too. They became my friends. One could get out of bed and walk;
the other could hardly move. They did not seem to be improving, but
remained remarkably cheerful. The other psychiatric patient was an Italian
girl who had been a live-in maid. She was called Pia, and was very
reserved because she could not speak much English. The arthritic women
tried to be friends with her as well as with myself.
There were two young women who spent all their time in bed. They did
not get up at all, but liked me to sit by their beds and chat for half an
hour or so, during the day. I could not believe that the younger girl was
only 13 years of age; she seemed so mature. The other one was 18 years old.
They were "heart patients" and were forbidden to take any exercise. This
was in the 1950's. Today's kind of treatment would be much better than
this. They did not seem to be ill; could chat and remained cheerful. It
seemed sad to me that young people like this should be confined to bed.
The 18 year old had masses of correspondence. She told me that she was
secretary of a "fan club", devoted to some popular entertainer of the day.
She seemed important to me, as I never knew how one got to run such a club.
These were the people I remember best, and even so, I don't remember their
names.
There was one other called Kay. She was a favourite with all the
patients on the ward, who admired her bravery. Not only was she blind, but
she had multiple problems, unknown to us. Every day, she got out of bed and
made a round of the award. She loved to listen to plays on the hospital
radio; the nurse used to tune this in for her and fix her head-phones most
afternoons. One day the curtains were drawn round all the beds. I was in
the middle of the room, but in my dressing-gown, as I spent most of the day
out of bed.
My friend, one of the rheumatoid arthritic patients called me, "Joan,
come and sit by me us."
I asked her what was happening.
"Kay has died," she told me.
She had called me to sit behind the curtains, so that I was not
distressed by the removal of Kay from the ward. This was the only death on
the ward during my time there. Some of the patients were there for short
stays only. There was a sixteen-year old who wanted to continue studying
for her "O" levels in bed. She was forbidden to do this and told to rest.
Somehow, I think these attitudes were rather old-fashioned. Most patients
seemed to get better and eventually leave. The exception was someone who
told me she had been there 35 years. I took her tea in a pouring cup each
morning, as she could not sit up. I said that I was very sorry to hear
that she had been there 35 years.
I asked, "How can you stand it?"
I was young and was crying inwardly when I heard about this.
She said quite calmly "I am used to it".
Eventually it was my turn to leave. I did not understand why I had been
there so long, or what the blue pill which I took each day was for. I could
not understand it in any way. I wanted to get back to work.
One day I packed my things. It was the early Spring of 1953. I had
nowhere to live. and I had no job. I do not know where I stayed when I
first left the hospital, but soon I got a room in a guest-house in
Chiswick. I asked Permutit Ltd. to take me back first of all, but they
refused to do so. I visited them to see the old staff. Only John Ungar was
there who I knew. Chris was in hospital having an operation. I noticed
that the Permutit analytical laboratory now consisted of an all-male staff
and I believe this was what they wanted.
The research laboratory which was situated on the top floor at
Permutit's had always been all male. I had been told that women were not
allowed to work there. We were never allowed to talk to the men who worked
there while I worked at Permutit's. I was told that the work was "secret".
I wrote letters to all the water treatment firms in London. There were
only about six besides Permutit. They were all situated in West London. All
but one of the water treatment firms turned me down. Eventually a very
small company called Superstat took me as a lab assistant. The pay was only
£6 per week. £3 15s went for my board and lodging so there was
not much
left, possibly £1 after I had paid insurance and tax. I thought that
when
September came I would start evening classes again at Chelsea Polytechnic,
There was another year to do before I could sit for the "Intermediate
B.Sc." exam.
Another blow struck me before I had been two weeks settled down. The
proprietor of the guest house told me to leave, saying that she needed my
room for her grandmother. It was a lovely room on the top floor, and I was
very disappointed at having to leave it. I was suspicious, and wondered if
I had accidentally done something of which the proprietor disapproved. I
was always afraid of upsetting landladies. However, sometimes I found rooms
where the landlady was reasonable, and left me to lead my own life. Most of
the time I liked to be quiet and study for exams. Sometimes a relative or
friend would visit, but we were never noisy. On this occasion I found a
quiet bedsitter. In Acton within walking distance of Superstat Ltd.
1953
I spent 1953 trying to do as well as I could at Superstat's. As a very
small firm, there were no prospects there unless expansion was going to
take place. That is what the two directors hoped for, and that was the
idea of experimenting with the new ion exchange resins from the USA. Most
of these small firms including Permutit's believed that de-ionised water
would eventually replace distilled water as a cheaper substitute. They
probably had not taken into account the hidden costs of servicing ion-
exchange equipment, which needed continual regeneration using brine or
strong acids such as hydrochloric acid and strong alkalis, usually caustic
soda. Distillation was a much simpler process. I was no economist and
neither were most of the directors of our companies. They caught their
enthusiasm from that of the scientific workers they employed.
While working at Superstat's I visited the local Lyon's cafe in Acton
for my mid-day meal. I had to reach Chelsea Polytechnic by 6pm on three
evenings per week. I asked for quarter of an hour off, so that I left by
5.15 pm. When I got to Chelsea Polytechnic, I had a cup of tea in the
canteen but nothing to eat, as I could not afford it. Mr Rieder the Chief
Chemist gave me the time off willingly, though the directors complained
about it.
Though I was testing ion exchange resins, this firm was making its
profits by selling an electronic gadget called a "Superstat." It was
claimed that these prevent scale from being formed in tanks. Mr Rieder told
me that these gadgets did not work. I did not comment, having no knowledge
on this subject. They would not have needed chemists if they were only
selling "Superstats." The fact that they were trying to branch out into ion
exchange resins meant that there might have been something in what Mr
Rieder said, but I did not worry about it.
Mr Rieder was Jewish. He left work before dusk on Fridays. Usually
this meant that he did not have to leave work early, except in the winter.
When he went early on Fridays, I had to stay in the laboratory on my own
until 5.30 pm. This was the time when I usually got a visit from one of the
directors, who would look in to ask what I was doing. Usually they seemed
satisfied. They had very little understanding of chemistry.
The winter of 1953/54 was very cold. When Mr Rieder came in shortly
after I had arrived one morning, he turned on the gas fire straight away,
for extra heating in the laboratory. He told me that he had been so cold,
that he had got up in the middle of the night and turned his gas-fire on.
Mr Rieder was always very friendly.
Most days I spent testing the new ion-exchange resins, especially their
capacity. This is the quantify of water which they purify during one
regeneration. This involves running water through the tubes at a rather
slow rate, catching the water in large containers, with measuring scales
marked on them. Usually one run would last over a day, and perhaps 15
litres of water would be produced.
Sometimes Mr Rieder gave me some curious jobs. One day, Mr Rieder told
me that he was going out for the day on business. He gave me a row of 12
beakers for titration for chloride. I used a lot of silver nitrate and
could not get results with some solutions. I was under the impression that
these were samples of natural waters.
To my dismay when he got back, Mr Rieder told me that he had added acid
to some beakers. The chloride test does not work in acidic solution. Of
course I did not test for acidity, as at work I was used to doing routine
work. I did not expect to have special "made-up" solutions to test,
designed to catch people out. This was done at evening classes sometimes,
but when there we had a different mind-set, and when analyzing unknown
solutions, methodically covered every eventuality.
I became very cross with Mr Rieder as a supervisor, especially when he
told me that the samples were not "real work" and had nothing to do with
the firm's business. Mr Rieder told me that he had left the samples for me
to do, so that when the directors looked into the lab. in his absence, they
would find me busy. I complained that I did not want to waste my time.
During working hours, I said that I expected to be doing something useful
for the firm. Mr Rieder was upset when I grumbled like this. He said that
he had always been a friend to me. This was quite true. However, I thought
he was wrong in just "keeping me busy".
Most of the time relationships at Superstat were easy. There was fun
and relaxation in the tea-breaks. I liked to go out and chat to the
workmen sometimes. There was a washing-up sink where I had to wash the
glass-ware outside in the workshop, where men were packing goods for
export, as well as making them. There were only about 6 men employed
besides the drivers. I think the firm was top-heavy. There were two
working directors and a secretary in the offices upstairs, and a chemist
and myself in the laboratory. Thus there were as many people on the staff,
as there were on production work. The latter clocked on; we did not.
Sometimes I chatted to Mr Rieder in the tea-break. On the whole he was
a very friendly "boss." He was interested in my "A" level studies and
wished me well, and often told me his thoughts about what went on in this
firm. Sometimes the secretary came downstairs to take dictation from Mr
Rieder. He was slow and patient with her. Suddenly, we heard that she had
been sacked for slowness, after six months trial.
"That was a silly thing to do", said Mr Rieder. "When she first came,
she was slow and not good enough for the job, but now she has improved
remarkably and is doing the work well. Besides she has become used to this
firm's letters."
I noticed that there was no replacement for the secretary, and presumed
that the directors typed their own letters. Mr Rieder could type well, but
did not do any typing at work . This skill may have proved to be
Superstat's downfall because he wrote letters which denigrated the firm's
products. But for the time being this remained a secret.
Mr Rieder asked for another assistant during the summer of 1953. June,
aged 18 arrived. She was told to do the washing up for the laboratory,
leaving me free to concentrate on chemistry. I was told to teach her the
work of the laboratory whenever I had time.
There was a brilliant white well-lit titration bench in the lab. It
had to be well-lit as the lab received very little natural light. There was
only one window which looked out on to a dismal yard. However the titration
bench was as good as the one in the Permutit lab. and I was able to teach
June how to do titrations.
One day an American arrived bringing samples of new ion exchange
resins. He made a great fuss of June and myself. This made me feel that
Americans were exceptionally friendly and treated everyone equally. I was
very flattered. The firm bought large quantities of his goods. Mr Rieder
detailed me to buy a dozen empty sweet jars from a local shop. I was
surprised to obtain them easily at 6d each. I packed the new American
resins in these and labelled them. The directors were pleased and thought
we would soon have new products to sell. We hoped to compete with Permutit.
The firm had indeed packed some columns of ion-exchange resin already on a
commercial scale and had found some new customers in England. Export was
not attempted as the product was quite expensive and heavy to transport.
I think I spent the rest of 1953 quite happily at Superstat, but in the
summer had a personal disappointment. I had missed one term of my study of
chemistry , physics and maths during the Autumn of 1952, but decided I had
probably done enough work to attempt the Inter B.Sc. exam in thesesubjects. I was getting very good marks in chemistry, and my instructor
said that I could not possibly fail. I was also doing very well in
physics. However, by the time I sat down to advanced mathematics, I was
very tired, as I gave this subject third priority. I did not think that
most of the subject matter would help me much in my career. However, it was
an examination that had to be passed. There were three separate papers and
each had to be passed. I was not doing very well in calculus or co-
ordinate geometry. I could not get through the tests quickly enough.
However, I decided to try the exam. I took the exam in July 1953. I had to
pay £13 as entrance fee. This was a blow. It would have been much
cheaper
to have taken GCE "A" levels. The charge for these was about £2 each.
£13
represented for me two and a half weeks' pay! I had to take this money out
of savings which had been in my Post Office Account before I started work
eight years ago. This was money I had always tried not to touch.
When I took the exams I thought that I had performed well in chemistry
and physics but badly in maths. The results would not be available until
the beginning of September in six weeks time.
When the results came through I had been failed. Unfortunately in the
Inter B.Sc exam if one failed in one subject, one was not given passes in
any subject, however well one may have done. One was not even told what had
happened. My lecturers were very sympathetic, and advised me to enrol for
GCE "A" level next time. I decided that doing three nights a week at
classes was too much for me, so in Autumn 1953 I enrolled at Chelsea
Polytechnic for chemistry and physics only. I did not like having to repeat
the year and thought I might become stale. In order to enter for the exam,
we had to complete all the course work for the year, so just because I had
done the course before, it did not mean I could slack. However, usually I
enjoyed classes, met nice people there and had some fun. At that time there
were a fair number of women in the classes including one nun who was
training to be a secondary school teacher. I had friends with which to
spend the tea breaks, The women usually stuck together.
Just before Christmas we had a party upstairs in the Directors'
luxurious and spacious carpeted office. We had cakes and tea and alcoholic
drinks. Afterwards, I was driven home by one of the directors. The weather
was very cold and it was getting late. I believe he was drunk. At that
time I did not know the dangers of drinking and driving. I was young and
innocent. The information available to us all on TV today was not readily
available. But I immediately became alarmed because of his speeding. I felt
that the car was being driven badly, though I ascribed it to the director's
carelessness, not his drinking. On this occasion I arrived home without
harm, but decided I would not accept a lift from him again.
I spent Christmas Day with Aunt Violet and Leonard and went to Midnight
Mass with them. I still saw Margaret Butcher at the Church sometimes, but
the YCW girls had disappeared. Aunt Violet was too tired to go out
collecting for the carol singers. She was now unemployed and money was
short, as Leonard earned very little in his first job as a commercial
artist with a very small firm. Before he had obtained this job, he did a
one-off free-lance job. He was offered an aeroplane flight to Northern
Ireland. There he painted the famous Giant's Causeway, some spectacular
rocks off the Coast of Northern Ireland. He was accommodated in a hotel and
when he got back home said that he had never known such luxury. His shoes
had been cleaned for him each morning!
1954
In January I was busy in the evenings studying chemistry and physics
at Chelsea Polytechnic. In those days "A" level chemistry was entirely
inorganic. This fitted in with my work, as water analysis is an inorganic
process. We did not trouble ourselves overmuch about traces of dissolved
organic substances. This was just as well as these are difficult to
eliminate either by ion exchange methods or by distillation.
In February I came to work one morning and found that Mr Rieder had
disappeared. Mr Robertson, one of the directors came down to say that he
had been sacked.
I was astonished. "Why is that?" I asked.
"Because Mr Rieder has nearly ruined this company. He spent the last
year secretly writing to all our customers, telling them that our product
was no good."
He meant the electronic product called the Superstat, which I knew very
little about. I had been aware that Mr Rieder did not have any faith in
the Superstat. He had several times discussed this with me. However, I
was horrified to learn that he been writing to the firm's customers about
it.
"He has slipped away to Greece," I was told.
I thought to myself that if I had been in Mr Rieder's position, I would
have resigned after telling the directors that I did not think the firm's
product was any good. That is the sort of thing I do. Though as I had so
far been in a junior position I had not yet had to do this.
However, some time earlier, I had resigned from one lab job after two
weeks, because I believed the working conditions were unhealthy. I
believed I was going to work in a proper lab when I was engaged. But was
put on production work, coating the inside of tubular lights, mostly in the
shapes of letters of the alphabet, designed for advertising signs. I had
to shake the tubes after adding a small amount of an unknown liquid, in
order to coat the inside surface with this liquid. Then I introduced a
small quantity of unknown powder. The bottles containing this powder were
marked simply with the names of about twelve colours. All the powders were
white. The colours referred to the colour of light they emitted when
evacuated, and had an electric current passed through them. I tapped the
outsides of the tubes with a small wooden mallet until the inside surfaces
were completely coated with powder, before handing them to workmen in the
next room, who evacuated and sealed them. Often I would drop one of the
glass tubes and break it. The pieces then had to be swept up and given for
disposal to the workmen. I worked in a small room on my own with little
ventilation, and the place became dusty. I was very uneasy about this type
of work, and stayed for three weeks only.
It was after resigning from this unhealthy job, that I was lucky enough
to be engaged by Superstat. Though a small lab, working conditions there
were much better; I was doing a real laboratory job and I was usually aware
of the chemical nature of all the substances I handled, so that I could
take necessary precautions. Superstat was also a "ramshackle" firm but at
least not deliberately exploitative to workers.
So though I regretted Mr Rieder's departure, I could hardly understand
why he did what he did. There was no advantage gained for him personally,
so he must have thought he was doing the right thing. It was the underhand
way he did it that astonished me.
Soon there was another chief chemist; he was not as nice as Mr Rieder.
I recognised him as soon as he entered the room. He had interviewed me at
another firm, and failed to take me on.
"Why did I not get the job with your old firm? " I asked.
"It was not the policy to employ women as lab technicians", he told me.
I wondered why he had left the old firm. It was a larger place than
Superstat's and well established in ion exchange business. I was given to
understand that these firms were failing because Permutit was taking over
all the business, probably because it held all the British patents for the
ion exchange resins. They were first in the field in Britain. Other firms
had to buy American patented materials.
The new chemist grumbled when I talked to June. He said that I had
chatted with her while doing the work, and this disturbed his train of
thought. I was affronted by this, as I only usually talked to June when I
was giving her instructions on what work to do. After two weeks the new
chemist dismissed June, saying that we only needed a part-time washer-up to
assist me for two hours twice a week.
I thought of my aunt and mentioned that she needed work.
The directors engaged her, and when she came I had to tell her that I
was not allowed to talk to her while at work. Perhaps it was a mistake
introducing her. She was not well and could hardly catch the bus to work
in the very cold March weather. The result was that by mid-March after only
two weeks she was told to go.
The chief chemist said "There is not enough work to do, and she hangs
about after finishing the washing -up."
By the end of March I was told to go also. Apparently the firm was
going bankrupt. I did not stop long enough to discuss this, as with no
money coming in, and rent to pay I had to find other work quickly.