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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0825.PDF
f IGHT, 15 June 1961 835 FIFTY YEARS OF FINISHES CELLON LTD CELEBRATE THEIR GOLDEN JUBILEE Top, the main Cellon works at Richmond Road, Kingston-upon-Thames. Left, the World War I factory at Richmond. Right, A. J. A. Wallace Barr, the company's founder (in sports jacket) with C. F. Cody, who used Cellon dope on the biplane with which he won the 1912 Military Trials ONE of the many problems of the constructors of the earliestaeroplanes was to find a satisfactory method of keepingfabric lifting surfaces sufficiently taut for reasonably aero- dynamic efficiency. In this, as in many branches of the aeronauticalart at that time, the French were ahead of us. A little over 50 years ago, in the spring of 1911, A. J. A. WallaceBarr was experimenting with cellulose acetate solutions for the purpose of manufacturing fabric dope. He worked practicallysingle-handed in a small shed at Clapham, in South-West London, but he soon reached a stage when he could offer a satisfactoryproduct to aeroplane-builders. Quite near by, under the railway arches at Battersea, the Short brothers were building their earlyaircraft, and they became his first customers. Wallace Barr had meanwhile become interested in a company which had acquiredpatent rights for cellulose-acetate solutions developed on the Continent, and soon afterwards a small company was formed ofwhich he was both secretary and chief salesman. That was, in effect, the birth of Cellon Ltd, who this month areaccordingly celebrating the fiftieth birthday of the product which first made their name famous, though in fact it was to be anothertwo years before the company was founded by Mr Barr under its present name. Soon after the Short brothers began te use Cellon other pioneerconstructors followed suit, among them the British and Colonial Aeroplane Co (now Bristol), A. V. Roe, S. F. Cody, T. O. M.Sopwith and Robert Blackburn. In 1913 Wallace Barr received his first Government order foraeroplane dope, and it was in the latter part of that year that Cellon Ltd was formed, arrangements for large-scale productionof dope being made with Thomas Tyrer & Co, a chemical firm in the East End of London. But there was still no British source ofsupply of the basic material, cellulose acetate, and Wallace Barr had to obtain supplies from France; after the outbreak of the1914-18 war he made many trips across the Channel for this purpose, flying in RFC aircraft. Later the problem was to be simpli-fied by the development of cellulose-nitrate dope, though for some time its use was confined to second-line aircraft. In a war in which practically every aeroplane was fabric-covered,the Government's demand for dope was insatiable. Cellon Ltd acquired a factory at Richmond, Surrey, very small by comparisonwith what was to come later, yet capable of producing the as yet imcomplicated product in large quantities. At this period the One of several recent extensions to the Kingston works is the paint aPplication laboratory. This is one of its twelve well-equipped rooms company operated under the title of Cellon (Richmond) Ltd.With the end of the Great War the need for aircraft dope slumped practically to zero. Although the word "diversification" wasprobably then unknown in its present popular context, the com- pany had laid plans for jusc such a policy; they developed success-ful industrial and decorative finishes, gradually making increasing use of raw materials widely different from the old-establishedcelluloses. Nevertheless, the aircraft side of their business was not neglected; and, as fabric-covering began to give place to plywoodand metal, Cellon developed and manufactured finishes which would give good results on such surfaces. The slowly growingcommercial-aircraft market was well catered for, and in the military field came the first demands for high-speed finishes; here, forexample, Cellon were called upon to meet the exacting require- ments of the Schneider Trophy Supermarine S.6Bs in the matter ofhigh airspeeds and resistance to salt water. By 1927 the demand for new industrial and aircraft finishes hadoutstripped the capacity of the Richmond works, so a five-acre site was purchased on the northern outskirts of Kingston-upon-Thames. Here a factory was built (with a frontage that remains aesthetically pleasing even by today's standards) and went intoproduction early in 1929. In 1936 Cellon Ltd became a public company; and at about thistime, with the horizon already darkening for war again, new produc- tion shops were added to the works and the office block was almostdoubled in size. Between 1939 and 1945 Cellon's resources were entirely devotedto the war effort. Under the direction of the Ministry of Aircraft Production over 80 per cent of the output of finishes went to themajor aircraft constructors; the remainder was destined for armoured fighting vehicles, for motor torpedo boats, for the camou-flaging of buildings and for many other defensive and protective purposes. Cellon cellulose dopes and synthetic finishes were usedon such famous aircraft as the Hurricane, Spitfire, Blenheim, Wellington, Mosquito and Lancaster. For the first time, the com-
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