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The ‘Arsenal’ in the strand: Australian chemists and the British munitions effort 1916–1919

Pages 45-67 | Received 03 Feb 1988, Published online: 23 Aug 2006

References

  • Hancock , W.K. 1930 . Australia , 39 – 39 . London : Benn . Brisbane: Jacaranda, 1964
  • Scott , Ernest . 1936 . Australia during the War. The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–18, Vol. XI , Sydney : Angus and Robertson . Appendix 7; C. E. W. Bean, ANZAC to Amiens: A Shorter History of the Australian Fighting Services in the First World War (Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1946), p. 532.
  • Masson , Marjorie . 1919 . The Australian Munitions Workers . Repatriation Magazine , I : 5 – 5 .
  • See Shadwell A. The Mobilisation of Industry for War Edinburgh Review January 1916 223 172 194 See also L. G. Chiozza Money, ‘The War and British Industry’, Fortnightly Review, xcvii (March 1915), 529–37.
  • Field Marshall Douglas Haig . April 1919 . “ Final Despatch ” . In Fourth Supplement of the London Gazette April , 4700 – 4700 . 8 Quoted variously, see Proceedings of the Institute of Chemistry (April 1919), Part II, 46.
  • Cardwell , D.S.L. 1975 . Science and World War I . Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, A , 342 : 451 – 451 .
  • Cardwell , D.S.L. 1975 . Science and World War I . Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, A , 342 : 449 – 449 . cf. Roy MacLeod and Kay Andrews, ‘War and Economic Development: Government and the Optical Industry in Britain’, in War and Economic Development, edited by J. Winter (Cambridge, 1975), pp. 165–203.
  • Pope , William . July 1920 . “ The Imperial Aspects of Chemical Science ” . In Science and Industry Vol. 2 , July , 416 – 416 .
  • For a recent account of science in the war, and especially the role of ‘tactical technologies’, see Hartcup Guy The War of Invention: Scientific Developments, 1914–18 Brassey's Defence Publishers London 1988 For the role of the universities, see Michael Sanderson. The Universities and British Industry 1850–1970 (London, 1972), chapter 8. However, a modern comprehensive history of British industrial mobilization in the Great War has yet to be written. To date, the chemical industries, attracting the greatest public notice, have received greatest attention. More work is needed on the electrical industry, machine engineering, and communication and transportation in the war economy. Twenty years ago, Clive Trebilcock observed that ‘In 1900 the armaments industry was, possibly, the most scientific of all industries’, but few historians of science have pursued this sector in seeking relationships between manufacturing industry and the practice of scientific warfare. Fewer still have explored the relationship between defence spending, science-based armaments production, and economic growth. Such questions, familiar to economic historians, remain curiously disengaged from the history of science.
  • Haber , L.F. 1986 . The Poisonous Cloud: Chemical Warfare in the First World War 116 – 116 . Oxford 118. For the history of industrial chemistry in the period, see Trevor Williams, ‘The Chemical Industry in the First World War’, The Chemical Industry, Past and Present (London, 1953); Paul Hohenberg, Chemicals in Western Europe: 1850–1914 (Chicago, 1967). See also Charles Wilson, ‘Between Belligerents, 1914–18’, in The History of Unilever: A Study in Economic Growth and Social Change (London, 1954), II, 155–92; and W. J. Reader, ‘The Great War’, in ICI: A History: The Forerunners, 1870–1926 (London, 1970–5). Report of the British Mission appointed to visit Enemy Chemical Factories in the Occupied Zone, engaged in the Production of Munitions of War, 1919, 1921 [Cmd 1937], 583.
  • Haber . 1986 . The Poisonous Cloud: Chemical Warfare in the First World War 116 – 116 . Oxford Correlli Barnett, The Audit of War: The Illusion and Reality of Britain as a Great Nation (London, 1986).
  • Dewar , George A.B. 1921 . The Great Munition Feat, 1914–1918 London
  • Wrigley , C. 1982 . “ The Ministry of Munitions: An Innovatory Department ” . In War and the State. The Transformation of British Government 1914–18 Edited by: Burk , K. 33 – 33 . London
  • On the Munitions Invention Department (M.I.D.), see Pattison Michael Scientific Inventions and the Military in Britain, 1915–19: The Munitions Inventions Department Social Studies of Science 1983 13 521 568
  • Wilsmore , N.T.M. 1921 . The Present Position of Chemistry and Chemists . Report of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science , 15 : 29 – 29 . Presidential Address to Section B (Chemistry) Cf. ‘The War and the British Chemical Industry’, Nature, 95 (1915), 119–20; and ‘Some Developments in British Industry during the War’, Nature, 102 (1919), 506–8.
  • Creveld , Martin van . 1977 . Supplying War: Logistics from Wallenstein to Patton 141 – 141 . Cambridge
  • See Trebilcock The War of Invention: Scientific Developments, 1914–18 Brassey's Defence Publishers London 1988
  • Wilsmore . 1921 . The Present Position of Chemistry and Chemists . Report of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science , 15 : 30 – 30 . Presidential Address to Section B (Chemistry) ‘The Work of the Ministry of Munitions’, The Scientific Australian (September, 1917), 14; A. E. Leighton, ‘A Note on Two War Achievements of Applied Chemistry and the Significance for Australia’, Science and Industry, 2 (1920), 713.
  • See Taylor A.J.P. English History, 1914–45 Oxford 1965 34 34 For manpower statistics, see the History of the Ministry of Munitions (London: HMSO, 1922), especially IV, Part III, Appendix I.
  • See MacLeod Roy Andrews Kay Scientific Advice in the War at Sea, 1915–1917; The Board of Invention and Research Journal of Contemporary History 1971 6 3 40 cf. MacLeod and Andrews (footnote 7).
  • For background, see MacLeod Roy Andrews Kay The Social Relations of Science and Technology, 1914–1939 The Fontana Economic History of Europe Cipolla C. Glasgow 1976 v 301 363
  • MacLeod , R. and Andrews , E.K. 1970 . The Origins of the DSIR: Reflections on Ideas and Men . Public Administration , 48 : 23 – 48 .
  • Currie , George and Graham , John . 1966 . The Origins of CSIRO: Science and the Commonwealth Government, 1901–1926 , 30 – 39 . Melbourne : Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation . Boris Schedvin, Shaping Science and Industry: A History of Australia's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, 1926–49 (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1988).
  • Currie and Graham . 1966 . The Origins of CSIRO: Science and the Commonwealth Government, 1901–1926 , 27 – 27 . Melbourne : Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation .
  • Osborne . 1966 . The Origins of CSIRO: Science and the Commonwealth Government, 1901–1926 , 29 – 29 . Melbourne : Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation .
  • Osborne . 1966 . The Origins of CSIRO: Science and the Commonwealth Government, 1901–1926 , 43 – 43 . Melbourne : Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation .
  • Hughes . 1966 . The Origins of CSIRO: Science and the Commonwealth Government, 1901–1926 , 35 – 35 . Melbourne : Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation .
  • Hughes . 1966 . The Origins of CSIRO: Science and the Commonwealth Government, 1901–1926 , 41 – 41 . Melbourne : Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation .
  • See Gilbert Martin Winston S. Churchill, Volume IV, 1916–1922 London 1955 14 14 Volume IV, Companion, Part I, Documents, June 1917–June 1919. (London, 1977), pp. 111–47.
  • Leighton Papers (privately held), Lord Casey to A. E. Leighton, 7 June 1949; cf. Weickhardt L.W. Arthur Edgar Leighton Dictionary of Australian Biography Melbourne 1986 x 69 70 D. P. Mellor, The Role of Science and Industry, Australia in the War of 1939–1945, Series 4, volume 5. (Canberra, 1958), p. 2.
  • Cf. Reid R.W. Tongues of Conscience: War and the Scientist's Dilemma London 1969 5 6
  • See Fraser Peter British War Policy and the Crisis of Liberalism in May 1915 Journal of Modern History 1982 54 1 26
  • 1915 . Shrapnel Shell . The Commonwealth Engineer , 2 : 400 – 400 . ‘Munitions for the Allies’, The Commonwealth Engineer, 3 (1915), 2.
  • Wilson , Trevor . 1986 . The Myriad Faces of War: Britain and the Great War, 1914–1918 , 235 – 235 . Oxford : Polity Press . quoting The History of the Ministry of Munitions (footnote 19), VII, part I, p. 16.
  • Adams , R.J.Q. 1978 . Arms and the Wizard: Lloyd George and the Ministry of Munitions, 1915–1916 London
  • The imperial context is described further in Jensen J.K. The Development of Munitions Production in Australia Address delivered to Members of the Institute of Industrial Management, Melbourne, 1 June 1943.
  • MacLeod , R. Science Under the Southern Cross: The Life of Archibald Liversidge, FRS (forthcoming), chapter 10, ‘Gentlemen at Arms’.
  • Robinson , C.S. 1966 . Kenneth Bingham Quinan . The Chemical Engineer , November : 290 – 297 .
  • Moulton , Fletcher . 1922 . The Life of Lord Moulton 185 – 185 . London
  • For the history and details of manufacture, see excellent John Read's Explosives London 1942
  • Robinson . 1966 . Kenneth Bingham Quinan . The Chemical Engineer , November : 291 – 291 .
  • Reid . 1969 . Tongues of Conscience: War and the Scientist's Dilemma 41 – 41 . London Wilson (footnote 34), p. 236; Adams (footnote 35), p. 148.
  • Jensen , John . Defence Production in Australia to 1941 28 – 28 . (unpublished manuscript in Australian Archives), chapter 5,
  • For the manufacture of TNT, see Baker T. Some British Explosives Works The Scientific Australian June 1918 98 98
  • Moulton . 1922 . The Life of Lord Moulton 185 – 185 . London The extreme sensitivity of explosives technologies and the uncertainties involved in their manufacture are well described by Lord Moulton in his Rede Lecture for 1919: Science and War (Cambridge, 1919), pp. 18–27.
  • Moulton . 1922 . The Life of Lord Moulton 185 – 185 . London chapter 7, ‘The Fight for Amatol’; cf. Ninth Report on Amatol: Proceedings of the Amatol Conferences held in 1917 (London: Ministry of Munitions, 1918), pp. 7–8.
  • Wilson . 1986 . The Myriad Faces of War: Britain and the Great War, 1914–1918 , 235 – 235 . Oxford : Polity Press .
  • Pope . July 1920 . “ The Imperial Aspects of Chemical Science ” . In Science and Industry Vol. 2 , July , 416 – 416 .
  • Robinson . 1966 . Kenneth Bingham Quinan . The Chemical Engineer , November : 291 – 291 . For the Australian mining contribution at Messines, see Roy MacLeod, ‘The Phantom Soldiers: Australian Tunnellers on the Western Front, 191672-1918’, Journal of the Australian War Memorial, No. 13 (October, 1988).
  • He was later succeeded by H. T. Dickinson. Cf. Quinan K.B. Second Report on Costs and Efficiencies for H.M. Factories Controlled by the Factories Branch 1918 September 30 30 quoted in Wilsmore (footnote 15),
  • Robinson . 1966 . Kenneth Bingham Quinan . The Chemical Engineer , November : 291 – 291 .
  • Wilsmore . 1921 . The Present Position of Chemistry and Chemists . Report of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science , 15 : 30 – 30 . Presidential Address to Section B (Chemistry) Leighton (footnote 18), p. 714.
  • Robinson . 1966 . Kenneth Bingham Quinan . The Chemical Engineer , November : 291 – 291 .
  • Including 2300 tons of sulphuric acid, 2000 tons of sodium nitrate, 2000 tons of oils and fats for glycerine, 360 tons of cotton, 600 tons of alcohol and 300 tons of toluene. Leighton A Note on Two War Achievements of Applied Chemistry and the Significance for Australia Science and Industry 1920 2 713 713
  • Robinson . 1966 . Kenneth Bingham Quinan . The Chemical Engineer , November : 291 – 291 .
  • Robinson . 1966 . Kenneth Bingham Quinan . The Chemical Engineer , November : 294 – 294 .
  • Wilson . 1986 . The Myriad Faces of War: Britain and the Great War, 1914–1918 , 220 – 220 . Oxford : Polity Press . The concept of the ‘engineers’ war' was given great publicity, both in Britain and Australia and became a powerful slogan particularly among mechanical and chemical engineers. Cf. ‘The Institution of Automobile Engineers’, The Times Educational Supplement, 27 October 1916, 173; ‘The Manufacture of Munitions’, The Scientific Australian (June 1915), 95; Henry Barraclough, ‘The Spirit of the Engineer’, Quarterly Bulletin of the Institution of Engineers of Australia, 4 (1927), 331.
  • 1965 . History of the Ministry of Munitions Vol. IV , Oxford Part III, Appendix I.
  • Over 7000 ultimately served. Their history is briefly recounted in Scott Australia during the War. The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–18, Vol. XI Angus and Robertson Sydney 1936 245 277 See also Henry Barraclough, Report to the Minister for Defence on the Operations of the Australian Munitions Workers and the Australian War Workers, 1916–1920 (Sydney: Government Printer, 1920), and Roy MacLeod, ‘The Australian Invasion of Britain: Men and Munitions, 1916–1920’ (forthcoming).
  • Pike , R.M. 1961 . The Growth of Scientific Institutions and Employment of Natural Science Graduates in Britain, 1900–1960 , 2 – 2 . University of London . unpublished M.Sc. thesis See also R. MacLeod and Kay Andrews, Selected Expenditure and Manpower Statistics, 1850–1914, 2 vols (Brighton: University of Sussex, 1968).
  • Dewar , James . 1902 . “ Presidential Address ” . In Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science Vol. 72 , 15 – 16 . Belfast
  • Hansard . Parliamentary Debates U.K. 5th Series, LXXI (13 May 1915), col. 1905.
  • Cardwell , D.S.L. 1972 . The Organization of Science in Britain , 2nd edn 208 – 209 . London
  • Public Record Office (PRO) DSIR 17/1 Average number of staff engaged in Research work in Pure and Applied Science (excluding Agriculture, Biology, Botany and Geology) (1917).
  • 1919 . The Work of the Institute during the War . Proceedings of the Institute of Chemistry , : 4 – 6 . Part 1
  • Haber . 1986 . The Poisonous Cloud: Chemical Warfare in the First World War 107 – 107 . Oxford Table 6.1
  • Leighton , A.E. 1936 . The Association of Industry—Chemical and Otherwise—with Defensive Warfare . Journal and Proceedings of the Australian Chemical Institute , 3 : 270 – 270 .
  • Leighton , A.E. 1954 . A History of the Australian Chemical Institute, 1914–1932 . Journal and Proceedings of the Australian Chemical Institute , 21 : 128 – 128 . cf. Scott (footnote 2).
  • Leighton . 1936 . The Association of Industry—Chemical and Otherwise—with Defensive Warfare . Journal and Proceedings of the Australian Chemical Institute , 3 : 270 – 270 .
  • Summers , R.E. 1933 . Recollections of a Munitions Chemist . The Melbourne Technical School Magazine , April : 13 – 14 .
  • November 1915 . Leighton Papers, Brodribb to A.E.L. November , 17
  • Leighton , A.E. 1920 . A Note on Two War Achievements of Applied Chemistry and their Significance for Australia . Science and Industry , 2 : 714 – 714 .
  • Pease , J.A. Parliamentary Debates U.K. in House of Commons 5th Series, LXXI (13 May 1915), col. 1905.
  • According to the Morning Post of 4 June 1914, the average salary of 112 British professors was £628 and that of 456 lecturers was £137. These contrasted with £478 for a barrister, £395 for a medical general practitioner, £206 for a clergyman and £855 for a Principal in the Civil Service. See Routh Guy Occupation and Pay in Great Britain Cambridge 1965 64 64 70.
  • Robinson . 1966 . Kenneth Bingham Quinan . The Chemical Engineer , November : 293 – 293 . No. 203
  • Second Annual Report, Australian Chemical Institute (1918–19) 1 – 1 . by 1920, the A.C.I.'s membership had grown to 600. Bertram Smart. ‘The Australian Chemical Institute’, Science and Industry, 2 (1920), 162.
  • Haber . 1986 . The Poisonous Cloud: Chemical Warfare in the First World War 165 – 165 . Oxford
  • Rivett , Rohan . 1972 . Rivett: Fighter for Australian Science , 60 – 62 . Melbourne : privately published . 67.
  • Wilsmore . 1921 . The Present Position of Chemistry and Chemists . Report of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science , 15 : 30 – 30 . Presidential Address to Section B (Chemistry)
  • Years later, he described his scheme in The Techniques of Organizing New Industries Journal and Proceedings of the Australian Chemical Institute 1935 2 134 147
  • June 1918 . Leighton Papers, A.E.L. to Secretary of Defence June , 24
  • August 1918 . Leighton Papers, A.E.L. to Secretary of Defence August , 19
  • August 1918 . Leighton Papers, A.E.L. to Secretary of Defence August , 19
  • Wilsmore . 1921 . The Present Position of Chemistry and Chemists . Report of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science , 15 : 34 – 34 . Presidential Address to Section B (Chemistry)
  • November 1918 . Leighton Papers, A.E.L. to Secretary of Defence November , 29
  • January 1919 . Leighton Papers, W. S. Churchill to A. E. L. January , 11 He was offered first an O.B.E., then a C.B.E., but declined both, while Barraclough, his junior, received a knighthood.
  • Wilful forgetfulness was not the monopoly of government. In 1919, members of the A.C.I. were asked to subscribe ten shillings to a history of the war as it affected chemists. Only 121 (of a possible 540) replied favourably. War History Third Report of the Australian Chemical Institute 1919–20 10 10
  • January 1919 . Leighton Papers, A.E.L. to Department of Defence January , 29
  • Leighton . 1954 . A History of the Australian Chemical Institute, 1914–1932 . Journal and Proceedings of the Australian Chemical Institute , 21 : 127 – 128 .
  • University of Sydney Archives. Testimonial by Sir Edgeworth David, 10 May 1921. Cf. Ever Reaping Something New Branagan David Holland Graham University of Sydney Science Centenary Committee Sydney 1985
  • Leighton , A.E. 1923 . The Research Laboratories of the Munitions Supply Board , Melbourne : Government Printer . For the further development of Australia's munitions policy, see Andrew Ross, ‘The Arming of Australia: The Politics and Administration of Australia's Self-Containment Strategy for Munitions Supply, 1901–1945’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of New South Wales, 1986).
  • See Campbell F.H. British Chemical Industries and the War The Scientific Australian 1915 December 33 35
  • Robinson . 1966 . Kenneth Bingham Quinan . The Chemical Engineer , November : 294 – 294 . No. 203
  • Leighton's several technical innovations are discussed in the Ministry of Munitions Newsletter 1950 No. 107 (12 April
  • Leighton . 1920 . A Note on Two War Achievements of Applied Chemistry and their Significance for Australia . Science and Industry , 2 : 715 – 715 .
  • Cf. Blount Bertram Status of the Chemist: His Relation to Manufacture Science and Industry 1919 1 185 185
  • The argument historically posed for Europe, that Government-sponsored armaments manufacture could spur developing economies, has been neglected in Australia (although not in Japan). Work currently underway at Sydney addresses this issue. For background, see Trebilcock C. Spin-Off in British Economic History: Armaments and Industry, 1760–1914 Economic History Review 1969 22 474 488 2nd Series and ‘British Armaments and European Industrialization, 1890–1914’, Economic History Review, 2nd Series, 24 (1973), 254–72; see also Ian Inkster, ‘Patterns of Industrialization and Models of Imperialism’, Berlin Beitrāge zur Sozial- und Wirtshaftswissenschaftlichen Japan-Forschung (Berlin: East Asian Institute, Free University of Berlin, forthcoming).
  • Leighton . 1920 . A Note on Two War Achievements of Applied Chemistry and their Significance for Australia . Science and Industry , 2 : 714 – 714 .
  • March 1943 . Ministry of Munitions Newsletter March , No. 28, 26 Newsletter, No. 107 (12 April 1950).
  • Rivett , A.C.D. 1919 . Chemists and Industry: Some Points for Consideration . Science and Industry , 1 : 41 – 41 . ‘The War and After’, The Commonwealth Engineer, 6 (1 December 1918), 139; A. E. Leighton, ‘A History of the Australian Chemical Institute, 1914–1932’, Proceedings of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, 21 (1954), Part I, 128.
  • Hargreaves , W.A. 1917 . Chemical Research in Relation to Industry 22 – 28 . Adelaide

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