History
The West of Scotland
Iron and Steel Institute was founded in order to promote the science
and technology of the manufacture and use of these important industrial
materials at a time when the demand for new and improved alloys
was reaching new heights. The Scottish Association for Metals
is the direct successor to the West of Scotland Iron and Steel
Institute and through its affiliation to the Institute of Materials,
Minerals and Mining in London acts as the learned and professional
institution for metallurgists and materials technologists in Scotland.
Indeed, the Institute in London incorporates the original Iron
and Steel Institute founded in 1872 and of which the founders
of the West of Scotland Institute were also members. However,
although devoted primarily to ferrous metallurgy the West of Scotland
Institute was in many ways a forerunner of today's movement into
the broader sphere of materials including as it did many refractories
and ceramics companies in its membership. The Scottish Association
for Metals has continued that tradition through the far-sighted
efforts of many dedicated office-bearers down the years and has
expanded its interest into wider technical and geographical areas.
Founders
Founders
The Founders:
The inaugural meeting of the Institute was held in the rooms
of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow on the evening of
14 October, 1892. There were one hundred and thirty founder
members although the first volume of the Journal of the West
of Scotland Iron and Steel Institute does not record how many
of these were present at the meeting. Although the number
of members may at first appear surprising, they covered a
considerable geographical area -south to the Lugar Iron Works
in South Ayrshire, and north-east to the Carron Iron Works
in Stirlingshire - and it was the intention during that first
winter session to hold five meetings in Glasgow, Motherwell,
Glasgow, Kilmarnock and Coatbridge respectively. However it
is recorded that at the first meeting the Secretary ( Mr.
T.F. Barbour, Analyst and Consulting Chemist, Glasgow) had
to report that " it would be impossible for a great many members,
with the present railway facilities, to attend ". It was therefore
agreed to hold all of the meetings at a central location;
the Andersonian Buildings of the Glasgow and West of Scotland
Technical College - an arrangement which has its echo in the
present day with S.A.M. meetings now taking place at the same
institution, now University of Strathclyde.
The list of founder
members covered a relatively wide geographical area but to
present day view, the number and range of companies represented
is more remarkable. The members represented approximately
one hundred organisations which has however to be seen in
the context of the concentration of companies involved in,
or servicing the ferrous metallurgy business in the West of
Scotland; there were for example, thirteen iron and steel
companies in Coatbridge alone.
The first President
of the Institute was Mr. James Riley of the Steel Company
of Scotland who was a nationally known figure and a member
of the Iron and Steel Institute. He had been involved in the
organisation of a visit to the Glasgow area by the Iron and
Steel Institute under its President, Sir Henry Bessemer, to
see the developments, which were being pioneered by local
companies. Such was the impression created that Sir Henry
declared that he had never seen " such excellent material
and finished work ". Shortly before his election as the first
President, Mr. Riley was awarded the Bessemer Medal of the
Iron and Steel Institute, which remains the pre-eminent international
award in ferrous metallurgy. While the President was clearly
a man of national importance, he was also chairman of a Council
of distinguished local figures, many of whom were also members
of the Iron and Steel Institute in London. There were thirteen
Vice-presidents, twelve Councillors, a Treasurer, a Secretary
and two District Secretaries in Motherwell and Ayrshire. These
men were drawn principally from the iron and steel companies
but had a diversity of professional qualifications and backgrounds,
which established the wide range of subject matter to be discussed
at technical meetings. There were owners, works managers,
chemists, rollers, plate shearers, and a cashier; representatives
of coal companies, refractories and ceramic companies, and
equipment manufacturers; and a Professor of Metallurgy.
The Inaugural Address
given by Mr. Riley was a review of the importance of iron
and steel in a world context with special reference to the
development of the industry in Scotland and it is interesting
to consider some of the statistics given (assuming 75% of
total available capacity): 950,000 tons of pig iron, 225,000
tons of wrought iron, 500,000 tons of finished steel produced,
" But in addition to these three great branches of the Iron
and Steel industry, we have the Iron founding business, in
which there are used in ordinary years not less than 300,000
tons of pig-iron, and the Shipbuilding industry, requiring
as a rule not less than 200,000 tons of iron and steel annually;
as well as the Bridge-building, and the Marine Locomotive
and General-Engineering Industries, of whose consumption of
iron and steel I do not feel capable of giving a reliable
computation. " These figures show clearly the importance of
the industry and its contribution to the economy of the West
of Scotland.
The presence among
the founding members of Professor Sexton was indicative of
the importance given by the new Institute to the scientific
discipline on which industrial improvement was based. The
Department of Metallurgy at the West of Scotland Technical
College had been established in 1884 and Alexander Humboldt
Sexton was the first Professor in a post devoted to what would
today be referred to as Extractive or Chemical Metallurgy,
but such was the scope expected of metallurgists at the time
that Professor Sexton was able in the first three years of
Institute technical meetings to present discussions on Gaseous
Fuel, Historical Notes on the Hot-Blast, Estimation of Carbonic
Acid, and a Presidential Address in 1895 on Advances in Practice
and Training. This synergy between the professional, business
and educational aspects of the affairs of the Institute has
continued throughout the years with several eminent Professors
in the "Tech." and subsequently University of Strathclyde,
elected President of the Institute. At the First Annual General
Meeting on 14 April 1893, the President moved the following
resolution; "That the best thanks —— be tendered to the Governors
of the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical college for
granting the use of rooms — and to the Professors of Metallurgy
and Chemistry for the facilities which they have afforded
to the Institute — ".
The Institute and
later the Scottish Association for Metals have had several
homes over the past century following those initial meetings.
The Institute first had its own accommodation at 207, Bath
St. from 1897 but left there and took up rooms, which were
made available by the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders
in Scotland at their headquarters at 39, Elmbank Crescent
from 1909 to 1916. From then until the end of the Second World
War the Institute again had its own rooms at 93, Hope St.
under the guidance of the long-serving Secretary, Mr.D.A.
MacCallum, before returning to Elmbank Crescent. During this
time, however, the technical meetings were generally held
at the Royal Technical College in George St., although in
the period from 1942-44 these were held in the Ca'd'oro Restaurant
in Union St. The affairs of the Institute from 1945 were organised
by Mr. P.W. Thomas, who was also Secretary to the Institution
of Engineers and Shipbuilders, from rooms once again made
available at 39, Elmbank Crescent, and this arrangement continued
until 1968 when these premises were sold by the I.E.S.S. and
the Institute returned to its academic base which had now
become the University of Strathclyde. (The building in Elmbank
Cres. is now the home of Scottish Opera). Following the formation
of the Scottish Association for Metals in 1974, there was
no permanent home but accommodation for the affairs of the
Association was provided through the Secretary, Mr. Alex MacLagan,
and British Steel Corporation and the technical meetings continued
to be held in the Colville Building of the University of Strathclyde.
At the First Annual
General Meeting in 1893, the Council were able to report a
successful first year with five meetings, membership of 153
(although only 116 had paid their one guinea subscription),
and a balance in hand after payment of a £25 honorarium to
the Honorary Secretary. Of particular note was the success
realised in the publication of the Journal, of which more
is written below.
Technical
Subjects Technical
Subjects
Technical
Subjects:
At the Inaugural Meeting the matter of subjects suitable
for presentation and discussion by the Institute was agreed
and the following list was published in the Journal; Welding
properties of steel, Annealing of steel and its results,
Gaseous fuel and its production, Various methods of reheating
steel, Value of "work" of different kinds in the manufacture
of steel, Waste gases from blast furnaces and their utilisation,
and Alloys of steel. This list was to be the subject of
considerable formal and informal review over the ensuing
years and the reader is referred to the Journal for evidence
of just how widely the technical topics have ranged down
the years.
The first paper
read to the Institute was on "The Economic Aspects of Iron
and Steel Manufacture" by Mr James M. Cherrie— ".Unfortunately,
the Journal does not record the company by whom the author
was employed, and the list of Founder Members gives only
the information that he was " of 21, Hope St., Glasgow ".
Equally unfortunately for Mr. Cherrie, the President ruled
that as his paper was of a non-technical nature, there would
be no discussion and only an abstract would appear in the
Journal. The procedure adopted for these early meetings
and which survived relatively unchanged until the demise
of the Institute, was as follows; (1) The Chair to be taken
at 7.30, (2) Minutes of the previous meeting to be read
and approved, (3) Motions and general business, (4) Discussion
of papers read at the previous meeting, (5) Paper(s) of
the evening to be read. (Papers to be read had to be circulated
at least 10 days before the meeting and if no amendments
to the paper or written discussion were received by the
meeting following the discussion, then publication was accepted).
The subject matter and the attendance at the technical meetings
were both of a surprisingly high level when viewed from
the present day. Two examples taken from the 1912-13 session
and reported in Volume 20 of the Journal illustrate the
point. The third meeting of the session was a lecture on
" Colour photography of internal stress in bodies of engineering
form ", illustrated by " lantern slides and diagrams " by
Professor E.G. Coker of Finsbury Technical College, London.
The reader needs only to study the beautiful colour reproductions
in the Journal to see how this predates colour interferometry
and laser techniques for stress measurement of polymers
practiced today. The second example was an Extra Meeting
held on llth January 1913 in the Carnegie Library, Coatbridge
on " The (chemical) reactions of the puddling process "
by Professor T. Turner, Feeney Professor of Metallurgy,
University of Birmingham. The meeting was chaired by Provost
Thomas Davie of Coatbridge who announced that in spite of
" very inclement weather the meeting was well attended -
the estimated attendance was between 200 and 300 ".
Many important
contributions to metallurgy and materials technology have
appeared in the eighty one volumes of the Journal of the
West of Scotland Iron and Steel Institute and we are indebted
to Mr. Archie Speirs, Mr. Bill Fern and Emeritus Professor
Harry Bell (the latter gentlemen Past-Presidents of the
Association) for a selection of the most interesting and
important of these to be published by the Scottish Association
for Metals.
The Journal ceased
publication in 1974 when the Institute became the Scottish
Association for Metals and in those eighty two years there
had been only seven Editors, and of those Professor Robert
Hay acted in an interim capacity in 1945-47. The longest
serving of these were D.A. MacCallum (1916-45) and P.W.Thomas
from 1947 until the end of publication when he was awarded
the Riley Medal of the Institute, named after the First
President, for "outstanding service to the Institute as
Secretary and Editor of the Journal". Mr Thomas final service
to the Institute was to prepare a definitive Index to all
seventy four volumes, a considerable effort since this also
included a categorisation of the papers. This was published
in the final volume.
The final technical
papers to be published in the Journal were the Presidential
Address of Dr. John Glen of British Steel Corporation on
"Accuracy in testing at high temperature" and a paper on
" Plant availability" by J.W. Campbell and J.G. Dunbar also
of British Steel Corporation
People
People
People:
The history of the Institute and the Scottish Association
is made up of the people who contributed their time and
efforts in the many ways which are required to make such
organisations work effectively. That these efforts have
been successful is confirmed by the strength of the Association
today. It is not possible in a short review such as this
to do justice to the many people, both members and others,
who have played important parts in the development of
both organisations and the author apologises for the sins
of omission which the reader will no doubt identify.
The list of
Presidents and members of Council reveals the, names of
the most important people in both industry and academe
of the last one hundred years. From James Riley onward
are names such as Beard, both George and Herbert of the
Gartcosh Steel and Iron Works, as early Presidents; David
Colville as a Founder Member, and that family, synonymous
with the twentieth century Scottish steel industry, continued
to be associated through John Craig and Sir Andrew McCance
in their turn as Presidents. (The names of Colville and
McCance are also perpetuated in the buildings of the University
of Strathclyde). Outside of those directly involved in
iron and steel making, John G Stein of the Bonnybridge
refractories company was elected a member in 1894 and
Colonel Alan Stein was President in 1939-43 , while James
Tennant of the Coatbridge iron founders was President
from 1943-45. These outward signs of the role played by
these families and companies are however only recognition
of the much greater but less obvious support which they
provided to the Institute and Association.
There has also
been a continuous thread of support from the institution
known today as the University of Strathclyde, starting
from its days as the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical
College and the presence of Professor Sexton as a Founder
Member. There have been a succession of incumbents of
the Chair of Metallurgy who have also been Presidents
of the Institute or the Scottish Association but a perusal
of the papers published in the journal shows the much
wider involvement of staff and students of the colleges.
Indeed such was the repute of the Institute and its Journal
that some of the greatest names of the day were to be
found in Glasgow presenting and discussing their ideas.
In his Biographical Memoir of Sir Andrew McCance, Professor
Norman Petch recalls the considerable industrial and scientific
importance of the nature of the various structures observed
metallographically in heat-treated steels, and the contribution
made to these studies in 1910-14 by McCance, then an employee
of Beardmores in Glasgow. Several papers appeared in the
Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute and dispute arose
between the ideas of McCance and Dr. W. Rosenhain, Director
of the National Physical Laboratory and one of the leading
authorities of the day, which were not resolved until
the development of X-ray crystallography in the nineteen
forties, and of which Professor Petch remarked (with obvious
authority), " On balance, McCance could probably be said
to have been nearer the mark than Rosenhain ". Not withstanding
this scientific disagreement, Rosenhain was an invited
speaker in Glasgow on three occasions in 1908, 1914 and
1915 and was followed through the years by many leading
physical metallurgists such as Professor T Turner, W.H.
Hatfield, Sir Charles Goodeve, and E. Orowan. Indeed Orowan's
paper on " Creep of Metals " presented in the 1947 session
remains one of the definitive discussions on time-dependant
deformation. To this list of eminent visitors must be
added the names of those members of the local society
who were also in the van of development of the structure
of metals, Professors Campion, Desch, Andrew, Ellwood
and Petch, William Barr, H. Harris, J. Glen, and I.M.
Mackenzie.
In the area
of ferrous extraction metallurgy the Institute and Association
have played a major part. Sir Henry Bessemer, Lamberton,
Beard, Sir Monty Finnieston, Professors Hay, White, Taylor
and Bell and many others have presented their work in
Glasgow and have benefited from the informed discussion
which the members provided. This continues to the present
day with a paper presented to the 1991 session by Dr.
Younger of Davy-McKee on the smelt-reduction process for
the production of iron and steel without a blast furnace.
Through these
people it is true to say that the Institute and later
the Association played a leading role in scientific development
in metallurgy.
The Presidents
have been referred to as men of considerable standing
but the Institute and Association have been equally well
served by the Honorary Secretaries and Treasurers who
carried the organisational responsibilities and to whom
the success of the business of the societies was due.
These were long-serving gentlemen and particular recognition
must be made of Mr. D.A. MacCallum who from 1916 to his
death in 1945 served as Treasurer, Secretary and Editor
of the Journal, and Mr. P.W. Thomas who occupied the same
posts from 1945 to the change from Institute to Association
in 1974. In more recent times the Scottish Association
for Metals has also been well served by its officers of
whom the present Honourary Treasurer, Dr J.M. Arrowsmith
has been the sole occupant of that office for the Association
(1974-present), while the position of Secretary has been
filled by Mr. A. MacLagan (1974-83) and subsequently by
Dr. J.R. Wilcox.
The membership
which these gentlemen have so faithfully served has varied
in numbers over the past century. At the First Annual
General Meeting there was recorded a membership of 153
which by the tenth anniversary had risen to 315 and the
Institute reached its maximum recorded membership of 635
in 1924. By the end of the Second World War the A.G.M.
of 1945 still showed 486 members but this had declined
to 245 in 1974 when the Scottish Association for Metals
was formed from the merger of the Institute with the Institute
of Metallurgists Scottish Branch. The problems of encouraging
wider attendance have always been recognised and were
referred to at the 1935 A.G.M. by the Vice-president Colonel
Alan Stein who reported an average attendance of 71 but
exhorted " Will more members get busy and let next year
be again a record year (of recruitment) ".
The Annual
Dinner was long been an important event in the calendar
of the Institute and Association, and was an occasion
on which members socialise among their friends and equally
importantly, their business acquaintances. The format
of the Dinner remained the same over a long period and
was an occasion on which distinguished guests were invited
to address the company on matters both important and light-hearted
and some outstanding speakers have graced this occasion.
In recent times the trans-atlantic Scots accent of Professor
Alex McLean, American Iron and Steel Institute Distinguished
Professor at Toronto University (and a former student
member of the West of Scotland Institute) has been heard
in counter-point to the well-rounded tones of Sir Geofrey
Ford, Secretary of the Institute of Metals in London,
while the view from the unions was put in his inimitable
style by Mr Gavin Laird of the A.E.U. in 1991. What the
founding fathers would have thought of a union secretary
addressing their dinner is not known and the earliest
dinners (with no ladies present, far less a dance) were
mainly attended by the captains of industry and the landed-gentry.
The dinner of 1935, held in the Central Hotel, Glasgow,
when the West of Scotland Institute was at its peak, was
chaired by the President, Dr (later Sir) Andrew McCance,
and had a guest list of fifteen of whom the principal
speakers were Sir Josiah Stamp (President of the London,
Midland and Scottish Railway) and Sir Arthur Huddleston
(Director of the Royal Technical College). Among the apologies
for absence that same evening were those from The Right
Honourable The Lord Provost of Glasgow (Sir A.B. Swan)
and The Right Reverend The Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway.
Indeed it seems that in matters spiritual the Institute
was well attended by the latter gentleman as he was also
one of the principal speakers at the dinner of 1924 when
he was accompanied by Mrs Reid. This event in the Grosvenor
Restaurant represented the final return to normal business
for the Institute following the Great War and its aftermath
and was the first dinner to be held after 1914. This was
also the first occasion on which ladies were invited to
the dinner, although at the time there was only one lady
member of the Institute. Indeed this is an aspect of Association
membership, which even today requires attention, and we
have yet to have a lady President or to welcome the first
lady speaker at the annual dinner. The dinner expanded
in size during the middle years of the century (there
were 600 members and guests at the 1938 event) and after
a ten year gap following the outbreak of the Second World
War was reintroduced as a dinner and dance in 1949, although
there had been musical entertainment at the dinner since
1924. The guest list has continued to bring the leading
metallurgists and industrialists of the day to Glasgow
and included in 1974 Dr (later Sir) Monty Finniston, Chairman
of British Steel Corporation, who proposed the toast to
"The Institute" and looked forward to the construction
of an integrated steel plant at Hunterston on the Ayrshire
coast, based on a direct reduction plant, which would
signal major advances in the Scottish steel industry.
History tells, of course, that this never came to pass
and the steel industry in Scotland went into decline.
1974 was however
to be the year in which the forward-looking leadership
of the Institute saw that the way ahead was to combine
their interests with other branches of the subject and,
in collaboration with colleagues in The Institute of Metals,
Scottish Branch began the process of formation of a new
body, The Scottish Association for Metals. The President
of the Institute Dr J. Glen and the Chairman of the Scottish
Branch, Mr A.M. McConnell piloted the negotiations through
a series of meetings of the Officers of the two bodies
until, at a Special General Meeting of the Institute at
University of Strathclyde on 4 September 1974, it was
resolved "That the West of Scotland Iron and Steel Institute
and the body known till 31 December 1973 as the Scottish
Local Section of the Institute of Metals agree to the
merger of the two bodies and to arrange affiliation with
the Metals Society (later the Institute of Metals and
in 1992, the Institute of Materials)" A number of suggestions
were advanced for the name of the new body before adoption
of " The Scottish Association for Metals".
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