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28-553: It was incorporated on 21 December 1933; the first Chairman was Charles Waghorne of Insulators Limited. It is the longest-established plastics federation in the world. It was the 1930s that was the decade in which many common plastics were discovered, some in the UK. On 27 March 1933 Reginald Gibson and Eric Fawcett (with Francis Arthur Freeth FRS and Sir Michael Perrin ) discovered polyethylene (polythene) at ICI's Winnington Research Laboratory at Winnington , Cheshire ; John Crawford , at

56-403: A great influence on Freeth, who was quickly gaining reputation as a chemist himself. After university, Freeth went to work at a factory belonging to Hitnetts Tobacco , but did not enjoy the work; he quit, and instead joined Brunner Mond on 25 September 1907. On his first day at Brunner Mond, he arrived with a cache of laboratory equipment that he had bought himself on credit. Freeth became

84-475: A guide to the main standards associated with the plastic industry. Francis Arthur Freeth Francis Arthur Freeth OBE FRS (2 January 1884 – 15 July 1970) was a British industrial chemist . He spent much of his career at Brunner Mond and its successor Imperial Chemical Industries , as chief chemist, research manager and in a recruiting capacity, with particular knowledge of phase rule chemistry, and developed many processes related to

112-407: A laboratory at the school, sparking young Freeth's interest in the subject. He excelled at chemistry but had poor mathematical skills. On his second attempt, he passed the matriculation exam to study at Liverpool University from 1900, graduating with first-class honours in 1905 and then a master's degree in 1906. There, he studied under Frederick George Donnan , a physical chemist who would be

140-488: A market charter in 1295. The arrival of the Shropshire Union Canal in 1835 was a significant development for Audlem. The canal boosted the local economy by facilitating the transport of goods and materials, particularly agricultural produce and coal. During this period, many of the village's distinctive Georgian and Victorian buildings were constructed. Audlem’s flight of 15 locks, designed by Thomas Telford , are

168-503: A non-chemist, Frank Bramwell , in 1927; Freeth was given a higher post in London, becoming Joint Research Manager with William Rintoul , but the change stung and he did not relish the bureaucratic nature of his new role. He retired from his research post in 1938 after a breakdown in 1937, but still did work for the company as a consultant, in addition to secret work for the government. During World War II , Freeth undertook secret research for

196-547: A notable engineering feature. Though commercial activity on the canal virtually ceased in the 1950s, it is now an important source of tourism for the village. The canal continues to draw visitors and leisure boaters alike along the waterway itself and to walk the picturesque path. In 2008 village residents launched an online referendum on moving the village to Wales from England – in a protest over prescription charges in England. There are many historic buildings including Moss Hall

224-546: A specialised factory in Swindon . Together with Herbert Edwin Cocksedge he got a patent on using salt metathesis reaction of sodium nitrate from Chilean saltpeter and ammonium sulfate made from coke gas followed by separating sodium sulfate and ammonium nitrate based on differences in their solubilities at different temperatures. For his work during the war, he was appointed an OBE in 1924. Following his experience of

252-478: A vacuum cooling process; it was, however, very risky, and led to the Silvertown explosion on 19 January 1917, which killed 73 people. Writing in 1962, Freeth said that the process was "very dangerous"; a second, safer, process that he devised was implemented at Gadbrook and produced larger volumes of explosives. The Gadbrook plant almost suffered a similar disaster, but two courageous Brunner Mond employees put out

280-403: Is an Elizabethan timber-framed hall from 1616 one-half mile (0.8 km) from Audlem village centre. Audlem has clubs for tennis , badminton , football , cricket , golf , pigeon racing (or pigeon-fancying ), caravanning , bell ringing and bowls . Cyclists meet informally at The Tearoom at No.11. Audlem has a website, AudlemOnline. Saint James' Primary School is the only school in

308-521: The Netherlands and visited Kammerlingh Onnes ' laboratory in Leiden , which was much more elaborate than his own. He maintained contact with Onnes, and also acquainted himself with Hendrik Lorentz , Paul Ehrenfest , Pieter Zeeman , Albert Einstein and his original contact with the country, Schreinemakers. After Onnes' death in 1926, Freeth would write his obituary for Nature . Directed to investigate

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336-516: The Plastics 2020 Challenge . Plastipedia is an online encyclopedia about plastics , starting from their birth in 1862 with the invention of Parkesine ; it is hosted and maintained by the BPF. It has a comprehensive list of plastic manufacturing processes , and lists the 25 main processing technologies, including detailed animations. It also deals with energy management in the plastic industry and offers

364-561: The Special Operations Executive , including developing materials for field use or for sabotage by commandos or resistance groups. During this period of activity, he re-connected with friends within ICI and returned to the company as a University Liaison Officer on 1 February 1944, recruiting fresh talent for industrial chemical research. He retired again in 1952, this time to work lightly as a consultant and spend time with his family. Of

392-515: The fractionation of coke oven gas, Freeth was inspired by Onnes' low-temperature work; at his instigation, Brunner Mond set up a new low-temperature laboratory in Winnington in 1931 with a number of talented Dutch assistants, where polythene was later discovered. A number of Brunner Mond (and Imperial Chemical Industries) recruits went the other way, to the Netherlands to work with Onnes and increase

420-631: The Dutch chemical literature in his areas of interest almost entirely by 1914. At the outbreak of World War I , Freeth was in the Territorial Army , having joined in 1912, and spent six weeks in the trenches in France with the Cheshire Regiment as a major in early 1915, but was then sent back to Britain to continue his armaments research at Brunner Mond at the direction of Lord Moulton . Germany, at

448-680: The Explosives group of ICI at Ardeer, North Ayrshire near Stevenston , produced a commercial synthesis of poly(methyl methacrylate) , also known as Perspex with production beginning in 1934. Polythene is the world's most widespread polymer, and was first produced by ICI from 1939; many plastic bottles are made from LDPE . Polystyrene was invented in Germany in 1937. PTFE was discovered in America (New Jersey) in 1938 by Roy J. Plunkett when at DuPont . PET beverage bottles were introduced from 1973. PEEK

476-590: The South. Audlem is on the Shropshire Union Canal , which has a flight of 15 locks, to raise the canal 93 feet (28 m) from the Cheshire Plain to the Shropshire Plain. The River Weaver passes west of the village. Audlem railway station closed along with the local railway line in 1963. The station was on the former Great Western Railway between Market Drayton and Nantwich , opened in 1863. The station

504-464: The border with the neighbouring county of Shropshire , the village is eight miles (13 km) east of Whitchurch and seven miles (11 km) north of Market Drayton . It is also approximately nine miles (14 km) from the border with Wales . Audlem was mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086 as Aldelime . By the late 13th century, St James' Church had been founded and Edward I granted it

532-660: The company's chief chemist in 1909, working at the Winnington Laboratory in Cheshire. In 1909, he was tasked with investigating the manufacture of ammonium nitrate for explosives; needing to read a paper by Franciscus Hubertus Schreinemakers in Dutch , he bought study materials for the language and quickly learned to read it. Freeth corresponded with Dutch chemists, joined the Dutch Chemical Society in 1911 and devoured

560-478: The fire before the plant exploded. Freeth wrote that he would, on a monthly basis, remind the Silvertown plant of the risk that the plant would explode, but that it was deemed "worth the risk". Second was the investigation of new ways to produce ammonium nitrate. Freeth built upon his pre-war work and implemented two processes he had devised in 1909 at an industrial scale in plants at Lostock Gralam , Sandbach and

588-582: The fruitful cross-pollination. Freeth was awarded a doctorate of the University of Leiden in 1924—only possible thanks to a special decree of the Dutch Parliament—and joined the Royal Society in 1926 on the recommendation of Donnan and Lord Moulton. He stayed with the company after the merger that created Imperial Chemical Industries, despite being replaced as the research manager at Winnington by

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616-535: The manufacture of explosives . He made a critical contribution to the British World War I effort by devising new ways to manufacture ammonium nitrate , which was recognised with an honour, and a smaller contribution in World War II for the Special Operations Executive . Freeth created links between Brunner Mond and Dutch chemistry, particularly at the University of Leiden where he met Kammerlingh Onnes and

644-492: The second spell at ICI, Freeth said, "These eight years were astonishingly happy and successful". Audlem Audlem ( / ʊər d l ə m / ORD -ləm ) is a village and civil parish located in Cheshire , North West England . In 2021, it had a population of 1,832. The largest village in southern Cheshire, Audlem is approximately seven miles (11 km) south of Nantwich , just one mile (1.6 km) north of

672-502: The start of the war, had an advantage over Britain in their ability to manufacture explosives inexpensively: they had pioneered mixing ammonium nitrate and TNT to create amatol , which was similar to pure TNT in effectiveness, and understood the Haber–Bosch process and applied it in plants to produce the necessary nitrogen compounds. First, Freeth was charged with finding a way to purify TNT from hot alcoholic solution. Freeth invented

700-572: The village. Audlem is located at the junction of the A525 and A529 roads in south Cheshire. The A525 road runs from Newcastle under Lyme and Woore from the east and Whitchurch from the west. The A529 runs from Nantwich in the north and from Market Drayton in the south. Audlem is approximately 10 miles (16 km) west of the M6 motorway . The closest junctions are junction 16 from the North and junctions 15 and 14 from

728-570: The war, Freeth became convinced that the British chemical industry must conduct research itself, and he began on a project to recruit researchers, as well as cultivating closer links with academia, and arguing for theoretical underpinning for industrial research. He was also a proponent of a rigorous quantitative approach to chemistry, and used his excellent knowledge of phase rule chemistry to attract talent to Brunner Mond, particularly from prestigious institutions like Oxford . In 1919, Freeth visited

756-577: Was awarded a doctorate. Freeth was born on 2 January 1884 in Birkenhead. His father was a master mariner and was an officer in the Royal Naval Reserve ; his great-grandfather, James Freeth , was Quartermaster General between 1851 and 1854, and his grandfather was a major-general as well. He attended Audlem grammar school in Cheshire beginning in 1896; the next year, the County Council built

784-534: Was developed by ICI in 1977. HDPE water pipes were introduced from 1980. In 1988, a number code for recycling plastics was introduced. It is headquartered in Old Street in central London. It houses the UK office of the PlasticsEurope Europe-wide organisation. Companies in the BPF include: It represents the UK plastics industry . It runs its Plastipedia , a resource on plastics. In 2009 it launched

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