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News
08/11/2016
Student Society of Glass Technology
Bill Brookes studied at the Department of Glass Technology at Elmfield from 1954 to 1957 and like Doug Johnson and Mike Cable, was at one time Secretary and the Chairman of the Student Society of Glass Technology. There was even a Student Society tie.
Bill recalls, “When I joined the Department Prof Moore was in the seat and it was he who set me the targets in my A levels if I was to study there. In December/November 1954 the Student Society Dinner was attended by Prof Turner who made some suitably student oriented jokes on elements of the periodic table.
“At the 1955 dinner we gave Prof Douglas a Student Society Tie, where upon he took off the tie he was wearing and replaced it with his new Student one.”
“I can confirm that Violet Dimbleby could be a strict task master but very fair and quite helpful,” Bill remembers, “she and Michael Parkin understood that I was quite deaf, something which other members of the establishment could not.”
Michael Parkin’s "double entendres" would often draw an, "Oh! Mr Parkin!" reply from Miss Dimbleby, much to the amusement of the students. Violet was much broader minded than she let on and Bill was sure that it was almost part of a double act.
“R. F. Sykes joined the Department shortly after Prof Douglas and was held in high esteem by all of our cohort. Some year or so after graduation when visiting the Department I found Messrs Dimbleby, Parkin and Sykes to be very interested in the problems I was grappling with in the electronics industry, pointing me to another stalwart of the glass industry at that time Alan Dale at Chesterfield.”
08/11/2016
Wednesday 9th November marks the centenary of the inaugural meeting of the Society of Glass Technology. Members of the Society held a meeting at the Turner Museum of Glass, Sir Robert Hadfield Building, University of Sheffield. One of the features of the early meetings of SGT was that individuals were encouraged to bring along items of interest such as works of art, glass defects, etc, say a few words of introduction and then to discuss any aspects of general interest. Indeed Sir Robert Hadfield, a steel magnate, brought along a few items from his own glass collection on one occasion. Members were invited to attend and share an interesting technological story, a piece of glass of interest and speak for up to 10 minutes, or simply join the audience.
Featured talks/items: (not in any particular order, others may be added)
John Parker – My favourite Piece in the Turner Glass Museum
John Henderson – Glass Fraud?
John Clark – A family story
John Osborn – A twisted tale
Roy Nickels – Gazelle bowl by Sidney Waugh at Steuben
David Gelder – Invisible Fusing
Lynne Fox – The Wood Window
Russell Hand – A baby's hand in glass