Science Technology
Artifical Intelligence Studies Kent University
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Foot and Mouth Laboratory, 1968. Established at Pirbright in Surrey, England it was the centre of research into the virulent disease. The only way in is via the changing rooms where outside clothes are exchanged for laboratory apparel. At the end of the day the 4o scientists and support staff must shower and pass naked into the changing rooms to put on their normal clothing. Nothing that cannot be sterilised can be removed, including the pot plants, which once taken into the building can never be taken out again. Conversations with the outside world are conducted by telephone, water and sewage is stored in tanks and treated with caustic soda before release. Air is filtered and rubbish is heat treated before being transferred to an incinerator also within the compound. Equipment goes through a steam over or special chamber where ultra-violet light and formalin vapour are used to sterilise it.
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Anti-Locust Research Centre (ALRC) is an independent research institute which was set up The Colonial Office of the UK government in 1945 because of the threat from locusts to overseas agriculture. Its primary aims were the coordination on international research in acridology and international cooperation in locust control. The Institute is also responsible for issuing when the locust situation demands, giving special warnings of dangerous level and distribute them directly and/ or through radio and the press to all countries and organizations concerned, and also maintaining a continuous record of the developments in the Desert Locust situation. Photographed 1970.
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Manchester University Isolation Chamber
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Microchip Factory 1967
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Snail Research Centre
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Tessyman Family Seaweed Farmers George Tessyman and his family, whom I photographed in 1963, were the first people in Britain to harvest seaweed as a means of enhancing food production. In the choppy seas off Dartmouth, George’s two sons – John, 21 and Bruce, 18 – and a family friend, John Earl (26) on left of group photograph, would dive to cut kelp from the rocks beneath. Typically working in almost pitch-black conditions they would harvest the weed that was then processed in a primitive attic laboratory to produce agar-agar. This substance is used in the manufacture of such diverse products as jelly deserts, salad dressings, laxatives, oil drawing lubricants, toothpaste and cosmetics. During WWII British scientists had tried without success to obtain it in commercial quantities from local weeds. George, whose interest in seaweed was first sparked while he was serving in the Royal Navy claimed to have succeeded. The pictures show the process of harvesting and processing the kelp. Anyone interested in SCUBA diving might also like to note that it those days’ wet suits were unlined. They only way of getting into them was by using either liberal amounts of talc or a washing up detergent, the former being slightly less effective but a good deal less disagreeable than the latter!
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Two workmen in John Brown’s yard are dwarfed by one of the QE2’s huge propellers. Photographed 1964.
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