The Shirley Institute was established in 1920 as the British Cotton Industry Research Association at
The Towers in
Didsbury
Didsbury is a suburb of Manchester, England, on the north bank of the River Mersey, south of Manchester city centre. The population at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census was 26,788.
Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of ...
,
Manchester
Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
, as a research centre dedicated to cotton production technologies. It was funded by the
Cotton Board through a statutory levy. A significant contribution to the purchase price of The Towers was made by
William Greenwood, the
MP for
Stockport
Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...
, who asked that the building be named after his daughter.
The Institute developed
Ventile
Ventile, is a registered trademark used to brand a special high-quality woven cotton fabric first developed by scientists at the Shirley Institute in Manchester, England. Originally created to overcome a shortage of flax used for fire hoses and w ...
, a special high-quality woven cotton fabric. It also developed the
tog as an easy-to-follow measure of the thermal resistance of textiles, as an alternative to the
SI unit of m
2K/W.
The BCRA merged with the
British Rayon Research Association
The British Rayon Research Association was a research institute formed in 1946 by the British Rayon Federation and others.The Times, November 29, 1946 page 10 It was funded by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and by voluntary f ...
to form the Cotton, Silk, and Man-Made Fibres Research Association in 1961.
Douglas Hill was director of research of the BCRA before the merger, and led the new organisation. The director of the BRRA,
Leonard Albert Wiseman became deputy director. Len Wiseman became director on Hill's retirement in 1969, and held the post until 1980.
In 1987–1990 it merged with the
Wira Technology Group to form the
British Textile Technology Group
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
* British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
(BTTG).
See also
*
Robert Howson Pickard Sir Robert Howson Pickard FRS (27 September 1874 – 18 October 1949) was a chemist who did pioneering work in stereochemistry and also for the cotton industry in Lancashire. He was also involved in educational administration and was Vice Chancello ...
FRS, director 1937-1943 who expanded the technical facilities extensively in 1936.
*
Mary Corner worked initially in the
rayon
Rayon, also called viscose and commercialised in some countries as sabra silk or cactus silk, is a semi-synthetic fiber made from natural sources of regenerated cellulose fiber, cellulose, such as wood and related agricultural products. It has t ...
department where she developed a fascination with microanalysis which resulted in a promotion to Head of the Microanalytical Section.
References
External links
The British Textile Technology Group
{{coord, 53.4081, -2.2262, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title
British research associations
Cotton industry in England
Cotton organizations
Didsbury
Research institutes in Manchester