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1964 Diary & Notes

On Saturday 4th January the whole family went to see Hansel and Gretel at Sadlers Wells. My father had likewise taken me and a brother to Humperdinck's delightful opera in the mid to late 1930s. On 1st April 1999 the whole family, including our grandchildren Robert and Elizabeth, went to a Welsh National Opera production of Hansel & Gretel at Sadlers Wells.

Also on 24th January, Jack Thompson of Hatfield College of Technology visited me at M.I. He had some responsibility for liaison with industrial companies and it was in that connection that he came. He asked me to take part in an evaluation session at Hatfield. One M.I. man had submitted a project on cathode ray oscilloscopes (CROs) as part of his studies and I was being asked to be one of the assessors. I agreed and the next day took part in the project evaluation. The Head of the Electrical Engineering Department, Bernard Gray, an ex M.I. man, conducted the meeting.

It never rains but it pours - before the first month of my new appointment was out I received a letter from H.C. Mayer, Joint Managing Director of Griffin & George Limited, referring to a brief conversation we had about  educational instruments at the SIMA Convention and asking me to meet him for a general talk. 

I took a day's holiday and lunched with Mayer and Sinclair, another Director, at Watford. I was offered an appointment as part-time Director of Griffin and George Ltd. I wrote declining their offer saying that I wished to devote myself wholeheartedly to present tasks.  64b20 . I had another letter from H.C. Meyer expressing their disappointment and asking if I could recommend anyone else.  64b26 .

I devoted much time and thought to recruitment. Thus in March 1964 I interviewed K.A. (Ken) Taylor and he started in the Department in May. I also interviewed a postgraduate student sent to me by E.H.K. Dibden of the University of London Appointments Board but I cannot remember if I did not offer him a job or if he declined. In July I had a pleasant letter from Ken (Prof K.F.) Smith of the University of Sussex (a colleague at the Cavendish) replying to mine about graduate recruits & (for the IEE) University of Sussex Conference facilities. Alas none of his research students were in our field.  64g10 .

Role differentiation at ATE Symposium at Arborfield

On 27th April I received from Lt.Col. R. Knowles, MOD, Old War Office Building an invitation to an ATE Symposium on 12th and 13th May at Arborfield. 

I accepted the invitation but only for the 12th.  I asked that Dr. C.H. Vincent of AWRE, a member of the IEE E1 committee closely concerned with organising a Symposium on Programmed Test Equipment, be invited for the 13th in my place.  64d29 . By letter of 5th May I learned that lunch was booked for me in the West Court Officers Mess at HQ REME, Arborfield and that as some material was SECRET identification was needed. 

I attended the ATE Symposium at Arborfield on 12th May as arranged. It was a very interesting occasion. Again I was impressed by E.R. Frost's approach. I was careful to distinguish between my roles in connection with a possible M.I. interest in MATE and as Chairman of E1 .  64e12 .

During 1964 I continued to battle for a realistic and integrated CRO programme, issuing Product Policy Note No.6 for the period to 1968 and contributing to working party meetings chaired by the Company Secretary/Accountant, Bill Brian re Cathode Ray Oscilloscopes 1964/8. I also tried without success to get Dan Cain, the Chief Mechanical Designer and an artist, embrace the idea of "ease of use" design for our CROs, which our principal competitors had adopted to great effect; I should have persevered.

I wrote one of my Notes to Myself on "What do I mean by (instrument) concept?"

A number of meetings were also held on a new field to M.I. of Very Low Frequency (VLF) equipment. Another Research Department project was an Automatic Bridge to detect which type of electrical component was connected to it and display its value. This was demonstrated to R.E. Burnett, to no avail. The concept of an Automatic Oscilloscope was also explored. Visits were also paid to explore the field of Educational Instruments e.g. large-screen oscilloscopes, used by lecturers for teaching rather than by students for learning.  64d24 .

Shortly before I departed on a visit to USA I reorganised the Research Department. Morale in the Research Department had got very low. It was clear that for one reason or another the work in the Research Department was not getting into the mainstream of M.I. products. There was much criticism of it coming from the Engineering Department (no doubt mostly over lunch in the canteen).

I decided to reorganise to meet this chal1enge by dividing the Department into 3 well-defined Sections, each under a well-respected leader. I issued a 3-page paper setting out job descriptions and an organisation chart.  [The mismatch between some descriptions and the chart must surely have been due to drafting or typographical errors which I would have corrected at the time].     

The new structure did in fact succeed in creating a better atmosphere.

In June 1964 I visited the U.S.A., primarily to attend a Measurements Conference at Boulder, Colorado and thence to Tally, Seattle, but calling in at New York and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the way.

At 1630 on Saturday 13th I left by car for Heathrow to catch Flight BA509. When I arrived in New York it was very hot and humid. Water was dripping from air conditioners on the walls of buildings rather than steam coming up from road vents of the two previous March visits.

From New York I travelled to Boston and thence to Cambridge to visit MIT. I was given a very good tour and learnt much from conversations with various Professors.

Max Impey collected me from the airport on my return to New York - he had the radio on in his car and I was rather pleased that I correctly identified Walton's Symphony No.2 from its style rather than from knowledge of the work. I was also fascinated to notice in my travels to USA companies that there was a Presidential Award for Export, corresponding to our Queen's Award.  I wondered which came first.

I arrived in Boulder, Colorado, the weekend before the Conference opened. I hired a car and had a day's drive in the Rockies with another early arriver, Professor Pierre Grivet of Paris who was, I think, related to Madame Curie. I sent a card from Boulder to A.G. Wray, which he received on 24th June 1964 - he returned it to me in the 1980's at the same time saying that M.I. became so unprofessional that it was better for me that I had got out of it. 

The Conference opened on Monday 22nd June. The various contributions to the proceedings provided much food for thought and of course it was an excellent occasion for what we now call networking.

I bumped into Jan Hugill, who had spent some time as a research student working on a satellite instrument in my Electronics laboratory at the Cavendish - in fact the incorporation of a component made by M.I.. in the instrument led to my first contact with the Company.

I also met Dr. Marcel Bichera. He told me in 2001 that we met at the swimming pool of the Harvest House Hotel and that we were kept waiting for drinks by two young waitresses in swimming costumes! I had not remembered these details.

At one point in the Conference a US Navy man asked me to be sure to convey his kindest regards to Gurney Mercer, Managing Director of a St. Albans chronometer manufacturing company, who up to that time I had not met. I tried contacting Gurney Mercer by phone on my return but did not succeed. Twelve years later I conveyed the message - under highly unusual political circumstances.

On Thursday 25th June I departed from Boulder and flew to Seattle. The next day I visited Tally, seeking a licence for the Tally paper tape machine which I had identified as a key "business enabling" component. The President or Vice-President took me to lunch at a golf club (there was a very English look about the place) and later I had a 2-revolution dinner in the space needle restaurant with one of the Tally executives. Tally wasn't interested.

On Saturday 27th I flew Pan Am by the Polar route back to UK direct from Seattle, arriving back home the following day.

An interesting exercise in role differentiation occurred when I wrote to Neil Sutherland (M.D. of Marconi) as President of the Electronic Engineering Association c/o Marconi, about appointing an EEA representative on the IEE Committee on Electronics Design.  I, one of his minions in Marconi wrote to him as Chairman of the Electronics Design Committee c/o M.I.!   64j29 .

There was one amusing exchange of letters harking back to my Cavendish days. Dr. L Marton, Editor of a series of books entitled Advances in Electronics etc. wrote to me from Washington, evidently confusing me with A.H.W. Beck. I replied to him explaining the respective fields of A.H.W. and myself and describing how others had been confused while we were both at the University of Cambridge.  

I also wrote to A.H.W. Beck about what had happened.  64j12 . Shortly afterwards I received another letter from L. Marton saying his confusion was due to mine being the only entry named Beck in the British Who Is Who of Engineers and saying that one good outcome was that he would like me to write an article on advances in measuring instruments.  64j19 . I could not spare the time to respond to his invitation.

In 1964, my involvement in Freemasonry continued though, now I was out of the Chair of Alma Mater Lodge No.1492, to a much lesser extent than in 1963. The first Masonic entry in my 1964 diary was "Masonic Old Tunbridg(ians?)" and I haven't now a clue what that was for - perhaps someone invited me to a meeting but I couldn't attend.

On 6th March I hosted a dinner in the Junior Parlour of Caius College for the 1962/3 Circus - the Worshipful Masters of the Cambridgeshire Lodges. At a Circus reunion dinner 10 years later we were joined by our ladies. Then in May 1964 I had the pleasure of attending the Consecration of a new Cambridgeshire Lodge - Virtute et Fide - which was for teachers and former pupils of the County School.

Having been through the Chair of my Craft Lodge I was moving up in Euclid No.859, its associated Royal Arch Chapter. In June 1964, with A.Ll. Armitage of Queen's College in the Chair and myself two rungs down we received a great character, T. Ellis-Lewis the Squire Law librarian, into our Chapter. In November, the Alma Mater W.M.'s lunch to meet the Master-Elect was in King's College.

I went to some meetings outside Cambridgeshire - for example Harpenden Lodge, Fryerning Lodge as a guest of J.R. Thompson, Saffron Walden Lodge as a guest of my old farmer friend, Reg Chambers and to Lionel Gold's Lodge. In the last two cases I took leave in order to attend.

Throughout 1964 the visits to Wokingham Hospital continued on most weekends, nearly always myself and more often than not Sheila and the children making the 100 mile or so round trip.

I now had a good tailor, Vernon Arscott of Hector Powe at Blundells, Luton

Sadly, in July 1964 our next-door neighbour at No.8, Ed Grady, died - he, like Len Pinner at No.4 was Freemason but I never knew him as such.

My asthma played up towards the end of the year and I visited St. Albans City Hospital on two or three occasions for physiotherapy (Mrs. Hendall?), probably in the form of breathing exercises. On one occasion I had a company car transport me from M.I. then wait to take me straight to the station to catch a train to London.