Cotton Mills to Chemical Plants: a chapter in the recent industrial history of Stalybridge

7/22/2019 Cotton Mills to Chemical Plants: a chapter in the recent industrial history of Stalybridge

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COTTON MILLS TO

CHEMICAL PLANTS

A chapter in the recent industrial history of StalybridgeTom Craig and John Bowes


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View over Stalybridge circa 1965, courtesy of Tameside Image Archive


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Cotton Mills to Chemical PlantsA chapter in the recent industrial history of Stalybridge

Stalybridge:municipal borough and town in Cheshire, near Manchester.

Cotton spinning, weaving, and ironworks. Population 24,823. (Pears

Cyclopaedia 1948)


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Cotton Mills to Chemical Plants: a chapter in the recent industrial history of Stalybridge

The Stalybridge Site, 1995


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Sternberg at Stalybridge: the beginning of manufacturePage 4

Sternberg at Stalybridge: the beginning of manufacture (Albion Mill, 1948)

Encouraged by the success of

his import-export businesses,

and believing that demand for

plastics materials would grow

quickly as European national

economies recovered from the

war, Sternberg decided to start

making plastics moulding

materials, rather than continue

to buy them from established

UK suppliers in amounts tomeet his export requirements.

The largest demand at the

time was for Bakelite-type

materials. To obtain the know-

how for making these moulding

materials (also known as

phenolic resins) he hired a

chemist, Clarence (Clar) Smith.Smith worked for an established

phenolic resin producer, and had

the technical expertise needed

to build and operate a resin

production unit.

To house the plant Sternberg

bought Albion Mill 4onHuddersfield Road, Stalybridge

(Fig.3) and phenolic resin

production started in July 1948.

The resin was called Sternite.

The new enterprise was called

Sterling Moulding Materials

Ltd. Its head offi

ce was inHaddon Street, London W1. Clar

Smith became a director of the

company. He set up residence

in Thorncliffe Hall, a large

country gentlemans house off

Spring Street, Hollingworth. To

lead the sales effort John Poole

was hired from another resin

producer, F.A. Hughes Ltd,

based in London.

Fig. 3 Albion Mill, early 1950s. Entrance to mill yard on right.


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Polystyrene operations in StalybridgePage 10

The Sterling polystyrene operations in Stalybridge

In 1958 Sternberg bought

Castle Mill (Fig. 5, 6, 7, 8) on

Dale Street, Stalybridge, and

converted it to a chemical plant

for making polystyrene. This

was Sternbergs first venture

into thermoplastics moulding

materials.

Castle Mill was built in 1891,

and had spun cotton until the

1930s.4Its steam engine and

machinery were then removed.

During the Second World

War, the mill was used as a

storage depot by the Army. The

mill cellar was equipped as a

decontamination centre 10for

use in the event of chemical

weapons such as mustard

gas 28being used in enemy

bombing raids. (The context to

this is that Germany had used

mustard gas in artillery shells

as a battlefield weapon duringWorld War I. Government

concern that it would be used

Fig. 5 Castle Mill prior to demolition in 1982. Taken from Bayley Street, looking across the site of the former terraced houses in Port

Street and Duke Street. The building on the left with the green roof was a working mens club.

for bombing UK civilian targets

in the Second World War led to

decontamination stations being

set up throughout the UK as a

civil defence measure).

In the late 1950s polystyrene

moulding materials were

already being made in the UK

at Barry (by the Dow Chemical

Co), at Newport (by Monsanto

Ltd), at Brantham, Essex (by

BXL Ltd), and at the Carrington

petrochemical complex near

Urmston (by Petrocarbon Ltd,

later to become Shell Chemicals

UK Ltd). Total annual UK

production was about 39,000

tons.



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Polystyrene operations in Stalybridge

p y f y g

Page 11

Fig. 6 Castle Mill viewed from the top of John Summerss chimney in 1981. Just

beyond the roof of the mill the rear of the houses on Bayley Street are visible. The one

whose rear projects out is the Stakes pub.

Fig. 7 Castle Mill viewed from the far side of the River Tame.

Fig. 8 Castle Mill (left) from the Bayley Street - River Tame bridge.



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To obtain know-how for making

polystyrene Sternberg hired a US

consultant, Richard B. Bishop.11

Under Bishops guidance the first

chemical reactors for making

polystyrene were installed

in Castle Mill in 1959, and

production started in 1960.

To provide technical support for

the fledgling business, Sternberg

hired Zigmund Kromolicki (Fig.

9), a polymer chemist who had

been working in polystyrene

technology for BXL Ltd at

Brantham in Essex.12He moved

to Castle Mill in 1959 and set up

an R&D laboratory, pilot plant

and materials testing facilities.

Two processes were installed

at Castle Mill. One was a batchmass polymerisation system

known as the plate and frame

press process. This was used

mainly for making high impact

polystyrene; it will be described

later.

The second process was asuspension reactor system for

making crystal polystyrene

and styrene-acrylonitrile (SAN)

copolymers. For reasons described

below the suspension process

is sometimes called the bead

process.

Fig. 9 Zigmund Kromolicki (rear)

and Jim Butterworth (front)

Polystyrene is made from

styrene, a sweet-smelling water-

like (but flammable) liquid.26

The basic molecular units ofstyrene (the so-called monomer)

can be made to join together

in long chains, rather like the

way paper clips can be linked

into a chain. This process is

called addition polymerisation,

and the result is the polymer,polystyrene.

Polystyrene is a very versatile

material it can be injection

moulded rapidly, and can

be extruded into sheets that

are subsequently shaped

(thermoformed) into objectsranging from refrigerator

cabinet interiors to food

packaging trays. During the

extrusion process gases can

be injected into the molten

polymer, thereby expanding

it to produce very light foam

sheet or boards that havevaluable insulation properties

for use in food packaging and

construction.

Polystyrene exists as two broad

types. The simplest type is

a transparent, fairly brittle

material, called crystal (orgeneral purpose) polystyrene

(used for example in CD boxes).

A more structurally complex

type having higher toughness

(impact strength) is called high-

impact polystyrene (HIPS),

and is made by incorporatingup to 10% of a synthetic rubber

(called polybutadiene) into the

styrene polymerisation process

(see later).

Polystyrene manufacture



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Polystyrene operations in Stalybridge Page 13

In the suspension process

demineralised water is

charged to an agitated

reactor (similar to thoseshown in Fig. 4) and styrene

monomer and stabilising

chemicals are added.

The ratio of styrene to water

is about 40/60 percent. The

agitation disperses the

styrene monomer as a densecloud (suspension) of fine

droplets (about 1-2 mm in

diameter) in the water. The

stabilising additives keep

the droplets from coalescing

as the reactor is then taken

through a heating cycle.

The droplets become sticky,

and then harden as the heat

turns the styrene monomer

into solid polystyrene beads.

The reactor is then cooled,

and its contents (in the form

of a slurry) are discharged

to a wash vessel. From this

they are pumped through a

centrifuge to spin the water

from the solid beads. The

beads are then dried in a hot

air stream. The suspension

process for making styrene-

acrylonitrile (SAN) copolymerbeads is shown in Fig. 10.

Usually the beads are

fed to an extruder and

granulated to form

cylindrical pellets about 3mm diameter and about

3-5 mm long for ease of

handling.

The suspension (or bead) process

Fig. 10 SAN System flowsheet


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Fig. 11 Grinder for shredding blocks of synthetic rubber into granules. Basically thesemachines are large mincers driven by an electric motor via a gear box. The granules

are then dissolved in styrene monomer to make the solution that is the feedstock for

making high-impact polystyrene.

Fig. 12 A plate and frame press for making polystyrene by a batch mass process.

An individual plate and frame are shown. The lugs on the sides of the frame sit on

horizontal rails. The reaction takes place in the volume enclosed by each frame.

Fig. 13 Press reactor, end-on-view. Hydraulic

clamping ram is in the foreground.

at the rear of Castle Mill (Fig.

14). These buildings also housed

an engineering workshop and

drawing offices for Castle Mill.

The rough plastic granules

from the grinders were blown

through aluminium pipes by

compressed air to storage silos

located on the top floor of the

mill (Fig. 15). From there they

were fed via a blending system

(Fig. 16) to extruders located

two floors below for melting,

mixing and pelletisation. This

system allowed pigments

and other additives to be

incorporated into the polymer to

meet end-use customer needs.

Crystal polystyrene was also

made in the press process,

and this could be blended with

the high-impact polystyrene

granulate to dilute its rubber

content and thus make

medium-impact grades. The

dry blending of granules,

pellets and additives (pigments,

lubricants, antioxidants) was

done on the third floor of the

mill in rotating conical blenders

(Fig. 16) that each held about

1 ton of materials. The blender

contents were dumped through

chutes in the floor into hoppers

that fed the extruders on the

floor below.



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Fig. 14 Site plan in 1978

Fig. 15 Material hoppers on the 3rd floor of Castle Mill

Fig. 16 Conical blenders on the 2nd floor of Castle Mill



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In 1967 Sternberg bought the

polystyrene business of BXL

Ltd, located at Brantham in

Essex, and in 1968 moved

the plant to the former John

Summers Globe Ironworks (the

Globe Site- see Figs. 17 and

18, and the postscript to this

memoir). The Globe Site lies

across the River Tame from

Castle Mill (Fig. 19).

The new plant drew some of

its services (steam, compressed

air etc) from Castle Mill via

pipetracks above the river, and

Fig. 17 Globe Site, from Castle Mill roof Fig. 18 Globe Site, John Summers Iron Works chimney on right

an ex-army Bailey Bridge was

installed to connect the two sites

near the line of the aqueduct

(Figs. 19 and 20) that carries

the Huddersfield Canal over the

river.

Several people came to

Stalybridge from BXL. These

included George Carrothers

who became production

manager, Duffy Alldus process

supervisor, Peter Mullet, Frank

Beeson and Albert Stringer

process operators, and Phil

Johnson, a chemist. (Roger

Quick, also a chemist from

BXL, had coincidentally joined

Sterling a year earlier, and was

working in R&D in Castle Mill).

Albert Stringer died in the 1985

British Airways plane fire at

Manchester Airport.



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Fig. 19 Bailey bridge and canal aqueduct over the River Tame Fig. 20 Canal aqueduct over the River Tame

The plant on Globe Site had

two process sections. One

section was a suspension (bead)

polymerisation plant. Theother section consisted of five

continuous mass polymerisation

units; it was called the tower

plant (Figs.21, 22,23,24,25 and

26).

The tower plant was based

on a process developed andcommercialised in Germany

in the 1930s. Unlike the press

process, the towers enabled

polymer pellets to be made

continuously from feed (styrenemonomer, or rubber-styrene

solution). The group of towers

produced about 56 tons per day.

But the product quality limited

the range of uses for which it

could be sold. For that reason

the tower process was later

discontinued.

In 1969 Sternberg bought another

tower unit from a small company

in Bolton called Kaylis Plastics

Ltd. This was installed on GlobeSite alongside the other tower

lines. Kaylis was owned by a Mr

Sam Kaufman, who previously

had a plant (Kayson Plastics) in

Canada.

At this time there was no

equipment to prepare rubbersolution on Globe Site. Rubber

solution to feed the tower units

making high-impact polystyrene

was prepared in the dissolving

vessels in Castle Mill, and takenin a road tanker across the Bailey

Bridge to the Globe Site.13In 1969

a rubber dissolving plant was

installed on Globe Site.

To force the conversion of styrene

to polystyrene towards completion

in the towers, a special catalystcalled BXC-1 was added in small



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Fig. 21 Tower plant

Figs. 22, 23 Tower plant reactor area

Fig. 24 Tops of the tower reactors

Fig. 25 Pre-poly reactors at the 1st floor

level of the tower plant


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Semi-continuous polystyrene process Page 21

To ensure that his business

grew and stayed competitive,

Sternberg needed to obtain an

improved process that madepolystyrene continuously

(24/7). Technical know-how

for such processes was not

readily available, since the few

companies (Dow, Monsanto,

Union Carbide) who had

developed it did not (with

few exceptions) license their

technology to others.

In 1967, in the light of this

situation, Sternberg hired

The semi-continuous polystyrene process in Castle Mill

the services of an American

consultant, Dr. John L.

McCurdy (Fig. 27).

Dr. McCurdy was a chemical

engineer who had worked in

R&D, and later in production

management, for a major US

polystyrene producer, the Dow

Chemical Company. He had left

Dow in 1958 to start up his own

small-scale polystyrene plantsin the US. In 1964 he sold these

three plants to the chemicals

division of a major oil company

(Amoco Chemicals Corporation,

later to be merged into BP),

and around 1965 he began to

offer his services worldwide as

a consultant 23,24in polystyreneprocess technology.

Dow Chemical Company was a

pioneer in large-scale continuous

mass polymerisation process

technology, and its polystyrene

materials were the benchmarks

of quality in the industry. Dr.McCurdys previous employment

with Dow therefore lent him

credibility as an expert in that

field of technology. It was to turn

out later, in his relations with

Sternberg and other clients that

McCurdys expertise was quite

limited, and that his approach to

technical matters and the legal

aspects of intellectual property

was sometimes cavalier.24

Dr. McCurdys first project for

Sternberg was to convert part

of the press plant in Castle Mill

into a semi-continuous process

capable of making 16 tons per

day of high impact polystyrene.

The new unit was known

as the U-Tube plant, for

reasons described below. It was

commissioned in 1970.

Fig. 27 Dr. McCurdy (left) and Alan Linton (right)



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Semi-continuous polystyrene processPage 22

In this process (Fig. 28) the

prepolymerisation of styrene-

rubber solution was carried

out in batches (about 8 tons) ineach of two of the reactors that

had been used to feed the press

process. Ethylbenzene was

added to the rubber solution as

an unreactive diluent to reduce

the viscosity of the reacting

mass and thus make it easier to

pump through the plant.

The prepolymer batch was

then pumped into the so-

called U-Tube reactor (see

below) and heated until the

reaction began to self-heat

(exotherm), ultimately reaching

a temperature of about 180

degrees C. At this point about

85% of the reacting mass had

been converted to polymer.It was then pumped from the

U-Tube reactor into a heated

holding tank that was kept

topped-up by subsequent

batches.

From the holding tank onward

the production process was

continuous. The molten mass

was pumped continuouslyfrom the holding tank into

a further heated vessel that

was kept under vacuum. This

vessel is called a devolatiliser,

and its function was to strip

(evaporate) volatile

materials (the

ethylbenzene diluent

and unconverted styrene

monomer) out of the

molten polymer mass.

These vapours were

condensed, purified, and

recycled into subsequent

prepolymerisationbatches.

The stripped molten

polymer (typically at

about 230 degrees

centigrade) was pumped

continuously from

the devolatiliser basethrough a heated die

plate containing an

array of 3mm diameter

holes to form strands

(rather like spaghetti).

The strands were cooled

by drawing through a

The U-Tube process

Fig. 28 U-Tube process


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Large-scale continuous polystyrene manufacturePage 24

The advent of large-scale continuous polystyrene manufacture

the horizontal reactor plant

The next expansion of the

business, proposed by Dr.

McCurdy, was based on a

continuous polystyrene process

that had been built by Amoco

Chemicals Corporation in the

US in 1967 under his general

guidance. The proposed

Stalybridge plant would be able

to produce about 1.5 tons perhour of polystyrene for 8000

hours per year.

There were potential technical

and legal issues attached to

implementing the McCurdy

proposal. The legal issues were

resolved in 1970.24Construction

of the plant began in 1969 on

Globe Site. It was known as the

horizontal plant (H-1) because

its reactors were arranged as

a series (of three) horizontalcylinders (see Figs. 30, 31, 32).

These had internal coils carrying

heat transfer oil, alternating

with agitator blades mounted on

a horizontal shaft. It was started

up in 1972. Quickly it became

clear that, unlike the U-Tube

process, the plant as built could

not deliver the high quality of

rubber-toughened polystyrene

product that Dr McCurdy had

led Sternberg to expect, and

that the European marketneeded. It also became clear

that in spite of his impressive

pedigree, McCurdy had a limited

understanding of the chemistry

and physics underlying the

horizontal reactor process

problems, and did not know how

to fix them.

In formulating the process

concept he had made a

fundamentally flawed (and

unchallenged) assumption

that the fluid flow pattern

through the horizontal reactors

would be an ideal form knownas plug flow. He enlisted the

help of a chemical engineer,

Marvin Jarvis, with whom he

had worked at Dow Chemical,

and had later formed a

business in the US offering

polystyrene processes (EmejotaEngineering). Jarvis (Fig. 33)

was more technically competent

than McCurdy, but the urgent

task of problem-solving fell

totally on a small group of

technologists based in the Castle

Mill laboratory.

A major challenge in trying to

improve the H-1 product quality

was that the significance of

the complex microscopically

observable structure within

Fig. 30 First horizontal reactor plant, H-1 (Globe Site). The plant made high impact(rubber toughened) polystyrene continuously at about 36 tonnes per 24 hours.Figs. 31, 32 H-1 plant


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Fig. 35 The recycle occluder-inverter system on H-1, Stalybridge. The 1st stage

horizontal reactor top is in the foreground. The occluder is on the green platform; the

inverter below.

produced. Styrene was in very

short supply at the time, and its

price was escalating rapidly (see

below). Reportedly Sternbergsold the styrene monomer in the

international chemicals market

and made a profit of 500,000

without taking delivery of the

styrene. The deal was based on

the fact that Foster Grant had

its own styrene monomer plant

(100,000 tons per year capacity)

at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and

could thus supply Sternberg

with the monomer at production

cost and store it for him there.

Styrene monomer is made by

reacting benzene with ethylene

to form ethylbenzene; this is

then dehydrogenated to form

styrene monomer. Using its own

styrene monomer, Foster Grant

already made polystyrene atLeominster in Massachusetts, at

Figs. 36, 37 H-2 plant

Chesapeake (Virginia),

and in Peru (Illinois),

using suspension

polymerisationprocesses. They wanted

the horizontal reactor

plant technology because it used

much less energy to make each

ton of product than the batch

manufacturing processes they

were using. The context to this

situation is that worldwide

energy costs were soaring as a

result of war in the middle east.

This escalation was the so-called

oil shock. Between October

1973 and January 1974 crude

oil prices trebled following along period of stability and low


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director Under the Duncan- expertise in manufacturing


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Large-scale continuous polystyrene manufacture Page 29

Clar Smith (see earlier), who

had overall responsibility for

the Stalybridge businesses,was not enthusiastic about

formal worker-management

consultation, and was replaced

as managing director by Ian

Duncan-Brown. Duncan-Brown

was related to Lord Wilfred

Brown, an industrialist friendof Sternberg, who had advised

the Labour Party on the In

Place of Strife labour relations

proposals. Smith was sent to

the US to keep watch on a joint

venture that Sternberg had

set up in New Jersey with Dr.

McCurdy.

In addition to Jim Butterworth,

Duncan-Brown hired an ex-

Glacier Metals executive, AlanLinton (Fig. 27) to oversee

manufacturing. Frank Heywood

(recruited from James North Ltd

in Hyde) became general works

manager, and Alan Beck (a

former trade union shop steward

from northeast England) washired as personnel manager (a

first).

Duncan-Brown resigned in 1975

to pursue business interests

in South Africa, but the rest of

the management team that he

had recruited remained. HoraceFussell became managing

director. Under the Duncan

Brown management regime

a canteen was built on Globe

Site, and a social club was

established on Grosvenor Street,

Stalybridge. A training centreserving all the companies was

set up in Albion Mill under

Barry Hale (former works

manager at Tower Mill).

In 1973 the R&D laboratory

for the polystyrene business

was moved from Castle Millto a new building (Fig. 43) on

the corner of Bridge Street

and Bayley Street, adjacent to

what was then Manro Products

Ltd, and is now Stepan.18In

1977 many of the R&D staff

were made redundant in acost-cutting exercise. Some

were later re-hired. A second

floor was added to the R&D

building to accommodate sales

and administration offices. The

quality control and technical

services laboratories remained

in Castle Mill. Just prior tothis Zigmund Kromolicki,

who was head of R&D, had

left the company, and R&D

management had passed to

Mike Evans, a chemist who had

been recruited in 1972 from

Shell Chemicals at Carrington.

He had been hired to provide

Fig. 43 R&D Laboratory building, Bridge Street. Left to right: Jim Butterworth, Herb

Schrob (American Hoechst), Tom Craig (1976)

expertise in manufacturing

expandable polystyrene using

the suspension plant on Globe

Site, but the business venture

was aborted.


The polystyrene business after Sternbergs death in 1978


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The polystyrene business after Sternberg s death in 1978

In early 1979 the polystyrenebusiness was sold to RTZChemicals Ltd. John Mills had

been brought in as managingdirector in 1977. In 1980 RTZsold the business to a Frenchpetrochemical company, ATOChemical Products (UK) Ltd.Mills stayed with RTZ, and ATOappointed David Gresham (ex-Dow Chemical UK) as managing

director. As corporate structuresshifted in the French oil andpetrochemicals business, ATObecame Elf Atochem, thenAtofina, and in 2004 became TotalPetrochemicals UK Ltd.

In 1981 the R&D building on

Bridge Street was sold to Manro

(now Stepan), and a new office

block (Globe House) was built on

Bayley Street. The R&D group

moved to the Globe Site where alaboratory and offices had been

created in a building that housed

a canteen.

In 1982, Castle Mill and

Phoenix Works were sold to

RSJ Engineering Ltd.29They

demolished Castle Mill, andused Phoenix Works to expand

their existing business of selling

used process equipment to the

plastics and chemicals industry.

The tower plant on Globe Site

was scrapped, and its site

was modified to re-house and

modernise the compounding plant

that had been in Castle Mill. The

Globe Site suspension plant was

also scrapped.In about 1983 ATO Chemical

re-purchased the derelict Castle

Mill site, and built a PVC

compounding operation on it. This

was sold in 2000.

In 1986 the horizontal reactors

were removed from H-1 andscrapped. Some of its other

components were combined

with new vertical reactors to

create a new plant version (still

called H-1) for making crystal

Fig. 44 Demolition of Castle Mill, 1982. The River Tame is on the

other side of the rustic fence. The blue cooling towers on the roofare above the old rope race.

polystyrene. This plant was

demolished in 2005.

In 1989 a new plant, called H-3,

was built on Globe Site (Fig. 45).This plant could make impact

or crystal polystyrene grades at

about 9 tonnes per hour. It was

the first plant to have a computer

control system.

From the change of ownership

to ATO the pursuit of safety anda commitment to environmental

responsibility in plant operations

became fundamental parts of

the business. An example of

environmental action is shown in

Fig. 46.

Fig. 45 H-3 plant under construction


Technology developments at Stalybridge


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Large-scale continuous polystyrene manufacture Page 31

Technology developments at Stalybridge

The research and development

work carried out in the Sterling

polystyrene business led to

several patents being grantedto protect the companys

intellectual property. Technical

staff members were allowed

to publish scientific papers on

their work in peer-reviewed

international technical journals

dealing with advances in

polymer science and technology.These patents and research

publications are listed in

Publications and patents, at

the end of this book.

In terms of their subsequent

industry-wide applications,

the most significant inventionsmade at Stalybridge were

the process for flash-tank

devolatilisation of molten

polymer using superheated

water microdroplet injection

in static mixers (see earlier),and the process concept called

recycle occluder-inverter

technology. The latter has been

adopted widely for controlling

rubber particle morphology

(see Fig. 34) in continuous

mass plants for making impact

polystyrene. In connection withthe occluder-inverter technology

development, a novel analytical

procedure was invented for

measuring very accurately the

size distribution and volume

fraction of rubber particles in

high impact polystyrene.Sternberg gave generous

financial awards to staff

members who obtained patents,

or had papers published in

technical journals. The awards

were presented at annualdinners. Also on these occasions

employees who had served

ten years with Sterling were

given an engraved Rolex watch.

Employees were encouraged

to study for professional

qualifications, and to pursue

further education generally.Chemical engineering students

doing so-called sandwich degree

courses were employed for their

industrial experience year,

and some of them returned to

Sterling as full-time employees

following graduation.


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Summary


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Safety and environmental aspects of the Sterling polystyrene operationsPage 34

A rubber grinding and

dissolving operation was started

on Globe Site in 1970. The

rubber grinders (Fig. 11) were atground level, and the granulated

rubber crumb was blown from

them by air into the top of one of

the four dissolving vessels, each

about 5 metres high and filled

with 12,000 litres of styrene

monomer. The air stream

conveying the rubber granulesflowed through polythene

tubing, and there was always

a danger that static sparks

could develop in the system,

in spite of wires that earthed

the dissolving vessel to thegrinder. Later a grinder was re-

located on a rail track above the

dissolving tanks, and the rubber

blocks (bales) were hoisted up

to that level so that the rubber

granules dropped by gravity into

the dissolvers. More recently

a modern dissolving plant wasinstalled (Fig. 48).

Fig. 48 Modern rubber dissolving plant, Globe Site

It was only during the Duncan-

Brown management period

that manuals were written

to formalise plant operatingprocedures and help to train

new employees. These manuals

focused mainly on obtaining

product quality through

consistent process operations.

y

This chronicle of the chemistry-

based industry that Rudy

Sternberg created in the

Stalybridge area is a minorsequel to the history of the local

cotton industry.

As the infrastructure and

traditions of that industry

declined, the conversion of

several redundant cotton

mills to chemical plantswas a significant economic

development whose details have

not been previously recorded.


Postscript: The Globe Site history


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Postscript: The Globe site history Page 35

The site of the former John

Summers Globe Ironworks

became an important part of

the Stalybridge polystyreneoperations, and brought with it

a rich industrial heritage.

In 1842 John Summers owned a

clogmakers shop in Dukinfield.

Clogs have thick wooden soles

that are protected by iron plates

fixed to the toe, heel and along

the sides. These are known as

clogirons. Summers bought

these, and iron nails, from anearby forge owned by Giles

Potter. He bought Potters

business and expanded it.

On a visit to the Great

Exhibition in London in 1851,

Summers saw a nail making

machine and bought it for 40.

This mechanisation enabled

him to grow his market into

Yorkshire, Lancashire andNorth Wales, and he moved to

larger premises. These rapidly

became too small, and he moved

his forge and machine to the

site on Bayley Street that would

become Globe Ironworks. There

he was able to make larger

Fig. 49 Entrance to John Summers Globe Ironworks. The railway lines branched outwithin the site.

forgings and roll iron bars and

sheet.

The site eventually contained a

large range of furnaces, forges

and rolling mills driven by

steam engines. A large scale

map of the site showing these

installations has been deposited

in Tameside Local Studies

Library. It had an internal

railway (Fig 49) served by onelocomotive (see Fig. 50). The

Fig. 50 John Summers locomotive at level crossing on Bayley Street


line crossed Bayley Street on a

level crossing to allow loads to

dissolve iron oxide mill scale

from their surfaces This process

the spent acid in large open

brick lined tanks


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Postscript: The Globe site historyPage 36

level crossing to allow loads to

be taken to and from the main

railway line. Beneath the site

there was an extensive range

of flues connecting the furnacesand steam engine boilers to

a large brick chimney (see

photographs in main text). Some

of these flues were uncovered

during construction work in

Sterling days (Fig. 51).

Some of the iron sheet productswere galvanised. They were

prepared for this by immersion

in tanks of hydrochloric acid to

from their surfaces. This process

is known as pickling. Eventually

the acid becomes exhausted. The

resulting liquid, called pickle

liquor or spent acid, is valuablefor making iron oxide pigments.

It was pumped from the John

Summers galvanising plant,

via a pipe along the bank of the

River Tame, to a firm called

The Bridge Colour Company.

This was on part of what is

now Stepan Chemical property.

Iron oxides of various shades

from black to red were made by

blowing steam and air through

brick-lined tanks.

Sterling scrapped all the

ironworks machinery in 1968

but kept some of the buildings.The detailed melting, forging

and rolling operations at

Globe Ironworks are not well

documented, but a similar

contemporary ironworks existed

nearby at Park Bridge. A

comprehensive archive showing

the forges and rolling mills at

Park Bridge exists at Tameside

Local Studies Library and the

Park Bridge visitor centre. That

archive provides an insight

into the nature of the Globe

Ironworks operation.

Fig. 51 Investigating the underground flue system, Globe Site. Note the cast ironsupport beam.


43/52


44/52


the Amos-McCurdy-McIntire patent,

claimed the invention of a particular

International Award Address published

in Polymer Engineering and Science vol


45/52

Notes and References Page 39

claimed the invention of a particular

process for making high impact

polystyrene.

The author (TC) was employed during

1965-69 in research on this topic (at

Amoco Chemicals Corporation, a major

defendant in the legal action) and

later as an expert witness in litigation

that led to the patent being held

invalid by the US Federal Court in Los

Angeles in 1970 after a lengthy trial.

This was a landmark legal decisionfor the industry. Dr. McCurdy, after

leaving Dow, had always asserted that

he believed the patent to be invalid,

and that he had merely signed the

required declaration of invention under

instruction from Dows patent lawyers

that he had a duty to do so under the

terms of his employment contract. His

assertion carried little legal weight, and

he never gave evidence in the Court

case.

The legal and technical background

to the litigation is described in the

following papers:

24a. G. Freeguard and J.T. Wallace:

Industrial patents matter litigation

concerning rubber modified polystyrene.

Chemistry & Industry (1980) no.3 104-

112.

24b. J.L. Amos, The development ofimpact polystyrene a review. SPE

in Polymer Engineering and Science vol

14 no. 1 (1974) 1-11.

25. The BXC-1 catalyst was 2,3-dimethyl

2,3-diphenylbutane, made by reactingsec-butylbenzene with dibenzoyl

peroxide in a small stainless steel

reactor fitted with a glass distillation

column and receiver. Each batch was

about 200 litres. It was shipped in 200

litre steel drums.

26. Styrene monomer was delivered in

road tankers from BP Chemicals Ltd

plants at Baglan Bay in S. Wales, and

Grangemouth.

27. The process modification made to the

front-end of the H-1 plant was given

the name occluder-inverter technologyfor reasons that are beyond the scope of

this history.

28. Mustard gas has nothing to do with

mustard, nor is it a gas. It is made

by reacting ethylene with sulphur

dichloride, and is a liquid. It can be

neutralised by contact with dilute

bleach, which is used as a spray for

washing contaminated personnel and

equipment.

29. RSJ Engineering Ltd was owned by Jim

Smith and Jim Riley.


46/52



47/52

Reactor control panel, Castle Mill

R & D Laboratory.

(LR: Roger Quick, Keith Greenwood, Tom Jenkins)

Analytical Section, R & D Laboratory. (Elaine Dodge)



48/52

Clockwise from above:

Tower Mill, Dukinfield (courtesy of Chris Earl)

Etherow Bleach Works, Hollingworth

Queen Mill, Dukinfield (from a letterhead of 1913)



49/52

Installation of a reactor vessel at the Stalybridge site

Lord Plurenden (Rudy Sternberg) 1978



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STERLING MOULDING MATERIALS STAFF 1978

Back Row LR:

1. Barry Hale 2. Tricia Cowell 4. Chris Anderson 5. John Hayward 7. Duffy Alldus 8. Tom Craig 9. John Morton

12. John Currie 13. Alan Davey 14. Peter Doyle 15. Austin McTaff 16. Roy Smith 19. Don Taylor

Middle Row LR:

1. Harry Lee 2. Ray McNulty 3. Don Sellars 4. Jean Connor 5. Bert Haley 6. Alan Beck 7. Alan Linton 8. John Mills9. Frank Heywood 10. Richard Milner-Moore 11. Bob Symcox 12. John Ash 14. Guy Yeates 15. Jim Buttworth

Front Row. LR:

1. Stuart Patrick 2. Malcom Jones 3. Peter Lillie 4. Roger Quick 5. C.C Patel

6. Peter Ashenden 7. Keith Greenwood 8. John Churcher 9. Peter Egerton


51/52

Derived from the Ordnance Survey of 1894

COTTON MILLS TO


52/52

The origin and growth of the Sterling Group of companies in Stalybridge.The origin and growth of the Sterling Group of companies in Stalybridge.In 1945 the cotton industry in the UK was dying and many mills in Stalybridge and Dukineld layIn 1945 the cotton industry in the UK was dying, and many mills in Stalybridge and Dukinfield layempty. Rudy Sternberg a London-based trader bought ve of these mills and two large formerempty. Rudy Sternberg, a London-based trader, bought five of these mills and two large formerengineering sites for conversion to chemical plants.engineering sites for conversion to chemical plants.The conversions began in 1948 at Albion Mill with the manufacture of phenolic resin mouldingThe conversions began in 1948 at Albion Mill with the manufacture of phenolic resin mouldingmaterials. Growth and diversication of Sternbergs operations continued for the next thirty years andmaterials. Growth and diversification of Sternbergs operations continued for the next thirty years, andby 1979 they employed about 1000 people.by 1979 they employed about 1000 people.Polystyrene manufacture became the biggest business producing 60 000 tonnes per year in the latePolystyrene manufacture became the biggest business, producing 60,000 tonnes per year in the late1970s. Research and development work in Stalybridge created advances in plastics manufacturing1970s. Research and development work in Stalybridge created advances in plastics manufacturingtechnology that were adopted worldwide.technology that were adopted worldwide.Sternberg received a knighthood and later a peerage for his services to industry and exports.Sternberg received a knighthood, and later a peerage for his services to industry and exports.

CHEMICAL PLANTSTom Craig and John Bowes

Content design: Tony Kershaw Information DesignContent design: Tony Kershaw Information DesignCopyright: Tom Craig and John Bowes 2013Copyright: Tom Craig and John Bowes 2013Background image: Castle Mill 1976Background image: Castle Mill 1976

Documents

Cotton Mills to Chemical Plants: a chapter in the recent industrial history of Stalybridge