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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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Cotton Mills to Chemical Plants: a chapter in the recent industrial history of Stalybridge
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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Polystyrene operations in StalybridgePage 12
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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Polystyrene operations in Stalybridge Page 15
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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Polystyrene operations in StalybridgePage 16
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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Polystyrene operations in Stalybridge Page 17
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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Polystyrene operations in StalybridgePage 18
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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Polystyrene operations in Stalybridge Page 19
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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Large-scale continuous polystyrene manufacturePage 26
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.
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The polystyrene business after Sternbergs death in 1978
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Large-scale continuous polystyrene manufacturePage 30
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
Cotton Mills to Chemical Plants: a chapter in the recent industrial history of Stalybridge
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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Cotton Mills to Chemical Plants: a chapter in the recent industrial history of Stalybridge
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.
Cotton Mills to Chemical Plants: a chapter in the recent industrial history of Stalybridge
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
Cotton Mills to Chemical Plants: a chapter in the recent industrial history of Stalybridge
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.
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Cotton Mills to Chemical Plants: a chapter in the recent industrial history of Stalybridge
the Amos-McCurdy-McIntire patent,
claimed the invention of a particular
International Award Address published
in Polymer Engineering and Science vol
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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.
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Reactor control panel, Castle Mill
R & D Laboratory.
(LR: Roger Quick, Keith Greenwood, Tom Jenkins)
Analytical Section, R & D Laboratory. (Elaine Dodge)
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Clockwise from above:
Tower Mill, Dukinfield (courtesy of Chris Earl)
Etherow Bleach Works, Hollingworth
Queen Mill, Dukinfield (from a letterhead of 1913)
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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
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Derived from the Ordnance Survey of 1894
COTTON MILLS TO
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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