Interesting thread, which has somehow found its way from Home Guard cap badges to self sealing aircraft fuel tanks! If I may and with apology to cati, I will add a bit to the latter aspect.
Discussion about ICI has so far centred around Paints Division and the Teesside chemical activities. But ICI also had a Metals Division which was based in the West Midlands. In that division was a wholly-owned ICI subsidiary known as Marston Excelsior Ltd. who operated several factories in the Wolverhampton area during the war. Amongst a wide range of engineering products was the fabrication of aluminium fuel tanks for aircraft. At some stage these started to incorporate a foam outer skin to give the tank some form of self sealing property. As things evolved rapidly with the pressures of war, the metal tank disappeared and the tank became a wholly flexible structure, still with its self sealing properties. This latter development must, I now realise, have come as a result of the ICI connection and, especially, the work which Mr Griffiths was doing in Paints. The patent describes pretty accurately how these tanks were manufactured from about 1942 onwards: a layer or layers of flexible reinforced material, with coatings and with a layer of foam which swelled when fuel was released as a result of penetration by bullet or shrapnel; and all manufactured on collapsible metal jigs. (It was a fascinating sight to see these quite large tanks being built up on a large rigid jig and then the latter being painstakingly taken apart within the tank and the components being carefully withdrawn through the largest aperture available).
The journey from idea to fruition must have been a complicated one with much liaison amongst all the interested parties, not least the engineers. It would be fascinating to know the extent to which Mr Griffiths collaborated with the people in Wolverhampton (some of whom I knew in later years) and others elsewhere, such as the rubber sheet manufacturers, to help produce what was an incredible product which must have saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives.
Marston's production of tanks of this type lasted for many years after the war until the concept of flexible aircraft tanks died a death. But the contribution of Metals Division and its metal bashers was by no means confined to this: Kynoch at Witton in Birmingham was one of the biggest ammunition manufacturers in the country and there was even significant involvement in the Tube Alloys project. But that of course is another story! The ironic thing is that the mighty ICI is no more as has already been mentioned; but the Midlands metal bashers, later known as IMI, survived and are now a very significant British engineering company with their HQ still in Birmingham (although "metal bashing" is hardly an appropriate description of their 21st century activities!) In fact, so does Marston, still in Wolverhampton but now owned by a US company and with no interest whatever in rubber fabrication. (I have put online a potted history of IMI from its pre-ICI creation in 1862, if anyone is interested -
http://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/KOtherInformationKynoch.htm ).
Thanks for a very interesting thread and how good it is to remember a remarkable inventor as well as his comrades in the local Home Guard..
Chris
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