• Source: Southwest and Central Wales Local Section (Royal Society of Chemistry)

The South Wales West Local Section is one of 35 local sections of the Royal Society of Chemistry in the UK and Ireland. It covers an area including the Local Authority areas of Bridgend, Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire and Swansea.




History


The section was originally established in November 1918 as the South Wales Section of the Royal Institute of Chemistry following the decision to establish local sections to allow members to play a more prominent role in the Institute and develop communication between members in their own areas. Members from the Munitions Factory Pembrey were the nucleus of the section. Despite its name, the South Wales Section served the majority of members in Wales but by 1935 the number of members in the southeast had increased sufficiently for them to form their own South East Wales Local Section and in 1948 the South Wales Section successfully campaigned for a North Wales Local Section to be created. With the amalgamation of the RIC and the Chemical Society in 1971, it became the South Wales West Local Section.




Governance






= Chair

=
Historically the chair comes alternately from the world of education and from the industry. Up to 1968, seven chairs came from Swansea University, seven from the Mond Nickel Company, three each from the Munitions Factory, local technical colleges and the Llandarcy oil refinery.

1918: John Christie, Munitions Factory Pembrey
F.J. Bloomer, Mond Nickel Company Clydach
1924-26: Prof J. E. Coates, University College Swansea
1928: Mr. C. M. W. Grieb
1931-33: Prof J. E. Coates, University College Swansea
1939-41: John Christie, Munitions Factory Pembrey
1962: Mr Hermas Evans
1968: Dr B.K. Davison
2023: Prof Simon Bott, Swansea University




= Hon Secretary

=
1950,1955,1958,1959: Ernest Edward Ayling
1959-1962: Harry Hallam
1963: Dr W. Williams ARIC
Jim Ballantine




Lectures


The local section holds a variety of lectures for members and the public. One of the largest meetings was in 1936 when 220 people attended a lecture given by Mr Davidson Pratt on Protecting the civil population from chemical gases. A selected list of lectures is given below.

1922: The Low Temperature Carbonisation of Coal, by Mr. T. Eynon Davies AIC
1923: Public Analyst
1927: Hormones
1928: River Pollution by Prof Campbell James
1938: Cancer and Chemical Substances, by Professor J. W. Cook FRS
1950: The Formation and Reactions of Free Radicals in Solution, by Professor M. G. Evans FRS
1955: Chemistry in Rocket Propulsion, by Dr T. P. Hughes
1957 and 1965: Blood alcohol testing
1957: Chromatography -Theory and Applications, by Dr Tudor S. G. Jones (Wellcome Research Laboratories)
1958: Safety in the Chemical Industry, by I. E. Baggs
1963: Silicones, Their Chemistry and Applications, by Mr C. J. Baker and Mr Johnson (Midland Silicones)
In former years a successful development was the Annual Lecture on the History of Chemistry associated with the name of Sir William Grove, the scientist from Swansea. One such lecture was by the Nobel Prize winner Archer Martin on his work on the invention of partition chromatography. At one time a Ladies Night were regularly organized lectures such as by Mr H. Armitage of British Nylon Spinners on Nylon in Industry and Fashion.




= Science and energy lectures

=
For many years Mr Bill Williams and Dr Jim Ballantine conducted a series of demonstration lectures where the children carry out all the experiments themselves to show how energy is interconvertible.




Prizes and awards






= Hallam Prize

=

Since 1983, each year the section awards a lectureship as part of the Hallam Memorial Fund in memory of the late Harry Evans Hallam.




= Ayling Prize

=
Since 1963, each year a prize has been awarded by Swansea University in memory of the late Ernest Edward Ayling, who had served the section as Hon Secretary for 21 years.




Notable members


Ernest Edward Ayling
Jim Ballantine (1934 - 2013), Hon Secretary and Treasurer for 23 years
John Cadogan
Harry Hallam
Keith Smith
Howard Purnell




External links


Science and Energy Lecture




References

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Southwest and Central Wales Local Section (Royal Society of Chemistry)
• Wolverhampton
• Wrexham
• Eastbourne
• Wildfire
• West Midlands (region)
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• University of Lincoln
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• Ireland