30 president's address — SECTION B. 



beginnings in 1915, the Factories Branch gradually extended, u-n- 

 til at the close of the war it controlled more than twenty factories, 

 producing not only explosives but also a great variety of other 

 materials, including many cf the so-called "pcison gases." Many 

 of these factories were designed by Mr. Quinan, and erected under 

 his supei"vision, and the management of all ot them was subject 

 to his control. Amongst the most noteworthy achievements were 

 the great factory at Queen's Ferry, near Chester, capable of turn- 

 ing out over 800 tons per week of T.N.T. and over 200 tons per 

 week of nitrocellulose, and the still larger factory a.t Gretna with 

 a capacity of over 800 tons per week of finished cordite. Excerpt 

 that it Oibtained about half the necessary amo'U-nt of nitrocellulose 

 from. Queen's Ferry, Gretna was self-contained, producing besides, 

 the balance of the nitrocellulose all the acids, ether, and nitro- 

 glycerine it required. There was also a very large distilling plant 

 for the refining of the crude glycerine. 



Hand in hand with the erection of these factories had to go 

 the training of the staffs to run them; and in this Mr. Quinan de- 

 veloped a two-fold purpose. The first consideration was of course 

 to turn out the materials necessary for winning the wa.r. (The 

 possibility of losing it apparently did not trouble him.) The 

 second, however, was to make of the Department a great educa- 

 tional institution, and to give to the chemists and engineers who 

 came under his influence such a thorough training in the erection 

 and running of chemical plant and in all the details cf factory 

 management, that they would be qualified to play their part in the 

 great task of building up and extending the British chemical in- 

 dustries after the war was won. The methods by which these aims 

 were accomplished can best be given in Mr. Quinan 's own words 

 taken from the Preface to the Second Repot't on Costs and 

 Efficiencies for H .M . Factories ControJled hy the Factories Branch, 

 dated September, 1918: — 



"The need of a broad and comprehensive programme of ex- 

 plosives production was realised by the Committee on the 

 Supply of High Explosives, of which Lord Moulton was 

 chairman, very early in the war, and at the beginning of 1915 

 the Committee (which meanwhile was reconstituted as De- 

 partment A6 of the War Office) inaugurated the policy of 

 expecting national factories. By the following year the scope 

 of these H.M. Factories had increased to such an extent that 

 a separate Branch of the Department (which meanwhile was 

 transferred to the new Ministry of Munitions) was organised 

 to administer them. This Factories Branch, which was directed 

 originally by myself, and later by Mr. H. T. Dickinson, ex- 

 panded rapidly, not only by the erection of new factories, 

 but also by taking over the administration of existing fac- 

 tories, some of which had been erected during the war, whilst 

 others had been converted by the Department to its own use. 



