After our last talk about Yorkshire’s part in the development of chemotherapy in cancer treatment, we continue on a local theme on Monday, 19th October, albeit with a more prosaic subject, when author John Austin tells us how Sheffield came to dominate the domestic production of heavy vehicle springs for both rail and road.
For many years it enjoyed prominence as a critical part of the Sheffield industrial landscape, generating significant revenues and profits for most of the big players in the Sheffield steel establishment as well as for a host of small and medium producers.
John will tell us how and why this hugely successful Sheffield trade, recognised nationally, achieved domination and how and why it ultimately came to fail, reduced today to a scattering of survivors whose presence barely registers in the local economy.
Professor Andy Wilson, the engagement manager for Yorkshire Cancer Research, gave us an inspirational talk on the development of chemotherapy which intriguingly came about through the accidental spillage of mustard gas during the sinking of 30 cargo and transport ships in an air raid on the harbour of Bari, in southern Italy, during World War Two. Doctors treating the hundreds of survivors discovered that mustard gas in small quantities could destroy the white blood cells which cause cancer. Graham Snowdon’s blog on Prof Wilson’s talk is now published under Previous Talks.