Xylonite was the first commercially sucessful thermoplastic. In 1885 the company moved from a small works to a puropse built works in Brantham near essex. The works made everything from ping pong balls, glasses frames, bicycle pumps ear trumpets and combs... I found a petition in there from 1981 against its closure... it must have worked as it stayed open for another 25 years, closing in 2007
The works itself has been recently demolished, but the labs, offices, maintenance workshop and tool room survive. The lab building is one of the most incredible things I have seen in my time exploring, there is just so much stuff left behind, all jumbled up in great piles in ever room.
Digging through those piles I was able to find a great deal of ephemera and photographs and start to piece together the history of the works...
Largest lathe bed I have ever seen...
The electrical maint charge hand's office. Note the floor!
The works itself has been recently demolished, but the labs, offices, maintenance workshop and tool room survive. The lab building is one of the most incredible things I have seen in my time exploring, there is just so much stuff left behind, all jumbled up in great piles in ever room.
Digging through those piles I was able to find a great deal of ephemera and photographs and start to piece together the history of the works...
Largest lathe bed I have ever seen...
The electrical maint charge hand's office. Note the floor!
