Dr. John Norman Aldington

Biography
John Norman Aldington was born on 2nd March 1905 at Preston, UK¹, and from an early stage in his career became involved in the lamp industry of his home city, at the Strand Road Lampworks. There are conflicting dates regarding the start of his employment. Otten³ states that he was originally recruited for the Brittania Lamp Works - by which the Strand Road factory was known at the time it was founded by Dick, Kerr & Company in 1911. That company was absorbed into Siemens & English Electric Lamps in 1919, and it seems doubtful that Aldington may have been employed there at just fourteen years of age. Meanwhile Scott² implies that Aldington was already employed at Siemens in 1923, and Marquis¹ puts the date at 1926.

The Siemens works included an impressive laboratory, which provided a tremendous opportunity for both the academic and processional career of the young scientist. From the outset he worked alongside fellow lamp scientist Percy D. Oakley, who had been charged by W.H. Lemaréchal, the manager of the former Siemens lampworks at Dalston, to establish world-class lamp research laboratories upon which the future of the company could be built. Those laboratories as well as Oakley and Lemaréchal were transferred to Preston following the closure of the Dalston works in 1923, and Aldington was immediately absorbed into their activities.

Aldington continued his education alongside his employment at the lampworks, and in 1928 graduated from the University of London with a B.Sc. (hons) in Chemistry. In 1944 he was awarded a Ph.D. based on his academic research carried out at Siemens on high pressure electrical discharges¹. Key to the success and expansion of the Preston operations was the recruitment of additional scientists and engineers, and to this end Aldington established a close relationship with the Harris Technical College of Preston. For ten years he taught evening classes there, and all of the new young engineers joining Siemens were hand-picked by Aldington and drawn from The Harris. Many of them also went on to become part-time teachers, and Aldington became a familiar face on the international arena thanks to his impressive skills in the delivery of academic and public lectures on all aspects of light and lighting.²

His methods in extracting the maximum technical and commercial prosperity from the minimum of human and practical resources were remarkable, especially considering that the Preston lampworks had entered the British Siemens corporation almost by accident alongside its primary businesses in heavy electrical engineering. It must be remembered that the company had no policy for the development of lamps, no programme of research for lamps, no money to spare for research & development in lamps, little interest in, and indeed not even much knowledge of what was being done at Preston. The organisation was at best only semi-official - tolerated rather than approved - and approved only so long as it remained self-supporting. There was no provision of financing from the group headquarters, and R&D efforts had to be funded entirely from factory cost savings. Preston was run on enthusiasm rather than company policy, and the young engineers devised their own strategy of vigorous attack. The need to generate their own budget for research by factory cost savings made them not only leaders in light source technologies, but also in the development of improved methods of manufacturing.²

It is evident that the Preston crew had little contact with the senior management of the group, and it is perhaps because of this freedom to build the business in the way they saw fit, without external influence of senior managers who often understand little about the products and technologies that fund their salaries, that the small group could achieve such tremendous results. Despite their tiny proportions, Aldington's laboratory emerged into a leading position alongside global competition from other companies having many tens of times greater resources. He alone was granted no fewer than 88 British patents during his time as a research scientist.

During the following years, Aldington progressively extended his influence in the factory, and from 1933 onwards his work attracted significant international attention because of his groundbreaking developments in new and improved light sources. He is widely accepted as inventor of the xenon arc lamp, and pioneered countless improvements in mercury discharge lamps along with their manufacturing methods. Aldington's exceptional skills not only in extracting maximum commercial benefits from a sound understanding of the science and technology of his company's products, but also his expertise in public speaking saw him gradually assume a more commercial role. This took him to the pinnacle of not only the lighting business, but to the leadership of great swathes of the entire British electrical industry as illustrated by the chronology of his career summarised below:^{1, 4, 5}

1926-1930 Analytical Chemist
1930-1935 Research Physicist
1936-1947 Head of Research Laboratory
1948-1955 Director of Research and Works Manager
1955-1958 Managing Director of Siemens Edison Swan Ltd.
1955-19?? Director of Associated Electrical Industries Ltd.
1957-1964 Chairman of Submarine Cables Ltd.
1957-19?? Chairman & Director S.G.E. Signals Ltd. (Siemens & General Electric Railway Signal Co. Ltd.)
1960-19?? Chairman of London Electric Wire Co., and Smiths Ltd.
1960-19?? Group Managing Director of Associated Electrical Industries Ltd., Woolwich
1965-19?? Vice-Chairman of Associated Electrical Industries Ltd.

Recognition of Aldington's countless achievements was widespread, Not only was he a member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers, he was also named as a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chemistry, and Fellow of the Illuminating Engineering Society. As an acknowledged expert in his field, immediately following the end of the second world war he along with several other lamp engineers were sent by the British Intelligence Operations Sub-Committee to Germany, to investigate the state of the remaining lamp research operations and identify any technologies or facilities that could be of strategic importance to Allied interests. One of these concerned the supply of krypton and xenon gases to British corporations.⁸

Although the early part of Aldington's life was based in Preston, developments in the electrical industry eventually drew him southwards. In 1954 his employer, Siemens Brothers Ltd., was merged with Associated Electrical Industries (AEI), which owned several other lampmakers including Edison-Swan. It was a logical step that Siemens and Ediswan should also combine their operations within the group, and the Lighting division became Siemens-Edison-Swan Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of AEI. By this time the research of both Aldington's group at Preston and the Ediswan group at Brimsdown had migrated from pure lamp science towards the allied fields of electronic valves and semiconductor developments. Both sites had thoroughly outgrown their original premises, and the amalgamation provided a unique opportunity to combine their strengths. A new laboratory was constructed under Aldington at Harlow New Town in Essex in 1958, and he along with much of his team moved to the new location. His increasing leadership of the British electrical industry naturally drew him still further south, eventually residing in Kent and with his office at the prestigious Grosvenor Place headquarters of AEI at London SW1.

Little is known of Aldington's personal life, aside from his marriage to Edna Entwistle and that they had one son, Peter.¹ John Aldington's death was registered in June 1987 at Milton Keynes, England.¹¹ Many of his personal letters and research works were preserved by his family, and are now housed at the Archives of the Institute of Engineering and Technology at Savoy Place, London.⁶