Neil Papworth

Neil Papworth sent the first ever text message in 1991 when working as a technician. The message red “Merry Christmas”.

The articulation of technicians' work in a laboartory division of labor (Barley 1994)

Defining a technician

There are similarities between the roles of technicians across all fields from the arts and theatre to engineering and science. So, it should be possible to create one definition to cover all technicians. This piece is the hunt for that definition – it is also still a work in progress.

This photograph of the Calutron technicians is one of the most famous photographs from Oak Ridge and Gladys Owens is the technician closest to the camera.

Gladys Owens

Gladys Owens was just 19 years of age when she arrived to work in the town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. It was 1945 and she was to spend 8 months working there as a technician on the Manhattan Project. Gladys would become one of the “Calutron Girls” whose role, though none of them knew it at the time, was key to the building of the first atomic bomb.

Fanny Hesse

Fanny Hesse

Fanny Hesse (1850-1934) was a lab technician and technical illustrator who introduced agar to the study of bacteria revolutionising microbiology.

Otto Baumbach in 1928

Otto Baumbach

Otto Baumbach (1882-1966) was a glass blower whose work in Manchester was vital to Nobel Laureate Ernest Rutherford.

http://www.sites.hps.cam.ac.uk/starry/tychoarmill.html

Hans Crol

Hans Crol (?-1591) was a German goldsmith and instrument maker who worked for Tycho Brahe between c.1584 and 1591.

Joanna Chorley, circled, and her fellow codebreakers at Bletchley Park in the photograph taken in 1945 (Photo: Geoff Robinson)

Joanna Chorley

Joanna Chorley (1925-2019) worked at the code cracking centre Bletchley Park during WW2 on the worlds first electronic computer – Colossus.