20th century – #technicianjourney

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.

Otto Baumbach

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

Joanna Chorley

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

Gladys Trim

Gladys Trim (1915-?) started work in the Veterinary Department at the Wellcome Laboratories aged 15. Initially she was not doing technical work but helping other
women in the office with the filing. After 42 years she had worked her way up to senior technician with her name included on several publications.

Blanche Lawrence

Blanche J. Lawrence (1921-?) graduated from Tuskegee University before going on to work as a technician and then junior chemist on the Manhattan Project.

Irène Curie

Irene Curie on a mobile x-ray unit, 1916 (unknown source)

Irène Curie (1897-1956) was the daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie. Hers was a glittering scientific career that started when she was an X-ray radiographer in WW1.

Clarence Dally: a technician in trouble

Clarence Dally (1865-1904) was a glass blower and assistant to Edison in his work on X-rays. His was one of the first deaths attributed to the effects of X-rays.

The technicians’ Blue Book

In 1990 the Blue Book was introduced in an attempt to give university technicians a promotions structure. Here is a short history – I would love to hear from anyone with more information.

Freda Collier

Freda Collier (1916-2013) worked with Rosalind Franklin as her x-ray photographer and most likely took the famous “photo 51”, an image that inspired the solution to the structure of DNA.

Jacob Cross

Jacob Cross (18–1946) was a Petty Officer on the Discovery sailing to the Antarctic. Under the expedition’s zoologist he became a taxidermist preparing samples for the return home.