Shirley Institute
Encyclopedia
The Towers (Manchester)
The Towers is a research establishment for new technologies in cotton production. The Shirley Institute was established in 1920 at a cost of £10,000 to accommodate the newly formed British Cotton Industry Research Association...
in Didsbury
Didsbury
Didsbury is a suburban area of the City of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Mersey, south of Manchester city centre, in the southern half of the Greater Manchester Urban Area...
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
as a research centre dedicated to cotton production technologies. It was at the Institute that Ventile
Ventile
Ventile is a high-quality woven cotton fabric first developed by scientists at the Shirley Institute in Manchester U.K. during the Second World War, for use in pilots' immersion suits. Ventile has a reputation of being both waterproof and windproof. It is hardly found in the United States, but in...
was invented.
It was funded by the Cotton Board
Cotton Board (United Kingdom)
The Cotton Board was an organisation to oversee the organisation, research, marketing and promoting the cotton textile industry mainly based in Lancashire and Glasgow...
through a statutory levy.
The BCRA merged with the British Rayon Research Association
British Rayon Research Association
The British Rayon Research Association was a research institute formed in 1946 by the British Rayon Federation and others. It was funded by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and by voluntary funds from industry to investigate the chemical and physical properties of rayon and...
to form the Cotton, Silk, and Man-Made Fibres Research Association in 1961.
Dr Douglas Hill was Director of Research of the BCRA before the merger and led the new organisation. The Director of the BRRA, Leonard Albert Wiseman
Leonard Albert Wiseman
Leonard Albert Wiseman OBE BSc ARI.C CText FTI , organic chemist, scientific intelligence analyst and scientific administrator...
became Deputy Director. Len Wiseman became Director on Dr Hill's retirement in 1969 and held the post until 1980.
The Shirley Institute developed the tog
Tog (unit)
The tog is a measure of thermal resistance of a unit area, also known as thermal insulance, commonly used in the textile industry, and often seen quoted on, for example, duvets and carpet underlay....
as an easy-to-follow measure of the thermal resistance of textiles as an alternative to the SI
Si
Si, si, or SI may refer to :- Measurement, mathematics and science :* International System of Units , the modern international standard version of the metric system...
unit of m2K/W.
In 1987–1990 it merged with the Wira Technology Group
Wool Industries Research Association
The Wool Industries Research Association was an industrial research organization in the United Kingdom. It later became the Wira Technology Group before being merged with the Shirley Institute in the 1989 to form the British Textile Technology Group....
to form the British Textile Technology Group (BTTG).