Description:Sir Richard Threlfall was a chemist and engineer who worked for the firm of Albright & Wilson, a large producer of phosphorous based at Oldbury. During the First World War he was on the Board of Invention and Research, a member of the advisory council for scientific and industrial research and was also a member of the munitions board. The papers that are held by the Library of Birmingham reflect the work he undertook with regard to Nitrogen Products Committee and its synthetic process as this was an essential compound (found naturally) but which had been in great supply during the war.
These papers were chosen by Stephen whose passion is science - although rarely very visually appealing, scientific papers can often be found in local archives and provide a snapshot of how local scientific expertise was employed, in this instance, to help solve supply problems of essential materials which had been in great demand and risked running out.
[MS 347/3/1]