A family’s journey in Australian Chemical Science
Privately published by the Hermon Slade Raiatea Foundation in November 2007, this is a personal story of the family enterprise developed by the brothers Hermon and Russell Slade.
Australian industry has traditionally looked overseas for technology. The Polymer Story describes one family’s determination to break that dependent mould. In building a company grounded in fundamental scientific understanding and original internal research, brothers Hermon and Russell Slade created an exception to the rule. The trading enterprise begun by their father in 1900 had, by mid century, become an innovative chemical manufacturer with diverse products: emulsifiers for food, cosmetics and textiles; plasticisers for lacquers and plastics; and synthetic resins for myriad applications – from paints to paper, from fishing lines to boats, from adhesives to keg linings. Called Polymer Corporation to denote the polymeric nature of its products, this company drew from the well of global science to create unique technological solutions to Australian industrial needs.
The book opens a window on a sector of the Australian chemical industry and reveals its participation in a major world-wide technological transformation.
Copies of this book may be purchased from the Foundation at a cost of AU$30.00 plus postage and handling. Click HERE to download order form.
