ABSTRACT
In 1951, at the age of 27,1 took the position of physical chemist at the research department of Benzole Producers in Watford, England. My wife and I and our two young sons took possession of our first house (a small townhouse) in Watford Hertfordshire. Benzole Producers was situated on what was then the Watford Bypass, a 10-minute bus ride from home and a few miles up the road from the research laboratories of the Medical Research Council at Mill Hill, the significance of which was yet to become apparent. Benzole Producers extracted aromatic hydrocarbons from coal gas produced by the pyrolysis of coal,the accompanying product, coke, being used in the production of iron and for domestic heating. The addition of aromatic hydrocarbons to petroleum fractions, as an alternative to tetraethyl lead, raised the octane rating of the fuel to a level suitable for use with high compression-ratio internal combustion engines. At that time, the only method of analyzing hydrocarbon mixtures involved a very complex and timeconsuming distillation process. Among my other designated responsibilities, I was to develop a more efficient method for mixed hydrocarbon analysis.
