JOURNAl, OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS 50•5 and in honoring Professor Speakman we are recognizing one of the pioneers who has made this possible. One of the assignments of the speaker for the medalist is to present a sort of "obituary." In spite of his busy and productive life this is going to be a relatively easy task. He was born in Manchester and educated in Manchester. The rest of his working life was spent at Leeds University in many capacities. He has been a lecturer in textile chemistry, reader in textile chemistry, professor of textile industries, and emeritus professor. In addition, he has been president of the Textile Institute as well as of the Bradford Textile Society. His awards and recognitions have been many. These include the Warner Memorial Medal, the Worshipful Company of Dyers Research Medal (three times), the Perkin Medal and honorary fellowship of the Textile Institute. In addition, he has been recognized in France, Germany, and now in the United States. In 1963 he was recognized with the C.B.E. I have frequently said that nothing is dearer to the hearts of the worker in the field of science than the respect, the esteem, and the admiration of his peers and colleagues. Professor Speakman, you would be less than human if you were not proud and thrilled on this occasion. But I want you to know that we are equally proud and thrilled to have this opportunity to recognize your accomplishments and contributions and it is in this spirit that we are gathered here today.
506 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS 966 Literature Award Acceptance Address P•OVESSO• J. B. SPEXKMXN* The news that I was to be the recipient of the 1966 Literature Award of the SOCIETY O1' COSMETIC CHEMISTS came as a great and very pleasant surprise, and I am deeply conscious of the honor which the Society has conferred upon me. Great as is my own delight, it would have given even greater pleasure to two old friends of mine, Mr. William and Hugh MacDonald, now deceased, who may be known to some of you as the founders of MacDonald steam waving. It was through them that I came to take an interest in permanent waving processes. Hugh MacDonald was a practicing hairdresser in Inverness, who enlisted the help of his brother, William, a graduate in mathematics of the University of Aberdeen, in the development of a steam-waving process shortly after the end of World War I. In this they were so successful that the manufacture of the machines was soon transferred to London, and showrooms were opened in Regent Street in the West End. By this time Mr. William had abandoned mathematics for a business career, but he satisfied his scientific interests by following the progress of research on human hair and related fibers, such as wool. Unknown to me, he was taking a special interest in our work on one of the finishing processes of the wool textile industry, because of its close similarity to his method of permanent waving. The process is that of "blowing" or "decatizing," in which the scoured wool cloth is stretched to the desired width, dried, and then wound with a cotton wrapper onto a perforated roller through which steam is blown for a few minutes. Unlike stretched and dried cloth, which would return to its original width on being released in cold water, the stretched, dried, and steamed cloth does not, and the similarity to permanent waving is obvious. The chemical mechanism of the setting (fixation) process was investigated, and by 1933 it had been shown that the permanent set which strained wool fibers acquire in steam or boiling water is due to two consecutive intramolecular reactions: disulfide bond breakdown, which dissipates stress, followed by linkage rebuilding, which fixes the relaxed structure in the strained configuration. In the * Professor Emeritus, Leeds University, England.
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