Britain’s photo king
QUESTION In the Sixties, my father developed his own photographs in the loft and among his equipment was a Lumimeter, a series II enlarging exposure meter, made by K. G. Corfield Ltd of Merridale Works, Wolverhampton. What is the story of this company? FOr a time, Sir Kenneth Corfield (b.1924) made Wolverhampton one of the foremost centres of photographic innovation in the world.
he grew up in Walsall in the West Midlands and was fascinated by the process of photography and development from an early age. On leaving school, he joined Fischer Bearings and obtained a diploma in mechanical engineering at Wolverhampton And Staffordshire College Of Technology.
The family moved to Wolverhampton, and in 1947 Kenneth read an article in Miniature Camera Magazine describing the construction of an accurate enlarger exposure meter. he built an experimental version that worked very well, and demonstrated it in a lecture to Walsall Photographic Society.
It proved so popular that people offered to buy it and it was then that Corfield realised he should go into business. he constructed 12 of the devices with his brother John as artistic designer and sent them as free samples to photographic companies. he called the device the Corfield Lumimeter.
r.G. Lewis, one of the country’s leading photographic dealers, put in an order for 250 units and they first went on sale in 1948 at a retail price of £4.10s. They were all made in the family attic at Lonsdale road, Wolverhampton.
Later that year, Corfield found a workshop in the old Merridale Works. The expansion proved an immediate success and by 1949 K.G. Corfield was taking orders for 5,000 Lumimeters.
Corfield turned his skills to new products. he began with a series of accessories, such as the Corfield Telemeter Rangefinder, Corfield Optical exposure Meter, Corfield Slide Projector and an improved Lumimeter, which by 1951 was selling 200,000 units a year.
In 1953, K.G. Corfield Ltd began producing highquality cameras and lenses based on the Leica range of 35mm cameras that were difficult to obtain in the uK at that time.
This was the Periflex series of cameras, basic yet practical models that immediately sold well. The Merridale Street premises were inexpensive but primitive and in 1958 Corfield Ltd was advised by Wolverhampton Council that the factory was condemned. Corfield took the firm to Northern Ireland, where generous industrial development grants were available. The new premises were in Ballymoney.
however, the firm faced new competition in the Sixties when reasonably priced Japanese cameras started to appear in Britain.
Against this threat, Corfield’s developed a highquality, inexpensive, two-and-a-quarter-inch, square, single lens reflex camera — the Corfield 66, designed to produce 12 pictures on a standard 120 roll film, using a removable roll-film magazine.
Sadly, it came too late and K.G. Corfield Ltd closed for the last time in July 1971. In 1980, Kenneth Corfield was awarded a knighthood for his services to uK business.
Jim McKenna, Belfast.
QUESTION In Ben Macintyre’s book, Double Cross, about wartime spies, one claimed there was a law in Scotland that you couldn’t have a drink unless you had travelled five miles. Was this true? LICeNSING legislation in Scotland always differed significantly from that of England. For a long period, it was more restrictive, though not in recent years.
The first licensing legislation, making it a requirement to register to sell alcohol, was introduced in 1756, followed by a gradual evolution of licensing laws throughout the 19th century.
Various Temperance and Christian movements saw to it that the sale of liquor was prohibited on the Sabbath (Sunday), enshrined in the Forbes Mackenzie Act of 1853.
In 1887, the hours Of Closing Act fixed closing time at 10pm in all but the largest cities. This culminated in the Licensing Act (Scotland) in 1903.
Both Forbes Mackenzie and the 1903 Act included an interesting exemption from Sunday prohibition: hotels can supply liquor ‘for the accommodation of lodgers and travellers’. This provision was derived from the principle — still embodied in Common Law — that an inn must provide board and lodging to any traveller and, by long tradition, alcoholic liquor was an essential part of board.
No specific definition of a ‘traveller’ was provided, but as a rule of thumb, a wouldbe drinker was expected to have travelled at least five miles.
This system worked in the 19th century, when travel was by foot or horse, but by the late Fifties, with modern modes of transport, it had become an anachronism and was becoming a problem.
Groups would set out in cars or on trains to take advantage of the licensing law, travelling out of town for a good kneesup. hoteliers often had to ‘ accommodate’ these ‘travellers’ into the wee small hours.
The situation ended with the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1962, which provided for standard permitted hours for the whole of Scotland and for Sunday opening — albeit restricted to hotels and certain premises providing meals. John Gall, Pitlochry,
Perth & Kinross. QUESTION In cryptic crosswords, why does the clue ‘book’ signify that the letters ‘n’ and ‘t’ are in the answer?
FurTher to the earlier answer, many cryptic crosswords are anything but to puzzle addicts. Seasoned solvers are switched on to clues such as ‘book’ (OT, Old Testament or NT, New Testament) and expect mention of compass points to reveal a certain letter: N for north, etc.
They’re wary of clue- words bearing several meanings. ‘ Flower’ sends novices seeking a garden plant, missing the option that in flowing, any river qualifies as ‘a flower.’
Over the decades, cryptic clues have devised a private language, not unlike cockney rhyming slang, baffling to some, easy for regulars.
‘Time’ hints that an answer starts and ends with a T. Clue- words such as ‘permit’ or ‘allow’ generally cloak ‘LeT’ in the answer. ‘Subtract zero’ is another way of saying a clue-word, minus letter O, gives a solution. veteran solvers could supply dozens more instances. Learning the lingo is half the fun.
In its way, the ‘ book’ question marks a sea change in national consciousness. At one time, for many people of all ages and classes, ‘Book’ sparked the word-association reflex answer of Bible. recently, a veteran crossword-setter told me he cannot use even basic Biblebased clues such as ‘first lady’ for eve or ‘Ark at ’im, captain?’ for NOAh. his editor banned such clues after complaints that they made no sense.
James Perl, St Albans, Herts.
QUESTION Could cockroaches really survive nuclear disaster? FurTher to the earlier answer, in testament to the cockroach’s ability to survive, a u.S. Air Force engineering officer shared this story with us at a nuclear-war briefing some years ago.
In the Seventies, Saudi Arabia bought u.S. made jet fighters, along with replacement engines. each of them was sealed in heavyduty plastic within further anti-damage protection and crated for shipment to the Middle east.
The officer concerned was visiting a Saudi air base when an engine that had been waiting on a pallet for some weeks was unpacked.
As the thick plastic shroud was sliced open, out popped a cockroach, lively enough to escape stamping boots and scuttle to safety.
Our informant was sure ‘ the critter’ had stowed away in an American factory and somehow survived for perhaps months, with minimal air and no food or water.
‘We checked the plastic very carefully, and it was sound apart from the cut I’d just seen made.’
S.D. Usher, Ewell, Surrey.