In the just under three years I'd spent at King's College, the investment account I had opened at Barclays had totalled up to roughly £212,000. Jesus fucking Christ, that is a lot of money. ($15 million in 2025) Especially considering people are just poorer in general at this point in time. Most families struggled to even put food on the table. It was a combination of the royalties paid by Ilford as well as a deal negotiated between the two of us and Kodak to ramp up production even more and the money being invested into the booming London stock market.
It was now late 1923, and I couldn't help but occasionally think I had wasted those three years, but I really hadn't. I had filled in several gaps in my knowledge, fully planned out what to do next, and, well, met Evelyn.
Now I had six years or so to at least lessen the effects of the Great Depression on Britain. I mean, to be fair, Britain was fully prepared for the crash, and by that I mean they were already around rock bottom, so there wasn't much further they could go down. Most of the profits Illford are making come from sales abroad, and while domestically the economy was stagnant compared to foreign nations it wasn't as bad as the numbers said. Yet.
A combination of war debt taken on by Britain, which funded most of the war effort; a loss of trade dominance due to a combination of nations like Japan and the US gaining market share; and the demand for traditional British goods like textiles, coal, and steel declining, hyperinflation, a forced return to the gold standard, high employment, and the loss of Russian markets, who used to be Britain's biggest market, meant that Britain would be in a tough spot and only get back to pre-war levels in the mid-thirties, right before the second world war.
British industry had gotten fat as the first country to industrialise and had not pursued modernisation unlike its counterparts in other nations. In order for me to improve the economy, I had to create new industries or improve old ones to catch up with the rest of the developed world.
As for how much of an impact one industrialist could have, well, that was to be seen.
Okay, so in order for several of my ideas to be feasible, I first needed to drastically improve manufacturing precision and quantity.
I decided the best to start with was synthetic rubber since it would have a market bigger than my own projects. After some debate, I had decided upon Neoprene, which was the first synthetic rubber invented in 1930 over in the states. There were better rubbers, but they would take far longer to nail down an industrial process for, so I would work on them once I had better quality machinery and a more experienced workforce.
In fact, it was a surprise that it had taken Ilford only a year or so to fully set up a production line for both kinds of film, even though it was only in the last year or so that they had perfected the synthetic dye couplers. The only reason they bought both patents was because even if they couldn't scale up the production of the couplers, the new film was far superior to anything on the market.
Now the reason why I need synthetic rubber is that despite natural rubber's better elasticity and workability, it was not uniform and would break down rather quickly in the presence of chemicals. Neoprene also had better temperature stability. All were things necessary for the gaskets, seals, and moulds necessary for future inventions.
When it came to deciding where to establish a plant, I eventually decided upon Bristol. The city currently had mass unemployment; real estate was relatively cheap, but it was still close to London and only a twenty minute carriage from gloucester. I wanted to refrain from building too many factories in the southeast since it was the rest of the country that was drastically in need of jobs.
The company, Albion Chemicals, was founded on the 12th of October, 1926.
I managed to find a papermill that had gone bankrupt during the war. It was made up of three factory buildings and had plenty of the ventilation necessary as well as loading docks and two warehouses. I also bought a small office building on the opposite side of the road, which I would convert into a series of laboratories.
The mill had been abandoned for close to a decade at this point, so it would need quite a lot of work done to it. While several workers were hauling away the old machinery to be sold for scrap, I was smashing down walls and making the necessary modifications to my workshop and laboratory across the road.
I was sitting with Evelyn in one of the local restaurants a few weeks later, and as we were waiting for our food, I said, "So… How'd your meeting with your parents go?"
"Fine, surprisingly," she said, trying to hold back her laughter, to which I tightened my gaze at her. Seeing the unspoken question, she continued. "I mean, naturally, father is incensed at the idea that I now own my own company, though they seem to forget the fact that their grandfather was a blacksmith and grandpa built the factories they now profit from with his own hands."
As it turns out, Evelyn is the only daughter of George Ashburn.
The Ashburn family traces its origins to the early 19th century in northern England, when Thomas Ashburn, a skilled blacksmith, began producing iron tools for the burgeoning textile industry in Manchester. Recognising the industrial boom's potential, Thomas partnered with local investors to establish his first small foundry in the 1840s. His son, William Ashburn, expanded the business in the 1860s, transitioning from tools to the production of iron and steel components for railways and machinery.
By the 1880s, the Ashburns had acquired a small coal mine in West Yorkshire to supply their growing foundries and diversify their interests. They were never as large or influential as industrial giants, but their steady, diversified investments in steelworks, textile machinery factories, and coal mining allowed them to carve out a comfortable niche in the industrial sector of northern England.
However, by the 1920s, under George Ashburn's management, the family's wealth had stagnated and began to decline along with most British industry. As far as I could tell, George wasn't incompetent; he just lacked the talent of his father or the stubborn nature of his grandfather.
"You do realise I was trying to ascertain their reaction, to you making them aware of my existence?" I said, trying to provoke a reaction from her, which succeeded.
She lightly pouted before saying, "As much as I've tried to hide your existence from him, I fear my mother has made him aware someone has caught my attention."
"Am I really that distracting?" I said to which the only response was a look from her that said, 'Really.' She had long gotten used to my modern sense of humour.
She then changed the subject, "How's your project coming along?"
I just smiled in return and pulled a fist-sized piece of grey rubber out of my pocket and placed it on the table. She stared in confusion for a few seconds before picking it up and trying to squeeze it. After studying it for a few seconds, she looked back up at me with a mixture of confusion and happiness as she asked, "Is this really…? I mean… Do you…?"
Staying silent since she seemed to need a moment to reboot before saying, "How in god's name did you do this? I mean, people have been trying for the last century."
"Well, it involves chlorine gas and the runoff from oil refining, but with some caution and work, I reckon I can have the factory refine the production process and begin churning the stuff out by this August at the latest." I said, taking it back since the concierge was giving me a scathing look for pulling it out.
We continued to chat for the next hour over dinner about the finer details of setting up the plant. Afterward I walked her to the station since she was heading to Bath.
"You're still avoiding my question." I said, to which she again looked upset and grabbed my arm tighter, so I said. "Look, I can clearly see something is bothering you, and it's upsetting me that you don't trust me enough to tell me."
She gently sighed before saying, "My mother has made it clear to me that I must introduce you to them soon since she can only hold my father from trying to find out who you are for so long." She paused for a moment before continuing. "He's rather overprotective, you see, after, you know…"
"I'm just concerned they will judge you without giving you a chance. You know, I'm not trying to hide anything from you." She said, and I realised she misunderstood what I meant. I stopped us and turned to look her directly in the eyes as I said, "You don't have to tell me everything; you are your own person. You're allowed to have your own thoughts, fears, dreams, doubts, and ambitions. But I want you to know that I am here for you. I might judge, but I will never ignore something if you want to talk about it; after all, you put up with my endless drivel."
She chuckled as we continued walking, and as she was boarding her train, she said in my ear, just loud enough for me to hear over the bustle of the station, "I think I just fell in love with you again."
Over the next few months I focused on perfecting the industrial processes as well as making custom machinery since most of the stuff I needed either didn't exist or, if it did, was horribly inefficient. I can't wait to have my own factories to just order this kind of stuff.
And Fuck you Imperial Units, I cuss at ye, you unsightly curr.
Safety was also important since one of the major processes was using chlorine gas, and I really didn't want to be responsible for killing hundreds of workers. The thing was, though, the masks and gloves needed to be made of synthetic rubber. You can see why this was important.
The factory was cleaned, got a new roof, and several steam air pumps that are usually used in mines since I wanted my workers to be healthy for as long as possible.
I was also paying quite high wages, so it wasn't hard to attract decent workers. I had also hired several of my fellow students and colleagues from the army, who I was sure were all competent.
By March The entirety of one of the buildings had been converted and was ready well ahead of what I was aware of. The second building was well on the way to being done. While the first would focus on the actual creation of the rubber, the second building would be used to make several rubber products like hoses, tires, o-rings, gaskets, rubber-infused fabric, footwear, erasers, masks, gloves, and adhesives.
Each of these would only use a tiny fraction of the hundreds of tonnes of rubber we would eventually produce but would act as a showcase for what synthetic rubber could do to entice other companies to switch from the natural stuff.
It would also be able to make custom pieces specifically for my experiments and future machinery.