Learning on ScreenImperial Chemical Industries ("ICI")
Profile
- Born
- 1926
- Dates
- 1951-1956
- Role
- Sponsor
- Newsreels / Cinemagazines
- Panorama
- Search
- Search for all stories where Imperial Chemical Industries is credited
Career
Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) is a British chemical company, based in London. It produces paints and other chemical products (including ingredients for foods, specialty polymers, electronic materials, fragrances and flavours).
ICI was founded in December 1926 from the merger of four companies - Brunner Mond, Nobel Explosives, the United Alkali Company and British Dyestuffs Corporation. Competing with DuPont and IG Farben (later BASF), the new company produced explosives, fertilisers, insecticides, dyestuffs, industrial chemicals, printing materials, and paints. In its first year turnover was £27m.
ICI played a key role in the development of new products, including the pigment phthalocyanine (1929), the acrylic plastic Perspex (1932), Dulux paints (1932, co-developed with DuPont), Polythene (1937), sulfamethazine (the first sulfonamide antibiotic), paludrine (1940s, an anti-malarial drug), halothane (1951, an anaesthetic agent), Inderal (1965, a beta-blocker), tamoxifen (1978, a frequently used drug for breast cancer), and PEEK (1979, a high performance thermoplastic) . Because of their success in the pharmaceutical industry, ICI formed ICI Pharmaceuticals in 1957.
One of the main plants was at Billingham, County Durham. From 1971 to 1988 ICI operated a small General Atomics TRIGA Mark I nuclear reactor at its Billingham factory. This division of the company had its own, locally recruited, film unit, which made the cinemagazine series, Just Billingham.
In 1993 the company decided to demerge its chemical business from the pharmaceutical bioscience divisions. Pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, specialities, seeds and biological products were placed into a new and independent company called Zeneca Group (which merged with Astra AB in 1999 to form AstraZeneca PLC, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world).
Between 1951 and 1956, ICI sponsored their own cinemagazine series, Panorama. Its intention was to unite the 100 factories across the country, in presenting them with a view of the company.
ICI was founded in December 1926 from the merger of four companies - Brunner Mond, Nobel Explosives, the United Alkali Company and British Dyestuffs Corporation. Competing with DuPont and IG Farben (later BASF), the new company produced explosives, fertilisers, insecticides, dyestuffs, industrial chemicals, printing materials, and paints. In its first year turnover was £27m.
ICI played a key role in the development of new products, including the pigment phthalocyanine (1929), the acrylic plastic Perspex (1932), Dulux paints (1932, co-developed with DuPont), Polythene (1937), sulfamethazine (the first sulfonamide antibiotic), paludrine (1940s, an anti-malarial drug), halothane (1951, an anaesthetic agent), Inderal (1965, a beta-blocker), tamoxifen (1978, a frequently used drug for breast cancer), and PEEK (1979, a high performance thermoplastic) . Because of their success in the pharmaceutical industry, ICI formed ICI Pharmaceuticals in 1957.
One of the main plants was at Billingham, County Durham. From 1971 to 1988 ICI operated a small General Atomics TRIGA Mark I nuclear reactor at its Billingham factory. This division of the company had its own, locally recruited, film unit, which made the cinemagazine series, Just Billingham.
In 1993 the company decided to demerge its chemical business from the pharmaceutical bioscience divisions. Pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, specialities, seeds and biological products were placed into a new and independent company called Zeneca Group (which merged with Astra AB in 1999 to form AstraZeneca PLC, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world).
Between 1951 and 1956, ICI sponsored their own cinemagazine series, Panorama. Its intention was to unite the 100 factories across the country, in presenting them with a view of the company.
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Chemical_Industries; Accessed 18/5/2006: NoS Number 349922; Panorama Number 12; Date released 1956: NoS Number 349581; Panorama Number 1; Date released 1951: Spokesman, A., ‘Films for the Workers’ in Film User Vol.6 No.69 of July 1952, p.335.
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