"Crowner's Quest"

Next we saw the engineering shops, where most of the plant's engineering repairs are done and spare parts, etc., manufactured. We watched metal being sheared, drilled and turned and pipes being bent after heating in a special furnace, to mention but a few things.

Our next visit was to the Olefines plant, where we went by bus, so vast, comparatively, are distances in this new factory. In this division we visited the oil cracker. To inexperienced eyes this huge piece of apparatus, between 100 and 150 feet high, appears like something out of a dream. It consists of a fantastic jumble of pipes and tanks all leading into one another in apparent confusion. The work of this gigantic jig-saw, it was explained, was to split up oil, as the name suggests. The part particularly wanted is Ethylene, which is used in another part of the Olefines division for the manufacture of Polythene, the new flexible plastic, which is gaining tremendous popularity for household and other uses.

Next we visited the perspex division of the plastics plant. Here, after donning special glasses to keep any flying particles out of our eyes, we entered the factory and watched the perspex being made. Then we entered the perspex storeroom, where all sizes, shapes and colours of perspex seemed to be stored.

Our last visit was to a very modern, beautifully decorated canteen, when an excellent meal of ham and eggs was served to us. The cleanliness of this and of the rest of the plant was one of the most notable features. Everywhere we went we saw evidence that everything had been done to make Wilton a pleasant place in which to work.

Finally, a word of thanks must be inserted to those who showed us round and explained the working of the various parts of the factory. Without their help our visit would have been much less interesting and instructive than it was.

Early in July when workmen were excavating in the S.E. Quadrangle close to the C.C.F. huts a human skeleton was unearthed some 3 ft. 6 ins. below the surface of the ground. The police were notified and brought the Coroner, who, in turn, summoned the archxologists. The skeleton, which was in an excellent state of preservation, was that of a short man, and a small piece of blue pottery found buried with the remains gave the clue to the date of interment. It was thought that these were the remains of a Roman soldier who had died about A.D.300. There were several requests among the keenest biology students to take possession of this interesting find, but, alas, when careful hands tried to move the skeleton he objected strongly to leaving his sixteen hundred years old resting place and disintegrated into powder. A.L.H. 51