Vera Isabella Furness (2 June 1921 –2002) was an English chemist and industrial manager who worked for

Courtaulds Courtaulds was a United Kingdom-based manufacturer of fabric, clothing, artificial fibres, and chemicals. It was established in 1794 and became the world's leading man-made fibre production company before being broken up in 1990 into Courtaulds ...

in Coventry and later Campsie from 1953 to 1981. She worked on the production of the acrylic Courtelle and developed a copolymer that would allow for a more successful commercial dying of the filter. Furness then incorporated a reagent into the process giving it a near white fibre. She was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in 1971.

Biography

She was born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

on 2 June 1921. Furness originally studied to become a teacher at a

teacher training college A normal school or normal college is an institution created to Teacher education, train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high s ...

and went on to become a secondary school teacher. She studied for an external chemistry degree at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

whilst teaching full-time at Birmingham Central Technical College (today Acton University). Following her graduation from the university with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in 1946 in which she did a doctoral thesis on hexomethylenetetramines with dialkylanilines and phenols, she was appointed

BX Plastics BX Plastics was a plastics engineering and production company. The company was one of three subsidiaries of the British Xylonite Company established by 1938. BX Plastics made xylonite (also known as celluloid or ivoride) and Lactoid (also known a ...

' development chemist, where she conducted research for her

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

degree. Furness' thesis concerned with preparing

fluoroquinolones A quinolone antibiotic is a member of a large group of broad-spectrum antibiotic, broad-spectrum bacteriocidals that share a bicyclic molecule, bicyclic core structure related to the substance 4-Quinolone, 4-quinolone. They are used in human and ...

mono-substituted in the benzene ring. Furness declined the offer of a full-time teaching job after finishing her

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

degree in 1952 and went back to industrial research because she felt that was where her interest was. She joined

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

in 1953, and worked on producing Courtelle, an acrylic, and then developed a copolymer that would allow for a more successful commercial dying of the filter. She subsequently incorporated a reagent into the process, giving it a fibre that was nearly white. Furness was fully involved in every aspect of the process such as chemical and mechanical issues. She went to China, Poland, and Soviet Union to talk about the process of acrylic plants and the technical production before the plants were built. After the

Royal Aircraft Establishment The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), bef ...

discovered the best fibre precursor as Courtelle in 1963 when it was developing carbon fibers for improved aircraft components, Furness took part in making the fibre better and made a process for producing it on a mass scale starting from 1965. She was head of the Acetate and Synthetic Fibres Laboratory from 1964 to 1969. She led a section with 100 employees and was the first women to hold such a professional industry position over males in such a division in England. Furness was asked to lower energy consumption across each of the 400 sites in the United Kingdom during the oil crisis and did so by establishing objectives based on production. She was appointed general manager of Courtaulds Research Division in their factory in

Campsie, County Tyrone Campsie () is a small townland of the County Tyrone of Northern Ireland, in the United Kingdom. It is situated in the historic barony of Omagh East and the civil parish of Cappagh, and covers an area of 260 acres. Between 1976 and 1978, Furness served as chair of Steel Cords. Following her move to

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

to become manager of Courtaulds' Campsie factory in 1978, she was on multiple boards and committees such as Enterprise Ulster; the Labour Relations Agency conciliator; the Northern Ireland Economic Council; the University of Ulster Council and the

Western Education and Library Board Education in Northern Ireland differs from education systems elsewhere in the United Kingdom (although it is relatively similar to Wales), but is similar to the Republic of Ireland in sharing in the development of the ''national school'' syste ...

. She left Courtaulds in 1981. Furness was also company director of Roe Valley Community Property from 28 July 2000 to 8 June 2002.

Personal life

In 1971, she was appointed

(MBE) "for services to export". Furness died in 2002 in

Limavady Limavady (; ) is a market town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, with Binevenagh as a backdrop. Lying east of Derry and southwest of Coleraine, Limavady had a population of 12,032 people at the United Kingdom census, 2011, 2011 Census ...

, close to

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

, Northern Ireland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Furness, Vera 1921 births 2002 deaths 20th-century English women 20th-century English people 21st-century English women 21st-century English people 20th-century British women scientists 21st-century British women scientists Alumni of the University of London Academics of Aston University English women chemists Members of the Order of the British Empire