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We pay lip service to ‘communication’, a concept which came to us from the United States and became fashionable among industrial advisers and a few managers in the 1950s—to the extent that some companies appointed managers of communication. This job appears to have had a variety of specifications, but the incumbents might be summed up generally as a combination of information officer with an internal public relations function. The term ‘public relations’ is no longer of use in describing an organization's relations with the outside world, because PR has assumed overtones suggestive of defensive and selective propaganda, a one‐way flow of ‘image building’ information, rather than the two‐way flow recommended by the communication experts (of course, there is an inward flow, but it amounts to little more than monitoring the media to pick up clues as to the effectiveness of the outward flow).

Runcorn and neighbouring Widnes have strong connections with the beginnings of the chemical industry. Indeed, one of the four companies which merged in 1926 to form Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd (now Imperial Chemical Industries PLC) was Brunner Mond & Company, with manufacturing facilities in Runcorn and today Runcorn remains a major manufacturing centre and headquarters for ICI Chemicals and Polymers. Since its formation, ICI has grown enormously to become a truly international chemical company with over 120,000 employees and manufacturing locations in over 40 countries. Sales total over £11 billion in over 150 countries worldwide. The main business sectors are Petrochemicals and Plastics (20%), General Chemicals (16%), Fibres (6%), Industrial Explosives (3%), Pharmaceuticals (10%), Paints (12%), Agriculture (15%), and Other Effect Products (18%). Sales to principal geographical areas in 1987 were United Kingdom (25%), Continental Europe (25%), The Americas (27%), Australasia, Japan and the Far East (17%), and Indian Subcontinent and others (6%).

We have observed in the reports of those engaged in the administration of the Acts several references to the practice of milking so that a portion of the milk is left in the udder of the cow, this portion being removed subsequently and not included in the milk sent out to customers. The inspector for the southern division of the county of Northampton reports that on a sample of milk being found deficient in fat to the extent of 17 per cent., a further sample was taken at the time of milking when a milkman was found to be not properly “stripping” the cows. He was warned. The analyst for the county of Notts writes: “The first strippings obtained before the milk glands have been normally excited by the milking are very low in fat yet are “genuine” milk in the sense that nothing has been added to or taken from it. It is nonsense to talk of genuine milk in the sense that everything that comes from the udder of the cow is to be taken as genuine milk fit for sale.” In a case tried before the Recorder of Middlesbrough, one witness said that among some farmers it was a common practice not to “strip” cows until after the milk was sent away.

THE way in which powerplant characteristics are matched to those of an aircraft and the degree to which such integration is desirable are topics which have occupied designers for a considerable time. Development technologies influence these considerations and lead to a limited choice of powerplant locations. A recent Royal Aeronautical Society conference addressed these issues and made an introductory point of the fact that the ideal extent of integration for say, a subsonic transport, will be quite different to that appropriate to a V/STOL or stealth combat type.

[On November 7 last, at a meeting of the society which we regret to see is still incorrectly styled the “Society of Public Analysts,” a valuable and highly interesting paper, entitled “The Analyst and the Medical Man,” was read by Dr. F. Gowland HOPKINS, who attended the meeting by invitation for this purpose.

In the year 1900 Koch expressed the view that human and bovine tuberculosis were distinct diseases, that the bacillus of bovine tuberculosis could not produce this disease in the human subject, and that the bacillus of human tuberculosis could not set it up in the bovine species. As is now well known. these conclusions have not received the slightest confirmation from other workers in the same field, and it may be said that the consensus of scientific opinion is now to the effect that the bacilli of human and bovine tuberculosis are identical—at any rate, so far as the effects attributed to them are concerned. The Royal Commission appointed in 1901, and consisting of the late Sir MICHAEL FOSTER, Drs. SIMS WOODHEAD, SIDNEY MARTIN, MACFADYEAN, and BOYCE, have issued a further interim report on their investigations. The first interim report was published in 1904, the conclusions stated in it being to the effect that the human and animal diseases were identical, and that no characteristics by which the one could be distinguished from the other had been discovered. The report now issued shows that these conclusions are confirmed by the results of a very large number of fresh experiments. The main conclusions set forth in the present report are as understated :—

Two New I.C.I. Directors G. K. HAMPSHIRE, chairman of Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd.'s general chemical division, and DR. J. S. GOURLAY, chairman of the paints division, have been appointed to the board of I.C.I.

This case describes the knowledge management (KM) initiatives at the level of a unit of one of the largest chemical companies in India. The unit, Tata Chemicals Ltd, Mithapur, has a unique knowledge base accumulated over generations of experiments, trials, and errors. It is in the midst of implementing a rejuvenation plan that has created opportunities for external knowledge assimilation and new knowledge generation. With details on the initiatives for knowledge collection, sharing, measurement of performance and the systems for rewards and recognition, the case provides an opportunity to the participants of a programme on Knowledge Management to analyze the initiatives and make recommendations for the future to the head of Knowledge Management function at the company. The participants would be able to map the realm of knowledge management in an organization and discern - how KM initiatives contributed to the transformation of the organisation from manufacturing centred mind-set to customer focused one.