 On
the afternoon of June 14, 1919, they took off from Newfoundland in
a 40m.p.h. gale. For several hours the fog was so thick that they
saw nothing, and at times they had to descend within 300 feet of the
sea; their speed indicator jammed, and the wireless installation failed.
At no time did they sight a ship. But Alcock's skill as a pilot and
Brown's calculations and navigation brought them through, and after
sixteen hours they landed in a bog at Clifden in County Galway. They
had made the first transatlantic flight-eight years before Lindbergh-and
won a Daily Mail prize of £10,000.
Both
Alcock and Brown were knighted. The former was killed in an air
crash before the end of the year, and three years later Sir Arthur
Whitten-Brown returned to his old firm, where he was manager of
the Swansea sub-office from 1923 until his death in 1948.
APPRENTICE TRAINING
The training of apprentices entered a new phase after the war when
the Company began to seek graduates in mechanical and electrical
engineering for a two-year college apprenticeship' course. Selection
by interviews, first at colleges and then at the works, secured
the pick of the engineering students, who were given a course designed
not to impart manual skill (though it included workshop training)
but to provide experience of works methods and organization and
a knowledge of the Company's products. At the end the apprentices
had enough workshop and office experience to settle down into staff
appointments and were in a position to decide whether to enter the
manufacturing or design, the research or sales side of engineering
Naturally they were not fully productive at first, and they were
therefore given further training in their departments or, in selected
cases, by post-apprenticeship courses, which might last from six
months to two years.
School
apprentice training followed the general lines of the course for
university menboys from public and secondary schools entered at
matriculation standard and underwent a four years' course, during
which they had opportunities for parttime day study at the local
colleges of technology. Trade apprentice courses were expanded at
the same time, using ex-service instructors selected for their good
craftsmanship and their interest in the training of boys. By the
end of 1920 the education department was responsible for no less
than 1450 men and boys including 100 college, 100 school, and
800 trade apprentices, and only a tenth of the applicants for admission
could be accepted.
To
link up recreational and out-of-works activities for college and
school apprentices an association was formed in 1919, the first
chairman being A. W Muir (now of publicity department). In 1921
A. P. M. Fleming decided to fuse this and the existing trade apprentice
organization into a single apprentice association. The two sections
could act either individually or jointly as required, and this system,
combined with side-by-side training, has been exceedingly effective
in establishing mutual regard between the managers of the future
and their right-hand men.
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