IIW History 1990-2015

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tandards have accompanied human progress since time immemorial and a more recent definition of standardisation, with respect to technical standards, is that standardisation itself is theprocessof implementinganddeveloping technical standards.¹ In consideration of technical standards, the industrial revolution, particularly in Britain, resulted in many innovations and de facto standards that became generally accepted on a national and sometimes international basis. For instance, Whitworth developed the first unofficial national standard for screw threads (BSW) in 1841² and Kelvin introduced accurate methods and apparatus for the measurement of electricity in 1857.³ The first standards organisation, the Engineering

Standards Committee, was set up in London in 1901 and it was not until towards the end of the First World War that national standards committees were established in Germany (1917), France (1918) and the USA (1918). The first international organisation, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), was formed in 1947 following a meeting in London in 1946 which was attended by 64 delegates from 25 countries. 4 Its formation was almost coincidental with that of IIW, which was officially formed a year later in 1948. IIW’s Constitution was to include reference to ISO.

One of the three main objectives in the Constitution, upheld at the first Governing Council meeting on 11 June 1948, was to assist in the formulation of international standards for welding in collaboration with ISO. 5 There was some antipathy, initially, between France and the UK, since the latter had been awarded the first General Secretariat, with Mr Guy Parsloe as the General Secretary for a non-specific period of tenure in accordance with IIW’s Constitution. Some deft negotiating took place behind the scenes with France gaining increased status and technical control through the appointment of Mr André Leroy as the Scientific and Technical Secretary of IIW in 1950 at the IIW Annual Assembly in Paris. The French delegation withdrew its objections to Parsloe’s period of tenure in the constitution and was happy for Leroy, the André Leroy

SETTING THE STANDARD