Joining nations 1947-1990

3

SETT! G THE SCENE

peace, as well as facilitate the urgent task of reconstruction. This reaction led to the formation at this period of numerous international non-governmental organisations, of which the IIW was one. Before we examine the circumstances of its foundation, it will be helpful to remind ourselves how different then were the material resources of society from those which exist today. The most funda– mental change between then and now has been the development of the computer and, for an international body such as the IIW, its effect on communications. In 1948 automatic telephones were still restricted to individual cities and trunk calls requiring the services of an operator were often slow and always expensive. Since neither telex nor fax existed, urgent communications were often made by telegrams which passed from the post office of the sender to that of the recipient. Letters could of course be sent, at a price, by airmail but in 1948 commercial jet services did not exist; air travel was dependent on piston-engined aircraft which flew relatively slowly at low and bumpy altitudes with frequent stops for refuelling; for example, the standard route from Northern Europe to the USA included refuel– ling stops in Ireland and Newfoundland and took many hours. Not surprisingly, many people preferred to use the luxury liners which plied the Atlantic until the introduction of jet aircraft in about I 960 made them uneconomic. In the office, communication of the printed word was, by today's standards, laborious and slow. Letters were typed on manual type– writers, copies being in the form of carbons, while documents for reproduction were typed on stencils from which copies could be printed on an office duplicating machine. For the IIW, whose effec– tiveness depends in large measure on ease of communication and travel, the deficiencies in those areas at the time of its foundation presented inherent obstacles which certainly impeded its growth in the early years. But what is not known is not missed and to con– temporaries the increase in air travel and in airmail facilities were factors which encouraged international collaboration in the post-war years.

THE WELDING BACKGRO UND

Welding as an industrial process was invented in the closing years of the l 9th century by scientists working independently in various countries. Initially, its main application was in repair work and oxy– acetylene welding, with its portable powe r source, was virtually the