`British Welding Institute founding`

Origin story — Richard Wek/Weck riding his bicycle near Cambridge, founding the Institute at Abington. Used to identify one of the three postwar centers of brittle-fracture research.

After the Navy study around 1950, three places in the world did a major study of brittle fracture of welded vessels or ships. One was in Great Britain. There's a guy Richard Wek who was riding his bicycle outside of Cambridge University, and he came along this little place called Abington in the countryside, and he said, "I want to build a welding institute here." He got some money from the British government, and they built the British Welding Institute, which is now a large research organization mostly funded by big oil companies. The British Welding Institute did some very fundamental studies on the fracture behavior of welded steel structures. They are now a leading place for studying the fracture behavior of all kinds of materials for structural materials.

Richard Weck's bicycle ride from Cambridge to Abingdon to scout a field for the British Welding Institute, motivated in part by Admiralty interest in the brittle-fracture problem. Tom's editorial color: "one of the most arrogant men you will ever meet. But you won't meet him, he's dead now."

Because of the Liberty ships, a lot of people were very concerned, and three places in the world did big studies in the late 1940s and early 1950s to understand brittle fracture in welded steel ships. One was a guy, Richard Weck, who when I was starting out as a young welding engineer in the mid-70s became the director general of the British Welding Institute. He was at Cambridge University, and as a young man in his 20s he got on his bicycle and rode out to Abingdon, near Cambridge in England. He found a nice field, went back, and convinced the British government to start the British Welding Institute, which now is one of the biggest and best known welding institutes in the world. They've done excellent research over the years. Richard Weck became Sir Richard Weck — one of the most arrogant men you will ever meet. But you won't meet him, he's dead now. That was one place where they studied brittle fracture of welded steels, and he convinced the British to do it because the British Admiralty wanted to know about these ships too.