Thousands of young minds will have been influenced by headmasters such as mine and that of CBI Director Digby Jones on the occasion of school visits to the local factory. In each of his and my cases the Head’s closing remarks could be summarised as: “That’s where you’ll finish up if you don’t stick at your studies”. An anti-manufacturing message which will have infected a whole generation.

How is this connected with the way people from these islands have engaged so comfortably with the hugely different cultures of the world? Is it because of our talents in academic life or as ‘ Yes Minister ’ civil servants? I don’t think so. Nor do I see the donation of cash or food aid as a way to sustain goodwill. See what happens when it stops.

Look at it this way. We ventured into distant parts of the world not as conquistadors or evangelists but as traders. As a result of the industrial revolution, we went selling knives from Sheffield, shoes from Northampton, steam engines from Glasgow, anchors from Netherton, chains from Cradley Heath, hoes from Wolverhampton, locks from Willenhall, trucks from Bedford, weighing scales from West Bromwich, saddles from Walsall and just about everything you can think of from Birmingham or Manchester.

PC critics now tell us that it was imperial dominance which enabled these manufacturers to force their products down the throats of the benighted citizens of tropical lands. But the ‘victims’ hardly complained about getting their hands on knives which stayed sharp, chains which didn’t break, go-anywhere vehicles and locomotives good for half a century or more.

‘International co-operation’ agencies tell us to forget producing trade goods while they send out economic consultants to track down where the aid money went and social engineers to sit under a tree with a circle of villagers discussing ‘empowerment’ and ‘gender issues’. I say we are losing relevance and writing ourselves out of the script.

Having spent significant time in more than 50 developing countries in my career, not only have I always felt welcome but the welcome so often includes a pleasurable appreciation of products coming from these islands, be it a sauce made in Aston, a particularly rugged vehicle or an aircraft engine with a manufacturer’s logo to inspire passengers with confidence in its reliability. Replace these ‘tangible ambassadors’ with football or show business celebs and the causal connection is lost, and in due course the affection. A ‘damn good machine’ which works for 20 years generates a lot more goodwill than fleeting images on a TV screen.

Our Prime Minister, correctly, connects many of the international troubles that now worry us with poverty, especially in Africa. But the aid industry, with all its consultants and social engineers, simply misses the practical problem. What poor people need above all is livelihood s.

And not jobs in massive in-and-out assembly warehouses, nor even in call centres masquerading as UK local advice lines, although these may help to a degree, but preferably competent manufacturing programmes, based on local resources and with linkages to other local activities (e.g. roof tiles to roof construction to house building and so on).

Often it is little machines from Cradley Heath which get these virtuous cycles moving. Indeed, Parry Associates has a target of 1 for 1000: that is, a thousand jobs created overseas for every employee in our own works. How’s that for ‘international co-operation’?

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FURTHER ADVANCES FOR PARRY TECHNOLOGY IN AFRICA

Sun and rain beat down on the heads of both Muslims and Christians and so all appreciate a good solid roof. Two of Africa’s poorer communities in Somaliland and Western Tanzania have begun to benefit from Parry building materials.

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David Halford writes: "As promised here are snaps of the Anglican cathedral built by St John's Church Blackheath, SE London, in Musoma, Tanzania. We used roman tiles and hollow blocks, produced using equipment bought from you in 1996. The tiles and blocks have also been used to build houses and a school, and tiles are still being made and sold to raise funds for local projects. A group of us go out each year and are now working in a remote village a few miles outside Musoma – working with farmers on rainwater harvesting, spring protection, dairy goat farming and tree planting among other things."

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Festus Vandi, an old friend of ours who has worked on Parry projects in Sierra Leone, is to join the team for the next few months. He will be based at Cradley Heath where he will be working on a research project on solar powered grinding machines. Festus is a skilled mechanic and experienced field worker. He will also receive further training and then become a field worker training others on projects in Africa and other parts of the world. Welcome to England, Festus. Bring some warm clothing!

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One of the largest consignments of Semi Sheet production equipment, valued at about £50,000 and completely filling a sea container, outside Parry Workshops on 10th February bound for Malawi to assist public sector building programmes.

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Abou Manneh, a multi-skilled handyman based with Parry agents Safari Gardens in Fajara in The Gambia, is rapidly becoming a versatile fieldworker in other African countries. In May 2003 Abou accompanied John Parry to Malawi providing a training course for personnel from five centres around Malawi which then went on to create Semi Sheet roofing manufacturing facilities. The Diamond Construction Company of Hargeisa in Somailand imported the first ever consignment of building elements using the new “Jig Block” construction system which has been devised to deal with the widespread shortage of “tradesmen” skills in many parts of the world. The system consists of a very lightweight, bolt-together steel framework around which specially shaped blocks and lintels fit completely enclosing the frame. These blocks are produced on site using local labour on vibrating machines and steel moulds supplied from Cradley Heath. After a week familiarising himself with the Jig Block system Abou left for Hargeisa and organised the construction of a hexagonal shaped office and spacious workshop for the local company. From prepared site to finished tiled roofs took less than 4 weeks.

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One of our vastly experienced associates, Robin Parker, has been in Liberia for some time trying to find a way of making a practical contribution to the recovery of the country after the conflict. He has been trying to persuade the Department for International Development to take some kind of direct interest in ex-combatant livelihood programmes. DFID’s response has been to refer to the offer of limited assistance in Disarmament, Demobilisation, Reintegration and Rehabilitation (DDRR), but the UK government will not become a major bilateral donor. The point which remains unresolved is the potential for a reoccurrence of civil problems in Liberia de-stabilising neighbouring Sierra Leone where the Commonwealth made so significant a commitment.

Robin wonders, “What about the Prime Minister’s initiative to tackle the causes of poverty in Africa – isn’t this a prime contender for a positive action and commitment to practical help?”

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If two wrongs don't make a right, can two bads make a good? JPA thinks so, and has built a pilot plant to prove it.

Work has continued on behalf of large scale agro-industrial producers in north west England to determine if there is a better alternative to expensive landfill disposal of residues from their operation.

Several ways of using the apparent plasticising and binding properties of some of the by-products seem possible, and the most developed concept even finds a new use for another costly landfill commodity: used newsprint.

Construction of pilot plant

Behind the operation is an evolution of existing Parry brickmaking technology. The equipment, including a specially developed mixer and a Type "F" brick press, has been set up in a pilot plant at Cradley Heath and is now converting newsprint and agro residues into the first batches of bricks. It is hoped this will prove to be clean burning when incinerated. Variations of the bricks could also be used as a non load bearing partition wall material with excellent thermal insulation properties. Experiments have shown that bricks can even be made using just shredded paper and water, and other food industry by-products can be used to contribute to the fuel content.

Global application

An associate of JPA in Botswana has already expressed interest in using the technology under license, which could help to make use of the waste material accumulating in his country and, at the same time, reduce the need for firewood.

Testing will go ahead shortly, in order to show the properties of the new waste paper bricks under furnace conditions. If this stage is passed successfully, a new form of energy from waste will have been born and full-scale, high-volume plants would become feasible. Meanwhile, the bricks’ properties as a building material are currently being evaluated.

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National Lottery money is used for various worthy activities and the call for a solid push behind PPM has caught the attention of NESTA, the endowment fund of the Department of Culture, Media & Sport which promotes innovative ideas at a pre-market stage. NESTA support is no hand-out and months of discussions have been needed to establish the principle that an investment in the new light rail concept might produce a return for a prospective new investor.

The first task, it was decided, was to take a fresh look at the Business Plan. What was not in doubt were judgements that there were prospective niches in the rail transport markets and that the Parry innovations licensed to PPM put that company on the front row of the grid for providing a suitable technology. NESTA have however recruited the help of prominent rail industry consultants the Nichols Group to advise how the venture could meet financial investors' need to understand PPM's relationship with its licensor JPA and with associate firms in the "family": Pre Metro Operations Ltd and Holdfast Carpet Track Ltd. Also required was for issues of succession to be considered, prospective profit centres to be identified and the distribution of future proceeds of the ventures to be defined.

On satisfactory completion of the Plan, NESTA will receive a proposal for carrying funding for the company through 2004 during which the "first off" eighty-passenger PPM 80 will be built. NESTA's funding would come in alongside contributions from other new investors, existing PPM shareholders and a prospective small business loan from JPA which would also be invested in the venture. Decisions on the financing package are expected to be reached in the course of April 2004.

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Internal partition walls can really be built out of materials costing almost nothing…

So often one project spins off into another one. While wrestling with the task of finding productive applications for agro-industrial waste, Parry technicians have devised a means of producing smart, accurate bricks out of one of the commonest throwaway items of modern society – old newspapers. All that is needed is for these to be torn up and subjected to a vigorous mixing action, then squeezed into shape by a powerful press and left to harden in the sun.

Traditional Japanese houses have paper walls, but nothing like the structure which can be built out of bricks made out of a combination of newsprint and water. Very much at the proof of concept stage, the current programme has begun to produce tough, accurate masonry products with the consistency of natural softwood. It uses a new triple-action mixer shredder and a press built using the design principle of the Colombian–designed Cinva Ram block machines.

Old news is good news

Paper waste brick making may become a basis for a new urban micro industry, particularly applicable to informal sector construction. In due course refinement could make the products suitable for the formal sector. Applications which might include lightly constructed upper storeys of buildings, particularly relevant in earthquake zones and for internal partition walls. The stages for production in the “industry” would include collecting paper waste, mainly old newspapers, tearing into strips, a manual task, then operating the mixing and pressing machines. Until fully dry the bricks are fragile but thereafter resemble the softwood from which the paper was originally produced, but with an even lower density – like balsa wood. Further applications for the paper waste brick making system include the production of a fuel which has potential for substituting for firewood and charcoal. Success in this application will be helpful in reducing the ecological damage of human settlements. Work will continue refining this promising system for commercial introduction.

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Parry Associates have for many years been associated with Armcon Ltd, the Stockport-based concrete equipment suppliers. We have introduced Armcon’s range of moulds for paving slabs, balustrades, fencing, etc. to the pre-cast concrete industry worldwide. A new decorative paving range is made on moulds which produce paving elements of various shapes and sizes. These can be arranged into many different configurations and combinations giving a multitude of exciting designs. A manual of these shows over 50 designs of squares, paths and garden layouts and the possibilities are endless. Parry Associates hold a small stock of pattern suggestions which can be forwarded on request.

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The “F” Type is an improvement on previous versions as the new design employs flame cut precise components that produce sharp edged accurate clay bricks. The press can also be used as shown in the new paper formed bricks mentioned above. The press is equipped with a material feed table and applies the well-established Cinva Ram double action to compress the clay and eject the finished bricks.

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