The Poppit Experience

More and more the serendipity factor is seen to come to the fore as we investigate the hisory of the development of plastics materials and their applications. Poppit polyethylene interlocking beads - which like many other commercial successes started life by accident - proved to be no exception. Geoff Cooper, managing director of Chelton Ltd., tells their fascinating story.

Chelton Electrostatics the original company, was formed in London after the Second World War by two ex-RAF officers, Geoffrey Charles and Bill Sanderson, to design and develop aircraft radio antennae. Requiring more space, they moved into an old cinema in Marlow, Bucks. The business expanded from resin-bonded glass fibre into injection and compression moulding, and additionally into the design and manufacture of small vertical moulding machines.

In 1953, the founder booked space at the British Industries Fair at Olympia to promote machine sales. To demonstrate the machine's potential, a discarded prototype mould of an interlocking ball-and-socket joint for the Atomic Energy Authority was used. During the opening days of he exhibition, it was noticed that there was more public interest in the mouldings than i the machine, particularly by the Japanese - although interestingly they never subsequently proved a commercial threat. Towards the end of the fair, they were visited by Walter Scaife of the costume jeweller wholesalers of that name in High Holborn, London. He was excited by what he saw, and after examining the mouldings eloquently described a unique potential for a fashion bead based on them using an interlocking principle. He asked that samples be removed from the stand and that further demonstration moulding be stopped. Following an immediate telephone call from the exhibition and a visit to a patent agent of Mr Scaife's acquaintance, a redundant ball-and-socket joint was about to enter the world of fashion jewellery.

The interlocking feature of the ball joint was a Chelton design, and like all good design was very simple. It consisted of an annular ring around the internal circumference of the socket which retained the ball when pressed home (see accompanying diagram). Applications for registered design and patents followed, and manufacturing methods were discussed. It was appreciated that fashion beads needed to be sold in appropriate necklace lengths and that this would normally require hand assembly.

In an attempt to remove this element from the production cost, it was decided to develop a combination machine based on he Chelton vertical moulding equipment. In this, the beads were moulded in the central die block and then ejected on their core pins for assembly on a trolley rack. During the cooling cycle they were shuttled on a rail to the right or left of the die block while a similar rack shuttled across to locate the die block for the injection cycle. The cooling beads were stopped under a jig of hydraulically operating jaws. Each closed jaw held a bead; the rack of new beads elevated, and the ball of a new head was pushed home into the socket of the corresponding bead in the jaw. This then opened to release the first bead while a second-stage elevation placed the new bead now 'popped' into the bead above, and
the jaws closed again to retain it. Thus a continuous, necklace could be assembled.

The theory was good, but the degree of sophisticated control ol' the hydraulic sequences that the system required could not be sustained and eventually the development lapsed. Conventional moulding methods were adopted, and at the peak of production ten machines - Netstal, Hupfield and Chelton's own - were in use. Shapes other than round, such as sharks' teeth, animal and other figures were also produced, many for use as premium gifts in cornflake packets, etc. Local people were quick to lake advantage of opportunities for outwork assembly, and a feature of Marlow for some years was the sight of bright silver cans holding five kilos of loose or assembled beads being conveyed to and from the old cinema - now long since demolished.

The company quickly adjusted itself to its niche in the fashion trade, and adopted its ways. Correspondence addressed to 'The House of Poppits' and orders commencing 'We wish to order from your House' enhanced the image of the plebian factory! It was swiftly involved in the seasonal colour changes dictated by the trade and motivated by the deadlines for sample approval laid down by fashion buyers. Evocative name,, such as Zanzibar Sunset, Caribbean Jazz, Boulevard Blue and Alaskan Ice now appeared on the revamped invoices. These and many other similar colours were marbled effects produced on a six-ounce Peco plunger machine and three other four-ounce machines. The stores would tumble-mix the raw colours working from an ingredients card for use with ICI's Alkathene  polyethylene. For example, 100kg of Zanzibar Sunset as supplied to the moulding press was made up of 50kg Yellow 4120; 25kg Orange 3050; 15kg Cream 2460 and 10kg Purple 3862.

The most popular bead diameter was 8mm in 81cm (32in) necklace lengths. Other bead sizes were added during the life of Poppit, including 14mm, 12mm, 10mm and 6mm. The range was augmented by earrings which had interchangeable tops to match the necklace. Three manufacturing licenses were granted, two in the UK and one in France. However, the tradename Poppit was retained by Chelto: one licensee traded using the name Snapit and another Lockit One licensee produced sculptured designs on the bead surface but plain designs were most usual. Poppit beads were exported to the USA Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada, and were also retailed through Selfridges-type outlets. The French licensee supplied the European continent.

Pearlized Beads
Two years after manufacture began the innovative Walter Scaife suggested producing a bead with a pearlized coat. There was concern that such a coating would not adhere to a polyethylene base, and that flaking Poppit beads would damage their image. However, trials started with a company in Northern Ireland recommended by Mr Scaife and before long Ulster Pearls Ltd. with Frank Kafka as managing director had produced samples for successful commercial trials. The pearlescence that was employed for quality costume jewellery. It was made from fish scales which were pounded to minute size and mixed with a highly volatile transparent lacquer which kept them in suspension. The uncoated beads were first barrelled in ash and then flamed. An initial coating of lacquer was applied and the beads were then individually loaded on to pins in a jig to he lowered into a vat of' the essence and slowly withdrawn. The rate of withdrawal was crucial as the volatile vapour above the vat was used to 'set' the bead and prevent excessive run-off. The plain beads lasted about five years before fashion changed, but the pearlized variety continued in production for a further eight years before falling sales made them uneconomic. However, there are still Poppit beads around today and in use
some 30 years after manufacture.

Two non-fashion uses for the beads are worth mentioning. First, IBM in South Wales ordered 24 decorative curtains each measuring 2.44m x 1.83m to cover windows in an executive suite when open in the summer. The other came about when Chelton was exhibiting at the Farnborough Air Show. To celebrate receiving an order for antenna systems for the Comet, the firm made a huge (7.32m x 2.44m) back screen to the stand, using nearly 300 000 8mm sky-blue beads with an impression of the aircraft picked out in pearlized beads in the centre.

The Poppit patents have long expired, but no extension of the principle has since been developed. Nothing is left of' 'The House of Poppits' now except a lingering nostalgia for the experience. However, the beads are still moulded in the UK by C&T Engineering of Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset and sold by Pliiiip Harris Education as aids to demonstrate molecular structures.

Acknowledgement
This article is based on a talk given by Geoff Cooper to the Thames Valley Section ot the PHS in 1994. Mr Cooper wishes to give credit to Messrs Ken Weekes and Bert Child, former employees ol Chelton Electrostatics for providing information for this very comprehensive history of Poppit beads.