Eric William Fawcett
Eric William Fawcett (1908-1987), co-inventor of polyethylene.
1929 Graduated from Oxford University
Joined ICI Alkali Group's Research Department at Winnington to work on the 'oil from coal' project.
Seconded for one year to the National Bureau of Standards in Washington
Worked at ICI Winnington on the chemical effects of high pressures with Reginald Oswald Gibson
1933 Fawcett and Gibson set up an experiment in which ethylene and benzaldehyde were pressurized to 1900 atmospheres at 170°C in the hope that they would combine together. They did not, but when the apparatus was dismantled later Fawcett noticed that the tip of a steel tube was coated with a waxy substance. This small deposit, less than half a gram, was the first solid polymer of ethylene ever made, i.e. polyethylene.
1938 Joined BP. In his career with the company he was associated with the invention and development of a butane isomerisation process to produce isobutane, an intermediate required in the alkylation process for aviation gasoline[1].