Memories of David Sinden by Ray Townsend

We first met at Stockton Technical Institute aged 13 to 14 years.  Selection was by examination and interviews, for a two year intensive course which prepared one for almost guaranteed apprenticeships or careers in electrical and mechanical engineering.  We were lucky to be there competition was very keen for very few places.  Our Stockton Tech education included technical drawing, workshop practices, chemistry, lab work. David took to all this work with his usual quiet confidence and was soon to be seen at the top of the class in most subjects.  He excelled particularly in workshop practice, whilst the majority of us were struggling with learning to file flat, making pokers and such mundane objects, he progressed quickly to making very accurate tools e.g. squares – correct to a thousandth of an inch.  I saw him on one occasion on the lathe, turning the fins and bore of a tiny aero-engine to power is model aircraft.  It goes without saying all his aircraft flew like dickey birds.

A little known side to David was that as a teenager he was a very keen cyclist.  He had a very good Paris racing cycle on which he trained regularly for time trials.  Later on as a young motor cyclist I used to pace David, he would tuck in behind my B.S.A. and I slowly increased speed to 40 or 45 mph, he was very keen to improve and achieve.  To show his versatility he once entered the Tech’s sports day slow bike race and won it easily by simply balancing his bike on the brakes and not moving more that a couple of inches.  If he make his mind up he could do it – he did it, although he would never consider himself as an achiever. He bought himself an old 250 cc motorbike, it was a New Imperial and it really needed some TLC.  In no time he had transformed it.  I’m not sure which he enjoyed the most – riding it or restoring it.  Restoration or creation, be it telescopes or motorcycles, Dave had the magic touch that made it happen.

We worked together as apprentices in the Tool Room at I.C.I. main workshops. Some of the work was hard and tedious like sharpening drills on a hand operated grinder, we also had to light electric salt furnaces at the start of the day i.e. 7.30 a.m., and then bale out the molten salt at 1,000 degrees C at the end of the day 4.00 p.m.  We used to melt out the white metal from worn bearings then replace this with a new lining of cast in white metal ready for the machinists to turn up on the lathe.  Looking back we did not do badly for kids of 16 years and the training make you do your best and instilled a feeling of pride in the work done – a good grounding for what Dave was to achieve in the astronomy and optical field in later life.

 Whilst still an apprentice David made his first astronomical telescope.  He ground and polished a 6” mirror, having read all the books on grinding, parabolising and how to do optical testing to prove its accuracy.  He mounted it in a beautifully engineered tube on an equatorial mounting.  The local press soon featured him and subsequently the national press, with pictures of him with his then girlfriend, Helen. It was hard to tell at this time which David favoured the most, photography or astronomy or simply the joy of producing bigger and better astro mirrors.  I remember helping him to develop a very early version of colour film, Faranla Colour, it took hours to develop each colour separately in the dark room.  He made special mounts to take his 35 mm camera onto the 6” Newtonian telescope, he produced remarkably clear crater shots of the moon.

 David became more and more dissatisfied with his experiences at I.C.I. as an apprentice fitter, both the environment and the nature of the work was not to his liking.  When he had completed his apprenticeship he left I.C.I. and started work at Durkins as an expert in optical instruments (much to his father’s disapproval).  David was much happier dealing with that kind of work and it was the start which led him ultimately to his work at Grub Parsons.

 Our friendship did not end here however, I carried on working at I.C.I. until I retired some 15 years ago but David and I never lost total touch.  Through a mutual lifelong friend, Jack Youdale, I visited David at his beloved Optical Lab. A couple of times and enjoyed again in undying enthusiasm and passion of his chose craft.  Unforgettable and everlasting, like his creations in glass and metal.