Somerville, John Laird (1899 - 1986)

Summary

John Somerville was a key player in the growth and advancement of Australia's paper industry. In the 1920s he helped develop machinery and techniques to perfect the use of eucalypts in paper manufacturing. Somerville worked for Forest Products Laboratory, Tasmanian Paper Co., London Paper Mills as Chief Chemist (UK) and as Chief Chemist at the Australian Newsprint Mills. He is best known for the creation of the Somerville Fractionator, which is still used in today's paper industry.

Details

After completing his studies at the University of Western Australia, John Laird Somerville joined the Forest Products Laboratory (Perth) in 1921. There he and L. R. Benjamin developed a modified soda press for pulping eucalypts, which lead to Australia's first commercial production of eucalypt-based paper and pulp. In 1928 Somerville moved to Tasmania to conduct semi-commercial trials of eucalypt pulping at the Tasmanian Paper Co. plant. These trials lead to the first use of eucalypt-based paper for newsprint which occurred in Canada in 1934.

John Somerville was appointed Chief Chemist at London Paper Mills in Kent, England (1931-1934). There he developed the Somerville Fractionator - a machine used for testing pulp. In 1935 (circa) Somerville returned to Australia and took up the post of Chief Chemist at the Australian Newsprint Mills. He retired from this position in 1965. In 1971 John Somerville was awarded the L. R. Benjamin Medal for his services to the paper industry. Somerville held many positions of honour, including President of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (Tasmanian branch), President of the Australian and New Zealand Pulp and Paper Industry Association, and was a member of the Faculty of Science at the University of Tasmania for many years.

Chronology

1921

Career position - Chemist at the Forest Products Laboratory in Perth

1922

Career position - First commercial manufacture of pulp and paper from Australian eucalypts

1928 - 1930

Career position - Chemist at the Tasmanian Paper Co.

1931 - 1934

Career position - Somerville Fractionator developed

1931 - 1934

Career position - Chief Chemist at the London Paper Mills in Kent, UK

c. 1935 - 1965

Career position - Chief Chemist, Australian Newsprint Mills

1943 - 1944

Career position - President, Royal Australian Chemical Institute, Tasmanian branch

1953

Career position - President, Australian and New Zealand Pulp and Paper Industry Association

1971

Award - L. R. Benjamin Medal

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• McCarthy, Gavan; Smith, Ailie; Moje, Christine; Rigby, Rebecca, The Study of Australian Eucalypts, eScholarship Research Centre, 2013, http://www.eoas.info/eucalypts/index.html. Details

Book Sections

• Somerville, J. L., 'Benjamin, Louis Reginald Samuel (1892-1970), chemist and technologist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 7: 1891 - 1939 A-Ch, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1979), p. 264. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A070263b.htm. Details

Resources

• 'Somerville, John Laird (1899-1986)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1475682. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Somerville, John Laird', in Physics in Australia to 1945, R.W. Home, with the assistance of Paula J. Needham, Australian Science Archives Project, June 1995, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/physics/P002242p.htm. Details