By Julian Holland

Reprinted from The Australian Metrologist, No. 22, August 2000, pp. 3-5

Arthur Louis Franklin was born in Shrewsbury, England, in 1892. A bright and perceptive child, he developed an early fascination for science. A Shrewsbury Corporation Scholarship enabled the twelve-year-old Arthur to attend The Boys’ High School there from 1904. He was fortunate in 1908 to secure the post of junior in the Physics Department of the recently founded University of Birmingham, before long becoming personal assistant to Professor J.H. Poynting.

John Henry Poynting (1852-1914) is best known for his work on the flow of energy in electromagnetic fields. He studied at Cambridge and was appointed professor of physics at Mason College in Birmingham in 1880. The College became the University of Birmingham in 1900. During the period Franklin worked with him, Poynting was not only dean of the science faculty, but also a member of Council and vice-president of the Royal Society.

Franklin assisted Poynting in ‘preparing the more advanced lectures in Physics’ as the professor’s letter of reference stated. ‘He has been an excellent assistant taking always great interest in the preparation of the experiments & devoting attention to their theory. He has made many pieces of apparatus & has given much time to glass blowing.’ Franklin himself recalled Poynting as a ‘friend as well as tutor’ to whom he owed ‘much for the thorough way he taught me the basic principles of accurate observation’. Poynting was himself a designer of instruments for research and lecture demonstration. Clearly Franklin gained an extremely good training in the principles and methods of precision instrument making.

After four years at Birmingham, Franklin was advised for the sake of his health to move to a warmer climate and so in 1912 the skilled twenty-year-old sailed for Sydney. In the years before the First World War there was no well developed industry for manufacturing scientific instruments in Sydney but Franklin found employment opportunities. The first of these was with the firm of Andrew Thom, maker of scientific apparatus specialising in medical equipment including microbiological incubators. In the six months Franklin worked there, Thom found him to be ‘a very high class mechanic… [possessing] a knowledge of theory of Mechanics & Physics that in conjunction with his mechanical abilities should make his services invaluable to any firm with an opening in that direction’.

In the middle of 1913 Franklin sought work ‘more suited to my physique and temperament’ and joined the newly established electric clock department of Prouds Ltd. He found himself in the curious position that although he was the youngest member of staff he was the only one with technical training. He introduced a number of improvements and at one stage was acting manager.

Apart from his day job, Franklin found his skills in demand by other firms. In 1913 he took a barometer home to repair for Esdailes, beginning a relationship which continued for more than fifty years. Two other firms in Sydney for which Franklin did after-hours work were Elliott Brothers, the wholesale chemists who had an apparatus branch, and the Sydney branch of H.B. Silberberg (subsequently H.B. Selby Ltd). ‘I found both these firms anxious to do business and very soon I found all my spare time - which meant most evenings and weekends - fully occupied with instrument work and glassblowing.’

Perhaps understandably, Franklin found that this ‘arrangement did not work satisfactorily’ and in 1919 took the opportunity of setting up on his own account. He had by then built up a private workshop and when the New South Wales Education Department called for large quantities of scientific equipment following the First World War, Franklin ‘was awarded a major share and ceased to be somebody’s employee - for good’.

It was necessary to make a decision about the character of the business. Franklin was more interested in metrology and meteorology than optics or electronics. For this he would need a linear dividing engine. ‘To the best of my knowledge [Franklin recalled] in 1912 there was only one straight dividing engine in Sydney. It was hand operated and belonged to Esdaile’s who made it themselves.’ In 1920 Franklin built his own straight dividing engine which he believed to be ‘the first automatic dividing engine in Australia, certainly the first made here’. With minor modifications this dividing engine continued in use throughout the life of the firm (and is now preserved in private ownership).

With an expansion to five staff, the factory had moved to Bathurst Street by the middle of 1922 and ten years later moved to Sussex Street, near Pyrmont Bridge. During the Second World War, the firm was contributing to the war effort. For the security of production the factory was relocated to a would-be furniture factory at Artarmon. This site had a number of difficulties and at the end of the War a site was chosen at Brookvale where a new factory was built. This remained the home of the firm until its closure last year.

For a period the firm manufactured turret clocks. The first of these was installed in Ashfield Town Hall in 1922. George Julius of the consulting engineers Julius, Poole & Gibson assessed the work for Ashfield Council. ‘We have pleasure in stating that the time keeping records on this Clock are excellent, and reflect great credit upon Mr. Franklin, both for his design and workmanship.’ Arthur Franklin maintained this clock for more than forty years. A number of other turret clocks followed, the last being for the Cairns Harbour Board in 1948. Arthur’s son, Raymond, had joined the firm by this stage and one of his first tasks was work on the Cairns clock.

In 1957 the firm’s laboratory gained official NATA registration in the category of metrology (Reg. No. 232). Two years later the laboratory was also QCB approved, again for metrology. This covered balances, precision weights, and barometers. A.L. Franklin himself was for more than thirty years a member of the Standards Association and in 1965 was elected to Associate Membership of the Australian Institute of Physics.

A.L. Franklin (left), employee (centre), R.A. Franklin (right)

The firm became A.L. Franklin Pty Ltd in 1960, with four directors, the father and son and their wives. Arthur Franklin remained active in the management of the firm until his 79^th year. He died early in 1972 and his son Raymond became managing director of the firm. In 1985 Ray Franklin sold the firm but continued to be associated with it as a technical consultant. During this later period there was little development of new products and the firm does not seem to have adapted to a changing market. In 1999 the firm became insolvent and an administrator was appointed. In September 1999 A.L. Franklin Pty Ltd closed and its stock and equipment were sold at auction. While this was a sad end for one of Australia’s precision manufacturers, the eighty years that the firm lasted was longer than the span of many comparable small engineering firms and is a tribute to the sound basis on which Arthur Louis Franklin established it.

Note:
The research for this article was undertaken in conjunction with Dr Matti Keentok, formerly of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sydney. Much of the source material was provided by Ray Franklin. Matti Keentok has published a substantial account of the firm and its products: 'A.L. Franklin Pty Ltd, Scientific Instrument Makers', Historical Records of Australian Science, 2002, 14, 13-46.  See also Julian Holland, 'The Man Behind the Clock Dials:  A.L. Franklin’s Ashfield Town Hall Clock', Ashfield at Federation, (Ashfield and District Historical Society, Sydney: 2001), pp. 319-350.
 

Anon. [Obituary] ‘A.L. Franklin’, The Australian Physicist, , vol. 9, May 1972, p. 70

A.L. Franklin, ‘Pioneering in Scientific Instrument Manufacturing’, Convention on Recent Advances in Scientific Instrumentation (Sydney, 1966)