ELECTRICAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION/UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

B.78-B.126 Reports

B.127-B.132 Agendas and minutes of meetings

B.133-B.153 Correspondence

B.154-B.171 Notebooks

B.172-B.260 Notes, drafts, calculations, data

B.261-B.272 Equipment and supplies

<p>For papers relating to Admiralty and Ministry of Power interest in Bacon's fuel cell work during the latter part of the ERA sponsored programme at Cambridge see B.1078-B.1089 and B.1162-B.1165 respectively</p>

The Electrical Research Association (ERA) supported a programme of research into the properties of the hydrogen-oxygen cell for ten years 1946-1956. When Bacon's work was first supported by the ERA the full title of the organisation was the British Electrical and Allied Industries Research Association. The shorter form was first used as an alternative and then supplanted the longer title.

Bacon reported to the Association's Section Z: Unclassified Researches Sub-Committee F: Storage of Electrical Energy. The Secretaries of the Committee were D.V. Onslow 1946-1948 and A.P. Paton 1948-1956. The ERA Director of Research was S. Whitehead 1946-1956.

The work sponsored by the ERA was located at the University of Cambridge, first in the Department of Colloid Science, then in the Department of Metallurgy and from 1951 to 1956 in the Department of Chemical Engineering.

Although a six cell fuel battery was successfully demonstrated there was no interest from British industry and the ERA felt obliged to withdraw its support.