Unilever Research & Development Port Sunlight Laboratory
| Unilever Research & Development Port Sunlight Laboratory | |
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View from the east
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| Former names | Port Sunlight Research Laboratory |
| Alternative names | R&D Port Sunlight |
| General information | |
| Type | Research |
| Location | Bebington |
| Address | Bromborough Road, Wirral, CH63 3JW |
| Country | England |
| Coordinates | 53°20′46″N 2°59′53″W / 53.346°N 2.998°WCoordinates: 53°20′46″N 2°59′53″W / 53.346°N 2.998°W |
| Elevation | 20 m (66 ft) |
| Cost | £3 million |
| Client | Unilever Research |
| Owner | Unilever |
| Website | |
| Unilever | |
The Unilever Research & Development Port Sunlight Laboratory is the multinational consumer goods company Unilever's main research and development facility in the United Kingdom. It is located in Bebington, Merseyside.
Unilever's predecessor companies conducted research in Bebington from 1890 and the first dedicated research building was built in 1911 by Lever Brothers. Unilever was formed in 1929, and until 1951 Port Sunlight was its main research laboratory worldwide.
It created a research division in 1961. In the early 1960s the site researched colloid chemistry, surface active phenomena, rheology of dispersions, surface chemistry, fluorescence of dyestuffs, adsorbed films on liquids, germicides, timber technology (for West Africa), and paper chromatography. Organic chemists, physical chemists and physicists worked there. In the 1960s the site was run by Unilever Research. In 1964, newly-employed scientists would be earning £1,450. New buildings in the mid-1960s meant more staff. In early 1965 the site installed a IBM System/360 (128k storage) computer at Port Sunlight, connected with time-sharing to IBM 1050 consoles at other sites; it claimed to be the first time such a computer system had been installed in the UK for industrial research. In February 1964, planning permission was applied for a site at Spital, on Port Sunlight golf course. By 1964 the site had an IBM 1620 computer. In 1965 the site formed an Operational Research Section at Port Sunlight, and their computers used PL/I and Fortran IV. In 1967 statisticians used control charts, timeseries analysis, multivariate analysis and . From early 1969 the consoles at the site were IBM 2780 with the MFT2 and HASPII operating systems. By 1969, new laboratories were built.
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