1910s Timeline - John Innes Centre

1944 Flying bomb offensive
hits JIHI
Until 1944 damage to the
Institution from enemy attacks
has been slight. Only one bomb,
which fell in the Old Garden in
May 1941, directly damaged the
premises. A serious attack in the
neighbourhood in February
1944 also leaves the Institution
unscathed. The flying bomb
offensive launched in June 1944
is more prolonged, and in the
Merton locality, more
dangerous than previous
attacks. One of the first flying
bombs kills the Assistant
Secretary to the Council of JIHI.
Between June and August 1944
eight flying bombs damage the
buildings and private houses of
the Institution but there are no
further casualties. The last of
these bombs, falling on the
Sunday afternoon of August
20 th , causes extensive blast
damage to glasshouses, and the
windows, roofs and ceilings of
JIHI’s main buildings; the main
water pipes are also fractured.
Despite a general scene of
‘appalling desolation’ no books
are destroyed and very little
apparatus lost. Nor is there any
structural damage to the
buildings. Most of the
immediate problems with the
buildings are quickly rectified
and within a fortnight work is
again possible. The glasshouses
take longer to replace- it is not
until November that glass
(cloudy glass) becomes
available. Many of the trees,
crops and experimental plants
are ruined and some (for
example, the entire Antirrhinum
crop) are totally obliterated. As
a result of the damage the
greater part of the breeding
work of the year is spoiled,
jeopardized or delayed.
1944 Colour photography is
introduced to JIHI
Since H. C. Osterstock’s death in
1942 the Institution has felt the
need of a means of representing
fruits, flowers and microscopic
objects in colour. They could not
expect to replace Ostertock in
skill of painting but in 1944
obtain the advice of an expert
colour photographer, G. D. H.
Waddington. The Institution
purchases new photographic
equipment and Waddington
agrees to make a series of
colour photographs of
important fruits, flowers and
vegetables, and especially new
varieties raised by the
Institution. Waddington also
trains Len La Cour and Gavin
Brown in the ordinary
techniques of colour
photography. A new senior
photographer, L. S. Clarke, is
appointed in July 1948 to fill
Osterstock’s long-vacant
position.
1944 DNA is ‘transforming
principle’
Physician and medical
researcher Oswald Avery at
Rockefeller University Hospital
in New York City, with coworkers
Colin MacLeod and
Maclyn McCarty, shows that
DNA can transform the
properties of cells. Avery and his
team’s experiments on
Streptococcus pneumoniae
followed up the work of
Frederick Griffith who in 1928
showed that some component
of heat-killed virulent bacteria
can ‘transform’ a non-virulent
strain to become virulent. Avery
and his colleagues working in
the early 1940s demonstrated
that the ‘transforming principle’
identified by Griffith was not
some kind of protein as had
been supposed but was a
substance rich in nucleic acids.
This agent (DNA) was able to
produce heritable change in
organisms. Avery’s work helped
Page 40 of 91