The scientists behind the designs

Helen Megaw

Dr Helen Dick Megaw (1907-2002) was Assistant Director of Research at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. In this photograph she is shown setting a photogoniometer: a piece of equipment used to take X-ray photographs of crystals. Behind her is a ball-and-spoke model of the structure of afwillite, one of the minerals she researched.

One of Megaw’s drawings of afwillite can be seen in the next image.

Image: ‘The Souvenir Book of Crystal Designs’, 1951

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The scientists behind the designs

Afwillite 8.45 diagram

Helen Megaw explained the diagram as follows: “The ‘peaks’ with six or seven contours are calcium atoms, those with five contours are silicon, and the others are hydroxyl and water.” Helen Megaw’s electron-density contour map of afwillite inspired both textiles and wallpapers. In the next image is an example of one of these textiles.

Crystallographer: Helen Megaw
Image: V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum

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The scientists behind the designs

Afwillite 8.45 dress fabric

The structure of afwillite is seen here on screen-printed spun rayon. Helen Megaw, who discovered this structure, would later play a crucial role as Adviser on Crystal Structure Diagrams in the Festival Pattern Group. It was entirely due to her that so many eminent crystallographers contributed, including Nobel Prize winner and crystallographer Max Perutz, who can be seen in the next image.

Crystallographer: Helen Megaw
Designed by S M Slade for British Celanese
Image: V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum

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The scientists behind the designs

Max Perutz at his diffractometer

Max Perutz (1914-2002) insisted on performing the measurements on the diffractometer himself in order to ensure their accuracy. He describes how the diffractometer was kept running “day and night for 15 months while I measured the intensities of some 100 000 reflections…The final electron density map was so beautiful that I soon forgot the tedium of data collection.”

Image: Cambridge Newspapers Ltd

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The scientists behind the designs

Horse methaemoglobin diagram

X-ray photographs of horse methaemoglobin crystals were studied by Max Perutz during his early research on protein structures. Methaemoglobin is a variant of haemoglobin in which the iron atom is unable to carry oxygen. As a result blood is brown rather than red.

Image: V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum

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The scientists behind the designs

Horse methaemoglobin 8.23 dress fabrics

Max Perutz’s wife, Gisela, had a dress made from this fabric, which she wore at the International Union of Crystallography conference in Stockholm in 1951. The patterns are on printed acetate rayon crepe and can be seen here in four colour variations.

Crystallographer: Max Perutz
Designed by S M Slade for British Celanese

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The scientists behind the designs

Correspondence between Helen Megaw and Dorothy Hodgkin

Helen Megaw and Dorothy Hodgkin (1910-1994) became friends whilst working as research students in Cambridge between 1932 and 1934. Their close ties are revealed in this letter: Megaw has asked Hodgkin’s permission to use some of her insulin diagrams, an example of which is in the next image; Hodgkin agrees, but refuses to sign an official form or accept a fee on ethical grounds.

Image: V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum

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The scientists behind the designs

Insulin 8.27 diagram

This delicate multicoloured drawing dates from the late 1930s when Dorothy Hodgkin first began to publish her research on insulin. Like the other insulin diagrams selected by Helen Megaw, this is a Patterson contour map showing the distances between atoms. As well as being the source for wallpaper (in the next image), this diagram inspired laminates, carpets, linoleum and lace.

Crystallographer: Dorothy Hodgkin
Image: V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum

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The scientists behind the designs

Insulin 8.27 wallpaper

Although the pattern has been simplified, the motif in this screen-printed wallpaper is essentially the same as Dorothy Hodgkin’s contour map. From a distance the pattern resembles floral rosettes. This wallpaper was used in the Regatta Restaurant at the Festival of Britain, which can be seen in the Festival of Britain section.

Crystallographer: Dorothy Hodgkin
Designed by William Odell for John Line and Sons
Image: V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum

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The scientists behind the designs

John Kendrew and Maz Perutz

John Kendrew (1917-1997) (left) and Max Perutz (right) are shown with Kendrew’s second structure model of myoglobin, known as ‘the forest of rods’. The two men worked alongside each other from 1947 onwards in a special research group within the Cavendish Laboratory called the Unit for the Study of the Molecular Structure of Biological Systems. A diagram of myoglobin can be seen in the following image.

Image: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology

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The scientists behind the designs

Myoglobin 8.46f diagram

John Kendrew began researching myoglobin, the oxygen-storing molecule in muscle tissue, after joining the Cavendish Laboratory. He determined the molecule’s structure in 1957. These early diagrams of horse myoglobin inspired printed leathercloths, which are featured in the next image.

Crystallographer: John Kendrew
Image: V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum

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The scientists behind the designs

Myoglobin 8.46g vynides

This nitrocellulose-coated upholstery fabric features the myoglobin structure. ICI Leathercloth was keen to promote its new range of heavy-duty wallcoverings and upholstery fabrics intended for schools, cafes and cinemas.

Crystallographer: John Kendrew
Designed by Charles Garnier for ICI Leathercloth
Image: V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum

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