William Mills (inventor) Kingdom at The Atlas Works, Bonnersfield. Monkwearmouth. Whilst here he produced some of Britain's earliest aluminium golf clubs: Patent, No 13545. known as Metallic Golfing Instrument Heads. He was a keen golfer and had joined the Wearside Golf Club in around 1892. Apart from his company in Sunderland, Mills also set up a company in Birmingham of the same name, which produced castings for the motor car and aircraft industries. Early in 1915, Mills opened the Mills Munitions Factory in Birmingham, making the Mills Bomb Hand Grenade. Until then, grenades had often proved as deadly to the thrower as to
Science and invention in Birmingham first antibiotic M&B (sulfapyridine) as treatment for lobar pneumonia. Birmingham becomes the major British manufacturer of the phenolic plastic Bakelite. The magnetron, the core component in the development of radar, and the first microwave power oscillators are developed at the University of Birmingham during World War II (the microwave oven owes its existence to these developments). 1940: After initial teething problems with management, Castle Bromwich Aircraft Factory started production of the Spitfire fighter plane. By the time production ended at Castle Bromwich in June 1945, a total of 12,129 Spitfires (921 Mk IIs, 4489 Mk Vs, 5665 Mk IXs and