As a journalist and museologist, he was a controversial character of the European museum scene and inventor of the term "industrial archaeology" in the 1960s, a broadcaster and the author of numerous books. In 1963 he wrote one of the first books on the subject, "Industrial Archaeology: An Introduction", and in 1965 his "Industrial Archaeology of Southern England". He was the first editor of the "Journal of Industrial Archaeology" in which, with others, he produced an annual review of the rapidly growing literature. In 1972 he published his book on "Building Materials" in the Longmans IA series, and in 1979 he co-wrote, with Julian Pettifer, "Diamonds in the Sky", the result of historical research on the social history of air travel for the BBC television series of the same name.