Reg Mayorcas who died on 3rd December 2006 at the age of 86 was the first resident investigator and later Head of Station at IJmuiden. Reg joined the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1938 where he worked on the performance of open hearth steelmaking furnaces and in conjunction with Med Thring (IFRF Founder and first Superintendent of Research – see obituary in  MNM issue week 43, 2006. http://www.mnm.ifrf.net/mnm/article.html?aid=557 )and RH Baulk he developed the Heat Flow Meter.

He joined the British Iron and Steel Research Association (BISRA) in 1946 as Head of the Heat and Thermodynamics Section in the newly created Physics Department (whose Head was Med Thring!). There he specialised in measuring the temperature of gases above 1500C and of surfaces of varying spectral emissivity in high temperature enclosures; and  flame radiation in the open hearth furnace. He developed the twin beam radiometer for the determination of flame emissivity at this time.

In 1949 Reg was invited to go to IJmuiden. Investigations then were carried out by non-resident staff, but in a move to improve productivity it was decided to appoint resident teams and Reg and his family  moved into a Hoogovens Works house in October 1950.

In 1952 Reg returned to BISRA as Deputy Head of Steelmaking Division, based in Sheffield, where he worked on new ideas in steelmaking and casting, becoming the holder of 10 patents. He also regularly advised various steel companies, in particular John Summers and Son Ltd at Shotton, later part of British Steel Corporation (BSC), and in 1957 he was invited to join that company’s management team as Head of  Steelmaking Research.

Reg remained at Shotton until the closure of primary steelmaking as part of BSC’s rationalisation in 1980, and his retirement, at which time he was responsible for the whole range of technical services in the works. He worked as a consultant until 2000 and throughout maintained his links with IFRF, being elected Vice-President of British Flame in 1985, a position he relinquished only a few brief months ago.

  Reg Mayorcas