Catalogue description Ministry of Supply: Tropical Testing Establishment, Nigeria: Reports and Memoranda

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Details of AVIA 45
Reference: AVIA 45
Title: Ministry of Supply: Tropical Testing Establishment, Nigeria: Reports and Memoranda
Description:

Reports and memoranda on the susceptibility of equipment and materials to deterioration under tropical conditions, and quarterly reports on the work of the Tropical Testing Establishment from 1948 to 1958.
Date: 1945-1968
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Tropical Testing Establishment, Nigeria, 1944-1958
Physical description: 816 file(s)
Access conditions: Subject to 30 year closure
Immediate source of acquisition:

From 1977 Ministry of Defence
Custodial history: The reports in this series do not constitute a complete consecutive run; they are however all that were received from Tropical Testing Establishment upon its closure
Accruals: Series is accruing
Administrative / biographical background:

In August 1944 a combined War Office/Ministry of Supply mission visited West Africa to explore facilities for storage and exposure tests on service equipment for use in the tropics. As a result, the West African Tropical Testing Establishment (W.A.T.T.E.) was established in Nigeria, with its headquarters at Lagos and main testing area at Port Harcourt. A similar unit, specialising in the testing of signals and radar equipment (S.R.T.T.E.) and administered by the Ministry of Supply was already in existence in Nigeria, and in April 1946 the two establishments were merged into a single organisation, the Tropical Testing Establishment, administered by the joint Ministry of Supply and Aircraft Production. It continued the work of testing a wide range of service equipment and packing until it closed in September 1958. Residual reports on outstanding matters were subsequently issued by the Ministry of Supply and Ministry of Aviation up until 1961.

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