The 600 or so subscribing members formed Industry Committees representing each of the main metal interests which discussed and agreed the topics for technical work to be done and a Council that controlled overall finances.
These included three parallel four-story blocks of laboratories and offices with the basements being used for the heaviest equipment and for storage of samples.
The laboratories were an excellent training ground both for assistants who studied for their qualifications part-time and for recent graduates from universities.
From the late 1930s to the 1960s through the war and then post-war recovery the Director was Mr G. L. Bailey with Miss E. M. (Helen) Hills as his secretary.
After about two years the commercial confidentiality was dropped and a paper was presented at a meeting of the Institute of Metals or other organisation and subsequently published in their Journal.
There has been much publicity about Melita Norwood (née Sirnis) who joined the BNF in 1932 as a clerk, was eventually promoted to secretary and retired 1972.
[1] This information was made use of by them and did occasionally result in one of their research organisations publishing development work on non-ferrous metals similar to and sooner than the BNF in Britain.