The History of MSE Laboratory Centrifuges

The Birth of MSE

Dr. Ernest Foulkes

MSE (Measuring and Scientific Equipment) was first formed in 1936 by Dr Ernest Foulkes who was born in 1902 in Frankfurt, Germany. In 1929, Dr Foulkes obtained a doctorate in engineering at the Technische Hochschule in Berlin. This education was to form the basis of MSE, which he would set up just seven years later.

Due to the resurgence of Nazism in Germany, Dr Foulkes left his home country in 1933 for Spain. However, he found that the Spanish political climate was becoming too similar to that of Germany and so in 1936 he emigrated to the UK.

In 1936, shortly after his arrival in the UK, Dr Foulkes founded MSE with a capital of just £500. At the time, MSE was not a manufacturer of laboratory equipment, but instead specialised in the importation of machine tools into the UK.

The Outbreak of War

At the start of World War Two, the UK Ministry of Supply appointed MSE as lease lend agents for American machine tools. The company was also required to provide servicing facilities and established a small workshop in the heart of Westminster, employing and training about a dozen high precision engineers who later became the nucleus of the MSE production unit.

After the war, the newly formed National Health Service requested MSE to develop a range of hospital microtomes. At the same time the Atomic Energy Authority approached MSE to make centrifuges to replace instruments that up until then were only available as imports from the USA. It was from this point that MSE moved away from importing machine tools and instead focused on the manufacture of specialised laboratory equipment, particularly centrifuges. MSE's name was adjusted to reflect this change and the company was renamed Measuring and Scientific Equipment.

The First Production of Centrifuges

The MSE 'Mushroom' centrifuge

Like today, the first centrifuges were developed for research purposes and proved very popular in hospitals and research departments of universities.

The Minor, or 'the Mushroom' as it was affectionately called, was the first centrifuge manufactured by MSE. Production began in the early 1950s and the model became a huge success. The MSE Minor played an important role in scientific research and was even used by Sir Alexander Fleming in his work which led to the discovery of penicillin.

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