To qualify to ring the Calder bell, our 40-year tradition states the order must be significant (due to inflation this now means a single order of > £1M)
Today, Jock rings the bell yet again to signal the receipt of a large order that the Calder team has been working on for some time.
This brass bell hanging proudly in our reception area has a history. It was presented to our founder, Ian Calder-Potts, by Mr B Kalliampur in 1982. Mr Kalliampur, known to all as Kal, was the technical director of George Clarke & Son in Hull.
Prior to the Falklands crisis, George Clark & Son was a very old, established firm of coppersmiths and brassfounders. They went on to build heat evaporation systems for ships, doing a lot of their work for the Royal Navy. During the preparation for the retaking of the Falkland Islands, George Clark & Son was asked by the Ministry of Defence to come up with a very fast solution to produce potable water from sea water. The solution was the very new technology of reverse osmosis in which Calder played a very significant role by supplying the heart of the system – the high pressure pump.
The beautiful brass bell was a leftover stock item from Clarks’ coppersmith and brass foundry days. Kal presented the bell as a thank you for Calder’s contribution to the highly successful production of a number of reverse osmosis desalination plants which played such an important role in the successful retaking of the Falkland Islands.
Long may the bell toll!
