LIRI - ORIGINS AND END

LIRI was formed in 1941 as a research institute of Rhodes University College, and it was established as a stand-alone institute that was responsible for its own administration and finances. The institute was formed under its first Director, Dr Stanley Shuttleworth (who had previously earned the first PhD at Rhodes) (Shuttleworth 1983) (Brown et al. 2004).

In 1947, the institute was reconstituted under a Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) research association scheme as an autonomous, non-profit company, while Rhodes was applying to become a fully-fledged University (granted in 1951).

In 1966, the institute had grown into an internationally recognisable institute that was well supported by the hides and skins suppliers, the wattle extract producers, other chemical companies, and the employers and employees in the national tanneries and footwear companies.

In 1993, the Institute was re-incorporated into the Microbiology, Biochemistry, and Biotechnology department under the leadership of Prof. Peter Rose and Deputy Director Clive Jackson-Moss. The Institute continued to run its administration and budget independently, but the payroll, educational, and buildings/estates were managed by Rhodes University. LIRI ran until 12 January 2000, until the Section 21 company (associations not for gain) accumulated R2 million worth of debt, and a major creditor applied for LIRI’s liquidation.

Function
The Institute served to meet the demands of five key areas in the beginning, which later changed to six under the leadership of David Sweetnam in the late 90s:
1. A leather department
2. A biotechnology department (including bacteriology and hides/skins)
3. An environmental department
4. A leather testing (including physical and chemical testing)
5. A footwear department
6. A leather products and leather crafting department (added later).

The Institute significantly contributed to the progression of international and national leather science with the following notable contributions:
• The elucidation of the structure of Black Wattle tannin (Acacia mearnsii) – including a 230-page book on the chemistry of the tannins (Wattle Tanning and Mimosa Extract);
• The early mechanisms of vegetable and chrome tannage;
• Liripuff, A patented process for applying synthetic resins to a novel range of impregnated fabrics for use in stiffening the toes and heels of footwear;
• Liritan no effluent system, which used wattle extract as a base instead of other tanning materials for the rapid manufacture of sole leather;
• Wattle extract used in the field of timber adhesives;
• Liricure - a patented preservation method for use on hides after animal slaughter which made use of antiseptics (including ethylene-diamine-tetraacetic acid, EDTA);
• The development of a new tanning method for shoe upper leather based on the use of mimosa (wattle) and aluminium;
• In collaboration with the Water Research Commission, practical methods for tannery solid waste and wastewater management were developed.
The Institute was often referred to with very high esteem and was visited by international researchers.

Funding
The funding regime of LIRI changed over time. It was seeded using money that had been granted or guaranteed to it by four sources:
1. The wattle industry
2. The footwear industry
3. The tanning industry
4. The hides and skins industry

It was through these funding streams (representatives of which sat on the LIRI Board of Control) that the initial capital was realised. Rhodes University College invested in the building infrastructural and land acquisitions.

Maintenance of the LIRI finances for the first 50 years was delicately balanced between government stipends and an injection of a considerable sum when the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research was created. LIRI was the first Research Institute placed under this umbrella. A strong case was made to move LIRI from annual grants to five-year grants so that longer term planning was possible.

The LIRI membership was a great source of income for the institute with considerable monthly revenues coming from the tanneries and footwear companies. At one point, there were 250 members which helped provide a substantial source of maintenance budget. The membership gained great benefits with over 1,500 LIRI Research Bulletins being distributed to the membership. The tanners and footwear companies sent students who enrolled on three-year courses that included a block release (one week residential).

Other courses were varied and revolved around diverse topics that affected the industry. One of the first books published was the definitive text on Personnel Management that maintained its position as the seminal text for well over fifty years.

The Institute consulted widely, and its first remit was trouble shooting and testing issues in the tanning industry. These two functions continued throughout its nearly 60 years of existence.

In the 1950s and 1960s the Institute spun off a company called LIRI Components which handled the exploitation of the footwear intellectual property, particularly the Liripuff toe stiffening system.

Other cash injections from research grants occurred particularly when the Water Research Commission and LIRI teamed up to help tanneries comply with the increasingly stringent water standards that were gazetted in 1961.

No function of LIRI would have been possible without the hours of free time given to the institute by tanners, experts, academics, industrialists, volunteers; not to mention the free equipment, chemicals, and raw materials that were donated to the institute. These gratuities would not have been given to an institute that was not supported as highly by the industries it collaborated with or if it did not have the reputation that it held.

Strengths
LIRI created the following assets that the SA leather industry benefitted from: a substantial international reputation, a student alumnus with a substantial international impact, researchers who provided high class content with local context, and numerous publications of LIRI research bulletins (a valuable, relevant resource for the industry).

LIRI also ran several block release courses that were very well regarded and valued in the industry, in addition to their Diploma programme. The weak currency exchange rate, particularly in the late 1990s, made it a viable international study destination as a cost-effective place of study.

Weaknesses
LIRI did have several weaknesses: it had a very high non-earner to earner ratio, and in the latter years was no longer sufficiently aligned with the government to benefit from support grants. The industry membership fees and other financial support were not sufficient to enable the level of research to be maintained, and LIRI may have had to consult the entire industry more.

LIRI had many infrastructural weaknesses: their footwear testing was a main focus but it tended to be delivered using older equipment that could not be used for automotive leathers. The equipment in the tannery was often donated, and thus was old and out of date as soon as it had been installed. LIRI did not have the capital to reinvest in their laboratory or tannery equipment.

LIRI had good links with Rhodes University, but over time the academics drifted apart and collaborations were lost. The administration and intermingling of LIRI and Rhodes staff and students were kept separate. The environmental division of LIRI grew rapidly over the course of its history, but at the end failed through a lack of influence at municipal and government level.

Whilst LIRI over the course of time, boasted many great icons, at the end it had failed to succession plan its world-class researchers, and only carried national gravitas, which was not going to attract international funding or research fellows.

Opportunities and threats
The opportunities were always to serve an industry that had the potential to grow. With innovative product and service design – LIRI could have led the industry rather than waited for the industry to come to it. The new LRI as proposed by the dti would have been ideally suited to take up this opportunity within the context of a modern SA, with policies designed to maximise revenue from high value product manufacture.

The international research centres would generally attract the big European and international funding streams. International students wanted to go to the two big names: Nene College (then ICLT, now defunct) and Lederinsitut Gerberschule (LGR – now defunct) – they would have aspired to have the highest value of qualification.

Many of the research functions that LGR carried are now being done by the Central LRI (CLRI) and by Chinese Universities and LIRI would have struggled to compete with the Eastern organisations, or adapted to the needs of a changing and evolving SA industry.

In the next issue: In the next issue the magazine will turn its attention to polymers that can form bio-emulsions. Many of the biopolymers that are currently available for coatings or for plastic making are plastics that need to be melted to form a coating or an object. For leather making, the polymers used are water soluble polymers or emulsions that are soluble in water and co-solvents. Can biodegradable biopolymers come in emulsion form?