What do crystal structures have in common with textiles and patterns? Many of us may be tempted to answer this question with a single word – nothing. Yet, by going back in time to 1951 and to the Festival of Britain, you may discover an interesting connection between textiles and the work of Helen Dick Megaw. The Irish crystallographer developed indeed patterns derived from images of crystal structures that were then incorporated in industrial products.
Born in 1907 in Dublin, Helen Dick Megaw studied in Dublin, Belfast and Cambridge. In 1915, the invention of X-ray crystallography allowed scientists to study the structures of atoms in molecules and crystals at a sub-microscopic level.
Megaw was fascinated by the architecture of crystals and, after graduating in 1930, she became a research student in crystallography under J. D. Bernal.
Her first speciality was the structure of ice: Megaw Island in the Antarctic was later on named in her honour.
She was awarded a PhD in 1934, followed by a Hertha Ayrton research scholarship and, in 1935, Megaw co-published with Bernal an influential method for fixing the position of hydrogen atoms (the Bernal-Megaw model).
After teaching for several years, in 1943 Megaw became an industrial crystallogropher with Philips Lamps where she worked out the crystal structure of an important industrial material, barium titanate, used in capacitors, pressure sensitive devices and other electrical and optical applications.
This material, which crystallises in the so-called perovskite structure (a perovskite is any material with the same type of crystal structure as calcium titanium oxide (CaTiO3), known as the perovskite structure, or XIIA2+VIB4+X2−3 , with the oxygen in the face centers), belongs to the class of materials known as ferroelectrics, originally discovered around 1935.
Its structure is of such significance that Megaw's name became associated with it and with perovskite structures in general. Megawite (CaSnO3), a perovskite-group mineral, is indeed named after her. 
In 1945 Megaw returned to working with Bernal at Birkbeck College in London, before taking a post at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge.
Impressed by the beauty of crystal structures, Megaw started thinking about how to introduce patterns made available by X-ray crystallography to designers.
In 1949 Megaw had a conversation with Mark Hartland Thomas, Chief Industrial Officer from the Council of Industrial, and was appointed scientific consultant for the Festival Pattern Group of the Festival of Britain in 1951.
The event was organised to promote the British manufacturing industry and innovations after World War II, bringing back optimism and faith in the future.
The project consisted in gathering the crystallographic images and crystal structure diamonds Megaw researched and passing them onto industrial designers who used them as the basis for decoration in the textiles and products displayed at the Festival.
The project involved 28 manufacturers (11 from the textile industry) who selected the crystal structure diagrams that suited them most. Among the others they opted for the structure of kaoliny, beryl, apophyllite, haemoglobin and insulin, all supplied by Megaw and other scientists.
Even though the project was strictly non-academic, scientific accuracy was an essential priority and Megaw and Thomas provided the manufacturers with feedback.
Mainly displayed at the Regatta Restaurant in the South Bank, the works of the Festival Pattern Group included a variety of patterned wallpapers, carpets, curtains, lace, dress fabrics and plates based on crystal structures. Colour choices varied and went from muted to more daring, but, as stated above, the main focus remained scientific accuracy.
Though some critics didn't like the idea, others found it fascinating: The Times, for example, highlighted that it was exciting to see something as destructive as a bomb applied to a design object.
After this project Megaw continued her researches: she published the volume Ferroelectricity in Crystals in 1957, and studied the crystal structure of feldspars, the materials that make up most of the earth's and moon's surface. She retired in 1972 and published a second book, Crystal Structures: a Working Approach, in 1973. Megaw died in 2002.
Megaw proved that there can be a strong connection between design and science and that professionals from both fields can influence each other.
Through her work she also reshifted the attention on female scientists: women excelled in X-ray crystallography and Helen Megaw is often remembered together with Dorothy Crowfoot (later Hodgkin), who became the third woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry (and the only British woman ever to win a science Nobel Prize).
It would be intriguing to see a new project combining science and design/textiles in our days, maybe a more daring one as well (while there was an appetite for patterns based on atoms, only a few of the Festival Pattern Group designs were mass-produced, and even fewer were commercially successful), considering that now such a collaboration may be perceived in a different way. When it was first organised and while it was developed, the project was indeed kept secret mainly to protect the scientists' reputations as it may have been damaging for their careers if a scientist were associated to a design project.
Those who want to rediscover the textiles can do so at "The Art of Innovation: From Enlightenment to Dark Matter" exhibition (until 26th January 2020) at London's Science Museum. The event looks at the interaction between scientific progress and social change and features a few samples created by The Festival Pattern Group.
Image credits for this post
3.
Sample of jacquard-woven blue linen furnishing fabric with Hydrargillite 8.33 pattern, designed for the 1951 Festival of Britain.
Made: 1951, Randalstown
Maker: Old Bleach Linen Company
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
4.
Sample of roller-printed viscose rayon marocain dress fabric, navy blue and white, based on crystallography by Max Perutz (1914-2002), a British biochemist, haemoglobin 8.26, designed for the 1951 Festival of Britain.
Made: 1950-1951, Manchester
Maker: Barlow and Jones Limited
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
5.
Sample of jacquard-woven tie silk, red, black and gold (yellow), based on Max Perutz's crystallography, haemoglobin 8.26, designed for the 1951 Festival of Britain.
Made: 1950-1951 in Sudbury
Designer: George Reynolds
Maker: Vanners Silk Weavers
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
6, 7 and 8.
Sample of navy, silver and red tie silk in perovskite pattern, designed for the 1951 Festival of Britain.
Made: 1951, Sudbury
Maker: Vanners Silk Weavers
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
9.
Large hand-screen printed wallpaper sample in shades of green, Afwillite 8.45 pattern, designed for the 1951 Festival of Britain. This wallpaper appeared in the Regatta Restaurant. It was designed by William J Odell and printed by John Line and Sons and based on the mineral afwillite. Helen Megaw, who determined its atomic structure, supplied Odell with a contour map of the mineral's inner atoms. The 'peaks' with six or seven contours show calcium atoms, those with five contours show silicon, and the others show hydroxyl and water.
Made: 1951, Southall
Designer: William J Odell
Maker: John Line and Sons Limited
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
10.
Design on card used for Boric Acid 8.34 wallpaper, designed for the 1951 Festival of Britain.
Made: 1951, London
Designer: William J Odell
Maker: P Jones
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
11.
Two samples of dress fabric ('Fibre') FPG 33, screen printed silk or fine filament acetate rayon crepe, design based on a Fourier contour map of Afwillite, in brown and gold and brown and silver colourways, designed for the 1951 Festival of Britain.
Made: 1951, London
Maker: Arnold Lever
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
12.
Sample of green furnishing Jacquard-woven linen fabric based on Hydrargillite 8.33, designed for the 1951 Festival of Britain.
Made: 1951, Randalstown
Maker: Old Bleach Linen Company
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
13 and 14.
Sample of jacquard-woven warp tapestry, made from wool, cotton and continuous filament rayon, afwillite 8.44, designed for the 1951 Festival of Britain
Made: 1951, Braintree
Maker: Marianne Straub and Warner and Sons
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum