A TOTAL of 28 members gathered at Downes Crediton Golf Club on a sunny July day, where Richard Adams took a presidential role in the continued absence of Burford Cupper.

Jack Fey gave grace before we settled down to our meal.

David Sylvester gave the quote before Richard Adams relayed news of sick members (which was largely positive); Ted and Burford were both making steady progress after their major operations.

Russ Ballard reminded us of our summer outing, a tour of Sandford Orchards cider making factory on July 21, followed by a meal.

Gerald Hill was then invited to introduce our speaker, Tim Harrod.

Tim told us that his working life had been spent as a soil scientist, principally in the Dartmoor area and it was whilst investigating in the Fingle Bridge area, that he came across a plaque (originally attached to a tree) that had placed there by admirers and supporters of Dr Sigfried Marian "in memory of his pioneer discoveries in soil science".

As a fellow soil scientist, Tim decided to do a little research into Dr Marian and discovered that he had been born near Vienna in 1898, had served in the artillery in the Great War and in subsequent years had obtained a doctorate in soil science at the Technical University of Vienna.

After the Anschluss in 1938, when Nazi Germany had absorbed Austria, Marian fled to Britain as he was Jewish.

Carbon was an essential constituent of all manner of products and in 1940 almost all supplies had dried up, the price of carbon reaching £140 per ton by the end of that year.

Tim discovered from an archive in Dartington Hall that, anticipating the shortage of supplies of carbon, Marian had instigated the coppicing of trees in the Fingle Bridge area in 1940 and had established a series of kilns throughout the nearby woods; the company that he had set up was contracted to produce 1,000 tons of carbon annually to the British government.

The Dartington Hall archive had come up with the address of a Devonian who was living in Colorado.

Tim tried to establish contact with him and received a reply from his son who subsequently emailed to him copies of a publication, the "Soil Magazine", that had been established by Marian after the Second World War and which only folded in 1954, after his death.

The magazine gave a fairly detailed biography of Marian together with several photos.

After the war, Marian became incredibly antagonistic towards the agricultural and chemical industries, turning into something like a modern day "green".

He set up a series of companies producing what he deemed to be "pure" products; these were mostly charcoal-based and began with the collection and processing of leaf litter in the upper Teign Valley after the national need for carbon supplies had passed (in 1945).

In an aside, Tim mentioned that Dartmoor peat, which was almost pure carbon, had been dug from the edge of the moor, close to Fingle Bridge in medieval times and had been transported to Cornwall for use in the smelting of the purest form of tin.

Tim had shown details of Marian, his theories and products to a number of research chemists and biologists.

Most of their comments were very skeptical indeed as to their worth.

He had antagonised people throughout his lifetime and remained a controversial character after his death in 1952.

David Dornom thanked Tim for his fascinating talk.

The draw was won by John Pike and Richard closed the meeting with the usual toast, "To the next time!"

KB