GRGR(12)NOTES (3)

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

GR.250.26  Dr. Hofmann
LSD (abbreviation OF LYSERGIC ACID DIETHYLAMIDE, also
called LYSERGIDE) In 1943, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann
accidentally ingested a synthetic preparation of
lysergic acid diethylamide and experienced its
psychedelic effects. Weisenburger notes that LSD is linked
in GR with the North, the color White (death), IG Farben.


GR.250.34 Shell Oil and Icy Eye (ICI)
Royal Dutch/Shell Group

Dutch KONINKLIJKE NEDERLANDSCHE/shell Groep,
one of the world's largest corporate entities in
sales, consisting of companies in more than 100
countries The two parent companies began as rival
organizations in the late 19th century. In 1878 in
London, Marcus Samuel (1853-1927) took over his
father's import-export business (which included the
import of Oriental shells--hence the later name) and
started a sideline of handling consignments of
kerosene. In 1892 he began operating tankers
sailing to the Far East and set up oil depots and
eventually (1896) oil wells and refineries in
Borneo. Meanwhile, in 1890 a group of Dutch bankers,
businessmen, and former colonial administrators
formed Koninklijke Nederlandsche Maatschappij
tot Exploitatie van Petroleumbronnen in
Nederlandsch-Indië (Royal Dutch Company for
Exploitation of Oil Wells in the Dutch Indies). The Group's
principal American
subsidiary is Shell Oil Company, founded in 1922.

ICI is a major British corporation that was founded in 1926
as Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd. to amalgamate
four major British chemical companies: Brunner,
Mond & Co. Ltd., Nobel Industries Ltd., United
Alkali Company Ltd., and British Dyestuffs
Corporation Ltd. Between World Wars I and II, ICI
was a major competitor of Germany's IG Farben,
the cartel formed in 1925 (and dissolved by the
Allies after World War II). By the late 1970s, ICI
ranked below all three successors to IG Farben
(Hoechst, BASF, and Bayer corporations) in terms
of sales but was still the largest chemical concern
in the United Kingdom. ICI's headquarters are in
London.  ICI's constituent companies in 1926 produced
chemicals, dyes, explosives, fertilizers, fibres,
nonferrous metals, and paints, and the group went
on to produce a wider range of chemicals, paints,
pharmaceuticals, synthetic fibres (especially
polyesters and nylon), and plastics. In 1993 ICI
split off its drug, pesticide, and specialty chemical
concerns into a new corporation named Zeneca
Group PLC. The parent company continued to
produce industrial polymers and other chemicals,
paints, and explosives. 

GR.250.41  address in the Schokoladestrasse
Address of Psychochemie AG. "Sweet ace, very sweet."

GR.251.1 Zoot
the zoot suit--a wide-shouldered jacket with
high-waisted pants, often offset by a long-chained
watch--favoured by fops of the 1940s

GR. 251.10-12 Duncan Sandy, Churchill, Ministry of Supply,
Shell Mex House
The son of a member of Parliament, Sandys was
first elected to Parliament as a Conservative in
1935. He became a close ally of his father-in-law,
Winston Churchill, and a leading advocate of
military preparedness. During World War II
Sandys became expert on antiaircraft warfare; as
chairman of the War Cabinet Committee for defense
against the blitz of German bombs on southern
England (1943-45), he began the successful policy
of sustained bombardment of German rocket bases.
In November 1944 Churchill, then prime minister,
appointed him minister of works. But Sandys lost
his parliamentary seat in the 1945 election. The Ministry of
Supply, 
supervised Britain's development of the atomic
bomb. Mrs. Quoad has a graft at the Ministry of Supply
(GR.116). Prewar jellies is all, or is it?

The Shell Mex House is an office building on the Embankment,
near Waterloo Bridge.
For centuries the riverside district was dominated
by industrial concerns and warehouses, but the
aerial bombings that targeted London in World War
II ruined the area. The Shell center is the current name of
an office complex there?

GR.251.16 Slothrop's little Sten
in full STEN SUBMACHINE GUN, 9-millimetre
submachine gun that became the standard such
weapon in the British Commonwealth armed forces
during World War II. Moreover, hundreds of
thousands of Sten guns were provided to
underground movements everywhere in Europe
during that war. The gun was so ubiquitous that its
name became all but a generic term for submachine
gun. The Sten gun remained in service until the late
1950s. 

The most common version of the Sten gun was 30
inches (76.2 cm) long with a barrel of 7.5 inches
(19 cm). It fired at a rate of 550 rounds per minute,
and it had a 32-round box magazine that, however,
tended to jam if more than 30 rounds were loaded.
The butt was a steel frame that, with the barrel,
could be removed without difficulty so that the
disassembled weapon could be easily hidden. Its
weight was just over six pounds (2.7 kg) unloaded.