Martin Plimmer salutes the Swarfega inventor, Audley Bowdler Williamson, who died 20 years ago
What do women seek most in a lover? Often they say it’s a man with a good sense of humour, or a sincere heart. They rarely mention the most vital attribute of all: clean hands.That’s because nowadays we take clean hands for granted. Most women probably don’t give the topic much thought. Yet it doesn’t take much imagination to see how fundamental clean hands are to dating success. A woman might, once in a while, on a dull night, at a party where there is very little talent, tolerate a dance with a humourless or insincere man, she will never, ever, agree to dance with a man whose hands are covered in tar. Tar-covered hands are not an issue in the dance halls of today because of the work of one man, Audley Bowdler Williamson (1916-2004). As a young chemist, AB, as he liked to be known, invented a green...
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