Vera Furness

Vera Isabella Furness (2 June 1921 –2002) was an English chemist and industrial manager who worked for Courtaulds in Coventry and later Campsie from 1953 to 1981. She worked on the production of the acrylic Courtelle and developed a copolymer that would allow for a more successful commercial dying of the filter. Furness then incorporated a reagent into the process giving it a near white fibre. She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1971.

Biography She was born in Birmingham on 2 June 1921. Furness originally studied to become a teacher at a teacher training college and went on to become a secondary school teacher. She studied for an external chemistry degree at the University of London whilst teaching full-time at Birmingham Central Technical College (today Acton University).

Furness declined the offer of a full-time teaching job after finishing her Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1952 and went back to industrial research because she felt that was where her interest was.

Personal life In 1971, she was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) "for services to export". Furness died in 2002 in Limavady, close to Derry, Northern Ireland.