H K Wentworth

The company was formed in 1941 by Henry Kingsbury whose background was in the electronics field. The original company, Kingsbury Components, manufactured on/off volume controls under licence. Some of the switches that Henry Kingsbury manufactured proved to be open circuit. He found that an invention of his, a specially formulated oil which had the ability to lubricate electrical contact or moving surfaces, not only cured the problem but also extended the lifetime of the contacts. From this was born a range of lubricants which were, in turn, developed into greases. Through this grew the range of products available today which are designed to service the electronics industry, covering the fields of lubrication, cleaning, conformal coatings and photoresists plus other areas such as anti-static flooring, surface mount products, application machinery and de-soldering aids. Henry's wife, Lady Patricia, joined the company in the mid-1950s. Her role was to run the financial side of the company. AF International, another branch of the company, was formed in 1963. Originally, it supplied fire-proof safes for storage of data tapes. In 1967 AF became the channel for selling two aerosol products: AF Spray and Ultraclene.