We all know things have been pretty bad lately. The global economy tanked big time back in 2008 and has struggled to get a grip on things ever since. The high streets are hurting, retailers are closing down, and companies all over the place are in trouble.
Thirty years can suddenly seem a long time. Back in 1983, for instance, I was not even a father, let alone a grandfather. And some of HCB’s coverage of the emergency response sector seems positively antique.
Back in the mid-1990s, British Telecom, the UK’s telephone company (and, for younger readers, in those days there was only one) ran a very successful advertising campaign with the slogan: ‘It’s good to talk’.
Writing from the extremely chilly viewpoint of spring 2013 in London, it is some slight comfort that the April 1983 edition of HCB dealt in large part with matters cryogenic, or at least refrigerated.
There are those, apparently, who are sceptical about the claims made for shale oil and gas and the impact these new energy streams are going to make on the global energy scene.
Was the March issue always a storage terminal number? It was in 1983, but where now are those optimistic operators listed as investing in new capacity?
The February 1983 issue of HCB concerned itself largely with packaging issue. The timing was significant, since the UN Committee of Experts had two months earlier approved a major change in the provisions for package design
It is traditional at this time of year to use editorial space such as this page to look ahead to what we might be able to expect for the rest of the year. Traditional, but dull. And probably a waste of space.
Beginning our fourth year of publication, thirty years ago this month, HCB had at least begun using colour pictures on the front cover, and even here and there within the pages.
