<br >Preface<br >The plan of this book is to narrate the most significant events in<br >the history of Ethyl Corporation and to describe those individu-<br >als who were central in its development. The emphasis is on<br >people. Although the purpose is to tell of decisive circumstances，<br >the following narrative makes no claim to being a complete his-<br >tory. To retain a manageable length， the author was forced to be<br >highly selective in presenting both facts and people. It has been<br >especially painful to abbreviate biographical facts extracted in in-<br >terviews with many personable characters who contributed to<br >corporate success. And the author does not expect all readers to<br >agree with hi~ choice of material to be included.<br > Furthermo~， the author is well aware of that entrapment which<br >may be entitl~ "the accident of evidence，" for surely any histo-<br >rian in using what is at hand--as indeed he must--is tempted<br >to identify the available as the important. And this equation is<br >not always true. Thus<br >acknowledges that he<br >in reporting what he<br >leaves many heroes<br >has found， the author<br >unsung because they<br >have been recorded only fractionally or not at all.<br > This has been a cooperative venture; so numerous have been<br >the people assisting that the book might well be defined as a joint<br >enterprise. Choice bits of the narrative are drawn from the rec-<br >ollections of persons associated with Albemarle Paper Manufac-<br >turing Gompany and with Ethyl Corporation years ago. After<br >checking memories against records of the times， the author has<br >developed a new respect for the validity of mankind s ability to<br >recall past events. As noted in the essay on sources， which fol-<br >lows the text， large segments of the narrative may be classified as<br >"oral history." There were over 12 5 taped interviews that recorded<br >the recollections of approximately 9~ people， and there were nu-<br >merous brief conversations and inquiries resulting in many doz-<br >ens of memorandums. The narrative has especially benefited from<br >the reminiscences of the late F. D. Gottwald as given in 27 taped<br >interviews and a number of brief question-and-answer sessions.<br ><br >