The problem of speeding up production is one of the oldest in radiology. Even in the early days, the days of glass plates, there was a constant stream of enquiries from the casualty department and wards for urgent reports and for wet plates to be sent up. Fortunately, glass plates were replaced by films before the overwhelming expansion in numbers that, using plates, would have made conditions absolutely unworkable. But even with relatively small numbers there were difficulties, and many expedients were resorted to speed up the work. Development was, of course, in trays, one at a time, and much ingenuity was expended in making mechanical rockers that would take several dishes at once. The hypo dish attained vast proportions. These problems disappeared with the introduction of time development in tanks. The washing of plates was difficult—hospitals thought twice and even rebelled if the radiologist asked for a big lead tank for the purpose. Most of us, however, made the discovery that the secret of washing was satisfactorily solved by a sparge pipe, a pipe with many holes, across the top of the wide, shallow lead-lined tanks that were provided in most dark rooms. The water streamed off an inclined piece of wood on to the plates which were laid flat, in contact end to end, so that the water flowed down over them.