Murray on the run? Surely not

As usual I enjoyed Iain Murray’s closing piece “The latest fashion: letting the trainers take the stain” (MW April 26). But, as the chief anorak of an organisation whose existence Murray little suspected, I have to take him to task on the use of the word “galvanised”. Did Dunlop really say “created by a galvanised rubber manufacturing process” or did they instead use the word “vulcanised”?

The answer is important for a little-known corner of UK industry where good-natured artisans are, even now, poised with bated breath waiting to find out if, instead of dipping pieces of steel in molten zinc, they should be dunking Dunlops in dirt and rubber.

Keep up the good work!

David Baron

General manager

Galvanizers Association

Sutton Coldfield

West Midlands

My information came not from Dunlop but a newspaper report which definitely used the word “galvanise”. Vulcanise certainly sounds more accurate. Perhaps, though, galvanise was being employed in its alternative meaning, ie “rouse by shock or excitement”, which is how any respectable pair of trainers might feel under the circumstances. – Iain Murray