UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Powered By Google Custom Search Vintage Radio and TV Service Data

Go Back   UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum > General Vintage Technology > General Vintage Technology Discussions

Notices

General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc.

Closed Thread
 
Thread Tools
Old 20th Jul 2021, 10:01 pm   #1
Wendymott
Octode
 
Wendymott's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 1,782
Default The Mullard Story

Hi peeps..... maybe I am late to the party...... I usually am...but just seen the Mullard Story on U Tube..... it was a link from Watford Valve web site.

I wonder how many of the thousands of people that worked at Blackburn and other sites, are gainfully employed in valve making... I guess "0". It is testament to the ingenuity of the engineers that made all that mechanical hardware.......... where is it now ?? probably melted down to make cars.
I will not post the link .. but if you go to the Watford valve co website its easily found.
Sad isnt it.... all those skills .. lost.
__________________
Should get out more.

Regards
Wendy G8BZY
Wendymott is offline  
Old 20th Jul 2021, 10:34 pm   #2
GrimJosef
Dekatron
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Oxfordshire, UK.
Posts: 4,310
Default Re: The Mullard Story

I'm not sure where the Mullard equipment went (Philips had connections in eastern Europe I believe) but machinery from M-OV was eventually sold to China (explains the look of the current Shuguang KT66s) and the new Brimar operation is refurbishing kit right now

https://brimaruk.com/menugbvp/great-...lve-project-2/

Cheers,

GJ
__________________
http://www.ampregen.com
GrimJosef is offline  
Old 21st Jul 2021, 12:15 am   #3
greg_simons
Octode
 
greg_simons's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Evesham, Worcestershire, UK.
Posts: 1,415
Default Re: The Mullard Story

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wendymott View Post
Hi peeps..... maybe I am late to the party...... I usually am...but just seen the Mullard Story on U Tube..... it was a link from Watford Valve web site.

I wonder how many of the thousands of people that worked at Blackburn and other sites, are gainfully employed in valve making... I guess "0". It is testament to the ingenuity of the engineers that made all that mechanical hardware.......... where is it now ?? probably melted down to make cars.
I will not post the link .. but if you go to the Watford valve co website its easily found.
Sad isnt it.... all those skills .. lost.
Blackburn was literally valve town, mullard employed huge numbers there, somewhere I've got my copy of all our working lives that included contributions from some of the workers, people met married had their whole lives around the plant, fascinating stuff.
__________________
Picture, sound?, DOOR.

Last edited by greg_simons; 21st Jul 2021 at 12:16 am. Reason: spelling error
greg_simons is offline  
Old 22nd Jul 2021, 5:10 am   #4
prumpfy
Diode
 
Join Date: Jul 2021
Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Posts: 7
Default Re: The Mullard Story

Loved the film; just amazing to see all the beautiful engineering.
My first job was at Philips Hendon works in Adelaide.
They made most of the valve and CRT components from mostly imported materials.
I especially remember the mica dies and the guys that worked on this tooling. Many of the employees were Dutch refugees from Indonesia after the Dutch got kicked out. I did work on a small problem with the 6DJ8 twin triode that had poor amplification in the Philips turret tuner. The problem was put down to a batch of dodgy cathodes which were imported.
Was nice to see the Austin A30 in the car-park; and the "inspectoress"!!

One question which I would like answered was; "which company built the first cavity magnetron". To me this was 'obviously built in a factory that made transmitter tubes'.
There is a comment here too about BRIMAR. I thought they were part of STC, who made undersea telecommunications cable and high quality undersea repeaters.
I did visit STC in Woolwich in 1971. I guess by now it is all covered in houses. A bit like OZ actually; just buy cheap from China and cover the landscape with dog boxes.

prumpfy
prumpfy is offline  
Old 22nd Jul 2021, 11:29 am   #5
Craig Sawyers
Dekatron
 
Craig Sawyers's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Oxford, UK.
Posts: 4,941
Default Re: The Mullard Story

Quote:
Originally Posted by GrimJosef View Post
I'm not sure where the Mullard equipment went (Philips had connections in eastern Europe I believe) but machinery from M-OV was eventually sold to China (explains the look of the current Shuguang KT66s) and the new Brimar operation is refurbishing kit right now

https://brimaruk.com/menugbvp/great-...lve-project-2/

Cheers,

GJ
They found their Mullard valve machinery unused and unloved in Yugoslavia.

Craig
Craig Sawyers is offline  
Old 22nd Jul 2021, 12:14 pm   #6
chriswood1900
Octode
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Dorridge, West Midlands, UK.
Posts: 1,475
Default Re: The Mullard Story

Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig Sawyers View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by GrimJosef View Post
I'm not sure where the Mullard equipment went (Philips had connections in eastern Europe I believe) but machinery from M-OV was eventually sold to China (explains the look of the current Shuguang KT66s) and the new Brimar operation is refurbishing kit right now

https://brimaruk.com/menugbvp/great-...lve-project-2/

Cheers,

GJ
They found their Mullard valve machinery unused and unloved in Yugoslavia.

Craig
Yes it was used by EI before they went bust and bought by the new Brimar initiative.
I little bit of History here https://www.musicproductionglossary.com/ei-tube/
__________________
Chris Wood
BVWS Member
chriswood1900 is offline  
Old 22nd Jul 2021, 3:27 pm   #7
Wendymott
Octode
 
Wendymott's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 1,782
Default Re: The Mullard Story

Interesting connection with the "former Yugoslavia". I used to visit a TV factory in Slovenia, in Velenje. Ostensibly the factory site had two production areas... Fridges by "Gorenge" and TV's by Elektronica. Tito, the former president of Yugoslavia wanted to be non reliant on the Ruskies, there were lots of factories dotted all over. I guess the valve equipment was part of that.
__________________
Should get out more.

Regards
Wendy G8BZY
Wendymott is offline  
Old 22nd Jul 2021, 3:37 pm   #8
high_vacuum_house
Octode
 
high_vacuum_house's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Belper Derbyshire
Posts: 1,910
Default Re: The Mullard Story

I think the first company to produce the cavity magnetron was GEC labs in Wembley. Mullard were not allowed it as they were linked in with Philips which was a foreign company.

I think GEC set up their valve and tube production line (including magnetrons and radar CRT,s) in an abandoned cotton spinning mill in Yorkshire as it was a much safer area than London

Christopher Capener
__________________
Interests in the collection and restoration of Tefifon players and 405 line television
high_vacuum_house is offline  
Old 22nd Jul 2021, 4:46 pm   #9
snowman_al
Octode
 
snowman_al's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2018
Location: Llandeilo, West Wales, UK.
Posts: 1,092
Default Re: The Mullard Story

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wendymott View Post
Interesting connection with the "former Yugoslavia". I used to visit a TV factory in Slovenia, in Velenje. Ostensibly the factory site had two production areas... Fridges by "Gorenge" and TV's by Elektronica. Tito, the former president of Yugoslavia wanted to be non reliant on the Ruskies, there were lots of factories dotted all over. I guess the valve equipment was part of that.
A little off your original topic, but
There are a couple of YT videos of the Ei Nis factory production
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUSo...el=tubetownnet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxXr...el=tubetownnet

They used both Telefunken and Philips (Mullard) machines for production and
there used to be a German site with internal factory photos of the dilapidation and machines. I cannot find them today?

The factory was still there a couple of years ago and you can drive round the outside on Google Earth here: https://www.google.com/maps/@43.3057...7i13312!8i6656

The Brimar (GBVP) machines did indeed come from the Nis factory, it was discussed over on diyAudio a while back: https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/tube...ml#post5662761

Alan
__________________
Never Leave Well Enough Alone...
snowman_al is offline  
Old 22nd Jul 2021, 4:51 pm   #10
snowman_al
Octode
 
snowman_al's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2018
Location: Llandeilo, West Wales, UK.
Posts: 1,092
Default Re: The Mullard Story

Found an English version of the Nis factory internal photos here: http://www.jacmusic.com/techcorner/A.../EI-index.html
__________________
Never Leave Well Enough Alone...
snowman_al is offline  
Closed Thread

Thread Tools



All times are GMT +1. The time now is 2:03 am.


All information and advice on this forum is subject to the WARNING AND DISCLAIMER located at https://www.vintage-radio.net/rules.html.
Failure to heed this warning may result in death or serious injury to yourself and/or others.


Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Copyright ©2002 - 2023, Paul Stenning.