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General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc. |
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3rd Nov 2017, 8:36 pm | #1 |
Heptode
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Ellesmere, Shropshire, UK & Co. Cork, Ireland.
Posts: 501
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Location of the KB factory in Footscray?
Hi All,
By a coincidence I will be staying in a hotel close to Footscray over the weekend and I would like to know where the KB factory once stood. Can anyone point out where it is?
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Dom Less snakes...more ladders! Last edited by sexton_mallard; 3rd Nov 2017 at 8:42 pm. |
3rd Nov 2017, 9:45 pm | #2 |
Heptode
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Durham, County Durham, UK.
Posts: 826
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Re: Location of the KB factory in Footscray?
Likewise I’m fascinated by the manufacturer history and their locations.
I’m sure Mike will be along to tell us but I assume the original silk mill has long gone and became a Fujitsu call centre on the same site. https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Kolster-Brandes CRAY HOUSE, 3, MAIDSTONE ROAD, FOOTSCRAY John |
4th Nov 2017, 12:33 am | #3 |
Octode
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: Ventnor, Isle of Wight, & Great Dunmow, Essex, UK.
Posts: 1,377
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Re: Location of the KB factory in Footscray?
I well remember 'Hand wired in Footscray' from when I was a spotty youth! I think because it was such a strange word and I had no idea what it meant. It was years later when I discovered it was a place in Kent!! I was an avid collector of any TV that was being disposed of and had several 625 only 24" (I think) KB's. I always referred to them as 'sloping back' KB's and remember they always gave excellent pictures.
Cheers Nick |
4th Nov 2017, 12:58 am | #4 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 9,642
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Re: Location of the KB factory in Footscray?
From the Radio Factories thread: https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...2&postcount=57
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4th Nov 2017, 11:31 am | #5 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Charmouth, Dorset, UK.
Posts: 3,601
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Re: Location of the KB factory in Footscray?
I went there on many occasions as we were KB agents and I used to take sets there for under guarantee work in the '50s. It was also the home of the Brimar valve factory and I was fascinated by the delivery of liquid oxygen? to the plant, there was 'snow' falling off the delivery pipe from the tanker.
Unfortunately due to the passing of time (and memory) I don't remember exactly where it was, only that it was near Crittals Corner at Sidcup. Peter |
4th Nov 2017, 12:21 pm | #6 |
Tetrode
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: London, UK.
Posts: 70
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Re: Location of the KB factory in Footscray?
I lived nearish, in St. Mary's Cray, in the late 1950s. I remember being taken by my mother to visit a friend of hers, who was making toaster elements at home - winding the resistance wire (flat tape) on tho the mica frames. She was making them for KB.
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4th Nov 2017, 2:58 pm | #7 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK.
Posts: 5,337
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Re: Location of the KB factory in Footscray?
I would think it more likely that toaster elements would have been made for Morphy Richards, who used to have a factory in St. Mary Cray. It was later occupied by the Patent Office's publications section, which I visited on a works visit in the late 1970's. We were told that it used to be a Morphy Richards factory, and that the Patent Office had needed a building with industrial-strength floors to take the weight of the huge amounts of paper stored and printed there.
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5th Nov 2017, 8:57 am | #8 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Charmouth, Dorset, UK.
Posts: 3,601
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Re: Location of the KB factory in Footscray?
I thought the same, Morphy Richards was not that far from KB, nearer to where we lived in Petts Wood in fact. I did many trips down there too.
Peter |
5th Nov 2017, 9:27 am | #9 |
Tetrode
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: London, UK.
Posts: 70
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Re: Location of the KB factory in Footscray?
Thank you, emeritus, and Peter N. I would have been five at the time, and may well have got Morphy Richards and KB confused.
Certainly seeing the elements being made, and looking at a working toaster caught my attention, even at that age. Wonder if that's when it all started ......... |
5th Nov 2017, 9:45 am | #10 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Cornwall, UK.
Posts: 13,454
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Re: Location of the KB factory in Footscray?
KB might have made heaters.
Lawrence. |