North East Electronic Company

[oldticktock]

Here's one for the North East boys.....

Just recently purchased a box of NOS Morganite 470R 1W resistors. Looking at the box I noticed they had made their way home to the North East. I wonder where their journey had taken them in the intervening years.

Checked a handful on the meter and they have not gone high, ok not 470R but very close.

Can any of you shed some light on Allen Bradley Electronics.

Chris

[Alan Stepney]

Lots about them at: http://www.rockwellautomation.com/about_us/history.html

[oldticktock]

Thanks for the link Alan, a very long surviving company and a very interesting read.

I wonder if anyone remembers the site at Jarrow? perhaps FERNSEH used them as a supplier? I wonder if it's still there? doubtful I guess.

Edit:

Upon researching Carbon Composition Resistors I found this:

Today they are still being manufactured in Japan, due to their good high-frequency characteristics. But the discontinued resistors from Morganite, Allen Bradley and ITT (1960 models) sound better. Almost all the 1/2 watt as well as the 470K 1-watt resistors come from Morganite in England. These are sonically the best resistors we have ever heard. But their tolerances range between 15 and 25%

Audio madness or fact? I won't mention the amount they charge for one resistor so I tend to think the madness is rife.

Found this photo online of a strike at the factory.

[oldticktock]

Well something still exists as of 2009, extract from the Sunderland Echo:

A JARROW firm which doubled its workforce and tripled its turnover is celebrating the highest British honour for business success.

Ceramic resistor manufacturer HVR International Ltd has received The Queen's Award For Enterprise 2009, after increasing its export earnings by more than 80 per cent over the last three years.

Based at Bede Industrial Estate, Jarrow, the company has successfully avoided the worst effects of the recession, boosting its workforce from 50 to more than 100 in just the last 18 months.

There has been a similar manufacturing facility on the same Jarrow site since the launch of the Morganite Resistor Company, in 1963.

This later became Allen Bradley Electronics in 1972, followed in 1987 by General Hybrid Ltd, which went into administration in 1991, when HVR was formed through a management buy-out

That does not quite tie in with the photo of a strike in 1957 that would be 6 years before the launch of Morganite I wonder if the photo should be dated 1967.

So my box of resistors must be post 1972.

[Herald1360]

Originally Posted by oldticktock

Can any of you shed some light on Allen Bradley Electronics.

Chris

I can shed a snippet of interesting information.....

A 1/8 watt 100R Allen Bradley resistor used to be popular as a low cost cryogenic temperature sensor- not particularly accurate but very sensitive around LHe temperature where its resistance was up to about 1K.

Unfortunately they stopped making them some years ago and NOS supplies are drying up (and getting rather expensive!).

[neon indicator]

Originally Posted by oldticktock

Upon researching Carbon Composition Resistors I found this:

Audio madness or fact? I won't mention the amount they charge for one resistor so I tend to think the madness is rife.

Madness.
So.. the resistors I have in my 450, 900 and 3GHz VCOs are not good at high frequencies?

Double blind AB scientific tests are of course anathema to the Snake Oil Brigade.

Carbon Composition are unstable with age, nasty temperature coefficient and noisier. I don't miss them.