THE GREAT MULLARD MAGIC BLOG

Again, I shall pause from my historical Mullard meanderings to answer a query I have received from a customer from Malaysia about the Mullard ‘Tropical Fish’ capacitors, so called due to their colourful body stripes which denote value – more on this later! These capacitors, introduced to the radio market in 1964 have a polyester dielectric which exhibits very low dielectric loss, high insulation resistance coupled with good temperature and moisture resistance, however, for physical integrity they are not perhaps as tough as the Mullard ‘Mustard’ capacitors.   All told though, they far exceed the efficiency of paper dielectric capacitors and...

Ah nostalgia, it's a great thing isn't it when we all look back with rose tinted spectacles to a golden age (how many metaphors can we get in this sentence?) when things were better.  A time when the mention of "boy jobs" and "girl jobs" didn't meet with the hysterical chuffing from a legion of permanently aggrieved and offended snowflakes, taking to their phones in an outpouring of their displeasure in hashtags, emojis and other associated drivel on Twitter;  happy days, happy days indeed. Anyhow, I thought we would have a quick look back to the fabulous fifties and study how...

The Mullard High Speed Valve Tester was so simple to use anyone could use it.   Mullard made much of this in contemporary journals and here we see a photo from one of them in which a sweet young lady is delicately using a beastly Mullard High Speed Valve Tester. But let's put sexist stereotypes aside for a moment and look instead at the reality of valve testing at Mullard in the 1950s - did you know that at the Mullard Service Department at Waddon, the majority of staff were 'wimmin' yes, really, and to prove it here, below,  I have...

This style of Ministry of Defence (MOD) lamp was used in several different types of British aircraft during the WW2 and post-WW2 era. Its primary use was as a Navigator’s workstation lamp. The voltage rating varied according to the aircraft, but a typical value was 24v DC. Diverse names for these lamps include Air Ministry, Herbert Terry, Anglepoise and Chart Board. The official identification of this aircraft lamp was 5C/1079 - with 5C being an Air Ministry code for electrical equipment. The range of applications was wide and encompassed aircraft like the Wellington bomber and Varsity trainer.  But the most widespread use was in...

"Inevitable progress towards the common employment of miniature all glass valves has introduced many new problems for manufacturers and dealers."     This is what Mullard told us in late 1950 and they were referring of course to the introdution of the new (to the UK)  B9A valves and were concerned that this may happen once they came in general circulation:- This wouldn't do at all so Mullard helpfully introduced three tools to aid service engineers and dealer personnel alike - these still resurface today and I have lost count of the number of times a bemused and inquisitive finder...