THE GREAT MULLARD MAGIC BLOG — mullard blackburn

Today, we have for you, the second part of the Blackburn Times article for you to enjoy: - After passing through the iron gate at the entrance, I peeped at the foundation stone on the main building.  It was dated 1938 and I was later told that Alderman J Fryars then Mayor of Blackburn had made an expert job of laying it. Looking round at the factory blocks on the 43-acre site, it did not seem out of place to conjecture that such strides could only have been made over a century and certainly not within a decade and a...

Today, the Mullard archive has revealed the copy sent for approval by RF Kennedy, a journalist with the Blackburn Times.    Although I have abridged this text somewhat, this was first published in the  Friday evening editon of the Blackburn Times on 12th February 1954.  It was a 40-minute lunchtime break at the Mullard Blackburn works and the rush scene showed hundreds of workers on their toes, determined not to loose one second of the interlude which was typical of a factory where the accent is on..... Speed, Efficiency & Perfection. To a newcomer, it all seemed so much bustle...

When Band III TV was introduced in Britain early in 1954, Mullard heralded in the new age by having a range of valves available for the new receivers some two weeks after the British Government's TV policy had been confirmed in the House of Commons. Here, we see Timothy Bustard, a Toolmaker at Mullard's Mitcham factory hand finishing a new anode making tool for the PCF80 triode-pentode valve which acted as a frequency changer for Band III TV transmissions. The tool is used in a press where nickel sheet is fed into the press and seven successive operations of punching...

Today's evocative photo shows Mulard Long Life picture tubes undergoing life tests at the Mitcham plant sometime in mid 1952.     On the test rig, applied voltages were regulated and the beam current was fixed.  The test card used closely simulated a screen raster.  Here we see Trevor Wibbley about to take voltage characteristc measurements, light output measurements and assess subjective picture quality. What is special about the tubes pictured is that they were the first of those produced by Mullard with tinted glass faces.   The tinting was introduced as an attempt to boost contrast when viewing in...

Today's photograph from the Mullard archives shows Albert Pumphrey, a valve engineer from the Blackburn Works examining Hilda Brooks' efforts at delicately constructing an electrode cage in May 1952.    The archive record does not record whether or not Albert subsequently asked Hilda to accompany him to see the new hit film Singin' In the Rain at the Savoy Picture House in Darwen some time after their Blackburn Valve Assembly tete-a-tete or if she said yes or no!