THE GREAT MULLARD MAGIC BLOG — mullard mitcham

You would be forgiven for thinking that here we have a photograph of the piping inside the ballast tanks of a WW2 submarine but no, this shows part of the low tension network at the Mullard Mitcham production facility.  Although this may look arcane and let's face it, the working conditions certainly are ( does it comply with PUWR regulations???),  this was considered state of the art in 1953 with the proud boast that the Mitcham Plant Department was the most up to date in the South of England. 

During the 1950s, Mullard had an apprentice system, following your application and an interview with the Plant Training Officer you could perhaps secure a position - in 1953 from a candidate pool of 12 'boys,' three were selected to become Mullard apprentices - good odds eh?      During the 5 year apprenticeship, day release was given which could culminate in either the HNC or BSc in Radio Engineering.  After qualification, and 9 years of employment, the successful 'boy' having earned his spurs could become one of the monthly paid staff. In the picture below you see a nice lady...

Here we see a wonderful evocative photograph of operator Dabney Grimble attending to CRT bulbs at Mullard Mitcham. Pictured is the manufacturing stage where the neck tube has just been welded to the bulb.  To avoid heat induced stress at the weld junction, the bulbs are placed in an annealing furnace for 150 minutes along a graduated tunnel furnace which controlls the rate of glass cooling.   The bulbs travel by carrel to the annealing furnace whilst suspended in a vacuum chuck which is kept at the same temperature as the bulb to prevent breakage.    Placement of the vacuum...

With Stanley out of the picture, Philips wasted no time in installing SS Eriks as General Manager. With technology transfer totally complete, valve production started at Mitcham and F Kloppert and ex Dutch forces man was sent over as Production Manager. By introducing draconian measures, he made Mitcham an effective plant. With production tightly controlled and mastery by Dutch management complete,, Eriks again repeated his proud boast that 'the only British part within a Mullard valve is the vacuum!' Eriks viewed his empire with puzzlement, efficiencies in manufacturing had been taken as far as they could but by 1937 it...

What a lovely aerial photo of the Mullard factory at Little Harwood which is at the northern edge of Blackburn.  This photo was taken sometime in 1935 not long after factory construction commenced, but, bigger and better things were on the way. It was 1937 and SS Eriks, General Manager of Mullard, sat in his office, comfortable in his Tan-sad office chair but he was troubled. Mitcham could no longer keep up with the pace of production required to fulfill the radio world's voracious demands for thermionic devices - something had to be done.  Eriks was a chap whom melded humanitarianism...