THE GREAT MULLARD MAGIC BLOG — mullard

The advances in television since WW2 and the extension of the British TV service and indeed those of other countries brought with it the necessity to develop a more effective series of valves for television manufacture.  In order to reduce the size, weight, customer cost - and manufacturer profit margin, British TV sets were now being built using the 'transformerless technique' pioneered first in 1948. So, in 1951, Mullard introduced their World Series of TV valves comprising of the ECC81, EF80, EB91, EQ80, PL83, PL82, ECL80, PL81, PY80, PY82, EY51.  As you may deduce from the list, all were miniatue...

How we smiled when we saw this 1924 advert for a Graphite Pile Rheostat.  With it's connotations of 'pile' and near onomatopoeic sound of Oooyah, a classic expression of pain, I am sure may callow schoolboys as well as middle aged chaps like me smiled......  but where did the term Oojah come from?   Well, Oojah was an elephant  and an invention of a children’s book illustrator known as  Thomas Maybank.  Uncle Oojah began life as a comic strip character in the Daily Sketch Newspaper in 1919. By the early 1920s, the newspaper was issuing a four-page supplement called 'The Oojah...

We recently left our two part Star Trek blog wondering whether or not thermionic technology ever again appeared in episodes moving on from the pilot episode, The Cage and the answer is a resounding YES.     I want to bring your attention to Star Trek TOS, season 1, episode 28, titled The City on the Edge of Forever, from star date 3134.0 or by my calendar February 18,  2326, Time: 21:50:24.  This episode first aired on 6th April 1967. As in the prior posting, I could paraphrase the plot but I am not going to, instead, here is a...

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...

Well, whatever did you think, shame on you......... You know, it is said that there is nothing new in show business or advertising and here we have three photos just to prove this point. Here we see Petula Clark in October 1950 at the Castle Bromwich Radio Show somewhat agog at the size of this 5 foot Mullard valve model: -   And this 'ad opportunity' was again exploited  with a young lady from  Chorley Wood College for Girls with Little or No Sight examining the same giant valve model at the London Science Museum in November 1950: - But this wasn't a novel approach at...