WHAT STANLEY MULLARD "THE MAKER OF THE VALVE" DID IN 1928!

Well, things were rubbing along famously but in 1925 Stanley decided that it was time to cash in his chips so he then spent the next couple of years wooing Philips and other shareholders alike to sell. Philips eventually stumped up £7 per share and the sale went ahead secretly in 1927 with all shares being registered in Stanley's name so the public didn't get wind of a major British manufacturer being taken over by a foreign company. This fiction was maintained quite successfully until 1938.

With Philips now owning all of the shares in Mullard, change was looming as although Stanley was kept on as MD, he was put firmly in the picture that Philips was now firmly in control. In 1929 when Stanley floated the idea of Mullard diversifying into receiver manufacture, Anton Philips gave him the hard word and refused. As if this rebuttal wasn't enough, Anton Philips then despatched a 26 year old wunderkind engineer in the form of Wim Julius to modernise the Mullard factory. Stanley Mullard realised it was time to move on and in 1930 he resigned from Mullard Valves to spend more time cultivating roses which were his passion. In later years, Stanley was heard to muse that he made more money from horticulture than he ever made from electronics. In fact he was responsible for using vermiculite in potting mixtures as this mica derived material was used to pack the mica stacks bought in for valve manufacture - was this an early example of green recycling I wonder? - whatever, please remember this interesting fact the next time you are buying vermiculite at Dobbies or Wilkos!!