THE GREAT MULLARD MAGIC BLOG

Ladybird books really bring back the golden days of childhood - learning to read, discovering the magic of books, and growing up.  It is more than sixty years since the first familiar pocket sized full colour Ladybird saw the light of day in 1940, during the Second World War with an animal series called Bunnikins and all for half a crown. Ladybird books stayed at half a crown (2 shillings and sixpence = 12 pence today) for thirty years, because the 56 page standardised format (made from just one sheet size 40 inches by 30 inches) meant that quality books...

Well, today's the day the first extended deadline for leaving the EU was proposed.   I am not going to comment about the current Brexit machinations but instead will reference this quaint advertisement by Cossor from April 1953:- Let's go back a month and something pivotal and fundamental certainly happened in March 1953, yes, sausage rationing ended - I kid you not. So, what happened in April 1953 then?  Well,  Prime Minister, Winston Churchill got his Knighthood, Ian Fleming published his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale in the UK and Francis Crick and James Watson publish "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids;...

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!

I am often told "I wish there was a simple equivalents list for those Ever Ready valve codes."  well, now there is, feast your eyes on this little lot:-   A11B IW4-350 A11C IW4-500 A11D IW4-350 A20B 2D4A A23A TDD4 A23B TDD4 A27D Pen4DD A30B 904V A30D 354V A36A TH4 A36B TH4B A36C TH4B A40M MM4V A50A SP4 A50B SP4B A50M VP4 A50N VP4A A50P VP4B A70B Pen4VA A70C PenA4 A70D PenA4 A70E PenB4 A80A FC4   C10B UR1C  C20C 2D13C C23B TDD13C C27D Pen40DD C30B HL13C C36A TH21C C36B TH30C C36C TH22C C36N TH30C C50B SP13C C50N VP13C C70D...

The DM70 was quite a departure from previous tuning indicator/magic eye/ tune-on designs and was designed specifically with the portable dry battery receiver in mind but additionally was specified as an inexpensive device for the mains receiver too, not to mention as the reading indicator for a range of Negretti & Zambra high precision aneroid barometers made for the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force - in fact if you take a look at our product listings, you'll see a range of these barometers for sale!!!. The DM70 has a subminiture envelope and is constructed as a wire ended triode...