THE GREAT MULLARD MAGIC BLOG

Don't you just love this wonderful advert from 1931 which should surely pre-date that hackneyed audio term "Woofer" with the quaint name "Wufa."  And just look at the testimonial....." My Wufa was found to be the winner and I delivered a lecture as to its merits!...."  Absolutely priceless... and even more amazing this manufacturer followed this paragon of speaker excellence with an improved model called the Wufta.  Interestingly, they never improved this second model to make and market a "Woofta," which is a shame. Woofer is the term for a driver designed to produce  low frequency sounds, typically from 40Hz up to 500...

Yesterday I had a reminder of why I enjoy running Mullard Magic so much.   I had a call from Rob who needed some capacitors but was really bothered about exact size and shaping rather than capacitance and working voltage .   Not wanting to be rude by asking what he needed them for, I said we'd have a rummage and see what we could find for him.  As our conversation progressed, he admitted the reason for him being cagey which was that some vintage component vendors had been nasty and refused to sell capacitors to Rob as he as...

When a valve is manufactured, it undergoes a process called evacuation where successive pumping operations remove air from the envelope prior to sealing.   However, even after evacuation, a small amount of gas remains - one part per one-hundred-thousand-million - as Cilla would have agreed, 'That's NORRA lorra, lorra gas!'    More gas may be released from the metallic components that comprise the electrode cage of a valve, gas that is trapped within the interstices of the metal structure especially if a valve is run under arduous operating conditions such that it gets extremely hot. Valve manufacturers include a component...

I did laugh when I saw the Cossor advert from the late 1920's and pictured below: - Just look at these fateful words, "......His clutching thieving fingers cannot harm this new Cossor...."    For those who are wondering why this bumbling prose has tickled my pique, its because I was once accused of having clutching thieving fingers!@#$%!  Alas my career in radio crime didn't take off and I did have ambitions of cat burgling an Enigma machine but I don't have a head for heights and besides, Enigma heists are passe as they have been done before.   Anyhow, enough...

 I had a very strange e-mail from a viewer in which he commented on my 'Mullard in the early 1950s' blog article, in particular my commentry about the Mullard LSD flash tubes.   He went on to lament that my article was just like most others on the 'net, a few words on these devices just copied from other websites!!!@*'? I must admit, I was flabbergasted, what nonsense, why would this person act like a radio part - hint - the bit that you turn to get more volume.  Anyhow, in order to satisfy any other affectionados of the Mullard...