THE GREAT MULLARD MAGIC BLOG

Well, here we are again with part two of this scintillating blog, and I thought I had better change the title as we are talking about an American sci-fi series so our teminology needs to reference tubes instead of valves - that's right innit? Anyhow, we were discussing the 1964 pilot episode of Star Trek TOS, The Cage and the valves therein..... so... where were they then ...... well, they were in the communicator. And as proof, here we see Mrs Roddenberry, complete with futuristic 23rd century blue nail varnish wielding her communicator whilst standing next to Captain Pike.  ...

Well, we have all heard the stories of good old valve powered Collins R390A being used in Operation Desert Storm but whoever would have thought that valves would still be used in frontline space exploration in the 23rd century???     No, I am not a time traveller, just a keen fan of Star Trek and although I prefer TNG, I have a lasting appreciation of TOS too and so, let’s go back to the very start with the pilot episode, The Cage. "The Cage" , set in the year 2254, was completed in early 1965 by Gene Roddenberry but not broadcast on...

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...

Ah nostalgia, it's a great thing isn't it when we all look back with rose tinted spectacles to a golden age (how many metaphors can we get in this sentence?) when things were better.  A time when the mention of "boy jobs" and "girl jobs" didn't meet with the hysterical chuffing from a legion of permanently aggrieved and offended snowflakes, taking to their phones in an outpouring of their displeasure in hashtags, emojis and other associated drivel on Twitter;  happy days, happy days indeed. Anyhow, I thought we would have a quick look back to the fabulous fifties and study how...

The Mullard High Speed Valve Tester was so simple to use anyone could use it.   Mullard made much of this in contemporary journals and here we see a photo from one of them in which a sweet young lady is delicately using a beastly Mullard High Speed Valve Tester. But let's put sexist stereotypes aside for a moment and look instead at the reality of valve testing at Mullard in the 1950s - did you know that at the Mullard Service Department at Waddon, the majority of staff were 'wimmin' yes, really, and to prove it here, below,  I have...