THE GREAT MULLARD MAGIC BLOG

Well, what a Valentine's present, the connotations are legend with this proclamation happily trotted out by the marketing gurus at a leading budget supermarket chain but apart from one potential alternative 'use' (!) for your cucumber, you might like to consider that if you go on your Valentine's date and are hoping to get lucky but have unfortunately left your chewing gum, throat spray or mints at home, you can relax if you have a cucumber with you. Not only would said cucumber be a talking point, "Is that a cucumber in your pocket or are you pleased to see me?"...

In the 1950s and 1960's, these were a handy sales item and many manufacturers made them and turned a tidy profit and we have introduced a whole range of these on the website that may be of interest to restorers for use or to add ambience to a collection due to their beautifully coloured boxes - see them here: - MULLARD MAGIC VOLUME CONTROLS  One manufacturer which we will blog about today was Ediswan which was a very well established and diverse manufacturer, ranging from bulbs like these from 1899: - To sexy vacuum cleaners like these from 1931:- Which...

I have just received an e-mail asking for details of military valve markings so here's a little primer for anyone who might have a similar interest. Valves used by the British military Armed Services were marked with a  CV or common valve name which was defined by the  Inter-Service Technical Valve Committee in 1941.     Often, below the CV number,  a two part  alpha code of the form KB/xx  or JB/xx will be seen  which gives the devices manufacturing specification and qualification .  For the first part of the alpha code, the K designates a valve manufactured to specification K1001 or K1006; similarly a J designates a...

Sticking with the cat theme, some of you may be aware, Stephen Fry and myself are chums from our university days. You may not know that Stephen has been very busy writing the screenplay for a remake of the Dambusters which will be distributed on release by Universal Pictures & Studio Canal. I am pleased to report that due to my connection with Stephen, Mullard Magic has been asked to help with the radio installation in the Lancaster mock up that has being used for filming. I have taken Stephen to task for his meddling in renaming Guy Gibson's beloved...

 We bring you our latest exciting new development. Some of you will be aware that post manufacturing treatments of valves is currently en-vogue. I have read with interest just how beneficial cryogenic or ‘cryo’ treatment of valves is purported to be. Allegedly, the stresses induced during valve manufacture affect electrode structure tolerances within the valve and cryogenic freezing relaxes these – permanently. As a scientist, I understand that many of the metals used in valve manufacture such as Copper, Molybdenum , Nickel and Tungsten are transition metals. I am however, unsure how a transition metal’s ‘electron ship in a cation...