OUR PRODUCT MANUFACTURERS

    The original company was formed in 1946 under the title The Scale Model Equipment Company Limited to manufacture scale models and detail parts for the model engineering trade. During the 1950's movement was away from model making to precision engineering, principally parts for aircraft instruments and business machines. In 1959 Alastair Robertson-Aikman, the Company's founder, required a pick-up arm for his own use and an experimental model was built. It received such an enthusiastic reception from friends in the sound industry that it was decided to produce it commercially and the first SME precision pick-up arm appeared in...

  Siemens & Halske (S&H) was incorporated in 1897, and then merged parts of its activities with Schuckert & Co., Nuremberg in 1903 to become Siemens-Schuckert. In 1907 Siemens (Siemens & Halske and Siemens-Schuckert) had 34,324 employees and was the seventh-largest company in the German empire by number of employees. In 1919, S&H and two other companies jointly formed the Osram lightbulb company. A Japanese subsidiary was established in 1923. During the 1920s and 1930s, S&H started to manufacture radios, television sets, and electron microscopes. In 1932, Reiniger, Gebbert & Schall (Erlangen), Phönix AG (Rudolstadt) and Siemens-Reiniger-Veifa mbH (Berlin) merged...

    STC of North Woolwich, London (1937) of Connaught House, 63 Aldwych, London, WC2. Telephone: Holborn 8765 (20 lines). Cables: "Relay, Telex, London". (1947) Standard Telephones and Cables Ltd (later STC plc) was a British manufacturer of telephone, telegraph, radio, telecommunications, cables and related equipment.   General  1883 The company began life as an agent for the US Western Electric company that also had a factory in Antwerp, Belgium. The London operation sold US-designed telephones and exchanges to fledgling British telephone companies. 1898 A failing cable factory at North Woolwich in London’s East End was acquired. Despite setbacks, this factory made lead-sheathed cables...

    Stern Radio Limited; 109 Fleet Street, London, UK. Manufacturer & retailer of domestic electronic equipment, mainly amplifiers & tape recorders. Frequently advertised in magazines such as Practical Wireless. Advertisements frequently referred to "Stern's" products. The products were frequently labelled "Stern's".

    Arnold Sugden  started his career as an apprentice joiner and undertaker then moved onto making receivers and becoming interested in developing transformers.   He had no formal education in electronics.   During World War II, Sugden started his own engineering firm in Brighouse, Yorkshire to make precison components and tools.  During the 1950s Sugden designed transcription pick-ups beginning with a moving steel cantilever system and commenced the manufacture of  precision turntables  under the name of Connoisseur.