Lamplugh radios from Birmingham

[Yorkie]

I'm trying to source information about S. A. Lamplugh Ltd, Kings Road, Tyseley, Birmingham - they made radios in the 1920s (and probably before)

Highly unlikely to have been making radio prior to 1922 Nick - certainly not for domestic customers as there were no broadcasts until 1920, and even then, it didn't amount to much until about 1922. On 23 Feb 1920, 2LO from the Marconi Co at Writtle (Chelmsford) broadcast two programmes daily for experimental purposes, and on 20 June 1920 there was the famous concert by Dame Nellie Melba.

It wasn't until late 1922 until things started to really take off.
Indeed, in the very early stages there was no actual term for radio transmissions intended to be for a wide listenership. The term 'broadcasting' had only been used to describe one thing - the technique of sowing seeds by hand over a wide area. That word was adopted from it's original meaning as being the most apt word, as indeed it is.

Firms who wished to produce radios soon realised that they would only have a market if they also funded the production of radio broadcasts so there was something worthwhile to listen to. Hence, a group of manufacturers formed the British Broadcasting Company (not 'Corporation' at that stage). The ten shillings licence (£21.00 today, allowing for inflation), was introduced on 1 November 1922 to help fund the broadcasts and the BBC's first station '2LO' began broadcasting on 14 Nov 1922. The BBC stamp - applied by the Postmaster General - was introduced in Dec 1922 to protect the British wireless industry from foreign competition. (The stamp lasted for two years).

The surprising thing to me was how long crystal sets pervaded - long after their lack of selectivity made them of limited use, and long after the invention of the valve, and regenerative and superhet circuits. Of course, crystal sets had several benefits - simple to produce and use, reliable, relatively cheap to buy, and needed no batteries to work or expensive valves to fail.

Consider the timeline:

1904: Fleming invented the two electrode valve and diode detector.
1912: Lee De Forest invented the triode valve.
1912: Armstrong invented the regenerative circuit.
1918: Armstrong invented the superhet circuit.

All well before broadcasting came into being, yet crystal sets persisted until the late 1920s, in part due to the fact that most radio stations around the country didn't broadcast separate programmes but were simply relay stations in areas of high population density to bring as many potential listeners as possible within range of the same simultaneous broadcasts. Only when separate regional station programmes came into being did the limitations of poor selectivity of crystal sets spell their death knell. (Station names didn't begin to appear on dials until at the very earliest, 1932, prior to which dials were calibrated in numbers, usually 0-100 or in Metre wavelengths).

Not wishing to hi-jack the main thrust of your thread Nick - the history of the enigmatic Lamplugh Radio Company, but I hope these ramblings are of interest and some relevance, if only tenuous!