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Title
A bound volume containing technical publications produced by Mullard Limited numbered between TP301 and TP371
Reference
MUL/C/1
Production date
-08-1955 - -11-1958

Creator

Mullard Limited Biography Biography
Mullard Limited was initially founded as the Mullard Radio Valve Company by Captain Stanley Robert Mullard. The new company was financed by the Radio Communication Co in order to compete with Marconi, especially in the field of maritime radio, and its valves were soon adopted for use by the Admiralty. The business was boosted by the beginning of broadcasting in the UK during the early 1920s and would go onto form Mullard Wireless Service Co to market the valves in produced. Despite this by 1924 the company was in need of additional capital as well as additional technical resources, in part to meet the demands of the newly formed BBC, and as result Mullard sold half the company to Philips. As part of this Philips established a UK based subsidiary, Philips Electrical which held its shares in Mullard, and in 1925 Mullard was register as a private company. In 1927 Philips acquired the rest of the company and in 1929 Captain Mullard stepped down as managing director of both it and the Mullard Wireless Service Co. Following the departure of its founder the company continued to expand, beginning production of cathode ray tubes in 1936, opening new production facilities and in 1938 acquiring E.K. Cole Ltd, until the Second World War. During the war Mullard was considered a foreign owned company and, although it produced a large number of conventional valve designs, it was not part of any government funded research projects, such as those into microwave frequencies. Partly as a result of this, and partly due to a lack of a coherent UK research facility, born from a reliance on Philips’ Eindhoven facility, the company formed the Mullard Research Laboratories in 1946. This new facility replaced the existing structure of fragmented laboratories in each of the production facilities and would therefore allow the company to participate in research projects that received funding from the British Government. At the same time Philips had a reorganisation of its subsidiaries and Mullard became a wholly owned subsidiary of Philips Electrical Industries Limited which in turn was a subsidiary of Philips. By 1951 the company’s products had expanded beyond the valves it originally produced and in order to reflect this its name was changed to Mullard Limited. At around the same time the company also began to produce its first transistors, which would eventually be produced at their own facility in Southampton, and took over the running of British Tungsram, another Philips owned company. Along with this expansion in 1957 Mullard also helped to set up the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory. Throughout this period the production of transistors had continued to grow, with new models being introduced in 1953, and by 1960 Mullard produced 75% of all British semiconductors, by volume, as well as a number of other electronics components. In 1962 the company formed a joint venture with GEC, Associated Semiconductor Manufacturers, in order to combine development and production, mostly of transistors, but this only lasted until 1969 when GEC pulled out. Expansion continued through the rest of the 1960s, with the Mullard Space Science Laboratory being opened in 1966 and increased production capacity, with one factory producing one million colour television tubes by 1968. Despite the success enjoyed during the 1960s, by the 1970s Mullard began to suffer some difficulties, with factories being closed in 1972, 1975 and 1979, and production being cut back in other areas. In 1977 the Mullard Research Laboratory was renamed the Philips Research Laboratory. Despite further factory closures in the 1980s Mullard also began to produce teletext decoders and video discs for the Philips laser disk system. Philips continued to use the Mullard name until 1988 when the subsidiary’s name was changed to Philips Components Limited. The semiconductor facilities were transferred to Philips Semiconductors, later NXP Semiconductors, with the Southampton site closing.

Scope and Content
A binder containing the following technical publications produced by the Industrial Technical Service Department of Mullard Limited: - A: TP301 (1956) 'The Design and Operation of Transistor D.C. Converters', Reprinted from Mullard Technical Communications Vol 2 No 17 February 1956 - B: TP306 (1956) T220R Circuit Design for Transistor Blocking Oscillators, August 1955 - C: TP304 (1956) 'Transistors in Relay Switching Circuits', Reprinted from Mullard Technical Communications Vol 2 No 19 July 1956 - D: TP307 (1956) T226R 'A Transistor Tester', February 1956 - E: TP308 (1956) 'An Asymmetrical Bistable Circuit using Junction Transistors', Reprinted from Mullard Technical Communications Vol 2 No 19 July 1956 - F: TP310 (1957) T225R 'Decade Counters using Junction Transistors', June 1956 - G: TP311 (1957) 'A 200mW Amplifier Employing Transistors', Based on articles printed in Mullard Technical Communications Vol 2 No 18 April 1956, Vol 3 No 21 February 1957 - H: TP312 (1957) 'Low-frequency Transistor Oscillators', October 1955 - I: TP316 (1957) 'Distortion in Transistor Amplifiers', Reprinted from Mullard Technical Communications Vol 2 No 22 March 1957 - J: TP323 (1957) 'Compensation for Changes in Base to Emitter Voltage with Temperature', Reprinted from Mullard Technical Communications Vol 3 No 24 May 1957 - K: TP333 (1957) T240R 'D.C. Amplifier using transistors and a silicon bridge modulator', November 1956 - L: TP332 (1957) 'Push-Pull Output Stages using Transistors Part 1 - Fundamental Considerations', Reprinted from Mullard Technical Communications Vol 3 No 24 May 1957 - M: TP335 (1957) 'Car Radio Receiver with Transistor Output Operating from a 14-Volt H.T Line', Reprinted from Mullard Technical Communications Vol 3 No 25 June 1957 - N: TP334 (1957) 'D.C. Stabilisation of Junction Transistors Potential Divider and Emitter Resistor Method Two-Battery Method', Reprinted (with minor amendments) from Mullard Technical Communications Vol 3 No 23 April 1957 - O: TP336 (1957) 'Push-Pull Output Stages using Transistors Part 2 - Practical Low Power Circuits, with a Note on Loudspeaker Resonance', Reprinted from Mullard Technical Communications Vol 3 No 26 October 1957 - P: TP338 (1958) 'Equivalent Circuits for Junction Transistors applied to types OC44 and OC45 used as i.f. and r.f. amplifiers, with a complete design for a six-transistor m.w./l.w. radio receiver', Reprinted from Mulard Technical Communications Vol 3 No 25 June 1957, Vol 3 No 26 October 1957 and Vol 3 No 27 December 1957 - Q: TP344 (1958) 'A stable Gain Transformer Coupled Transistor A.F. Amplifier For use in instruments, 'chopper' type d.c. amplifiers and transistor test gear', Reprinted from Mullard Technical Communications Vol 3 No 28 January 1958 - R: TP342 (1958) 'Heat Sink Design', Reprinted from Mullard Technical Communications Vol 3 No 29 March 1958 - S: TP348 (1958) 'Temperature Stability of Transistor Class B Amplifiers', Reprinted from Mullard Technical Communications Vol 3 No 29 March 1958 - T: TP345 (1958) 'Transistor Amplifier Stages Operating from 6, 9 and 12V', Reprinted from Mullard Technical Communications Vol 3 No 28 January 1958 - U: TP347 (1958) T247R 'A transistor d.c. stabilised power supply for laboratory use (0 to 30V, 0 to 100mA).', October 1957 - V: TP359 (1958) 'Phase-Operated Relay using Transistors for Power-System Protection', Reprinted from Mullard Technical Communications Vol 4 No 31 July 1958 - W: TP358 (1958) 'A 4.5W Sliding-Bias Amplifier using an OC16', Reprinted from Mullard Technical Communications Vol 4 No 31 July 1958 - X: TP369 (1958) 'The Design of Logical Circuits using Transistors and Square Loop Ferrite Cores', Reprinted from Mullard Technical Communications Vol 4 No 34 October 1958 - Y: TP371 (1958) 'Video Amplifiers using Alloy Junction Transistors', Reprinted from Mullard Technical Communications No 34 Vol 4 October 1958 - Z: TP370 (1958) 'Transistor 20kc/s Oscillator with 50mW Output', Reprinted from Mullard Technical Communications Vol 4 No 35 November 1958
Extent
Single item
Physical description
Bound collection of printed reports
Language
English
Level of description
ITEM
Repository name
Science Museum, London
Conditions governing access
Open Access
Conditions governing Reproduction
Copies may be supplied in accordance with current copyright legislation and Science Museum Group terms and conditions