Arthur Gilbert Dixon West was a major figure in British communications from 1923, and his career bridged several areas of communication history: the military, the early BBC, the recording industry (His Master's Voice), and Baird Television Ltd, and Cinema Television Ltd.
Earning the rank of Captain as a wireless engineer in the Great War, West went on to work for the Cavendish Laboratory under Lord Rutherford. He left this prestigious role to join the fledging BBC in 1923 in only its second year of existence. There he was in charge of several historical broadcasts including the first broadcast of American radio in Britain, and the first outdoor broadcast ever made by the BBC, Beatrice Harrison playing cello with nightingales in her garden.
By 1931 he was working for HMV, making the crucial visit to American sister company RCA to see closed-door demonstrations of Vladimir Zworykin's revolutionary all-electronic television system, taking detailed notes. Upon his return to England, his employers immediately changed its direction from mechanical to electronic television, paving the way for the introduction of 405-line television in Britain by 1936.
When Isaac Shoenberg was appointed research engineer at HMV, West soon left and ended up working for their competition, Baird Television Ltd, as chief engineer. It was in fact West, not John Logie Baird, who was in charge of the Baird system when the BBC began its television service at Alexandra Palace in late 1936. When Baird Television Ltd lost the bid to provide television equipment to the BBC, the company increased its manufacturing of home television receivers. In collaboration with Gaumont-British, a subsidary company was formed, Cinema Television, which began to equip large theatres and cinemas for television.
During WWII, when all television was shut down, West was the head engineer in charge of Cinema Television's contribution to the war effort, including mine detectors, proximity fuses, and radar scopes, and continued with the conversion back to peacetime manufacturing after the war.
West died suddenly in 1949 in a mountain climbing accident in Switzerland.
Date
1923-2004
Scope and ContentThis archive relates to the career of the significant broadcasting engineer Captain A. G. D. West. The collection includes West's CV and other biographical writings as well as papers relating to his career working for companies including BBC, Gramaphone Co., HMV, ATP Studios, Baird Television Ltd, Rank and Cintel including published articles, manuscripts, research notes, newspaper clippings, an autograph book and correspondence. The collection also includes diaries and logbooks covering flying experiments in wireless during WW1.
Extent5 boxes
LanguageEnglish
Archival historyThe archive was transferred to the National Media Museum in 2016 by relatives of West. The archive was discovered in a loft by West's Family in 2012, and it is believed the documents had been stored there since the 1950s.
Levelfonds
Repository nameNational Science and Media Museum, Bradford
Radio Corporation of America was created in 1919 by General Electric, with the explicit purpose of creating an American-owned radio company. The new company incorporated the assets of Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America, the Pan-American Telegraph Company, and other companies already controlled by the United States Navy.
By 1926 the market for commercial radio had expanded, and RCA purchased the WEAF and WCAP radio stations and networks from AT&T, merged them with its WJZ (the predecessor of WABC) New York to WRC (presently WTEM) Washington chain, and formed the National Broadcasting Company (NBC).
In 1929, RCA purchased the Victor Talking Machine Company, then the world's largest manufacturer of phonographs (including the famous "Victrola") and phonograph records. This included a majority ownership of the Victor Company of Japan (JVC). The new subsidiary then became RCA Victor. RCA Victor produced many radio-phonographs and also created RCA Photophone, a sound-on-film system for sound films that competed with William Fox's sound-on-film Movietone and Warner Bros.' sound-on-disc Vitaphone. RCA began selling the first electronic turntable in 1930. In 1931, RCA Victor began selling 33⅓ rpm records. The system was withdrawn from the market after about a year.
In 1930, the U.S. Department of Justice brought antitrust charges against RCA, General Electric and Westinghouse. As a result, General Electric and Westinghouse gave up their ownership interests in RCA. RCA was allowed to keep its radio factories, and General Electric and Westinghouse were allowed to compete in that business after 30 months.
RCA demonstrated an all-electronic television system at the 1939 New York World's Fair, and developed the USA's first television test pattern. With the introduction of the NTSC standard, the Federal Communications Commission authorised the start of commercial television transmission on July 1, 1941. World War II slowed the deployment of television in the United States, but RCA again began selling television receivers almost immediately after the war ceased.
RCA was a major producer of vacuum tubes (branded Radiotron) in the United States, creating a series of innovative products ranging from octal base metal tubes co-developed with General Electric before World War II to the transistor-sized Nuvistor used in the tuners of the New Vista series of TV sets.
In 1941, before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the cornerstone was laid for a research and development facility, RCA Laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey, led for many years by Elmer Engstrom. This lab developed many innovations, such as colour television, the electron microscope, CMOS-based technology, heterojunction physics, optoelectronic emitting devices, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), videocassette recorders, direct broadcast television, direct broadcast satellite systems and high-definition television. From 1988 to January 2011, the Lab was called Sarnoff Corporation, a subsidiary of SRI International, after which it was fully integrated into SRI.
In 1949, RCA Victor released the first 45 rpm record to the public, to compete with CBS/Columbia's 33⅓ rpm "LP" format. The RCA 33⅓ rpm "LP" records themselves became a reality in 1950, and in 1951, so did the CBS/Columbia 45 rpm record.
In 1953, RCA's all-electronic color TV technology was adopted as the standard for American color TV. It is now known as NTSC (after the "National Television Systems Committee" that approved it). RCA cameras and studio gear, particularly of the TK-40/41 series, became standard equipment at many American television network affiliates, as RCA CT-100[23] ("RCA Merrill" to dealers) television sets introduced color television to the public.
RCA was one of several major computer companies, and marketed the Spectra 70 Series and the RCA Series (RCA 2, 3, 6, 7) competing against the IBM System/370. These systems all ran RCA’s real-memory operating systems, DOS and TDOS. RCA’s virtual memory systems, the Spectra 70/46 and 70/61 and the RCA 3 and 7, could also run their Virtual Memory Operating System, VMOS. RCA abandoned computers in 1971. Sperry Rand officially took over the RCA base in January 1972.
RCA Graphic Systems Division (GSD) was an early supplier of electronics designed for the printing and publishing industries. It contracted with German company Rudolf Hell to market adaptations of the Digiset photocomposition system as the Videocomp, and a Laser Color Scanner. The Videocomp was supported by a Spectra computer that ran the Page-1 and, later the Page-II and FileComp composition systems. RCA later sold the Videocomp rights to Information International Inc. (III).
RCA was a major proponent of the eight-track tape cartridge, which it launched in 1965. The eight-track cartridge initially had a huge and profitable impact on the consumer marketplace. Sales of the 8-track tape format peaked early as consumers increasingly favored the compact cassette tape format developed by Philips.
During the late 1960s and 1970s, RCA Corporation, as it was now formally known, ventured into other markets. Under Robert Sarnoff's leadership, RCA diversified far beyond electronics and communications, in a broader American corporate trend toward "conglomerates." The company acquired Hertz (rental cars), Banquet (frozen foods), Coronet (carpeting), Random House (publishing) and Gibson (greeting cards). The company struggled financially during this period.
Around 1980, RCA corporate strategy reported on moving manufacture of its television sets to Mexico. RCA was still profitable in 1983, when it switched manufacturing of its VHS VCRs from Panasonic to Hitachi.
Forays into new consumer electronics products lost money. The SelectaVision videodisc system, not to be confused with the same trademark that RCA applied to its VCRs, never developed the manufacturing volumes to substantially bring down its price, could not compete against cheaper, recordable videotape technology, and was abandoned in 1985 for a write-off of several hundred million dollars.
In 1981, Columbia sold its share in the home video division to RCA and its division was renamed outside of North America to "RCA/Columbia Pictures International Video" and the following year, it was renamed in North America to "RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video".
In 1983, Arista Records owner Bertelsmann sold 50% of Arista to RCA. In 1985, Bertelsmann and RCA formed a joint venture called RCA/Ariola International which took over management of RCA Records.
Business and financial conditions led to RCA's takeover by GE in 1986, who subsequently broke up the company and sold various components onto other companies.
Conditions governing accessAccess is given in accordance with the museum's access policy. Material from this collection is available to researchers through the museum’s Collections and Research Centre.
Conditions governing ReproductionCopies may be supplied of items in the collection, provided that the copying process used does not damage the item or is not detrimental to its preservation. Copies will be supplied in accordance with the NMeM’s terms and conditions for the supply and reproduction of copies, and the provisions of any relevant copyright legislation.
System of arrangementThe Archive was originally housed in one accordion style file, 3 red A4 folders, one green A4 folder, 2 brown clamshell boxes and one blue box. Each box was titled and given a number which specified an intended structure to the ordering of the boxes. The boxes were originally surveyed in the order which reflects their original given number, ‘1. Folder containing CV, biographical writings’, ‘2. Diaries and logbooks covering wartime flying experiments in wireless’, ‘BBC (1920's)’, ‘4. Gramophone Co, HMW, ATP Studios, Ealing’, ‘5. Papers relating to Baird Television’, ‘6. Papers relating to Rank, Cintel’, ‘7. Technical Papers (for Archive)’ and ‘8. One Box titled 'West Papers'. Each box and folder contained a variety of titled files and loose items, including notebooks and photographs. This structure and file system can be attributed to Richard West, A.G.D. West’s son. Many of Richard West’s notes, correspondence and annotations were also found within the files. While some files related to specific people or events, others were more general and often covered multiple years and events, especially those that contained press cuttings and correspondence.
Upon inspection, while the archive had a clear original structure, the extent of loose items and untitled files required that a re-structuring of the Archive would better reflect its contents, such as its large volume of photographs. The current structure organises the Archive by record type, sequentially by date (where items are dated).
