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VIEWPOINT WITH MULLARD

Our Founder, S. R. Mullard, M.B.E., Celebrates 80th Birthday

Although retired for some years Stanley Mullard has remained a Director of the Company. He was born in London on November 1st, 1883, the third of five children, the family being not well off. His father was works-manager of a small chemical manufacturing firm and his salary left little to pay for an elaborate education for the children. At 15, after only a basic schooling and a year at a polytechnic institute, the young Mullard was apprenticed to a firm of electrical engineers, his wage 10/- for a 56 hour week.

During his five year apprenticeship he attended evening classes at the Royal Institution, the City & Guilds of London Institute, the Institution of Electrical Engineers and various technical colleges. This training and study would have led him to a career in electrical engineering, “But”, he says, “when I learned that a qualified shift engineer at a power station earned 7½d an hour I began to have second thoughts”.

Early Experience With Electrical Lamp Production

He asked for and was given a transfer to another branch of the firm concerned with the manufacture of electric lamps and X-ray tubes. He believes that it was this move that really led to the formation of the Mullard company, for it was from this early work on lamps and X-ray tubes that his interest in radio valves stemmed. At the outbreak of World War I he was head of the Ediswan lamp laboratories and enlisted in the Engineers Battalion of the Royal Naval Division, by Admiralty instructions he remained at Ediswan to continue his technical work. His interest now extended to wireless valves, a field in which his knowledge of vacuum techniques gained in the lamp laboratories enabled him to make important contributions to the fast growing military use, as it was then known—wireless communication. He later saw service in France and earned a Mention in Despatches and military M.B.E.

The Beginning

In 1920 the Admiralty asked him to manufacture valves and, lacking funds, he asked them for a contract to obtain financial backing and was given a firm order for 250 silica envelope transmitting valves at £66 each, the first Mullard order.

His backers were an odd assortment; two had connections with the radio industry, the others were respectively a bacon producer and a firm of East India merchants, and so in September 1920 was formed the first company to bear his name, The Mullard Wireless Valve Company.

Receiving Valves

With a growing interest in experimental broadcasting and the need for smaller valves he set about developing and manufacturing receiving valves, one type the ORA the initials signifying the three main functions: oscillate, rectify and amplify. These had a ready market, were superior to the imported valves at the time and in demonstrating that reliable valves could be made cheaply, he materially helped to lay the foundations of the British radio industry.

A temporary litigation setback occurred in 1922 when Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Co. Ltd. issued writs against The Mullard Wireless Valve Company alleging infringement of two of their patents, Mullard defence was that one of the patents could not be valid because the design of the valve was based on a principle published earlier in a German paper, the Marconi witness claiming that if the valve were constructed as shown in the paper it would never work. The Court adjourned for the day, Mullard rushed back to the works and made a few sample valves, in fact 20, lashed one into a receiver and took it to court next day and the Marconi witness had the disconcerting experience of listening to a broadcast from Paris through a valve he claimed would never work.

Foundation of Applications Engineering

In 1924, the demand for his valves was such that he was forced to give more attention to the commercial activities and formed a second company—The Mullard Wireless Service Company—to handle distribution and marketing. That his title contained the word “service” was no accident. Then, as now, service, whether to the set manufacturer, the dealer or the public, ranked high in the company’s battle order. Then, as now, the salesmen were backed by an equally strong cadre of technical people who were interested not so much in selling a valve as in helping the buyer to get the best results from it.

Retirement

In 1929 he decided reluctantly to relinquish the leadership of the company, and was succeeded by Mr. S. S. Eriks, for his health had been in question since 1926 when, after a serious breakdown, his doctors warned him to ease up. “They told me,” he said recently, “that unless I did so I would be forced to give up all activity. But that was thirty-seven years ago and I hope that by now I have satisfied them of their error.” Now under the new leadership the company continued its growth, in 1938 established its main valve factory at Blackburn in Lancashire, this factory also producing the glass and fine wire used in valve manufacture: the labour demand relieving the unemployment caused by the decline in the cotton trade. Two years later the factory was making a considerable contribution to the war effort. In post-war years (World War II) the Millard Research Laboratory was set up in Surrey, new valve and semi-conductor factories and a new picture tube factory at Simonstone, Lancashire—the latter unique in the world in that it also produces its own glass. Today our companies have 18 factories in England and employ nearly 20,000: 40% of the production being exported.

Blackburn Birthday Function

The “Lancashire Evening Telegraph”, Tuesday, November 19th, 1963, records the function to mark his 80th birthday “PIONEER AT THE EXCITING BIRTH OF AN INDUSTRY. Many people who said ‘We never knew there was a Mr. Mullard’ had the surprising and happy experience of meeting him today—an erect, still-sturdy figure, rather bald but with a neatly-trimmed moustache, horn-rimmed glasses and a rather debonair manner. At one stage of the proceedings he apologised for being ‘a little forgetful’ but most people present during the five-hour celebrations had nothing but admiration for the way in which he carried himself alertly, answered the speeches made in his honour and humbly gave credit to those who have helped in the industry he pioneered. “A little of Mr. Mullard’s exciting story was told to the large gathering of civic and industrial representatives in the Windsor Hall, where a champagne toast was proposed to him by Mr. S. S. Eriks, who succeeded Mr. Mullard as leader of the organisation in 1929.” As his 80th birthday coincided with the 500th million Mullard Valve, a golden replica of this historic valve was presented to him. A feature of the gathering was an enormous birthday cake with 80 valves as candles and Mr. Mullard asked that the Mayor of Blackburn accept the very substantial first layer of the cake for distribution amongst deserving Blackburn towns-people. Stanley Mullard has survived to see the company he formed 43 years ago, grow to occupy a leading position in the electronics industry. His retirement has been far from inactive, he has continued to participate in company affairs, albeit infrequently and since 1945 has interested himself in new developments in horticulture, a subject in which he is now a recognised authority. He has a son and three daughters and lives near Egham, Surrey.

This article was originally published in “Mullard Outlook” VOL. 6 – No. 6 November-December, 1963

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VIEWPOINT WITH MULLARD