In the early 60’s, as a kid, I was into reel to reel tape recorders. One that I really liked, but could have never afford, was the Vernon 49/26. At the time, I did have the data sheet for it. It showed the it had 49 transistors and 26 diodes, thus, the model number!

Founded by Major JFE (Frank) Clarke and Sargent Alex Smith in 1946 (who had served together in the REME (Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers) in WWII) they started out repairing radios, and moved into making early HiFi Radiograms for upmarket stores like Harrods.  The Major (as he was always known in the company) heard that there was a contract for schools radio equipment coming up, and they designed  the required radio, amplifier and speaker prototypes in very short order, and won the initial contract against major companies like HMV/ EMI.

The resultant business kept the company busy for the next 30 plus years, including many record players and a number of tape recorders. The TR634 was claimed to be the first all transistor professional recorder that included a 10 watt power amplifier and the apocryphal story was that a number of other manufacturers paid the south London factory a visit to see this new advance in electronics.  Against the competition of Ferrograph and Vortexion it held its own, both of these still all valve (tube) products.

The company also designed a record player for the blind (where the turntable arm was in the lid of the player) and latter two versions of a tape based system, the latter version was in production for about 30 years and used in  the UK and across the world for “Talking Books” having the ability to take a complete unabridged novel on one multitrack tape cassette. This remained in production until the demise of the company with some 70,000 machines and millions of cassettes  being produced at the Wallington factory. It was replaced by the RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind) with the “daisy” cd  based system.

The Major was awarded the OBE for services to the blind community.

for more information see  http://ferrographworld.com/pdf/A%20history%20of%20Clarke%20and%20Smith%20Winter%202008%20Bulletin.pdf

ampex66  1966 Catalog

Eugene Freeman was my Dad.  The company was based in Los Angeles, Ca.  Probably in the San Fernando Valley where we lived.  He lived in a mid century modern hillside home in Studio City, California, overlooking the San Fernando Valley.  He worked for Roberts, and Citroen before going out on his own.  The company folded when hundreds of returns occured due to overly tight tolerances on the drive motor’s plain bearings.  The mysterious defect would only happen to some units, under certain use and environmental conditions.  The motor would sieze, or slow down.  He tried to make good on the units but there were too many.  From there, he founded Columbia Management Science Corp., helping corporations streamline operations by working smarter.  In later years, he returned to building subdivisions and had his own real estate sales agency.  Definitely a self-starter entrepreneur of the old school.

Philips purchased a company named NSF in the 1920s which produced radios and transmitting equipment. NSF started to market their product in Germany using the brand name Aristona in the 1950s. The sales of Aristona turned out to be significantly better so Philips expanded the lineup and began marketing in other countries under this name. Typically Aristona products were very similar to Philips models at a lower price point.

1948 –  January 5th, Willi Studer founded the “Willi Studer Factory for Electronic Equipment Company” in Herisau, Switzerland  building oscilloscopes for high voltage labs.