This article is about the electronics company Pye Ltd. . For other uses of Pye see Pye (disambiguation).

Pye Ltd. was an electronics company founded in Cambridge, England and is currently wholly owned by Philips. The city of Cambridge (ˈkeɪmbrɪdʒ is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV ( Royal Philips Electronics Inc.

Early growth

W. G. Pye & Co. Ltd. was founded in 1896 in Cambridge by William George Pye, an employee of the Cavendish Laboratory, as a part time business making scientific instruments. Year 1896 ( MDCCCXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year The Cavendish Laboratory is the University of Cambridge 's Department of Physics, and is part of the university's School of Physical Sciences By the outbreak of World War I in 1914 the company employed forty people manufacturing instruments that were used for teaching and research. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Year 1914 ( MCMXIV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year The war increased demand for such instruments and the War Office needed experimental thermionic valves. The War Office was a former department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1963 when This article is about the electronic device not an evacuated pipe used for experiments in Free-fall. The manufacture of these components afforded the company the technical knowledge that it needed to develop the first "wireless" (as early radios were called) when the first UK broadcasts were made by the BBC in 1922. Year 1922 ( MCMXXII) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.

The company started a wireless components factory at Church Path, Chesterton and the series of receivers that it made were given positive reviews by Popular Wireless magazine. In 1924 Harold Pye, the son of the founder, and Edward Appleton, his former tutor at St. John's College designed a new series of receivers which proved even more saleable. Year 1924 ( MCMXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Sir Edward Victor Appleton, GBE ( September 6, 1892 – April 21, 1965) was an English Physicist. In 1928 William Pye sold the company, now renamed Pye Radio Ltd. Year 1928 ( MCMXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. , to C. O. Stanley, who established a chain of small component-manufacturing factories across East Anglia. East Anglia is often used as a shorthand for the Kingdom of the East Angles.

When the BBC started to explore television broadcasting, Pye found that the closest of their East Anglian offices was some 25 miles outside the estimated effective 25 mile radius of the Alexandra Palace transmitter. Set in Alexandra Park, Alexandra Palace was built in an area spanning Wood Green and Muswell Hill, North London, England in 1873 as Stanley was fascinated by the new technology and on his instructions the company built a high gain receiver that could pick up these transmissions. In 1937 a 5-inch Pye television receiver was priced at 21 guineas (£22. Year 1937 ( MCMXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Guinea, officially Republic of Guinea (pronounced /ˈgɪni/ République de Guinée is a country in West Africa, formerly known as French Guinea 05) and within two years the company had sold 2,000 sets at an average price of £34.

The new EF50 valve from Philips, enabled Pye to build this high gain receiver, which was a Tuned Radio Frequency (TRF) type, and not a superhet type. With the outbreak of World War 2 the Pye receiver using EF50 valves became a key component of many radar receivers, forming the 45MHz Intermediate Amplifier (IF) section of the equipment. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Radar is a system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range altitude direction or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as Aircraft, ships Pye went on to design and manufacture many famous British Army radio equipments such as Wireless Sets No. 10, 18, 19, 22, 62, 68. The Wireless Set No 19 was a World War II mobile radio Transceiver designed for the British Army to give armoured troops reliable communications

In February 1944 Pye formed a specialist division called Pye Telecommunications Ltd which it intended would design and produce radio communications equipment when the war ended. This company developed, prospered and grew to become the leading UK producer of mobile radio equipment for commercial, business, industrial, police and Government purposes. See http://www.pyetelecomhistory.org

Demo of television in Mons (Belgium) on 16th sept. 1947

After the war Pye's B16T 9" table television was designed around the twelve-year-old EF50 valve. It was soon superseded by the B18T, which used an extra high tension transformer (EHT) developed by German companies before the war to produce high cathode ray tube voltages.

In 1955 the company diversified into music production with Pye Records. Pye Records is a British Record label. In its first incarnation Pye's best known artists were Lonnie Donegan (1956-69 Petula Clark (1957-71 The Independent Television Authority (ITA) started public transmissions in the same year so Pye had to produce new television designs that could receive ITV and the availability of a second channel introduced the need for tuners. The Independent Television Authority ( ITA) was a body created by the Television Act 1954 to supervise the creation of "Independent Television" ( Pye's V4 tunable television was launched in March 1954 and was followed by the V14. Year 1954 ( MCMLIV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1954 Gregorian calendar) The V14 proved to be technically unreliable and so tarnished the Pye name that many dealers transferred their allegiance to other manufacturers. This failure so damaged corporate confidence that Pye avoided being first to market thereafter, although they developed the first British transistor in 1956. In Electronics, a transistor is a Semiconductor device commonly used to amplify or switch electronic signals Year 1956 ( MCMLVI) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. They also produced broadcast television equipment, including cameras which, as well as international sales, were very popular with British broadcasters including the BBC. The early cameras were called "the Photicon" and the later ones by their Mk number 2,3 etc. The Mk7/8 solid state monochrome cameras were the last ones produced. The Pye Mk6 Image Orthicon camera was the last version supplied to BBC Outside Broadcasts in 1963 for a new fleet of 8 outside broadcast vans. The ITV companies purchased the popular Pye Mk3s, and to a lesser extent the Mk4s and Mk7s. Unfortunately, Pye (TVT) never made it into producing a colour broadcast television camera, but there was an abortive colour telecine camera, few if any were sold. The reason for this was probably the financial difficulties the company was in.

Company trouble and sell-off

Not wishing to risk further damage to their fragile brand, Pye first used transistors in a product sold as a subsidiary brand: the Pam 710 radio, with the transistors themselves labelled Newmarket Transistors (another subsidiary). When this proved acceptable the company launched the Pye 123 radio a Pye 123 (still with the Newmarket label on the novel internal components). Products such as these reversed the decline but the arrival of Japanese competition reduced demand to a level that threatened the viability of the manufacturing plants. The company, like most of its domestic competitors, attempted to restore demand with price competition and, where viable production exceeded demand, sold excess stock at loss-making clearance prices. This tactic has no strategic value and by 1966 Pye was in such difficulties that they started to reduce their manufacturing capacity with closure of the Ekco factory in Southend-on-Sea. Year 1966 ( MCMLXVI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the 1966 Gregorian calendar. EKCO from Eric Kirkham Cole Limited was a British Electronics company producing Radio and Television sets from 1924

Philips attempted to buy out the ailing Pye in 1966. The Trade Secretary Anthony Wedgwood Benn determined that a complete sale would create a de facto monopoly so he permitted the transfer of just a 60% shareholding with an undertaking that the Lowestoft factory would continue to manufacture televisions. Anthony "Tony" Neil Wedgwood Benn (born 3 April 1925 formerly 2nd Viscount Stansgate, is a British Socialist Politician. In Economics, a monopoly (from Greek monos, alone or single + polein, to sell exists when a specific individual or enterprise has sufficient Lowestoft (ˈləʊstɒft/ /ˈləʊstəf is a town in Suffolk, East Anglia, England, lying between the eastern edge of The Broads National Park

The arrival of colour television in the mid sixties was not the rescue that domestic manufacturers had hoped. Test signals began in 1966 and scheduled transmissions commenced on December 2, 1967. Events 1409 - The University of Leipzig opens 1755 - The second Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed by fire Year 1967 ( MCMLXVII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the 1967 Gregorian calendar. The colour transmissions introduced 625-line transmissions alongside the 405-line broadcasts so the receivers had to handle both systems, with a consequent cost overhead. The resulting high price of the new technology delayed consumer adoption.

In the early 1970s Sony and Hitachi launched UK colour televisions at under £200 and most domestic manufacturers decided to compete with them in that market. This article is about the Decade 1970-1979 For the Year 1970 see 1970. is a multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato Tokyo, Japan, and one of the world's largest Media conglomerates with () is a Multinational corporation specializing in high-technology and services headquartered in Marunouchi Itchome Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. This decision handicapped the domestic manufacturers when the Japanese moved upmarket using just in time (JIT) manufacturing. Just-in-time ( JIT) is an inventory strategy implemented to improve the Return on investment of a Business by reducing in-process Inventory and When the UK consumers chose quality over price, domestic manufacturers found themselves with high stocks and low cash flow at a time when industrial relations were poor and there was little flexibility in cost reduction. Pye was unable to recover and the entire Pye group of companies was bought by Philips in 1976. Year 1976 ( MCMLXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Lowestoft factory was subsequently sold to Sanyo for the manufacture of television sets after Philips moved the manufacture of Pye televisions to Singapore. () is a major Japanese electronics company and member of the Fortune 500 whose headquarters is located in Moriguchi, Osaka prefecture, Japan Singapore However, the brand enjoyed a short-lived renaissance in the late 1980's, and almost gained cult status amongst college students at the time. Many a collegical common room would be filled with such phrases as 'Do you like Pye', 'Are you a Pye-man', and the ever endearing 'Just look at the shape of the badge!', with many of the aforementioned emblems being scrawled on desks and department notice boards.

References

• 'Pye', East Anglia Network (1997) Retrieved May 15, 2005

External links

• Pye Telecom History
• G8EPR Pye Museum
• Sepura
• Team Simoco
• Artevea
• Simoco in Australia
• Simoco in India
• Simoco in Italy
• Simoco in Indonesia
• Photographs of a demo of Pye TV in Mons (Belgium) in 1947 can be seen here
• Pye Story - Waihi, New Zealand
• The Museum of the Broadcast Television Camera, Pye pages