Radio Man: the remarkable rise and fall of C.O. Stanley (IEE History of Technology Series, 30)

Charles Stanley turned PYE Radio into a multinational company with thirty thousand employees that contributed to Britain's victory in World War II. PYE Radio went on to become a world leader in mobile communications, helping shape the modern media age. However, by 1966 Stanley had lost both his company and his reputation. This researched text is written within the broad context of the political, technological and business changes of the time, and shows how a very ambitious businessman was brought down by the qualities that made him so successful.Also available:Restoring Baird's Image - ISBN 9780852967959 Technical History of the Beginnings of Radar - ISBN 9780863410437The Institution of Engineering and Technology is one of the world's leading professional societies for the engineering and technology community. The IET publishes more than 100 new titles every year; a rich mix of books, journals and magazines with a back catalogue of more than 350 books in 18 different subject areas including: -Power & Energy -Renewable Energy -Radar, Sonar & Navigation -Electromagnetics -Electrical Measurement -History of Technology -Technology Management Radio Man tells the story of C.O. Stanley, the unconventional Irishman who acquired Pye Radio at the beginning of the broadcasting age. Although he started with little experience and even less money, he was to make Pye a major player in the British electronics industry - only to crash it spectacularly forty years later. From the romance of early radio to the birth of the mobile, Stanley and Pye were players in some of the key moments of twentieth century Britain. His obsession with the infant medium of television allowed Pye to provide the equipment that put radar into planes in time for the Battle of Britain. His energy also drove Pye's pioneering work on the proximity fuse - work that would revolutionise antiaircraft warfare - and the company's manufacture of the war's most successful army radios. In the 1950s Stanley led the offensive against the BBC's monopoly of television in a battle that split the British establishment. When his son, John, took Pye into mobile radio Stanley fought and defeated the bureaucrats who then controlled Britain's airwaves. Stanley's loss of Pye in 1966 illustrated British industry's inability to withstand foreign competition. It also brought tragedy. Stanley himself escaped with honour more or less intact, but left his son to face public humiliation on his own. This revealing and meticulously researched text is written within the broad context of the political, technological and business changes of the time, and shows how a very ambitious businessman was brought down by the qualities that made him so successful. This book tells the story of C.O. Stanley, the unconventional Irishman who acquired Pye Radio at the beginning of the broadcasting age. Though he started with little experience and even less money, he was to make Pye a major player in the British electronics industry - only to crash it spectacularly forty years later. From the romance of early radio to the birth of the mobile, Stanley and Pye were players in some of the key moments of 20th century Britain. His obsession with the infant medium of television allowed Pye to provide the equipment that put radar into planes in time for the Battle of Britain. His energy also drove Pye's pioneering work on the proximity fuse - work that would revolutionize anti-aircraft warfare - and the company's manufacture of the war's most successful army radios. In the 1950s Stanley led the offensive against the BBC's monopoly of television in a battle that split the British establishment. When his son, John, took Pye into mobile radio Stanley fought and defeated the bureaucrats who then controlled Britain's airwaves. Stanley's loss of Pye in 1966 illustrated British industry's inability to withstand foreign competition. It also brought tragedy. Stanley himself escaped with honor more or less intact, but left his son to face public humiliation on his own. This revealing and meticulously researched text is written within the broad context of the political, technological and business changes of the time, and shows how a very ambitious businessman was brought down by the qualities that made him so successful. In the late 1920s, John Logie Baird — considered to be the inventor of television — was experimenting with “phonovision” in which he attempted to record television signals onto gramophone discs. His efforts were mostly unsuccessful and this technology largely forgotten, until the 1980s when the author came across the discs and set about restoring them with modern computer-based techniques. The recovery of these images gives us a fascinating glimpse of what the earliest television was like (before official TV services started). As well as helping to explain a poorly understood period of television history, this unique book sheds new light on the activities of John Logie Baird and the definition and invention of television itself.

Author Biography: Donald F McLean, CEng FIEE, is European Director of a consulting practice in a multi-national professional services company. His professional career started in R&D but after several years the attraction of management made him move into the professional services sector. It is in his spare time that he has been pursuing his interests in restoring the earliest-known recordings of television and in communicating through the media these dramatic findings, as a result of which he is now recognized as a "technological archaeologist."

Radar has become an essential factor in air and sea travel, has affected all areas of military science and, most important of all perhaps, has considerably influenced the progress of electronic engineering. This book is the first general history of radar to be published, and one which covers the independent but more or less simultaneous emergence of radar in several countries in the 1930s. Some of the earliest proposals for the use of radio waves to detect objects at a distance are first dealt with. The narrative ranges from the concepts of Nikola Tesler in 1900 and the experiments of Christian Hulsmeyer in 1904 right through, in chronological order, to the commercially sponsored experiments of the pre-war days. The historical events and the military influences, which shaped the ultimate development of radar in each country, are then considered. The book also sets out to explain the basic principles of radar and, where applicable, historical aspects of the evolution of these principles are dealt with. The study, while underlining the significance of the cavity magnetron, purposely restricts itself to the cavity magnetron era of radar. Abundant references, which could facilitate further research, are given. Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Conversion table......Page 12 Prologue: the execution......Page 14 1 An Irish family......Page 20 2 Birth of a salesman......Page 38 3 Radio man......Page 62 4 C.O. goes to war......Page 104 5 The fighting factory......Page 152 6 Boom and bureaucrats......Page 172 7 Liberating television......Page 216 8 West Briton......Page 252 9 Danger years......Page 274 10 The palace revolution......Page 316 11 Son and father......Page 340 Source materials......Page 356 Index......Page 364 The book sets out to explain the basic principles of radar and, where applicable, historical aspects of the evolution of these principles are dealt with. The study, while underlining the significance of the cavity magnetron, purposely restricts itself to the pre-cavity magnetron era of radar.