History of 'Ever Ready'

[Skywave]

The births, marriages and deaths of various companies, associated with electronics, over the last 50 years or so, fascinates me. I find that discovering their histories adds real meaning to me when I am working with their products in any capacity.
In that vein, I found that this extract about 'Ever Ready' - the battery manufacturer - really interesting. So I thought I'd share it with you all.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/busine...94225.html

Please feel free to discuss and comment - but please do not transgress the forum rules (in particular Rule 1) in so doing!   
As per . . . .
http://golbornevintageradio.org/forum/an....php?aid=3

Al. / April 23rd. //

[camallison]

The whole article epitomises what happened to many British icons. Chronic bad top management, arrogance, and eventually savage cuts. I was made redundant twice in that period and experienced it for myself.

Interestingly though, Varta went through a similar boom and bust in the late 90s. Their R&D section was split, with the lithium polymer boys doing an employee buyout. They set up a business in Leipzig called Ionity which was later subsumed into Danionics, which itself was gobbled up by Cameron Sino Technology - everything being shipped to mainland China. I suppose Varta is now seen as a top producer of heavy traction and leisure batteries. Even their consumer batteries are no longer really made by them, only labelled.

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be!

Colin

[Joe]

The births, marriages and deaths of various companies, associated with electronics, over the last 50 years or so, fascinates me.

Me too, Al.

I'm currently reading a biography of C O Stanley, of Pye fame, recommended by Alan B. I've been looking to see if there's a similar tome on Stanley Mullard but there doesn't seem to be.

- Joe

[pwdrive]

Head in the sand management comes to mind as does cheap labour and the shipping container.
I remember the Japs making inroads in the R&TV trade with their better quality and more reliable products, I remember as a TV engineer that one of the most common faults/callouts was EHT arcing around the CRT's final anode connection, the reason why was simple, crappy polythene EHT caps that only fitted where they touched, the Japs used some kind of silicon based cap that sucked on to the CRT like nothing else, simples.
The attitude of many manufactures in this country was "If it ain't broke don't fix it" Well it was broke and they were warned that it was broke but they chose to ignore it.

Lawrence.

[camallison]

Stanley Mullard - there is a brief biography on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_R._Mullard

and he is mentioned in this book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss...lias%3Daps&field-keywords=0-9517042-0-6

I too would like to read more if you come up with anything Joe.

Colin

[Kalee20]

Interesting article - but not a mention of Ever Ready radio production!

[pwdrive]

http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/Museum/E...rReady.htm

Lawrence.

[Joe]

If Every Ready didn't make zinc-chloride batteries until the launch of Silver Seal was was the difference between SPx and HPx batteries?

They also made a C11 "For Transistor Clocks" and a special HP7, the number of which I can't recall, for calculators. Presumably these were designed for long life at low drain.

- Joe

[Kalee20]

They also made a C11 "For Transistor Clocks" and a special HP7, the number of which I can't recall, for calculators. Presumably these were designed for long life at low drain.

The C11, definitely yes - long shelf life effectively as the clock takes peanuts.

I'm not so sure about the calculator though - I'd have thought it would be quite heavy drain type for LEDs or vacuum fluorescent displays.

[Joe]

They were black with a rectangular silver coloured panel with "Calculator" printed inside in black.

- Joe