Wright & Weaire Ltd.
Owned by Joseph Wright & Thomas Weaire is famous for it's tape deck mechanism that formed the nucleus of the Ferrograph, Vortexion, and Clarke & Smith range of tape recorders. Wright & Weaire Ltd or WW as they became known, started manufacturing radio components from a factory in Tottenham, London in 1922. Long before the concept of the tape recorder was invented.
Richard Merrick started work with Wright & Weaire Ltd. in 1928 as a tester and inspector of components, but by 1935 he had achieved the position of Sales Manager.
Another young man who started at Wright & Weaire in those early days was Ernest Niblett. Acknowledged as the "Architect" of the company's post-war success, he became joint managing director with Richard Merrick.
Left: Front cover of an early
Wearite Components catalogue
Above: Wearite Wireless World Advert 1952
Right: Wearite Wireless World Advert 1954
Two examples from the Wearite Component range.
Left: Wafer Switch
Right: Tuning Coil
In 1933 Wright & Weaire Ltd., began importing a new design of Super heterodyne coil for radio tuning systems from Gabriel Suchestow of Vienna.
The demand from amateur radio enthusiasts for these products was such that a small factory was set up to manufacture them in the UK.
Gabriel Suchestow sent over his nephew Theodor Kolb to take charge commercially and their chief engineer George Nissen to supervise the engineering and production of the product.
This enterprise was a great success and everyone concerned prospered from the venture. However, Theodor Kolb was recalled to Vienna and George Nissen left the UK when rumours of European unrest became rife.
Between 1940/45, Wright & Weaire Ltd., manufactured a range of plugs and sockets that went into the making of the "Williamson" Aircraft Cameras, in addition to a vast number of parts for war planes including the De Havilland "Mosquito".
Other items manufactured by the company were electrical devices for field radios. Most notable of these was the "VIBRATOR" powered from a DC battery, it chopped the current derived and fed it into a transformer to step it up into an AC voltage, for use by portable field radio equipment. This produced a high voltage AC, from a low voltage source.
By the end of the war Joseph Wright & Thomas Weaire announced their decision to retire and offered the company to Richard Merrick, Ernest Niblett and Walter Berridge (the company secretary) on advantageous terms and they accepted this offer without hesitation.
The end of hostilities also put demands on many companies to find new markets, and put into use the advances in technology that often result from research done for military purposes.
Miniaturization and tropicalisation were two of the things that "WW" had been involved in during the war, and which became standard practice in products from then on.
The government of the day impressed on every manufacturer the need to produce goods for export to earn money that would enable Britain to be rebuilt after a costly war effort.
This resulted in Mr. Merrick paying a visit to Paris, where French manufacturers who had been in similar markets to Wright & Weaire, who were producing new products of advanced designs.
One of these manufacturers was "Bobinages Renard" with whom the exchange of certain processes and designs were negotiated. An exchange of visits by English manufacturers to French counterparts and by the French to English factories resulted in exhibitions of their manufacture in both London and Paris.
Louis Fishoff
Louis had the foresight to recognize the importance of tape recording as a new growth market, and finally succeeded in convincing Richard Merrick to investigate the possibility of producing a tape recorder.
Right: French Ferrograph enthusiast Daniel Pascaud (1970). Daniel recently saw the above acknowledgement to Louis Fishoff, and being well acquainted with Louis thought the picture below would be of interest.
Louis Fishoff's insistence was such that Richard Merrick passed his thoughts onto Ernest Niblett, who confessed that he had been interested in this technology for some time, so the decision was made then and there to pursue the matter immediately.
The result, the Wearite Tape Deck.
Left:
On the right Louis Fishoff, next to a young Daniel (1962) taken at a Sound exhibition.
Sadly, Louis Fishoff died in 1970.
My thanks to Daniel for the above pictures and information
G100 s/n 18 courtesy of Bob Marriott
Subsequently, it was also sold to the Defence Services of Denmark, Holland, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand, used by the Foreign Office, SHAPE and the education ministry of Red China.
The BBC installed the Ferrograph in several of their outside broadcast vehicles and it became the chosen instrument for the Colonial Broadcasting Plan, being installed in all the radio stations of the Empire and Commonwealth.
A reality that proved itself not only a profitable commercial enterprise, but gave prosperity to the directors, our executives and the workforce in an area where unemployment had been rife for so long."
Model "D" First real domestic available Ferrograph
Pictures courtesy of Mrs. Hilda Lane
In parallel with these official purchases, a number of Ferrograph recorders were made available in the domestic market (1948) via chosen dealers across the UK and its reputation was assured for many years.
By now the company had outgrown the Tottenham site and it became necessary to find a bigger factory.
Eventually they moved to a Development Area in South Shields, where a new modern factory was built and equipped with help and advice from Mr. S.J Noel-Brown who then held a high ranking position in the Ministry of Aircraft Production.
His help and experience were greatly appreciated and certainly made the transition smoother, speedier and less stressful. The whole exercise was completed in weeks rather than months or years as would normally have been the case.
The closure and sale of the Tottenham factory produced a number of problems. Non of the senior management from Tottenham wanted to move from London to the North East in spite of, or as a result of being taken for a look at the area one weekend. As Wright & Weaire had always produced their own machine tools, this proved quite a problem.
However, this set-back was overcome to some extent by setting up a small tool-making and component factory run by "Wright & Weaire's two top designers Renard and Dare, who were made Managing directors and from whose names the company of "Rendar" was founded.
Rendar manufactured high quality plugs and sockets for the electronics industry.
Ultimately, Rendar moved from Tottenham to a new 20,000 sq. foot factory in Burgess Hill, Sussex, were they prospered for many years until the death of Renard, at which time the company was bought outright by the Ferrograph Company.
When the move to South Shields had been affected, Ernest Niblett opted to move there, to organise and run the factory, while Walter Berridge opened a London office in Sloane Street, Knightsbridge, from which the company's sales and accountancy affairs were conducted.
When after a few years Walter Berridge decided to retire, so Richard Merrick and Ernest Niblett bought his shares, the accounts department was then moved to South Shields.
The London offices once again in Sloane Street, were expanded by adding a showroom and demonstration facility.
These statistics cover the years 1955-1966, and models Series 2-6.
A look at the chart on the left shows that initially Ferrograph had steady growth from 1955 - 1960. Sales then fell-off a little and the introduction of the Series 5's in 1962 started them on the upward path again.
However, the advent of imports from Japan and the fierce competition that developed in the Reel to Reel market saw a gradual fall in profits, only slightly revived by the introduction of the Six series in 1966.
Ferrograph Profits 1955-1966
By today's standard these amounts are quite modest, but Ferrograph were a labour intensive
company, all recorders were hand assembled and tested.
One of the reasons for the high cost of their machines, which made them uncompetitive when the Japanese
manufacturers came into the market. They were also very slow to acknowledge the changes in use and other technologies.
Soon after the inauguration of "The Ferrograph Co" and the production of the prestigious Ferrograph Tape Recorder, they realised their greatest need was for their own brand of magnetic recording tape. At that time recording tape was only produced in the USA in the quantity and quality required to fulfill this expanding market and to suit their apparatus.
Louis Fishoff, however found a recording tape manufacturer in France "PYRAL" (at Creteil on the outskirts of Paris) manufacturing magnetic tape under an American license.
Note: In the late 1970's the PYRAL/FERROGRAPH agreement which prohibited PYRAL marketing in the UK under their own name ceased. They were then free to market their own products in the UK, mainly with a range of cassette tapes.
Ferrograph then turned to Scotch for low noise tapes to suit the Series 7, 75 and Logic models.
Production of the Ferrograph range continued unabated until the late 1960's when the old Wearite deck was replaced, and the Series 7 recorder was born. The company then ventured into the production of Hi Fi equipment. The first Ferrograph hi-fi product was the F307 integrated amplifier, designed to compliment the Series 7 recorder in the late 1960's.
Adventures in Hi-Fi
Then after1968 when Ferrograph had been absorbed by the Wilmot Breeden Group it was decided to add to their hi Fi range with higher powered amplifiers, radio tuners and monitor loudspeakers.
In 1977, falling sales of the Super 7 and Logic 7 resulted in heavy financial losses for the company. In order to safeguard jobs the National Enterprise Board arranged a marriage between Ferrograph and North East Audio Ltd (NEAL). Wilmot Breedon sold the Ferrograph company for £500K. Other parts of the Wilmot Breedon were also in trouble. In January 1977, the Wayne Kerr division went onto a 3 day week "due to a run down in orders". Although short-time working at Wayne Kerr only lasted for 3 months, but the electronics division made losses of nearly £500K due partly to Ferrograph and partly to Rendar.
Neal took on the production of the whole product range except for the ARA1 cathode ray tube response unit, although this may be supplied in future under an O.E.M arrangement with Wayne Kerr.
The £3000 Studio 8 professional recorder was designed in Bognor Regis and was made under subcontract. All other Ferrograph manufacture, Neal's own factory in Newcastle, and the London sales office moved to South Shields.
With the benefit of hindsight we now know that this initiative was short lived.
From the South Shields Gazette of
28 April 1981
"Threat to audio works"
The South Shields based Neal-Ferrograph factory has been put into the hands of the receiver. But hopes were high today of a take-over at the Mowcastle Road works which employs 125 people.
Cash flow problems and the recession are blamed. The company makes high quality audio equipment-much of it for export. The company will continue to trade while Mr. Roger Spoor, a partner in the Newcastle office of accountants Arthur Young, McClelland Moores, seeks a new owner.
Today Mr. Alan Marlow, insolvency manager at the same office, said the firm had a good order book, although there had been losses with some products. He added that the firm had support-and a new order-from a Government department which it supplied. Support has also been promised from the National Enterprise Board.
"A considerable number of people have expressed interest in taking over the business. We are discussing the best way to go about approaching them". said Mr. Marlow.
Neal Ferrograph was formed in 1977 by the merger of North East Audio Ltd, and Ferrograph Ltd.
23rd July 1981
Ferrograph, makers of high-quality tape recorders and audio equipment, is now in the hands of the receiver.
"Mrs. Thatcher has agreed to hold talks at 10, Downing St on unemployment in South Shields."
Below: How the Ferrograph factory site looks now.
Totally obliterated...
Pictures courtesy of Colin Arrowsmith
