The Jabez Gough Enclosure (also known as the Jabez Gough Loudspeaker, or Gough Loudspeaker) was invented in 1960 by Jabez Gough, a radio engineer, living in
Cardiff,
South Wales
South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...
. Gough devised and constructed a wooden housing for a
loudspeaker unit which importantly also acted as an acoustic chamber, rather in the way that the body of a
violin serves as a sound box for the strings. Challenging the dominant acoustic theories of his day and opposed by some major loudspeaker manufacturers, Gough decided to publish and sell his own plans for the construction of the
enclosure, which proved very popular in this do-it-yourself era and many thousands of copies were purchased by
hi-fi enthusiasts worldwide.
The Jabez Gough Enclosure was first demonstrated publicly on 19 October 1960, in
Tongwynlais
is a village and community in the north of Cardiff, Wales, north of the M4 motorway in the Taff Valley. It is notable as the location of the hillside landmark, . The population as of the 2011 census was 1871.
Toponymy
is believed to have ob ...
, South Wales. The event quickly attracted national publicity. In a front-page article for ''
The Observer'' on 27 November, Peter Schirmer declared that a Gough enclosure, fitted with a single 12-inch loudspeaker unit, "could fill St Pauls Cathedral with almost perfect high fidelity sound." Gough subsequently took a pair of his enclosures to demonstrate in
London's famous
Covent Garden Opera House. Powered by a single 15-watt valve (tube) amplifier, and fitted with two eight-inch loudspeaker units, the Jabez Gough Enclosures managed to fill the opera house with sound.
Jabez Gough
patented his invention in August 1961, but no large-scale manufacture of the units ever took place, largely because Gough himself was not interested in
commercial development
Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market.
An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct excha ...
of the idea. Nevertheless, word of the invention spread far and wide around the world; and by November 1961, the ''
Popular Science
''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...
'' magazine in America published a feature article on the phenomenon. Meanwhile, in the UK, Gough's invention was the focus for a popular BBC television programme in the 'How to Make it' series, in July 1961.
By 1973 some 35,000 copies of the construction plans for the enclosure had been sold around the world.
[''When Hi-Fi Hit the Headlines'', Doug Church, ''Audio'' Magazine, December 1973.] One specialist commentator wrote at this time that the Gough Enclosure, and its revolutionary design, was "one of the biggest controversies the hi-fi world has known."
Measuring almost six feet square, the Jabez Gough Enclosure inevitably lost popularity as portability and
miniaturisation of audio systems took hold in the eighties and nineties. Now in the modern
digital era, the Gough loudspeaker is all but extinct. However, Gough's legacy is still not quite forgotten as fifty years later his work is still the subject of public controversy, as is witnessed in a recent feature in ''Hi-Fi News''.
[''Golly Gough! A DIY Speaker for Free'', ''Hi-Fi News,'' October 2011, p122]
References
{{Reflist
External links
Gough-speakers.co.uktribute website
Loudspeakers