Jackson Brothers, commonly known as Jackson Bros, was a
firm
A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared go ...
known for its dominance of the
variable capacitor
A variable capacitor is a capacitor whose capacitance may be intentionally and repeatedly changed mechanically or electronically. Variable capacitors are often used in L/C circuits to set the resonance frequency, e.g. to tune a radio (therefo ...
(or 'tuning condenser') market in the early days of
radio broadcasting
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...
. Founded in 1923 to provide tuning capacitors for the growing home construction market, by the Fillmore family in Lewisham, England, (there never was a pair of people involved who were Jackson brothers!) the firm went on to manufacture a huge variety of the, mostly air-spaced, two or three gang, variable capacitors, that were at the heart of all radio receivers until the invention of the
varicap
In electronics, a varicap diode, varactor diode, variable capacitance diode, variable reactance diode or tuning diode is a type of diode designed to exploit the voltage-dependent capacitance of a reverse-biased p–n junction.
Applications
Va ...
diode, which replaced them, especially in
VHF designs, and the frequency-synthesizer front ends that are now found in most
radio receivers.
History
Early beginnings
The money for the enterprise came largely from Grandfather Fillmore, who wanted to call the company ‘John Bull and Company’, but other relatives opposed this, and it was settled that Jackson Brothers sounded suitably British.
Production of Capacitor kits began in a shop in Soho for home assembly. After a short while it was realised that it would be better to sell assembled components but through 1923/24 business was erratic. In 1932 the firm was converted to a Private Limited Company and moved to a site near London Bridge Station, from where
Bush
Bush commonly refers to:
* Shrub, a small or medium woody plant
Bush, Bushes, or the bush may also refer to:
People
* Bush (surname), including any of several people with that name
**Bush family, a prominent American family that includes:
*** ...
,
EKCO
EKCO (from Eric Kirkham Cole Limited) was a British electronics company producing radio and television sets from 1924 until 1960. Expanding into plastic production for its own use, Ekco Plastics produced both radio cases and later domestic plasti ...
,
Murphy and
Sobell were supplied. The range then included direct drive and slow motion capacitors that incorporated epicyclic ball-bearing reduction units. The ‘Dilecon’ solid dielectric variable tuning capacitors were widely used for by constructors of
TRF and Crystal set receivers, while air-spaced tuning capacitors which offered greater stability and accuracy were usually used in
superhet receivers.
World War 2
At the outbreak of War in 1939, Jackson Bros, and
Wingrove & Rogers
Wingrove & Rogers Ltd of Kirkby, Liverpool, England, was formed in 1919 by Major Charles William Wingrove M.C. (1889-1976) and William Rogers (b1891) to manufacture control gear for electric vehicles. In the 1920s they diversified into variable ...
were major suppliers of capacitors and tuning components for the Services but in 1941 the Jackson Bros factory was destroyed in a fire-bombing raid. The firm then moved to
Waddon
Waddon () is a neighbourhood in the London Borough of Croydon, at the western end of the town of Croydon. The area borders the London Borough of Sutton.
History
It is not known when the manor of Croydon was granted to the See of Canterbury, b ...
,
Croydon
Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...
, at the site of the old Beddington Airfield and part of the site remained in use for
Research and Development until 1992.
After the War sales of new radio parts fell as huge amounts of
War Surplus
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular ...
radio equipment became cheaply available, and the relationship with Wingrove & Rogers reverted to normal competition.
Purchase Tax made home sales less attractive and business was difficult for a few years, until a move to sell overseas resulted in sales agents being appointed in the
Netherlands
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,
Denmark
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, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
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, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
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, establish ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
,
Australia and
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, where variable capacitors became known as JBs.
See also
*
History of radio
The early history of radio is the history of technology that produces and uses radio instruments that use radio waves. Within the timeline of radio, many people contributed theory and inventions in what became radio. Radio development began a ...
*
Crystal radio
*
Variable capacitor
A variable capacitor is a capacitor whose capacitance may be intentionally and repeatedly changed mechanically or electronically. Variable capacitors are often used in L/C circuits to set the resonance frequency, e.g. to tune a radio (therefo ...
External links
Jackson Brother's Story
History of radio
Electronics companies of the United Kingdom
{{Radio-stub