Murphy Radio was a British manufacturer of radios and televisions based in

Welwyn Garden City Welwyn Garden City ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London. It was the second garden city in England (founded 1920) and one of the first new towns (designated 1948). It is unique in being both a garden city and a new town and ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Murphy Radio was founded in 1929 by Frank Murphy and E.J. Power as a volume manufacturer of home radio sets. Its factories were in the

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

town of

, starting with fewer than 100 employees. Murphy also had a manufacturing facility in

Islandbridge Island Bridge (), formerly Sarah or Sarah's Bridge, is a road bridge spanning the River Liffey, in Dublin, Ireland which joins the South Circular Road to Conyngham Road at the Phoenix Park. Island Bridge and the surrounding area (often known ...

, Dublin, Ireland. EMER TELS F410-1 - 1

The company played an important role during World War II, designing and manufacturing radio sets for British Armed Forces use, chiefly the

Wireless Set No. 38 The Wireless Set No. 38 was a High frequency (HF) portable man-pack radio transceiver used by the British Army during World War II. Designed by Murphy Radio, it was a five-valve set covering 7.4 to 9 MHz and powered by a large dry cell ba ...

. After the war, Murphy used its military experience to design and build sets for Naval use, principally the 'B40' series for the British Commonwealth Navies. The company also produced the Larkspur era A41 VHF manpack transceiver for the British Army during the 1950s. Murphy himself left the company during 1937 and went on to found another company called, perhaps unwisely, 'FM Radio'. He died aged 65, in 1955.The Setmakers by Keith Geddes and Gordon Bussey () Although the company became well known for the manufacture of

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

sets, it was eventually amalgamated with Bush Radio in 1962. The brand 'Murphy' has survived, but as a licensee for Far Eastern electronics. In 2012, the brand gained wide attention in India due to the movie ''

Barfi! ''Barfi!'' is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy drama film directed by Anurag Basu and produced by Ronnie Screwvala and Siddharth Roy Kapur under UTV Motion Pictures. The film stars Ranbir Kapoor as the eponymous lead, alongside ...

''. A vintage Murphy radio also appears in the opening of the 2012 film ''

Life of Pi ''Life of Pi'' is a Canadian philosophical novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist is Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, India who explores issues of spirituality and metaphysics from an early age. He ...

''.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Murphy Radio
– Dave Grant History of radio Electronics companies of the United Kingdom Defunct manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Welwyn Hatfield Electronics companies established in 1929 Electronics companies disestablished in 1962 1929 establishments in England 1962 disestablishments in England Radio manufacturers