CABARET SHOW BY WIRELESS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 163, 28 July 1937, Page 14

CABARET SHOW BY WIRELESS

t Prime Minister at Grasnophone Factory PRODUCTION PLANT A cabaret show taking plaee miles away was one of the many features of interest seen by the Hon. M. J. Savage, Prime Minister, on his reeent visit to the factories of His Master 's Voice at Hayes, Middlesex, England. Tho ' ' turn" — an item in the regular transmissions broadcast from the Alexandra Palace, London — was -viewed on one of the latest His Master 's Voice Telovision, receivers, and Mr. Savage oxpressed his surprise and admiration at the clearnesa of the picture. The party accompanying Mr. Savage included Mr. W. J. Jordan, High Commissioner for New Zealand, Mr. C. A. Jeffrey, private secretary to the Prime Minister, Mrs. Jeffrey, Mr. H. T. Drew, publicity officer# and Mrs. Berendsen. The visitors had been welcomed to Hayes by Sir Louis Sterling, managing director of Electric and Musical lndustries, the controlling company of His Master 's Voice, and were conducted on their tour of the factories by Mr. W. T. ■Forse, controller of ..factories. The group of His Master 's Voice factories extend over an area of sixty Hlcres and form a veritable township in itself. During peak periods as many as fifteen thousand skilled workers are c%gaged in the making of His Master 's Voice radio, . fadio-grainophonee, . gramophones and gramophone records. There are six main blocks of buildings which consist of the machlne factory, the cabinet factory, tho record factory and stores, the assembly buihling, the research laboratories and the administrative officeS. , The first building inspected by the distinguished visitors waa the machine factory, a huge strueture of six floors, housing what is considered by experts the finest plant of machinery in Europe. In the punch press department iii. Savage was greatly interested and impressed by the rowa and rows of huge presses — over a hundred all told — some of which exert a pressUre of a thousand tons in fashioning such things as gramophone turn-tables^ basic radio chassie, and many other parts from sheet motai, with accuracy to the thousandtn of an inch. Two Million. Parts Daily. Oil another floor df this building is the automatic screw department, where batteries of lathes and cutting machines take in bars of metal at one end and pour out at t'he other end a ceaseless stream of brightly-shining nutsj bolts; and serewe. On other floors the . production and partial assembly of the smaller radio and gramophone components takes place. At peak periods two million parts a day are manufacturod in this one building, from wnich tney are conveyed to tho main assembly building. , On the way to the assembly buildiug the party passed through tho coil winding department, where the rapidlyspinning bobbins on '250 machines give the impression of a Lanca;s^1irc eottoumill. Fifty thousand ' coils a day are wound here for tuniug ■components, transformers, loudspealccrs, and gramophone f'pick-ups." That takes 400,000 miles of wire, or enough to go around the world sixteen timosl Such figures^ surely, give some idea of the immense popularity of His Master 's Voice ra-dio-gramophones and radios. In the main assembly building the buildmg up of a complete radio reeeivcr from a ehassis by the addi.tion of hundreds of components is seon, and also Ihe stringent tests by means of a variety of intricato electrical goar that all ehassis undergo at the various stages of assembly. Tho "life story" of Ihe cabinets iu which the ehassis are mounted was followed with great interest — beginning with tho huge pilee of carefully seasoned wood in the timber yards, theu to the . automatic drying kilns, and the saw mil s where saws of all sizes and descriptions "break down" the timber into suitable lengths — to the cabinet factory where tho processes of construction are carried out and the completed cabinets are etained and polished. While many operations here are performed by machinery, there is much done by hand, for no machinery alone can give that superb finish — that evidenee of work- of the finest craftemen — that is characteristic of His Master 's Voice cabinets. The tour oyer, the visitors took tea in the board.room, over the fire-place of which is the original painting by Francis Barraud, E.A., of the fox-ter-rier listening to the gramophone of early design. This picture is now known all the world over as the famous His Mabter's Voice trademark. At the conclusion of tho tour, Mr. Savage expressed his admiration for the care and skill that went into the production of His Master 's Voico products.

He was also very pleased to know that such a large number of these Britishmade Tadios and radio-gramophon.es were destined' for the Dominions and colonies, including New Zealand, where, he said, the namo His Master 's Voice was as much a household word and had as high a reputation as in England itself.— P.B.A.