Pye Ltd was an electronics company founded in 1896 in Cambridge, England, as a manufacturer of scientific instruments. The company merged with EKCO in 1960. Philips of the Netherlands acquired a majority shareholding in 1967, and later gained full ownership.
Early growth W. G. Pye & Co. Ltd was founded in 1896 in Cambridge by William Pye, superintendent of the Cavendish Laboratory workshop, as a part-time business making scientific instruments. By the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the company employed 40 people manufacturing instruments used for teaching and research. The war increased demand for such instruments and the War Office needed experimental thermionic valves. The manufacture of such components afforded the company the technical knowledge needed to develop the first wireless receiver when the first UK broadcasts were made by the British Broadcasting Company in 1922. Instruments continued to be designed and manufactured under W G Pye Ltd, later situated in York Street Cambridge, while a separate company was started to build wireless components in a factory to become known as Cambridge Works at Church Path, Chesterton. A series of receivers made at Church Path were given positive reviews by Popular Wireless magazine. In 1924, Harold Pye, the son of the founder, and Edward Appleton, his former tutor at St John's College, Cambridge, designed a new series of receivers which proved even more saleable. In 1928 William Pye sold the company, now renamed Pye Radio Limited, to C. O. Stanley, who established a chain of small component-manufacturing factories across East Anglia. When the BBC started to explore television broadcasting, Pye found that the closest of their East Anglian offices was 25 miles outside the estimated effective 25-mile radius of the Alexandra Palace transmitter. Stanley was fascinated by the new technology and on his instructions the company built a high gain receiver that could pick up these transmissions. In 1937, a five-inch Pye television receiver was priced at 21 guineas (£22.05) and within two years the company had sold 2,000 sets at an average price of £34 (equivalent to £1,921 in 2025). The new EF50 valve from Philips enabled Pye to build this high-gain receiver, which was a tuned radio frequency (TRF) type and not a superhet type. With the outbreak of World War II, the Pye receiver using EF50 valves became a key component of many radar receivers, forming the 45 MHz Intermediate Amplifier (IF) section of the equipment. Pye went on to design and manufacture radio equipment for the British Army, including Wireless Sets No. 10, 18, 19, 22, 62 and 68. Pye was also responsible for the early development work on the proximity fuze for anti-aircraft shells.
In February 1944, Pye formed a subsidiary called Pye Telecommunications Ltd, which it intended would design and produce radio communications equipment when the war ended. This company grew to become the leading UK producer of mobile radio equipment for commercial, business, industrial, police and government purposes. Popular products included the Reporter, Cambridge, and Westminster series of VHF radio transceivers. The company also produced the PF8 UHF hand-held radios featured in episodes of The Professionals television series. After the war, Pye's B16T nine-inch table television was designed around the 12-year-old EF50 valve. It was soon superseded by the B18T, which used an extra high tension (EHT) transformer developed by German companies before the war to produce the high voltage required by the cathode-ray tube. In 1955, the company diversified into music production with Pye Records. The Independent Television Authority (ITA) started public transmissions in the same year, so Pye produced new televisions that could receive ITV, and the availability of a second channel introduced the need for tuners. Pye's VT4 tunable television was launched in March 1954 and was followed by the V14. The V14 proved to be technically unreliable and so tarnished the Pye name that many dealers transferred their allegiance to other manufacturers. This failure so damaged corporate confidence that Pye avoided being first-to-market thereafter, although they developed the first British transistor in 1956.
Pye TVT Ltd was formed to produce broadcast television equipment, including cameras, which were popular with British broadcasters including the BBC as well as achieving international sales. The early cameras were called "Photicon" and the later models by their Mk number: 2, 3, etc. The Mk7/8 solid-state monochrome cameras were the last to be produced. The Pye Mk6 image orthicon camera, known as the PC60, was the last version supplied to BBC Outside Broadcasts in 1963 for a new fleet of eight outside broadcast vans. These cameras were the first generation of outside broadcast cameras to feature a zoom lens, rather than a turret system. These three-tubed cameras were known for their reliability but were so heavy and unwieldy that they required a stretcher to carry them around the OB site. The Pye PC60 was eventually replaced by the EMI 2001 on BBC outside broadcasts but, during its lifespan, it was used on numerous high-profile productions including Wimbledon tennis and Open golf. The ITV companies purchased the Pye Mk3s, and to a lesser extent the Mk4s and Mk7s. Pye TVT never produced a colour broadcast television camera, but there was an abortive colour telecine camera; few if any were sold. The reason for this was probably the financial difficulties the company was in. In 1960, Pye acquired the Telephone Manufacturing Company.
Decline and sale
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
