My time at Rank Bush Murphy
Reading some of the threads about Rank Bush Murphy Televisions always make me think about about my time at RBM and I thought it might be of interest to some of you to document some of my memories – so here goes.
It might help if I first tell you a bit about me.
From a very early age I have been interested in electronics, and for some reason Television and Video, in fact at the age of about fourteen my magazine of choice was Practical Television
I was one of four lads who joined Rank Bush Murphy at their Chiswick factory in the summer of 1967 on RBM’s apprenticeship scheme. This involved a year at an engineering training centre, day release to a local college, and time in the major departments until the grand age of twenty one, after which (with luck), you would be offered a full time job.
RBM at that time had factories in a few locations, Chiswick in West London was the place where the development took place. Plymouth was the production factory and I believe there was a small factory at Redruth Cornwall, where tuners were made, and I think there was also an office or small factory at Borehamwood, where service manuals were dispatched from.
The Chiswick factory was an old two story building located in an industrial area and consisted of a very well equipped machine shop, a test gear department, marketing and sales departments, a well-stocked technical library with a full time librarian, a staffed first aid room and a large drawing office. The technical departments (known as ‘laboratories’) were the Components Lab, Mechanical Lab, Radio and Audio lab and of course, the TV Labs
The Machine shop was used to make prototype items to support the engineering departments, it was not used for production, only development or prototype items. There was a good collection of lathes and milling machines, a Vacuum Forming Machine and the usual drilling machines, metal cutters and benders. There was also a very well stocked stores, the like of which I have never seen in any other company. IIRC the machine shop employed about 14 full time fitters.
The Test Gear department designed and built bespoke equipment that was used on the production lines or needed by the engineering departments. They were also responsible for calibration and repair of all the test equipment used in the company.
The Components lab was a gateway to all the major component manufactures. They had several environmental chambers (ovens and freezers) that were used to ‘life test’ components, often to destruction. They also maintained a very comprehensive electronic component stores.
As the name suggests, the mechanical lab dealt with all things mechanical from mounting brackets and system switches to radio tuning drives and product transportation packaging (cardboard boxes).
The drawing office was split into radio and television with the television side being much larger than the radio side. This was back in the day when all drawing were done by hand. The Office print room had two Heliographic copying machines, one of which could print up to A0 size.
Finally, the Television Labs. There were actually three of them, one for monochrome and one for colour. The third lab was known as “the advanced TV Lab” and was in another part of the building that was surrounded with blacked out windows and a locked door. I know they worked closely with the BBC’s development departments, but apart from rumours about flat screen television, I never did find out what went on in there. It was headed by Bernard Rogers who (it was rumoured,) had played a part in the development of the PAL colour system. Unfortunately, I can find nothing to substantiate this on the net. I would be interested If anyone can throw any light on this.
Each engineer had very spacious work bay that consisted of a large work bench with cupboards and drawers, and a desk at the side for paperwork. In fact, the work area per man was very generous as I found out later in my working career. The monochrome development team consisted of seven engineers and two project leaders and a similar number in the colour lab.
In the next part (in a few weeks) I will talk about the projects I worked on while at RBM.
Dave
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