S.G. Brown 'Classic' hand microphone with PTT

[Sparks]

I recently bought this microphone for the very reasonable sum of £5.00. It's clearly had some use (although the cable looks relatively new) but is fully functional. Does anyone know if these microphones were produced for a specific item of equipment or were they just a general purpose mic? Thankyou.

PS. The other side of the mic has a magnet for mounting on a metal surface.

[G6Tanuki]

The curly-cord and what looks like a PTT switch makes me think it was intended for something like two-way radio, a paging/public-address system or similar.

[Sparks]

I was thinking similar G6. It's whether it's anything more specific or for a particular manufacturer I was driving at.

[McMurdo]

Looks like something used on a coach trip!

[m0cemdave]

Judging by the ports behind the capsule, it's probably designed for close talking in a noisy environment.

There don't seem to be any old SG Brown catalogues on line, from which it might be identified.

[Sparks]

Thanks all. I've seen similar types - not necessarily SGB - plugged into comms consoles in ATC towers.
It certainly gives good reproduction; plugged it into a Eagle PA/Intercom amp and it was nice and clear.

[David G4EBT]

I'd always mistakenly assumed that S.G. Brown was most noted for making headphones initially for crystal sets and later valves, and other radio related products in the 1920s, through to WW2, and probably no longer existed. In fact the company was well established before WW1, supplied thousands of headphones during WW1 before broadcasting even existed. Down the years, it became far more noted for manufacturing gyro-compasses and other Defence products, largely for the Admiralty. here's a snippet of it's early years:

1906: Sidney George Brown, electrical engineer and inventor, formed the Telegraph Condenser Co to manufacture and market his inventions.

1910/11: He formed a new company, S. G. Brown Ltd, to manufacture telephone equipment. With his wife's assistance, he designed a telephone relay, an improved receiver, and an effective loudspeaker (the Browns being first to use this name for the device). He had a small workshop in Houndsditch for the manufacture of the type-A reed headphone which became famous throughout the world.

1914: His businesses had expanded to employ over a thousand people. At the outbreak of war, there was no British manufacturer of gyro compasses, which had been imported from Germany. Brown set out to remedy the deficiency. During this work also devised a new method of damping the oscillation set up in a compass by a change in course called ‘liquid ballistic control’.

Many thousands of the type-A headphones were being manufactured for use during WW1.

With the advent of radio broadcasting the company manufactured crystal receivers and, later, valve receivers. The company also manufactured horn loudspeakers and expanded greatly into the manufacture of various types of headphones. The company also produced moving coil loudspeakers, hearing aids and sound-on-disc recordings for talking pictures.

https://collection.sciencemuseumgrou...-brown-limited

https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/S._G._Brown

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S_G_Brown_Ltd

So how come S G Brown Ltd manufactured that microphone, which looked to me to be from the 1970s era when similar small microphones were commonplace with cassette recorders/players, and dictaphones?

I think the answer is that the microphone dates from when Racal Electronics acquired the communications division of S. G. Brown from Hawker Siddeley in 1972 and continued making headphones and microphones, mainly for military radios.

Racal LTD was founded in 1950, the name being derived from the names of the partners, Raymond Brown and George Calder Cunningham. I guess we know it best for it's fine communications receivers (EG 'RA17'). Racal has had a chequered history and mixed fortunes down the years to the present day.

At its height it was the third largest British electronics firm. It operated throughout 110 countries worldwide and employed over 30,000 people. It was the parent company of Vodafone, before the mobile telephony provider was sold in 1991.

Lots more here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racal

Hope that's of interest.

[Sparks]

I have another SGB comms microphone. No picture just yet but it will be familiar to many. Oval shaped, pale turquoise colour with a big red PTT on the top. Sits comfortably in the palm of one's hand and absolutely rock solid build quality. Also branded as Pye and Racal (in more recent years).

Racal, and its predecessor Amplivox, was also the manufacturer of the ubiquitous Astrolite range of headsets, found in many aircraft cockpits and control towers over several decades. They must have made thousands of them.

[Sparks]

One of these.

[G6Tanuki]

Originally Posted by Sparks

One of these.

Those oval "bar of soap" fist-mics were used extensively on Pye (PTC-series, Vanguard, Cambridge) and similar mobile two-way radios in the 50s and continued through to the mid-60s, when a much squarer 'bar of soap' appeared with the likes of the Pye Westminster.

They came in crystal, carbon and dynamic versions. Extremely tough, as you mention!