Tannoy History Brochure

COMPANY HISTORY

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Company History

The history of Tannoy goes back to the year 1926, commencing shortly after the start of broadcasting in London.
Early radio sets needed low voltage DC to heat valve filaments and high voltage DC to provide the prime power
source. This had to be supplied by batteries, either dry batteries - expensive and with a relatively short life, or lead
acid 'wet' batteries - also expensive and frequently in need of recharging. Most commercial garages at the time,
had battery chargers and this became a profitable side-line to their normal business. An engineer named Guy R.
Fountain owned one such garage, in the Dulwich area of London.

The commercial accumulator chargers in use then, employed mercury vapour rectifiers and were relatively
expensive. This prompted Guy Fountain to look into ways of simplifying the charging process, with the aim of
designing a charger more suitable for use in the home. To do this a rectifier was necessary. He perfected an
electrolytic rectifier, which was simple and reliable enough for home use. Production of this rectifier used two
different metals: tantalum and a lead alloy. Thus the name Tannoy was coined. Guy Fountain set up a tiny
factory in Dalton Road, West Norwood, London, to manufacture these rectifiers and Tannoy the company was
born.

Soon after the establishment of the factory in Dalton Road, experiments had started with moving coil loudspeakers
using DC energised magnets. This growth in the loudspeaker division of the business led to a move to larger
premises, in Tulsemere Road, during 1930.

At the same time the company became interested in the world of Public Address. Large companies such as
Marconi and Western Electric were already in the Public Address business, but their equipment was not flexible
enough to cater for mobile and portable applications in circuses and fairs. Early in 1930, the company won a
contract to supply the Bertram Mills Circus, the most famous circus in Europe, with a sound reinforcement system,
and from that time onwards Tannoy never looked back.

The need for precise evaluation of the performance of amplifiers, receivers and loudspeakers had become a vital
necessity, so the now well-established Tannoy research laboratory undertook the development of a complete range
of test and measuring equipment. In 1933, Guy Fountain produced his first discrete 2-way loudspeaker system. By
1934, Tannoy had developed a complete range of high quality microphones and loudspeakers, together with
amplifiers with power ratings between 10 - 200 watts. They had also developed measuring equipment for the
precise evaluation of their performance. Even the famous Gilbert Briggs made use of their unique measurement
facilities. In a decade, when every step forward was a step into the unknown, they had established themselves as
one of the leading audio engineering specialists in Europe. The factory was once again moved to larger premises
in 1937 to Canterbury Grove.

Between 1934 and 1939, the arrival of high power, high quality sound reinforcement and relay equipment had a
big impact on almost every facet of social and economic activity. Vocal and instrumental music could be created,
and in public life politicians and national leaders could address vast crowds. People would follow more closely,
and participate more completely in, all outdoor sporting events. Communication in the rapidly growing industrial
complexes of the time became simple and reliable. Tannoy was always at the forefront of this communications
revolution, developing its own equipment and production technology and building up a fund of knowledge and
experience, which was to prove invaluable in the days to come.

When the war came in 1939, all the Tannoy facilities were concentrated on the nations defence programme.
Communication systems for airfields, crew communication for submarines and tanks, command systems for gun
batteries and systems for the defence industries were developed and put into production. It was during the war
that the company became known for the so-called ‘Tannoy' PA System, Consequently, in 1948, ‘Tannoy’ became
a generic term in its own right, being included in the Oxford Dictionary. The phrase ‘Over the Tannoy’ is well
known to service men and women from all over the world who spent their war years based in Britain, in fact it is
still in general use in the UK today when describing Public Address announcements