Papers of A H Midgley and Midgley Harmer Ltd, including personal papers, product information (loudspeakers, sound systems, organs, audiometers, solenoids, timers, cigarette lighters, toys, guitar pickups, tape recorders and motors), drawings, correspondence, technical files, financial records, staff records and photographs.
Language
English.
Admin. history/Biography
Albert Henry Midgley was born in Huddersfield on 29 November 1881, the son of an engineer who had become a silk mercer. Midgley showed an uncanny aptitude for engineering and at the age of 12 he won a scholarship to Bradford Technical College, now Bradford University, where he proved to be a brilliant scholar, with a particular interest in the production of light and motion by electrical means. He had to leave Bradford Technical College as a day student at the age of 15 and was apprenticed to A J Harris & Co, electrical engineers. He continued his studies at Bradford Techncial College as a night student. In 1898 he left Bradford for London and worked first for George Ayland and Company as a designer of motors and ventilation fans for use in factories and mines, then in 1901 for GEC as an estimator and designer of dynamos and switch board equipment for generating stations.
While working for GEC he turned his attention to the problem of lighting for motor cars, and the production of a dynamo small enough to be mounted on a car and which would provide a constant source of energy irrespective of the speed of the vehicle. This led to his first patent in 1902, and 2 further patents in 1903. Midgley left GEC and in 1904 joined Reed's Electrical and Company which made dynamos and motors for industry. In 1907 he joined a German firm, Plute Schule, as manager and designer of small dynamos. This gave him the opportunity to travel to France and Germany to study developments there. He formed a company with Plute Schule to develop his patents which now included a design for electrical transmission for cars, a device for driving sewing machines and small lathes, and a domestic knife cleaning machine. This association was not successful and in 1908 he joined Paul Behren's of Berlin, where he worked as a designer of small motors and dynamos and was their sole agent in Britain and the Colonies. He also obtained an agency agreement with H P Brookes & Co of Birmingham for the sale of motors and dynamos which they manufactured.
In July 1910, Midgley formed a syndicate with Charles Vandervell, and William Proctor, a buyer for the Daimler Car Company and a friend of Vandervell's, to manufacture Midgley's electrical transmission gear and dynamo and develop Vandervell's idea of an accumulator powering an electric lighting set for cars. The firm was known as C A Vandervell and Company and was sold to the firm Joseph Lucas Ltd in 1921. Midgley made arrangements with H P Brookes & Co to manufacture his dynamo for Vandervell's. Orders came in at a great rate as the system was in great demand from the motor industry and the manufacturers of lighting systems for trains. Production was moved to new works in Acton. Midgley continued to develop new products, taking out 28 patents from 1910 to 1914 and designing a starter which for the first time enabled the car engine to be started efficiently electrically, putting CAV in a dominant position in supplying the motor car and heavy vehicle industry by the outbreak of war in 1914, at which date the new factory in Acton employed 2000 people. Midgley resigned from the company in 1921.
During the First World War Midgley was seconded to the Ministry of Munitions to develop inventions for the war effort. His inventions ranged from fuses for bombs, mortars and hand grandes to gyroscopes and signalling equipment for aeroplanes. .
Midgley developed a completey new system of car lighting and starting in 1921. He also developed ideas in the areas of organ building, radio and the production of musical sounds by electrical means. He was granted 8 patents in 1921, and in 1923 set up a new company with J Stone and Company of Deptford to manufacture car lighting and starting components. The firm was called the Midgley Car Lighting Company. This company failed under commercial pressure from Joseph Lucas Ltd and Midgley again looked in new directions.
Midgley had installed in his home an organ, which he designed and had built by the firm of John Compton Ltd. Now he turned his attention to designing an organ for the firm suitable for use in cinemas and theatres, establishing a new company called John Compton Organ Company in partnership with John Compton and Reginald and Pickering Walker, directors of J W Walker and Sons Ltd another organ building firm. Sales of the new organ boomed and the company prospered. Midgley was associated with this company as technical director until 1937. He also developed an electric organ which was patented in June 1931, and manufactured by Midgley Leighton Ltd until taken over by a new company formed by the Walker brothers and Albert called the Electrophonic Organ Company Ltd. This in turn was taken over by Midgley Electrical Instruments in 1939 when the Walker brothers pulled out of the company. However, the company closed at the onset of the Second World War.
At the same time Midgley had also turned his attention to improving radio receivers. Between 1924 and 1927 he was granted 13 patents for radio valves, receivers and loudspeakers, and in cooperation with Auto Sundries Ltd produced a 5 valve radio set called the Radio Sun, or Midgley's Mystery Portable, as no-one could explain how it worked. A single valve set was manufactured by EdiSwan using multi-electrode valves developed by Midgley and was sold under the name of the One Der Radio set. This venture was brought to an end when EdiSwan were bought by British Thomson Houston and the agreement wth Midgley was terminated. Midgley also worked on an amplifier and loudspeakers which he sold as a high quality radio gramophone. This was also manfactured by Midgley Leighton Ltd until 1933 when the company changed its name to Midgley Harmer Ltd. He also invented a microphone and sound recording equipment for use in the film industry.
During the Second World War Midgley Harmed Ltd designed and manufactured fuses and bombs, including the W bomb used by the RAF, and the fuse for the Barnes-Wallis Tallboy bomb. Following the Second World War Midgley first moved into toy production, and then into the production of timing switches for washing machines and cookers, and the automobile industry to control traffic signalling indicators, mainly supplied to Trico Folberth Ltd. Midgley continued to design and invent, being granted 28 patents between 1947 and 1958 for timing devices and motors. He worked right until his death on 1 October 1961.
