Details

This interview with Sir Ivor Cohen was conducted by Maria Watkins, the wife of former Mullard Research Laboratories employee, Tom Watkins. The interview took place 29 June 1999. Sir Ivor Cohen was the Managing Director of Mullard from 1979 to 1987 having joined Mullard in 1957 in the Wholesale Division. In this 14 minute interview Sir Ivor discusses the Wholesale Division and the 'radio show' event at Earl's Court, where Mullard exhibited to businesses and the public, including displaying games produced specifically for the public exhibition which had been developed by Salfords. [Note: the Mullard Electronic Research Laboratory (MERL), was located in a single story factory building at the junction of the A23 and Cross Oak Lane in Salfords, which is why Sir Ivor refers to MERL in the interview as Salfords]. Sir Ivor was put in charge of the Mullard stand at the radio show in 1958 and he discusses his experiences at the show including the 'mice-on-ice' game. Sir Ivor discusses other work done Salfords, research laboratory work in general, and Philips research. He goes on to talk about the history of innovation at Salfords, including artifical intelligence work done in the 1980s, and the company ethos regarding research and how this changed over time. [Digital version available. The interview is covered by a single .wav file (the recording was made on side B of the cassette tape, with side A left blank). The file is 151Mb in size].