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Web page no 2786 22nd May 2021 BSR First picture: Daniel Mclean Mcdonald

Second picture: typical BSR deck

Third picture: Goblin teasmaid

Fourth picture: vintage Swan electric kettle

The record player When we were teenagers most of the record players contained a BSR record turntable and playing arm. I know the one my father and I built did. But I had no idea of the history and diversity of the BSR company Daniel Mclean Mcdonald (1905–1991) founded Birmingham sound reproducers as a private company in 1932 in the west midlands. By 1947, the company chiefly manufactured intercoms, laboratory test equipment, and sound recording and reproducing instruments, including phonographs. In the early 1950s Samuel Margolin began buying record auto-changing turntables from BSR using them as the basis of his Dansette record player. Over the next twenty years, Margolin manufactured more than a million of these players, and "Dansette" became a household word all over Britain. In 1957, BSR, also known by the name BSR McDonald, became a public company which by 1961 had grown to employ over 2,600 workers in several sites in the midlands. BSR McDonald supplied turntables and autochangers to most of the world’s record player manufacturers, eventually gaining in excess 87% of the market. By 1977 BSR’S factories produced over 250,000 units a week. The company also manufactured their own brand of player, the Monarch automatic record changer. This could select and play 7", 10" and 12" records at 331⁄3, 45 or 78 rpm, changing automatically between the various disc sizes, although the turntable speed had to be changed manually. BSR also made tape recorder mechanisms but these were less well known. The company Bang & Olufsen used BSR’s TDd2 tape deck in their Beocord Belcanto from 1962. During 1975, with the help of Pifco electronics, BSR started the manufacture of a new upmarket turntable called the ADC Accutrac 4000. This turntable had individual track selection capabilities, allowing the user to play specified individual tracks, or play the LP in any order desired. It had a direct drive turntable motor, and a high quality ADC lma1 cartridge and stylus. This was further developed into a turntable called the Accutrac 3500, which in addition to track selection handled a stack of up to six singles or LP’s. Both turntables were equipped with an ultrasonic (but not infrared) remote control. Changing home audio trends impacted BSR in the early 1980s. Although the company produced some reel to reel tape decks in addition to their turntables and changers, consumers had begun to expect portability from their music players, and BSR faced serious competition from eight-track cartridge and the cassette tape players of the day, particularly Sony's Walkman. In the first five years of the 1980s, BSR closed several factories and made thousands of workers redundant. During the 1980s, BSR moved away from audio equipment and manufactured the rotronics wafadrive for the zx spectrum range of computers. After producing their last turntable in 1985, BSR McDonald closed all divisions except for astec power supply. In the 1970s, BSR had diversified by acquiring the houseware companies of goblin vacuum cleaners (who also made teasmaids clocks), judge international housewares ltd (kitchen pots and pans), and even Bulpitt & Sons, who made kettles and irons under the "swan brand" name. The future was uncertain and the goblin part of the company was sold to US company shop vac in 1984, and swan was sold to Moulinex of France in 1988. Griff Writes:- I was talking to a person on the phone the other day who I hadn't seen for a number of years and I was quite surprised when they remembered and asked after my tortoise Tiggy and if he was he still around. The answer is yes, he is and he is in fine fettle after waking from his hibernation slumbers in late March. It takes him a few days to get going again but if it's a nice warm day he sets off for a trot around our secure garden. You would be amazed at just how much ground a tortoise can cover and I have a big garden. He sleeps under a large half flower pot under a bush during the summer months. You may have read this before. Tiggy was purchased in the Drayton pet shop by me back in 1958 for the princely sum of 2/6d (12.5p). My mum looked after him for years and years until she passed away and Tigs then moved back in with us. We think he is now about 75 years old. He just loves melon and strawberries and cucumber. regards to all

Melvyn Griffiths. Stay in touch Peter