Our June speaker is Dr Mike Kemp, one of the creators of Cambridge Museum of Technology’s current exhibition, Radio Enters the Home.

The talk traces the development of radio, broadcasting and the Pye company as radio came into people’s homes for the first time.

Broadcasting started in 1922 with the formation of the British Broadcasting Company. In the same year in Cambridge, scientific instrument maker WG Pye & Co set up a small radio department. By 1932, the BBC was a public corporation and half the homes in the country had a radio. Pye, now making 40,000 radios a year, was well on its way to becoming the largest company in Cambridge and one of the country’s best-known manufacturers.

Dr Michael Kemp is a scientist and engineer who has lived and worked in Cambridge for most of his life. Interested in radio from an early age, he began collecting early radios in the 1970s while a research student at the Cavendish Laboratory. The first Pye radios, proudly marked ‘W. G. Pye & Co ENG. Cambridge’, were an obvious attraction to seek out for his collection and over the years he has managed to track down examples of most of them. Over the last few years, Mike has been working to uncover some of the early history of the Pye company, one of the founders of what is now called the Cambridge Phenomenon.

The talk will take place in the Pye Building at Cambridge Museum of Technology. Entrance on the night is via the Museum’s Cheddars Lane gate.

People attending the talk will have the chance to look around the exhibition.

Tickets are available on the door for £3 a head. Cambridge Museum of Technology members and volunteers can come along for free.

Cambridge Industrial Archaeology group organises a programme of talks on industrial heritage at Cambridge Museum of Technology. For further information about Cambridge Industrial Archaeology Group contact Robin Chandler robin.chandler@btinternet.com

Cambridge Museum of Technology is the home of Cambridge’s industrial heritage. For further information on the Museum contact Nick Plaister nick.plaister@museumoftechnology.com