John Sargrove

John Sargrove(1906–1974) was a Britishengineerandautomationpioneer.

Life and career

His parents were ethnicallyHungarian,and he was originally named John Adolphe Szabadi, but changed his name to Sargrove in 1938.

While employed atBritish Tungsram Radio Works Ltd(originallyBritish Tungsram Electric Lamps Ltd) he experimented with the idea of creatingcircuitsby spraying metal ontobakelite.He was able to createresistors,capacitors,andinductors,as well as the electrical connections between them, on a single bakelite blank by this process. This work was carried out around 1936 and 1937, several years prior to the development of theprinted circuit boardbyPaul Eislerin 1943. Sargrove also experimented with the development of a 'universal'vacuum tube.His long-term goal, however, was automating the production ofradiosby the development of what he termed Electronic Circuit Making Equipment (ECME).

By 1947 Sargrove had completed the design of all the ECME, and formed a company,Sargrove Electronics Ltd,to build the equipment and then produce radios. The ECME built by Sargrove produced all of the radio circuitry by the sprayed-circuit process, and assembled all of the radio parts except for inserting the vacuum tubes into their sockets and attaching the speaker, thus greatly reducing the amount of human labour required and thereby lowering the cost of the radios. An ECME device could produce three radios a minute, and even test the radio circuitry.

Sargrove continued to design increasingly sophisticated ECME to produce more complex radios, and began work on ECME for the production oftelevisions.However, a large order of radios by theIndiangovernment was cancelled in 1947 following Indian self-governance, and investors withdrew their backing of Sargrove Electronics Ltd, which then went into liquidation.

References

• Popular Science article on Sargrove's ECME
• US 2474988Sargrove, John AdolphMethod of manufacturing electrical network circuits1949-07-05
• U.S. patent 2,474,988:Method of manufacturing electrical network circuits1949-07-05