Name: | Nomis Sound Amplifier & Radio Co.; Adelaide, SA (AUS) |
Abbreviation: | nomis-soun |
Products: | Model types |
Summary: |
Nomis Sound Amplifier & Radio Co.
Nomis Radio Co., started manufacturing and selling radios in 1929. By 1931 they started manufacturing “Speech Amplifiers”. They found a market for public address amplifiers & systems and started selling, installing and maintaining them at exhibitions, race tracks, dance halls and hotels throughout Adelaide. Laurie K. Simon (1912 – 1995) the company’s founder is credited with having pioneered commercial Public Address (PA) Systems in South Australia. [1] |
Founded: | 1929 |
Closed: | 1984 |
Production: | 1929 - 1984 |
History: |
In 1929 Laurie Simon set up the company with the help of his father as he was only 17 at the time. He named the company Nomis Radio Company, Nomis being derived from the family name backwards. After leaving school at the age of 14 he started work as an assistant mechanic in his father’s garage and then a job with Newton McLaren Ltd. an electrical engineering and wholesale company servicing batteries and coil winding. He left after a year as he thought he could earn more by radio servicing and building and selling his own radio sets in the family home at Sumerton. By 1933 he opened a showroom in Jetty Road Glenelg, selling radios and “Speech Amplifiers”, supplied to order or available for hire. In 1934 he mounted a power amplifier in the cabin and speaker between the wheels of a de Havilland Fox Moth biplane owned by Mc Robertson Millar Airways for broadcasting audio from the air for events advertising department stores. In the 1930 he designed a 300W amplifier derived from a pair of 805 triodes.[1] The company changed their name to Nomis Amplifier and Radio Co. in April 1936. [2] Nomis early PA system installations; 1932
1935
1936
1937
1938
During the post-war years Nomis installed hundreds of sound systems in churches, schools, hospitals and shopping centres. The company also covered the Royal Tour in 1954 in Tasmania and Adelaide. The installation involved miles of wiring, hundreds of loudspeakers, multiple amplifiers and control centres at venues and along the route and included redundancy should equipment fail. [3] The company traded until 1984 when Laurie Simon retired.[1] [1] Electronics Australia, Feb 1993, Neville Williams, When I Think Back.
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This manufacturer was suggested by Gary Cowans.
Country | Year | Name | 1st Tube | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
AUS | 65 | Public Address System With Tape Drive | EF86 | This is a multi zone Public Address system fitted with an endless loop 4 Track Viking Tape... |
AUS | 73 | Speaker High Powered Column | This Column speaker was capable of 90 watts and used where large coverage area or loud vol... | |
AUS | 47 | Public Address Amplifier AB6V | 5U4G | Age approximated by equivalent valve configurations of other amplifiers with known date. |
AUS | 55 | Amplifier 15W PA with 6SJ7 Pre Amp | 5U4GB | Age determined by other amplifiers with similar valve configurations with known age. |
AUS | 60 | Amplifier 15W PAwith EF86/12AU7 Pre Amp | EF86 | This Unit was supplied with 2 Microphone inputs with individual tone controls instead of 1... |
AUS | 47 | Record Player | 6J7 |
Further details for this manufacturer by the members (rmfiorg):
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