Burndept Toronto Canada

Burndept Toronto Canada

How knows about this Company in Toronto?  I have a nice Loudspeaker from Amplion Type AR 19. This is produced for Burndept 172 King St. Toronto Canada

Was Burndept Toronto a Branch of Burndept Ltd. London (GB)?  Has Burndept dealt as an Importer, or did they also assemble (manufacture) Radio parts in Canada?

I’m looking forward to get your comments

Thank you very much in Advance

Best regards Wolfram

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I’m still looking forward to get your comments

Thank you very much in Advance

Best regards Wolfram

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The following advertisment appeared in Popular Machanics, Issue January 1924:

 

AMPLION – The World’s Standard Loud Speaker (1924)

A few practical points about Amplion supremacy:

The Amplion requires no power amplifier—no battery. You simply attach it to regular head phone connections.

The diaphragm is made of a special alloy, found to have no equal after years of experiment with all other materials.

The electro-acoustical device is insulated entirely from the horn to eliminate distortion, ring or resonance.

Its Non-vibrating wood horn surpasses all other materials for true tone and clearness.

An Adjustable feature makes the Amplion sound true with any make of receiving set, and ensures faithful reproduction.

The Amplion mechanism is not new—it has not been hurriedly devised to meet the radio boom. Rather, it is a development, for radio purposes, of a loud speaking device used for years by leading Navies of the world.

The Amplion is manufactured by the oldest manufacturer of loud speakers in the world.

The Mahogany horn — the enameled sound conduit—the highly polished nickeled base —the reproducing mechanism— all are of the highest quality. Ask your dealer for a demonstration.

Patentees: ALFRED GRAHAM & CO.

SIGNAL ELECTRIC MFG. COMPANY
Sole United States Distributors
Menominee, Michigan

BURNDEPT OF CANADA, LTD.
Canadian Distributors — 172 King Street W., Toronto

The Supremacy of The Amplion is The Supremacy of Actual Performance

 

Based on this it can be safely assumed that BURNDEPT OF CANADA merely acted as a distributor for the manufacturer. This is further borne out by a recent(?) offer on the Internet:

"A vintage Amplion AR 19 radio horn loud speaker with wooden leaves. Mfd. by Alfred Graham & Co of London for Burndept Of Canada Ltd. The speaker and horn are both marked Made In Great Britain...."

From the book "Radios Of Canada" by Lloyd Swackhammer, with the friendly permission by the author, this additional information:

"Burndept of Canada Limited, 172 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario

All-Amax Jr. & Sr. Made by the All American Mohawk Corporation in the US in 1922. Burndept of Canada, an early radio parts maker, assembled a kit of parts for the one tube reflex All-Amax Junior after the circuit was printed in the Canadian magazine "Radio" in 1925. It became a very popular project for home builders of radios in Canada. It is unknown if the Senior was also sold as a kit or only as a ready built radio".

Remains to note that the address 172 King Street West in Toronto is today part of the theatre district surrounded by highrise condo buildings. After development and re-development there is definitely no one at this address who could be asked about the history of Burndept Canada:)  

 

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Dear Alfred,

Thank you very much for the detailed Information. The Loudspeaker was surely produced in England. But even Burndept of Canada, was an early radio parts maker. In this case the Company should be named in the RM org as manufacture. Will you please do it?

Once more thanks a lot. Best regards Wolfram

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Alfred Graham's Amplion branched into "Battery Eliminators" and was bought by Bush, though after 1945 to mid 1950s continued to sell "Battery Eliminators" under the Amplion name (2V, 1.4V 250mA and 1.4V 125mA versions).

Early horn speakers on Burndept Radio sets look a lot like Amplion.

Christmas 1924

Burndept was bought by T.N. Cole via proxy while he was running Lissen/Ever Ready Radios for Ever Ready in 1934 and commenced production of Vidor sets. In the early 1950s as well as making the Vidor sets (not clear if Burndept was a separate company still 1935 to 1955) Burndept produced Miltary, Aviation and Commercial radio systems. This seems to roughly coincide with the time T,N. Cole returned to take up day to day running of Vidor which he appears to have delegated in about 1936 when he went to Canada and USA. In 1960 Cole retired, the last Vidor Radios exhibited in 1958 or 1959 never entered production and the Battery making assets & marketing sold to Royston then Crompton. But Burndept continued to produce Miltary, Aviation and Commercial radio systems! This aspect of Burndept / vidor seems less well known.

The well known bit is that in the very early 1960s Cole sold Vidor-Burndept to Royston Industries, a sheet-metal manufacturer. Following the collapse of Royston Industries in 1968, the Vidor brand was acquired by Crompton Parkinson. The Vidor brand was sold to Ray-O-Vac in 1989 and is no longer in use.  But Vox (the organ and later the Amplifier makers) were also on the Erith site (Vidor/Burdept) and later acquired part of the site for their products from Royston. The less well known aspect is the post 1960 Burndept activites. It's not clear how the ownership of the Commercial & Avionics part of Burndept fared between 1950s and  1980s.

 

1962 Aviation marketing

They supplied "cold War" Monitoring post Radio in 1961 onwards (Burndept BE525 Monitoring Post Radio).  Burndept developed a strong market position in the supply of Police Radio in the 70’s and 80s and became the predominant world supplier of military survival radios for aircrew with the S.A.R.Be. products (often mistakenly called SABRE).

It's not clear who last owned them. 

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Dear Michael,

Thank you very much for the interesting background.

Best wishes Wolfram

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