Peter Walker (1916-2003)
1916 Born in London
By 1926, inspired by the embryonic BBC's broadcasts, he was building his own wireless sets
Educated at Oundle
Went into his father's ironmongery business
c.1933 Joined EMI at Hayes but was found to be "unemployable". He returned for his father's business before trying again with GEC, where he worked on repairs, studying in the evening at the Regent Street Polytechnic
c.1935 Moved to Trix Electrical Co. At this time he conceived the idea of starting his own business.
1936 Established Acoustical Manufacturing Co in London. His first product was a 7W acoustical amplifier which could operate from AC or DC mains.
1938 Introduced a more powerful amplifier that could also be run from a car battery.
1940 Business picked up in the aftermath of a favourable review, so he could recruit an employee. His wife ran the office.
WWII The company made IF coils for wireless sets for the Services, and intercom amplifiers for aircraft.
1941 Bombed out of its premises, the business moved to Wardour Street and then to Huntingdon, after he had done some work for the local police.
1949 Inspired by lectures on acoustics by N. W. McLachlan, the mathematician who introduced Rice and Kellogg's moving coil loudspeaker to the UK, and by Paul Voigt, the loudspeaker designer, Walker introduced the Corner Ribbon loudspeaker.
1951 Coined the term Quad for his first amplifier intended for use in the home - Quality unit, Amplifier, Domestic.
1953 The Quad II amplifier was so successful that Walker could concentrate on this area of business, abandoning the production of public address systems.
1955 After much experimentation he demonstrated the first electrostatic loudspeaker in public.
1957 Having sold several practical problems, he introduced the electrostatic speaker as a product, which continued in production for 25 years.
1967 Delayed introduction of transistors in his amplifiers until silicon devices were available which he used in the 33/303 pairing.
1975 Walker and his colleague Michael Albinson introduced a new circuit design which was put to use in the 405 amplified, which continued in production until 1993.
1981 A new electrostatic loudspeaker design was introduced, something he had been working on since 1963. It involved electronically delaying the signal to parts of the diaphragm to achieve a wavefront similar to that from a point source of sound. This speaker and its successor remained in production until 1999.
1986 Peter Walker retired from the company which was then run by his son. He continued to work on loudspeaker design.
1990 Appointed OBE
2003 Died
See Also
Sources of Information
- The Times, December 16, 2003