Discatron

of Bleward Works, Blews Street. Birmingham

1966 'The record player, invented by two Solihull company directors and manufactured in Birmingham, works on an original principle of mechanical linear tracking. This principle eliminates the turn-table and the tone arm. Instead, the stylus is pressed on to the record face and drawn radially along a rod and across the record in the same motion as that used in cutting the record groove. The principle also cuts out distortion and allows violent movement of the record player without dislodging the stylus from the record groove, owing to low mass weight of the cartridge carrier, it is claimed. So far the Discatron, as it is called. is designed for the seven-inch. 45 r.p.m. records popular with the teenage market. Records are inserted through a slot, and the battery powered transistorised player is operated by push-button. The Discatron was invented by Mr. A. A. J. Homer, managing director of A. J. Homer and Sons, of Shirley. Solihull. and Mr. P. B. H. Robinson, managing director of the Meteor Oil Co. Ltd., of Dorridge, Solihull. They developed their linear tracking pick-up over a period of four years. The Discatron is now being marketed by Discatron Ltd., a company jointly owned by the inventors and Messrs. Kenneth F. and Stanley R. Ward, themselves joint owners of Ward Bros. Pressings Ltd., of Blews Street. Birmingham.'

1969 Part of the Rank Organisation.

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