Neon Static And The Commons: A 1939 Story
Z Rozdíly.cz
1939’s Strange Neon vs Wireless Battle
It might seem almost comic now: while Europe braced for Hitler’s advance, the House of Commons was debating glowing shopfronts.
Mr. Gallacher, an MP with a sharp tongue, demanded answers from the Postmaster-General. Was Britain’s brand-new glow tech ruining the nation’s favourite pastime – radio?
The answer was astonishing for the time: around a thousand complaints in 1938 alone.
Imagine it: the soundtrack of Britain in 1938, interrupted not by enemy bombers but by shopfront glow.
Postmaster-General Major Tryon admitted the scale of the headache. The difficulty?: the government had no legal power to force neon owners to fix it.
He spoke of a possible new Wireless Telegraphy Bill, but stressed that the problem was "complex".
Translation? Parliament was stalling.
The MP wasn’t satisfied. He said listeners were getting a raw deal.
Another MP raised the stakes. If vintage neon signs London was a culprit, weren’t cables buzzing across the land just as guilty?
The Postmaster-General ducked the blow, saying yes, cables were part of the mess, which only complicated things further.
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Seen through modern eyes, it’s heritage comedy with a lesson. In 1939 neon was the villain of the airwaves.
Jump ahead eight decades and the roles have flipped: neon is the endangered craft fighting for survival, while plastic LED fakes flood the market.
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What does it tell us?
Neon has always been political, cultural, disruptive. It’s always forced society to decide what kind of light it wants.
In truth, it’s been art all along.
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Our take at Smithers. We see the glow that wouldn’t be ignored.
Call it quaint, call it heritage, but it’s a reminder. And neon signs London that’s why we keep bending glass and filling it with gas today.
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Don’t settle for plastic impostors. Glass and gas are the original and the best.
If neon could shake Westminster before the war, it can certainly shake your walls now.
Choose glow.
You need it.
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