Monday, February 6, 2012

Herbert Terry & Sons, Anglepoise

The Duke re-discovered a metal pipe-bowl cleaner in his office, which is stamped "Terry's 'Hedgehog' Pipe Reamer."  A google search turned up that this was made by Herbert Terry & Sons, out of Reddich, England.  These were the same folks famous for their valve springs!  Anyway, In 1932 George Carwardine, an automotive engineer by trade, began developing a light which involved the balancing of an incandescent light bulb in three planes of movement (i.e., the typical articulated desk or workshop lamp we are all familiar with, with long coil springs which allow it to be positioned.)  In 1933 George took the designs of his lamp to Herbert Terry & Sons in order to make the special springs needed for the lamp. The design was viewed as having a great deal of potential and so Terry's licenced the design from George and began to manufacture the Anglepoise 1208 in 1933, which used 4 springs. By 1935 the lamp was a huge success and a light design was needed for a more domestic application and so in 1935 the 3 spring Anglepoise 1227 was created.  While the Terry spring company is long-gone, the Anglepoise Company still exists today, with members of the Terry family still involved.