1939’s Strange Neon vs Wireless Battle

Looking back, it feels surreal: in the shadow of looming global conflict, Parliament was wrestling with the problem of neon interfering with radios.

Mr. Gallacher, an MP with a sharp tongue, stood up and asked the Postmaster-General a peculiar but pressing question. Was Britain’s brand-new glow tech ruining the nation’s favourite pastime – radio?

The answer was astonishing for the time: the Department had received nearly one thousand reports from frustrated licence-payers.

Think about it: ordinary families huddled around a crackling set, desperate for dance music or speeches from the King, only to hear static and buzzing from the local cinema’s neon sign.

Postmaster-General Major Tryon admitted the scale of the headache. But here’s the rub: shopkeepers could volunteer to add suppression devices, but they couldn’t be forced.

He promised consultations were underway, but warned the issue touched too many interests.

In plain English: no fix any time soon.

The MP wasn’t satisfied. People were paying licence fees, he argued, and they deserved a clear signal.

From the backbenches came another jab. If neon 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. Neon was once painted as the noisy disruptor.

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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So what’s the takeaway?

Neon has never been neutral. It’s always pitted artisans against technology.

Now it’s dismissed as retro fluff.

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Our take at Smithers. When we look at that 1939 Hansard record, we don’t just see dusty MPs moaning about static.

Call it quaint, call it heritage, but it’s a reminder. bar and café neon lights London it always will.

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Ignore the buzzwords of “LED neon”. Authentic glow has history on its side.

If neon could shake Westminster before the war, it can certainly shake your walls now.

Choose glow.

Smithers has it.

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