Beard and Fitch Ltd.; 34/36 Aylesbury Street, Clerkenwell, London EC1 (Address 1926)

Beard and Fitch Ltd.
34/36 Aylesbury Street, Clerkenwell, London EC1 (1925)

Brand: Success

Beard & Fitch, gear-cutting specialists, manufactured Success branded radio components and radios for a short period from 1924 to 1927, according to advertisements in British radio magazines.

The company attended the NARMAT Wireless Exhibition at the Royal Albert Hall in September 1925.

STAND No. 23. - BEARD & FITCH, Ltd.

The full range of  Sucess radio components can be examined and includes low-frequency transformers, the Superforma for use in superheterodyne receivers, the No Loss condenser, an attractive design in which hand capacity effects are eliminated, a tuner, a well-designed geared coil holder, neutrodyne condenser, an ingenious aerial-earthing switch, and audio-frequency chokes.

Of special interest is the Success oscillator unit, which is a companion instrument to the  Superforma, and in conjunction with a tuning condenser of capacity 0.0005 mfd. has a range from 250 to 600 metres. The new Microtune knob and dial is a reduction geared control with a ratio of 20 to 1.

Coil holders for mounting behind the instrument panel and primarily intended for use in portable receiver construction are shown and possess the merit of occupying very little space. The  Success supersonic heterodyne is an attractive eight-valve instrument enclosed in a cabinet finished in Louis XIV. style. [1]

Beard and Fitch were gear-cutting specialists and experimental engineers established in 1851 making clock gears until 1914. During WW1 their emphasis changed to heavier and industrial gearing for the war effort.

After the war for a short period from 1924 to 1927 they manufactured Success branded radio components and radios.

Between the wars, the company manufactured the entire transmission for Malcolm Campbell’s world record-breaking car, Blue Bird, which in 1927 and 1928 achieved new world land speed records.

In the Second World War, they manufactured solely for the War Office, manufacturing gears for armaments of all descriptions but in particular the manufacture of gears for torpedoes.

After the Second World War, the company reverted to supplying industrial applications and continued to prosper and invest in new machines to keep pace with contemporary technological advances.

The company is still in business today as gear manufacturers and suppliers specialising in the production of transmission components. [2]

[1] Wireless World Sep 9, 1925, Page 319.

[2] Beard and Fitch website, accessed May 2023