Ferranti M55 Radio

M55 five-valve radio receiver made by Ferranti Ltd, Moston, c.1955.

Established in London in the 1880s by electrical engineer Sebastian de Ferranti, Ferranti Limited moved to Oldham in 1896. The company’s origins were in electricity generation and supply, but they soon diversified into manufacturing electrical instruments, components, and appliances, opening several more factories in the area around Manchester as they grew into a major company.

Public radio broadcasting in Britain began in the early 1920s and became more organised after the formation of the BBC in 1922. The BBC’s Manchester station, named 2ZY, began broadcasting in November 1922 from Trafford Park. Between the 1920s and 1950s, radio became a major feature of life in Britain, with millions tuning in to listen to news, music, sport, and entertainment. At first, people often had to build their own radio, or “wireless,” sets, but as the market grew, ready-made radios became a popular purchase.

Ferranti started making transformers for radio sets in the early 1920s and launched their first complete household radio in 1929. They opened a dedicated radio factory at Moston in 1935. Here, skilled workers, many of them women, assembled the many intricate electronic components needed to build radio receiver sets. Although Ferranti made many models of radio, it was not a very successful market for the firm, which was more focussed on high-quality engineering and new technology than cheap consumer goods. Ferranti stopped making radios directly around 1957, selling their radio business to E.K. Cole, who continued making Ferranti branded radios at their Southend factory for some years.

This particular radio is a Ferranti M55, priced at about £15 in the mid-1950s and housed in a stylish case made of bright, modern-looking plastic. Radio sets at this time used electronic circuits built of thermionic valves. Like most sets of the 1950s, the M55 was a “five-valve” radio, built around five thermionic valves. One valve converted AC electricity from the mains supply to DC power for the radio. The other four valves worked together to detect radio waves, filter out the unwanted signals, and amplify the selected signal to drive a loudspeaker.