By Asha Gage, IET Archivist Sir William Armstrong, later 1st Baron Armstrong, was one of the most successful British industrialists and scientists of the 19th century. He turned his vision and inventiveness to his country residence, Cragside, which is situated... Continue Reading →
By Asha Gage, IET Archivist When two pieces of carbon are connected to a high voltage electricity supply, an arc of brilliant light is "struck" between them when they are a short distance apart. The first man to observe this... Continue Reading →
The ‘publication’ shown above was produced by the Japanese Illuminating Engineering Society in December 1930, and is titled Nippon Kotoki Taikan: Methods of Lighting in Ancient Japan. The work comprises a decorative presentation box (fabric on wood) with the title... Continue Reading →
Advertisements are ubiquitous; they pervade our television sets, radio waves, billboards, newspapers and most recently social media. The first kind of advertising dates back to ancient times when announcements were made to publicise events. This blog looks at a small... Continue Reading →
With the impending wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on 19 May 2018 at Windsor Castle, we thought it would be an appropriate time to revisit one of the more unusual items in the IET Archive collections relating to... Continue Reading →
The above image shows the cover of a booklet titled, 'Electric illumination: an account of the principles, applications and development of electric lighting', written by W T O'Dea BSc AMIEE for the Board of Education and the Science Museum in... Continue Reading →
The image above shows Godfrey Hector Wire in 1930. Godfrey was an electrical engineer who spent most of his working career in Glasgow and was a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE). We have just received a donation... Continue Reading →
The IET Archives holds a collection of drawings produced by a firm of consulting engineers, founded in the latter part of the nineteenth century, called Lucas & Pyke. Every drawing in this collection had been catalogued, or so we thought,... Continue Reading →
IET Archives blog 