Edgar believe in sharing discoveries in engineering, no doubt today he would be involved in "open source" software development. Naturally all my web-sites are LINUX hosted. Many thanks to all surfers, as this site has passed 8,500 hits mark.
Latest additions: Patrick Larner (Edgar's Grandson) reminiscences on life growing up in World War Two, scroll down this page (hyperlink problems)
Films from the Home Front – Website Launch
A new website featuring films of life on the home front in Britain during the Second World War is launching today. see here (bottom of page) for more details
Welcome to the web site dedicated to the memory of one of Television's forgotten pioneers. Edgar Thomas Larner was my great grandfather and it was his work which inspired me to undertake my research degree concerning the deaf and digital television. I am severely dyslexic, so apologies for any imaginative spelling!
Innovation and developments in television are a constant issue, please click here for some of the latest news, this section will be updated every fortnight.
Edgar T Larner, a pioneer of television
Born 1869 in Norwich, a son of Thomas Larner
Edgar T Larner, was author of The Principles of the Alternating Current (1908)and many other scientific papers from 1904 to 1928.His most famous work was "Practical Television" published in 1928 by Ernest Benn. A second edition was published in 1929 both in London and New York. John Logie Baird wrote the following foreword:
"In the present work the author deals very fully with the fundamental principles from which Television was developed, and deals with them in such a way as to interests the general reader without departing from strict scientific accuracy. It is hoped that the book will prove of the greatest assistance to those who are commencing the study of a subject which perhaps offers to the young scientific worker the most promising prospects of any avenue of research".
A recent scan on e-bay. amazon and google revealed that the average price for a first edition was $500, and $876 for a mint edition. First Editions nominally comand a premium over other editions, however the 2nd edition of Practical Television is normally more expensive as it is illustrated and is a larger than the original book.
He was also one of the pioneers together with his friend John Logie Baird of both television and experiments with high definition transmissions. This was in 1926, long before the so-called Japanese invention of High definition TV in the latter part of the 20th Century. He worked as an electrical engineer for the British General Post Office (telephone division).He also was a lecturer at the Hackney Institute. All his papers and books were published either by Benn Publishing, London, Lockwood,Rogers and Van Nostrand, New York or in journals. The British Library keep copies of most of his work.
This website chronicles the achievements and biography of this forgotten television and radio pioneer.At present, this web site is still under construction.
In my spare (!!!!) time I am building a Baird style scanner and receiver, I hope to have it working after Christmas. Many thanks to all those who have given me advice and help on this project.
Many thanks also to Malcolm Baird, Brian Roberts, Tony Thompson, Christopher H Sterling ,Pat Larner, Jaan Patrick (JP)Larner, Richard Larner, Colette Cullen, staff at the IET,The Royal Institution, British Library, BT plc,colleagues at the University of Brighton and many other contributors.
Desmond P Bokšan-Cullen
MEMORIES OF WORLD WAR 2.
By Patrick Larner
EARLY YEARS.
When the War started I lived with
my parents and 2 older sisters in Brighton on the South Coast.
I can remember 3rd
September 1939, as my Father took me and my sisters for a walk on the Palace
Pier on that very sunny Sunday morning.
As small boys do I kicked a pebble off the boarding of the Pier and
managed to lose one of my sandals into the sea, and had to hop and be partly carried
home afterwards. I think my Mother was
more annoyed with my losing the sandal than the War being declared that day !
Those early months were quite
peaceful, but a number of shops in the busy shopping centre of Brighton where we lived, were being "closed for the
duration" No one knew how long that
would be. I remember that Curry's which
was opposite our flat over the Barclays Bank where we lived, was selling
everything at low prices, and I wanted a pedal car, but my Father would not buy
it for me even on the last day of the sale before they closed and I was very
disappointed as toy shops were by then very few and had little choice
to sell.
Later in the war other shops in
the town were closed. Across the road
from us, Woolworths stayed open but British Home Stores (BHS ) and Marks &
Spencer were both taken over to manufacture parts of Lancaster bombers. These were in sections and looked quite funny
being taken to be assembled somewhere else on lorries hidden under covers, and
I thought they looked like elephants.
My Father worked in London at Barclays Bank and had to take the train for the
50 miles to London
every day leaving at 7 a.m. in the morning and seldom back before 8 at night.
He did not have to join the armed forces, due to his work dealing with foreign
money, but became a Special Constable, patrolling Brighton
on two nights each week in the evenings.
One episode of my Father's Police
Service is still well remembered. On one
night while he was patrolling, the whole town near to the Sea Front was rocked
by some huge explosions. Many people
rushed from their houses into the street to ask Father if the Germans were
invading. He was as surprised as anyone
and had no answers. It later emerged
that an Army artillery unit were detonating explosives to make a gap between
the shore for each of the two piers and the seaward ends, in order to stop any
enemy landing. However they had not
bothered to tell anyone even the local Police !
EVACUEES. Everyone remembers the evacuation
of children from London
to avoid the bombing in the first years of the war ("The Blitz"), and because
we had space in our flat, we had some children staying with us. They were very unhappy and wanted to return
to be with their own families which was not surprising. I remember that they seemed to have lived
mainly on 'fish & chips' and were not used to fresh vegetables. One girl kept a store of chocolate biscuits
in her room, and this attracted lots of the mice of which there were very many
anyway in our building,
We and the evacuees were all glad when they returned to London. The BLITZ and BOMBING.
In Brighton
we had quite a lot of bomb damage with air raids on many nights, when we would
spend the night trying to sleep in the ground floor hallway, to be ready to get
out if one of the many incendiary bombs hit the 4 floor building. I
remember seeing a number of these bombs burning in the street, and the local
'Primary' School was burned down and the children all had to go to other
schools.
My sisters and I attended a Convent School
operated by some French nuns who had escaped to England, and I was one of only 4
boys in the Nursery class. The rest were all big girls. We would have called our section a 'kindergarten',
but like many German words then, that was not acceptable !
My Grandmother lived in East London, and we sometimes stayed with her, and the 'blitz'
nights were quite frightening. She had
an 'Anderson'
shelter, which was half buried in the back garden, but it was hard to sleep in
this damp and smelly place. Some houses had 'Morrison' shelters, which were
like a large steel dining table with wire netting along the sides and were
quite often used for games of 'ping pong' if you still had some celluloid balls
from before the war.
My aunt in North
London had her house bombed and she came to live with us bringing
what few possessions she could salvage from the wreckage. I remember these included many jig-saw puzzles
which kept my sisters and I busy for a long time because they were all together
in a big bag without any pictures of the complete puzzle and in many cases
quite a lot of the pieces were missing.
We also spent some time living in
the West of Ireland where my Mother's family came from. It was a big change, as food was not rationed
with plenty of butter sugar and eggs, and I remember my Grandfather's strong
sweet tea that he gave us every morning. with granary bread and butter - my
favourite ! Lunch was frequently
home-cured ham with cabbage and potatoes. Another strong memory of a different
diet
On the overnight train journey to
the Irish ferry, we were surprised at the large number of Irish soldiers on the
train returning from leave. We had no
idea that Ireland
as a neutral country, provided so many troops for the English Army. I remember on that journey tasting
thermos-flask tea to which the soldiers in our compartment added a little Irish
whiskey and shared with us - I can still remember the taste ! The mail-boat journey across the Irish Sea was exciting as some German aircraft fired on
the ferry-boat but with no real damage.
The AMERICANS (GI's).
When we returned to Brighton,
preparation for the D-day invasion of France in June 1944 was well under
way and the town was full of American soldiers, getting their tanks and other
vehicles ready. They took over our bus
station in the town. By then I was at an
all-boys Grammar School, and after lessons we would visit the friendly 'Yanks', and were given chewing gum and other
'candy' as they called it. This was very welcome as our sweet ration was very
small even allowing for having our parents' share.
The soldiers were waterproofing
their trucks with a plasticine like material, that was mixed with graphite and
black in colour. Lacking plasticine
ourselves at this time were very pleased to have this freely supplied by the GI's
, but my Mother was not too pleased when she saw how the black graphite had got
all over my school uniform, the only one I had.
D DAY.
The town was very quiet after the
invasion, but the excitement of finally taking the war to the enemy was very
exciting. We saw very little bombing in Brighton from then, but the V1 and V2 rocket attacks
started shortly afterwards and caused a lot of damage when they got through. London was the main
target but being pilotless they often strayed all round the Southern Counties. I still remember the sound of the VI
"Doodlebugs" especially when they ran out of fuel and
plunged to the ground making a big impact with about a tonne of high explosive
- the 15 second gap between the engine noise stopping and the explosion was the
most alarming thing.
VE DAY. The excitement of this 'Victory
in Europe day' was most memorable and we
decorated our houses with flags that appeared from nowhere. Also fireworks were let off having been
stored for more than 5 years. We also had a number of street parties, much
enjoyed by the children when food rationing could be forgotten for the
occasion. Church bells were rung again,
having been kept before only to signal an invasion - now no longer a threat.
THE ATOM BOMB. Although Europe was now free - at
least the badly damaged western Countries - the War in the Far East still
continued, but the sudden surrender of the Japanese following the 2 atom bombs dropped
at Hiroshima and Nagasaki finally ended the main conflict and
undoubtedly saved many thousands of lives on both sides. The substantial
loss of civilian and other life in each
city was appalling.
As school-boys we were fascinated
by the idea of these colossal weapons with such new technology that promised an
end to all future wars, and appeared to offer peaceful benefits as well. Life was less complicated then !
THE PEACE IN 1945. I suppose everyone felt some
disappointment that life could not return to the time of "pre-war" memories, but the huge cost and political upheavals
meant that World-wide shortages continued for many years. In England we had food rationing in
some form for another 8 years.
Defence was still a
necessity. - I joined the Air Force for
2-year's National Service in 1953, and being stationed partly at RAF Horsham St
Faith (now Norwich International Airport), I got to know Norwich
and Norfolk well
before eventually settling her to live permanently.
We must never forget the
sacrifices made by so many people between 1939 and 1945 as well as those
involved in our defence since then. It is encouraging that children now of the
same age as I was during World War 2, are taking an interest in many of the
events that we experienced at that time.
It is now 64 years since VE-day
but my memories of that time are still fresh in my mind. I hope they are of some interest.
PL , Norwich May 2009.
Jaan Patrick Larner (JP) another great grandson of Edgar, has publishd his first book: :TheModern Cad Guideand is available from www.amazon.co.uk (direct link) or direct from the publisher http://www.modern-cad.com/ for £9.99. This is a humorous book and a good book to dip into. JP describes it as:"A guide to celebrate and recapture the fun and exuberance of a simpler time when men were men, women were women, and everyone actually had some fun"
A further research resource web-site will be placed on-line to cover the field of digital television accessibility and usability. The domain www.tvusability.org.uk has been registered
UPDATED: MARCH 2008
NEXT IET SUSSEX REGION EVENT
TO BE CONFIRMED
at The Hawth Theatre, Crawley (RH10 6YZ)
For further information and a poster to download and display, please visit
BCS Sussex Branch Meetings 2007-2008 Meetings held at Chichester 1, University of Sussex, Brighton. (But check individual meetings for changes of exact venue. ) 7:00 for 7:30 p.m.Drinks and light refreshments provided. DETAILS SOON All talks will earn ½ CPD points. Certificates will be available.
Edgar believe in sharing discoveries in engineering, no doubt today he would be involved in "open source" software development. Naturally all my web-sites are LINUX hosted. Many thanks to all surfers, as this site has passed 8,500 hits mark.
Edgar T Larner, a pioneer of television
http://www.sussex.bcs.org.uk/index.htm