When Neon Signs Crashed The Wireless

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Révision datée du 23 septembre 2025 à 10:52 par HershelMccrory (discussion | contributions)
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The Day Westminster Debated Static and Glow

Strange but true: on the eve of the Second World War, MPs in Westminster were arguing about neon signs.

Gallacher, never one to mince words, stood up and asked the Postmaster-General a peculiar but pressing question. How many complaints had rolled in about wireless sets being ruined by neon signage?

The reply turned heads: around a thousand complaints in 1938 alone.

Imagine 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: there was no law compelling interference suppression.

He promised consultations were underway, but admitted consultations would take "some time".

Translation? Parliament was stalling.

Gallacher pressed harder. People were paying licence fees, he argued, and they deserved a clear signal.

From the backbenches came another jab. What about the Central Electricity Board and their high-tension cables?

The Minister squirmed, admitting it made the matter "difficult" but offering no real solution.

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Looking back now, this debate is almost poetic. Neon was once painted as the noisy disruptor.

Fast forward to today and it’s the opposite story: 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 always been political, cultural, disruptive. It’s always forced society to decide what kind of light it wants.

Now it’s dismissed as retro fluff.

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Here’s the kicker. We see the glow that wouldn’t be ignored.

That old debate shows neon has always mattered. And that’s why we keep bending glass and filling it with gas today.

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Don’t settle for plastic impostors. Real neon has been debated in Parliament for nearly a century.

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

Choose the real thing.

We make it.

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