Neon In The Dock: 1939 Wireless Debate

When Neon Crashed the Airwaves

It might seem almost comic now: in June 1939, just months before Britain plunged into war, Parliament was wrestling with the problem of neon interfering with radios.

the outspoken Mr. Gallacher, 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: roughly one thousand cases logged in a single year.

Think about 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.

Major Tryon confessed the problem was real. The difficulty?: the government had no legal power to force personalised neon signs London owners to fix it.

He promised consultations were underway, but stressed that the problem was "complex".

Which meant: more static for listeners.

Gallacher shot back. He pushed for urgency: speed it up, Minister, people want results.

From the backbenches came another jab. If neon was a culprit, weren’t cables buzzing across the land just as guilty?

The Postmaster-General ducked the blow, admitting it made the matter "difficult" but offering no real solution.

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Seen through modern eyes, it’s heritage comedy with a lesson. Neon was once painted as the noisy disruptor.

Eighty years on, the irony bites: 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 never been neutral. It’s always pitted artisans against technology.

Now it’s dismissed as retro fluff.

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Here’s the kicker. We see proof that neon was powerful enough to shake Britain.

Call it quaint, call it heritage, but it’s a reminder. And it always will.

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Don’t settle for plastic impostors. Glass and gas are the original and the best.

If neon got MPs shouting in 1939, it deserves a place in your space today.

Choose the real thing.

We make it.

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