Electrostatic speakers
Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 5:48 am
Starting a new thread to try to keep it tidy. I'm interested in finding out what I can about the companies making electrostatic loudspeakers in the 1960s-70s period to see if we can find any possible 'technology transfer' links from Townsend Brown's Loudspeaker. If nothing else, it seems like it would be useful to compare Brown's technology with what was state of the art at the time to see how it differed.
The first thing is the lack of a diaphram. I asked my audio engineer friend who swears he's worked with and built diaphram-less ESLs, what company names he can recall who made them. He gave me one name off the top of his head: Dayton-Wright.
A random review here:
http://www.audiocircuit.com/index.php?c=DAY&cc=941#
Some initial details from the horse's mouth here:
http://www.dayton-wright.com/DaytonWright.html
All of these models seem to have diaphrams however. Linda, do any of the photos or diagrams in this page look familiar otherwise?
I need to read and digest this and do some more digging, but a few things to note: ESLs seem to be an expensive audiophile niche device class for very demanding users, and requiring some pretty clever engineering. It was definitely a happening 'scene' in the 1950s and seems like it would have been the logical kind of crossover market segment for a group with electrostatics experience (such as with air purifiers) to try to break into. Also, William Wright seems to have had no end of trouble of the kind familiar to the Brown family. Not necessarily from the same sources, but perhaps his story is useful as a baseline of what developing and marketing a new technology can be like.
Also, William Wright was from Canada and had Navy links (but on the other side of the fence, developing diving suits as a private contractor; doesn't write highly of his experience filing patents with the Canadian National Research Council).
Familar scenery, I think, but not *necessarily* connected.
But the reference to the Leigh takeover in the 70s makes my ears tingle a little.
Edit: Trimmed for space.
The first thing is the lack of a diaphram. I asked my audio engineer friend who swears he's worked with and built diaphram-less ESLs, what company names he can recall who made them. He gave me one name off the top of his head: Dayton-Wright.
A random review here:
http://www.audiocircuit.com/index.php?c=DAY&cc=941#
Some initial details from the horse's mouth here:
http://www.dayton-wright.com/DaytonWright.html
All of these models seem to have diaphrams however. Linda, do any of the photos or diagrams in this page look familiar otherwise?
I need to read and digest this and do some more digging, but a few things to note: ESLs seem to be an expensive audiophile niche device class for very demanding users, and requiring some pretty clever engineering. It was definitely a happening 'scene' in the 1950s and seems like it would have been the logical kind of crossover market segment for a group with electrostatics experience (such as with air purifiers) to try to break into. Also, William Wright seems to have had no end of trouble of the kind familiar to the Brown family. Not necessarily from the same sources, but perhaps his story is useful as a baseline of what developing and marketing a new technology can be like.
Also, William Wright was from Canada and had Navy links (but on the other side of the fence, developing diving suits as a private contractor; doesn't write highly of his experience filing patents with the Canadian National Research Council).
Familar scenery, I think, but not *necessarily* connected.
But the reference to the Leigh takeover in the 70s makes my ears tingle a little.
In the late spring of 1976, the company was raided when the founder was in England visiting their European Distributor in Belgium and setting up an exhibit at the Heathrow Audio Show for their English Distributor.
Upon hs return he found that the company was in the process if being sold to Leigh Instruments in Waterloo, Ontario.
However as soon as the sale was finalized, Leigh broke their promise and fired some of the staff and closed down the building on Industrial Road in Richmond Hill and dismantled the heavy equipment as well as sending the test equipment to Waterloo. During the move all of Wm. Wright's personal files including medical research papers relating to neuophysics.
When Wright protested he was told that Leigh needed the file cabinets themselves because of their consolidation and Wright was shown several two by three cardboard cartons of loose papers and was told to cart them away.
Wright had to rent a panel truck and started to go through the piles of papers, When he tried to move them out to the panel truck, he was stopped by Leigh's security guard and was informed that they had called him and told him the papers were not to be moved until each was inspected!
.Another stalemate! Wright was never able to recover almost 17 years of R&D. He had only the single drawer file cabinet he had kept at home!
Hmmmmm.There were also strange tales about the "High Security Barn" and the purchase of radar trailers by the US division of Leigh!
When Wm. Wright asked to be released from his contract, the Leigh management refused. But when he told them what he had found out, they reversed their position.
Edit: Trimmed for space.