The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I'm currently researching the designer John Baden Woodroffe who worked with the Celestion company in Kingston, London & produced one of the 1st viable electro-magnetic pickups for shellac records that was famously used by the B.B.C . There is little on-line about Woodroffe & apart from this pickup & one he designed in 1925 with Captain H.J. Round of Marconi fame Iv'e found little else. Apparently Woodroffe worked for the Military in WW2 & was 1 of the Designers involved in the Barnes Wallace sighting mechanism. I'm looking at writing an article on the man but am short of period sources other than from the wireless world , wondered if anyone has something in print from the Era please ? Thanks

Our CLPGS colleague Norman Field has an illustrating yt video of one of these pickups. I don't know if he's in this forum, I suspect he isn't ..

https://youtu.be/j8ZhZE4o4eQ?si=YIF8FW5Jw6t2ZK39

If you look for woodroffe pickup on YouTube you'll see more videos

Thanks for the tip ! Norman Field's Woodroffe video is what inspired me to record these pickups in the first place. I have asked him for help but there's very little about the designer anywhere. Iv'e just bagged the 1st 10 years of the gramophone magazine & will trawl through the issues from 1925-27 as there may well be something there.