In the early 1930s Fred began to patent designs for sound systems, patenting designs for amplifiers, loudspeakers, gramophones and microphones through his company Lanchester Laboratories Ltd. Fred demonstrated his loudspeaker, which was intended to be used in large concert halls, to a journalist at his home on 23rd January 1929 who was impressed at the range of sound the ‘Euterpe-phone’ (pictured below) produced.
The venture had a slightly shaky start; a demonstration of the new technology at Birmingham Town Hall on 31st January 1929 didn’t quite have the impact he wanted! The Birmingham Post said that ‘…the musical results obtained…bore no comparison in point of quality with the reproduction one had been privileged to hear in Dr Lanchester’s own quite large music room.’
The Euterpe-phone, or loudspeaker
Fred continued to develop ideas for radios, gramophones, microphones and speaker in the early 1930s but Lanchester Laboratories Ltd. only made a small profit and the company’s buildings, land and contents were sold on 3rd May 1934.
