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52-453: When war broke out in 1939, British radio manufacturers devoted their resources to producing a range of military radio equipment required for the armed forces. This resulted in a shortage of consumer radio sets and spare parts, particularly valves, as all production was for the services. The war also prompted a shortage of radio repairmen, as virtually all of them were needed in the services to maintain vital radio and radar equipment. This meant it

104-548: A Survey of production —an up-to-date compendium of detailed statistics necessary for regulating specific industries. In 1906, the Merchant Shipping Act upgraded the minimum working conditions, and the safety protections for both British sailors, and crews of foreign ships that used British ports. In 1907, the Patents and Design Act gave financial protection to British designs to stop unfair foreign copies. In

156-411: A triode-hexode frequency mixer , a variable-μ RF pentode IF amplifier and a high slope output pentode. A "Westector" solid-state copper oxide diode was used for demodulation , which saved one valve and allowed use of an available type of pentode for the audio stage. The HT line was derived from a full wave rectifier . All valves were on International Octal sockets apart from the rectifier which

208-460: A code letter on the radio to identify themselves to dealers. UK makers often used different designations for the same valve (tube), while octal tubes might be of USA origin. All valves in the Utility radio used standard designations prefixed by BVA (for British Valve Association ). They were produced by valve makers such as Mullard , MOV , Cossor , Mazda and Brimar. Dealers, knowing the maker of

260-716: A committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom . The board has gone through several evolutions, beginning with extensive involvement in colonial matters in the 17th century, to powerful regulatory functions in the Victorian Era and early 20th century. It was virtually dormant in the last third of the 20th century. In 2017, it was revitalised as an advisory board headed by the International Trade Secretary who has nominally held

312-747: A government department with considerable power and a diverse range of functions, including regulation of domestic and foreign commerce, the development, implementation and interpretation of the Acts of Trade and Navigation , and the review and acceptance of legislation passed in the colonies. Between 1696 and 1782 the Board of Trade, in partnership with the various secretaries of state over that time, held responsibility for colonial affairs, particularly in British America . The newly created office of Home Secretary then held colonial responsibility until 1801, when

364-592: A new Committee of Council on Trade and Plantations (later known as 'the First Committee') was established by William Pitt the Younger . Initially mandated by an Order in Council on 5 March 1784, the committee was reconstructed and strengthened by a second order, on 23 August 1786, under which it operated for the rest of its existence. The committee has been known as the Board of Trade since 1786, but this name

416-533: A price of £12 3s 4d each. The set is sometimes characterized as the British equivalent of the German Volksempfänger "Peoples' Receiver"; however there were dissimilarities. The Volksempfänger were radio sets designed to be inexpensive enough for any German citizen to purchase one but higher quality consumer radios were always available to Germans who could afford to pay higher prices. By contrast,

468-733: A quota to produce Utility clothing, which was set at 85% of total clothing production. The Board of Trade allowed the 15% left for the garment industry to create non-utility clothing which met the requirements of general clothing controls and regulations. The garment industry was encouraged to produce limited stocks in order to sustain the needs of civilians and reduce the choices available to buyers and to maintain an essential quantity of garments. Utility garments were liable to price control, to be sold at fixed prices so that civilians could afford to purchase clothes of good quality. The Utility Clothing Scheme therefore aimed to control prices, regulate production and sale, and make durable clothing which

520-576: A reputation as a conciliator. In Cabinet, he worked with Lloyd George to champion social reform . He promoted what he called a "network of State intervention and regulation" akin to that in Germany. Churchill's main achievements came in 1909. First was the Labour Exchanges Bill . It set up over 200 labour exchanges with William Beveridge in charge. The unemployed would come in and be assisted in finding employment. He also promoted

572-472: A separate body. The board carried on this work but also had long periods of inactivity, devolving into chaos after 1761 and dissolved in 1782 by an act of Parliament by the Rockingham Whigs . William Pitt the Younger re-established the committee in 1784, and an Order in Council of 23 August 1786 provided the formal basis that still remains in force. A secretariat was established which included

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624-535: A separate education committee for Wales. The bill passed the House of Commons greatly amended but was completely mangled by the House of Lords. No compromise was possible and the bill was abandoned, allowing the 1902 Act to continue in effect. Nonconformists were bitterly upset by the failure of the Liberal Party to reform the 1902 Education Act, its most important promise to them, and over time their support for

676-602: A set and which valve manufacturer that maker used, could easily deduce which pre-war types these were and make warranty claims on the manufacturer. Utility clothing The Utility Clothing Scheme was a programme introduced in the United Kingdom during the Second World War . In response to the shortage of clothing materials and labour due to wartime austerity, the Government's Board of Trade put

728-436: A wide variety of different designs. Though the materials used to make them were controlled, their styling was not standardised, apart from the restriction on heel height , which measured a maximum of 2 + 1 ⁄ 8 inch (8 cm). The heel was to be made from wood, with Utility shoes having a leather upper . Open-toed shoes were only permitted to be made after 1947.   Board of Trade The Board of Trade

780-653: Is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for Business and Trade . Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of all matters relating to Trade and Foreign Plantations , but is commonly known as the Board of Trade, and formerly known as the Lords of Trade and Plantations or Lords of Trade , and it has been

832-576: The American War of Independence , both the board and the short-lived secretaryship were dismissed by the king on 2 May 1782 and the board was abolished later by the Civil List and Secret Service Money Act 1782 ( 22 Geo. 3 . c. 82). Following the Treaty of Paris 1783 , with the continuing need to regulate trade between its remaining colonies, the independent United States and all other countries,

884-541: The American plantations and elsewhere. Staff appointed to serve the board in 1696 included a secretary, a deputy secretary, some clerks, office keepers, messengers, and a necessary woman; more staff such as a solicitor and a porter were added later. The Lords Commissioners of Trade and Foreign Plantations , commonly known as the Lords of Trade, did not constitute a committee of the Privy Council, but were, in fact, members of

936-560: The English colonies , depending on the internal demographics and political and religious division of each. Between 1643 and 1648 the Long Parliament would establish a parliamentary Commission for Plantations to take the lead in colonial and commercial affairs. This period also saw the first regulation of royal tonnage and poundage and begin the modernization of customs and excise as growing sources of government revenue. During

988-565: The Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers , which included Hardy Amies and Norman Hartnell , amongst others. The Utility Clothing Scheme ran from 1941 until 1952. Raw materials and as a result clothing available for civilian consumption were limited due to the needs of the Second World War. Consequently, prices increased and some materials, such as silk, ceased to be available. While clothes rationing

1040-546: The Interregnum and Commonwealth three acts of the Rump Parliament in 1650 and 1651 are notable in the historical development of England's commercial and colonial programs. These include the first Commission of Trade to be established by an Act of Parliament on 1 August 1650. The instructions to the named commissioners, headed by Henry Vane the Younger , included consideration of both domestic and foreign trade,

1092-618: The Mines Eight Hours Bill , which legally prohibited miners from working more than an eight-hour day . Sydney Buxton served as president between 1910 and 1914. His main role was passage of numerous specific trade and commerce laws. From 1973, international trade policy of the United Kingdom was a competence of the European Economic Community , and later of the European Union . The board

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1144-519: The Secretary of State for War and the Colonies was established. Between 1768 and 1782 while with the Secretary of State for the Colonies , whose secretaryship was held jointly with the presidency of the Board of Trade, the latter position remained largely vacant; this led to a diminished status of the board and it became an adjunct to the new department and ministry concerns. Following the loss of

1196-617: The Board of Trade was transferred to the Secretary of State for International Trade . The board was reconstituted in October 2017. In 1622, at the end of the Dutch Twelve Years' Truce , King James I directed the Privy Council of England to establish a temporary committee to investigate the causes of various economic and supply problems, the decline in trade and consequent financial difficulties; detailed instructions and questions were given, with answers to be given "as fast as

1248-579: The Liberal Party slowly fell away. According to Martin Roberts, Lloyd George headed a department of 750 experts that was responsible for supervising British industry, commerce and transportation. Using their pool of expertise, he initiated a series of reforms that were quickly endorsed by the Liberal Parliament. One of the first actions was the Census of Production Act 1906 , which generated

1300-547: The UK and its empire . During the second half of the 19th century it also dealt with legislation for patents, designs and trademarks, company regulation, labour and factories, merchant shipping, agriculture, transport, power etc. Colonial matters passed to the Colonial Office and other functions were devolved to newly created departments, a process that continued for much of the 20th century. The original commission comprised

1352-546: The Utility Clothing Scheme in place in order to standardise the production, sale, and purchase of clothing in wartime. The Scheme embodied a variety of measures to ensure the availability of fabric, clothing, and shoes, which were proposed to ensure availability, no matter of the consumer’s socioeconomic circumstances. The creation of Utility clothing meant meeting tight regulations regarding the amount of material allowed to be used in their construction, as per

1404-637: The Utility Set was the only consumer radio receiver available for purchase on the British market for much of the latter part of the war. Starting in June 1942, manufacture of consumer radio receivers in the United States also ceased due to military production needs. The sets used a four-valve superhet circuit with an audio output of 4 watts at 10% total harmonic distortion ; they performed as well as many pre-war sets. The valve complement consisted of

1456-512: The fashionable styles of the era were able to be produced as part of the Utility Clothing Scheme, through wartime and beyond. The CC41 mark was to be affixed to all Utility cloth, clothing, shoes, furniture, and homewares (including home textiles) as either a label, printed, or impressed mark. The symbol, colloquially referred to as ‘cheeses’ was designed by Reginald Shipp, and is understood to represent ‘Civilian Clothing 1941’. The Utility Clothing Scheme also included shoes. Utility shoes came in

1508-485: The first definitive expression of England's commercial policy. They represent the first attempt to establish a legitimate control of commercial and colonial affairs, and the instructions indicate the beginnings of a policy which had the prosperity and wealth of England exclusively at heart. It was the Lords of Trade who, in 1675, originated the idea of transforming all of the colonies in America into Royal Colonies for

1560-466: The idea of an unemployment insurance scheme, which would be part-funded by the state. Secondly he introduced the Trade Boards Bill , creating trade boards which investigated the sweated trades and enabled the prosecution of exploitative employers. Passing with a large majority, it established the principle of a minimum wage and the right of workers to have meal breaks. Churchill introduced

1612-475: The long term, his most important innovation was creating the Port of London Authority in 1908. It merged numerous inefficient and overlapping private companies and gave unified supervision to Britain's most important port. That enabled London to compete more effectively with Hamburg and Rotterdam. Lloyd George also turned his attention to strikes and industrial disputes in shipyards. He was instrumental in settling

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1664-401: The new Liberal Cabinet of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman as President of the Board of Trade . The first priority on taking office was the repeal of the 1902 Education Act. Lloyd George took the lead along with Augustine Birrell , President of the Board of Education. Lloyd George was the dominant figure on the committee drawing up the bill in its later stages and insisted that the bill create

1716-449: The official mark CC41 the prices at which they can be sold will be controlled and the public will thus find on sale an adequate of clothing in the lower range of prices.”. Through the Utility Clothing Scheme, the Government took control of supplies of raw materials for the manufacture of Utility garments. Conserving raw materials such as cotton , wool , and leather was necessary because of limited supplies. Designated manufacturers had

1768-470: The president, vice president and board members. By 1793, the board still remained in its old structure, with 20 members including the Archbishop of Canterbury . After 1820 the board ceased to meet regularly and the business was carried out entirely by the secretariat. The short name of "Board of Trade" was formalised in 1861. In the 19th century the board had an advisory function on economic activity in

1820-819: The purpose of securing English trade against the French. They brought New Hampshire under the Crown, modified Penn's charter, refused a charter to the Plymouth colony, and taking advantage of the concessions of the charters of Massachusetts and New York, created the Dominion of New England in 1685, thereby transforming all the territory from the Kennebec to the Delaware into a single crown colony. In 1696, King William III appointed eight paid commissioners to promote trade in

1872-486: The restrictions of clothes rationing in this period. Utility clothing, and later Utility furniture , was marked with the CC41 symbol, also known as the Utility mark. In response to public misconceptions around austerity regulated specifications and the impacts these would have on the fashionability of Utility clothing, designs for a Utility collection were commissioned in 1942 from leading fashion designers, as members of

1924-476: The serious threat of a national railway strike in 1907. While almost all the rail companies refused to recognise the unions, he persuaded them to recognise elected representatives of the workers who sat with the company representatives on conciliation boards—one for each company. If those boards failed to agree then an arbitrator would be called upon. H. H. Asquith succeeded the terminally ill prime minister on 8 April 1908 and, four days later, Winston Churchill

1976-442: The seven (later eight) Great Officers of State , who were not required to attend meetings, and the eight paid members, who were required to attend. The board, so constituted, had little real power, and matters related to trade and the colonies were usually within the jurisdiction of the secretaries of state and the Privy Council, with the board confining itself mainly to colonial administration. In 1905, David Lloyd George entered

2028-426: The several points shall be duly considered by you." This would be followed by a number of temporary committees and councils to regulate the colonies and their commerce. The board's formal title remains "The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of all matters relating to Trade and Foreign Plantations". In 1634, Charles I appointed a new commission for regulating plantations. It

2080-511: The socioeconomic landscape. In order to counteract this, the Utility Clothing Scheme was implemented. In September 1941, the Government began to impose regulations that took into consideration the economic condition of the country, stating in the second edition of the Clothing Quiz for 1941-1942 that “Special releases of cloth are made for the production of clothing of general utility. The cloth and clothes which are made from it will bear

2132-422: The title of President of the Board of Trade , and who at present is the only privy counsellor of the board, the other members of the present board filling roles as advisors. The board was first established as a temporary committee of England's Privy Council to advise on colonial ( plantation ) questions in the early 17th century, when these settlements were initially forming. The board would evolve gradually into

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2184-465: The trading companies, manufactures, free ports, customs, excise, statistics, coinage and exchange, and fisheries, as well as the plantations and the best means of promoting their welfare and rendering them useful to England. The act's statesmanlike and comprehensive instructions, along with an October act prohibiting trade with pro-royalist colonies and the Navigation Act of October 1651, formed

2236-500: Was rationed , was produced to a reasonable quality standard as, prior to its introduction, a lot of shoddy goods had appeared on the market; the brand was therefore adopted for this wartime radio. The Utility Set had limited reception on medium wave and lacked a longwave band to simplify the design. The tuning scale listed only BBC stations. After the war a version with LW was made available and modification kits to retrofit existing sets were marketed. About 175,000 sets were sold, at

2288-527: Was appointed President of the Board of Trade, succeeding Lloyd George who became Chancellor of the Exchequer . He continued the reform impulse Lloyd George had launched. One of Churchill's first tasks was to arbitrate in an industrial dispute among ship-workers and employers on the River Tyne . He afterwards established a Standing Court of Arbitration to deal with future industrial disputes, establishing

2340-724: Was headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury with its primary goals to increase royal authority and the influence of the Church of England in the colonies, particularly with the great influx of Puritans to the New World. Soon after, the English Civil Wars erupted and initiated a long period of political instability in England and the resultant loss of productivity for these committees. The war would spread to varying degrees to

2392-416: Was long-lasting, and available for sale throughout Britain. Despite regulations and the limitation of raw materials, manufacturers and the garment industry were able to create a variety of styles and colours of Utility clothing. Though seeking to control industry production and civilian consumption, efficiency of manufacture, and the regulations which ensured this, meant a range of different garments that met

2444-471: Was merged with the Ministry of Technology in 1970, to form the Department of Trade and Industry . The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (from 2009 Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills ) was also President of the Board of Trade. The full board has met only once since the mid-20th century, during commemorations of the bicentenary of the board in 1986. In 2016, the role of President of

2496-437: Was on a British 4-pin base. There were minor variations between set makers; for instance Philips used IF transformers with adjustable ferrite cores (so-called slug tuning) rather than the conventional trimmer capacitors. More than 40 manufacturers, such as Pye Ltd. and Marconiphone , made Utility radios. The manufacturer of a particular set was not readily apparent to the general public, although each manufacturer stamped

2548-582: Was only officially adopted by an act of 1861. The new board's first functions were consultative like earlier iterations, and its concern with plantations, in matters such as the approval of colonial laws, more successfully accomplished. As the Industrial Revolution expanded, the board's work became increasingly executive and domestic. From the 1840s, a succession of acts of parliament gave it regulatory duties, notably concerning railways, merchant shipping and joint-stock companies. This department

2600-508: Was put in place in Britain on 1st June 1941, where purchasing clothing required the use of clothing coupons alongside monetary payment, there was still disparity in access to clothing. Rationing sought to limit consumption of clothing by the public, however, ‘trading-up’ by both manufacturers and civilian customers to get the most from clothing coupons had drastically increased the cost of living, with shortages in clothing being experienced across

2652-511: Was reconstituted in October 2017, after the UK had voted to leave the European Union in June 2016. In its most recent iteration in 2017, only privy counsellors can be actual members of the board, while others are appointed as advisers. There is only one standing member in the Board, who is its President. The Board is held accountable to Parliament through ministers attached to the Board, who are not necessarily members. Advisers to

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2704-446: Was very difficult for the average citizen to get a radio repaired, and with very few new sets available, there was a desperate need to overcome the problem. The government solved this by arranging for over forty radio manufacturers to produce sets to a standard design with as few components as possible consistent with the ability to source them. Earlier, the government had introduced the " Utility " brand to ensure that all clothing, which

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