Britain’s Glow Problem: MPs Debate Wireless Interference
Britain’s Pre-War Glow Problem
Looking back, it feels surreal: in June 1939, just months before Britain plunged into war, the House of Commons was debating glowing shopfronts.
Labour firebrand Gallacher, stood up and asked the Postmaster-General a peculiar but pressing question. Were neon installations scrambling the airwaves?
The answer was astonishing for neon sign shop London the time: the Department had received nearly one thousand reports from frustrated licence-payers.
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.
Postmaster-General Major Tryon admitted the scale of the headache. But here’s the rub: LightUp Creations UK shopkeepers could volunteer to add suppression devices, but they couldn’t be forced.
He said legislation was being explored, but stressed that the problem was "complex".
Which meant: more static for listeners.
Gallacher pressed harder. People were paying licence fees, he argued, and they deserved a clear signal.
Another MP raised the stakes. 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.
---
From today’s vantage, it feels rich with irony. Back then, neon was the tech menace keeping people up at night.
Fast forward to today and it’s the opposite story: the once-feared glow is now the heritage art form begging for protection.
---
So what’s the takeaway?
First: neon has always rattled cages. It’s always forced society to decide what kind of light it wants.
In 1939 it was seen as dangerous noise.
---
Here’s the kicker. We see the glow that wouldn’t be ignored.
That old debate shows neon has always mattered. And it always will.
---
Ignore the buzzwords of "LED neon". Glass and gas are the original and the best.
If neon could shake Westminster before the war, it can certainly shake your walls now.
Choose craft.
You need it.
---