The Year Neon Jammed Britain’s Radios

When Radio Met Neon in Parliament

On paper it reads like satire: in the shadow of looming global conflict, Parliament was wrestling with the problem of neon interfering with radios.

the outspoken Mr. Gallacher, stood up and asked the Postmaster-General a peculiar but pressing question. How many complaints had rolled in about wireless sets being ruined by neon signs London signage?

The answer was astonishing for the time: around a thousand complaints in 1938 alone.

Think about it: the soundtrack of Britain in 1938, interrupted not by enemy bombers but by shopfront glow.

The Minister in charge didn’t deny it. The difficulty?: shopkeepers could volunteer to add suppression devices, but they couldn’t be forced.

He spoke of a possible new Wireless Telegraphy Bill, but admitted consultations would take "some time".

Translation? Parliament was stalling.

Gallacher shot back. 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, basically admitting the whole electrical age was interfering with itself.

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Looking back now, this debate is almost poetic. In 1939 neon was the villain of the airwaves.

Fast forward to today and it’s the opposite story: the menace of 1939 is now the endangered beauty of 2025.

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So what’s the takeaway?

Neon has never been neutral. It’s always pitted artisans against technology.

In truth, it’s been art all along.

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Our take at Smithers. We see proof that neon was powerful enough to shake Britain.

That old debate shows neon has always mattered. And it always will.

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Forget the fake LED strips. Glass and gas are the original and the best.

If neon could jam the nation’s radios in 1939, it can sure as hell light your lounge, office, or storefront in 2025.

Choose the real thing.

We make it.

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