Britain’s Pre-War Glow Problem Strange but true: on the eve of the Second World War, the House of Commons was debating glowing shopfronts. Mr. Gallacher, an MP with a sharp tongue, 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 signage? The answer was astonishing for the time: roughly one thousand cases logged in a single year. Picture 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 snag was this: 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". Which meant: more static for listeners. The MP wasn’t satisfied. People were paying licence fees, he argued, and they deserved a clear signal. From the backbenches came another jab.
What about the Central Electricity Board and their high-tension cables? The Postmaster-General ducked the blow, basically admitting the whole electrical age was interfering with itself. --- From today’s vantage, it feels rich with irony. Back then, neon was the tech menace keeping people up at night. Eighty years on, the irony bites: the menace of 1939 is now the endangered beauty of 2025. --- So what’s the takeaway? Neon has always been political, cultural, disruptive.
From crashing radios to clashing with LED, it’s always been about authenticity vs convenience. In 1939 it was seen as dangerous noise. --- Our take at Smithers. When we look at that 1939 Hansard record, we don’t just see dusty MPs moaning about static. Call it quaint, call it heritage, but it’s a reminder. And it still does. --- Don’t settle for plastic impostors. Real neon has been debated in Parliament for nearly a century. 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. Smithers has it. ---
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