The Pye Museum@CMT

The Pye Museum@CMT is an integral part of the Cambridge Museum of Technology located on the upper level of the site. See a wide range of Pye products and learn more about the history of their development and manufacture.

The Museum hosts a guided tour of the Pye exhibition at 2pm on the second Sunday of each month (except December and January). They are given by one of the former Pye employees who researched the fascinating history of the company and curated the exhibition. Each tour will focus on a different aspect of Pye’s activities, depending on the tour guide.

Brief History of Pye

Fifty years ago ‘Pye of Cambridge’ was a household name across five continents. Pye was a market leader in domestic goods, such as radio and television, and also in industrial products including two-way radio, television transmitters, scientific instruments and many other fields. Beginning in a garden shed in 1896, Pye expanded rapidly to become the biggest employer in Cambridge. At its peak, it had 27 companies in and around Cambridge, with laboratories and factories in the UK and abroad. During the Second World War, Pye was at the forefront of technology and designed vital new military communications equipment. This enabled dynamic radio contact between Montgomery, at the front in Europe, and Churchill in London, and essential communications for all the allied Armed Forces. After the war Pye focused on developing its business and expanded into many other technologies.

Pye Unicam AA Spectrometer

The Pye Unicam AA Spectrometer which enabled the composition of matter to be analysed into its com ponent parts.

Pye invented the Outside Broadcast Vehicle in the late 1940s and went on to refine it over the next 30 years. Vans similar to that shown were designed and equipped for TV organisations world-wide

One of the earliest examples of a Pye instrument, this tangent galvanometer was listed in the 1906 catalogue. Essentially, a magnetic compass within a coil of wire, the device indicated the strength of current in the coil

Westminster range of radio telephones

In 1967, Pye Telecommunications brought out the ‘Westminster’ range of radio telephones, the first to use semiconductors for both receiver and transmitter circuits with the associated saving in both space and power consumption.

The Pye Achoic was not only a beautiful addition to any drawing room but also demonstrated the latest in high quality sound reproduction. The Pye Record label boasted many of the top artists of the 1960s.

Pye Television Receiver with 5” screen from 1937. This set could receive BBC ( later BBC1), then the UK’s only TV programme, transmitted with 405 lines in monochrome from the Alexandra Palace in North London