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Perhaps I should start with a little bit of information regarding myself and my modelling and engineering qualifications. For a number of years and as the money has allowed, I have been trying to collect early model aeroplane engines. In particular I have been specializing in the ED range. The first engine that I ever received was as a surprise present the circumstances of which, as it turned out, were quite amusing. It was 1954 or thereabout, I was living in Bath in Somerset and I was doing some private study during a games period in the classroom at school when a lady entered and announced that she was from the BBC. She had been given some money to buy presents for a number of disabled children (I happened to be one) and that I had been selected to receive £5[1], to be spent, by her, on anything that I wanted. She enquired as to my interests and asked if there was anything in particular that I was looking for.
Having sampled model building with a few balsa gliders, rubber powered models and such like, I said I would like a model diesel engine. I gave her the name and address of the local model shop and she left. A few days later a parcel was delivered to my home which contained an ED Bee engine, a KK Pixie kit and a few other odds and ends. She had obviously had a chat with Fred Lee who owned the 'Modelers Den' and between them they had sorted out a suitable selection to make up the £5 allocation. This came as a bit of a surprise to my parents and my mother tried to contact the BBC to thank them for their generosity. After some chasing around the operator came back and said they knew nothing about the grant. The mystery deepens. Well the details of the quest for the mystery donor have now slipped my memory but it turned out that the BBC in this instance was the Bath Borough Council who were eventually suitably thanked and the mystery solved.
While this particular engine does not now form a part of my current collection, I have managed to accumulate a representative sample of most of the well known models and some variants. So why am I specializing in collecting examples from ED? I guess that it is because the ED range is intrinsically British, is not as extensive as some, and during my youth they were well known, functional, readily available and something to which I had always aspired to own.
Following a move from Bath to Croydon I joined the original Croydon Model Aircraft club and was fortunate to become acquainted with some of the modelling celebrities of the day. Such famous names as Jack North, Martin Dilly, George Fletcher, Gordon Cornell and Ed Bennet, to name but a few. At that time George and Gordon were heavily involved in the design of Frog engines and were achieving great success with their engine designs, particularly in the control line field, until asset strippers raided the Lines Brothers establishments.
On completion of my school days I apprenticed as an instrument maker and eventually ended up as a technical author, a profession that carried me through to retirement and provided me with a love of research and writing, particularly regarding technical subjects.
Before I consider the wealth of products emanating from the ED enterprise, I would like to start with a little derived information into the origin and background. The registered name of the company was Electronic Developments (Surrey) Ltd. It appeared on the scene in 1946, just following the end of World War II, being formed by a group who prior to that time had worked for Parnall Aircraft. During the war, Parnall had been engaged in making Frazer-Nash gun turrets, but following the cessation of hostilities, Ministry contracts were terminated and staff were left to find other employment. The Parnall company however survived and later became renowned for their washing machines,
Under the managing directorship of J.E. Ballard, around 65 of the now unemployed men each contributed £50 to fund the start-up in premises at Kingston-on-Thames. The management executive included such famous names as Basil Miles, chief engine designer, and George Honnest-Redlitch, noted early author on the subject of radio control for models. Bill Wedlock was workshop foreman, with Bert Day the expert on honing cylinders and radio assembly. Completing the executive team were Doug Fifield and Jim Donald, both with a model engineering background[2]. The remaining staff served the enterprise in various roles as working shareholders.
The goal of the newly-formed enterprise was two-fold—firstly, to develop and produce a range of commercial radio control equipment that would encourage increased modeller participation in this then-new field of model flying activity; and secondly, to develop and produce a range of model engines that would provide dependable power for models using ED's radio control gear as well as for other modelling applications. The name of the company confirms that the radio control side of the business was viewed at the outset as a primary goal—no mention of engines there! George Honnest-Redlitch was in charge of the technical side of the radio control program, while Basil Miles was responsible for the engine development side.
The new company equipped itself with used wartime tooling made redundant from Hawker Aviation that was purchased at auction for a particularly advantageous price. This was a cost-effective approach to the start-up of the new business, but as time wore on the equipment wore out, ED lacked the resources to undertake the necessary upgrades.
One big advantage for the Kingston based company was being located close to the local scrap yard which at that time was well stocked with a lot of the redundant materials required for small scale engineering projects. In particular there were non-ferrous materials, aluminium alloy sheet, high quality steel, and a ready supply of Rolls-Royce Merlin pistons, apparently perfect for the cast aluminium based components of the model engines.
Basil Miles was to have a considerable influence in the future of ED and its engine designs. Under his technical direction, ED started to develop their range of commercial compression ignition (diesel) engines. Cash flow is vital to a start-up business and there is evidence that the first engines may have been seen on flying fields as early as December 1946[4]. The company's initial offering was a simple side-port model simply known as the "ED 2 cc" diesel which appeared in December 1946 with little or no fanfare. It quickly transmuted with only minor changes into the initial version of the now famous ED Mk II. This appeared first in February 1947 and was energetically promoted and further developed from that point onwards. Although it featured variable compression, the adjustment method resulted in it quickly being unofficially dubbed the "Penny Slot".
ED's first public advertisement for the Mk II "Penny Slot" appeared in the March/April 1947 issue of the Aeromodeller. The different full page advertisements for this engine that followed throughout the remainder of 1947 gives the image of an enthusiastic, rapidly developing company.
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Traditionally, the Christmas issue of Aeromodeller was a double size, "bumper" issue which was eagerly awaited by the modelling public. ED took full advantage of this by announcing the Competition Special refinement of the Mk II—popularly referred to as the Comp Special—in the December 1947 issue. But where was the Mk I? Although this may seem confusing, there appears to have been method in the madness. The displacement of ED's engine range increases with the "mark" number. The fact that the company's first offering was designated as their "Mk II" indicates that the decision had already been taken to develop a 1 cc engine for which the Mk I designation was reserved. Even though the Mk II design was ready several years ahead of the Mk I (later to be renamed the 'Bee'), its advance release doubtless served to generate some much needed cash flow, leaving the Mk I label available for the future 1 cc design, whenever it was ready. As matters turned out, even the 2.46cc Mk III beat the Mk I to market, appearing in early 1948 while the Mk I did not make an appearance until the December 1948 issue of Aeromodeller.
In a way, ED was the archetype for software companies of today. Get a rather under-developed product into the field as soon as possible and use the cash flow from sales to finish funding the development program. Your customers will even perform your field testing for you, provided the product is not too awful. The production volume, deduced from the batch numbers for engines produced during this period, suggests that this strategy probably paid off in a financial sense. However, there was a downside—this initial under-development necessitated a whole series of improvements being introduced in rapid succession during the year 1947 and it was not until the end of that year that ED had more or less settled upon the final design of the engine, almost a full year after they had started selling it! Much of the improved design was then transferred wholesale to the Comp Special which was introduced in December 1947, and a number of design features were also transferred to the Mk III which was to be released in early 1948.
At the end of 1949, the engines were priced between £2/5/0 for the smallest, to £4/12/6 for the larger. To place this in context, during 1950, the company that published the Aeromodeller advertised in the magazine of a vacancy at their Eaton Bray office "...for a "solid scale" model builder. Must be skilled in detail work. Age 20-25. Salary about £5 a week" [3]. Presumably this was the before tax wage for a skilled young man, making the cost of an engine more than a week's wages after tax. Rather places the current cost of model engines in perspective, doesn't it?
One of the first and biggest problems which ED came to face in these early years was the Government decision of 1948 to bring model aircraft parts and accessories, including "power units of all kinds" under Group 20 ("amusements") of the Purchase Tax Schedules[5]. This had the immediate effect of imposing a whopping 33-1/3% uplift on domestic over-the-counter sales. Previous to September 1948, kits and accessories of a constructional nature, while classified under "toys and games", were exempt from this tax. Argument by the Model Traders' Association (MTA)[6] was successful in reversing this decision on kits, but the Commissioners of taxation insisted that all parts and accessories, including engines, propellers, spinners, wheels, and in fact every identifiable accessory that could be used in conjunction with a model should be subject to tax[7]. Generously, nuts and bolts were exempt.
To fight this decision, the MTA formed a sub-committee comprising Eddie Keil (Keil Kraft), Jack Ballard (ED), Arnold L Hardinge (Mills Bros), and Henry J Nicholls (Mercury Models Ltd)[8]. Legal advice to them indicated that it would be inadvisable to pay Purchase Tax allowing a test case to be raised. It was anticipated that the challenge would be successful and that a favourable decision would be backdated to January 1, 1949. The tax was calculated not on the retail price, but on the manufacturer's price[9], presumably making them responsible for collection, reporting, and payment. Prudence would have dictated that provision be made by those concerned for an adverse decision. Many however, including ED, did not. They lost.
The test case dragged on for almost two years[10], ultimately claiming a victim in the form of Mercury Model Aircraft Supplies Ltd who were wound up in 1953—although the assets and name were acquired by "HJ Nichols Wholesale Ltd"[11]. It is conjectured that while ED weathered the storm, their R&D suffered as a consequence of paying the back taxes.
While all this was going on, things were looking reasonably healthy on the engine front. Of the first four engines produced (the Mk II, Comp Special, Mk III, and Mk I 'Bee'), the three smallest started to sell well, two of them really well. The smallest, the 1cc 'Bee' engine was for quite a few years undoubtedly the biggest selling miniature engine in the UK with ED eventually claiming sales of over 300,000 units. Their 2cc Competition Special, on the strength of a number of speed records, also achieved excellent sales and continued in production long after other manufacturers had abandoned their side-port designs.
1949 saw the introduction of the ED Mk IV 'Three-forty-six', a rear rotary valve 3.46cc diesel later named the 'Hunter'. In this engine, relative simplicity in both design and construction combined with excellent performance and reliability. This reliability aspect was to be put to harsh test in the next few years. The Hunter was quickly followed in 1951 by the ED Mk III Series II. Although it bore the same designation as the earlier 2.46cc engine, this was a completely new design by Basil Miles featuring rear rotary induction and a twin ball race crankshaft. The engine, soon renamed the Racer, went on to be a strong and steady seller for many years.
But the strong sales figures achieved by these engines and ED's other product lines did not offset the financial impact of their losing the Purchase Tax case referred to earlier. The unfavourable financial situation which resulted from this outcome and the relatively weak domestic market led ED to view foreign markets, in particular North America, as the principal areas in which to attempt to re-make their fortunes.
Under the guidance of George Honnest-Redlitch, the initial introduction of single channel radio control systems to the USA appears to have been relatively straightforward, with Polk's Hobbies of New York marketing their radios and engines in the USA. However the introduction of the multi-channel reed system proved more difficult. The later reed systems were similar to the American Citizenship equipment and the Americans were not too keen on buying what appeared to be English copies of their own equipment, so the anticipated US export market for these never developed.
As far as the engines were concerned, America was not particularly interested in diesels either, preferring the glow-plug (an American innovation) and were years ahead in design, development, and manufacturing techniques. American manufacturers also had a far larger and wealthier consumer market upon which to base their revenue picture. On top of this, ED got very little return for their US export efforts as wholesaler discounts in America were far higher than those in the UK and hence the only people who made money were the wholesalers.
For all of the problems with the American market, ED did manage to achieve some export success. The Continental market potential was limited as in many instances, finances were tight due to the aftermath of World War II. Even so, this market did prove fertile, as did the Commonwealth countries which had been less impacted by the war. The home market was probably the worst for sales due to the previously mentioned purchase tax and a general lack of disposable income in the harsh post-war period.
A major challenge for the ED enterprise was occasioned by the diversity of the separate product lines. In some respects, having alternative product lines may have made sense, but for ED it compounded decision-making problems due to each product line competing for supremacy within the company and financial support from the Directors. In trouble as a result of the purchase tax situation at home, a limited export expectation, and increasing domestic competition, ED was beginning to struggle.
In view of the obvious problems, it was decided that the company should employ face-to-face contact in seeking sales to scientific and military organizations, both at home and abroad. This new sales force would demonstrate the technical and educational potential of its products and convince governments that ED products should not attract the same sales tax rates as toys and other Section 20 "amusements". As it turned out, this personal approach managed to overcome a lot of the difficulties in Commonwealth countries, leading to considerable success and new sales. At home, it failed.
Despite this, ED continued to find innovative ways to promote itself and its products. On the 6th of September 1951, the year of the Festival of Britain, ED administered a modelling publicity coup. Using a 6ft model boat named Miss Ee Dee, fitted with ED radio equipment and a prototype ED Miles 4.5 cc water cooled, engine, an English Channel crossing was successfully undertaken. The crossing was made from the port of Dover to the port of Calais in approximately 10 hours, passing through the entrance at Dover harbour at 11:30 and arriving at the entrance to the port of Calais at 20:55. The news of this event, particularly in the Festival year, was worth much more than any advertising campaign. The stress of the journey must have been horrendous. The model boat was followed by a small cabin cruiser carrying the radio control operator and a mechanic, as well as necessary crew. This would have been considered heavy going for a small boat, let alone a much smaller model boat. The feat remains a testament to the designer and builder of the model, the engine and the radio equipment, and all concerned.
In 1952, really small engines were all the rage in Britain and ED joined the parade by introduced the popular front rotary induction 0.46cc 'Baby' engine. This was followed by the 1.46cc 'Hornet', introduced to fill a gap in the contest field that required engines with a capacity not exceeding 1.5cc. As a rear rotary induction engine, it was a design derivative of the 'Bee', but utilized the simpler porting arrangement of the 'Baby'. No provision for these new engines had been made in the "mark" number sequence, so rather than tack them on the end, the mark number scheme died and was quietly removed from ED advertising.
An advertisement placed in the Aeromodeler of October 1953 illustrates the then current engine range as distributed by ED. To round out the high capacity end, this range now included the 'Miles Special' 5cc. This was derived from the design of the channel crossing 4.5cc engine. At this time, Basil Miles had some domestic problems which prevented him from continuing his association with ED. However this did not stop Basil designing and building new engines at home to be produced and distributed by ED.
By 1954, falling sales figures and disagreement among the Board of Directors regarding an appropriate response on ED's part led to the parting of the ways between Jack Ballard and the rest of the ED Board. In the end, a compromise could not be reached and Ballard departed to set-up his own manufacturing center. Aligning himself with engine designer Charlie Cray, he produced the ill-fated JB range of engines. This consisted of the 1.5cc JB Atom and the 1cc JB Bomb, together with JB branded, pre-mixed fuel. Both engines were available as either diesel or glow versions and, displaying a strong American marketing influence, were quite attractively produced and beautifully presented. This may provide some clues as to the kind of advice that Ballard may have been offering the ED Board of Directors prior to his departure—update the appearance of their products and package them more along American lines. Ballard clearly believed in the selling power of "eye appeal", which the JB range undeniably had in spades.
For a few months, Ballard rode the crest of a wave and even managed to take over ED's long-standing advertising place on the inside back cover of Model Aircraft. But his very sincere efforts came to naught because the JB engines suffered from a problematic material specification and (partially as a result) were also sadly lacking in power output. A negative test report in Aeromodeller decided the issue and ED was soon back in their established spot in Model Aircraft's advertising roster.
The job of managing director at ED was taken over by Jim Donald, one of the original seven, and on September 21, 1954, inspired by the success and publicity of the Channel crossing by a model boat, ED undertook a further promotional challenge, the crossing to France, non-stop, by a radio-controlled model aeroplane. The aircraft, powered by an ED 3.46cc Hunter, was a Radio Queen, ED's one and only model aeroplane kit, had been designed by Lt Col HJ Taplin. The radio equipment was the latest ED 3-reed receiver with rudder control operated by a solenoid. The third channel adjusted a trim tab through a Mk 3 escapement. Standard ED 3-reed transmitters were used, one on the ground and one operated from an Auster which followed the Radio Queen for the crossing. Extra fuel was carried in the wings of the model to maintain balance throughout the flight.
At 13:35, following a successful and athletic launch from a field appropriately named Bleriot's Meadow, climb-out was controlled by one of the famous names of the day, Mr Sid Allen. Control of the heavily laden aircraft was then handed over to Honnest-Redlitch in a circling Auster which would follow the model during the flight. After crossing the French coast at 14:15, the plane had achieved its maximum height of 3,100 feet and was turned on course to Calais Marck airfield. On arriving over the field at 15:17, the plane was spiralled down to 800 ft and the Auster rapidly landed to regain control from the ground.
Unfortunately, by the time the Auster had landed, visual contact with the model had been lost and it was last seen heading toward the south-east, flying in wide left hand circles. The Auster was once again scrambled to try and locate the model but without success. However six days later the model was found by a farmer in a beetroot field at Guemps, about five miles from Calais harbour[12]. It should be recognized that this achievement was accomplished using the vacuum tube radio equipment of the day, with an overweight model powered by a 3.46cc diesel engine. In this day and age power would probably have been a 0.60 cu in (10cc) glow-plug engine. Quite an achievement and once more, super advertising for ED.
1955/56 saw a move from the Kingston premises to the new industrial estate at Island Farm Road, West Molesey. The less mobile workers were transported from Kingston to West Molesey on a daily basis in two Ford Trader minibuses. For the next few years, with their basic product ranges well established and maintaining their sales performance with their customers, ED entered a period of re-evaluation and modification of their existing designs which continued until 1958.
Their first really new model for some time was the 1.46cc 'Fury', introduced in 1958. The 'Fury' looked like a scaled down version of the 'Racer', complete with exhaust deflecting stacks cat into the crankcase. Internally, it had the same 360° cylinder porting design as the 'Racer' and even had a twin ball bearing crankshaft, but was equipped with reed valve induction. It is probably no coincidence that a comparatively short-lived reed valve version of the Racer, identified by green anodizing, was introduced at the same time.
Digressing slightly, ED at West Molesey were a customer of my father's packaging business. Out of interest, I went to ED's with him on one of his regular visits and he purchased a single channel servo for me. At that time I must have been around 14 or 15 years of age making the date around 1955/56.
In 1958 Gordon Cornell became an engine designer for ED. Gordon took on the task of redesigning the Fury to produce the first in the series of 'Super Fury' 1.46cc engines. In addition to other internal modifications Gordon re-established the rotary valve induction method of the 'Racer' design and did away with the opposing 180 degree exhaust ports in the crankcase casting allowing the 360° porting of the cylinder to vent freely—a modification applied not infrequently and less expertly by many earlier Racer owners. This design lasted for a further ten years (1970) until the introduction of the series 3 Super Fury with its return to the appearance of the series 1 Fury but retaining the rotary disk induction. With this success Gordon's attention was turned to the redesign of the 'Racer' itself.
1960 saw the introduction of the 'Pep' 0.81cc diesel, intended as an attempt to counter the cheap American made 0.049 (0.8cc) glow-plug engines which were then beginning to flood the UK market. This engine was produced by a sub-contractor to ED in Brentford and while a good looking little engine, it offered no domestic competition to the easy handling and well regarded Mills 0.75cc and certainly no particular threat to the US imports.
Frustrated by management regarding his upgrade programme for the 'Racer' and tasked with getting the 'Pep' to perform when it was already too late to do anything about its problems, Gordon decided that enough was enough and resigned from ED. It would appear that Gordon's feelings regarding the 'Pep' were well founded because not many were sold. Indeed, good condition 'Peps' are now few and far between and quite expensive on the collector's market. When ED dropped the engine, the remaining crankcase castings were sold to a company in Brentford who marketed them under the name "De-Ze-Lux" ZA-92 until the supply of crankcases was exhausted. Their engine, although outwardly similar to the Pep was slightly larger at 0.92cc, quite attractive, and got heigh marks as value for money from Ron Warring in the Aeromodeller test of January, 1964.
Gordon's place was taken in early 1962 by a former colleague, George Fletcher. George had previously been involved with engine design and manufacture at Davies-Charlton and Lines Brothers (Frog). Incidentally, at the time I write this, Gordon is involved with producing plans for the latest version of his 'Super Fury' engine for home constructors and I am sure these plans will be available from Gordon in the near future.
In May of 1962, a fire seriously damaged the ED premises. The circumstances of the fire are still a little grey. There are several stories related to it, such as the fire having occurred as a result of a break in by youths. Another attributes it to the use of Magnesium alloy for the castings. Machining Magnesium alloys requires special caution as it is not unknown for the shavings of this unstable alloy to become hot enough to self combust. Once ignited, it is almost impossible to extinguish, burning with a flame which is hot enough to break water down to Hydrogen and Oxygen, thus allowing it to continue burning quite nicely under water. In powdered form, it is used as a constituent component of flares and fireworks. Smaller fires had already been experienced while working with magnesium castings, so these were phased out after production of the first 1000 Super Furys. Incidentally, the fire bombs that were dropped on London during the war used Magnesium as the principal combustion material. As water is ineffective in extinguishing the fire, sand had to be used to exclude the oxygen required for combustion. So if this alloy was the cause of the fire, then the fire brigade was on to a hiding for nothing.
The loss of production, machinery, records and stock was a disaster. However a lot of vital castings and material were salvaged and thanks to George Fletcher, ED were once again back in business soon after the fire.
1962 also saw the introduction of the George Fletcher designed 'Cadet' 1cc side-port diesel. This was an adaptation of the ED 'Bee" crankcase intended to demonstrate the feasibility of a silencer. This feature proved to be very effective on those Cadets that could be coerced into starting at all! The engine production suffered from severe quality control problems and proved to be a failure which, in the words of Mike Clanford and others, "...could not pull the skin off a rice pudding". It was quiet though.
The last engine we can credit to the original company, also designed by Fletcher, never quite made it into production. This was the 10cc 'Condor' R/C glow-plug engine which ED began pre-announcing in their 1962 advertising (see the foot of the 'Cadet' insert above). It incorporated all of the features expected from a modern 60 sized engine, such as an effective silencer and a properly designed carburettor for positive and responsive throttling. A few examples were manufactured and given to the top British R/C flyers to push the design forward, but without success.
During the latter part of 1963, ED introduced the plain bearing, 1.5cc 'Hawk'. This cannot really be termed an ED design though. Peter Chinn's review of the engine in the December 1963 issue of Model Aircraft stated:
"The thing that will surprise most modelers familiar with previous ED products is the legend "Made in W. Germany" cast into the crankcase. The Hawk is, in fact, made in Germany to E.D.'s specifications and those modelers familiar with the products of Messrs. Fein und Modell Technik of West Berlin, will not be long in recognizing the obvious relationship with Webra engines".
This was effectively the end of the road for the "original" ED company, with a series of ownership changes beginning at this point. For a brief period in 1963/64, ED was in the hands of a German business consultant. It was then purchased by Eric Falkner and re-established at his National Works, Hounslow, where his RCS factory was producing R/C and other electronic equipment. Little if any development took place but with some ex-ED workers, RCS assembled a selection of engines from existing and salvaged stock which were offered without guarantee or after-sales service, direct to the public, at knock-down prices.
By the end of 1965, ED had been sold yet again, this time to Ken Day. Ken was nephew to Bert Day, one of the original directors of ED. He owned and managed an established engineering company and knew the model trade well. Operations were moved to 64 Brighton Road, Surbiton, where, under Ken's care, the Racer changed its form to the Mk V and VI versions which 'featured' plastic backplates and carburettors. The Hunter too was updated to became the Super Hunter that could be fitted with an exhaust system and simple variable speed carburettor.
1970 saw the redesign of the 'Super Fury'. The external appearance returned to a design similar to the original 'Fury', but presumably now incorporating the fundamental changes of the Gordon Cornell version and ultimately, the option of a variable carburettor. However competition from the US, Japan and other developing countries was rapidly gaining superiority in almost every respect, similar to what was happening in the motor cycle and car industries.
Under Ken Day's direction, ED maintained a position in the model trade for some ten years more. Tuned pipes, designed by Kevin Linsey, and mixture control carburettors were designed and introduced to improve performance and control. Nevertheless, ED gradually faded into the background.
Eventually the business passed into the hands of Brian Etheridge who moved the enterprise to Hampton Court where ED continued to trade for another five years or so until financial circumstances resulted in another change of ownership to Alan Greenfield of Weston (UK) in 1985. Alan had worked with Ken Day from 1972.
As a very active marine and aero modeller, Alan knew the products well and was well versed in the technology of tuned pipes, multi carbs and marine engines. With his experience of ED and its products, Alan resurrected many of the original engine designs in the range using original tools and castings that had survived over the years. ED moved again, this time to Sittingbourne in Kent. The original designs that survived were the Racer and Super Racer, the Super Hunter, the Viking 4.9cc Marine, The Super Otter 3.46cc marine, the Sea Lion 4.9cc marine and the 5cc Miles Special.
As a result of Alan Greenfield's dedication, ED are now a quiet but still active side-line business providing bespoke tuned pipes, selected spares and, to special order, original copies of some of the previously manufactured ED engines. For example the Super Hunter, which I personally have never seen advertised, and marine versions such as the Otter, Viking and Sea Lion, and indeed a copy of the Miles Special, which are available at prices varying between £65 and £110. Contact Alan if you are interested. Hence - far from being dead, sixty years on ED still survives, even if it is a bit of a hobby sideline. I guess one could conclude that ED is not dead, only aging peacefully.
Author: Ron Reeves
Issue date: June 2007
Ron Reeves Disclaimer: The content of this page is, as far as can be determined, true but not necessarily comprehensive. If, in the cause of accuracy, anyone knows differently then please feel free to inform me as to the correct circumstances or provide any additional information.
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