Noel Desmond Gray
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Noel Desmond Gray (December 26 1920 – November 1999) was an Australian engineer and co-founder of the medical electronics company Telectronics Pty Ltd.[1]
Early life
Gray was born to Hilda Alice Gray and Joseph Albert Gray on Boxing Day 1920 in Crookwell, New South Wales, Australia. He was the great grandson of George H. Hedger who may have been the inspiration for the Banjo Patterson poem "The Man from Snowy River".[2] Gray grew up for a time on his grandfather's farm "Middle View" named for its view of the Snowy River near Dalgety.
He attended Sydney Technical School and after passing the intermediate certificate he was employed as a wirer for radio manufacturers AWA Australia and then Kreisler Australasia.
World War II
During World War 2 he was trained at the Army School of Radio Physics, whereupon he became a radar technician and Senior Radar Artificer. He also attended No. 6 OCTU (Officer Cadet Training Unit) which he passed which would normally mean an automatic commission but, due to Engineers regulations, he was also required to complete an engineers course at Ingleburn in Sydney where the lecturers failed him using their 50% of grade power. He was returned to LHQ where he was placed in charge of the Drawing Office and maintenance section. He helped to install the radar defenses on Rottnest Island for Western Australia and was the Senior Radar Artificer at Exmouth Gulf.[3] He worked on the first US designed RADAR unit and converted it to an early defense RADAR[1] that was used during the Coral Sea Battle to direct bombers from Amberly to and from the battle.[1]
Post war education
After the War, his passes in the University Entrance Exam and Leaving Certificates gained him entry to the University of Sydney in medicine and in 1948 he began to study to become a doctor. After passing the first year of the degree he became interested in the electrical workings of the human body and was given laboratory space to perform his own experiments by his mentor.[1]
He did not complete his studies and married Beth Simes in 1950 and after working on the RADAR for Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport for the Department of Civil Aviation and the Metropolitan Water Sewerage & Drainage Board he returned to work for the Phillips' subsidiary Kreisler in 1952. Initially he was employed as the sole design engineer on a secret project for the Long Range Weapons Establishment.[1] He then designed and developed printed circuit boards that were used in a production run of 24 mantle radios and a number of patents were taken out on his work.[1] The radio was the Kriesler Duplex which was double fronted. Innovations to printed circuit technology included double-sided copper laminated phenolic resin sheet, point to point connection between both sides of a double-sided PCB, electroplating copper laminate to improve solder flow, photo-etch system for PC boards using photosensitive flux film technology, a system of flow soldering PC boards using a standing wave in a molton solder bath to eliminate hand soldering. He also experimented in resign encapsulation of various electronic devices including making an implantable pacemaker using torch batteries and a simple flip-flop circuit in the 1950s he made the P1 pacemaker. Following a world study tour in 1956 and a long visit to Phillips NV in the Netherlands where he introduced the printed circuit technology to Phillips, he returned home, joined the Management Committee and chose to be National Service Manager.[1] Philips wanted him to stay and develop his ideas on medical electronics for them but he resigned in 1959 to have a go himself.[1] To help fund his plan he started a specialist TV repair business[4] and was a founder of ESA (later called TESA).[1]
He developed an ambition to start a medical electronics business at University working with Professor Cotton and although media stories have credited others with starting it he began his long term plans and after leaving Kreisler in 1959. To help finance his ambitions he began trading as Television Electronic Services in 1960.{1}
Death
Noel Desmond Gray died in November of 1999, leaving his wife Beth, daughter Robyn, and son Christopher.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Gray, Christopher & Gray, Noel (1993). The Early Years of Telectronics. (self-published). ISBN 0646151347.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Death of George H. Hedger". Monaro Mercury. 1912-08-03.
- ^ Dunn, Peter. Peter Dunn's Australia at War.
- ^ Mingay's Weekly, Nov 27, 1959