Multitone


Innovation, More Than Just a Word


26 September 1956 – the Walkie Talkie Staff Location System is set up and functioning to ensure that doctors can be called to an emergency. The image shows a doctor tending a patient at St Thomas’s Hospital in September 1956.


Innovation in Action


Ken Broome, a sales engineer at Multitone for many years was asked to complete an urgent installation at the American Hospital in Beirut. Unfortunately the kit was shipped without an aerial. Understanding the importance of the work Ken refused to be thwarted. Using his knowledge he created his own antenna by stealing all of the wire coat hangers in the hotel to make a functional antenna, so that the kit worked when it was needed. That takes creativity as well as ingenuity.


Doctor and patient in the ward. The receiver is visible in his pocket.


American Hospital in Beirut. Demonstrating the Value of the Product.


In Russia, people do not send paging messages, they Multitone. This is a real accolade, to have your product so incorporated into the local language that it becomes a verb. The story below demonstrates the level of prestige that Multitone pagers had in Russia. When Reagan met Gorbachev in a hotel in Moscow, BBC reporters wanted to stay at the hotel, however were continually turned away. One wise journalist was heard to ask what would it really take to stay at the hotel. The price quoted was a new Multitone. We are unsure if the journalist ever purchased a pager and got a room and ultimately his story, but at least we know how highly valued our products are in Russia.


Reagan and Gorbachev in Red Square. Courtesy Ronald Reagan library.


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