IF one mentions Mullards in Blackburn many eyes will light up.

Valves, tubes and radio components were produced by this company for a number of years.

However, times change and as some long-standing components of the radio and television industry die a death, some are superceded by a new concept.

So as valves and tv tubes become history, even though millions of pounds were expended on unbelievable improvements, we find ourselves waving goodbye to the bulbous cathode-ray tube.

As an inventor, poet and retired radio engineer, I deem it to be poetic, in that the new flat-screen' tv which has ousted the tube, is coming to Blackburn on the very site where valves and tubes were initially produced.

Who said things don't move in cycles?

We worked in cycles but they changed that to Hertz.

They can't leave now't alone!

BILL AUSTIN, Bute Road, Blackburn.