Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1499197
72 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2023 Matties: So, how did you get involved? W hi l st study ing f or my degree at university, I was lucky to obtain a work/study job in my spare time in a development lab with Daly Condensers Ltd. (UK) where I learned all about manufac- turing electrical condensers. is gave me the opportu- nity, aer obtaining my uni- versity degree, to apply to the UK's largest con- denser manufacturer, The Telegraph Con- denser Co., which employed me as a develop- ment technician. ree weeks into my new job, I took a pre-arranged vacation for two weeks. When I returned, I was met by a senior director and was marched into the office of the managing director who was already addressing five men. e managing director informed us that Tele- graph had just obtained the first license in the world from the inventor Dr. Paul Eisler, who was also engaged by Telegraph as a consultant. I was invited to join the five specialists which Telegraph had tapped to form this new team with Dr. Eisler. We were given 5,000 square feet of a surplus building to further develop and introduce printed cir- cuits to replace manual wiring. is was circa 1953. In the beginning, we had to shop around for everything, from the base laminate to the copper foil. We did all that within our team, and then suddenly the printed circuit developed in the UK went from a single- to a double-sided board. For the double-sided, we used eyelets until through-hole [electroless cop- per plating] came along. Matties: You were along for the journey the whole way. I was just lucky to be there. Matties: How were the designs for the circuit boards developed? Were you doing them in-house? Yes, we did the design in- house; we didn't have any idea about laminates, but we knew the copper foil was around. We actually used wallpaper, and then impregnated it with resin. at's how it started. ere was nothing available in the market. It was all sorts of looking in the dark, really, and hoping it would do the job. Eventually, a laminator took over—they man- ufactured the laminate, they went into fiber- glass, and so forth. I think one of Eisler's moti- vations was that he looked at the round wires and he moved them onto a printed circuit so that you could assemble something very large into something very small and not have the wires around. Matties: In your career, Rex, what was most surprising to you? e surprising thing was that I was picked to be part of this team. When I met the manag- Dr. Paul Eisler "The Inventor of the Printed Circuit" with Rex Rozario in 1990.