Early Years
The earliest photograph of Edward James Jordan, (Ted, to everybody) was taken in 1931 and shows him sitting on his father's knee. Ted is wearing headphones and adjusting a crystal set, one of the earliest types of receiver. With his mother coming from a musical family and his father a skilled amateur radio builder, Ted was genetically predisposed for his future career.
During early childhood his most treasured possessions were a wind-up gramophone and his record collection. He was quite incapable of playing a simple tune on the piano so instead he learned to solder and and around the age of 12 years, built himself a simple three-valve radio using parts from his Dad's collection. By the age of 15, he had progressed to the design of an eight-valve superhetrodyne radiogram employing a push-pull output stage.
Ted spent many of his teenage hours in the major concert halls. His experience of live music planted the seed of dissatisfaction with the sound of recorded music, which Ted attributed, primarily, to the limitations of then current loudspeakers
At college Ted studied building technology and architecture, but then joined the G,E.C. as an assistant in the radio laboratories.
His first hi-fi experience was hearing a full concert orchestra played through an array of GEC 8 metal-coned loudspeakers recently developed by Head of Research, Hugh Brittain. This was the closest approach to live concert sound he had heard.
Ted acquired a pair of these drivers and designed a double transmission line enclosure with an upward facing driver at each end, The design was stereo-ready' before stereo was available. The enclosure was made from steel reinforced concrete finished in a polished wood cladding. This was the subject of Ted's first article commissioned by the Journal of The British Sound Recording Association around 1951.