Tech Tin Files: Veroboard History

• The VPE Electronics Department was formed early in 1959 when managing director Geoffrey Verdon-Roe hired two former Saunders-Roe Ltd employees, Peter H Winter (aircraft design department) and Terry Fitzpatrick (electronics division).
• After the failure of a project to develop machine tool control equipment the department remained operative as a result of success with the invention and development of the new electronics material - Veroboard.
• The printed circuit board (PCB) had become commonplace in electronics production by the mid-1950s and new equipment utilising PCBs was displayed at the 1959 Radio and Electronics Components Manufacturers Federation (RECMF) Exhibition held in The Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, London.
• The usual configuration for most of the PCBs of that time had components placed in a regular pattern with the circuit formed by maze-like conductive pathways. An interesting alternative, proposed by Fitzpatrick after visiting the RECMF Exhibition on behalf of VPE, envisaged a standard circuit board carrying straight-line conductors on which the components could be suitably dispersed and connected to the conductors to produce the required circuit.
• A patent application was immediately filed and the invention was developed for Vero by associates Winter, Fitzpatrick and machine shop engineers.