EARLY YEARS
Brian Green was born on 25 December 1933, the eldest of three brothers, and grew up in Urmston, a suburb of Manchester, just a few miles from Trafford Park, Man-Chester, where he was to spend the first 15 years of his career in mass spectrometry.
Brian went to Manchester Grammar School and then to Manchester University where he gained an Honours degree in General Science. He then took up a two-year college apprenticeship with Metropolitan-Vickers in Trafford Park.
Brian's apprenticeship in things practical began well before that, however. His father also worked at 'Metrovick' for most of his working life and had a well-equipped workshop at home with lathes and radio and televison test equipment, as the family shop provided a radio repair and battery-charging service. Brian began to build his own equipment for amateur radio (in the 40 and 2 metre bands) and learnt how to make for himself any parts he might need.
Moving on to his own designs, he developed a motorbike mobile transceiver, which enabled him to contact more distant VHF stations from sites like the top of Pendle Hill and Mow Cop, and which occasionally aroused the professional interest of a police constable on his beat. He also made a number of 2 metre Walkie-Talkies at a time when they were very novel, and a 'slow scan TV', an early version of which was known as his 'knitted tel1y'-a collection of valves and components self-supported on the bench interconnected by a veritable mound of wires.
Brian and his brother Alan inherited and shared their father's workshop. Some years later Brian helped Alan to set up a 5-inch gauge passenger-carrying model railway in a local park. Alan built the locomotives (weighing over 200 pounds) and carriages; Brian carried out the batterypowered electrification and the electronic control, complete