The pictures on this page were taken by Derek Underdown at Dartford Road, c. 1954. Derek joined Jennings in late May 1952 and soon began work on a range of electronic organs for Tom, valve at first (until 1961), then transistor (from 1962) - a formidable achievement, as they were often hugely complex things. He also designed the "tone" cabinets required by some models, Jennings's name for extension speaker cabinets, also complex in nature. Thanks to Toni Standing, Derek's daughter, and Martin Kelly for the photos.

The J51 was first displayed by Jennings at the "British Industries Fair", London, Olympia, May 1953 - see this page.

A front view of the J51 - termed the "J51 Streamline" in early promotional material. To the right of the 24-note pedal board, there is a wooden footswitch block with what seem to be lamps to indicate actuation. This prefigures by well over ten years the prototype footswitch for the Vox Conqueror displayed by JMI in August 1966, and the footswitches designed by Thomas Organ for its range of solid state amps.

Model J51 "Streamline" Jennings orgam, photographed c. 1954.

Detail of a Jennings Organ Company J51, photograph taken c. 1954.

In view, part of the voicing assembly (stops, footings, and so on). It is interesting to see the range of components used: - white Erie capacitors; what look to be Egen potentiometers; Radiospares capacitors (the larger electrolytics); Hunts caps (smaller electrolytics); and black WIMA Tropydur signal / coupling caps.

The earliest advert for WIMAs to have emerged so far in journals published in the UK comes from September 1957. It may be that Derek ordered the capacitors directly from Germany. At any rate, it is clear that Jennings organs of the mid 1950s contained pretty much the same types of electronic components that were used to construct JMI amplifiers a few years later.