Trademark VidorThomas Noah Cole (born 1891 in Llanllwni, near Lampeter, Wales) left for London in 1920 and set up the Lissen Company. In 1923 he formed Lissen Limited, based in Shepherds' Bush.
Lissen Ltd. had three factories, one produced batteries and the other two produced parts. The company sold everything needed to build a radio. There were Lissen lamps, resistors, capacitors, coils, transformers, loudspeakers and cabinets. Lissen produced a series of radio kits under the name "Skyscraper", and published building schemes encouraging the copy-builders to use only Lissen parts. Using this would, of course, yield a receiver of superior quality.
In 1928 Ever Ready bought the company from owner and director T.N. Cole for over 1 million pounds. One of the conditions of this was that Thomas Cole would remain as director, but for a period of 10 years he would not be allowed to be involved in a company that was a competitor to Lissen Limited. After a while he regretted not being his own boss, and in 1934 he took over the troubled Burndept Radio Company and established a new battery factory called Vidor.
Vidor was named after the first letters of the names of Thomas' two daughters, Valerie and Denise, and his wife Rebecca. To fulfill Ever Ready and his agreement, he did not direct Burndept and Vidor himself, but appointed Mr. R.P. Richardson as director.
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