READERS have been conjuring up lots of information about the Genie of The Flag, following our recent appeal.

We wanted to know more about the ingenious system which used a telephone-style dial to select a drink from the bar.

And now thanks to Looking Back readers we do!

The machine, which was used in The Flag pub at Bromley Cross in the 1960s, as well as at a London hotel, was the brainchild of Darwen businessman Richard Millington, better known as Dick.

Pub customers would dial two digits for their required drink, such as 04 for a pint of mild, and 22 for a grapefruit juice, and they would be instantly dispatched from the bar; dial 100 and the waiter would appear at your table.

The system was just one of the developments created by Dick, who began his injection moulding business in the centre of Darwen.

It grew rapidly to become Millington and Boardman, making highly-specialised plastics products for industry, while developing electronic controls for machinery, too.

Among its ranges were plastics for the car and textile industries, police radio sets, brewery equipment and plastic signs, as well as electronic brains', linking computers and accounting equipment for banks.

Always keen to introduce new ideas, Dick often researched and experimented in his own workshop at his Ribble Valley home, and among products his company supplied were heating control panels and automatic parking lights.

He also worked closely with local hospital X-ray departments and, in conjunction with Lancashire Constabulary, produced Perspex, skeletal POLICE signs for Panda cars to replace the old solid signs, which caused wind drag.

One of his former workers, May Fairclough, now 81, worked for Millington's for 23 years and fondly recalls her bosses, Dick and his brother Frank.

She said: "It was a lovely company to work for.

"Dick was one of the old school, he knew each employee by name and it was a sad day when I retired.

"I remember the Genie and going to the Flag to watch it work, as well as being involved in the manufacture of the automatic parking lights."

Another worker involved in the Genie system was Joe Ridge, a renowned organist, electronics engineer, and local radio ham.