Peter Bang

Peter Boas Bang was the son of Camillo Cavour Bang (1861–1949) and Augusta Pouline Boas (1868–1919). His brother Poul Bang was a film director and director for Saga Studios.

Bang grew up in a wealthy family in Copenhagen with a well-equipped house for the time that had electric lights, phone service and a phonograph; the family also owned a car. At the age of nine he went to Nærum Kostskole. Because of his mother's frailty, he focused on mechanical interests. He spent his pocket money on batteries, doorbells, and switches.

Bang was interested in technology and radios from an early age, and he remembered having heard a recording of Enrico Caruso at the age of five.

At 14, he left the boarding school and entered middle school. He continued his experiments and was assisted by his cousin Isse Wulff, who was an assistant at the Technical Institute.

In 1917, he finished school, where his practical abilities were pointed out. His father then got him a job as a blacksmith apprentice at the Siemens & Halske forge where he did experiments at night, including making a windmill to supply the family's summer house with electricity.

Peter Bang married Else Windfeldt Jensen (1907–1937) in 1933, and in 1935 his son Jens Bang was born. In 1939, he married Kirsten Retlev-Abrahamsen (1914–1990), with whom he had three children: Lotte Bang Thorsen, Lars Peter Bang and Dorte Krogh.

Both sons followed in their father's footsteps: they became engineers and worked in the factory in Struer.

Peter Bang is buried in Gimsing Kirke near Struer.

It did not take long before both young engineers realised they worked together well and that they had something to collaborate on. Camillo Cavour Bang understood it was a serious project and asked them to come to Copenhagen to complete the formalities. On 17 November 1925 the A/S Bang & Olufsen founding meeting took place. The initial capital was 10,000 Danish kroner. Each founder had a share of 4,000 kr; their fathers each had 1,000 kr. Camillo Cavour Bang was elected president of the board.

After a slow start and modest success with a mains-powered receiver, they found out that there was a more profitable market for a product that supplied battery-powered receivers with power from the mains. This product, which most closely corresponds to today's power adapter, was called the Eliminator. It was released in 1926 as their first commercial product and was the livelihood of the company for the first few years. Bang & Olufsen again became a radio manufacturer with Bang as technical innovator. Bang was a man who tackled and solved problems – often brilliantly – without ever realising how brilliant it was. He often got up at night to perform experiments.

After Svend Olufsen died in 1949, Peter Bang ran the company alone until his death in 1957, before which he was able to see the release of a new defining Bang & Olufsen product, the television, in 1952. Their first television was the model TV 508 S, known as Trillebøren.