Editing Printed circuit board (section)

=== Predecessors ===
Before the development of printed circuit boards, electrical and electronic circuits were [[Point-to-point construction|wired point-to-point]] on a chassis. Typically, the chassis was a sheet metal frame or pan, sometimes with a wooden bottom. Components were attached to the chassis, usually by insulators when the connecting point on the chassis was metal, and then their leads were connected directly or with [[Jump wire|jumper wires]] by [[soldering]], or sometimes using [[Crimp (electrical)|crimp]] connectors, wire connector lugs on screw terminals, or other methods. Circuits were large, bulky, heavy, and relatively fragile (even discounting the breakable glass envelopes of the vacuum tubes that were often included in the circuits), and production was labor-intensive, so the products were expensive.

Development of the methods used in modern printed circuit boards started early in the 20th century. In 1903, a German inventor, Albert Hanson, described flat foil conductors laminated to an insulating board, in multiple layers. [[Thomas Edison]] experimented with chemical methods of plating conductors onto linen paper in 1904. Arthur Berry in 1913 patented a print-and-[[Etching|etch]] method in the UK, and in the United States [[Max Schoop]] obtained a patent<ref>{{Cite patent |country=US |number=1256599 |pubdate=1918-02-19 |title=Process and mechanism for the production of electric heaters |inventor1-last=Schoop |inventor1-first=Max Ulrich }}</ref> to flame-spray metal onto a board through a patterned mask. Charles Ducas in 1925 patented a method of electroplating circuit patterns.<ref name="Harper03">{{cite book |last=Harper |first=Charles A. |date=2003 |title=Electronic materials and processes handbook |publisher=McGraw-Hill |isbn=0071402144 |pages=7.3, 7.4 }}</ref>

Predating the printed circuit invention, and similar in spirit, was [[John Sargrove]]'s 1936–1947 Electronic Circuit Making Equipment (ECME) that sprayed metal onto a [[Bakelite]] plastic board. The ECME could produce three radio boards per minute.