Whatever Happened to the British Electricity and Electronics Industry?

 My work in progress is exploring the years since the Festival of Britain closed its doors to see how the hopes inherent in the festival were played out. 

The more I read, the more I reflect on the essence of British manufacturing. We were, we are, very clever. Talking to a member of the team at Rustons who developed gas turbines from the ground breaking work by Frank Whittle on jet engines, I am in no doubt at all that both technically and commercially their work was hugely successful. I include it in this post under electronics because of the life changing input of gas turbines on the generation of electricity and all that brings with it. 

Away from the generation of electricity to its applications, the way companies like Marconi, Ferranti and EMI built civil applications from wartime experience is life affirming. To invent a transistor is one thing, to incorporate it into the electronics in aircraft in crowded skies, where the margin for error is zero, is quite another. To have an idea that it may be possible to report in digital form the shape of objects lying close together and one top of one another is crazy enough, but then to transform the idea into an instrument that can scan the human body is simply brilliant. 

In commercial terms it is evident that success is time relative. Looking at the great names of British electronics, AEI, English Electric, GEC, EMI, Thorn, Plessey, Ferranti, Marconi and Brush it is clear that every dog has its day. It is the exceptional dog whose day extends much beyond. AEI through its constituent companies British Thompson Houston and Metropolitan Vickers did the heavy lifting that gave us the National Grid; it also gave birth to the oldest semiconductor manufacturer still working in the UK. English Electric gave us aeroplanes and trains but also brought out the brilliance of Marconi. GEC, under Arnold Weinstock, brought in a whole new approach to financial discipline. EMI gave us the framework on which British television was based up to the seventies. Thorn gave us fluorescent lighting and television rental. Plessey gave us advanced telecommunications. Ferranti electronics guided post war British missiles and Marconi made aircraft safe. When I walk my dog past the electricity substation across the road, the name Brush is clear to see on the bank of transformers. 

None of these companies have survived other than in a much reduced form. 

I am working through the histories of these and other electronic companies to try to identify successes and failures and some of the influences and possible causes. My hope is that it will help to inform the future. 

For me, every bit as exciting is the quiet success of companies created since 1951 and playing their part with great success in 21st century Britain. Just a couple of examples are Wilson Power Solutions ITM Power and ARM. There are many more.

A review in the PwC former partners magazine

I am grateful for the support of my former firm. The members of this group of retired partners have been leaders of their profession, many acting for the British Manufacturing companies about which I write.

The Great Exhibition of 1851 provided a prism through which I could view this astonishing story. It is interesting to see in the review this other Price Waterhouse connection from the diaries of Edwin Waterhouse

You can buy How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World from Pen&Sword

BBC 100 - How it happened

If you were one of the many radio hams who had taken advantage of the supply of surplus radio parts following the ending the war, you would have enjoyed the broadcasts by the Marconi Company from Chelmsford. In1922, you would have received the first broadcasts from the British Broadcasting Company. This had been formed by leading electrical manufacturers: Marconi, GEC, BTH, Metropolitan Vickers, Western Electric and the Radio Communication Company.

A public hungry for new and exciting technology were, by and large, in for disappointment. Of the leading companies which formed the BBC, only GEC was really involved in consumer products and it was only they who produced reasonably priced receivers for the new broadcasts. It will be apparent that at this stage the wireless was a very small part of a very much bigger and more diverse business.

In wireless, the amateur reigned supreme. Crystal sets, often made from kits, outnumbered the more expensive valve radios even though they had severe limitations of use. The other five companies owning the BBC produced only components, many producing valves alongside light bulbs. There was, early on, one exception: Burndept, a small company set up by an amateur enthusiast who produce high quality but rather complicated receivers. Marconi, through their Marconiphone company, produced valve receivers, but not many. They subcontracted manufacture to the company that would become Plessey, but only for a limited period, and Plessey reverted to component manufacture. Pye was another company involved in a small way in those early days. 

Marconi’s approach was half hearted, and allowed small manufacturers and amateurs to dominate the body of licence fee payers, indeed so successfully that there were many more experimenter licence holders than full licence holders, much to the disadvantage of the BBC and its founders. 

I write more about the early radio manufacturers in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World, available from Pen & Sword. 

Radios being repaired at COD Greenford in WW2, from my book War on Wheels.