Ferranti or Ferranti International plc was a UK
electrical engineering and equipment firm that operated for over a century from 1885 until it went bankrupt in 1993. The company was once a constituent of the
FTSE 100 Index.
The firm was known for work in the area of
power grid
An electrical grid is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids vary in size and can cover whole countries or continents. It consists of:Kaplan, S. M. (2009). Smart Grid. Electrical Power ...
systems and defence
electronics
The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...
. In addition, in 1951 Ferranti began selling an early computer, the
Ferranti Mark 1
The Ferranti Mark 1, also known as the Manchester Electronic Computer in its sales literature, and thus sometimes called the Manchester Ferranti, was produced by British electrical engineering firm Ferranti Ltd. It was the world's first commer ...
. The Belgian subsidiary lives on as Ferranti Computer Systems and as of 1994 is part of the Nijkerk Holding.
History
Beginnings
Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti
Sebastian Pietro Innocenzo Adhemar Ziani de Ferranti (9 April 1864 – 13 January 1930) was a British electrical engineer and inventor.
Personal life
Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti was born in Liverpool, England. His Italian father, Cesare, was a ...
established his first business Ferranti, Thompson and Ince in 1882.
The company developed the Ferranti-Thompson Alternator. Ferranti focused on
alternating current
Alternating current (AC) is an electric current which periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time in contrast to direct current (DC) which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in whic ...
power distribution early on, and was one of the few UK experts. To avoid confusion, he is often referred to as Dr Ferranti to distinguish him from the Ferranti company itself. In 1885 Dr Ferranti established a new business, with Francis Ince and Charles Sparks as partners, known as S. Z. de Ferranti.
[Ferranti Timeline]
– '' Museum of Science and Industry (Accessed 22-02-2012)'' According to J F Wilson,
[Ferranti and the British Electrical Industry J F Wilson ] Dr Ferranti's association with the
electricity meter persuaded Ince to partner him in this new venture, and meter development was fundamental to the survival and growth of his business for several decades to come.
Despite being a prime exponent of Alternating Current, Ferranti became an important supplier to many electric utility firms and power-distribution companies for both AC and DC meters.
In 1887, the London Electric Supply Corporation (LESCo) hired Dr Ferranti for the design of their
power station at Deptford. He designed the building, the generating plant and the distribution system and on its completion in October 1890, it was the first truly modern power station. It supplied high-voltage AC power at 10,000 volts, which was transformed to a lower voltage for consumer use where required.
[
Success followed and Ferranti started producing electrical equipment (especially transformers) for sale. Soon the company was looking for considerably more manufacturing space. Land prices in the London area were too high, so the company moved to Hollinwood in ]Oldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham ...
in 1896.[ In July 1901, Ferranti Limited was formed, specifically to take over the assets of S. Z. de Ferranti Ltd and raise equity, but failed to impress potential new investors as it was still dominated by family ownership. Over-optimistic market projections in the boom of 1896–1903, declining revenues and liquidity problems, forced the company bankers Parrs to send the company into receivership in 1903.][
The business was restructured in 1905, Dr Ferranti's shareholding being reduced to less than 10%.] For the next eleven years the company was run by receiver managers and Dr Ferranti was effectively excluded from commercial financial strategies. He spent much of this period working in partnership with the likes of J P Coats of Paisley on cotton spinning machinery and Vickers
Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public i ...
on re-superheating turbines.[
]
Expansion
Through the early part of the century power was supplied by small companies, typically as an offshoot of plant set up to provide power to local industry. Each plant supplied a different standard, which made the mass production of domestic electrical equipment inefficient. In 1910, Dr Ferranti made a presidential speech to the IEE addressing this issue, but it would be another sixteen years before the commencement of the National Grid in 1926.[
In 1912, in a move driven by A B Anderson, the Ferranti Managing Director, Ferranti formed a company in Canada, Ferranti Electric, to exploit the overseas meter market. But in 1914, two significant events happened, Anderson drowned on his return from Canada in the ]Empress of Ireland
RMS ''Empress of Ireland'' was a British-built ocean liner that sank near the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River in Canada following a collision in thick fog with the Norwegian Collier (ship), collier in the early hours of 29 May 1914. Althoug ...
sinking and the outbreak of WWI signalled an opportunity for Dr Ferranti to once again get involved in day-to-day events in the company.[ He wanted to get involved in the manufacture of shells and fuzes but it wasn't until 1915 that he finally convinced the board to accept this. As a result of this work Ferranti were in a healthier financial position at the end of the war.][''Ferranti Packard: Pioneers in Canadian Electrical Manufacturing'' Norman R Ball, John N Vardalas
]
High voltage power transformers became an important product for Ferranti; some of the largest types weighed over a hundred tons. Dr Ferranti's son Vincent
Vincent ( la, Vincentius) is a male given name derived from the Roman name Vincentius, which is derived from the Latin word (''to conquer'').
People with the given name Artists
*Vincent Apap (1909–2003), Maltese sculptor
*Vincent van Gogh ...
joined the transformer department as manager in 1921 and was instrumental in expanding the work started by his father. After the death of Dr Ferranti in 1930, he became the chairman and chief executive.[ In 1935, Ferranti purchased a disused wire drawing mill at Moston: from here it manufactured many "brown goods" such as televisions, radios, and electric clocks.][ The company later sold its radio and television interests to ]EKCO
EKCO (from Eric Kirkham Cole Limited) was a British electronics company producing radio and television sets from 1924 until 1960. Expanding into plastic production for its own use, Ekco Plastics produced both radio cases and later domestic plasti ...
in 1957. Production of clocks ended in 1957 and other product lines phased out in 1960 Ferranti Instruments, based at Moston, developed various items for scientific measurements, including one of the first cone and plate viscometers. Ferranti built a new power transformer works at Hollinwood in the mid 1950s at a time when there was growth in the power supply distribution industry.
By 1974, Ferranti had become an important supplier to the defence industry, but its power transformer division was making losses, creating acute financial problems. This led to the company being bailed out by the government's National Enterprise Board
The National Enterprise Board (NEB) was a United Kingdom government body. It was set up in 1975 by the Labour government of Harold Wilson, to support the government's interventionist approach to industry. In 1981 the Conservative government of Ma ...
, taking a 65% share of the company in return.[''Ferranti: A History - Building a Family Business 1882–1975 J F Wilson'' ]
Defence electronics
During World War II, Ferranti became a major supplier of electronics, fuzes, valves
A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fitting ...
, and was, through development of the Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) system, heavily involved in the early development of radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...
in the United Kingdom.[ In the post-war era, this became a large segment of the company, with various branches supplying radar sets, ]avionics
Avionics (a blend of ''aviation'' and ''electronics'') are the electronic systems used on aircraft. Avionic systems include communications, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems, and the hundreds of systems that are fit ...
and other military electronics, both in the UK and the various international offices.
In 1943, Ferranti opened a factory at Crewe Toll
Crewe Toll is an area in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital.
The area takes its name from the Toll house which once stood at the junction of Ferry Road and Crewe Road North and South. The name Crewe, or a variation thereof (Creue, Crew or Crou), can ...
in Edinburgh to manufacture gyro gunsight
A gyro gunsight (G.G.S.) is a modification of the non-magnifying reflector sight in which target lead (the amount of aim-off in front of a moving target) and bullet drop are calculated automatically. The first examples were developed in Britain ...
s for the Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Grif ...
aircraft.[ After the war they set up Ferranti Research to complement this business which grew to employ 8,000 staff in 8 locations, becoming the birthplace of the Scottish electronics industry, and a major contributor to company profitability. Later products included solid state ring laser gyros.
From 1949, ]Ferranti-Packard
Ferranti-Packard Ltd. was the Canadian division of Ferranti's global manufacturing empire, formed by the 1958 merger of Ferranti Electric and Packard Electric. For several years in the post-war era, the company underwent a dramatic expansion and ...
assisted the Royal Canadian Navy
The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; french: Marine royale canadienne, ''MRC'') is the naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2021, the RCN operates 12 frigates, four attack submar ...
develop DATAR
DATAR, short for ''Digital Automated Tracking and Resolving'', was a pioneering computerized battlefield information system. DATAR combined the data from all of the sensors in a naval task force into a single "overall view" that was then transmi ...
(Digital Automated Tracking and Resolving). DATAR was a pioneering computerized battlefield information system that combined radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...
and sonar
Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect objects on o ...
information to provide commanders with an "overall view" of a battlefield, allowing them to coordinate attacks on submarines and aircraft.[John Vardalas,]
From DATAR To The FP-6000 Computer
", ''IEEE Annals of the History of Computing'', Vol 16 No 2, 1994
In the 1950s, work focused on the development of airborne radar, with the company subsequently supplying radars to most of the UK's fast jet and helicopter fleets. Today the Crewe Toll site (now part of Leonardo S.p.A.) leads the consortium providing the Euroradar CAPTOR
The Euroradar Captor is a next-generation mechanical multi-mode pulse Doppler radar designed for the Eurofighter Typhoon. Development of Captor led to the Airborne Multirole Solid State Active Array Radar (AMSAR) project which eventually produ ...
radar for the Eurofighter Typhoon
The Eurofighter Typhoon is a European multinational twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter. The Typhoon was designed originally as an air-superiority fighter and is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo ...
.
In the 1960s and 1970s, inertial navigation systems became an important product line for the company with systems designed for fast jet (Harrier, Phantom, Tornado), space and land applications. The electro-mechanical inertial navigation systems were constructed at the Silverknowes site in Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
. In addition to their other military and civil applications, they were used in the ESA Ariane 4
The Ariane 4 was a European expendable space launch system, developed by the '' Centre national d'études spatiales'' (CNES), the French space agency, for the European Space Agency (ESA). It was manufactured by ArianeGroup and marketed by Ari ...
and first Ariane 5 launches. Ferranti also produced the PADS (Position and Azimuth Determining System), an inertial navigation system which could be mounted in a vehicle and was used by the British Army.
With the invention of the laser in the 1960s, the company quickly established itself in the electro-optics arena. From the early 1970s, it was delivering the ''Laser Rangefinder and Marked Target Seeker'' (LRMTS) for the Jaguar and Harrier fleets, and later for Tornado. It supplied the world's first man-portable laser rangefinder/designator ( Laser Target Marker, or LTM) to the British Army in 1974, and had notable successes in the US market, establishing Ferranti Electro-optics Inc in Huntington Beach, California. Its TIALD
The Thermal Imaging Airborne Laser Designator (TIALD) was a targeting pod manufactured by Ferranti/ GEC Marconi in the late 1980s and 1990s, and was the UK's primary laser designator for its Paveway series of laser-guided bombs (LGBs).
History
T ...
Pod (Thermal Imaging Airborne Laser Designator) has been in almost constant combat operation on the Tornado
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...
since it was rushed into service during the first Gulf War.
From the 1960s through to the late 1980s, the Bristol Ferranti Bloodhound SAM, for which Ferranti developed radar systems, was a key money earner.
In 1970, Ferranti became involved in the sonar field through its involvement with Plessey in a new series of sonars, for which it designed and built the computer subsystems. This work later expanded when it won a contract for the complete Sonar 2050. The work was originally carried out at the Wythenshawe factory and then at Cheadle Heath. Takeovers of other companies gave it expertise in sonar arrays. This business later became Ferranti Thomson Sonar Systems.
The selection of the radar for the project that became the Eurofighter Typhoon became a major international issue in the early 1990s. Britain, Italy, and Spain supported the Ferranti-led ECR-90, while Germany preferred the MSD2000 (a collaboration between Hughes, AEG and GEC). An agreement was reached after UK Defence Secretary Tom King assured his German counterpart Gerhard Stoltenberg
Gerhard Stoltenberg (29 September 1928 – 23 November 2001) was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and minister in the cabinets of Ludwig Erhard, Kurt Georg Kiesinger and Helmut Kohl. He served as Minister-President ...
that the British government would underwrite the project and allow GEC to acquire Ferranti Defence Systems from its troubled parent. Hughes sued GEC for $600 million for its role in the selection of the EFA and alleged that it used Hughes technology in the ECR-90 when it took over Ferranti. It later dropped this allegation and was awarded $23 million; the court judged that the MSD-2000 "had a real or substantial chance of succeeding had GEC not tortuously intervened ... and had the companies, which were bound by the Collaboration Agreement, faithfully and diligently performed their continuing obligations thereunder to press and promote the case for MSD-2000."
Industrial electronics
The company began marketing optical position measuring equipment for machine tools in 1956. Moire fringes produced by diffraction gratings were the basis for the position measurement. In the late 1980s there were several sections of the company involved in non-military areas. These included microwave communications equipment (Ferranti Communications), and petrol (gas) station pumps (Ferranti Autocourt). Both of these departments were based at Dalkeith, Scotland.
Computers
In the late 1940s Ferranti joined with various university-based research groups to develop computers. Their first effort was the Ferranti Mark 1
The Ferranti Mark 1, also known as the Manchester Electronic Computer in its sales literature, and thus sometimes called the Manchester Ferranti, was produced by British electrical engineering firm Ferranti Ltd. It was the world's first commer ...
, completed in 1951,[ with about nine delivered between 1951 and 1957. The Pegasus introduced in 1956 was their most popular ]valve
A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fitting ...
(vacuum tube) system, with 38 units sold. Circa 1956, Ivan Idelson, at Ferranti, originated the ''Cluff–Foster–Idelson coding'' of characters on 7-track paper tape for a BSI committee.[ (NB. Also has information on the Elliott 503 character set.)] This also inspired the development of ASCII
ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because ...
.
In collaboration with the Victoria University of Manchester
The Victoria University of Manchester, usually referred to as simply the University of Manchester, was a university in Manchester, England. It was founded in 1851 as Owens College. In 1880, the college joined the federal Victoria University. Afte ...
they built a new version of the famous Mark 1 that replaced valve diodes with solid state versions, which allowed the speed to be increased dramatically as well as increasing reliability. Ferranti offered the result commercially as the Mercury starting in 1957, and eventually sold nineteen in total. Although a small part of Ferranti's empire, the computer division was nevertheless highly visible and operated out of a former steam locomotive factory in West Gorton
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
.
Work on a completely new design, the Atlas
An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth.
Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geograp ...
,[ started soon after the delivery of the Mercury, aiming to dramatically improve performance. Ferranti continued their collaboration with the University of Manchester, and Plessey Co., plc, became a third partner. The second generation supercomputer first ran in December 1962. Eventually six machines were built, one of which was a stripped-down version that was modified for the needs of the ]University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory
The Department of Computer Science and Technology, formerly the Computer Laboratory, is the computer science department of the University of Cambridge. it employed 35 academic staff, 25 support staff, 35 affiliated research staff, and about 15 ...
; the Titan (or ''Atlas 2'') was the mainstay of scientific computing in Cambridge for nearly 8 years. Atlas was the first computer in the world to implement virtual memory
In computing, virtual memory, or virtual storage is a memory management technique that provides an "idealized abstraction of the storage resources that are actually available on a given machine" which "creates the illusion to users of a very ...
.
By the early 1960s their mid-size machines were no longer competitive, but efforts to design a replacement were bogged down. Into this void stepped the Canadian division, Ferranti-Packard
Ferranti-Packard Ltd. was the Canadian division of Ferranti's global manufacturing empire, formed by the 1958 merger of Ferranti Electric and Packard Electric. For several years in the post-war era, the company underwent a dramatic expansion and ...
, who had used several of the ideas under development in England to very quickly produce the Ferranti-Packard 6000.[ By this time Ferranti's management had tired of the market and were looking for someone to buy the entire division. Eventually it was merged into ]International Computers and Tabulators
International Computers and Tabulators or ICT was a British computer manufacturer, formed in 1959 by a merger of the British Tabulating Machine Company (BTM) and Powers-Samas. In 1963 it acquired the business computer divisions of Ferranti. It ...
(ICT) in 1963, becoming the Large Systems Division of ICL in 1968. After studying several options, ICT selected the FP 6000 as the basis for their ICT 1900 series
ICT 1900 was a family of mainframe computers released by International Computers and Tabulators (ICT) and later International Computers Limited (ICL) during the 1960s and 1970s. The 1900 series was notable for being one of the few non-American c ...
line which sold into the 1970s.
The deal setting up ICT excluded Ferranti from the commercial sector of computing, but left the industrial field free. Some of the technology of the FP 6000 was later used in its Ferranti Argus
Ferranti's Argus computers were a line of industrial control computers offered from the 1960s into the 1980s. Originally designed for a military role, a re-packaged Argus was the first digital computer to be used to directly control an entire fact ...
range of industrial computers which were developed in its Wythenshawe
Wythenshawe () is a district of the city of Manchester, England. Historically in Cheshire, Wythenshawe was transferred in 1931 to the City of Manchester, which had begun building a massive housing estate there in the 1920s. With an area of approx ...
factory. The first of these, simply ''Argus'', was initially developed for military use.
Meanwhile, in Bracknell the Digital Systems Division was developing a range of mainframe computers for naval applications. Early computers using discrete transistors were the ''Hermes'' and ''Poseidon'' and these were followed by the ''F1600'' in the mid 1960s. Some of these machines remained in active service on naval vessels for many years. The ''FM1600B'' was the first of the range to use integrated circuits and was used in many naval and commercial applications. The ''FM1600D'' was a single-rack
Rack or racks may refer to:
Storage and installation
* Amp rack, short for amplifier rack, a piece of furniture in which amplifiers are mounted
* Bicycle rack, a frame for storing bicycles when not in use
* Bustle rack, a type of storage bi ...
version of the computer for smaller systems. An airborne version of this was also made and used aboard the RAF
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
Nimrod
Nimrod (; ; arc, ܢܡܪܘܕ; ar, نُمْرُود, Numrūd) is a biblical figure mentioned in the Book of Genesis and Books of Chronicles. The son of Cush and therefore a great-grandson of Noah, Nimrod was described as a king in the land of ...
. The ''FM1600E'' was a redesigned and updated version of the FM1600B, and the last in the series was the ''F2420'', an upgraded FM1600E with 60% more memory and 3.5 times the processing speed, still in service at sea in 2010.
Semiconductors
Ferranti had been involved in the production of electronic devices, including radio valves, cathode-ray tubes and germanium semiconductors for some time before it became the first European company to produce a silicon
Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic ta ...
diode, in 1955. In 1972 they launched the ZN414
The ZN414 is a low cost, single-chip AM radio integrated circuit. Launched in 1972, the part was designed and supplied by Ferranti, but was second sourced from GEC-Plessey. The ZN414 was popular amongst hobbyists, as a fully working AM radio co ...
, a single-chip AM radio integrated circuit in a 3-pin package.
Ferranti Semiconductor Ltd. went on to produce a range of silicon bipolar devices, including, in 1977, the Ferranti F100-L
The Ferranti F100-L was a 16-bit microprocessor family announced by Ferranti in 1976 which entered production in 1977. It was the first microprocessor designed in Europe, and among the first 16-bit single-chip CPUs. It was designed with military us ...
, an early 16-bit microprocessor
A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circ ...
with 16-bit addressing. An F100-L was carried into space on the amateur radio satellite
An amateur radio satellite is an artificial satellite built and used by amateur radio operators. It forms part of the Amateur-satellite service. These satellites use amateur radio frequency allocations to facilitate communication between amat ...
UoSAT-1 (OSCAR 9). Ferranti's ZTX series bipolar transistors gave their name to the inheritor of Ferranti Semiconductor's discrete semiconductor business, Zetex Semiconductors plc.
In the early 1980s, Ferranti produced some of the first large uncommitted logic arrays (ULAs), used in home computers such as the Sinclair
Sinclair may refer to:
Places
* Lake Sinclair, near Milledgeville, Georgia
* Sinclair, Iowa
* Sinclair, West Virginia
* Sinclair, Wyoming
* Sinclair Mills, British Columbia
* Sinclair Township, Minnesota
* Sinclair, Manitoba
People
* ...
ZX81
The ZX81 is a home computer that was produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Dundee, Scotland, by Timex Corporation. It was launched in the United Kingdom in March 1981 as the successor to Sinclair's ZX80 and designed to be a low-cos ...
, Sinclair ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer.
Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colou ...
, Acorn Electron
The Acorn Electron (nicknamed the Elk inside Acorn and beyond) was a lower-cost alternative to the BBC Micro educational/ home computer, also developed by Acorn Computers Ltd, to provide many of the features of that more expensive machine at a ...
and BBC Micro
The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphas ...
. The microelectronics business was sold to Plessey
The Plessey Company plc was a British electronics, defence and telecommunications company. It originated in 1917, growing and diversifying into electronics. It expanded after World War II by acquisition of companies and formed overseas compani ...
in 1988.
Acquisition of International Signal and Control
In 1987 Ferranti purchased International Signal and Control
International Signal and Control (ISC) was a United States, U.S. defense contractor based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania that was involved in the manufacture of electronic missile subassemblies, navigation components, fuses, power supplies for proximit ...
(ISC), a United States defence contractor based in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. The company subsequently changed its name to Ferranti International plc. and restructured the combined business into the following divisions: Ferranti Computer Systems, Ferranti Defence Systems, Ferranti Dynamics, Ferranti Satcomms, Ferranti Telecoms, Ferranti Technologies and International Signal and Control.
Collapse
Unknown to Ferranti, ISC's business primarily consisted of illegal arms sales started at the behest of various US clandestine organizations. On paper the company looked to be extremely profitable on sales of high-priced "above board" items, but these profits were essentially non-existent. With the sale to Ferranti all illegal sales ended immediately, leaving the company with no obvious cash flow.[
In 1989 the UK's Serious Fraud Office started criminal investigation regarding alleged massive fraud at ISC. In December 1991 James Guerin, founder of ISC and co-Chairman of the merged company, pleaded guilty before the federal court in ]Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
to fraud committed both in the US and UK. All offences which would have formed part of any UK prosecution were encompassed by the US trial and as such no UK trial proceeded.[
The financial and legal difficulties that resulted forced Ferranti into bankruptcy in December 1993.][
]
Operations
The company had factories in Greater Manchester at Hollinwood, Moston, Chadderton
Chadderton is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, on the River Irk and Rochdale Canal. It is located in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Oldham, south of Rochdale and north-east of Manchester.
...
(Gem Mill), Waterhead (Cairo Mill), Derker
Derker is an area of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies in north-central Oldham, close to the boundary with Royton.
History
Historically a part of Lancashire, Derker was recorded as a place of residence in 1604 with the name ''Di ...
, Wythenshawe
Wythenshawe () is a district of the city of Manchester, England. Historically in Cheshire, Wythenshawe was transferred in 1931 to the City of Manchester, which had begun building a massive housing estate there in the 1920s. With an area of approx ...
, Cheadle Heath, West Gorton
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
, and Poynton
Poynton is a town in Cheshire, England, on the easternmost fringe of the Cheshire Plain, south-east of Manchester, north of Macclesfield and south of Stockport. Poynton has formed part of the Cheshire East unitary authority since the ab ...
. Eventually it set up branch-plants in Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
(Silverknowes, Crewe Toll, Gyle, Granton and Robertson Avenue factories, plus its own hangar facility at Turnhouse Airport), Dalkeith, Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
, Dundee, Kinbuck
Kinbuck is a hamlet in Stirlingshire, Scotland. It lies by the Allan Water and the Stirling-Perth Railway line. It is four miles north of Dunblane.
Facilities
Despite a campaign to save it, Kinbuck Primary School was controversially closed in 19 ...
(near Dunblane
Dunblane (, gd, Dùn Bhlàthain) is a small town in the council area of Stirling in central Scotland, and inside the historic boundaries of the county of Perthshire. It is a commuter town, with many residents making use of good transport links ...
), Bracknell, Barrow in Furness and Cwmbran
Cwmbran ( ; cy, Cwmbrân , also in use as an alternative spelling in English) is a town in the county borough of Torfaen in South Wales.
Lying within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire, Cwmbran was designated as a New Town in 1949 to prov ...
as well as Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
(inc. Ferranti International Controls Corporation
in Sugar Land, Texas) and several British Commonwealth
The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...
countries including Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, Australia and Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
.
Ferranti Australia was based in Revesby, Sydney NSW. There was also a primarily defence-related branch office in South Australia.
Products manufactured by Ferranti Defence Systems included cockpit displays (moving map, head-down, head-up) video cameras and recorders, gunsight cameras, motion detectors, pilot's night vision goggles, integrated helmets, and pilot's stick controls.
On the Tornado aircraft, Ferranti supplied the radar transmitter, inertial navigation system, LRMTS, TIALD
The Thermal Imaging Airborne Laser Designator (TIALD) was a targeting pod manufactured by Ferranti/ GEC Marconi in the late 1980s and 1990s, and was the UK's primary laser designator for its Paveway series of laser-guided bombs (LGBs).
History
T ...
pod, mission recording equipment, and cockpit displays.
Current ownership of former Ferranti businesses
*Ferranti Autocourt: Acquired by Wayne Dresser, renamed to Wayne Autocourt, before Autocourt name dropped
*Ferranti Communications: Acquired by Thorn
Thorn(s) or The Thorn(s) may refer to:
Botany
* Thorns, spines, and prickles, sharp structures on plants
* ''Crataegus monogyna'', or common hawthorn, a plant species
Comics and literature
* Rose and Thorn, the two personalities of two DC Com ...
and branded Thorn Communications and Telecontrol Systems (CATS). Later acquired by Tyco International
Tyco International plc was a security systems company incorporated in the Republic of Ireland, with operational headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey, United States (Tyco International (US) Inc.). Tyco International was composed of two major b ...
and renamed Tyco Communications. Still operating under the name TS Technology Services.
*Ferranti Computer Systems:The Belgian subsidiary lives on as Ferranti Computer System and as of 1994 is part of the Nijkerk Holding. The remainder was acquired out of administration by SYSECA, the IT arm of Thomson-CSF
Thomson-CSF was a French company that specialized in the development and manufacture of electronics with a heavy focus upon the aerospace and defence sectors of the market.
Thomson-CSF was formed in 1968 following the merger of Thomson-Houst ...
and renamed Ferranti-SYSECA Ltd.. Later, the Ferranti name was dropped and when Thomson changed its name to Thales Group
Thales Group () is a French multinational company that designs, develops and manufactures electrical systems as well as devices and equipment for the aerospace, defence, transportation and security sectors. The company is headquartered in Paris' ...
, SYSECA became Thales Information Systems. Thales Information Systems later sold its German interest to Consinto Gmbh. The department dealing with airport systems was bought by Datel in around 1995 and continued to trade under the name Ferranti Airport SystemsFASL
until it was bought by Ultra Electronics
Ultra Electronics Holdings is a British defence and security company. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index until it was acquired by Cobham, which is itself owned by Advent International.
Histo ...
. Other parts of Ferranti Computer Systems were acquired out of administration by GEC-Marconi. When GEC-Marconi sold on its defence-related businesses to BAE Systems, many of these former Ferranti entities became part of the BAE/Finmeccanica
Leonardo S.p.A., formerly Leonardo-Finmeccanica and originally Finmeccanica, is an Italian multinational company specialising in aerospace, defence and security. Headquartered in Rome, Italy, the company has 180 sites worldwide. It is the eighth ...
joint venture called Alenia Marconi Systems. This JV has now been dissolved and the former Ferranti entities are now part of BAE Systems Integrated System Technologies (Insyte).
*Ferranti Defence Systems: Acquired by GEC-Marconi out of administration and renamed GEC Ferranti, later becoming part of GEC Marconi Avionics (GMAv). This business was acquired in 2000 by BAE Systems (BAE Systems Avionics). Part of this business, including the heritage Ferranti operation, was acquired by Finmeccanica in 2007 and renamed SELEX Galileo (now Selex ES
Selex ES was a subsidiary of Finmeccanica S.p.A., active in the electronics and information technology business, based in Italy and the United Kingdom, UK, and formed in January 2013, following Finmeccanica's decision to combine its existing SE ...
). At one time there were design offices at Silverknowes, Robertson Avenue, South Gyle 1 and 2, Crewe Toll, Granton. After BAE Systems was formed the remaining factories at South Gyle were sold off and the staff made redundant despite their ground breaking work on the Avionics and Helmet for EFA and Aircraft Mission Computers.
*Ferranti Dynamics: Acquired by GEC-Marconi in 1992
*Ferranti Electronics (Ceramic Seals division): Acquired b
Ceramic Seals Limited
in 1990.
*Ferranti Instrumentation: Dissolved. Some assets acquired by GEC-Marconi and Ravenfield Designs
*Ferranti Tapchangers Ltd: Independent company, then acquired by UK-based grid control specialists Fundamentals Lt
Ferranti Tapchangers Ltd , Welcome
in 2017
*Ferranti Satcomms: Acquired out of administration by Matra Marconi Space
Matra Marconi Space (MMS) was a Franco-British aerospace company.
History
Matra Marconi Space was established in 1990 as a joint venture between the space and telecommunication divisions of the Lagardère Group ( Matra Espace) and the GEC ...
in 1994
*Ferranti Technologies: Was bought out by management and continues in Oldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham ...
specialising in avionics, defence electronics, and electronic power systems. It was acquired by Elbit Systems in 2007.
*Ferranti Air Systems: Acquired by Datel then turned into an independent company. Later bought by Ultra Electronics. In 2019 acquired by ADB Safegate.
* Ferranti Thomson Sonar Systems: A 50% share was acquired by GEC-Marconi. Now owned by Thales and renamed Thales Underwater Systems
Thales Underwater Systems or TUS (formerly Thomson Sintra ASM, Thomson CSF DASM and then Thomson Marconi Sonar) is a subsidiary of the French defense electronics specialist Thales Group. It was created in 2001 and belongs to its naval division. It ...
.
*Ferranti Helicopters: Acquired by British Caledonian Airways in April 1979 to become British Caledonian Helicopters which was in turn acquired by Bristow Helicopters in 1987
*Ferranti Subsea Systems: Management buyout in the early 1990s, renamed FSSL. Kværner
Kværner was a Norwegian engineering and construction services company that existed between 1853 and 2005. In 2004, it was amalgamated to the newly formed subsidiary of Aker ASA - Aker Kværner, which was renamed Aker Solutions on 3 April 2008 ...
bought more shares in 1994 and then turned to Kværner FSSL. Kværner is now known as Aker Solutions
Aker Solutions ASA, an engineering company based in Oslo, provides the products, systems and services required to unlock energy from sources such as oil, gas, offshore wind and capture. The company, founded in 1841, was known as Aker Kværner u ...
*Ferranti Computer Systems Service Department: This was acquired by the third party maintenance company ServiceTec. The regional Service Centres were rebranded as ServiceTec and all of the service engineers and management were taken on. The support of the Argus computers dominated activities although new (non-Argus) business was added to the regional centres. The repair centre at Cairo Mill also became part of the ServiceTec group, ultimately as a separate entity.
*Ferranti Semiconductors: Became Zetex Semiconductors after a management buyout in 1989. In 2008 it was acquired by Diodes Inc
Diodes Incorporated is a global manufacturer and supplier of application specific standard products within the discrete, logic, analog, and mixed-signal semiconductor markets. Diodes serves the consumer electronics, computing, communications, in ...
.
*Ferranti Photonics Ltd.: Independent, liquidated after bankruptcy in 2005
Other uses of the Ferranti name
A number of uses of the Ferranti name remain in use. In Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
, the Ferranti Edinburgh Recreation Club (FERC), the Ferranti Mountaineering Club and the Ferranti Ten-pin Bowling League are still in existence. While these organisations no longer have any formal ties with the companies which subsumed the Ferranti companies which operated in Edinburgh, they still operate under the old names.
Ferranti Thistle F.C. was formed in 1943 and joined the Scottish Football League in 1974. Due to strict sponsorship rules it changed its name to Meadowbank Thistle F.C., and later to Livingston F.C.
Denis Ferranti Meters Limited is still (2021) owned by a direct descendant of Sebastian de Ferranti but is not directly related to the major Ferranti corporation. The company has over 200 employees that manufacture BT's public phones, oil pumps for large industrial vehicles, electric motors for motorbility solutions, electronics, and small MOD equipment.
References
Further reading
* Halton, Maurice J. "''The Impact of Conflict and Political Change on Northern Industrial Towns, 1890 to 1990'', " MA Dissertation, Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Manchester Metropolitan University September 2001
PDF; 326 kB
*
External links
* Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester
The Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, England, traces the development of science, technology and industry with emphasis on the city's achievements in these fields. The museum is part of the Science Museum Group, a non-departmental pub ...
Timeline of Ferranti's History
*
Ferranti Scotland Apprentices 1970 Community Group
{{Authority control
Aircraft component manufacturers of the United Kingdom
Avionics companies
Companies based in Oldham
Electronics companies established in 1885
Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange
Defunct companies of the United Kingdom
Defunct computer hardware companies
Former defence companies of the United Kingdom
Electrical engineering companies of the United Kingdom
Electronics companies of the United Kingdom
Missile guidance
Radar manufacturers
Science and technology in Greater Manchester
History of science and technology in the United Kingdom
1885 establishments in England
Technology companies disestablished in 1993
1993 disestablishments in England
British companies disestablished in 1993
British companies established in 1885
Defunct computer companies of the United Kingdom