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Cossor has designed IFF equipment for the British Aerospace Rapier missile, Shorts
A. C. Cossor history
Raytheon(history of A. C. Cossor Ltd.)
thevalvepage
HC16. 20 Dec 1956. Report on the Supply of Electronic Valves and Cathode Ray Tubes
*
a 1954 advertisement for Cossor radar in ''Flight'' magazine {{DEFAULTSORT:Cossor, A.C. Aircraft component manufacturers of the United Kingdom Electronics companies of the United Kingdom Electronics industry in London History of television Manufacturing companies based in London Radar manufacturers Raytheon Company Television pioneers
A.C. Cossor Ltd. was a British
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 ...
company founded in 1859. The company's products included 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 ...
, radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...
s, televisions
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
and military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
electronics. The company was purchased by Raytheon
Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitali ...
in 1961.
Early history
The story of A.C. Cossor Ltd. began in 1859 when the company was established by Alfred Charles Cossor in Clerkenwell,London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
to manufacture scientific glassware. His eldest son, also called Alfred Charles Cossor joined the company in 1875, and it was he who founded the A.C. Cossor electronics company. The company's expertise in the manufacture of electrical glassware, such as early cathode ray tubes
A cathode-ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns, which emit electron beams that are manipulated to display images on a phosphorescent screen. The images may represent electrical waveforms (oscilloscope), pictur ...
and X-ray
An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...
tubes, led the company to diversify into electronics. The younger son Frank Cossor joined the company in 1885, and eventually took over the running of the original scientific glassware company which remains to this day as Accoson, a manufacturer of sphygmomanometers.
Cossor, a go-ahead electronics firm, designed, and manufactured electronic thermionic valves
A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied.
The type known as a ...
, domestic radio sets and television receivers both before, and after World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. During the War, their work on the Chain Home 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 ...
alongside Pye and EMI
EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...
brought great prestige to the company. By the late 1950s, Cossor had sold its consumer electronics interests to the Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...
electronics giant. Later, a merger with American Raytheon
Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitali ...
was to come, and today, Cossor is still part of the American group.
Company timeline
* Early examples of X-ray tubes are produced for the scientistsWilliam Crookes
Sir William Crookes (; 17 June 1832 – 4 April 1919) was a British chemist and physicist who attended the Royal College of Chemistry, now part of Imperial College London, and worked on spectroscopy. He was a pioneer of vacuum tubes, inventing t ...
and Oliver Lodge
Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge, (12 June 1851 – 22 August 1940) was a British physicist and writer involved in the development of, and holder of key patents for, radio. He identified electromagnetic radiation independent of Hertz's proof and at his ...
.
* In 1902 the company produces the first British-made Braun tube
A cathode-ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns, which emit electron beams that are manipulated to display images on a phosphorescent screen. The images may represent electrical waveforms ( oscilloscope), pi ...
.
* 1904 Experimental valves are produced by Cossor for Ambrose Fleming
Sir John Ambrose Fleming FRS (29 November 1849 – 18 April 1945) was an English electrical engineer and physicist who invented the first thermionic valve or vacuum tube, designed the radio transmitter with which the first transatlantic radi ...
.
* 1908 A.C. Cossor leaves his father's business to found his own company.
* William Richard Bullimore, an Australian-born electrical engineer who emigrated to the UK as a child, joins Cossor. Bullimore was responsible for the introduction of new valve types, and would eventually become managing director of the company, a post he held until his death at the age of 50, on 27 July 1937.
* During the first world war the company produces valves for the war effort including large numbers of Type R valves, a generic valve design produced by several companies.
* In 1918 the company moves to Highbury
Highbury is a district in North London and part of the London Borough of Islington
in Greater London that was owned by Ranulf brother of Ilger and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Roads.
The manor house was sit ...
, London, to a factory called the "Aberdeen Works". (The office building which was called Cossor House is still extant, having been renamed Ladbroke House and now houses The London Screen Academy.)
* After World War I the company produces its first radio sets in kit form.
* 1924 Cossor introduces the first British valves to incorporate an oxide-coated filament.
* 1927 The company launches its famous "Melody Maker" radio set.
* 1930 First British RF pentode valve made by Cossor.
* 1932 The company introduces its first cathode ray oscilloscope.
* 1935 A Cossor cathode ray tube is used in the receiver of the Daventry Experiment
Chain Home, or CH for short, was the codename for the ring of coastal Early Warning radar stations built by the Royal Air Force (RAF) before and during the Second World War to detect and track aircraft. Initially known as RDF, and given the of ...
for 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 ...
research, conducted to investigate the signals produced by reflections off a Heyford bomber of the output of the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...
at Daventry
Daventry ( , historically ) is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority in Northamptonshire, England, close to the border with Warwickshire. At the 2021 Census Daventry had a population of 28,123, making ...
.
* 1936 The company sells its first television receiver.
* 1937 Receivers for the Chain Home primary radar system, the world's first radar air defence system, are built by Cossor.
* Cossor remains pre-eminent in the development of the cathode ray oscilloscope with the introduction of a dual-beam version of the instrument.
* 1938 Cossor becomes a public limited company
A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC or plc) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth jurisdictions, and the Republic of Ireland. It is a limited liability company whose shares may be fre ...
.
* 1938 In co-operation with the Army Cell at the Bawdsey Research Station, the company begins production development of the receiver for the GL1, the first British heavy anti-aircraft gun-laying radar.
* 1939 The company switches to war production.
* Cossor becomes involved in the early development of airborne IFF
In logic and related fields such as mathematics and philosophy, "if and only if" (shortened as "iff") is a biconditional logical connective between statements, where either both statements are true or both are false.
The connective is bicon ...
radar. The development team includes spy Arthur Wynn
Arthur Henry Ashford Wynn (22 January 1910 – 24 September 2001), was a British civil servant, social researcher, and recruiter of Soviet spies for the KGB.
Early life
Wynn was the son of a professor of medicine. Educated at Oundle School, he ...
.
* 1943 The company moves its valve and CRT business into a new wholly owned subsidiary Electronic Tubes Ltd (ETEL) based at High Wycombe.
* In 'Plan for Post-War Broadcasting in Britain' Cossor Research Laboratory's K.I. Jones proposed 924 radio stations on FM (then known as short waves).
* 1945 Secondary radar for air traffic control becomes a key area of development for Cossor.
* 1949 EMI
EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...
purchases ordinary (voting) shares in ETEL, and takes management control. Cossor retains an investment in ETEL, purchasing its valve requirements from EMI and from MOV, which was jointly owned by EMI and GEC.
* 1956 Cossor disposes of its holding in ETEL sometime after 1956, and withdraws from valve and CRT manufacture.
* 1957 Cossor-made radars with detection range of almost 400 miles, capable of detecting and monitoring flight operations of individual fighter plane
Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing aircraft, fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air supremacy, air superiority of the battlespace. Domination o ...
s well inside Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...
, delivered to key NATO stations along the Iron Curtain borders.
* 1958 Cossor sells its radio and television business to Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...
.
* 1958 Company moves to Harlow, Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...
.
* 1960 Company branched out into the missile guidance
Missile guidance refers to a variety of methods of guiding a missile or a guided bomb to its intended target. The missile's target accuracy is a critical factor for its effectiveness. Guidance systems improve missile accuracy by improving its P ...
and ground support equipment
File:Qatar Airways Airbus A380-800 at Heathrow Airport Terminal 4 before Flying to Doha, 6 Jan 2015.jpg, Qatar Airways Airbus A380-800 on apron outside Heathrow Terminal 4 with a wide range of ground handling equipment around such as aircraft con ...
field, for that purpose Cossor has hired highly qualified missile engineers from the guided weapons department of the Royal Aircraft Establishment and from Ferranti Ltd.
* 1961 Cossor is acquired by Raytheon
Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitali ...
, after making trading losses in 1959/60 had depressed the share price. These losses were reputed to be following disputes over costs of the Fylingdales BMEWS contract.
Products and activities
Cossor has designed IFF equipment for the British Aerospace Rapier missile, Shorts Blowpipe missile
The Shorts Blowpipe is a man-portable (MANPADS) surface-to-air missile that was in use with the British Army and Royal Marines from 1975. It also saw service in other military forces around the world. Most examples were retired by the mid-1990 ...
, Bofors RBS-70
RBS 70 (Robotsystem 70) is a man-portable air-defense system (MANPADS) designed for anti-aircraft warfare in all climate zones and with little to no support from other forces. Originally designed and manufactured by the Swedish defence firm of ...
, Ericsson's Giraffe radar
The Saab (formerly Ericsson Microwave Systems AB) Giraffe Radar is a family of land and naval two- or three-dimensional G/H-band (4 to 8 GHz) passive electronically scanned array radar-based surveillance and air defense command and contr ...
and the Contraves Italiana's LPD-20 air defence radar. Typical applications of the Cossor's IFF system include Redeye, Stinger
A stinger (or sting) is a sharp organ found in various animals (typically insects and other arthropods) capable of injecting venom, usually by piercing the epidermis of another animal.
An insect sting is complicated by its introduction of ve ...
, and SA-7 missiles and other short range air defence guns and missiles."New armaments: Free-standing TFF", ''African Defence Journal'', October 1982, p. 46, ISSN 0244-0342.
References
A. C. Cossor history
Raytheon(history of A. C. Cossor Ltd.)
thevalvepage
HC16. 20 Dec 1956. Report on the Supply of Electronic Valves and Cathode Ray Tubes
*
External links
a 1954 advertisement for Cossor radar in ''Flight'' magazine {{DEFAULTSORT:Cossor, A.C. Aircraft component manufacturers of the United Kingdom Electronics companies of the United Kingdom Electronics industry in London History of television Manufacturing companies based in London Radar manufacturers Raytheon Company Television pioneers