MK Electric is a company that makes electrical accessories. The company's headquarters are in

Basildon Basildon ( ) is the largest town in the borough of Basildon, within the county of Essex, England. It has a population of 107,123. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1159. It lies east of Central London, south of the city of Chelmsford and ...

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 ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, from where it sells goods worldwide.

History

In 1912 Charles Arnold and Charles Belling formed Belling and Company making electric fires. Following his release from the army in 1919 Charles Arnold founded 'The Heavy Current Electrical Accessories Company' with Charles Belling as a shareholder. This was later renamed MK Electric. The company developed electrical equipment such as high rated switches and sockets.

Multy Kontact socket

One product, the Multy Kontact spring grip socket (3-pin plug), soon became a market leader and the

British Engineering Standards Association The British Standards Institution (BSI) is the national standards body of the United Kingdom. BSI produces technical standards on a wide range of products and services and also supplies certification and standards-related services to business ...

(BESA) changed standards to adopt this new product. By 1923 demand for these new products was growing rapidly and new production facilities were built in

Edmonton, Middlesex Edmonton is a town in North London, north London, England within the London Borough of Enfield, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London. The northern part of the town is known as Lower Edmonton or Edmonton Green, and ...

. The company was then renamed MK Electric after its flagship product.

Shuttered socket

In 1928 the first shuttered socket was produced which concealed the live and neutral contacts when the plug is pulled out of the socket.

World War II

During

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 ...

, production at the Edmonton factory focused on

munitions Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weap ...

to help the war effort, but development work resumed in 1945. In the 1950s MK Electric produced a light switch design which is still used today.

Post war

In 1966 the company floated on the stock exchange and became MK Electric Holding Company Ltd. The company later became a subsidiary of

Honeywell Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance ma ...

International in 2005 when its parent company Novar plc was acquired. Its factory in

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

produced its one hundred millionth socket in 2014.

References

Manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Essex Electrical engineering companies of the United Kingdom Electrical wiring and construction supplies manufacturers {{UK-company-stub