British Thomson-Houston (BTH) was a British engineering and heavy industrial company, based at Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Originally founded to sell products from the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, it soon became a manufacturer using licences from the American company. They were known primarily for their electrical systems and steam turbines.
In the 1960s AEI's apprenticeships were highly thought-of, both by the apprentices themselves and by their future employers, because they gave the participants valuable experience in the design, production and overall industrial management of a very wide range of electrical products. Over a hundred of the apprentices - who came to Rugby from all over the UK, and a few from abroad - lodged in the nearby Apprentices' Hostel at Coton House which was uphill from Rugby on the road to Lutterworth and Leicester.
Each year in Rugby there was a big parade of floats run by the apprentices.
Showing correct company name and formatBritish Thomson-Houston had its origins in Laing, Wharton & Down. One of their steam-driven generators was described in the September 1892 issue of Cassier's Magazine.BTH 120 MW turbo-alternators, installed at Costanera Power Station, Buenos Aires, Argentina
The company Laing, Wharton and Down was formed in 1886 to sell products from the Thomson-Houston Electric Company. Laing, Wharton and Down soon won a contract for electrical lighting for the east end of London.[1]
In 1894 Laing, Wharton and Down purchased patents and exclusive production rights from the American company, now known as General Electric after Thomson-Houston merged with Edison General Electric Company in 1892. At this stage Laing, Wharton and Down was renamed as British Thomson-Houston and General Electric became the majority owner of the company.[2]
Once BTH had the production licences for Thomson-Houston's products it started setting up factories in the English Midlands, with Rugby, Warwickshire chosen as the main location due to its good accessibility by rail and a local coal supply.[3] In 1900 BTH bought Glebe Farm on the west side of Mill Road north of the railway in Rugby for £10,000, from Thos. Hunter & Co., to build their factory on it. The Mill Road factory opened in 1902 and made electric motors and generators. In the same year BTH obtained a licence to produce the Curtis steam turbine, which became one of the company's major products. In 1905 BTH made its first turbo-alternator and in 1911 got licences for all of General Electric's drawn-wire light bulbs, which it produced under the Mazdatrademark.[1]
For much of the late 19th century BTH competed for electrical generation and distribution contracts with British Westinghouse, mirroring the same company's battles in the US between their parents, General Electric and Westinghouse. The Power Act 1900[clarification needed] let BTH and British Westinghouse get new contracts to supply electric power to large areas.[1]
The site at Rugby was also developed. Building 52, the research laboratory, was purpose-built in 1924. In the late 1920s AEI started to build buildings west of the footpath that runs north through the AEI site in Rugby to the Leicester Road, known in the area as the Black Path because it was surfaced with cinders, clinker and bitumen. During World War II BTH expanded north of the River Avon into the Boughton Road site to make magnetos for aircraft engines and other war products.
One of the two British Thomson-Houston distributors (the circular gold-coloured component) on a Rolls-Royce Kestrel aero engine
BTH had a major role in developing the world's first prototypejet engine, which was built by Frank Whittle's Power Jets company at the BTH works in Rugby in 1937. Development was later moved to the Lutterworth works, which were falling into disuse at the time. BTH's directors seemed sceptical of the design and offered little help, and in 1940 decided they were not really interested in making jet engines due to their commitment to electrical equipment. Rover was soon selected to make jet engines, but exchanged jet engine production with Rolls-Royce for making tank engines in 1943. In 1944 the Lutterworth Power Jets work was nationalised.
After World War II Oliver Lyttelton took over as chairman of AEI, and started a massive expansion. He returned as chairman between 1954 and 1963 and oversaw the opening of a massive new £8 million turbine works was opened at Larne in 1957. In 1955 AEI acquired Siemens Brothers, which was merged with Edison Swan in 1957 to form the Siemens Edison Swan subsidiary.[5] Rivalry with Metrovick intensified, particularly after BTH won the contract to build the new Buenos Aires Central Costanera S.A. power station, valued at £35 million, in 1957. Lyttelton continued to try to reduce this friction, leading to several unsuccessful reorganisations and slipping profits.[1]
The postwar period saw continued development at BTH. The Hungarian scientist Dennis Gabor invented holography at the BTH site in Rugby in 1947, and in 1951 BTH supplied a 890kW (1,200bhp)gas turbine for the Auris, the first commercial ship to use gas-turbine propulsion. In 1955 BTH supplied 18 New Zealand DSC class locomotive Rolls-Royce powered locomotives for New Zealand Railways. The Ediswan trademark appeared on semiconductors in 1956 and the following year British Rail Class 15 diesel-electric locomotives were designed by BTH.
AEI (Associated Electrical Industries)
To try to cure internal political and efficiency problems, AEI stopped using the BTH and Metrovick names on 1 January 1960. This led to a huge decline in sales because no-one had heard of "AEI" before, and in turn, a massive drop in AEI's stock price. Continued attempts to streamline what was two separate management structures continued to fail, and by the mid-60s the entire AEI group was in financial trouble. The AEI name was first used on products in 1961. By 1967 AEI brands included Siemens Edison Swan, Hotpoint, Birlec and W.T. Henley.
The AEI research lab (building BR57) was built in 1960 at the Boughton Road site. At this point the size of the Rugby site peaked, with all of the company's land west of the Black Path built over.
Britain's first commercial nuclear power facility was built between 1956 and 1962 at Berkeley. This was followed by the building and commissioning of the 25 m Chilbolton radar dish at Chilbolton Observatory between 1963 and 1967.
GEC (General Electric Company)
View across Mill Road, Rugby of where the east entrance of BTH was
In 1967 GEC bought AEI outright and became the UK's largest electrical group. A year later GEC acquired English Electric, prompting a series of mergers and reorganisations. GEC-AEI Electronics (Blackbird Road and New Parks, Leicester) was merged with Marconi's Radar Division (Chelmsford) and Elliott's Aerospace Control Division to form Marconi Radar Systems Ltd. (MRSL) in 1969.
During the 1980s GEC Rugby shrank and buildings were demolished. The south part of the area to the west of the Black Path became a supermarket site. The Boughton Road site became several separate small firms. In 1989 GEC Rugby split into GEC Alsthom and Cegelec Projects, which were reunited in 1998 as Alstom.
The firm's clubhouse on Hillmorton Road was demolished in 2007, and the south edge of its surrounding sports field was encroached along for house building.
By 2011 the Mill Road factory site was greatly changed and included Rugby College.[6] Quartzelec,[7] and Converteam[8] worked on electrical engineering projects in some of the early BTH buildings, notably buildings 4, 193 and 140. A public road was built through the site between its former east and west gates. In 2012 Converteam was bought out by General Electric, therefore coming full circle back to when they were partnered in AEI. Converteam (now GE) produced rotating machines and used former-BTH equipment (machines) for running tests.
Research
During post-World War II Britain, AEI established a consolidated research effort at Aldermaston in Berkshire, England. The research centre was based at Aldermaston Court, a large stately home owned by AEI that had been requisitioned for military use in the war era.
Preserved locomotives
One of the BTH-built batch of New Zealand Railways DSC class Bo-Bo shunters has been preserved and is used in industrial service, complete with original Rolls-Royce engines. The locomotive (DSC406) is the primary motive power at Alliance Ltd, Pukeuri, New Zealand. All the others were scrapped between 1986 and 1990.
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