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British Thomson-Houston (BTH) was a British engineering and heavy industrial company, based at Rugby, Warwickshire, England. They were known primarily for their electrical systems and steam turbines. They were merged with the similar Metropolitan-Vickers company in 1928, but the two maintained their own identities until 1960. The holding company, Associated Electrical Industries (AEI), later merged with GEC which exists today as Marconi Corporation plc.

In the 1960s BTH apprenticeships were highly thought of: apprentices were exposed to production of a wide range of industrial products. Each year in Rugby there was a big parade of floats run by its apprentices, many of whom lodged in the nearby Coton House apprentice hostel.

In 1980, G.E.C. Turbine Generators Ltd, on the Rugby site, was awarded a Queen's Awards for Enterprise.

History[link]

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• 1886: The company Laing, Wharton and Down formed, to sell products from the American Electric Company. They soon won a contract for electrical lighting for the east end of London.
• 1892: General Electric in USA was created by the merger of Thomson-Houston and Edison General Electric Company.
• 1893: The American Electric Company became Thomson-Houston.
• 1894: British Thomson-Houston was formed.
• 1896 May: Laing, Wharton and Down was renamed as BTH. BTH got production licenses for the American Electric Company's products, and soon started setting up factories in the English Midlands. For much of the late 19th century they competed for electrical generation and distribution contracts with British Westinghouse, mirroring the same company's battles in the US between their parents, General Electric (created by the merger of Thomson-Houston and Edison General Electric Company in 1892) and Westinghouse. BTH became mainly associated with Rugby, Warwickshire, due to its good accessibility by rail and a local coal supply.
• 1898 December 22: Opened the Cork Electric Tramways and Lighting Company
• 1899: BTH chose Rugby.
• 1900: BTH bought Glebe Farm (on the west side of Mill Road north of the railway) for £10,000, from Thos. Hunter & Co., to build their factory on it.
• 1900: The Power Act of 1900 was passed. It let BTH and British Westinghouse get new contracts to supply electric power to large areas.
• 1901 April 4: Opened the Isle of Thanet Electric Tramways
• 1902 March: BTH opened their factory in Mill Road in 1902 making electric motors and generators.
• 1902: BTH got a license to produce the Curtis steam turbine, which became one of their major products.
• 1902 June: Opened the Chatham and District Light Railways Company
• 1904: BTH started making turbines.
• 1905: BTH made its first turbo-alternator.
• 1907: BTH started a joint venture with Wolseley Motors to make petrol-electric buses.
• 1909: BTH supplied major coal-fired steam generators to London to power an electric trolley system that was being set up.
• 1911: BTH got licenses for all of General Electric's drawn-wire light bulbs, which they produced under the Mazda trademark.

Consolidation[link]

• 1914-1918 (World War I): BTH expanded into naval electrical equipment, supplying the Royal Navy with various lighting, radio and signalling gear.
• 1916: Howard C. Levis became chairman of BTH.
• 1918 and after: BTH expanded dramatically, adding or expanding factories at Willesden, Birmingham, Chesterfield, and Lutterworth. (It later had factories in Coventry, and in Larne in Northern Ireland.)
• 1924: BTH's Building 52, the research laboratory, was purpose-built in 1924.
• 1924: Demetrius Comino joins BTH as an apprentice (leaving in 1927).
• 1926: Gerard Swope, president of General Electric, proposed that BTH, Westinghouse, GEC and English Electric should amalgamate. Lord Hirst of GEC was not interested in Swope’s scheme, but a new holding company was formed, Associated Electrical Industries (AEI).
• 1927 Sold the Chatham and District Light Railways Company to Maidstone and District Motor Services Ltd.
• 1928: AEI bought BTH and Metropolitan-Vickers. Howard C. Levis became chairman of AEI.
• 1929: AEI bought Edison Swan (Ediswan) and Ferguson Pailin, which BTH had been in the process of buying in 1928.
• 1929: Howard C. Levis retired.
• 1930 or earlier: 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).
• 1937: Frank Whittle's Power Jets company built the world's first prototype jet engine at the BTH works in Rugby. BTH had a major role in developing it. Development was later moved to the Lutterworth works, which were falling into disuse at the time. BTH's directors seemed skeptical of the design and offered little help.

One of the two British Thomson-Houston distributors (the circular gold-coloured object) on a Rolls-Royce Kestrel aero engine

• 1939-1945 (World War II): BTH expanded north of the River Avon into the Boughton Road site to make magnetoes for aircraft engines and other war products.
• 1940: BTH 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.
• 1943: Rover passed on jet engine making to Rolls-Royce.
• 1944: The Lutterworth Power Jets work was nationalized.
• 1945: After World War II Oliver Lyttelton took over AEI, and started a massive expansion.
• 1947: The Hungarian scientist Dennis Gabor invented holography at the BTH site in Rugby.
• 1953: AEI acquires Siemens Brothers.
• 1954-1963: Lord Chandos was chairman of AEI.
• 1955: BTH supplied 18 Dsc class Rolls-Royce powered locomotives for New Zealand Railways. One unit has been preserved in service.
• 1956: Ediswan trademark appears on semiconductors.
• 1957: The massive new £8 million turbine works was opened at Larne as a result.
• 1957 or after: BTH won the contract to build the new Buenos Aires power station, valued at £35 million. Rivalries intensified with Metrovick. Lyttelton continued to try to reduce this friction, leading to several unsuccessful reorganizations and slipping profits.

AEI (Associated Electrical Industries)[link]

• 1957: Construction of Britain's first commercial nuclear power facility commenced at Berkeley.
• 1957: Siemens Edison Swan subsidiary formed.
• 1 January 1960: To try to cure internal political and efficiency problems, AEI stopped using the names BTH and Metrovick. This led to a huge falling-off 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-60's the entire AEI empire was in financial trouble.
• 1960: The AEI research lab was built (building BR57 in the Boughton Road site).
• about 1960: The size of BTH's Rugby site peaked. By then all the BTH Rugby's land west of the Black Path was built over.
• 1961: The name AEI was first used on products.
• 1962: Commissioning of Britain's first commercial nuclear power facility at Berkeley.
• 1963-1967: Construction and commissioning of the 25M Chilbolton (radar) Dish at Chilbolton Observatory.
• 1967: AEI brands included Metropolitan-Vickers, BTH, Edison Swan and Ediswan, Siemens Bros., Hotpoint, Birlec and W.T. Henley.

GEC (General Electric Company)[link]

View across Mill Road, Rugby of where the east entrance of BTH was

• 1967: GEC bought AEI outright. GEC thus became the UK's largest electrical group.
• 1969: Marconi Radar Systems Ltd. (MSRL) formed from GEC-AEI Electronics (Blackbird Road and New Parks, Leicester), Marconi's Radar Division (Chelmsford) and Elliott's Aerospace Control Division.
• 1980: G.E.C. Turbine Generators Ltd awarded The Queen's Award for Enterprise: International Trade (Export)
• 1980s and around: GEC Rugby shrank. Many buildings were pulled down. The south part of the area west of the Black Path became a supermarket site. The Boughton Road site became several separate small firms.
• 1989: GEC in Rugby split into GEC Alsthom and Cegelec Projects.
• 1998: GEC Alsthom and Cegelec Projects were reunited as Alstom.
• 2007: The firm's clubhouse on Hillmorton Road was pulled down, and its surrounding sports field was intruded on for house building along its south edge.
• 2011: By now the former BTH Rugby site been greatly changed and now includes rugby college (http://www.warwickshire.ac.uk/our_locations/rugby.aspx). Quartzelec http://www.quartzelec.com/quartzelec-rugby.html and converteam (http://www.converteam.com/majic/pageServer/1p040000yn/UK---Main-Office---Rugby.html) continue to work on electrical engineering projects in some of the early BTH buildings, notably blds 4, 193 and 140. A public road now runs through the site between its former east and west gates.

Research[link]

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 during the war time period.

Preserved locomotives[link]

One New Zealand Railways DSC class Bo-Bo shunter survives in traffic. This was one of 18 Rolls-Royce powered diesel-electric shunters of the DSC class to arrive in New Zealand in 1955. The remainder were all scrapped between 1986 and 1990.

External links[link]

• A detailed history of BTH.This Link is no longer valid due to takeover of Marconi by Erricson
• The industrial history of Rugby
• Images of BTH
• AEI (Rugby) RFC website
• AEI/BTH Coton House alumni site
• Ediswan

See also[link]

• RMS Viceroy of India