Ferranti or
Ferranti International plc was a major UK
electrical engineeringElectrical engineering, sometimes referred to as electrical and electronic engineering, is a field of engineering that deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after...
and equipment firm known primarily for defence
electronicsElectronics is a branch of science and technology that deals with the controlled flow of electrons. The ability to control electron flow is usually applied to information handling or device control. Electronics is distinct from electrical science and technology, which deals with the generation,...
and power grid systems.
Ferranti is also famous in the
computerA computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a set of instructions.Although mechanical examples of computers have existed through much of recorded human history, the first electronic computers were developed in the mid-20th century . These were the size of a large room, consuming as...
industry for building the first commercially available computer, the Ferranti Mark 1, which was first delivered in 1951 and started their computer business, which lasted into the 1970s. They had influential collaborations with the university computing departments at Manchester and Cambridge, which resulted in the development of the
MercuryThe Mercury was an early 1950s commercial computer built by Ferranti. It was the successor to the Ferranti Mark 1, adding a floating point unit for improved performance, and increased reliability by replacing the Williams tube memory with core memory and using more solid state components...
and
AtlasThe Atlas Computer of the University of Manchester, England, became operational in 1962, as a joint development between the University, Ferranti and Plessey. It was arguably one of the world's first supercomputers, and the fastest computer in the world until the release of the CDC 6600 in 1964. It...
machines (Manchester); and the Atlas 2 or
TitanTitan was the name given to the prototype Atlas 2 computer developed by Ferranti and the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in Cambridge, England. It was in operation from 1964 to 1973. Titan differed from the Manchester Atlas by having a real, but cached, main memory, rather than the...
(Cambridge).
The Company was once a constituent of the
FTSE 100 IndexThe FTSE 100 Index — also called FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "footsie" — is a share index of the 100 most highly capitalised UK companies listed on the London Stock Exchange...
but ceased trading in 1993.
Beginnings
Sebastian Ziani de FerrantiSebastian Pietro Innocenzo Adhemar Ziani de Ferranti was an electrical engineer and inventor.-Personal life:...
established his first business
Ferranti, Thompson and Ince in 1882. The company developed the
Ferranti-Thompson Alternator. Ferranti focused on
Alternating CurrentIn alternating current the movement of electric charge periodically reverses direction. An electric charge would for instance move forward, then backward, then forward, then backward, over and over again...
power distribution early on, and was one of the few experts in this system in the UK. In 1885 Ferranti established a new business, with Francis Ince and Charles Sparks as partners, known as
S. Z. de Ferranti.
During the 1880s
electricity meterAn electric meter or energy meter is a device that measures the amount of electrical energy supplied to or produced by a residence, business or machine....
s became key product for Ferranti and the company became an important supplier to many electricity supply companies: this business remained successful until the 1980s when it was transferred into a joint venture with
SiemensSiemens AG is a German electrical and telecommunications companysiemens may refer to*siemens , the SI unit of electrical conductance, equivalent to 1 ampere/voltSiemens may also refer to:...
and then sold to them.
In 1887 the London Electric Supply Corporation (LESCo) hired Ferranti for the design of their power station at Deptford. He designed the building, the generating plant and the distribution system. On its completion in October 1890 it was the first truly modern power station, supplying high-voltage AC power that was then "stepped down" for consumer use on each street: this basic system remains in use today around the world.
Success followed and Ferranti started producing electrical equipment for sale. Soon the company was looking for considerably more room. Prices in the London area were too high, so the company moved to Hollinwood in
OldhamOldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester...
in 1896. Revenues declined however in the early 1900s and the company went into receivership in 1903.
Rapid growth
The business was bought out of receivership and renamed
Ferranti Limited in 1905.
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 productionMass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...
of electrical equipment for home users rather difficult. In 1910 Ferranti promoted an effort to standardize the power supply, supplying large numbers of power transformers, an initiative which eventually culminated in the National Grid in 1926.
High voltage power transformers became an important product for Ferranti; some of the largest types weighed over a hundred tons. Ferranti built a new power transformer works at Hollinwood in the late 1940s; however, the orders the company had hoped for did not materialize, and the transformer division closed in 1979, severing the last link Ferranti had with heavy electrical engineering.
In 1935 Ferranti purchased a mill at
MostonMoston is a district of Manchester, in North West England, approximately 3 miles north east of the city centre. Historically a part of Lancashire, Moston is a predominantly residential area, with a population of about 12,500 and has a land coverage is approximately .-History:The name 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
EKCOEKCO from Eric Kirkham Cole Limited was a British electronics company producing radio and television sets from 1924.Expanding into plastic production for its own use, Ekco Plastics produced both radio cases and later domestic plastic products; the plastics company became Lin Pac Mouldings...
in the 1957. In addition Ferranti Instruments, again based at Moston developed various items for scientific measurements, including one of the first cone and plate viscometers.
Defence electronics
During World War II, Ferranti became a major supplier of electronics,
fuzesIn an explosive, pyrotechnic device or military munition, a fuse is the part of the device that initiates function. In common usage, the word fuse is used indiscriminately...
, valves, and was, through development of the Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) system, heavily involved in the early development of
radarRadar is an object detection system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The term RADAR was coined in 1941 as an acronym for RAdio Detection And...
in the United Kingdom. In the post-war era this became a large segment of the company, with various branches supplying
radarRadar is an object detection system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The term RADAR was coined in 1941 as an acronym for RAdio Detection And...
sets,
avionicsAvionics means "aviation electronics". It comprises electronic systems for use on aircraft, artificial satellites and spacecraft, comprising communications, navigation and the display and management of multiple systems...
and other military electronics, both in the UK and the various international offices.
In 1943 Ferranti opened a factory at
Crewe TollCrewe Toll is an area in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital.The Western General Hospital is in the vicinity. Another hospital, the Northern General, was also in the area but this is now the site of a Morrisons supermarket. Edinburgh's Telford College was at Crewe Toll, but has moved to a site at...
in Edinburgh to manufacture
Gyro GunsightA gyro gunsight is a type of gunsight in which target lead and bullet drop are allowed for automatically, the sight incorporating a gyroscopic mechanism that computes the necessary deflections required to ensure a hit on the target...
s for the
SpitfireThe Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries through the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used into the 1950s both as a front line fighter and in secondary roles...
aircraft. After the war this business (Ferranti Scotland) would grow to employ 8,000 staff in 8 locations, becoming the birth place of the Scottish electronics industry, and a major contributor to company profitability. Later products included solid state ring laser gyros.
From 1949, Ferranti assisted the Canadian Navy develop
DATARDATAR, short for Digital Automated Tracking and Resolving, was a pioneering computerized battlefield information system.Development on DATAR was started by the Canadian Navy in partnership with Ferranti Canada in 1949. DATAR combined data from various ships providing commanders with an "overall...
(Digital Automated Tracking and Resolving). DATAR was a pioneering computerized battlefield information system that combined
RADARRadar is an object detection system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The term RADAR was coined in 1941 as an acronym for RAdio Detection And...
and
SONARSonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels. There are two kinds of sonar: active and passive. Sonar may be used as a means of acoustic location and of measurement of the echo characteristics of "targets" in the water...
information to provide commanders with an "overall view" of a battlefield, allowing them to coordinate attacks on submarines and aircraft.
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 owned by
SELEX Sensors and Airborne SystemsSELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems Limited and Galileo Avionica SpA are major defence electronics companies owned by Finmeccanica. From January 2008, they began to operate under a common brand name, SELEX Galileo. SELEX Galileo specialises in surveillance, protection, tracking, targeting,...
) leads the consortium providing the radar for the Eurofighter Typhoon.
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
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. It is the second largest Scottish city, after Glasgow, and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas....
, in addition to their other military and civil applications were used in the ESA
Ariane 4Ariane 4 was an expendable launch system, designed by the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales and manufactured and marketed by its subsidiary Arianespace. Ariane 4 was justly known as the ‘workhorse’ of the Ariane family. Since its first flight on 15 June 1988 until the last, on 15 February 2003, it...
and first
Ariane 5Ariane 5 is a European expendable launch system designed to deliver payloads into geostationary transfer orbit or low Earth orbit. It is manufactured under the authority of the European Space Agency and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales , with EADS Astrium Space Transportation as prime...
launches. Ferranti also produced the PADS (Position and Azimuth Determining System). This was 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,
LTMLTM Recordings is an independent record label founded in Britain in 1983, and best known for high quality, well-packaged reissues of artists and music from 1978 to the present day, as well as modern classical and avant garde composition...
) to the British Army in 1974, and had notable successes in the US market, establishing Ferranti Electro-optics Inc in Huntington Beach, California. Its
TIALDTIALD, the Thermal Imaging Airborne Laser Designator pod, is manufactured by SELEX Galileo and is the UK's laser designator for laser-guided bombs....
Pod (Thermal Imager and Laser Designator) has been in almost constant combat operation on the
TornadoThe Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine combat aircraft, which was jointly developed by the United Kingdom, West Germany and Italy. There are three primary versions of the Tornado; the Tornado IDS fighter-bomber, the suppression of enemy air defences Tornado ECR and the Tornado ADV ...
since it was rushed into service during the first Gulf War.
From the 1960s through to the late 1980s the Bristol Ferranti
Bloodhound SAMThe Bristol Bloodhound is a British surface-to-air missile developed during the 1950s as the UK's main air defence weapon, and was in large-scale service with the Royal Air Force and the forces of four other countries. The Bloodhound Mk. I entered service in December 1958 and the last Mk...
, 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 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 Wythenshaw 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 EFA (now known as the
Eurofighter TyphoonThe Eurofighter Typhoon is a twin-engine canard-delta wing multirole aircraft. It is being designed and built by a consortium of three separate partner companies: Alenia Aeronautica, BAE Systems, and EADS working through a holding company Eurofighter GmbH which was formed in 1986...
) 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
HughesHughes Aircraft Company was a major American defense contractor founded in 1932 by Howard Hughes in Culver City, California as a division of Hughes Tool Company...
, AEG and GEC. An agreement was reached after UK Defence Secretary
Tom KingThomas Jeremy King, Baron King of Bridgwater, CH, PC , is a British Conservative politician who was Member of Parliament for Bridgwater in Somerset, from 1970 until 2001.-Early life:...
assured his West German counterpart Gerhard Stoltenberg 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
In the late 1980s there were a number of 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
DalkeithDalkeith is a town in Midlothian, Scotland, lying on the River North Esk. It was granted a burgh of barony in 1401 and a burgh of regality in 1540...
,
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
Computers
In the late 1940s Ferranti joined with various university-based research groups to develop
computerA computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a set of instructions.Although mechanical examples of computers have existed through much of recorded human history, the first electronic computers were developed in the mid-20th century . These were the size of a large room, consuming as...
s. Their first effort was the Ferranti Mark 1, completed in 1951, about nine delivered between 1951 and 1957. The
PegasusPegasus was an early thermionic valve computer built by Ferranti, Ltd of Great Britain.The Pegasus 1 was first delivered in 1956 and the Pegasus 2 was delivered in 1959...
introduced in 1956 was their most popular
valveIn electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , thermionic valve, or valve is a device used to amplify, switch, otherwise modify, or create an electrical signal by controlling the movement of electrons in a low-pressure space...
(vacuum tube) system, with 38 units sold. Circa 1956, Ivan Idelson, at Ferranti, originates the Cluff-Foster-Idelson coding of characters on 7-track paper tape for a BSI committee. This eventually becomes
ASCIIThe American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...
.
In collaboration with the
University of ManchesterThe University of Manchester is a "red brick" civic university located in Manchester, England. It is a member of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities and the N8 Group for research collaboration...
they built a new version of the famous Mark 1 that replaced valve
diodeIn electronics a diode is a two-terminal electronic component which conducts electric current asymmetrically or unidirectionally; that is, it conducts current more easily in one direction than in the opposite direction. The term usually refers to a semiconductor diode, the most common type today,...
s with
solid stateSolid-state electronics are those circuits or devices built entirely from solid materials and in which the electrons, or other charge carriers, are confined entirely within the solid material...
versions, which allowed the speed to be increased dramatically as well as increasing reliability. Ferranti offered the result commercially as the
MercuryThe Mercury was an early 1950s commercial computer built by Ferranti. It was the successor to the Ferranti Mark 1, adding a floating point unit for improved performance, and increased reliability by replacing the Williams tube memory with core memory and using more solid state components...
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 factoryGorton Locomotive Works, known locally as Gorton Tank was located in Openshaw near Manchester, England and was completed in 1848 by the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway.- History :...
in West Gorton.
Work on a completely new design, the
AtlasThe Atlas Computer of the University of Manchester, England, became operational in 1962, as a joint development between the University, Ferranti and Plessey. It was arguably one of the world's first supercomputers, and the fastest computer in the world until the release of the CDC 6600 in 1964. It...
, started soon after the delivery of the Mercury, aiming to dramatically improve performance. The machine first ran in 1962, and Ferranti eventually built three machines in total. A version of the Atlas modified for the needs of the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory led to the
TitanTitan was the name given to the prototype Atlas 2 computer developed by Ferranti and the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in Cambridge, England. It was in operation from 1964 to 1973. Titan differed from the Manchester Atlas by having a real, but cached, main memory, rather than the...
(or
Atlas 2), which was the mainstay of scientific computing in Cambridge for nearly 8 years.
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-PackardFerranti-Packard was the Canadian division of Ferranti's global manufacturing empire, formed by the 1958 merger of Ferranti Electric and Packard Electric...
, who had used several of the ideas under development in England to very quickly produce the
Ferranti-Packard 6000The FP-6000 was a second generation mainframe computer developed and built by Ferranti-Packard in the early 1960s. It is particularly notable for supporting multitasking, being one of the first commercial machines to do so...
. 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 TabulatorsInternational Computers and Tabulators or ICT was formed in 1959 by a merger of the British Tabulating Machine Company and Powers-Samas. In 1963 it also added the business computer divisions of Ferranti...
(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 1900ICT 1900 is the name given to a series of mainframe computers released by International Computers and Tabulators in the 1960s.-1900 Series computers:These varied in computing power and the models included:* ICT 1901* ICT 1902* ICT 1903* ICT 1904...
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 ArgusFerranti's Argus computers were a line of industrial control computers offered from the 1960s into the 1970s. They were widely used in a variety of roles in Europe, particularly in England where they continued to serve as control systems for nuclear reactors into the early 1990s.-Original...
range of industrial computers which were developed in its Wythenshawe factory. The first of these, simply
Argus, was initially developed for military use.
Meanwhile in
BracknellBracknell is a town in the Bracknell Forest borough of Berkshire, England. It lies to the south-east of Reading, southwest of Windsor and west of London....
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-
rackA 19-inch rack is a standardized frame or enclosure for mounting multiple equipment modules. Each module has a front panel that is wide, including edges or ears that protrude on each side which allow the module to be fastened to the rack frame with screws.-Overview and history:Equipment designed...
version of the computer for smaller systems. An airborne version of this was also made and used aboard the RAF
NimrodThe Hawker Siddeley Nimrod is a maritime patrol aircraft developed in the United Kingdom. It is an extensive modification of the de Havilland Comet, the world's first jet airliner. It was originally designed by de Havilland's successor, Hawker Siddeley, now part of BAE Systems...
. The last in the series was the
FM1600E which was a redesigned and updated version of the FM1600B.
Semiconductors
Ferranti had been involved in production of electronic devices including
cathode ray tubeThe cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen, with internal or external means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam, used to create images in the form of light emitted from the fluorescent screen...
devices and
germaniumGermanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is a lustrous, hard, grayish-white metalloid in the carbon group, chemically similar to its group neighbors tin and silicon. Germanium has five naturally occurring isotopes ranging in atomic mass number from 70 to 76...
semiconductors for some time before it became the first European company to produce a
siliconSilicon is the most common metalloid. It is a chemical element, which has the symbol Si and atomic number 14. A tetravalent metalloid, silicon is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon...
diodeIn electronics a diode is a two-terminal electronic component which conducts electric current asymmetrically or unidirectionally; that is, it conducts current more easily in one direction than in the opposite direction. The term usually refers to a semiconductor diode, the most common type today,...
, in 1955. Ferranti Semiconductor Ltd. went on to produce a range of silicon bipolar devices including, in 1977, the Ferranti F100-L, an early 16-bit
microprocessorA microprocessor incorporates most or all of the functions of a central processing unit on a single integrated circuit . The first microprocessors emerged in the early 1970s and were used for electronic calculators, using binary-coded decimal arithmetic on 4-bit words...
with 16-bit addressing. An F100-L was carried into space on the
amateur radioAmateur radio, often called ham radio, is both a hobby and a service in which participants, called "hams," use various types of radio communications equipment to communicate with other radio amateurs for public service, recreation and self-training....
satelliteIn the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
UoSAT-1 (
Oscar 9OSCAR is an acronym for Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio. OSCAR series satellites use amateur radio frequencies to communicate with Earth...
). Ferranti's ZTX series bipolar transistors gave their name to the inheritor of Ferranti Semiconductor's discrete semiconductor business, Zetex plc.
In the early eighties, Ferranti produced some of the first large uncommitted logic arrays (ULAs), used in home computers such as the Sinclair ZX81, Sinclair
ZX SpectrumThe ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd. Referred to during development as the ZX81 Colour and ZX82, the machine was launched as the ZX Spectrum by Sinclair to highlight the machine's colour display, compared with the...
,
Acorn ElectronThe Acorn Electron is a budget version of the BBC Micro educational/home computer made by Acorn Computers Ltd. It has 32 kilobytes of RAM, and its ROM includes BBC BASIC along with its operating system....
and BBC Microcomputer. The microelectronics business was sold to
PlesseyThe Plessey Company plc was a British-based international electronics, defence and telecommunications company. It originated in 1917, growing and diversifying into electronics. It expanded after the second world war by acquisition of companies and formed overseas companies...
in 1988.
Acquisition of International Signal & Control
In 1987 Ferranti purchased
International Signal and ControlInternational Signal and Control was a U.S. defense contractor based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania that was involved in the manufacture of electronic missile subassemblies, navigation components, fuses, power supplies for proximity fuzes, and grenade technology.-Background:The company manufactured...
(ISC), a
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a state located in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States...
based defence contractor. 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 Technologies and International Signal & Control.
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 in fact 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
Serious Fraud OfficeThe Serious Fraud Office may refer to:*Serious Fraud Office *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
PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia is the largest city in Pennsylvania and the sixth-most-populous city in the United States.In 2008, the population of the city proper was estimated to be over 1.4 million, while the metropolitan area's population of 5.8 million made it the country's fifth-largest...
to fraud committed both in the USA 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.
Collapse
The financial and legal difficulties that resulted forced Ferranti into bankruptcy in December 1993.
Operations
The company had factories in Greater Manchester at
MostonMoston is a district of Manchester, in North West England, approximately 3 miles north east of the city centre. Historically a part of Lancashire, Moston is a predominantly residential area, with a population of about 12,500 and has a land coverage is approximately .-History:The name Moston...
,
WythenshaweWythenshawe is a district in the south of the city of Manchester in North West England.Until 1931 the district formed a part of the administrative county of Cheshire....
, Cheadle Heath, West
GortonGorton is an area of the city of Manchester, in North West England. It is located to the southeast of Manchester city centre. Neighbouring areas include Longsight and Levenshulme....
, and Poynton. Eventually it set up branch-plants in
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. It is the second largest Scottish city, after Glasgow, and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas....
,
DalkeithDalkeith is a town in Midlothian, Scotland, lying on the River North Esk. It was granted a burgh of barony in 1401 and a burgh of regality in 1540...
,
AberdeenAberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city and one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. It has an official population estimate of .Nicknames include the Granite City, the Grey City and the Silver City with the Golden Sands...
,
BracknellBracknell is a town in the Bracknell Forest borough of Berkshire, England. It lies to the south-east of Reading, southwest of Windsor and west of London....
and
CwmbranCwmbran is a new town in Wales within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire, and county borough of Torfaen. It was established in 1949 to provide new employment opportunities in the south eastern portion of the South Wales Coalfield. 'Cwmbrân' means valley of the crow in the Welsh language...
as well as
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
and the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and several
British CommonwealthThe Commonwealth of Nations, often referred to as the Commonwealth and previously as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-three independent member states. Most of them were formerly part of the British Empire. They co-operate within a framework of common values...
countries including
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
and
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At , Singapore is a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast...
.
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, pilots night vision goggles, integrated helmets, and pilot's stick controls.
On the Tornado aircraft, Ferranti supplied the Radar Transmitter, Inertial Navigation System, LRMTS,
TIALDTIALD, the Thermal Imaging Airborne Laser Designator pod, is manufactured by SELEX Galileo and is the UK's laser designator for laser-guided bombs....
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 and branded Thorn Communications and Telecontrol Systems (CATS). Later acquired by Tyco International and renamed Tyco Communications. Still operating under the name TS Technology Services.
- Ferranti Computer Systems – acquired out of administration by SYSECA [now Thales Information Systems; now(May 2009) Consinto GmbH], and renamed Ferranti-SYSECA Ltd, later the Ferranti was dropped. The department dealing with airport systems was bought by Datel in around 1995 and continued to trade under the name Ferranti Airport Systems FASL until it was bought by Ultra Electronics. 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
BAE Systems plc is a British defence, security and aerospace company headquartered in Farnborough, Hampshire, England, that has global interests, particularly in North America through its subsidiary BAE Systems Inc. BAE is the world's second-largest defence contractor and the largest in Europe...
many of these former Ferranti entities became part of the BAE/Finmeccanica joint venture called Alenia Marconi SystemsAlenia Marconi Systems was a major European integrated defence electronics company and an equal shares joint venture between BAE Systems and Finmeccanica until its dissolution on May 3, 2005....
. The JV has now been dissolved and the former Ferranti entities are now part of BAE Systems Integrated System TechnologiesBAE Systems Integrated System Technologies was formed on May 3, 2005 by bringing together BAE Systems' interests in C4ISR and the UK operations of AMS following the Eurosystems Transaction....
(Insyte).
- Ferranti Defence Systems Limited – acquired by GEC-Marconi out of administration and re-named GEC Ferranti, later changing to 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 re-named SELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems.
- Ferranti Dynamics – acquired by GEC-Marconi in 1992
- Ferranti Instrumentation – dissolved. Some assets acquired by GEC-Marconi and Ravenfield Designs
- Ferranti Satcomms – acquired out of administration by Matra Marconi Space
Matra Marconi Space was a Franco-British aerospace company.Matra Marconi Space was established in 1990 as a joint venture between the space and telecommunication divisions of the Lagardère Group and the GEC group . In 1994 it acquired British Aerospace Space Systems and Ferranti Satcomms...
in 1994
- Ferranti Technologies – Independent company
- Ferranti Air Systems – acquired by Datel then turned into an independent company. Later bought by Ultra Electronics
- 50% share of Ferranti Thomson Sonar Systems – acquired by GEC-Marconi
- Ferranti Helicopters – acquired by British Caledonian Airways in April 1979 to become British Caledonian Helicopters which was in turn acquired by Bristow Helicopters
Bristow Helicopters is a British helicopter airline originally based at Aberdeen Airport, Scotland, part of the Bristow Group based in Houston, Texas....
in 1987
- Ferranti Subsea Systems Ltd; Management buy out in the early 90's, turning to FSSL. Kvaerner bought more shares in 1994 and then turned to Kvaerner FSSL. Kvaerner is now known as Aker Solutions
- Ferranti Computer Systems Service Department – This was acquired by the 3rd 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
Zetex Semiconductors plc is a UK-based manufacturer of discrete semiconductor devices such as diodes and transistors.-Corporate history:Originally a subsidiary of Ferranti Semiconductor, Zetex took its name from Ferranti's ZTX series of bipolar transistors. It was sold to Plessey in 1988, then...
after a management buyout in 1989. In 2008 it was acquired by Diodes Inc.
Remaining uses of the Ferranti name
A number of uses of the Ferranti name remain in use. In
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. It is the second largest Scottish city, after Glasgow, and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas....
, 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.
Denis Ferranti Meters Limited is still 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.
Ferranti Technologies Limited of
OldhamOldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester...
was bought out by management when the greater company collapsed. The company today is an electronics supplier to the aviation industry.
Trivia
- Tim Berners-Lee
Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee, OM, KBE, FRS, FREng, FRSA , is a British engineer and computer scientist and MIT professor credited with inventing the World Wide Web, making the first proposal for it in March 1989...
, acknowledged as the founder of the World Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a web browser, one can view Web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them using hyperlinks...
, is the son of two people who worked on the Ferranti Mark 1.
External links
- Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester
The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester , located in Manchester, England, is a large museum devoted to the development of science, technology, and industry and particularly the city's considerable contributions to these. It is an Anchor Point of ERIH — The European Route of Industrial...
- Timeline of Ferranti's History