A.C. Cossor - Company Timeline

Company Timeline

• Early examples of X-ray tubes are produced for the scientists William Crookes and Oliver Lodge.
• In 1902 the company produces the first British-made Braun tube.
• 1904 Experimental valves are produced by Cossor for Ambrose Fleming.
• 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, 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 forms part of the London Metropolitan University campus. Many of the building's interior art deco furnishings remain untouched.)
• 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 for radar research, conducted to investigate the signals produced by reflections off a Heyford bomber of the output of the BBC transmitter at Daventry.
• 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.
• 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 radar. The development team includes spy Arthur Wynn.
• 1945 Secondary radar for air traffic control becomes a key area of development for Cossor.
• 1945 The company moves its valve and CRT business into a new wholly owned subsidiary Electronic Tubes Ltd (ETEL) based at High Wycombe.
• 1949 EMI 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.
• 1958 Cossor sells its radio and television business to Philips
• 1958 Company moves to Harlow, Essex
• 1961 Cossor is acquired by Raytheon, 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.