English Electric - cast nameplate with logo
A name that I was, as a child, very familiar with as we had family who worked for EE in Preston, Lancashire, and in those days it was a household name. It was for the family as they lived in an English Electric company house and so every switch and domestic appliance had that "EE" symbol on it!
English Electric Co Ltd was formed in 1919 by the amalgamation of several UK electrical manufacturers and, a little like their bigger rival GEC, they did make almost the whole range of things electrical from appliances to generating equipment. That said their real roots were in the heavy end of the business and that suffered in the various depressions of the 1920s to the extent that by the end of the decade they were in a sorry state. By 1930 a rescue package, effectively backed by US Westinghouse interests, saved the company and under new management, along with serious pruning, EE regained some stability. As this sign testifies, they provided much of the electrical equipment for railway electrifcation as this was salvaged from a London Underground sub-station on the Northern line from the 1939/40 extensions.
In later years, EE became involved in newer technologies such as aircraft construction and computers. In 1960 the aircraft division became part of the new British Aircraft Corporation, as part of government 'backed' rationalisation plans, and in 1967 computers went to the new ICL. Then in 1968, again under government pressure, EE became part of the new company formed around their old arch rivals GEC who had the previous year acquired the third of the big three, AEI.
English Electric - cast nameplate with logo
A name that I was, as a child, very familiar with as we had family who worked for EE in Preston, Lancashire, and in those days it was a household name. It was for the family as they lived in an English Electric company house and so every switch and domestic appliance had that "EE" symbol on it!
English Electric Co Ltd was formed in 1919 by the amalgamation of several UK electrical manufacturers and, a little like their bigger rival GEC, they did make almost the whole range of things electrical from appliances to generating equipment. That said their real roots were in the heavy end of the business and that suffered in the various depressions of the 1920s to the extent that by the end of the decade they were in a sorry state. By 1930 a rescue package, effectively backed by US Westinghouse interests, saved the company and under new management, along with serious pruning, EE regained some stability. As this sign testifies, they provided much of the electrical equipment for railway electrifcation as this was salvaged from a London Underground sub-station on the Northern line from the 1939/40 extensions.
In later years, EE became involved in newer technologies such as aircraft construction and computers. In 1960 the aircraft division became part of the new British Aircraft Corporation, as part of government 'backed' rationalisation plans, and in 1967 computers went to the new ICL. Then in 1968, again under government pressure, EE became part of the new company formed around their old arch rivals GEC who had the previous year acquired the third of the big three, AEI.