Metropolitan-Vickers, Metrovick, or Metrovicks, was a British heavy electrical engineering company of the early-to-mid 20th century formerly known as British Westinghouse. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The twentieth century of the Common Era began on British Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company was a subsidiary of the American Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. Highly diversified, they were particularly well known for their industrial electrical equipment such as generators, steam turbines, switchgear, transformers, electronics and railway traction equipment. A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts Thermal energy from pressurized Steam, and converts it into useful mechanical work The term switchgear, used in association with the electric power system or grid refers to the combination of electrical disconnects fuses and/or Circuit breakers A transformer is a device that transfers Electrical energy from one circuit to another through inductively coupled Electrical conductors Electronics refers to the flow of charge (moving Electrons through Nonmetal conductors (mainly Semiconductors, whereas electrical Metrovick holds a place in history as the builders of the first commercial transistorized computer, the Metrovick 950, and the first British axial-flow jet engine, the Metrovick F.2. In Electronics, a transistor is a Semiconductor device commonly used to amplify or switch electronic signals The Metrovick 950 was the first commercial Transistor computer, built from 1959 onwards by British company Metropolitan-Vickers to the extent Axial compressors are rotating aerofoil based compressors in which the working fluid principally flows parallel to the axis of rotation specific --->A jet engine is a Reaction engine that discharges a fast moving jet of Fluid to WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout

History

Metrovick started as a way to separate the existing British Westinghouse factories from US control, which had proven to be a hindrance to gaining government contracts during World War I. British Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company was a subsidiary of the American Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All In 1916 a holding company was formed to try to find financing to buy the company's properties, which eventually led to investment by the Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon and Finance Company in 1919. Year 1916 ( MCMXVI) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year Year 1919 ( MCMXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common British Westinghouse was now a truly British company, and soon purchased by Vickers, who changed the name to Metropolitan Vickers Electrical Company on September 8, 1919. Vickers was a famous name in British engineering that existed through many companies from 1828 until 2004 Events 70 - Roman forces under Titus sack Jerusalem. 1264 - The Statute of Kalisz Year 1919 ( MCMXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common

The immediate post-war era was marked by low investment and continued labour unrest. Fortunes changed in 1926 with the formation of the Central Electricity Board which standardized electrical supply and led to a massive expansion of electrical distribution, installations, and applicance purchases. Year 1926 ( MCMXXVI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The United Kingdom Central Electricity Board was set up under The Electricity (Supply Act 1926 to standardise the nation's electricity supply. Sales shot up, and 1927 marked the company's best year to date. Year 1927 ( MCMXXVII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

BTH merger and transition to AEI

Metrovick electric train units made for Ferrocarril Central Argentino in 1931. They worked until 1995

In 1928 Metrovick merged with the rival British Thomson-Houston (BTH), a company of similar size and basically the same product lineup. Year 1928 ( MCMXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Combined, they would be one of the few companies able to compete with Marconi or English Electric on an equal footing. English Electric (EE was a British industrial manufacturer Founded in 1918 it initially specialised in industrial Electric motors and Transformers Its In fact the merger was marked by poor communication and intense rivalry, and the two companies generally worked cross purposes. The next year the combined company was purchased by the Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) holding group, who also owned Edison Swan (Ediswan); also Ferguson Pailin in Openshaw, Manchester. Rivalry between Metrovick and BTH continued, and AEI was never able to exert effective control over the two competing susidiary companies.

Problems worsened in 1929 with the start of the great depression, but Metrovick's overseas sales were able to pick up some of the slack, notably a major railway electrification project in Brazil. Year 1929 ( MCMXXIX) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld By 1933 world trade was growing again, but growth was nearly upset when six Metrovick engineers were arrested and found guilty of espionage and "wrecking" in Moscow after a number of turbines built by the company in and for the Soviet Union proved to be faulty. Year 1933 ( MCMXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Wrecking (вредительство or vreditel'stvo, lit "inflicting damage" was a crime specified in the criminal code of the Soviet Union in the Moscow (Москва́ romanised: Moskvá, IPA: see also other names) is the Capital and the largest city of The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 The British government intervened; the engineers were released and trade with Russia was resumed after a brief embargo.

In 1935 the company built a 105 MW steam turbogenerator, the largest in Europe at that time, for the Battersea powerstation. Year 1935 ( MCMXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The watt (symbol W) is the SI derived unit of power, equal to one Joule of energy per Second. A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a rotary Engine that extracts energy from a flow of Combustion gas Battersea Power Station is a defunct coal-fired power station in Battersea, London, that was the first in a series of large coal-fired electrical generating

In 1936 Metrovick started work with the Air Ministry on automatic pilot systems, eventually branching out to gunlaying systems and building radars the next year. Year 1936 ( MCMXXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Air Ministry was formerly a department of the British Government with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force. An autopilot is a mechanical electrical or hydraulic system used to guide a vehicle without assistance from a human being Radar is a system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range altitude direction or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as Aircraft, ships In 1938 they reached an agreement with the Ministry to build a turboprop design developed at the RAE under the direction of Haine Constant. Year 1938 ( MCMXXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. A turboprop engine is a type of aircraft powerplant that uses a Gas turbine engine to drive a Propeller. It is somewhat ironic that BTH, their erstwhile partners, were at the same time working with Frank Whittle on his pioneering jet designs. Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, OM, KBE, FRS, Hon FRAeS (1 June 1907 &ndash 9 August 1996 was an English Royal

Wartime aircraft production

In mid-1938, MV's were given a contract to build Avro Manchester twin-engined heavy bombers under licence from A.V. Roe. The Avro 679 Manchester was a British twin-engined Heavy bomber developed during the Second World War by the Avro aircraft company in the Avro was a British Aircraft manufacturer, with numerous landmark designs such as the Avro 504 trainer in the First World War, the Avro As this type of work was very different from their traditional heavy engineering activities, a new factory was built on the western side of Mosley Road and this was completed in stages through 1940. The first 13 Manchesters were destroyed in a Luftwaffe bombing raid on Trafford Park on 23 December, but the firm went on to complete 43 examples. ( German 'luftvafe is a generic German term for an Air force. Trafford Park is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England Events 962 - Byzantine-Arab Wars: Under the future Emperor Nicephorus Phocas, Byzantine troops stormed the city With the design of the much improved four-engined derivative, the Avro Lancaster, MV switched production to that famous type. "Lanc" redirects here Distinguish from Lank (adjective and from Amon Lanc (a place in Tolkien's fiction Three hangars were erected on the southside of Manchester's Ringway Airport for assembly and testing of their Lancasters, before a policy switch was made to assembling them in a hangar at Avro's Woodford airfield. Manchester Airport is a major Airport in the vicinity of Manchester, England, and the largest airport in the United Kingdom outside the By the end of the war, MV's had built 1,080 Lancasters. These were followed by 79 Avro Lincoln derivatives before remaining orders were cancelled and MV's aircraft production ceased in December 1945. The Avro Type 694 Lincoln was a British four-engined Heavy bomber of the Second World War, first flying on 9 June 1944 and entering service in August In 1940 the turboprop effort was re-engineered as a pure jet engine after the successful run of Whittle's designs. Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The new design became the Metrovick F.2 and eventually flew in 1943 on a Gloster Meteor. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout This is a list of Aviation -related events from 1943: Events January January 27 - the USAAF makes its first WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout Considered to be too complex to bother with, Metrovick then re-engineered the design once again to produce roughly double the power, while at the same time starting work on a much larger design, the Metrovick F.9 Sapphire. This article is about the jet aero-engine for the vehicle see Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire (motor car WikipediaWikiProject Although the F. 9 proved to be a winner, the Ministry of Supply nevertheless forced the company to sell the jet division to Armstrong Siddeley in 1947 to reduce the number of companies in the business. The Ministry of Supply ( MoS) was a department of the UK Government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces Armstrong Siddeley was a British engineering group that operated during the first half of the 20th century Year 1947 ( MCMXLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

In addition to building aircraft, other wartime work included the manufacture of both Dowty and Messier undercarriages, automatic pilot units, searchlights and radar equipment.

Metrovicks postwar

The post-war era led to massive demand for electrical systems, leading to additional rivalries between Metrovick and BTH as each attempted to one-up the other in delivering ever-larger turbogenerator contracts. Metrovick also expanded their appliance division during this time, becoming a well known supplier of refrigerators and stoves.

The design and manufacture of sophisticated scientific instruments, such as electron microscopes, and mass spectrometers, became an important area of scientific research for the company. An electron microscope is a type of Microscope that uses Electrons to illuminate a specimen and create an enlarged image Mass spectrometry is an analytical technique that identifies the chemical composition of a compound or sample based on the Mass-to-charge ratio of charged particles

Another major area of expansion was in the diesel locomotive market, where they combined their own generators and traction motors, with third-party diesel engines to develop in 1950 the WAGR X class 2-Do-2 locomotive and in 1958 the type 2 Co-Bo, later re-classified under the TOPS system as the British Rail Class 28. The WAGR X class is a class of Diesel electric locomotives built for Western Australian Government Railways by Beyer Peacock and Metropolitan Vickers The UIC classification is a comprehensive system for describing the Wheel arrangement of Locomotives Multiple units and Trams It is Total Operations Processing System, or TOPS, is a computer system for managing the Locomotives and Rolling stock ( Railroad cars owned by The British Rail Class 28 ( Metropolitan-Vickers Type 2 Diesel locomotives or 'Metrovicks' as they were popularly known were built as part of the This diesel-electric locomotive was unusual on two counts; its Co-Bo wheel arrangement and its Crossley 2-Stroke diesel engine (evolved from a WW2 marine engine). A number of vehicles use a diesel-electric Powertrain for providing locomotion. Crossley, based in Manchester, United Kingdom, was a pioneering company in the production of Internal combustion engines Since 1988 it has been part of Intended as part the British Railways Modernisation Plan, the twenty strong fleet saw service between Scotland and England before being deemed unsuccessful and withdrawn towards the end of the 1960s. See also Rail transport in Great Britain, National Rail, Network Rail This article is about the defunct entity "British Railways" Metrovick also produced the CIE 001 Class (originally 'A' Class) from 1955, the first production mainline diesels in Ireland. The Córas Iompair Éireann 001 Class locomotive was manufactured by Metropolitan Vickers at their Dukinfield Works in Manchester. Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world

Metropolitan Vickers also produced electrical equipment for the British Rail Class 76 (EM1), and British Rail Class 77 (EM2), 1. The British Rail Class 76, also known as Class EM1, is a class of 1 The British Rail Class 77, also known as Class EM2, is a class of 1 5KV DC locomotives, built at Gorton Works for the electrification of the Woodhead Line in the early 1950's. Gorton is a district of the City of Manchester in North West England. The Woodhead Line was a railway line linking Sheffield, Penistone and Manchester in the north of England. The company also designed the British Rail Class 82, 25KV AC locomotives built by Beyer Peacock in Manchester using Metrovick electrical equipment. The British Rail Class 82 Electric locomotives were built by Beyer Peacock and Company between 1960 and 1962 as part of the West Coast Main Line Beyer Peacock and Company was an English Railway Locomotive manufacturer with a Factory in Gorton, Manchester

During the 1950s the company built a large, power transformer works at Wythenshawe, near Manchester. Wythenshawe (pop 66000 is a district in the south of the City of Manchester in North West England.

The rivalry between Metrovick and BTH was eventually ended in an unconvincing fashion when the AEI management eventually decided to rid themselves of both brands and be known as AEI universally, a change they made on January 1, 1960. New Year See also New Year The Ancient Romans began their consular year on January 1st since 153 BC Year 1960 ( MCMLX) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. This move was almost universally resented within both companies. Worse, the new brand name was utterly unknown to their customers, leading to a noticeable fall-off in sales and AEI's stock price.

GEC takeover

When AEI then went on to attempt to remove the doubled-up management structures, they found this task to be even more difficult. By the mid-1960s the company was struggling under the weight of two complete management hierarchies, and they appeared to be unable to control the company any more. The 1960s decade refers to the years from the beginning of 1960 to the end of 1969 This allowed AEI to be purchased by GEC in 1967, which became Marconi plc in 1999 (now Marconi Corporation plc). The General Electric Company or GEC was a major UK company involved in consumer and defence electronics communications and engineering Year 1967 ( MCMLXVII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the 1967 Gregorian calendar. telent plc is a Radio, Telecommunication, and Internet systems installation & services provision company.

See also

Category:Metropolitan Vickers locomotives

External links

• John Dummelow M. A. , A. M. I. E. E. Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Co. Ltd. 1899 - 1949. The History of a great company. More than 200 pages of text and pictures, on line.
• Frank Rowlinson. Contribution to Victory. Metropolitan-Vickers, Manchester, 1947. Contains 200 pages on MV's war effort with many illustrations.
• Nic Doncasters page onWAGR Crossleys