Industrial electrical measuring instrument makers, 1890¿1960: reminiscent review

The author, who first joined the IEE 60 years ago, traces how the early craft of instrument making first met the needs of the new telegraph and power industries for control and portable test meters. Several firms were located in the Clerkenwell area, the home of clock and scientific instrument making: histories are briefly sketched of Elliott Brothers (from 1800), Nalder Bros. & Thompson, Evershed & Vignoles, Everett Edgcumbe (who, in 1910, built an aeroplane), Ferranti, and Record Electrical. The subsequent changes in the industry are outlined, as a transition from being instrument makers to instrument manufacturing. The contribution of the annual Conversazione and Exhibition of the Physical Society is mentioned, and the advent of electronics can be traced through the annual catalogues of this exhibition.