Ferranti history

[Malcolm T]

Sad to watch how Britain chucked this away,
I will always remember the ZN414


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJtCXMESWag&t=514s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TRfy70DqD8

[peter_scott]

Yes, we have lived through a period of amazing change.

Thanks for posting.

Peter

[Radio Wrangler]

I was a steward at the carriage driving trials in 2001 at Hopetoun House, outside Edinburgh.

One of the competitors was Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti. Just not the original one!

David

[line sync]

Couple of very interesting films.
Is there a ferranti museum anywhere ?

[ms660]

My claim to fame with Mr. Ferranti was that I helped to wash his chopper (no not that one)

Lawrence.

[Ed_Dinning]

Hi Folks there is a thick tome available that is the history of Ferranti, and I think one of the Manchester museums has some of his exhibits on show, but there is a huge collectioin in back store that used to be inb the mill beside Cairo Mill in Oldham

Ed

[G6Tanuki]

Fascinating viewing: for me Ferranti means either:

The ubiquitous "ZTX" plastic-encapsulated silicon transistors that flooded the market in the 70s - good performance, reliable in service, and less than a cent apiece [which murdered the likes of Mullard/Philips with their high-production-cost BC-series metal-can transistors or the reliability-deficient Lockfits]

or

The F100-L microprocessor, which was used in various Military applications. A work-colleague [now sadly permanently-offline/QRT] was involved in getting the CORAL-66 compiler approved for this.

When one of the project-team was 'late' for a 9AM forensic management meeting to discuss unacceptably long-standing project delays, and was known to have taken refuge in the gents toilet rather than appear for a grilling, Elizabeth happily marched in and shouted "I'm waiting, and I can wait until midnight until you come out!"

She never suffered fools gladly [as her ex-husband found out]

[Mike Phelan]

Originally Posted by Ed_Dinning

Hi Folks there is a thick tome available that is the history of Ferranti, and I think one of the Manchester museums has some of his exhibits on show, but there is a huge collectioin in back store that used to be inb the mill beside Cairo Mill in Oldham

Ed

When I worked for Thorn in the 1970s I spent a couple of days in Ferranti's mill between Hollinwood and New Moston (Manchaster).

[bobbyball]

I worked for Ferranti from 1987 until the beginning of the end in 1993.

My father was a "general manager" and latterly one of the directors. I saw it all from different perspectives.

[DMcMahon]

My only direct experience of Ferranti is when I worked for Plessey Marine (over 40 years ago) when I did a couple of site visits to Ferranti Cheadle Heath to do customer acceptance testing of their FM1600 (the B suffix version I think) computer system, which Plessey used with some of their Sonar systems.

David

[peter_scott]

Back in the mid 1960s I served a couple of years of an engineering apprenticeship at Ferranti. I seem to have picked up some stuff before I left. I don't know if it formed part of the Atlas but I have a decade counter formed from Mullard GET114s and I also some little round potted flip-flops about 1" diameter and 1/2" high that I assume are from a later period. I can't currently locate them but do have a schematic.

Peter

[Jolly 7]

A couple of minutes walk from where I live I've seen some sort of a metal structure that has Ferranti written on it. It looks like a bit like a BT junction box, but I am not sure what it was used for. I'll try to take some pictures the next time I go for a walk down that way.

[knobtwiddler]

Would it be reasonable to draw a parallel between Acorn Computers and Ferranti? In the same way that the Archimedes never got the investment it deserved, but lives on in the form of the ARM processor, Zetex lives on now, catering to niches that the larger semi makers omit.

[high_vacuum_house]

We have a big 33-11KV 25MVA transformer at one of our power generating sites and has a Ferranti automatic tap changer and has never missed a beat.
Christopher Capener

[mole42uk]

I went for an interview at Ferranti, probably in Oldham, in 1972. Unfortunately I didn’t get/take the job…….but I used many hundreds of ZTXxxx transistors in my job from 1976.

[mark_in_manc]

Originally Posted by DMcMahon

My only direct experience of Ferranti is when I worked for Plessey Marine (over 40 years ago) when I did a couple of site visits to Ferranti Cheadle Heath to do customer acceptance testing of their FM1600 (the B suffix version I think) computer system, which Plessey used with some of their Sonar systems.

David

Cheadle Heath is still going, still doing sonar - it was Marconi-Thompson for a bit and then became (and remains) Thales.

I know MOSI have a large vertical cross-compound steam engine with a really big Ferranti alternator on it running at engine speed. This is in the power hall which has been under re-development for a bit. I don't know what else they have. I'll have to have a look around our small museum (the Anson) and see what Ferranti stuff we have.

[dave walsh]

Ed mentioned a "thick tome" about Ferrari [post 6*]. What's the title does anyone know? This thread is more about the engineering side, I think! I only got interested originally because I'd commuted past their factory near Oldham in the seventies and also discovered, eventually, that they had "dabbled" with Radio and TV sets at one time. Giving that branch of the Company up is mentioned in the thread started by unitelex [Chris] of a decade ago ie "Location of Ferranti Factories" 7/11/12. In that I refer to the fascinating story of a move from Ashton to North East Scotland, Seymour Radio and the recovery of one example, travelling back by rail-with passenger assistance. Mark in Manc [post 16* here] comments on that older thread as well [post 34*].

I'd seen very few Ferranti radio sets around but TV production, including the 50's projection models, was actually fairly advanced and there are later CRT sets shown being as equipped for FM Radio as well. It seems to be more difficult to arrive at a listing/history of the Radios they built, especially the earlier ones. Does anyone know of such a thing aside from the book Ed mentioned? Maybe it's just me

Dave W

As a teenager I was given the 2" CRT and focussing coils of a Projection Set in the mid sixties but despite my electrical interests, I had no idea such a television existed and thought it was from Test Equipment perhaps.

[mark_in_manc]

Thanks for digging that thread out Dave - I had forgotten all about it. My memory has got a lot worse over the last 10 years, I am afraid!

[Aub]

Ferranti to me means Argus 500 and 700 computers used by British Gas in the seventies

Aub

[Bill]

Originally Posted by Malcolm T

Sad to watch how Britain chucked this away,
I will always remember the ZN414


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJtCXMESWag&t=514s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TRfy70DqD8

That second film , mostly at Gem Mill certainly has some familiar faces to me. I worked there from 1969 to '74. I think the film does not convey the huge expenditure on the plant & equipment required for the production of semiconductors from growing a lump of silicon bar to finished product of transistors, ICs ,diodes etc. Also the difficulties of adapting a Victorian cotton mill to the latest technology. Gem was originally set up to make valves during WW2 and the last vestiges of valve production were still extant while I worked there. There was also a CRT department , this was concerned almost entirely with military display systems , not TV tubes!
One scene in the film made me smile: Where the scribed wafer was being stretched on a rubber diaphragm, that rubber for a long time was cut from "Marigold" kitchen gloves, which had just the right stretch for the job, the gloves were drawn from stores and cut up for this part of the process.
I could go on, it was a great place to work, the people at all levels, skilled at their particular job, unfortunately, for me , the pay was not great and I moved elsewhere for a much better salary(at that time) . Gem Mill is no more, replaced by a housing estate.