Rank Precision Industries
of Mortimer Street, London.
1947 British Optical and Precision Engineers was formed as a private company. Part of the J Arthur Rank Organisation
1948 Company made public.
1956 The name of British Optical and Precision Engineers was changed to Rank Precision Industries[1] which included G. B. Equipments Ltd, G. B.-Kalee Ltd, Taylor, Taylor and Hobson Ltd, A. Kershaw and Sons Ltd[2]. Agent for ACEC-Dictorel dictation equipment. Manufactured microfilm-based recording system for Burroughs Adding Machine[3] to Bell and Howell design. Introduced Replicta copying machines[4]
1957 Developed portable recording equipment that could be used by cameramen for recording sound on 16mm film[5]
1958 High speed Xeronic computer printer[6]
1961 Manufacturers of engineers' measuring instruments, machine tools, lenses and optical instruments; manufacturers of G. B. Bell and Howell 8mm and 16mm cine equipment, film strip and slide projectors and specialised camera equipment; cinema, theatre and studio equipment manufacturers and seating furnishers, also cinema screens, 8mm and 16mm screens, screen frames and stage equipment; Xeronic output computer printer. 4,500 employees. [7]
1964 Stanley Cox, a subsidiary of R. B. Pullin and Co, became part of Rank Medical Equipment[8]
1966 Included Rank-Xerox[9]
1967 Rank Pullin Controls made the Aldis signalling lamp[10]
1968 New division of Rank established; this was to be called Rank Precision Industries; it would focus on development of the scientific instruments business; initially involved Hilger and Watts, Rank Taylor Hobson, Rank Bush Murphy Electronics, Rank Electronic Tubes[11].
1969 Split into 4 divisions: analytical, metrology, broadcast and industrial[12].
1988 Sold the Rank Pullin Controls thermal imaging business and the related military thermography business of Rank Taylor Hobson to GEC. Rank Pullin Controls would concentrate on industrial metrology[13].
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Times 2 April 1956
- ↑ The Times 3 April 1956
- ↑ The Times 5 October 1956
- ↑ The Times 22 November 1956
- ↑ The Times 8 October 1957
- ↑ The Times 17 November 1958
- ↑ 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE
- ↑ The Times 12 October 1964
- ↑ The Times 7 January 1966
- ↑ The Times 27 May 1967
- ↑ The Times 24 September 1968
- ↑ The Times 15 January 1969
- ↑ The Times 20 April 1988