Rank Taylor Hobson
1886 Brothers William and Thomas Smithies Taylor started a company to make lenses as T. S. and W. Taylor.
1887 W. S. H. Hobson joined and became the sales face of Taylor Hobson.
The company then became Taylor, Taylor and Hobson
1947 Part of the J Arthur Rank Organisation and becoming known as Rank Taylor Hobson.
1968 New division established within Rank Precision Industries to focus on development of scientific instruments business; initially involved Hilger and Watts, Rank Taylor Hobson, Rank Bush Murphy Electronics, Rank Electronic Tubes[1].
1974 Asked to investigate alignment of tracks on tanks by using an optical processes.[2]
1996 Schroder Ventures acquired Taylor Hobson from the Rank Organisation.
2004 Taylor Hobson taken over by AMETEK Inc. Taylor Hobson website.