The regular, free, monthly meeting, of the Oldham Historical Research Group, on zoom. All are most welcome.

Wednesday 21 September 2022
7pm start (login from 6:45pm)

Online on zoom
Online on zoom

Details:

"Megavolts and Milliamps: Ferranti at the cutting edge of electric power and electronics" an illustrated presentation given by Hattie Lloyd and Jan Hicks, from the Science and Industry Museum, Manchester. Part of the programme for the annual 'Oldham Histories Festival and Heritage' talks.

Zoom booking necessary on Eventbrite

Over more than a century of existence, Ferranti led the way in electric power generation and the development of electrical and electronic equipment. Always interested in its own history, Ferranti maintained a company archive and museum that was open to the public from the mid-1960s. The Science and Industry Museum acquired this collection in 1996.

Join us for a talk that gives an overview of the collection and draws on it to reveal two of Ferranti’s mid-20th century innovations Ferranti’s move from London to Hollinwood in 1896 brought expansion and diversification. By the 1960s, its Avenue Works was the location for the Transformer Department. Jan Hicks will explore Ferranti’s contribution to high voltage electric power generation, including the manufacture of High Voltage Impulse Testing Equipment at Avenue Works, capable of generating 6 megavolt sparks. Expansion of the company meant new sites across the UK, but the company retained its focus on Greater Manchester.

As well as the Hollinwood HQ, the talk will also explore the contribution to electronics and digital computing at the Gem Mill site in Chadderton, from the manufacture of computers that brought British industry into the digital age in the 1950s to the development of silicon processing technology that helped shrink the size of computers.

Hattie Lloyd will introduce two of the computers manufactured at Gem Mill, the Ferranti Mark I* and the Pegasus. The Mark I*, along with its earlier iteration the Ferranti Mark I, was among the world’s first commercially available electronic computers. The Pegasus was the first “user-friendly” computer, and Ferranti’s best-selling thermionic valve computer. Jan will close the talk with an exploration of the development of silicon processing technology at Gem Mill.

Entry fee: Free

Contact: Sheila Goodyear
01706 847772

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/oldham-historical-research-group-32376009671

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