Details

Photographs and glass plate negatives of early GEC [BTH] sites, equipment and manufacturing processes and installations at other sites. Amounting to 28 albums and 13,000 glass plate negatives, they relate to machinery produced from 1902 onwards by BTH at its Rugby site. The company’s products included induction motors, alternators, switchgear, turbo-generators and turbines, as well as a large number of rotary converters and motor converters, primarily for chemical plants. In the period before the First World War, BTH manufactured most of the equipment for railway electrification in Britain and equipped more than fifty tramway systems. In addition the company carried out a great deal of work for the new London Underground lines. BTH kept its name until 1960, when it became Associated Electrical Industries (Rugby) Ltd. AEI then merged with General Electric Company (GEC), in 1967. Unfortunately the first contemporary index to the negatives is missing. It is therefore not possible to give detailed descriptions of the machinery photographed until the negative numbered 5812. [Digital versions of the detailed handlists for the photographs and glass plate negatives are available].