The Telephone Manufacturing Company of Britain
(TMC)
By Bob Estreich
TMC was
formed to service one company, but grew into a supplier to many companies
and Governments. It was never big, but it was always there. Unlike so many
of its competitors, TMC survives today.
In 1902 telephones were still a new but now accepted
business service, but most businesses still relied on one or two telephones
within their building. Firms like Sterling and GEC were selling intercoms,
but it was a struggle because of the high costs involved in purchase of the
phones and wiring in the new system. Frederick Jackson saw a way around
these problems. He had worked for The Private Telephone Company (PTC) in
London, and had risen to become Company Secretary. PTC was a telephone
operating company, using equipment imported from H Fuld in Germany. A number
of other substantially German-owned operating companies were doing the same
in Britain at the time.
PTC was renamed New System PTC, and offered internal
telephones for rent rather than purchase. This made it economic to change a
business over to phones rather than continue with message wires or speaking
tubes.
Jackson left New System PTC and joined a rival company,
Intercommunicating Telephones, in 1908. The timing was good, as the British
Post Office was now taking over the various operating companies around
Britain. Internal phone systems, however; were left alone. He expanded the
company, and even took over his old employer, New System. The phones were
still supplied by Fuld.
With the business on a sound footing, Jackson pooled
resources with Campbell Cochran, a solicitor. In 1912 they bought out the
German-owned Caledonian Telephone Company. This and a number of other
regional operating companies was brought into the New System group.
With the outbreak of the First World War they could no
longer obtain their phones from Fuld, so they were forced into local
manufacture. A new company, The Telephone Manufacturing Company, was set up.
It supplied intercom phones only to the New System group of companies. New
System's slogan was "a penny per day per instrument". The company was able
to buy the confiscated equipment of the German-owned companies at a bargain
price.
After the war, a period of growth ensued. To raise extra
capital TMC was made public as the Telephone Manufacturing Company (1920)
Ltd. The new company bought out the rental companies and expanded into other
countries, including Australia. A new factory at Dulwich allowed production
to double, but with the coming of the Great Depression the company started
to incur serious losses. The support of the banks kept the company going,
and in 1929 they split the business into manufacturing (Telephone
Manufacturing Co. 1929 Ltd) and rentals and installation (Telephone Rentals
Ltd).
Telephone Rentals (TR) began
renting Ericsson private automatic exchanges (PAX) under the Telematic name,
and bought in some Ericsson phones. They also moved into industrial
timekeeping services (Temco). Many of their phones (e.g. the Telephone No.
162 pyramid Bakelite phones) were still sourced from TMC, who themselves
outsourced some of the work like Bakelite moulding. TR also rented
Temco-branded PAXs, once again made by Fuld (their Fallwaehler system).
These were a very small unit. The phones, however, had a dial with up to 70
numbers on it. Dialling must have required great precision. These phones are
rarely seen by collectors as TR's policy was to destroy its old phones after
a couple of rental contracts, usually after around thirty years. This cut
out the maintenance costs of older equipment. By 1936 the companies were
back in profit.
Other product lines from TMC included Temco speakers ,
radio sets, and an early valve-powered handsfree intercom phone. These first
small specialty items marked TMC's diversification into other areas. This
ultimately proved to be the main strength of the company. They still
supplied phones to the British Post Office, but they did not have the
capital or the manufacturing facilities to be a major supplier. They did,
however, have a highly trained staff that could design and produce
low-quantity, almost custom-built items.
In Australia TMC continued as minority suppliers of APO
Bakelite phones of the 162 type, and as manufacturers of specialist
communications equipment for the APO. Under the Government policy of the
time, they gained regular local contracts for the mainstream items so an
Australian manufacturing industry could be encouraged. These contracts were
their bread and butter, and allowed them to take on the smaller, less
economic jobs as well.
Railways phones were another small but useful niche
market. TMC designed a variable-frequency-ringing party line phone for
railways use that proved quite popular as a replacement for the ageing
Phonopores that had been in use since the 1880s. They devised a
three-channel carrier system for railway telephone lines that sold
worldwide. A power AC ringer design proved so useful on the long lines of
the railways that they were asked to design a master clock system to allow
all clocks in a large railway station to show the same time. To gain
expertise in clocks, they bought out Prince's Electrical Clocks Ltd in about
1930. The master clocks became known as the Princes New System. The
Chronomatic name was registered in 1935.
In 1939 the Second World War began. Production was now
controlled by the Supply Ministry, and domestic and business phones were low
on the priority list. TMC now started to move into specialist markets that
had been developed by their research and development people. The Secrephone
scrambler telephone was one example. TR added Tannoy public address systems
to its rental range and included a TMC "Music While You Work" system across
the PA as an anti-fatigue measure in factories. The companies felt the brunt
of the war as over a third of their staff were called up, and TMC was
finally placed on the Supply Ministry's "Vital List" so it could retain
essential staff. The employment of "intelligent girls, aged not less than 18
years, for training in simple electrical maintenance" also helped make up
the shortfall. Shifts were extended by overtime, and on occasions night
shifts were introduced.
They opened a second factory at Malmesbury , and others
at Bishopbriggs and Canterbury.
By the end of the war TMC and TR had strong growth as
they developed back into peacetime conditions. TR expanded into Ireland, the
United States (with an alphanumeric dial on a 700-type phone) and France
(the Teleautomate company)
On 14 August 1959, F T Jackson, the firms' founder,
passed away after an illness.
The post-War period was a time of consolidation and
takeovers worldwide, and British giant electrical company GEC began making
takeover moves on TR in 1966. They finally abandoned the takeover in 1967,
making TR one of the few companies ever to hold out against GEC. TR's
response was to itself make a takeover bid for one of its long standing
competitors, Dictograph Telephones Ltd. Dictograph was another rental
company. The consolidation gave TR an annual rental income of more than ten
million pounds per year by 1970. This was helped by their move into new
technologies like digital PAXs.
TMC meanwhile was in a strange position. While still
making much of the equipment for TR, they were still making phones and
specialty parts for the British Post Office. They never became a major
British manufacturer of phones for the public system like, say, Ericssons,
but did make many telephones in comparatively small numbers. Their specialty
items continued to be a major source of work, and now included ships' phones
and linesmans and military field sets. Both of these niche markets had
developed during the War. Their work for Telephone Rentals continued, but
much of TR's equipment like PAXs was now being bought in.
After the war, TMC developed their sound-powered ships'
phones into robust versions for land-based troops. The Tele H was a battery
powered field set, and the Tele F also had a buzzer signaling system built
in that could be used as a Morse key. It could reputedly work over more than
200 miles of heavy copper wire. The Australian factory was still producing
small orders of highly specialized parts for the Australian Post Office,
such as 150 pulse echo testers for fault finding on long lines. A highlight
of TMC's work in the 1950s was the production, in cooperation with the Post
Office workshops, of Britain's and Australia's Speaking Clocks. The design
dated back to the 1930s, from the BPO Workshops, but TMC had the precision
equipment and skills to build them. This exemplifies TMC's work - never a
big producer of mainstream telephones, but very useful to have around.
They also developed further into radio technology. They
were experts at making precision radio filters, and the radio technology
crossed over into their telephony work where accurate carrier frequency
equipment became another niche specialty. It also paid off in the areas of
telemetry and the now fast-expanding telex service, and later into modems.
There was still room to produce telephones, however, and
the new factory at Airdrie manufactured many of the British Post Office's
700 series dial phones. Over the years TMC was allocated a number of
manufacturer codes by the BPO.
TE: TMC
TEA : TMC West Dulwich
TES: TMC St Mary Cray
TMA: TMC Airdrie
TTL: TMC Livingston Scotland
In the 1960s TMC was bought out by the Pye group and
became Pye TMC Ltd. Pye was then bought out by Dutch giant Philips, and the
TMC name was finally dropped in Britain. The company was left pretty much
intact, however, as the British Post Office, a big customer, still preferred
to buy locally. As part of the Philips deal the Australian company was sold
to employees and continued as TMC Radio Pty Ltd. This company also bought
out Philips Business Radio Ltd, formerly Pye Mobile Radio.
And so the TMC name continues, although no longer in
telephony and no longer in Britain.
References
Leyland A J "A British Telephone Factory in Peace and
War" Telecommunications Journal of Australia June 1947
Powerhouse Museum , Sydney, holds an example of "George
the Speaking Clock"
"History of Telephone Rentals (including TMC Ltd)" From
Direct Line Magazine
Wilson, Dan "A Mini-History of the Telephone
Manufacturing Company"
"The Telephone Manufacturing Co. Ltd, New System Private
Telephones Ltd, Prices Electric Clocks Ltd, Telephone Rentals Ltd" from
Barries Virtual Clock Museum,
http://www.clock-museum.co.uk/history%20%20of%20tmc.htm
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