Ferranti: A History

Ferranti was one of the most successful firms of the 20th century and, as a centre of engineering excellence and innovation, it was known world-wide. Ferranti is no more, but John F. Wilson has recorded its history in this volume. The company was started by the 18-year-old Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti in 1882 and was still family-owned and run over 90 years later, giving it a distinctive culture which owed all to a passion for engineering, invention and innovation. But if Ferranti was much more than just a business to the Ferranti dynasty, it was more than just an employer to those it employed; to many it was part of their own extended family and an imprtant part of their social lives. Ferranti inspired great loyalty from its workforce and successive generations of workers followed each other into the firm. So it was a particularly poignant moment when, after having taken 100 years to build the company, it went into receivership in the same number of months . However, this book, with its wealth of detail, gives the reader a glimpse of the excitement of working for a company that encouraged initiative, risk and enterprise at all levels. John Wilson has drawn on a considerable archive of photographs, which illustrate many aspects of the company’s long history, and was allowed access to the Ferranti archives. This record of an outstanding business is the result of his 20 years of research.