Turning back the clock at Smiths

In 2014, Smiths celebrated the centenary of its flotation on the London Stock Market, a month before the outbreak of the Great War. It was a great moment for a business historian to revisit the century-and-a-half since the founding of the firm in the year of the Great Exhibition, in 1851.

I therefore wrote a history, covering the period through to the disposal of the Aerospace division in 2007, and the research took me into archives of amazing photographs, board minutes, product catalogues, news reporting and much more. At a personal level, the interviews with more than thirty key Smiths personnel (who had been at the heart of the firm from the 1960s onwards) were a highpoint. As someone said,—‘James, I lived through all that! I had no idea it would be history!’ But of course we are all of us making history, all of the time, and Smiths has a significant track record of innovation and major change which mark out a unique and notable corporate record.

I often comment that Smiths has left a strong trail in the fossil record, since until the latter part of the twentieth century its name is on items that were at the heart of the home, and which may still be sitting in people’s attics. 

Starting in retail jewellery, including watches and clocks, Smiths expanded significantly until the opening of the twentieth century. But then came one of the visionary moments, that the motor car would be critically important in everyday life. Smiths’ retail history ended with the emergence of the motor accessory business, helped by the endorsement of that wonderful Mr Toad—Edward VII—whose Mercedes sported the first Smiths speedometer. Indeed, Smiths preserves a 1904 ledger which records the sale of speedometer No 1 to His Majesty the King at Buckingham Palace.

In 1912, Smiths transformed itself, establishing its own factory for the first time, at Cricklewood, London. Having moved into aerospace instruments to support the war effort, a second great insight emerged, that aviation would also be a defining characteristic of modern life. From the 1920s onwards, volume production emerged, defining the rest of the century for Smiths, in motor accessories, in aircraft instruments, in clocks, and a huge range of other products.

The Second World War caused rapid expansion again. Large factory sites appeared in the West Country, Wales and Scotland—and post-war developments witnessed the spectacular growth of aerospace and medical businesses.

Smiths developed a strong ability to identify and then acquire complementary businesses, both large and small, and as the twentieth century neared its end, it became increasingly international not only in its focus, but in its footprint.

Smiths also knew when businesses were fully mature, and when others were best placed to take them further, and hence the sales of Motor Accessories, Aerospace, and more recently Medical.
Innovation continues with the development of amazing new businesses, such as Smiths Detection, and acquisitions such as the crucial divisions that arrived as part of TI, which included John Crane.

Creating firsts in various fields has also always been a theme. The emergence of medical ultrasound is down to a Smiths engineer in the late 1950s. The first ever blind landing of a civil airliner in 1965 used Smiths technology. The four-digit PIN used by us all with our bank cards was a Smiths innovation. Investment and belief in the development of new technology has always been crucial and no doubt will continue to be so.

A major theme of Smiths Group's long history is therefore innovation, or adaptability, or a capacity to evolve. Smiths has not stood still, and it has moved on from at least four of its core business lines in the past. Whatever Smiths is today, it seems safe to predict it will not be the same if future management request an updated history some decades from now.

Dr. James Nye is a historian and author of 'A Long Time in Making - The History of Smiths'.