S G Brown celebrates 100 years of gyrocompasses
The 2010 Oceanology International exhibition in London this month coincided with the celebration of 100 years of gyrocompass manufacture by S G Brown. The occasion was marked by the company with celebrations at the show and elsewhere.
S G Brown Ltd was founded by Sidney George Brown in 1910 and grew into one of the world’s leading manufacturers of gyrocompasses for the world’s navies and merchant fleets. After years of independent operation it became a government-owned company during the Second World War and subsequently operated as an independent subsidiary within various organisations including the de Havilland Industrial Division, the Hawker Siddeley Group and Vosper Thornycroft. S G Brown is now an integral part of Teledyne TSS where the design and manufacture of gyrocompasses for the marine and defence industries continues alongside the specialised survey and subsea gyros traditionally manufactured by TSS.
S G Brown and Teledyne TSS have taken care to incorporate each others’ manufacturing philosophies and, until October last year, personnel worked together successfully in S G Brown’s original factory in Watford, UK. Due to the pressures of increased output and an expanding product range, the company moved to a spacious modern factory in a different part of Watford last year.
Although S G Brown is famous for its gyrocompasses, it also manufactured a range of other products including auto-pilots, echo sounders, and gyros for steering and submarine fin control systems, steering control systems, earphones and loudspeakers. The word ‘loudspeaker’ was actually coined by Sidney Brown for a press demonstration of his original Moving Coil Loudspeaker.
It was the superiority of S G Brown gyrocompass design and performance that made it the first choice for installation aboard Royal Navy ships. The A-type and B-type gyrocompasses became very familiar to seafarers while the ‘bouncing’ Brown gyrocompass became a common sight aboard merchant vessels between the wars. S G Brown’s Master Reference Gyro 1 equipped Hawker Hunter and Lightning Fighters and the Mk 10 gyrocompass won the Queen’s Award for Design.
Brian Huntsman, general manager of Teledyne TSS, believes that when a company reaches its hundredth birthday it says as much about its future as it does about its past. ‘ The reason S G Brown products have been around for so long is because the company knows it must innovate and stay ahead of the game while using its experience to avoid the mistakes that younger businesses are still making. We have an enormous reservoir of advanced engineering skill and know how within our organisation.’
