MEM Celebrates its Centenary
 The
MEM brand is 100 years old! The Midland Electric Manufacturing
Company Ltd. began manufacturing switch and fusegear in a workshop
behind a house in Conybere Street, Birmingham in 1908. Today it is
part of the Eaton Corporation which has 81,000 employees worldwide.
Switchgear and fusegear are still manufactured at the main UK
factory in Reddings Lane, Birmingham, less than 3 miles from
Conybere Street where it all began.
Eaton is marking the occasion with celebrations and special gifts
for employees at the MEM sites in Birmingham, Holyhead and
Middleton. A programme of special events is planned for employees,
distributors and major customers. A display at Reddings Lane traces
the 100-year history and various centenary publications are being
produced to coincide with the month in which the company name was
registered, September 1908.
MEM products span the whole spectrum of electrical installation
equipment, from the main switchboard to the socket-outlet. They
include industrial switchgear, busbar trunking, panelboards and
distribution boards, lighting management systems, motor controlgear,
domestic switchgear and wiring accessories. But circuit protection –
fuses and circuit-breakers – has remained at the heart of the
business since the earliest days.
The company name was registered in 1908 with a capital of just £800
and the ‘MEM’ trade mark was registered three years later. MEM
became a public company in 1926. It remained independent until 1971
when it was acquired by Delta Metal which went on to acquire names
like Nettle Accessories, Bill Switchgear, Home Automation and Holec.
The Electrical Division of Delta was sold to its present owner,
Eaton Corporation of Cleveland Ohio in January 2003. Since then
Eaton has invested heavily in modernisation and rationalisation.
MEM was founded by a 28 year-old engineer, Walter L Barber, who saw
the potential of the emerging electrical industry. Within a year the
company had introduced a standardised range of ironclad switch and
fusegear as an alternative to the expensive custom-built equipment
of the day. This was followed by a radical new design of rewirable
fuse that was less prone to pyrotechnic displays than other devices
available at the time.
Walter Barber was a visionary who saw the benefits of standardising
product design. In the 1920s, he began looking at the
mass-production techniques employed by Henry Ford and others in
America and introduced assembly-line production to MEM. From an
early stage he pursued a policy of self-sufficiency, establishing
the company’s own foundry, pottery, extrusion presses and facilities
to produce springs and turned parts.
MEM has continued to be at the forefront of developments in circuit
protection. It was one of the first companies to introduce HRC
cartridge fuses in the post-war years. It introduced its first
domestic consumer unit in 1955 and its first miniature
circuit-breakers in 1965. Early MCBs were of European origin but in
1988 MEM announced the first all-British range of current-limiting
MCBs designed and manufactured in Holyhead. 1996 saw the
introduction of the revolutionary ‘pod’ RCBO with its modular
construction. The Company still offers the MCB range; and the
modular ‘pod’ RCBO is still a unique device.
Email:
literature-info@eaton.com
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