The SearchVoat Forum

With the active collaboration of the Bronfmann dynasty and the CIA, the 155mm Howitzer technology developed by Canadian Gerald Bull and based on research funded by Canadian tax dollars, was quietly transferred to South Africa between 1976 and 1978.

The Plessey Company plc was a British-based international electronics, defence and telecommunications company. It originated in 1917, growing and diversifying into electronics. It expanded after the Second World War by acquisition of companies and formed overseas companies.

The majority of Plessey's defence assets were amalgamated into BAE Systems in 1999 when British Aerospace merged with the defence arm of GEC, Marconi Electronic Systems (MES). A small portion of the defence market, mostly embedded electronic systems and circuitcards remained with GE, formerly GE Fanuc and GE Intelligent Platforms (GE-IP) and now Abaco Systems based in Huntsville, Alabama, and in Towcester, Northamptonshire. The bulk of Plessey's telecommunications assets were acquired by Ericsson through its 2005 acquisition of Marconi Corporation plc, a successor company of GEC...

During the 1920s Plessey began to diversify into electrical manufacturing. Important contracts included the manufacture of early radios[1] for Marconi and the production of telephones for the General Post Office. In order to increase production, Plessey moved to Vicarage Lane, Ilford, in 1923.[1] In 1929, the television pioneer John Logie Baird had his first production televisions made by Plessey.[1] The company also produced the first British-made portable radio in the same year.

In 1961 Plessey merged with the British Ericsson Telephone company and Automatic Telephone and Electric (AT&E) of Liverpool, to become Britain's largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, including the majority of the country's crossbar switches..Plessey were partners in the development of the Atlas Computer in 1962 and in the development of digital telephone systems, including System X, from the late 1970s.[1] In 1988, Plessey's Telecommunications Division merged with that of GEC to become GEC Plessey Telecommunications. Plessey Naval Systems was formed in 1986 by the merger of Plessey Marine with Plessey Displays, which had been part of Plessey Radar.

The South African roots of Plessey can be traced to the acquisition of AT&E and Ericsson in 1963, and a Cape Town-based company, the Instrument Manufacturing Company (IMC), acquired in 1964...In 1988, GEC and Siemens AG set up a joint holding company called GEC Siemens plc, to launch a hostile takeover of Plessey.

Aleister Crowley .. At the age of 8, Crowley was sent to H.T. Habershon's evangelical Christian boarding school in Hastings, and then to Ebor preparatory school in Cambridge, run by the Reverend Henry d'Arcy Champney, whom Crowley considered a sadist.... Crowley returned to Hastings later in life where he ended his days...Hastings is also known in the UK as birthplace of TV...

In 1922, John Logie Baird set up residence in Linton Crescent in Hastings, following a bout of illness. As a student, Baird had already experimented with the idea of television, however it was during his time in Hastings that he was able to develop and investigate the idea further. After appealing for help in The Times, Baird was approached by the BBC, who supported his quest to invent the television. By the end of 1923, Baird had successful transmitted a shadowy image with the receiver and transmitter still connected.

A segment used in the first testing of broadcast television....Staring Stooky Bill. The dialogue between inventor John Baird and his dummy is interesting to say the least.