In late 1937 John Logie Baird with others founded Cinema-Television Ltd with the object of exploiting projection television for the cinema and it was this that demanded the high brightness CRT’s. With the advent of war in September 1939 the domestic market for television receivers and the large screen cinema systems collapsed and Baird Television Ltd was put into receivership by Gaumont British. The assets were invested into Cinema-Television a company owned and controlled by Gaumont British. During 1940 the name Cinema-Television was shortened to Cintel and the controlling interest in Gaumont British was acquired by J.Arthur Rank as part of the extraordinary growth of the Rank Organisation into cinema related technology. In 1958 the Rank Organisation consolidated their ownership by renaming Cintel as Rank Cintel. Their primary expertise was in flying spot telecine which used sophisticated optical systems, high brightness Cathode Ray Tubes and analogue electronics.
In 1964 Rank Cintel’s Television Division transferred to Rank Bush Murphy at Welwyn Garden City and the rest of the Instrument Division was absorbed into Rank Pullin Controls. The Electronic Tubes Division was incorporated into Rank Audio Visual a group within Rank Precision Industries and all CRT business was consolidated at Sidcup in 1965 as Rank Electronic Tubes Co. Ltd (RET). Rank Cintel continued with the production of telecine equipment with which it is still associated.
RET prospered with the supply of high performance tubes to both Elliotts and Smiths for aircraft Head Up and Head Down Displays. They subsequently made a number of acquisitions in the tube business consolidating historic names such as Ferranti, Cossor and Thorn AEI for example.
Another historic name was that of Brimar which started in 1935 and can trace its origins back through Standard Telephones and Cables to Western Electric in 1922.Brimar stood for "British Manufactured American Radio" (valves). In another of the coincidences in this story Brimar was located at the Rochester Airport site but in 1960 was taken over by Thorn. The Brimar name continued in Thorn Brimar and Thorn EMI Brimar. In 1986 RET acquired Thorn EMI Brimar and the company was renamed Rank Brimar Ltd. A facility at Middleton in Manchester was established in 1979 and ten years later Sidcup was closed and all design manufacture and testing moved to Middleton.
In 1996 Rank Precision Industries sold Rank Brimar together with sister companies Rank Taylor Hobson and Rank Cintel to an MBI team. Finally in 1997 two new companies Brimar Ltd and Cintel Ltd were sold as a Management Buy Out process under a holding company called Image Precision International Ltd. Brimar are still a major global supplier of high performance CRT. Interestingly Brimar and Cintel are again linked as associated companies.
