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Original Text (Annotation: EAW018388 / 1040463)
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Landis & Gyr
Still trading - acquired by Toshiba in 2011.
In the early days, electriciy started to be supplied (and sold) from suppliers to consumers. It had to pe paid for - to be billed.
Richard Theiler and Adelrich Gyr-Wickart founded in Zug (Switzerland) the “Electrotechnisches Institut Theiler & Co.” in 1896. Around 1900 they produced electricity meters, as well as telephone inductors and phonographs.
In 1905, it was renamed in Landis & Gyr (after Heinrich Landis and Karl Heinrich Gyr, who followed Richard Theiler as managers.)
Built premises in Victoria Road in 1927. Originally used for making electricity meters, from 1972 the factory also made heating and ventilating controls, and in 1979 most of the company's 1,000 UK employees worked in Acton
In 1984 production of Landis & Gyr BT Phonecards moved to Landis & Gyr's UK factory in Acton, London, Finally, in 1996, and with BT's decision to stop using optical card technology in favour of micro chip card technology, the factory producing the cards was closed.
Sources:
http://www.landisgyr.co.uk/about/history/
wikipedia [[Landis+Gyr]] '