A.C. Cossor


A.C. Cossor Ltd. was a British electronics company founded in 1859. The company's products included valves, radios, televisions and military electronics. The company was purchased by Raytheon in 1961.

Early history

The story of A.C. Cossor Ltd. began in 1859 when the company was established by Alfred Charles Cossor in Clerkenwell, London to manufacture scientific glassware. His eldest son, also called Alfred Charles Cossor joined the company in 1875, and it was he who founded the A.C. Cossor electronics company. The company's expertise in the manufacture of electrical glassware, such as early cathode ray tubes and X-Ray tubes, led the company to diversify into electronics. The younger son Frank Cossor joined the company in 1885, and eventually took over the running of the original scientific glassware company which remains to this day as Accoson, a manufacturer of sphygmomanometers.
Cossor, a go-ahead electronics firm, designed, and manufactured electronic thermionic valves, domestic radio sets and television receivers both before, and after World War II. During the War, their work on the Chain Home radar alongside Pye and EMI brought great prestige to the company. By the late 1950s, Cossor had sold its consumer electronics interests to the Philips electronics giant. Later, a merger with American Raytheon was to come, and today, Cossor is still part of the American group.

Company timeline

Cossor has designed IFF equipment for the British Aerospace Rapier missile, Shorts Blowpipe missile, Bofors RBS-70, Ericsson's Giraffe radar and the Contraves Italiana's LPD-20 air defence radar. Typical applications of the Cossor's IFF system include Redeye, Stinger, and SA-7 missiles and other short range air defence guns and missiles.