EMI

The company was founded in March 1931 as Electric and Musical Industries Ltd as a merger of UK Columbia Records and Gramophone Company/HMV. EMI's roots date back to 1898, when the London Gramophone Company was founded with the participation of record pioneer Emil Berliner [1]. In the same year, EMI opened the famous Abbey Road studios.

During and after the Second World War, EMI Laboratories in Hayes developed radar equipment and guided weapons. In 1958 the EMIDEC 1100, the first transistor computer in England, was built there under the direction of Godfrey Hounsfield. Also under the direction of Hounsfield, the first computer tomograph was developed there from 1967 to 1976. This costly development could be financed primarily from the company's enormous profits from the sale of Beatles recordings.