Creed and Company Limited 1912 - 1928

Nationality:
British

The owner, Frederick George Creed, a Canadian by birth developed an automated telegraph machine using punched tape to send Morse signals. In 1904 he opened a small factory in Glasgow after the General Post Office (GPO) placed an order for his machines and remained there until 1909 when he and some of the workforce moved to Croydon.

In 1912 along with another Danish engineer Harald Bille the company was incorporated as Creed, Bille & Company Limited. Unfortunately Harald Bille was killed in a railway accident and his name was eventually dropped from the company name. Frederick also developed the receiving end of the system that enabled the electronic messages to be received and punched out on paper tape. A printer received the tape and decoded the message back into plain language this became known as the "Creed High Speed Automatic Printing Telegraphy System".

The Daily Mail realised the potential of his system in sending news around the country and it was not long before they were sending the entire contents of the Daily Mail between London and Manchester. Because of the continued growth of the company the company outgrew its original premises on Selsdon Road and moved to Telegraph House in 1915.

Creed and Company Limited eventually became part of the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation in July 1928.