The Bell Punch Co., Limited, was established in London, in 1878, as a manufacturer of ticket punches for buses and trams. Eventually they began to expanded, and by the 1920 they were making ticket issuing equipment for cinemas and racecourse betting. By the 1940s they had become involved in the production of mechanical calculators and by the 1960s had jointly produced the world's first electronic desktop calculator. The Bell Punch Company ceased to exist as a trading entity in the 1980s, although The Bell Punch Company still remain as a listed UK company today, albeit dormant.