Smiths Industries Limited - Industrial Instrument Division
Waterloo Road, Cricklewood, London NW2

Venture range of measuring devices.

1851 Started out as Samual Smith making clocks and watches.
They went though various changes and branched out and around 1900 at the start of the 20th century and the age of the automobile they produced the first British odometer ("mileometer") and speedometer.
They went on to manufacture many automobile instuments for multiple car makers.

Some notable dates:
1929 The Aircraft Instruments Department was formed

1932 Smiths English Clocks was formed, these were later known as "Sectric" brand

1935 Acquired Henry Hughes and Son, a marine instrument maker.

World War II: Production expanded. There was a demand for motor, aircraft and marine instruments for the Services and the production of industrial instruments, which  hitherto were imported, was begun. Fuses for shells were also manufactured.

1944 The name of the principal company was changed to S. Smith and Sons (England) Ltd with four divisions:
    Smiths Motor Accessories
    Smiths Industrial Instruments
    Smiths Aircraft Instruments
    Smiths English Clocks

1945 Radiomobile Ltd was formed as a joint company by the Gramophone Co with Smiths Motor Accessories Ltd. The purpose was to market car radios developed and manufactured by the Gramophone Co; the new company was later to take the name S. Smith and Sons (Radiomobile) Ltd

1963 Motor Show exhibitor. Listed as S. Smith and Sons and showed amongst other items  Radiomobile car radios.

1965 With increasing diversification and international operations the name Smiths Industries was adopted to reflect wider operations.

1999-2000 Acquired the aerospace division of Invensys and the Marconi Actuation Systems business of BAE Systems and Fairchild Defense division of Orbital Sciences Corporation, maker of data recording and analysis systems

2000 Smiths Industries merged with the Tube Investments and as a result of that merger the company name was changed to Smiths Group plc.