Westinghouse himself was seldom seen, the chief responsibility devolving on the vice-chairman, Captain Francis Pavy, a retired army officer with a Georgian residence on the site of Broadcasting House. Original officials of whom we shall hear more were the managing director, O. H. Baldwin—an American—and the secretary, A. E. Scanes. Later came more Americans with experience at Pittsburgh: R. Belfield (chief electrical engineer), W. W. Blunt (chief engineer), Paul Einert (chief accountant), and M. A. MacLaren, H. M. Southgate, and E. M. Sawtelle on the sales side. The British staff included C. W. Parkes in charge of erection, J. H. Tearle, J. Lovell, H. Fildes, J. T. Callaghan, and W. Roughton.

In those days, when a silk hat stamped a City man, Tearle was once confronted by two men, one tall and gaunt and the other short and thick-set, who turned up attired in frock coats and silk hats and announced in broad American that they had come over to erect a gas engine: Lovell was brought forward in time to hear them give their names as Sweeney and Todd. It was one of Lovell's earliest jobs to make up complete sets of induction motor parts for licensees of the Tesla patents, among them B.T.H., E.C.C., Siemens, and Mather & Platt.

The London Company began by taking over an existing contract for the Sardinia Street power station of the Metropolitan Electric Supply Company, but owing to its small capital it was some years before new business went far outside motors and meters, the last a thriving and profitable trade. Later, some important contracts were obtained for power stations such as Willesden and Bankside and for electric tramway systems.

In industrial electrification and electric traction, however, this country was well behind Germany and America. Westinghouse considered that far more electrical equipment could be sold, and he was particularly impressed by the dense traffic on British railways. He therefore decided that it was time to manufacture in England.

The plan was to form a new company with sufficient capital resources to build its own works in addition to taking over the existing business in this country. Preparatory work was done by Lemuel Bannister, a vice-president of the American Company who appears to have divided his life between Paris and the Hotel Cecil, and, supported by leading financiers like Lord Rothschild, the flotation was carried through. The issuing house was Robert Benson and Company—still active in the City. On July 10,1899, the British Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company Limited was registered with a capital of £1,500,000.