Title:
E.N. MASON AND SONS LTD. OF THE ARCLIGHT WORKS, COLCHESTER
Level: Category
Business records
Level: Fonds
E.N. MASON AND SONS LTD. OF THE ARCLIGHT WORKS, COLCHESTER
Admin History:
E.N. Mason and Sons Ltd. developed from a small photographic printing business in Colchester. Ernest Nathan Mason worked at Paxmans in Colchester as a draughtsman and works photographer. While there he developed a method of making photographic blueprints from engineering drawings. Ernest Nathan Mason appears in Kelly's Directory of Essex for 1904 as a draughtsman at the family home, 2 Winsley Road in Colchester. As he continued to be employed by Paxmans the business was run by his wife Bertha Betsey Mason and in directories of 1910 and 1912 it is listed at 1 Queen Street under her name. After Ernest Mason died Mrs Mason and her two oldest sons Conrad (killed in action in 1917) and Bernard went into business in partnership. They were possibly the first company to develop an early form of the modern photocopier, operated by a hand crank.

As the business grew it supplied not only printing, but also paper and office supplies for local firms, eventually supplying goods and services for draughtsmen, as well as stationery and office equipment. In 1921 the firm opened the Arclight Works in Maidenburgh Street (the present Museum Resource Centre in Ryegate Road having been part of the works). In 1938 Arclight Works moved to Cowdray Avenue. During the Second World War Mason's produced paper for maps and blueprints, portable photocopiers for use in lorries, as well as equipment for aircraft reconnaissance and tank landing craft.

Following the retirement of Bernard Mason in 1962, the firm declined and was taken over by variosu companies until it became Ozalid's in 1969.