main content Alexander Muirhead (1848-1920)

20 Church Road, Shortlands, BR2 0EG

Alexander Muirhead founded Messrs Muirhead and Company in 1894. Muirhead established the technological supremacy of the company in the fields of telegraphy and was the first man to make a recording of a human heart beat. Muirhead and Co. went on to supply the first X-rays to Beckenham Hospital at the turn of the century.

Muirhead was a highly skilled electrical engineer, and his laboratory in Downe had an international reputation for the design and construction of telegraphic instruments of the very highest quality.

The collection of all Muirhead`s electrical instruments from the Elmers End electrical works was acquired by the Science Museum in 1989.

Muirhead lived at Church Road from 1893 - 1920.