City Features in University Video Series

The series highlights businesses which have become leading innovators in their markets over the course of the last 35 plus years.  City was formed in 1977 by a group of scientists at City University in London - a leading public research University in the UK. City’s key innovation which paved the way for the future of gas detection was the development of a novel electrochemical oxygen sensor which enabled workers to wear portable gas detectors for the first time.

Since the 1970s, City has grown into the world’s largest gas sensing business, employing over 400 people with facilities in the UK, US, China and Germany. It is now part of global corporation Honeywell, producing leading sensing innovations which are used in all sorts of markets from the medical industry to industrial safety and emissions monitoring.

Jonathan Gilby, City’s Quality Director and Dr. Bryan Hobbs co-founder of City are both featured in the video, outlining the history of the business and how critical sensors are to today’s gas detection industry.

Jonathan Gilby commented: “The gas detection industry has changed dramatically since the 1970s. Back then the only real way of measuring hazardous gas concentrations was to extract the gas and transport it to labs for analysis, which meant people took risks, entering areas with insufficient oxygen.  City’s innovations changed all of this, with the development of a new sensing technology which allowed gas detection companies to produce more portable gas detection instruments. It effectively expanded the gas detection industry into one which is now worth billions of dollars and protects millions of people every day.”