Ernest Francis Moy and Percy Henry Bastie were young electrical engineers from London, who in 1895 set up a company called "Ernest F. Moy Ltd." to manufacture electrical equipment, particularly circuit-breakers and fuse boxes. In the following year Moy and Bastie were asked to provide electrical equipment for the famous film pioneer Robert Paul, and started taking an interest in the new film industry. In both 1897 and 1898 Ernest Moy took out patents for film equipment, and the partners quickly formed a new company, called the "Cinematograph Company Ltd.", to handle this side of their interests. In 1900 they produced their first commercial film camera, but for some years they continued to put most of their efforts into designing and making electrical equipment. However, in 1905 Moy and Bastie sold a camera to Captain Scott for his Antarctic Expedition, and in 1907 they began to make special color cameras for Charles Urban's "Kinemacolor" film process. Then, in 1909, the company began producing its most famous camera, a well-made and practical design described in their catalogue as "Simple -efficient - reliable." The largest version had a price tag of £108, with an extra £5 for the Cooke lens. Within a couple of years Moy cameras dominated British studio and news filming, and were in use throughout the world - it was even claimed that the first film shot in Hollywood was with a Moy. In 1916 it was a British cameraman with a Moy and Bastie camera who filmed the troops going over the top at the Battle of the Somme, and provided one of the most enduring images of the war. With the coming of peace Moy and Bastie saw their dominance of the industry threatened by the new American cameras, and in 1926 the death of Moy dealt the company an even harder blow. However, Bastie kept the company alive, and with the coming of sound "Ernest F. Moy Ltd" found itself in the forefront of film technology once again, by turning its electrical expertise to the manufacture of sound heads and projector equipment for the new film technology.