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72-492: Engineers at Western Electric , who later formed Altec Services Company, developed the technology for motion picture sound that was introduced in 1927, with the release of The Jazz Singer . Originally, Altec Services Company serviced the theater sound systems the company founders had helped develop. In 1941, the Altec Services Company purchased the nearly bankrupt Lansing Manufacturing Company and melded

144-645: A 54% share of the Nippon Electric Company, Ltd. Western Electric's representative in Japan was Walter Tenney Carleton . The company, later known as NEC, would eventually become a major international manufacturer of electronics equipment including semiconductors and personal computers. In 1901, Western Electric secretly purchased a controlling interest in a principal competitor, the Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company , but in 1909

216-664: A Western Electric decision to join Haverhill and Lawrence locations in 1956 as the Merrimack Valley Works. In 1944, Western Electric purchased a factory in St. Paul, Minnesota to restart manufacture of telephone sets for civilian installation as authorized by War Production Board . By 1946, some of these facilities were relocated to the Hawthorne plant as space became available from war-production scale down. Also,

288-526: A collaboration between John Hilliard and Jim Lansing . Douglas Shearer didn't hesitate to approve the Hilliard's proposal and authorized "any reasonable budget". Hilliard became the team leader of this new project. Hilliard immediately recruited Lansing Manufacturing, Robert Stephens, a design draftsman on MGM's staff, and Harry Kimball. The speaker was named the Shearer horn. Later on, a more refined model,

360-518: A corporate makeover changing its name to Altec Lansing LLC and its logo from a "whirlpool" to an abstraction of a multi-cellular horn. On 1 October 2009 Altec Lansing LLC announced that it was to be acquired by Prophet Equity for approximately 18 million dollars. In July 2011, Altec Lansing LLC announced the opening of new West Coast headquarters in San Diego, California. Brendon Stead joined as Vice President of Product Management and Engineering. Stead

432-586: A factory at that location and the Western Electric company known as W.E. Mfg. Co., at the time, had purchased Western Union's New York Factory to continue the increase of phone production. This site would also place the end to Western Union factories. The Boston shop was located at 109-115 Court Street and it was previously known as the Charles Williams, Jr factory that was purchased by Western Electric in 1882. The consolidation of operations

504-436: A factory. On August 22, 1952, the facility opened to produce new electronic components for the U.S. government for use by the military and the space program. In the mid-1950s, Western Electric established several more satellite "Shops" that were smaller locations reporting to the larger "Works" locations. The "Montgomery Shops" were occupied in 1955 to produce Data-Phone data sets, wire spring relays, and test sets. Although, it

576-515: A meeting of the top executives to decide whether I might remain with the Company, for it established a precedent and a new policy for the Company – that of married women in their employ. If the women at the top were permitted to remain after marriage then all women would expect the same privilege. The policy was expanded quickly, so that a few years later women were given maternity leaves with no loss of time on their service records." Western Electric

648-597: A number of loudspeakers starting with the A7 Voice of the Theatre, manufactured in the US with some changes to the enclosure . Similarly, Altec Lansing Technologies reissued the 510, 508 and 305 loudspeakers. Very few were actually made. On July 11, 2005, Altec Lansing Technologies announced that it was to be acquired by Plantronics for approximately $ 166 million. On September 10, 2008, Altec Lansing Technologies went through

720-559: A permanent plant. The 200,000 square-foot leased plant began in June 1971. In 1974, there were 490 IBEW employee members on strike over local agreement issues. In 1975, this San Ramon Valley Plant announced a September 30 closure of its telephone transmission equipment manufacturing operations. On January 27, 1983, the Kearny facility was announced for closure due to technology changes, underutilized, and too costly to maintain. The phase out of

792-667: A section chief and one maintenance man. In 1955, the Lawrence plant reached its peak employment at more than 2,000 employees. This Bell Labs research and development satellite had 40 Bell Telephone Laboratories engineers and 25 Western Electric employees. Carrier equipment used filters made with Polystyrene condensers at this Garfield Shops or later referred as Lawrence Shops. In 1952, the Reading plant began when Western Electric converted an old Rosedale knitting mill in Laureldale into

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864-423: A shopping center parking lot, with a remaining two buildings converted. A water tower is the remaining physical association of the industrial research complex where telephones, electronics, military equipment and business management innovations were produced by a facility that once existed. The Baltimore facility closed on February 28, 1986. The facility, which had once employed 6,200, was staffed by 65 employees on

936-520: A sound system at Bill Graham's Fillmore East. He was also a part of the large rock Mar Y Sol festival in Puerto Rico in 1972. In 2020, University Press of Mississippi published the book The Last Seat in the House, The Story of Hanley Sound by John Kane discussing Hanley's impact on the field of sound engineering. Kane made the book into a movie which premiered in 2024. This article about

1008-470: A statue originally named Electricity , but later renamed Spirit of Communication , which was raised to the roof of 195 Broadway on October 24, 1916. In 1915, the assets of Western Electric Manufacturing were transferred to a newly incorporated company in New York, New York , named Western Electric Company, Inc , a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T. The sole reason for the transfer was to provide for

1080-487: A telephone not supplied by the Bell System had to first transfer the phone to the local Bell operating company, who leased the phone back to the customer for a monthly charge in addition to a re-wiring fee. In the 1970s when consumers increasingly bought telephone sets from other manufacturers, AT&T changed the policy for its Design Line telephone series by selling customers the phone housing, retaining ownership of

1152-592: The AT&;T Corporation for most of its lifespan, Western Electric was the primary manufacturer, supplier, and purchasing agent for all telephone equipment for the Bell System from 1881 until 1984, when the Bell System was dismantled . Because the Bell System had a near-total monopoly over telephone service in the United States for much of the 20th century, Western Electric's equipment was widespread across

1224-607: The Western Electric Manufacturing Company on the Near West Side of Chicago. They manufactured a variety of electrical products including typewriters, alarms, and lighting and had a close relationship with telegraph company Western Union , to whom they supplied relays and other equipment. In 1875, Gray sold his interests to Western Union, including the caveat that he had filed against Alexander Graham Bell 's patent application for

1296-657: The telephone . The ensuing legal battle between Western Union and the Bell Telephone Company over patent rights ended in 1879 with Western Union withdrawing from the telephone market and Bell acquiring Western Electric in 1881. This purchase was a crucial step in standardizing telephone instruments and concentrating manufacturing in a single entity. In the company's first few years as Western Electric, there were five manufacturing locations located at Chicago (220-232 Kinzie St.) New York, Boston, Indianapolis and Antwerp, Belgium. The locations were not permanent, as

1368-520: The "Altec" standing for "all technical". Company executives promised they would never make or sell audio equipment. The Altec Services Company purchased the bankrupt Lansing Manufacturing Company and melded the two names, forming the Altec Lansing Corporation on May 1, 1941. The first Altec Lansing power amplifier, Model 142B, was produced that same year. James Bullough Lansing worked for Altec Lansing, then in 1946 he left to found

1440-551: The 1920s. In 1923, construction began on the second factory located in Kearny, New Jersey . The location was known as Kearny Works and in 1925 began telephone cable production. On June 15, 1928, Western Electric employees, photographed by Rosenfeld and Sons, were pictured, in a groundbreaking ceremony , for their expansion of the Kearny Works manufacturing facility at 110 Central Ave, Kearny, New Jersey. Kearny Works would achieve

1512-496: The 1990s. James Ling purchased the Altec Lansing Corporation from the ailing George Carrington Sr., in 1958. By the time James Ling spun Altec Lansing off in 1974, his company, LTV -Ling-Altec, had heavy debts. In 1984, Gulton Industries, Inc., purchased the Altec Sound Products Division from the Altec Lansing Corporation, which was operating under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Included with

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1584-479: The Altec "Voice of the Theatre" line of loudspeakers widely used in movie theaters , concert halls , and also in rock concerts from the 1960s to the 1990s, such as custom designs used at Woodstock Festival . In 1930 AT&T 's Western Electric established a division to install and service loudspeakers and electronic products for motion-picture use. Named Electrical Research Products, Inc. and commonly referred to by

1656-531: The James B. Lansing Company ( JBL ), another manufacturer of high-quality professional loudspeakers, which competed with Altec Lansing. Altec Lansing produced a line of professional and high-fidelity audio equipment, starting with a line of horn-based loudspeaker systems. First developed for use in motion-picture theaters, these products were touted for their fidelity, efficiency and high sound-level capability. Products included "biflex" speakers (where frequency range

1728-587: The Pro division and folded its products into Electro-Voice . In 2005 Altec Lansing Technologies was acquired by Plantronics , 2009 bought by Prophet Equity, and has been owned since 2012 by the Infinity Group, a company which acquires struggling companies. Popular loudspeakers included the Altec Lansing Duplex 600-series coaxial loudspeaker , studio monitors from the 1940s to the 1980s, and

1800-698: The VOTT, was introduced. The smallest model, the A-7, used a large-sized sectoral metal horn for high frequencies, which featured dividers (sectors) to provide control sound dispersion, plus a medium-sized wooden low-frequency enclosure, which functioned as a hybrid bass-horn/bass-reflex enclosure. The most often used Voice of the Theatre system was the A-4, many of which are still in use in motion picture theaters measuring 9 feet tall . as of 2018. The efficiency of all of these products originally provided high sound pressure levels from

1872-459: The Western Electric brand. Early on, Western Electric also managed an electrical equipment distribution business, furnishing its customers with non-telephone products made by other manufacturers This electrical distribution business was spun off from Western Electric in 1925 and organized into a separate company, Graybar Electric Company , in honor of the company's founders, Elisha Gray and Enos Barton. Bell Telephone Laboratories , created from

1944-569: The acronym ERPI, it became the target of an anti-trust suit brought by Stanley K. Oldden. By 1936, Western Electric had shed its audio-equipment manufacturing and sales division, bought by International Projector and Motiograph, and was looking to dissolve the associated service division. ERPI was purchased as part of a consent decree in 1937 by a group of ERPI executives, including George Carrington Sr., Leon Whitney "Mike" Conrow, Bert Sanford Jr., and Alvis A. Ward, with funding from three Wall Street investors. They reincorporated as "Altec Service Company",

2016-601: The closure date. By the time AT&T was dissolved in the early 1980s, more than twenty production plants around the country ("Works" locations) had been established. Bill Hanley (audio engineer) Bill Hanley (born 1937) is an American audio engineer and is regarded as the "father of festival sound". He is most widely known as the sound engineer behind the Woodstock festival in Bethel, New York in August 1969. He

2088-406: The construction of Hawthorne Works first buildings were authorized by Barton. In 1907, the research and development staffs of Western Electric and AT&T were consolidated to 463 West Street, New York. The location served the newly Western Electric Engineering Department for the responsibility of the testing and inspection of its telephones and equipment. AT&T's Engineering Department retained

2160-554: The country. The company was responsible for many technological innovations, as well as developments in industrial management. In 1856, George Shawk, a craftsman and telegraph maker, purchased an electrical engineering business in Cleveland, Ohio . In January 1869, Shawk had partnered with Enos M. Barton in the former Western Union repair shop of Cleveland, to manufacture burglar alarms, fire alarms, and other electrical items. Both men were former Western Union employees. Shawk,

2232-549: The engineering department of Western Electric in 1925, was half-owned by Western Electric, the other half belonging to AT&T. The company began to increase its presence in other sectors of industry for new products. In September 1931, the Teletype Corporation headquartered in Chicago on Wrightwood Ave, became a subsidiary of Western Electric and it was a manufacturer of teletypewriters for TWX services. There

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2304-448: The facility jobs started in fall of 1983 and the 59 year old, 3 million-square-foot, 144-acre facility was sold officially on May 21, 1984, with nearly 1000 last employees left at the plant. The former facility was purchased and later existed as warehouses, distribution, research and light manufacturing facilities. As modern facilities around the country were used for the operations of Hawthorne and its productions distributed, announcement

2376-492: The headquarters in Chicago had moved to a new building on Clinton Street, the New York shop had moved two city blocks to a new building on Greenwich Street, and both Boston and Indianapolis factories closed. The Antwerp location was at the same location under Western Electric operations until sold in 1925 to ITT. In April 1879, the New York shop was located at 62-68 New Church Street, Lower Manhattan, New York. Western Union had

2448-613: The high volume of manufacturing products. The North Carolina Works was located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The Merrimack Valley Works location was in North Andover, Massachusetts . The Kansas City Works location was in Lee's Summit, Missouri . A Lawrence, Massachusetts factory opened on November 13, 1951, and was called the "Garfield Shops." The location started with as a wired units job and there were thirteen workers with

2520-491: The internal mechanical and electrical components, which still required paying AT&T a monthly leasing fee. Starting in 1983 with the breakup of the Bell System, Western Electric telephones could be sold to the public under the brand name American Bell, a newly created subsidiary of AT&T. One of the terms of the Modification of Final Judgment in the Bell System divestiture procedures prohibited AT&T from using

2592-444: The issuance of a non-voting preferred class of capital stock, disallowed under the statutes of the state of Illinois. In the Bell System, telephones were leased by the operating companies to subscribers, and remained the property of the Bell System. Service subscribers paid a monthly fee included in the service charge, while paying additionally for special types or features of telephones, such as colored telephone sets. Equipment repair

2664-581: The largest square foot size of 3,579,000 throughout the years and be the second largest plant for Western Electric manufacturing plants built before the 1930s, only second in size to the Hawthorne Works at Cicero, Illinois . Here is an aerial image of Kearny Works, between 1925 and 1930, held in the Library Company of Philadelphia. with the picture of the entire plant and railways. In 1929, work began at Point Breeze, Baltimore, Maryland as

2736-580: The limited amplifier power available at the time. The original Voice of the Theatre series included the A-1, A-2, A-4, and the A-5. The A-7 and A-8 were designed for smaller venues. Bill Hanley used Altec high frequency drivers and horns along with JBL bass drivers in his custom-built loudspeaker system for the Woodstock Festival in 1969. Some professional Altec Lansing products remained in use well into

2808-560: The name Bell after January 1, 1984; prior to this, AT&T's plan was to market products and services under the American Bell name, accompanied by the now familiar AT&T globe logo. In 1903, Western Electric began construction of the first buildings for Hawthorne Works on the outskirts of Chicago . In 1905, the Clinton Street power apparatus shops moved to Hawthorne. Further expansion of large factories began in

2880-479: The operations for pulp cable relocated to Phoenix Works. A loss of 400 positions were expected eliminated in the process. After the Bell System breakup, Western Electric facilities were known as AT&T Technologies facilities in 1984. The three largest and oldest facilities, Hawthorne Works, Kearny Works, and Baltimore Works were closed shortly after due to "excess space". Western Electric used various logos during its existence. Starting in 1914 it used an image of

2952-579: The purchase were the tooling, parts and product inventories, distributor network, designs, patents, and assets of the Sound Products Division of Altec Lansing. The motion picture theater sound installation and repair business, Altec Service Co., was sold to J. Bruce Waddell, then head of Altec Service, and comptroller Robert V. Gandolfi. They established it as A.S.C. Technical Services in Richardson, Texas . The Altec Lansing Corporation

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3024-612: The reduced production of home telephones because of the war, began to have a backlog of two million orders in late 1945 for the Hawthorne plant. Western Electric had acquired a former Studebaker plant on Archer Avenue (Chicago, Illinois) for assemblers that produced out one hundred thousand Model 302s telephones by March 1946. After World War II, the National Carbon Company left a facility that had manufactured United States Navy submarine batteries and underwater detonators in Winston-Salem. This facility at 800 Chatham Road,

3096-459: The responsibility for the growth of the Bell System with compatible equipment and service. Gradually the consolidation improved and advanced the telephony response to expanding use. On July 24, 1915, employees of the Hawthorne Works boarded the SS Eastland in downtown Chicago for a company picnic. The ship rolled over at the dock and over 800 people died. In 1920, Alice Heacock Seidel

3168-611: The same roof for the first time since 1986. The company later dropped the professional audio products and Altec Lansing Professional's Oklahoma City offices were closed in late 2006 and all remaining activities relocated to the headquarters in Milford, Pennsylvania . On 30 April 2001 Altec Lansing Technologies launched their first line of headphones named as the AHP series. This series of headphones had various different designs and price ranges. In February 2004, Altec Lansing Technologies reissued

3240-464: The third manufacturing location, Baltimore Works, began its occupancy by 1930 for various cable and wire production. Two manufacturing plants in Lincoln, Nebraska were leased in 1943 to Western Electric to manufacture signal corps equipment and later production demands from Hawthorne Works. The Eighth Street building, known as "Lincoln Shops," and the 13th Street building were the locations, the latter

3312-539: The three oldest manufacturing facilities for product manufacturing transfers and employee expected layoffs. The Kearny Works facility that made systems to convert commercial power to run various telecom equipment, would transfer remaining work to Dallas Works. The shutdown of the plant would eliminate 4,000 jobs. The Baltimore Works facility that made connectors and protectors for wire and cable had work moved to Omaha Works. A total of 2,300 jobs were potentially eliminated after that announcement. The Hawthorne Works facility, had

3384-411: The two names, forming the Altec Lansing Corporation, and with the manufacturing capabilities of the former Lansing Manufacturing Company, they quickly expanded into manufacturing horn loudspeakers . In 1958 the Altec Lansing Corporation was purchased by James Ling who made it part of LTV Ling Altec. LTV spun off Altec which it loaded down with debt first. By 1974, the company was saddled with debt. It

3456-519: The variety of new designs introduced into the market place. This led Western Electric to pursue extreme reliability and durability in design to minimize service calls. In particular, the work of Walter A. Shewhart , who developed new techniques for statistical quality control in the 1920s, helped lead to the quality of manufacture of Western Electric telephones. AT&T also strictly enforced policies against using telephone equipment by other manufacturers on their network. A customer who insisted on using

3528-668: Was agreed on September 3, 1974, with employees at 13 plants returning to work. Only the company's subsidiary Teletype Corporation plant in Little Rock, Arkansas and two plants, the Columbia River Switching Equipment factory in Vancouver, Washington and in San Ramon, California were subject to ratification or in negotiations to settle local agreements. In 1983, corporate announcements were made at

3600-490: Was also influential in a number of other festivals. According to Michael Lang , "I was trying to find someone who could do a sound system for Woodstock, and there was no one who had ever done something like that before. Then there was this crazy guy in Boston who might want to take a shot at it." Hanley ran the soundboard for Bob Dylan's controversial "electric" set at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. His company also installed

3672-703: Was called "Buffalo Plant." A satellite shop was established in Jersey City, New Jersey called "Marion Shops" and occupied in 1947. This location produced portable test sets, rectifiers, and power equipment for the main plant known as the Kearny Works. In July 1948, the equipment plant at Duluth, Minnesota was involved in the National Labors Act with bargaining units of IAM and IBEW. After 1947, eight Works locations were built and occupied by 1961 at Allentown, Indianapolis, North Carolina, Merrimack Valley, Omaha, Columbus, Oklahoma City, and Kansas City for

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3744-680: Was closed in 2001 and the development activities moved to the Milford headquarters. In May 2000, Altec Lansing's Professional division was closed by Telex and the Altec Lansing was later sold to Sparkomatic and renamed Altec Lansing Technologies. The Altec Lansing Professional line was relaunched in April 2002 by Altec Lansing Technologies using a few former executives and sound engineers of the old Oklahoma City-based Altec Lansing Corporation, bringing Altec's professional and consumer products under

3816-621: Was done in 1884 to Chicago and New York factories by Charles Williams becoming a Western Electric Manager. In 1888–1889, Western Electric built a 10-story factory building at 125 Greenwich Street in Lower Manhattan, to manufacture some of the first telephones. The New York shop that was renting the Western Union building moved to this building. In preparation for the Chicago Worlds Fair of 1892, Western Electric

3888-606: Was expanding beyond making telephone equipment and American Bell noticed its division from a manufacturing business to a supply business. Western Electric decided to split in 1921, the supply department from the manufacturing business and this led later to a separate entity. In 1925, ITT purchased the Bell Telephone Manufacturing Company of Brussels, Belgium, and other worldwide subsidiaries from AT&T, to avoid an antitrust action. The company manufactured rotary system switching equipment under

3960-559: Was forced by a lawsuit to sell back to Milo Kellogg. The Manufacturers Junction Railway Company was incorporated in January 1903 to provide rail connections to major railroad systems. There were approximately 13 miles of track in and out of Hawthorne Works for rail freight of inbound materials and outbound finished products. Western Electric had a tenure of 50 years up to 1952, in the responsibility and operation of its use for Hawthorne and other nearby industrial companies. Also, in 1903,

4032-1305: Was formed by Gulton Industries as part of the purchase and headquartered in Oklahoma City, the site of the University Sound factory built by Jimmy Ling when he moved there from White Plains, New York. Prior to the purchase, Altec Lansing had been headquartered in Yorba Linda, California, but it was moved as part of an effort to reduce operating costs. Altec Lansing Corporation produced professional audio products until 1995, when Telex Communications , who had purchased Altec Lansing's parent company, EVI Audio, Inc., in 1997, consolidated all of their electronics manufacturing facilities into one location in Minnesota. In 1996, Altec Lansing Technologies Multimedia established an R&D center in Kfar Saba , Israel . The center, known as ALST Technical Excellence Center, cooperate with STMicroelectronics (ALST = Altec Lansing + STMicro) and focused on advanced multimedia technologies such as USB audio, surround sound and wireless audio as well as on handheld video. The center

4104-564: Was formerly the General Manager and Vice President of Harman International and Labtec . On October 18, 2012, The Infinity Group bought Altec Lansing for $ 17.5 million at auction thus saving the company from bankruptcy. Infinity specializes in acquiring and turning around struggling or bankrupt consumer brands. Western Electric Western Electric Co., Inc. was an American electrical engineering and manufacturing company that operated from 1869 to 1996. A subsidiary of

4176-576: Was included in the fees. This system had the effect of subsidizing basic telephone service, keeping local telephone service inexpensive, under $ 10 per month. After divestiture, basic service prices increased, and customers became responsible for inside building wiring and telephone equipment. The Bell System had an extensive policy and infrastructure to recycle or refurbish equipment taken out of service, replacing all defective, weak, or otherwise unusable parts for new installations. This resulted in extraordinary longevity of Western Electric telephones, and limited

4248-494: Was increased by a flexible "decoupling" of a small center area of the speaker's cone from a larger " woofer " area) and the 604-series of coaxial speakers (which employed a high-efficiency compression driver mounted to the rear of the 604's low-frequency magnet, and exited through a multicellular horn that passed through center of the woofer's cone). Altec Lansing also made the Voice of the Theatre systems. The design resulted from

4320-538: Was interested in leading a manufacturing plant capable of long-term developments. Shawk found those plans were beyond his business goals and offered to sell his half-interest partnership to Gray. Anson Stager , a former Chief of the U.S. Military Telegraphs during the American Civil War , advanced money for Gray to buy the half-interest and become a partner when Gray and Barton moved operations to Chicago . Gray and Barton previously knew Stager and an agreement

4392-612: Was located in Montgomery, Illinois, it reported and supported production of the main plant, Hawthorne Works in Cicero, Illinois. The Kearny Works facility had satellite shops that were apart from its location but were part of the manufacturing process. Located in Fair Lawn, New Jersey and occupied since 1956, the "Fair Lawn Shops" produced coils, resistors, transformers, and keys under Kearny manufacturing. The Indianapolis Works facility

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4464-611: Was made on June 24, 1983, for closure. Between 1975 and 1983, the Foundry and most of the Telephone Apparatus buildings were demolished and in 1986–1987, the remaining Telephone Apparatus buildings and the Executive Tower were demolished. The Hawthorne facility was in operations for 83 years when it closed its doors in 1986 and torn down for a shopping center. Another building was demolished on April 10, 1994, for

4536-441: Was passed to Western Electric Company and operated until 1966 for production of national telephone companies' switches and circuits. Additionally, the location complex was one of three nationwide Western Electric field engineering sites. The mid-1940s brought occupancy to locations. A plant was established in 1946 at Tonawanda, New York to produce equipment wiring cable, telephone cords, enamelled wire, and insulated wire. This plant

4608-477: Was producing telephone sets and components with a satellite shop. The Indianapolis shop known as "Washington Street Shop" produced miscellaneous subscriber apparatus since its occupancy in 1957. The "Lawrence Shop" that was occupied in 1957 produced BELLBoy receivers, telephone repeaters and carrier products under Merrimack Valley Works. The "Clark Shop" was occupied in 1959 at Clark, New Jersey and manufactured submarine cable repeaters and components. The satellite shop

4680-411: Was reorganized under Chapter 11 as Altec Corporation and continued for 10 years. Altec filed a second bankruptcy. In 1984, Gulton Industries purchased the brand out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy . Gulton was acquired by Mark IV Audio. Since then, there has been a string of owners, purchased in 1986 by Sparkomatic , with the Pro equipment still made by Mark IV Audio, Mark IV sold out to Telex, who closed down

4752-419: Was responsible for the organized Bell System sales activities and merchandising of apparatus for the 900 long-distance circuit from New York to Chicago. In 1897, the building at 463 West Street, New York was constructed and housed the New York shop as well as the company Eastern headquarters. Western Electric was the first company to join in a Japanese joint venture with foreign capital. In 1899, it invested in

4824-410: Was signed on November 18, 1869, to launch the company as Gray & Barton. The firm was open for business by the end of the year in Chicago. In December 1869, the location was at 162 South Water Street in Chicago. On December 31, 1869, he entered a partnership with Barton, and later sold his share to inventor Gray. In 1872, Barton and Gray moved the business to Clinton Street, and incorporated it as

4896-488: Was sold in 1950 for $ 500,000 to Western Electric. The plants were closed after the Omaha Works opened in 1958. Western Electric acquired in 1943, the old Grad and Winchell buildings located at Haverhill, Massachusetts. New Jersey supervisors taught former textile and shoe workers the manufacturing process of coil winding. The employees' acquired skills demonstrated their versatility in this new manufacturing process for

4968-526: Was the Cleveland shop foreman and Barton, was a Rochester, New York telegrapher. During this Shawk and Barton partnership, one customer was an inventor sourcing parts and models for experiments. That inventor was Elisha Gray , a former physics professor at Oberlin College . Barton thought of future growth in electrical apparatus potential for the company and shared a common enthusiasm with the inventor, who

5040-545: Was the acquisition in 1931 of the Nassau Smelting and Refining plant located in Totenville, Staten Island, New York to recycle Bell System scrap wire, metal, and becoming a subsidiary of Western Electric. The acquisition of the Queensboro factory in Middle Village, New York became a Western Electric Shop in the 1930s to produce wooden telephone booths. In 1974, the IBEW members at Western Electric's 16 plants went on strike over improved benefits, cost‐of‐living adjustments, and pay increase for up to three years. The ratified contract

5112-432: Was the first female Western Electric employee to be given permission to stay on after she had married. This set a precedent in the company, which previously had not allowed married women in their employ. Miss Heacock had worked for Western Electric for sixteen years before her marriage, and was at the time the highest-paid secretary in the company. In her memoirs, she wrote that the decision to allow her to stay on "required

5184-486: Was under Kearny Works. The 1960s and 1970s had various new facilities built and occupied by Western Electric to produce new technologies such as electronic switching equipment (Dallas and North Illinois), fiber optic cable networks (Atlanta), power systems (Phoenix), business equipment (Denver), and telephone equipment (Shreveport). In 1970, Western Electric purchased land in Bishop Ranch, San Ramon, California for

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