Misplaced Pages

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137-520: He had over 300 patents worldwide, but also a tumultuous career – he boasted that he made, then lost, four fortunes. He was also involved in several major patent lawsuits, spent a substantial part of his income on legal bills, and was even tried (and acquitted) for mail fraud . Despite this, he was recognised for his pioneering work with the 1922 IEEE Medal of Honor , the 1923 Franklin Institute Elliott Cresson Medal and

274-524: A "cascade amplifier", which eventually consisted of chaining together up to three Audions. At this time the American Telephone and Telegraph Company was researching ways to amplify telephone signals to provide better long-distance service, and it was recognized that de Forest's device had potential as a telephone line repeater. In mid-1912 an associate, John Stone Stone , contacted AT&T to arrange for de Forest to demonstrate his invention. It

411-643: A 20th-century example of mail fraud. Ponzi was charged with the U.S. federal crime of mail fraud. Wire fraud was first defined in the United States in 1952. 18 U.S.C.   § 1343 provides: Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transmits or causes to be transmitted by means of wire, radio, or television communication in interstate or foreign commerce, any writings, signs, signals, pictures, or sounds for

548-645: 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

685-592: A Doctorate in 1899 with a dissertation on the "Reflection of Hertzian Waves from the Ends of Parallel Wires", supervised by theoretical physicist Willard Gibbs . Reflecting his pioneering work, de Forest has sometimes been credited as the "Father of Radio", an honorific which he adopted as the title of his 1950 autobiography. In the late 1800s he became convinced there was a great future in radiotelegraphic communication (then known as " wireless telegraphy "), but Italian Guglielmo Marconi , who received his first patent in 1896,

822-595: A German, Alexander Meissner, whose application would be seized by the Office of Alien Property Custodian during World War I. The subsequent legal proceedings become divided between two groups of court cases. The first court action began in January 1920 when Armstrong, with Westinghouse, which purchased his patent, sued the De Forest Company in district court for infringement of patent 1,113,149. On May 17, 1921,

959-664: 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,

1096-463: A breakthrough when he reconfigured the control electrode, moving it from outside the tube envelope to a position inside the tube between the filament and the plate . He called the intermediate electrode a grid , reportedly due to its similarity to the "gridiron" lines on American football playing fields. Experiments conducted with his assistant, John V. L. Hogan , convinced him that he had discovered an important new radio detector. He quickly prepared

1233-504: 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 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

1370-597: 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, was the Cleveland shop foreman and Barton, was a Rochester, New York telegrapher. During this Shawk and Barton partnership, one customer

1507-458: A delay of ten months, in July 1913 AT&T, through a third party who disguised his link to the telephone company, purchased the wire rights to seven Audion patents for $ 50,000. De Forest had hoped for a higher payment, but was again in bad financial shape and was unable to bargain for more. In 1915, AT&T used the innovation to conduct the first transcontinental telephone calls, in conjunction with

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1644-586: 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

1781-436: 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

1918-533: A financial institution, such person shall be fined not more than $ 1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both. Briefly, anyone trying to defraud other people or groups through any form of telecommunication, or through writing, signs, pictures or sounds can be punished with a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. If the fraud involves a financial institution, the maximum fine is raised to 1 million US dollars and prison sentence not more than 30 years, or both. 18 U.S.C.   § 1346 provides: For

2055-542: A fine and/or prison sentence that cannot be longer than 20 years. However, for such acts during a Presidential declared major disaster or emergency, the prison sentence can be as long as 30 years and the fine as great as $ 1,000,000. In mail fraud, US federal jurisdiction is based on the enumerated power to create a post office under Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution. International reply coupons mailed by participants of Charles Ponzi 's scheme are

2192-542: 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 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,

2329-526: A high-powered transmitter that was used primarily to drown out the other two.) Despite this setback, de Forest remained in the New York City area, in order to raise interest in his ideas and capital to replace the small working companies that had been formed to promote his work thus far. In January 1902 he met a promoter, Abraham White, who would become de Forest's main sponsor for the next five years. White envisioned bold and expansive plans that enticed

2466-565: A lab room on December 31, 1906, and by February was making experimental transmissions, including music produced by Thaddeus Cahill 's telharmonium , that were heard throughout the city. On July 18, 1907, de Forest made the first ship-to-shore transmissions by radiotelephone—race reports for the Annual Inter-Lakes Yachting Association (I-LYA) Regatta held on Lake Erie —which were sent from the steam yacht Thelma to his assistant, Frank E. Butler, located in

2603-515: 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

2740-478: A microphone photographically onto film, using parallel lines of variable shades of gray, an approach known as "variable density", in contrast to "variable area" systems used by processes such as RCA Photophone . When the movie film was projected, the recorded information was converted back into sound, in synchronization with the picture. From October 1921 to September 1922, de Forest lived in Berlin , Germany, meeting

2877-416: A monopoly for all wireless communication in the United States, had also set up a powerful transmitter. None of these companies had effective tuning for their transmitters, so only one could transmit at a time without causing mutual interference. Although an attempt was made to have the three systems avoid conflicts by rotating operations over five-minute intervals, the agreement broke down, resulting in chaos as

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3014-538: A new law that specifically criminalized schemes to defraud victims of "the intangible right of honest services" (honest services fraud). Western Electric Company Western Electric Co., Inc. was an American electrical engineering and manufacturing company that operated from 1869 to 1996. A subsidiary of the AT&;T Corporation for most of its lifespan, Western Electric was the primary manufacturer, supplier, and purchasing agent for all telephone equipment for

3151-567: A new type of spark transmitter. De Forest soon felt that Smythe and Freeman were holding him back, so in the fall of 1901 he made the bold decision to go to New York to compete directly with Marconi in transmitting race results for the International Yacht races. Marconi had already made arrangements to provide reports for the Associated Press , which he had successfully done for the 1899 contest. De Forest contracted to do

3288-640: A nightly schedule featuring the Columbia recordings. These broadcasts were also used to advertise "the products of the DeForest Radio Co., mostly the radio parts, with all the zeal of our catalogue and price list", until comments by Western Electric engineers caused de Forest enough embarrassment to make him decide to eliminate the direct advertising. The station also made the first audio broadcast of election reports—in earlier elections, stations that broadcast results had used Morse code—providing news of

3425-446: A paper on an arc transmitter , which unlike the discontinuous pulses produced by spark transmitters, created steady "continuous wave" signals that could be used for amplitude modulated (AM) audio transmissions. Although Poulsen had patented his invention, de Forest claimed to have come up with a variation that allowed him to avoid infringing on Poulsen's work. Using his "sparkless" arc transmitter, de Forest first transmitted audio across

3562-649: A pastor. In 1879 the elder de Forest became president of the American Missionary Association's Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama , a school "open to all of either sex, without regard to sect, race, or color", and which educated primarily African-Americans. Many of the local white citizens resented the school and its mission, and Lee spent most of his youth in Talladega isolated from the white community, with several close friends among

3699-433: A patent application which was filed on January 29, 1907, and received U.S. patent 879,532 on February 18, 1908. Because the grid-control Audion was the only configuration to become commercially valuable, the earlier versions were forgotten, and the term Audion later became synonymous with just the grid type. It later also became known as the triode. The grid Audion was the first device to amplify, albeit only slightly,

3836-559: 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

3973-510: A policy that retailers had to require their customers to return a worn-out tube before they could get a replacement. This style of business encouraged others to make and sell unlicensed vacuum tubes which did not impose a return policy. One of the boldest was Audio Tron Sales Company founded in 1915 by Elmer T. Cunningham of San Francisco, whose Audio Tron tubes cost less but were of equal or higher quality. The de Forest company sued Audio Tron Sales, eventually settling out of court. In April 1917,

4110-484: A research job at the Federal Telegraph Company , which produced long-range radiotelegraph systems using high-powered Poulsen arcs . One of de Forest's areas of research at Federal Telegraph was improving the reception of signals, and he came up with the idea of strengthening the audio frequency output from a grid Audion by feeding it into a second tube for additional amplification. He called this

4247-667: 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

Lee de Forest - Misplaced Pages Continue

4384-528: A self-restoring detector that could receive transmissions by ear, thus making it capable of receiving weaker signals and also allowing faster Morse code sending speeds. After making unsuccessful inquiries about employment with Nikola Tesla and Marconi, de Forest struck out on his own. His first job after leaving Yale was with the Western Electric Company 's telephone lab in Chicago, Illinois. While there he developed his first receiver, which

4521-423: 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

4658-469: A spark-gap transmitter, he briefly thought that the flickering of a nearby gas flame might be in response to electromagnetic pulses. With further tests he soon determined that the cause of the flame fluctuations was due to air pressure changes produced by the loud sound of the spark. Still, he was intrigued by the idea that, properly configured, it might be possible to use a flame or something similar to detect radio signals. After determining that an open flame

4795-470: 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

4932-487: 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

5069-642: A transportation that is termed "interstate" (over which Congress has power to regulate) and does require that the mailing cross at least one state line into another state; wire fraud has been expanded by Congress to include foreign wire communication or interstate connections via (e.g.) an e-mail server or telephone switch or radio communication. In McNally v. United States (1987), the Supreme Court held that 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341 and 1343 did not reach honest services fraud. Congress responded by passing 18 U.S.C. § 1346. In Skilling v. United States (2010),

5206-526: Is broad. These statutes have been held by the Supreme Court to encompass "everything designed to defraud by representations as to the past or present, or suggestions and promises as to the future." Lower courts have progressively expanded this ruling, finding that the law "puts its imprimatur on the accepted moral standards and condemns conduct which fails to match the 'reflection of moral uprightness, of fundamental honesty, fair play and right dealing in

5343-641: Is capable of being developed into a really efficient detector, but in its present forms is quite unreliable and entirely too complex to be properly handled by the usual wireless operator." In May 1910, the Radio Telephone Company and its subsidiaries were reorganized as the North American Wireless Corporation, but financial difficulties meant that the company's activities had nearly come to a halt. De Forest moved to San Francisco, California, and in early 1911 took

5480-737: The Western Electrician in Chicago. With radio research his main priority, de Forest next took a night teaching position at the Lewis Institute , which freed him to conduct experiments at the Armour Institute . By 1900, using a spark-coil transmitter and his responder receiver, de Forest expanded his transmitting range to about seven kilometers (four miles). Professor Clarence Freeman of the Armour Institute became interested in de Forest's work and developed

5617-466: 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 the country. The company was responsible for many technological innovations, as well as developments in industrial management. In 1856, George Shawk,

Lee de Forest - Misplaced Pages Continue

5754-532: The Parker Building in New York City. The Radio Telephone Company was incorporated in order to promote his inventions, with James Dunlop Smith, a former American DeForest salesman, as president, and de Forest the vice president (De Forest preferred the term radio , which up to now had been primarily used in Europe, over wireless ). At the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Valdemar Poulsen had presented

5891-553: The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5122)), or affects a financial institution, such person shall be fined not more than $ 1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both. Thus, anyone trying to defraud another individual or group through items of value, e.g., money, through the US mail system or a private mail delivery service and those knowingly participating in that fraud will be punished with

6028-616: The United States Postal Inspection Service website. In the 1960s and 1970s, Chief Postal Inspector Martin McGee, also known as "The Top Sleuth" or "Mr. Mail Fraud", led his department in exposing and prosecuting numerous mail fraud swindles such as land sales, phony advertising practices, insurance rip-offs, and fraudulent charitable organizations that used the mail to facilitate their illegal activities. The scope of 18 U.S.C. §1341 and 18 U.S.C. §1343

6165-436: The regenerative circuit , and on October 6, 1914 U.S. patent 1,113,149 was issued for his discovery. U.S. patent law included a provision for challenging grants if another inventor could prove prior discovery. With an eye to increasing the value of the patent portfolio that would be sold to Western Electric in 1917, beginning in 1915 de Forest filed a series of patent applications that largely copied Armstrong's claims, in

6302-432: The "feedback circuit" and, by de Forest, as the "ultra-audion"). Beginning in 1913 Armstrong prepared papers and gave demonstrations that comprehensively documented how to employ three-element vacuum tubes in circuits that amplified signals to stronger levels than previously thought possible, and that could also generate high-power oscillations usable for radio transmission. In late 1913 Armstrong applied for patents covering

6439-461: The "goo anti-coherer") proved to be too crude to be commercialized, and de Forest struggled to develop a non-infringing device for receiving radio signals. In 1903, Reginald Fessenden demonstrated an electrolytic detector, and de Forest developed a variation, which he called the "spade detector", claiming it did not infringe on Fessenden's patents. Fessenden, and the U.S. courts, did not agree, and court injunctions enjoined American De Forest from using

6576-551: 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

6713-519: The 1946 American Institute of Electrical Engineers Edison Medal . Lee de Forest was born in 1873 in Council Bluffs, Iowa , the son of Anna Margaret ( née Robbins) and Henry Swift DeForest. He was a direct descendant of Jessé de Forest , the leader of a group of Walloon Huguenots who fled Europe in the 17th century due to religious persecution. De Forest's father was a Congregational Church minister who hoped his son would also become

6850-614: The Atlantic coast and the Great Lakes, for coastal ship navigation. However, the installations proved unprofitable, and by 1911 the parent company and its subsidiaries were on the brink of bankruptcy. De Forest also used the arc-transmitter to conduct some of the earliest experimental entertainment radio broadcasts. Eugenia Farrar sang "I Love You Truly" in an unpublicized test from his laboratory in 1907, and in 1908, on de Forest's Paris honeymoon, musical selections were broadcast from

6987-456: The Court construed § 1346 to apply only to bribes and kickbacks. United States v. Regent Office Supply Co. (1970) involves Regent which was a company that sold orders over a telephone. Regent representatives would exaggerate their office products over the phone. The United States government charged the company with wire fraud. The company's salesmen were accused of making "false pretenses" over

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7124-465: The District of Columbia district court. On May 8, 1924, that court concluded that the evidence, beginning with the 1912 notebook entry, was sufficient to establish de Forest's priority. Now on the defensive, Armstrong's side tried to overturn the decision, but these efforts, which twice went before the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1928 and 1934, were unsuccessful. This judicial ruling meant that Lee de Forest

7261-542: The Eiffel Tower as a part of demonstrations of the arc-transmitter. In early 1909, in what may have been the first public speech by radio, de Forest's mother-in-law, Harriot Stanton Blatch , made a broadcast supporting women's suffrage. More ambitious demonstrations followed. A series of tests in conjunction with the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City were conducted to determine whether it

7398-884: The Engineering Society Building's Auditorium at 33 West 39th Street in New York City. In November 1922, de Forest established the De Forest Phonofilm Company, located at 314 East 48th Street in New York City. But none of the Hollywood movie studios expressed interest in his invention, and because at this time these studios controlled all the major theater chains, this meant de Forest was limited to showing his experimental films in independent theaters (The Phonofilm Company would file for bankruptcy in September 1926.). Mail fraud Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in

7535-478: The Fleming valve was merely a rectifier that converted alternating current to direct current. (For this reason, de Forest objected to his Audion being referred to as "a valve".) The U.S. courts were not convinced, and ruled that the grid Audion did in fact infringe on the Fleming valve patent, now held by Marconi . In contrast, Marconi admitted that the addition of the third electrode was a patentable improvement, and

7672-540: The Fox's Dock Pavilion on South Bass Island . De Forest also interested the U.S. Navy in his radiotelephone, which placed a rush order to have 26 arc sets installed for its Great White Fleet around-the-world voyage that began in late 1907. However, at the conclusion of the circumnavigation the sets were declared to be too unreliable to meet the Navy's needs and removed. The company set up a network of radiotelephone stations along

7809-463: The November 1916 Wilson-Hughes presidential election . The New York American installed a private wire and bulletins were sent out every hour. About 2,000 listeners heard The Star-Spangled Banner and other anthems, songs, and hymns. With the entry of the United States into World War I on April 6, 1917, all civilian radio stations were ordered to shut down, so 2XG was silenced for the duration of

7946-587: The Panama-Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco. Radio Telephone Company officials had engaged in some of the same stock selling excesses that had taken place at American DeForest, and as part of the U.S. government's crackdown on stock fraud, in March 1912 de Forest, plus four other company officials, were arrested and charged with "use of the mails to defraud". Their trials took place in late 1913, and while three of

8083-472: The Tri-Ergon developers (German inventors Josef Engl (1893–1942), Hans Vogt (1890–1979), and Joseph Massolle (1889–1957)) and investigating other European sound film systems. In April 1922 he announced that he would soon have a workable sound-on-film system. On March 12, 1923, he demonstrated Phonofilm to the press; this was followed on April 12, 1923, by a private demonstration to electrical engineers at

8220-528: The U.S. Navy, located in Panama, Pensacola and Key West, Florida, Guantanamo, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. It also installed shore stations along the Atlantic Coast and Great Lakes, and equipped shipboard stations. But the main focus was selling stock at ever more inflated prices, spurred by the construction of promotional inland stations. Most of these inland stations had no practical use and were abandoned once

8357-991: The United States to describe the use of a physical (e.g., the U.S. Postal Service ) or electronic (e.g., a phone, a telegram, a fax, or the Internet ) mail system to defraud another, and are U.S. federal crimes . Jurisdiction is claimed by the federal government if the illegal activity crosses interstate or international borders. Mail fraud was first defined in the United States in 1872. 18 U.S.C.   § 1341 provides: Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, or to sell, dispose of, loan, exchange, alter, give away, distribute, supply, or furnish or procure for unlawful use any counterfeit or spurious coin, obligation, security, or other article, or anything represented to be or intimated or held out to be such counterfeit or spurious article, for

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8494-459: 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

8631-638: The action of the oscillating and non-oscillating audion", but the organization's board refused to let him, stating that it "strongly affirms the original award". The practical effect of de Forest's victory was that his company was free to sell products that used regeneration, for during the controversy, which became more a personal feud than a business dispute, Armstrong tried to block the company from even being licensed to sell equipment under his patent. De Forest regularly responded to articles which he thought exaggerated Armstrong's contributions with animosity that continued even after Armstrong's 1954 suicide. Following

8768-516: The black children of the town. De Forest prepared for college by attending Mount Hermon Boys' School in Gill, Massachusetts , for two years, beginning in 1891. In 1893, he enrolled in a three-year course of studies at Yale University 's Sheffield Scientific School in New Haven, Connecticut, on a $ 300 per year scholarship that had been established for relatives of David de Forest. Convinced that he

8905-677: The brewing Russo-Japanese War , and later that year a tower, with "DEFOREST" arrayed in lights, was erected on the grounds of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint Louis, Missouri, where the company won a gold medal for its radiotelegraph demonstrations. (Marconi withdrew from the Exposition when he learned de Forest would be there). The company's most important early contract was the construction, in 1905–1906, of five high-powered radiotelegraph stations for

9042-487: The callsign 8MK , which later became broadcasting station WWJ . In 1921, de Forest ended most of his radio research in order to concentrate on developing an optical sound-on-film process called Phonofilm . In 1919 he filed the first patent for the new system, which improved upon earlier work by Finnish inventor Eric Tigerstedt and the German partnership Tri-Ergon . Phonofilm recorded the electrical waveforms produced by

9179-443: The company's remaining commercial radio patent rights were sold to AT&T's Western Electric subsidiary for $ 250,000. During World War I, the Radio Telephone Company prospered from sales of radio equipment to the military. However, it also became known for the poor quality of its vacuum tubes, especially compared to those produced by major industrial manufacturers such as General Electric and Western Electric. Beginning in 1912, there

9316-406: 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

9453-458: The court ruled that the lack of awareness and understanding on de Forest's part, in addition to the fact that he had made no immediate advances beyond his initial observation, made implausible his attempt to prevail as inventor. However, a second series of court cases, which were the result of the patent office interference proceeding, had a different outcome. The interference board had also sided with Armstrong, and de Forest appealed its decision to

9590-548: The customers and not reveal that they were club employees. The 11th Circuit ruled that Takhalov deceived their customers, but this deception didn't amount to defrauding the customers under the Wire Fraud statute. There are many types of mail fraud schemes, including employment fraud , financial fraud, fraud against older Americans , sweepstakes and lottery fraud , and telemarketing fraud . Additional information about these various types of mail fraud schemes can be found on

9727-718: The defendants were found guilty, de Forest was acquitted. With the legal problems behind him, de Forest reorganized his company as the DeForest Radio Telephone Company, and established a laboratory at 1391 Sedgewick Avenue in the Highbridge section of the Bronx in New York City. The company's limited finances were boosted by the sale, in October 1914, of the commercial Audion patent rights for radio signalling to AT&T for $ 90,000, with de Forest retaining

9864-607: The device. Meanwhile, White set in motion a series of highly visible promotions for American DeForest: "Wireless Auto No.1" was positioned on Wall Street to "send stock quotes" using an unmuffled spark transmitter to loudly draw the attention of potential investors, in early 1904 two stations were established at Wei-hai-Wei on the Chinese mainland and aboard the Chinese steamer SS Haimun , which allowed war correspondent Captain Lionel James of The Times of London to report on

10001-475: The direction thereon, or at the place at which it is directed to be delivered by the person to whom it is addressed, any such matter or thing, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. If the violation occurs in relation to, or involving any benefit authorized, transported, transmitted, transferred, disbursed, or paid in connection with, a Presidential declared major disaster or emergency (as those terms are defined in section 102 of

10138-494: 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

10275-492: The entertainment broadcasts he had suspended in 1910, now using the superior capabilities of vacuum-tube equipment. 2XG's debut program aired on October 26, 1916, as part of an arrangement with the Columbia Graphophone Company to promote its recordings, which included "announcing the title and 'Columbia Gramophone [ sic ] Company' with each playing". Beginning November 1, the "Highbridge Station" offered

10412-448: 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

10549-602: The general and business life of members of society ' ". As interpreted, these requirements are not difficult to meet; the Justice Department claims to defer federal prosecution for petty local fraud. In 1987, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in McNally v. United States to narrow the scope of the mail and wire fraud statutes, ruling that the statute pertained only to schemes to defraud victims of tangible property, including money. In 1988, Congress enacted

10686-492: 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

10823-577: The high vacuum allowed it to operate at telephone-line voltages. With these changes the Audion evolved into a modern electron-discharge vacuum tube, using electron flows rather than ions. (Dr. Irving Langmuir at the General Electric Corporation made similar findings, and both he and Arnold attempted to patent the "high vacuum" construction, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1931 that this modification could not be patented). After

10960-613: 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

11097-458: The hopes of having the priority of the competing applications upheld by an interference hearing at the patent office. Based on a notebook entry recorded at the time, de Forest asserted that, while working on the cascade amplifier, he had stumbled on August 6, 1912, across the feedback principle, which was then used in the spring of 1913 to operate a low-powered transmitter for heterodyne reception of Federal Telegraph arc transmissions. However, there

11234-437: The idea was not yet technically feasible, and de Forest would not make any additional entertainment broadcasts until late 1916, when more capable vacuum-tube equipment became available. De Forest's most famous invention was the "grid Audion", which was the first successful three-element ( triode ) vacuum tube , and the first device which could amplify electrical signals. He traced its inspiration to 1900, when, experimenting with

11371-491: 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

11508-605: The inventor—however, he was also dishonest and much of the new enterprise would be built on wild exaggeration and stock fraud. To back de Forest's efforts, White incorporated the American DeForest Wireless Telegraph Company, with himself as the company's president, and de Forest the Scientific Director. The company claimed as its goal the development of "world-wide wireless". The original "responder" receiver (also known as

11645-444: 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

11782-581: 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

11919-575: The lights during an important lecture by Professor Charles S. Hastings , who responded by having de Forest expelled from Sheffield. With the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in 1898, de Forest enrolled in the Connecticut Volunteer Militia Battery as a bugler, but the war ended and he was mustered out without ever leaving the state. He then completed his studies at Yale's Sloane Physics Laboratory, earning

12056-524: The local stock sales slowed. De Forest eventually came into conflict with his company's management. His main complaint was the limited support he got for conducting research, while company officials were upset with de Forest's inability to develop a practical receiver free of patent infringement. (This problem was finally resolved with the invention of the carborundum crystal detector by another company employee, General Henry Harrison Chase Dunwoody ). On November 28, 1906, in exchange for $ 1000 (half of which

12193-591: 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 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

12330-560: 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

12467-479: 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

12604-621: The phone. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that the "repugnant" conduct of the company did not amount to criminality. Lustiger v. United States , 386 F.2d 132 ( 9th Cir. , 1967), involved a real estate advertisement mail fraud. The defendant stated that as a salesman he had engaged in puffery . In United States v. Takhalov (2016), female nightclub employees would pose as tourists, engage with potential customers, and lure them into nightclubs owned by Takhalov. The employees would express romantic interest in

12741-536: The publication of Carl Dreher 's "E. H. Armstrong, the Hero as Inventor" in the August 1956 Harper's magazine, de Forest wrote the author, describing Armstrong as "exceedingly arrogant, brow beating, even brutal...", and defending the Supreme Court decision in his favor. In the summer of 1915, the company received an Experimental license for station 2XG , located at its Highbridge laboratory. In late 1916, de Forest renewed

12878-534: The purpose of executing such scheme or artifice or attempting so to do, places in any post office or authorized depository for mail matter, any matter or thing to be sent or delivered by the Postal Service , or deposits or causes to be deposited any matter or thing to be sent or delivered by any private or commercial interstate carrier, or takes or receives therefrom, any such matter or thing, or knowingly causes to be delivered by mail or such carrier according to

13015-536: The purpose of executing such scheme or artifice, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. If the violation occurs in relation to, or involving any benefit authorized, transported, transmitted, transferred, disbursed, or paid in connection with, a presidentially declared major disaster or emergency (as those terms are defined in section 102 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act ( 42 U.S.C. 5122 )), or affects

13152-437: The purposes of this chapter, the term "scheme or artifice to defraud" includes a scheme or artifice to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services. There are three elements to mail and wire fraud: Mail fraud applies only to United States domestic mailings and use of interstate carriers ( UPS , FedEx ) which must originate in one state, and successfully terminate pursuant to the address label inside another state,

13289-612: 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,

13426-459: 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

13563-472: The rights for sales for "amateur and experimental use". In October 1915 AT&T conducted test radio transmissions from the Navy's station in Arlington, Virginia that were heard as far away as Paris and Hawaii. The Radio Telephone Company began selling "Oscillion" power tubes to amateurs, suitable for radio transmissions. The company wanted to keep a tight hold on the tube business, and originally maintained

13700-497: The same for the smaller Publishers' Press Association. The race effort turned out to be an almost total failure. The Freeman transmitter broke down—in a fit of rage, de Forest threw it overboard—and had to be replaced by an ordinary spark coil. Even worse, the American Wireless Telephone and Telegraph Company , which claimed its ownership of Amos Dolbear 's 1886 patent for wireless communication meant it held

13837-602: The simultaneous transmissions clashed with each other. De Forest ruefully noted that under these conditions the only successful "wireless" communication was done by visual semaphore "wig-wag" flags. (The 1903 International Yacht races would be a repeat of 1901—Marconi worked for the Associated Press, de Forest for the Publishers' Press Association, and the unaffiliated International Wireless Company (successor to 1901's American Wireless Telephone and Telegraph) operated

13974-469: The strength of received radio signals. However, to many observers it appeared that de Forest had done nothing more than add the grid electrode to an existing detector configuration, the Fleming valve , which also consisted of a filament and plate enclosed in an evacuated glass tube. De Forest passionately denied the similarly of the two devices, claiming his invention was a relay that amplified currents, while

14111-417: 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

14248-464: 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

14385-539: 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

14522-446: The two sides agreed to license each other so that both could manufacture three-electrode tubes in the United States. (De Forest's European patents had lapsed because he did not have the funds needed to renew them). Because of its limited uses and the great variability in the quality of individual units, the grid Audion would be rarely used during the first half-decade after its invention. In 1908, John V. L. Hogan reported that "The Audion

14659-519: 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

14796-486: The war. The ban on civilian stations was lifted on October 1, 1919, and 2XG soon renewed operation, with the Brunswick-Balke-Collender company now supplying the phonograph records. In early 1920, de Forest moved the station's transmitter from the Bronx to Manhattan, but did not have permission to do so, so district Radio Inspector Arthur Batcheller ordered the station off the air. De Forest's response

14933-668: 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

15070-401: Was already making impressive progress in both Europe and the United States. One drawback of Marconi's approach was his use of a coherer as a receiver, which, while providing for permanent records, was also slow (after each received Morse code dot or dash, it had to be tapped to restore operation), insensitive, and not very reliable. De Forest was determined to devise a better system, including

15207-525: Was also strong evidence that de Forest was unaware of the full significance of this discovery, as shown by his lack of follow-up and continuing misunderstanding of the physics involved. In particular, it appeared that he was unaware of the potential for further development until he became familiar with Armstrong's research. De Forest was not alone in the interference determination—the patent office identified four competing claimants for its hearings, consisting of Armstrong, de Forest, General Electric's Langmuir, and

15344-544: 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 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 ,

15481-730: Was based on findings by two German scientists, Drs. A. Neugschwender and Emil Aschkinass . Their original design consisted of a mirror in which a narrow, moistened slit had been cut through the silvered back. Attaching a battery and telephone receiver, they could hear sound changes in response to radio signal impulses. De Forest, along with Ed Smythe, a co-worker who provided financial and technical help, developed variations they called "responders". A series of short-term positions followed, including three unproductive months with Professor Warren S. Johnson 's American Wireless Telegraph Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and work as an assistant editor of

15618-703: 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

15755-573: Was claimed by an attorney) and the rights to some early Audion detector patents, de Forest turned in his stock and resigned from the company that bore his name. American DeForest was then reorganized as the United Wireless Telegraph Company , and would be the dominant U.S. radio communications firm, albeit propped up by massive stock fraud, until its bankruptcy in 1912. De Forest moved quickly to re-establish himself as an independent inventor, working in his own laboratory in

15892-521: Was destined to become a famous—and rich—inventor, and perpetually short of funds, he sought to interest companies with a series of devices and puzzles he created, and expectantly submitted essays in prize competitions, all with little success. After completing his undergraduate studies, in September 1896 de Forest began three years of postgraduate work. However, his electrical experiments had a tendency to blow fuses, causing building-wide blackouts. Even after being warned to be more careful, he managed to douse

16029-621: 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

16166-606: 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

16303-504: 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,

16440-441: Was found that de Forest's "gassy" version of the Audion could not handle even the relatively low voltages used by telephone lines. (Owing to the way he constructed the tubes, de Forest's Audions would cease to operate with too high a vacuum.) However, careful research by Dr. Harold D. Arnold and his team at AT&T's Western Electric subsidiary determined that improving the tube's design would allow it to be more fully evacuated, and

16577-483: Was granted U.S. patent number 841387 on January 15, 1907. Subsequently, a third "control" electrode was added, originally as a surrounding metal cylinder or a wire coiled around the outside of the glass tube. None of these initial designs worked particularly well. De Forest gave a presentation of his work to date to the October 26, 1906, New York meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, which

16714-576: 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

16851-473: Was increased investigation of vacuum-tube capabilities, simultaneously by numerous inventors in multiple countries, who identified additional important uses for the device. These overlapping discoveries led to complicated legal disputes over priority, perhaps the most bitter being one in the United States between de Forest and Edwin Howard Armstrong over the discovery of regeneration (also known as

16988-612: 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

17125-611: 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

17262-607: Was now legally recognized in the United States as the inventor of regeneration. However, much of the engineering community continued to consider Armstrong to be the actual developer, with de Forest viewed as someone who skillfully used the patent system to get credit for an invention to which he had barely contributed. Following the 1934 Supreme Court decision, Armstrong attempted to return his Institute of Radio Engineers (present-day Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ) Medal of Honor, which had been awarded to him in 1917 "in recognition of his work and publications dealing with

17399-441: 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

17536-477: Was practical to broadcast opera performances live from the stage. Tosca was performed on January 12, 1910, and the next day's test included Italian tenor Enrico Caruso . On February 24, the Manhattan Opera Company's Mme. Mariette Mazarin sang "La Habanera" from Carmen and selections from the controversial "Elektra" over a transmitter located in de Forest's lab. But these tests showed that

17673-477: 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

17810-503: Was reprinted in two parts in late 1907 in the Scientific American Supplement . He was insistent that a small amount of residual gas was necessary for the tubes to operate properly. However, he also admitted that "I have arrived as yet at no completely satisfactory theory as to the exact means by which the high-frequency oscillations affect so markedly the behavior of an ionized gas." In late 1906, de Forest made

17947-419: 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

18084-488: 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

18221-843: 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

18358-432: 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

18495-593: Was to return to San Francisco in March, taking 2XG's transmitter with him. A new station, 6XC , was established as "The California Theater station", which de Forest later stated was the "first radio-telephone station devoted solely" to broadcasting to the public. Later that year a de Forest associate, Clarence "C.S." Thompson, established Radio News & Music, Inc., in order to lease de Forest radio transmitters to newspapers interested in setting up their own broadcasting stations. In August 1920, The Detroit News began operation of "The Detroit News Radiophone", initially with

18632-430: Was too susceptible to ambient air currents, de Forest investigated whether ionized gases, heated and enclosed in a partially evacuated glass tube, could be used instead. In 1905 to 1906 he developed various configurations of glass-tube devices, which he gave the general name of "Audions". The first Audions had only two electrodes , and on October 25, 1906, de Forest filed a patent for the diode vacuum tube detector , that

18769-486: 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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