.Founded1869DefunctFebruary 7, 1996Headquarters, New York City, US.Products, computers, electrical and electronics parts, and all other related products supplied to(1881–1996)The Western Electric Company was an American and company that was officially founded in 1869 and, as a wholly owned subsidiary of for most of its lifespan, served as the primary equipment manufacturer, supplier, and purchasing agent for the from 1881 to 1984 when it was dismantled. The company was responsible for many technological innovations, including the development of the, as well as seminal developments in industrial management. Contents.History In 1856, George Shawk, a craftsman and maker, purchased an business in. On December 31, 1869, he entered a partnership with, and later sold his share to inventor.

Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association (WMA) is a nonprofit organization created in 1945 for the exclusive purpose of promoting and protecting the interests of owners, operators and developers of manufactured home communities in California.

In 1872, Barton and Gray moved the business to Clinton Street, and incorporated it as the Western Electric Manufacturing Company. They manufactured a variety of electrical products including, and lighting and had a close relationship with company, to whom they supplied relays and other equipment.In 1875, Gray sold his interests to Western Union, including the that he had filed against 's application for the. The ensuing legal battle between Western Union and the over patent rights ended in 1879 with Western Union withdrawing from the telephone market and Bell acquiring Western Electric in 1881.

1969 Western Electric keychain medallion celebrating the 100th anniversary of the company's founding, made from the company's recycled bronze metal of scrapped telephone equipment and issued to employees with an inscribed personal registration number.Western Electric was the first company to join in a Japanese joint venture with foreign capital. In 1899, it invested in a 54% share of the Western Electric's representative in Japan was.In 1901, Western Electric secretly purchased a controlling interest in a principal competitor, the, but in 1909 was forced by a lawsuit to sell back to Milo Kellogg.On July 24, 1915, employees of the boarded the in downtown Chicago for a company picnic. The ship rolled over at the dock and over 800 people died. (See.)In 1920, Alice Heacock Seidel was the first of Western Electric's female employees 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 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. How far and how fast the policy was expanded is shown by the fact that a few years later women were given maternity leaves with no loss of time on their service records.' In 1925, purchased the of Brussels, Belgium, and other worldwide subsidiaries from AT&T, to avoid an antitrust action. The company manufactured switching equipment under 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, in honor of the company's founders, Elisha Gray and Enos Barton.was half-owned by Western Electric, the other half belonging to AT&T.Company logos Western Electric used various logos during its existence. Starting in 1914 it used an image of AT&T's statue. Logo 1969–1984Development of a monopoly In 1915, the assets of Western Electric Manufacturing were transferred to a newly incorporated company in, named Western Electric Company, Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T. The sole reason for the transfer was to provide for the issuance of a non-voting preferred class of capital stock, disallowed under the statutes of the state of Illinois.All telephones in areas where AT&T subsidiaries provided local service, all components of the (PSTN), and all devices connected to the network were made by Western Electric and no other devices were allowed to be connected to AT&T's network. AT&T and Bell System companies were rumored to employ inspectors to check electrical conditions of household subscriber lines to identify use of non-leased telephones by consumers. Western Electric telephones were owned not by end customers but by the local Bell System telephone companies—all of which were subsidiaries of AT&T, which also owned Western Electric. Each phone was leased from the phone company on a monthly basis by customers who generally paid for their phone as part of the recurring lease fees.

This system had the effect of subsidizing basic telephone service, keeping local phone service inexpensive, under $10 per month, including the leased phone. After divestiture, basic service prices increased, and customers were now responsible for inside building wiring and telephone equipment. The had an extensive policy and infrastructure to recycle or refurbish phones 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 the variety of new designs introduced into the market place.AT&T also strictly enforced policies against using telephone equipment by other manufacturers on their network. A customer who insisted on using 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 series by selling customers the phone housing, retaining ownership of the internal mechanical and electrical components, which still required paying AT&T a monthly leasing fee. Former Kearny WorksUntil 1983, Western Electric telephones or their components could only be leased by subscribers and never resold, and were repaired by the Bell System operating companies at no charge to the customer.

This led Western Electric to pursue extreme reliability and durability in design to minimize service calls. In particular, the work of, who developed new techniques for statistical quality control in the 1920s, helped lead to the legendary quality of manufacture of Western Electric telephones. Starting in 1983, Western Electric telephones could be sold to the public under the brand name American Bell, a newly created subsidiary of AT&T. AT&T push-button telephone made by Western Electric, model 2500 DMG black (1980)Since the demise of Western Electric, telephone equipment design and manufacturing is an open market place in which numerous manufacturers compete. As a result, modern telephones are now manufactured in Asia, generally using less expensive components and labor.Some telephone subscribers never purchased their existing telephones after the AT&T breakup, and continue to lease their existing Western Electric models from, formerly known as AT&T Consumer Lease Services. Such subscribers have paid leasing fees for their telephones far in excess of the purchase price, but the phones are perceived by some users to be superior to telephones commonly made today in aspects of durability and sound quality. Today, many of these Western Electric telephones have become collector's items.Western Electric's audio equipment from the 1920s and 30s, designed to be used in movie theaters, is now prized by collectors and audiophiles due to its quality construction and sound reproduction.

This includes its massive horn loudspeakers designed to fill a large theater with sound from a relatively low-powered tube amplifier.As of 2013, the stylized Western Electric brand name survives as the trademark of the Western Electric Export Corporation, a privately owned high-end audio company in.Publications. Inaugural issue cover of first Western Electric employee magazine in March 1912During the span of its existence of over a dozen decades, Western Electric published a variety of publications for various audiences, including periodicals for employees and customers.The first employee magazine was Western Electric News, commencing in March 1912 (Volume 1, Number 1) under company president. Its purpose was to provide a forum where ideas could be exchanged, the company events and activities could be recorded, and to serve as clearing house for technical and commercial information of value to the employee.Starting in 1975, Western Electric published The Western Electric Engineer ( ), later known as The Engineer.See also.References. Western Electric, 195 Broadway, NY, NY, A Century of Progress, Employee gift card. (1969). Jackson, Kenneth T. (1995).: The New York Historical Society; Yale University Press.

P. Railway Signal Engineer, Volume 9 (January 1916) p33. Western Electric.

Retrieved 2013-09-03. Iardella, Ed., Albert B. Western Electric. Retrieved 2013-09-03. Smith, George David (1 May 1985). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 4 April 1973.

Retrieved 4 April 2018 – via Google Books. Stetson, Damon (4 September 1974). Retrieved 4 April 2018 – via NYTimes.com. Illinois Manufacturers Directory, 1962, Manufacturers' News, Inc. 604–605, 1500 employees.

19 January 1966. Retrieved 2013-09-03. Retrieved 2018-07-18. Adams, Stephen B.

Manufacturing the Future: A History of Western Electric. Page 163.

Wade, Mark. Encyclopedia Astronautica. Retrieved 2013-09-03. Western Electric News, 1(1) (March 1912), Editorial, p.1Bibliography.

Adams, Stephen B., and Orville R. Manufacturing the Future: A History of Western Electric. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Fagen, M.

A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System: Volume 1 The Early Years (1875–1925). New York: The Bell Telephone Laboratories, 1975.

ISBN?. Fagen, M.

A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System: Volume 2 National Service in War and Peace (1925–1975). New York: The Bell Telephone Laboratories, 1978.External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to., History of theater sound products. at Dartmouth College Library.

The Western Knife Company was a manufacturer of hunting knives which began operations in Boulder, Colorado in 1911. The company is probably best known for its 'Bowie' style hunting knives. The company was purchased by Coleman (the famous manufacturer of outdoor equipment) in 1984. Camillus Cutlery Company purchased Western in 1992. In February, 2007, Camillus closed as a result of bankruptcy due to competition from companies making cheaper knives in other countries. The Western brand and Camillus brand are now owned by the Acme United Corporation and manufactured in Asia.

Western Cutlery Company[edit]

The Western Cutlery Company story and that of several other manufacturers could begin in 1864, the year that Charles W. Platts emigrated from Sheffield, England. Platts was descended from a long line of knife makers and, in turn, his descendants were to have a significant impact upon a number of U.S. cutlery businesses.

Platts' first employment in this country was the American Knife Company in Reynolds Bridge, Connecticut. A few years later, he became superintendent of the factory belonging to the Northfield Knife Company in the nearby town from which the company took its name. Charles and his wife, Sarah, reared five sons and each learned the cutlery craft at the Northfield Cutlery firm. Siegelord forum. Although other sons and their descendants remained active in the cutlery industry, the focus here is on Harvey Nixon Platts.

H.N. Platts left Northfield in 1891 and moved west to Little Valley, in Cattaraugus County, New York. His experience led him to work in the blade grinding and finishing department of a new knife factory operated by Cattaraugus Cutlery Company. The company's early owners, J.B.F. Champlin and his son Tint, were joined temporarily in the business by four brothers of Mrs. Champlin (formerly Therese Case). These Champlin brothers-in-law were W.R., Jean, John and Andrew Case.

Also working in the Cattaraugus office was Debbie Case, who lived with her brother, Russ, and their father, W.R. Case. In 1892, H.N. Platts and Debbie Case were married and, within a couple of years, they had become parents of two sons, Harlow and Reginald.

Charles Platts, still a respected cutlery leader, and his other sons reentered the picture when they moved from Northfield to Little Valley in 1893 and began work with Cattaraugus. Practically every department of the Cattaraugus factory now had a Platts family member at work and the result would be nearly inevitable; they decided to start their own cutlery business. In 1896, Charles Platts was joined by his five sons in forming the C. Platts & Sons Cutlery Company in nearby Gowanda, New York, which in 1887 moved to new and larger facilities in Eldred, Pennsylvania. In 1900, when Charles Platts died, it was H.N. who assumed leadership of the family business. In addition to managerial responsibilities, H.N. served as the key salesman of Platts cutlery products. Ever expanding to new territories, his sales trips took him father west through several states and into the midwestern plains states. More than a few of Platts' sales trips were made in the company of another cutlery salesman, brother-in-law Russ Case. Platts would sell knives on one side of the town street while Case sold on the other side, each selling knives branded with their own name.

A new company, with J. Russell Case and H.N. Platts as organizers and major stockholders, was to emerge from this family and working relationship. The early days of the business would see the company selling knives branded both 'Platts' and 'Case', so choosing one family name was deemed logical. Because Russ Case would have sales responsibility while Platts would oversee manufacturing, the name 'Case' was selected. Black and white 2 pokedex. Some time earlier, Russ had begun a jobbing company known as 'W.R. Case and Sons'. The new company, incorporated in 1904 in Little Valley, would have a similar name except that an 's' would be added to the word 'Son', thereby recognizing Platts family membership as the W.R. Case son-in-law. Debbie Case Platts supervised the office and summer school vacations saw the two young Platts boys working in the factory.

H.N. Platts health began to decline due to 'grinder's consumption', a disease of the lungs caused from years of work with the sandstone grinding wheels. Although the business was doing very well and the now teenage Platts sons were becoming increasingly active in the business, the father's health hinged upon a move to a drier climate. In 1911, he sold his interest in the company to Russ Case and moved his family to Boulder, Colorado. Accompanying Platts and his family to their new home was a determination to continue his lifetime work in the cutlery industry.

A developing west proved to be fertile ground for knife sales since the cowboys, farmers, miners, and others workers needed quality cutlery to use many times every day. Platts knew the business and he certainly had experience in starting a cutlery factory, but he also recognized the need to establish a base of business if he was to be successful in starting all over again. His connections with the eastern cutlery manufacturers were important as he sought sources of product. Before the year 1911 was over, orders were being sold and knives were arriving from the east to fill them. The new business was named “Western States Cutlery and Manufacturing Company”. That name was selected instead of the founders name because 'Platts' had been used a brand for the old company mentioned earlier and had very recently been used by Platts Brothers Cutlery Company, operated by H. N. Platts brothers. The geographical name was given to establish an identity separate from that of the Case and Platts businesses back east, and the “States” extension of the name signified the company's sales territory.

Early Western States knives were manufactured by Challenge, New York Knife Company, Valley Forge, Utica, and W. R. Case & Sons, among others. Although the business was prospering and a manufacturing facility would have been in order, it would be several years coming. World War I had begun and had brought shortages of material and labor. It had also required the services of the older son, Harlow, whose aid would have been needed for factory startup. Platts dream was realized, however, with the opening of his new factory in 1920. In the early 1940s, H. N. retired from active management of Western States Cutlery and those responsibilities were passed on to his sons, Reginald and Harlow, who continued in partnership until Reginald left the cutlery business in 1950. A new name, Western Cutlery Company, was given the business in 1951 when Harlow Platts and his son, Harvey, reincorporated the company. Western Cutlery remained in Boulder until its 1978 relocation to nearby Longmont, Colorado.

Harvey Platts had become company president and continued in that capacity until 1984, when Western was purchased by the Crossman Air gun division of Coleman Corporation, thus ending the more than 100-year involvement of the Platts family in the U.S. cutlery industry. The association with Coleman lasted until 1990, when an investor group in Wyoming purchased the knife factory and trademarks. Unable to obtain satisfactory profit performance, the company's brands, machinery, and tooling were sold to Camillus Cutlery Co. in 1991, and many parts, papers, and other items were dispersed at auction. Camillus Cutlery closed its doors in February 2007, leaving the future of Western Cutlery and the company's other brands in limbo.

Stampings and trademarks[edit]

Early Western States knives had tangs stamped with the words WESTERN STATES in an arch and BOULDER, COLORADO in a straight line below, similar to the stamp used by C. Platts and Sons. Pocketknife tangs were stamped with the curved WESTERN STATES until about 1950, when WESTERN, BOULDER, COLORADO was adapted.

WESTACO was a budget price 88 bd brand that seems to have appeared in the 1930s. WESTMARK was a brand used on high end products that first appeared in 1970.

In addition to stamped tangs, many early knives had trademark etching on the blade. The company's best-known mark was a tic-tac-toe pattern, and the words “Sharp Tested Temper”, were used beginning in 1911. In 1928, the Buffalo trademark consisting of an old buffalo skull framed with “Western States” and “Sharp Cutlery” was adopted and gradually replaced the tic-tac-toe marking. The “dagger and diamond” logo that appeared on later Western products was first used in 1963. Tang stamps on pocketknives as well as sheath knives were gradually changed to “Western USA” during the 1960s. Beginning in 1978 and continuing until the mid-1980s, the stamp “Western USA” was used with a letter added beneath the “USA” to indicate the production year.

A-1977
B-1978
C-1979
D-1980
E-1981
F-1982
G-1983
H-1984
I-1985
J-1986

During the 1980s, stampings began to include the model number, a trend that continued under Camilluss ownership. The Coleman era (1984-1990) saw the use of some COLEMAN WESTERN stamps as well as ColemanWestern markings on the retaining strap buttons of knife sheaths.IDENTIFYING WESTERN STATES POCKETKNIVES Western States early knives follow the traditional numbering system of a pattern number, along with letters and other numbers that described the knife's features. Unfortunately, the numbering system was an internal protocol for employees and pattern numbers were not marked on the company's products until 1954. With Camillus now out of business, much of that inside company information has been lost. Collectors today must identify early knives from catalogs and application of the numbering system. Most of the old stock numbers can be deciphered by using the numbering key explained below. Some older pocketknife numbers have a zero inserted justbefore the pattern number to signify a modification, usually in material or finish, such as (9393 or 93093)

The first digit signifies handle material as follows:

• 2 – imitation pearl
• 3 – brown or golden shell
• 4 – white or imitation ivory
• 5 – genuine stag
• 6 – bone stag
• 7 – ivory or agate
• 8 – genuine pearl

References[edit]

• Platts, Harvey. The knife makers who went West (1st ed.). Longmont, Colorado: Long Peak Press. pp. 201 p. : ill., 32 cm. LCCN78060719.