Heathkit
| Heathkit Educational Systems
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1926 |
| Seat | St. Joseph , Michigan |
| Branch | Teaching material |
Heathkit was an American company. The company was originally founded under the name Heath Airplane Company by Edward Bayard Heath in 1926 in Chicago , Illinois . Until the 1980s , Heathkit was the leading supplier of high-quality electronic kits , from radio to shortwave amateur radio .
Company history
In the post-war period, Heathkit bought large amounts of electronics from army stocks. These were upgraded to prefabricated kits. This enabled customers to build radio models from these inexpensive kits.
The foundation took place in 1974. This primarily supplied schools and institutes . In 1979, Heathkit was merged with Zenith Data Systems , while Heathkit Educational Systems sold teaching materials in the electrical and electronics sector.
Products
(Selection)
- In 1956 the "Electronic Analog Computer Kit" came on the market
- In 1978 the Heathkit H8 came on the market. This was the first digital computer kit.
Market shift
In the 1970s, more and more inexpensive finished devices ( series production , circuit board construction ) from Japan came onto the market. The self-assembly kits could not keep up with these devices either in terms of quality or price. As a result, Heathkit withdrew from the kit market and concentrated on technical teaching material. In 2008, the Data Professionals company from Pleasanton, California , bought the rights to the Heath manuals in order to market them in the future.
The Heath Company filed for bankruptcy in 2012.
In October 2015, the Heath Company acquired Data Professionals and introduced the AM radio GR-150-BK, a kit for US $ 149.95.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Roy A. Allan: A History of the Personal Computer: The People and the Technology , Allan Publishing 2001, ISBN 0-9689108-0-7
- ^ Disassembly complete: Heathkit is no more
- ↑ Peter von Bechen: From the airplane to the computer kit. The checkered history of the Heathkit company. Funkgeschichte 238 (April 2018), pp. 52–59.