Western Electric
| Western Electric
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|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | Inc. |
| founding | 1869 |
| resolution | 1995 |
| Reason for dissolution | AT&T monopoly logging |
| Seat | New York City, USA |
| Branch | telecommunications |
Western Electric Inc. was an American telecommunications technology company that had been part of the AT&T telephone company since 1881 . Numerous innovations go back to Western Electric. The company's main customers were the parent company AT&T and the group company Bell Telephone Company (Bell System). By the mid-1980s, AT&T had a near monopoly on the telephone sector in North America. Under pressure from the US government, this special position was ended. As a result, there were several restructurings and sales of parts of the company within AT&T, in the course of which in 1995 the company name "Western Electric" disappeared.
In 2013 the brand name "Western Electric" was acquired by Western Electric Export Corporation of Rossville , Georgia . The company, which has no corporate affiliation with the original Western Electric, makes music recording and playback equipment.
history
In 1869, Enos M. Barton, Professor Elisha Gray and General Anson Stager founded a company to manufacture electrical goods. In 1872 the company was given the name "Western Electric Manufacturing Company". Various electrical products were manufactured, such as typewriters, alarm systems, lighting systems and components for telegraph systems.
Gray and Alexander Graham Bell were both and almost simultaneously inventors of the telephone, which led to a lawsuit over the patent application. The dispute ended in 1879 in favor of Bell, who had filed his patent application just two hours earlier. Two years later, the Bell Telephone Company took a majority stake in Western Electric, and Western Electric began manufacturing Bell telephones and equipment. In 1899, the American Telephone and Telegraph Corporation - AT&T - bought Bell's fixed assets. The telephone network was known as the Bell System. AT&T gradually appropriated all the companies that owned the rights to Bell's telephone technology, gradually expanding its monopoly.
Western Electric became the hardware supplier for Bell System. In addition, Western Electric became the central procurement company for the AT&T Group. Western Electric's company name was subtitled "Manufacturing and Supply Unit of the Bell System". In conjunction with the expansion of AT & T's monopoly, Western Electric's business developed successfully. New plants were set up at home and abroad and stakes in similar companies abroad were acquired.
July 24, 1915 marked a black day in the company's history. The employees of the Hawthorne plant in Illinois were invited to an excursion on the passenger ship "SS Estonia" . When it was fully loaded and still on the quay, the ship suddenly became unstable and rolled on its side. Over 800 passengers died.
The United States Department of Justice launched antitrust proceedings against AT&T in 1974 . In the course of a settlement in 1982, the parties agreed on a voluntary break-up of the group. As a result, Western Electric lost its position within the group as the sole supplier of hardware. The new parent company of Western Electric was the newly formed company "AT&T Technologies, Inc.", the brand name "Bell" was replaced by AT&T. In 1995 AT&T Technologies was renamed "Lucent Technologies, Inc." in advance of a company sale and the name Western Electric disappeared.
Business model
All AT&T customers received technical equipment for telephones, circuits, connectors and cabling from AT&T on a rental basis. The use of self-purchased technology was only possible after approval by AT&T and for an ongoing fee. Western Electric was the sole supplier of the technology. In its prime until the 1970s, Western Electric had more than 20 plants in the United States. Service was free for customers. In order to keep this effort as low as possible, the devices were very robust and durable. It was only as a result of the break-up of the AT&T monopoly in the early 1980s that business practice changed and the market for telephone hardware opened up to third parties.
Innovations
In 1919, the first Western Electric telephone received a rotary dial. In 1926, Western Electric invented the telephone receiver, which contained a microphone and loudspeaker in one component. Previously, the two functions were housed in separate devices, the speech part looked like a candlestick and the earpiece was loosely connected by a cable. In 1936 the telephone set "Model 302" came on the market, which with a black Bakelite housing and rotary dial, including the similar successor "Model 500", was the predominant device on the market until the 1970s. In 1969 the "Model 2500" equipped with push buttons appeared on the market.
Western Electric was a pioneer in organizing efficient mass production and in ensuring high quality standards using statistical methods. The findings were adopted by many other industrial companies.
Western Electric was also a pioneer when it came to components for telecommunications technology. Which are still used today in the field of network systems. RJ plug connections , which at that time were built in large numbers by Western Electric in their telephones, are colloquially known as "Western plugs".
Western Electric has also made significant technical improvements to sound recording and playback in the film industry. Western Electric has also developed many new products in the military sector.
The company was not only innovative in the development of its products. Western Electric became known internationally through the Hawthorne experiment by Fritz Roethlisberger , Elton Mayo and Dickson, a series of studies carried out between 1924 and 1933 in the Hawthorne factory near Chicago. In 1958 , the Engineering Research Center (ERC) was established near Princeton , New Jersey, with a peak of over 400 qualified employees. Topics included new manufacturing processes, systems for computer-aided quality control, clean room assembly, and the manufacture of integrated circuits. The ERC was later integrated into Bell Laboratories . The ERC location was closed at the end of the 1990s.
Individual evidence
- ^ Western Electric website . Retrieved December 16, 2018.
- ^ Story of Western Electric In: Western Electric Company Inc.
- ^ A b The Beginnings, Century of Progress In: Western Electric Company Inc.
