Search Results

Variant company name:

Importers and manufacturers of optical and engineering instruments since 1890 ; New York, NY  Search this

Company Name:

Opplem Co., Inc.  Search this

Related companies:

Galileo Instruments ; Galileo Optical Instruments ; Officine Galileo  Search this

Notes content:

"ZC Galileo Universal" for macrophotography, microphotography, polarization, phase, dark field, oblique, and standard microscopy ; microscopes ; metallurgical instruments ; hardness testers ; optical comparators ; metal polishers ; universal research metallographs ; toolmakers microscopes ; stereoscopic microscopes ; lathe microscopes ; macro photographic equipment

Includes:

Trade catalog and price lists

Black and white images

Physical description:

10 pieces; 1 box

Language:

English

Type of material:

Trade catalogs

Trade literature

Place:

East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States

Date range:

1800s-1900s

Topic (Romaine term):

Electrical apparatus and equipment  Search this

Laboratories and laboratory supplies and equipment  Search this

Measuring; calculating and testing devices  Search this

Medical and surgical instruments and supplies  Search this

Scientific and optical instruments  Search this

Topic:

"Laboratories -- Furniture, equipment, etc."  Search this

Calculators  Search this

Electric apparatus and appliances  Search this

Measuring instruments  Search this

Medical instruments and apparatus industry  Search this

Optical instruments  Search this

Scientific apparatus and instruments  Search this

Surgical instruments and apparatus industry  Search this

Weighing instruments  Search this

Record ID:

SILNMAHTL_37187

Collection:

Smithsonian Libraries Trade Literature Collections

Data source:

Smithsonian Libraries

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:SILNMAHTL_37187

Variant company name:

New York, NY ; Chicago, IL ; Cleveland, OH ; Atlanta, GA  Search this

Company Name:

Armstrong Cork Co.  Search this

Related companies:

Armstrong Cork Products Co. ; Drug Sundries Dept. ; Glass & Closure Div.  Search this

Notes content:

Flooring (asphalt tile, ceramic tile, cork brick, cork tile, linoleum, rubber tile, vinyl); gaskets, insulation (brick, corkboard, fiberglass, mineral wool board, temlok); wall coverings, cements, cork brick, cork covering, cork roofing, corks and closures, evaporators, fitting covers, range ovens, rugs, stoves, textile mill accessories. Glassware for druggists & hospitals (bottles, vials, specimen & caps, catheters, douches, funnels, filter paper, glass tubes, graduates, labels-glass, lab rings, lamps, mortars & pestles, murphy drip outfit, ointment slabs, pharmacy shelfware sets, pill tiles, screw compressors, spatulas, stirring rods, suppository machine, test tubes & holders, tablet molds, urinals, zone points) ; series of retail sales aids for linoleum merchandisers ; Accotile floors ; Linowall ; Commercial Maintenance System (floor waxes, floor finishes, floor conditioners, cleaners, floor polishers)... this comprises the uncataloged portion.

Includes:

Trade catalog and price lists

Black and white images

Color images

Physical description:

13 pieces; 2 boxes

Language:

English

Type of material:

Trade catalogs

Trade literature

Place:

Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States

Date:

1900s

Topic (Romaine term):

Architectural designs and building materials  Search this

Chemicals and chemical products  Search this

Cleaning tools and supplies  Search this

Drugs; pharmaceuticals and patent medicines  Search this

Laboratories and laboratory supplies and equipment  Search this

Measuring; calculating and testing devices  Search this

Topic:

"Decoration and ornament, Architectural"  Search this

"Laboratories -- Furniture, equipment, etc."  Search this

Architectural design  Search this

Building materials  Search this

Calculators  Search this

Chemicals  Search this

Cleaning compounds  Search this

Cleaning machinery and appliances  Search this

Drugs  Search this

Measuring instruments  Search this

Patent medicines  Search this

Pharmacy  Search this

Weighing instruments  Search this

Record ID:

SILNMAHTL_35161

Collection:

Smithsonian Libraries Trade Literature Collections

Data source:

Smithsonian Libraries

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:SILNMAHTL_35161

Creator:

Clark, George Howard, 1881-1956  Search this

Names:

American Marconi Company.  Search this

Radio Corporation of America.  Search this

Former owner:

National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Electricity and Modern Physics  Search this

Extent:

220 Cubic feet (534 boxes, 25 map-folders)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Technical manuals

Clippings

Patents

Correspondence

Blueprints

Letters patent

Photographs

Sale catalogs

Technical drawings

Date:

circa 1880-1950

Summary:

The collection forms a documentary record of over half a century of the history of radio, with the greatest emphasis on the period 1900-1935. The collection includes materials that span the entire history of the growth of the radio industry. It is useful for those historians and other researchers interested in technological development, economic history, and the impact of applications of technology on American life.

Scope and Contents:

The materials accumulated in this collection represent the overriding collecting passion of one individual, George H. Clark. The collection forms a documentary record of over half a century of the history of radio, with the greatest emphasis on the period 1900-1935.

The collection includes materials that span the entire history of the growth of the radio industry. It is useful for those historians and other researchers interested in technological development, economic history, and the impact of applications of technology on American life.

In particular, the collection is rich in biographical information on the men who developed the technical aspects of radio and the industry; information on the inception, growth, and activities of radio companies, most notably the National Electric Signaling Company and RCA; and in photographs of all aspects of Radioana.

While most materials document technical aspects of radio, there is much information (e.g. Series 109, 134) on broadcasting and on the early history of television.

The collection, housed in over 700 boxes (about 276 linear feet), was organized into 259 numbered "classes" or series by Clark. Sixty series numbers were never used or were eliminated by Clark and combined with other series. The unused numbers are scattered throughout the filing system. The collection also includes material from series that were eliminated. These materials were never reclassified and are included as an unprocessed series at the end of the series descriptions. The collection also contains material that was never assigned a "class" designation by Clark (Lettered Series: D, E, F, G, H).

The arrangement of the collection is Clark's own; his adaptation of the Navy filing system he helped devise in 1915. Clark periodically revised the filing system and reclassified items within it.

Clark assigned class numbers to types of equipment (e.g. broadcast receivers), systems (impulse-excited transmitters and systems), scientific theories (circuit theory), and topics (company history, biography). Box 1 contains descriptions of the classification system.

When Clark classified an item and filed it he also assigned a serial number. This classification begins with 1 (or 1A) for the first item in the class and continues with successive numbers as items were added. As a consequence, the order of individual items within a series reflects the order in which Clark filed them, not any logical relationship between the items. Clark created cross references for items dealing with more than one subject by making notations on blank sheets of paper placed in related series.

Clark made cross references between series when there was no logical relationship between them; that is, when a person using the collection would not normally look in the series. For example no cross reference would be made of an engineer from series 87 (portraits) to series 4 (biography), but one would be made from series 87 to series 142 (history of television) if the item showed the engineer, say, working on a television installation.

Clark created the insignia "SRM" as the sign on the bottom of all sheets of paper numbered by him for binding. SRM stood for Smithsonian Radio Museum. This replaced the earlier though not greatly used sign "CGM." For a time about 1930, the class number on each sheet was preceded by these: "C.G.M.", for Clark, Martin, and Goldsmith, the earliest contributors to what would become the Clark Radioana Collection. After about 1933-34 Clark used C.W.C. for Clark Wireless Collection.

There are many photographs located in most series throughout the collection. But there are also three exclusive photographic series. Lettered series A, B, C. See index; and also series descriptions under lettered series.

Arrangement:

The collection is divided into 223 series.

Numbered Series 1-233:

Series 1, Library Operating System, 1915-1950

Series 2, Apparatus Type Numbers, 1916-1931

Series 3, Photographic Lists, 1925-1928

Series 4, Biographies of Radio Personages, Technical Index to Correspondents in Series 4

Series 5, History of Radio Companies, 1895-1950

De Forest Radio Company, 1905-1930s

Jenkins Televsion Corporation, 1924-1931

Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, 1908-1929

National Electric Signaling Company, 1896-1941

Wireless Specialty Apparatus Company, 1906-1929

Radio Corporation of America, 1895-1950

Series 6, Shore Stations, 1900-1940

Series 7, Marine Stations, 1900-1930s

Series 8, Broadcasting Stations, 1910s-1940s

Series 9, Amateur Stations, 1910s-1940s

Series 10, Miscellaneous Information, 1911-1914

Series 11, Radio Antiques, 1921-1938

Series 13, Specifications of Radio Apparatus, 1910s-1930s

Series 14, General History, 1899-1950s

Series 15, Radio Companies Catalogues & Bound Advertisements, 1873-1941

Series 16, Log Books, 1902-1923

Series 17, Radio Companies' House Organs, 1896-1942

Series 18, Prime Movers, 1904-1911

Series 19, Batteries, 1898-1934

Series 20, Rectifiers, 1875-1935

Series 21, Motor Generators, 1898-1936

Series 22, Nameplates of Apparatus, 1928

Series 23, Switchboards and Switchboard Instruments, 1910-1935

Series 24, Radio Frequency Switches, 1905-1905-1933

Series 25, Transmitter Transformers, 1893-1949

Series 26, Operating Keys, 1843-1949

Series 27, Power Type Interrupters, 1902-1938

Series 28, Protective Devices, 1910-1925

Series 30, Message Blanks, 1908-1938

Series 31, Transmitter Condensers, 1849-1943

Series 32, Spark Gaps, 1905-1913

Series 33, Transmitter Inductances, 1907-1922

Series 34, Transmitter Wave Changers, 1907-1924

Series 37, ARC Transmitters, 1907-1940

Series 38, Vacuum Tube Type of Radio Transmitter, 1914-1947

Series 39, Radio Transmitter, Radio-Frequency, Alternator Type, 1894-1940

Series 41, Vacuum Tubes, Transmitting Type, 1905-1948

Series 43, Receiving Systems, 1904-1934

Series 45, Broadcast Receivers, 1907-1948

Series 46, Code Receivers, 1902-1948

Series 47, Receiving Inductances, 1898-1944

Series 48, Receiving Condensers, 1871-1946

Series 49, Audio Signal Devices, 1876-1947

Series 50, Detectors, 1878-1944

Series 51, Amplifiers, 1903-1949

Series 52, Receiving Vacuum Tubes, 1905-1949

Series 53, Television Receivers, 1928-1948

Series 54, Photo-Radio Apparatus, 1910-1947

Series 59, Radio Schools, 1902-1945

Series 60, Loudspeakers, 1896-1946

Series 61, Insulators, 1844-1943

Series 62, Wires, 1906-1945

Series 63, Microphones, 1911-1947

Series 64, Biography, 1925-1948

Series 66, Antennas, 1877-1949

Series 67, Telautomatics, 1912-1944

Series 69, Direction Finding Equipment, Radio Compasses, 1885-1948

Series 71, Aircraft Transmitters, 1908-1947

Series 72, Field or Portables Transmitters, 1901-1941

Series 73, Mobile Radio Systems, 1884-1946

Series 74, Radio Frequency Measuring Instruments, 1903-1946

Series 75, Laboratory Testing Methods and Systems, 1891-1945

Series 76, Aircraft Receivers, 1917-1941

Series 77, Field Portable Receivers, 1906-1922

Series 78, Spark Transmitter Assembly, 1909-1940

Series 79, Spark Transmitter System, 1900-1945

Series 82, Firsts in Radio, undated

Series 85: Distance Records and Tests, 1898-1940

Series 87, Photographs of Radio Executives, and Technical Types, 1857-1952

Series 90, Radio Terms, 1857-1939

Series 92, Static Patents and Static Reducing Systems, 1891-1946

Series 93, Low Frequency Indicating Devices, 1904-1946

Series 95, Articles on Radio Subjects, 1891-1945

Series 96, Radio in Education, 1922-1939

Series 98, Special Forms of Broadcasting, 1921-1943

Series 99, History of Lifesaving at Sea by Radio, 1902-1949

Series 100, History of Naval Radio, 1888-1948

Series 101, Military Radio, 1898-1946

Series 102, Transmitting & Receiving Systems, 1902-1935

Series 103, Receiving Methods, 1905-1935

Series 108, Codes and Ciphers, 1894-1947

Series 109, Schedules of Broadcasting & TV Stations, 1905-1940

Series 112, Radio Shows and Displays, 1922-1947

Series 114, Centralized Radio Systems, 1929-1935

Series 116, United States Government Activities in Radio, 1906-1949

Series 117, Technical Tables, 1903-1932

Series 120, Litigation on Radio Subjects, 1914-1947

Series 121, Legislation, 1914-1947

Series 122, History of Radio Clubs, 1907-1946

Series 123, Special Applications of Radio Frequency, 1924-1949

Series 124, Chronology, 1926-1937

Series 125, Radio Patents & Patent Practices, 1861-1949

Series 126, Phonographs, 1894-1949

Series 127, Piezo Electric Effect, 1914-1947

Series 128, ARC Transmitting & Reciving Systems, 1904-1922

Series 129, Spark Systems, 1898-1941

Series 130, Vacuum Tubes Systems, 1902-1939

Series 132, Radiophone Transmitting & Receiving System, 1906-1947

Series 133, Photo-Radio, 1899-1947

Series 134, History of Radio Broadcasting, 1908-

Series 135, History of Radiotelephony, Other Than Broadcasting

Series 136, History of Amateur Radio

Series 138, Transoceanic Communication

Series 139, Television Transmitting Stations

Series 140, Radio Theory

Series 142, History of Television

Series 143, Photographs

Series 144, Radio Publications

Series 145, Proceedings of Radio Societies

Series 146: Radio Museums

Series 147, Bibliography of Radio Subjects and Apparatus

Series 148, Aircraft Guidance Apparatus

Series 150, Audio Frequency Instruments

Series 151, History of Radio for Aircrafts

Series 152, Circuit Theory

Series 154, Static Elimination

Series 161, Radio in Medicine

Series 162, Lighting

Series 163, Police Radio

Series 169, Cartoons

Series 173, Communications, Exclusive of Radio (after 1895)

Series 174, Television Methods and Systems

Series 182, Military Portable Sets

Series 189, Humor in Radio (see Series 169)

Series 209, Short Waves

Series 226, Radar

Series 233, Television Transmitter

Lettered Series

Series A, Thomas Coke Knight RCA Photographs, circa 1902-1950

Series B, George H. Clark Collection of Photographs by ClassSeries C, Clark Unorganized and/or Duplicate Photographs

Series D, Miscellaneous

Series E, News Clippings Series F: Radio Publications

Series G, Patent Files of Darby and Darby, Attorneys, circa 1914-1935

Series H, Blank Telegram Forms from many Companies and Countries Throughout the World

Series I (eye), Miscellaneous Series

Series J, Research and Laboratory Notebooks

Series K, Index to Photographs of Radio Executives and Technical Types

Series L, Index to Bound Volumes of Photos in Various Series

Series M, Index to David Sarnoff Photographs

Series N, Federal Government Personnel Files

Series O, Addenda Materials

Biographical / Historical:

George Howard Clark, born February 15, 1881, at Alberton, Prince Edward Island, Canada, emigrated to the United States at the age of fourteen. He worked as a railroad telegraph operator for the Boston and Maine Railroad during high school and college. In his unpublished autobiography he wrote:

In 1888, when I was a lad of seven, I suddenly blossomed out as a scrapbook addict, and for years I gave up boyhood games for the pleasure of sitting in a lonely attic and 'pasting up' my books ... By 1897, in high school, I graduated to beautiful pictures, and made many large size scrapbooks ... Around that time, too, I became infatuated with things electrical, and spent many evenings copying in pen and ink the various electrical text books in the Everett, Mass., Public Library. Clark began collecting material pertaining to wireless or radio in 1902. In 1903 he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. During his last year of college he specialized in radio work under the instruction of Professor John Stone Stone and after graduation went to work for Stone's radio company, the Stone Telegraph and Telephone Company, of Boston.

In 1908 Clark took a competitive examination open to all wireless engineers in the United States and entered the civilian service of the Navy. He was stationed at the Washington Navy Yard, with special additional duty at the Navy's Bureau of Steam Engineering and at the National Bureau of Standards.

In 1915 Clark helped devise a classification system for Navy equipment, assigning a code number to each item. This system of classification for blueprints, photographs, reports, and general data, was prepared by Arthur Trogner, Guy Hill, and Clark, all civilian radio experts with the US Navy Department in Washington. In 1918 Clark adopted the 1915 Navy classification system for organizing the radio data he was accumulating. Clark created the term "Radioana" at this time. He began spending his evenings and weekends pasting up his collection and numbering pages. At this time he bound the accumulated material. It totaled 100 volumes.

In July 1919, after resigning from the Navy, Clark joined the engineering staff of the Marconi Telegraph Company of America, which became part of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) later the same year. His first work was at Belmar and Lakewood, New Jersey, assisting the chief engineer, Roy A. Weagant, in his development of circuits to reduce the interference caused by static (static reduction). Clark and his wife were assigned to the unheated Engineer's Cottage. His wife decided not to stay and left for Florida. Clark moved his trunks of wireless material to the heated RCA hotel at Belmar and spent most of the winter "pasting." As Clark mentions, "From that time on I was wedded to scraps."

After a year of work in New Jersey, Clark was assigned to the sales department in New York, where he devised the "type number system" used by RCA. This type number system, for example, gave the designation UV 201 to the company's first amplifier tube.

From 1922 to 1934 Clark was in charge of RCA's newly created Show Division, which held exhibits of new and old radio apparatus at state fairs, department stores, and radio shows. About 1928 Clark started an antique radio apparatus museum for RCA. RCA's board of directors announced:

Recognizing the importance of providing a Museum for the Radio Art to house the rapidly disappearing relics of earlier days, and the desirability of collecting for it without further delay examples of apparatus in use since the inception of radio, the Board of Directors of RCA has made an initial appropriation of $100,000, as the nucleus of a fund for the establishment of a National Radio Museum. A plan for ultimately placing the museum under the wing of the Smithsonian Institution was coupled with the goal of the Institution's gathering the largest possible library of wireless data.

Around 1933 the RCA traveling exhibition program ended and Clark started classifying his collected "radioana" material. The objects of the museum were eventually turned over for exhibit purposes to the Rosenwald Museum in Chicago and the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, when space was not forthcoming at the Smithsonian. A list of objects sent to the two museums (with tag and case numbers) is in Series 1, Box A. The "radioana" collection remained under Clark's care during the 1930s, and became of increasing use to RCA. Clark continued to add to the material.

Between 1934 and 1942 Clark was in court many times regarding patent infringements. Clark's wireless data was useful and he testified frequently, for example, in RCA's suit against the United States in the Court of Claims over the Marconi tuning patents and in the Westinghouse Company's suit against the United States over the heterodyne. Patent specifications and material regarding these and other radio industry suits are found throughout this collection.

In 1946 RCA retired George Clark and denied him space to house his "radioana" collection. Clark wished to remain in New York and house the collection somewhere in the city where it would be open at all times to the public and where it would be maintained. He hoped to continue cataloguing the collection and writing books from its information. He wanted to keep the collection under his control for as long as he was capable of using it.

George H. Clark died in 1956 and his collection was subsequently given to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1959 the collection was given to the Smithsonian's new Museum of History and Technology, where space was available to house it. The collection remained in the Division of Electricity until the spring of 1983 when it was transferred to the Archives Center.

Brief Company Histories From The Radio Industry, 1900-1930s:

Introduction

At the end of the nineteenth century, when Guglielmo Marconi began his first wireless company, Western Union, Postal Telegraph, and the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) were the major enterprises in electrical communications. General Electric, Western Electric, and Westinghouse were the major producers of electrical equipment. All these earlier developments set the stage for the expansion of the radio industry.

General Electric, which dominated the lighting industry, was formed in 1892 as a merger of the Edison and Thomson-Houston companies. It was active in building central power station equipment; controlled nearly all the important early patents in electric railways; took a leading part in the introduction of trolley systems; and was the principal supplier of electric motors. Westinghouse promoted the alternating current system and installed the first AC central station in Buffalo, NY, during the winter of 1866-1867. After years of patent litigation, in 1896 GE and Westinghouse agreed to share their patents on electrical apparatus.

American Bell Telephone Company purchased Western Electric in 1881. Western Electric had a strong patent position in telephone equipment and in industrial power apparatus, such as arc lamps, generators, motors, and switchboard equipment.

Until RCA was formed in 1919, these established electrical companies played no active part in the early development of the American radio industry. They were in difficult financial positions, reorganizing, or concentrating their efforts and resources on improving their existing products.

The revolution in "wireless" technology, which began in earnest after 1900, centered in New York City, home of the Lee de Forest and American Marconi companies, and in Boston, headquarters of John Stone Stone and Reginald Fessenden.

Information in this section was compiled from the Clark Collection; the Invention and Innovation in the Radio Industry by W. Rupert Maclaurin, Macmillan Company, New York, 1949; and Radio Pioneers, Institute of Radio Engineers, Commemorating the Radio Pioneers Dinner, Hotel Commodore, New York, NY, November 8, 1945.

The De Forest Companies

Lee De Forest (1873-1961), inventor of the three-element vacuum tube or triode (1906) and the feedback circuit, was one of the first Americans to write a doctoral thesis on wireless telegraphy: "The Reflection of Short Hertzian Waves from the Ends of Parallel Wires," Yale University, 1899. The grid-controlled tube or audion of De Forest was first a radio detector, 1906-1907; in 1912 was adapted to an amplifier; and later to an oscillator. When it was perfected as a high vacuum tube, it became the great electronic instrument of electrical communications.

De Forest began work in the Dynamo Department at the Western Electric Company in 1899. Six months later he was promoted to the telephone laboratory. In 1900 De Forest went to work for the American Wireless Telegraph Company where he was able to carry out work on his "responder." However, after three months when De Forest refused to turn over the responder to the company, he was fired.

In the following year De Forest had a number of jobs, was active as an inventor, and created numerous firms to manufacture his inventions. In 1901 De Forest joined with Ed Smythe, a former Western Electric colleague and a collaborator in his research, to found the firm of De Forest, Smythe, and Freeman. Between 1902 and 1906 De Forest took out thirty-four patents on all phases of wireless telegraphy. The responder that he had been working on for so long never proved satisfactory.

The numerous De Forest companies, reflected his many interests and his inability to carry one project through to a conclusion. Unlike Marconi, but similar to Fessenden, De Forest had great inventive skill which resulted in a great number of companies; but none lasted long. The original partnership of 1901 led to the Wireless Telegraph Co. of America (1901), the De Forest Wireless Telegraph Company (Maine) (1902), and the American De Forest Wireless Telegraph Company (1903), to name a few.

The American De Forest Wireless Telegraph Company was incorporated after De Forest met a stock promoter, Abraham White. While many stations were built by this company, many never sent a message due to static interference. In 1907 two speculators from Denver with large holdings of company stock put the company out of business. The assets were sold to a new company that these speculators organized, the United Wireless Telephone Company. De Forest was forced to resign. He took the triode patents with him.

De Forest joined with one of White's stock salesmen, James Dunlop Smith, and together with De Forest's patent attorney, Samuel E. Darby, they formed a new corporation, the De Forest Radio Telephone Company in 1907. This company set out to develop wireless communication by means of the radio telephone.

In January 1910 De Forest staged the first opera broadcast, with Enrico Caruso singing. The Radio Telephone Company went bankrupt in 1911 following an aborted merger with North American Wireless Corporation. In 1913 he reorganized the company as the Radio Telephone and Telegraph Company and began producing the triode.

The Marconi Company brought a patent suit, claiming the triode infringed on the Fleming valve to which it had rights. In 1916 the court decided that Marconi had infringed the three element De Forest patent and that De Forest had infringed the two element Fleming valve. The result was that neither company could manufacture the triode.

In 1920 RCA acquired the De Forest triode rights through cross-licensing agreements with AT&T which had recently purchased the rights to it. De Forest's company was no match for GE, Westinghouse, and RCA. The De Forest Radio Company (1923) went bankrupt in 1928, was reorganized in 1930, and went into receivership in 1933. RCA eventually purchased its assets.

Marconi Companies

Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) came from a wealthy and well connected Italian family. He was able to spend his time developing his inventions and following his own course of action. Marconi spent his entire life developing wireless communication into a "practical" reality. In 1905 Marconi invented a directional antenna. In 1909 he shared with Karl Ferdinand Braun the Nobel prize in physics. And in 1912 he invented the time spark system for the generation of continuous waves. The principal patents in his name were improved types of vertical antennas; improved coherer; magnetic detector for the detection of wireless signals; and improvements on methods of selective tuning. Two other inventions of great importance to the Marconi companies' patent structure were the Oliver Lodge tuning patent and the Ambrose Fleming valve.

In 1895 Marconi made the first successful transmission of long wave signals. The following year he met William Preece, engineer-in-chief of the British Post Office, who was interested in inductive wireless telegraphy. This meeting led to the formation in 1897 of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company Ltd. In 1898 he transmitted signals across the English Channel. In 1899 an American subsidiary was formed. The various Marconi companies were the dominant enterprises in both British and American wireless until 1919 when RCA was formed.

From a business standpoint, wireless did not become profitable until long distance communications were accomplished. On December 12, 1901 in St. John's, Newfoundland, Marconi received a telegraph signal in the form of repetitions of the Morse telegraphic letter "S" transmitted from the Marconi station at Poldhu, Cornwall, England. This success, however, was met by opposition from vested interests, particularly the Anglo-American Telegraph Company whose cables terminated in Newfoundland.

So as not to restrict his company's future to one front alone, Marconi decided to exploit the field of communication with ships at sea. In order to control this field he decided in 1900 to lease his apparatus rather than sell it outright. This strategy did not work. Competition developed in Germany (Telefunken Corporation) and the United States (American De Forest and its successor, United Wireless) and Marconi was forced to sell rather than lease apparatus to the navies of various countries. He nevertheless retained numerous restrictions. This led to further friction. At the height of this debacle English stations worldwide refused to communicate with ships without Marconi equipment. This absurd and dangerous situation had to change and coastal stations opened up to all senders in 1908.

Marconi's system was based on spark technology. He saw no need for voice transmission. He felt the Morse code adequate for communication between ships and across oceans. He, along with most others, did not foresee the development of the radio and the broadcasting industry. He was a pragmatist and uninterested in scientific inquiry in a field where commercial viability was unknown.

For these reasons Marconi left the early experimentation with the radio telephone to others, particularly Lee De Forest and Reginald Fessenden.

National Electric Signaling Company

Canadian-born Reginald Fessenden (1866-1932), one of the principal early radio inventors and the first important inventor to experiment with wireless, left the University of Pittsburgh in 1900 to work for the U.S. Weather Bureau. There he invented the liquid barretter, an early radio receiver, and attempted to work out a means for wireless transmission of weather forecasts. After a squabble over patent rights, Fessenden resigned in 1902.

The National Electric Signaling Company (NESCO), primarily intended to support Fessenden's work on wireless, telegraphy, and telephony, was formed by Fessenden and two Pittsburgh capitalists, Hay Walker, Jr. and Thomas H. Given. It began as an inventor's laboratory and never proved successful as a business venture.

Fessenden recognized that a continuous wave transmission was required for speech and he continued the work of Nikola Tesla, John Stone Stone, and Elihu Thomson on this subject. Fessenden felt he could also transmit and receive Morse code better by the continuous wave method than with a spark-apparatus as Marconi was using.

In 1903 Fessenden's first high-frequency alternator needed for continuous wave transmission was built to his specifications by Charles Steinmetz of GE. In 1906 Fessenden obtained a second alternator of greater power from GE and on Christmas Eve broadcast a program of speech and music. The work on this alternator was given to Ernst F. W. Alexanderson. It took years for Alexanderson to develop an alternator capable of transmitting regular voice transmissions over the Atlantic. But by 1916 the Fessenden-Alexanderson alternator was more reliable for transatlantic communication than the spark apparatus.

Fessenden also worked on continuous-wave reception. This work arose out of his desire for a more effective type of receiver than the coherer, a delicate device that was limited by its sensitivity on a rolling ship at sea. In 1903 he developed a new receiving mechanism - the electrolytic detector.

As his work progressed Fessenden evolved the heterodyne system. However, due to faulty construction and the fact that it was ahead of its time, heterodyne reception was not fully appreciated until the oscillating triode was devised, thus allowing a practical means of generating the local frequency.

Between 1905 and 1913 Fessenden developed a completely self-sustaining wireless system. However, constant quarrels between Fessenden, Walker, and Given culminated in Fessenden's forming the Fessenden Wireless Company of Canada. He felt a Canadian company could better compete with British Marconi. As a result, his backers dismissed Fessenden from NESCO in January of 1911. Fessenden brought suit, won, and was awarded damages. To conserve assets pending appeal, NESCO went into receivership in 1912, and Samuel Kintner was appointed general manager of the company.

In 1917 Given and Walker formed International Signal Company (ISC) and transferred NESCO's patent assets to the new company. Westinghouse obtained majority control of ISC through the purchase of $2,500,000 worth of stock. The company was then reincorporated as The International Radio Telegraph Company. The Westinghouse-RCA agreements were signed in 1921 and International's assets were transferred to RCA.

RCA

The development of the radio industry accelerated after 1912. This was due to several factors, the most important of which was the passage of legislation by the US government requiring ships at sea to carry wireless. This created a market incentive and spurred the growth of the industry. Also, with the outbreak of World War I, the larger electrical companies turned their manufacturing output to radio apparatus, supporting the war effort. Three firms were prominent in this industrial endeavor: AT&T, GE, and Westinghouse.

AT&T's early contributions to this effort centered on their improvements of De Forest's triode, particularly in the evolution of circuits, the redesign of the mechanical structure, and an increase in the plate design. The importation of the Gaede molecular pump from Germany created a very high vacuum. The resulting high-vacuum tube brought the practical aspects of the wireless telephone closer to reality. By August 1915 speech had been sent by land wire to Arlington, Va., automatically picked up there via a newly developed vacuum-tube transmitter, and subsequently received at Darien, Canal Zone. By 1920 AT&T had purchased the rights to the De Forest triode and feedback circuit, and had placed itself in a strong position in the evolution of radio technology.

GE centered its efforts on the alternator, assigning Ernst F. W. Alexanderson to its design, and on further development of vacuum tube equipment for continuous wave telegraph transmission. By 1915 Alexanderson, Irving Langmuir, William D. Coolidge, and others had developed a complete system of continuous wave transmission and reception for GE.

As can be seen, both AT&T and GE were diverting major time and expenditures on vacuum tube research. This inevitably led to patent interferences and consequently, to cross-licensing arrangements.

Westinghouse was not in the strategic position of GE and AT&T. Nevertheless, during the war it did manufacture large quantities of radio apparatus, motors, generators, and rectifiers for the European and American governments. Postwar moves led Westinghouse into full partnership with the other two companies.

By the end of the war, all three companies had committed significant resources to wireless. They were hampered internationally, however, by the Marconi Company's dominant status, and in the United States they were blocked by opposing interests with control of key patents.

The US government also was concerned with this lack of solidarity in the wireless industry and over the British domination of the field worldwide. This impasse set a fascinating and complicated stage for the formation of the RCA.

Owen D. Young, legal counselor for GE, was instrumental in breaking the impasse. Through an innovative and far-reaching organizational consolidation, Young was able to persuade British Marconi that persistence in monopoly was a fruitless exercise, because of the strong US government feelings. Marconi, realizing the harm of a potential American boycott, finally agreed to terms. GE purchased the controlling interest in American Marconi, and RCA was formed. Young was made chairman of the board of RCA, while Edwin J. Nally and David Sarnoff of the old American Marconi were appointed president and commercial manager respectively.

On July 1, 1920, RCA signed a cross-licensing agreement with AT&T. The telephone company purchased one half million shares of RCA common and preferred stock for several considerations -- the most important being that all current and future radio patents of the two companies were available to each other royalty-free for ten years. Many provisions of these agreements were ambiguous and led to later squabbles between the RCA partners.

In May 1920 Westinghouse, which had an efficient radio manufacturing organization, formed an alliance with the International Radio and Telegraph Company (NESCO's successor). Westinghouse's part ownership gave them control of Fessenden's patents, particularly continuous-wave transmission and heterodyne transmission. Westinghouse also wisely purchased in October of 1920 Armstrong's patents on the regenerative and superheterodyne circuits -- which also included some of Columbia University professor Michael Pupin's patents. This placed Westinghouse in a strong bargaining position vis-à-vis RCA and in their new consolidated corporation. Westinghouse joined the growing group of radio companies on June 30, 1921. With these mergers, RCA agreed to purchase forty percent of its radio apparatus from Westinghouse and sixty percent from GE.

Through these and other legal arrangements, RCA obtained the rights to over 2,000 patents. These amounted to practically all the patents of importance in the radio science of that day. As a result, other firms in the radio industry, for example, the United Fruit Company and the Wireless Specialty Apparatus Company, entered into cross-licensing arrangements with RCA.

RCA also made arrangements internationally with the three dominant companies in radio communication in their respective countries. British Marconi, Compagnie Generale de Telegraphie sans fil, and Telefunken. Each corporation was given exclusive rights to use the other companies' patents within their own territories.

The rise of amateur radio in the 1920s and, to a greater extent, the demand for new products by the general public contributed to the rise of the broadcasting industry. This put a strain on the earlier agreements between the major radio corporations and between 1921 and 1928 there was a struggle over patents for control of the evolving medium.

An initial attempt by AT&T to control the broadcasting industry -- using its earlier cross-licensing agreements to manufacture radio telephone transmitting equipment -- began with AT&T's disposal of RCA stock holdings in 1922-1923. It ended in 1926 with a new cross-licensing agreement which gave AT&T exclusive patent rights in the field of public service telephony and gave GE, RCA, and Westinghouse exclusive patent rights in the areas covered by wireless telegraphy, entertainment broadcasting, and the manufacture of radio sets and receiving tubes for public sale.

In 1926 after the agreements were finalized, RCA, GE, and Westinghouse joined forces and established the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). Fifty percent of the stock went to RCA, thirty percent to GE, and twenty percent to Westinghouse. The new company was divided into three divisions: the Red, Blue, and Pacific Networks. Independent, competing networks soon emerged. William S. Paley and his family formed the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in 1927. The Mutual Broadcasting System was formed in 1934.

By 1928 RCA had strong patent positions in all major areas of the radio industry, including the research, development and manufacture of vacuum tubes and speakers. Most small companies entering the industry in the 1920s produced their products based on prior research by others and on expired patents. An RCA license, therefore, was essential for the manufacture of any modern radio set or vacuum tube.

In the late 1920s new developments in the reproduction of sound, produced significant changes in the phonograph industry. Among those new developments were the introduction of the electronic record, and the marketing of the Radiola 104 Loudspeaker in 1926. In 1929 RCA purchased the Victor Talking Machine Company. This changed not only the quality but the sales of the phonograph and the phonograph record. A new entertainment industry was born and an ever-expanding market for consumer products was created with cultural implications that continue today.

Telefunken

German industrialists were eager to break the Marconi Company's monopoly. Although Marconi had patents on his inventions in Germany, the Germans developed a rival system through the Telefunken Corporation, incorporated in 1903, based on the inventions of Professor Ferdinand Braun, Dr. Rudolf Slaby, and Count George von Arco.

Before 1903 the Braun-Siemens and Halske system had been developed by Gesellschaft fur Drahtlose Telegraphie (GFDT). The Slaby-Arco system had been developed by Allgemeine Electrizitats-Gesellschaft. After litigation over patents, the German court handed down a decision in favor of the GFDT. The Kaiser, with national interests in mind, ordered that the rivalry cease. The two systems were amalgamated under GFDT, and became known as the Telefunken.

Chronology of Some Significant Events In The History of The Radio Industry

1895 -- Marconi experiments with Hertz's oscillator and Branley's coherer.

1897 -- In March Marconi demonstrates his wireless system on Salisbury Plain, near London, and files a complete patent specification. In May trials of Marconi's system are made over water between Lavernock and Flatholm, a distance of three miles. On May 13, communication is established between Lavernock Point and Brean Down, a distance of eight miles. German scientist Professor Slaby is present. The first Marconi station is erected at the Needles, Isle of Wight. A distance of fourteen and one-half miles is bridged by wireless. In December the Marconi station at the Needles communicates with a ship eighteen miles at sea.

1898 -- In England Oliver Lodge files a complete specification covering inventions in wireless telegraphy.

1899 -- The New York Herald uses Marconi's wireless telegraphy to report the progress of the International Yacht races between the Columbia and the Shamrock off New York harbor in September. US. Navy vessels make trials of Marconi's wireless telegraph system. The cruiser New York and the battleship Massachusetts are equipped with apparatus. Fessenden develops improvements in methods of wireless telegraph signaling.

1900 -- The Marconi International Marine Communication Company is organized on April 25th in London. Reginald Aubrey Fessenden begins work at the United States Weather Bureau. Over the next two years he invents the liquid barretter, an improved radio receiver.

1901 -- In February on board the SS Philadelphia, Marconi receives wireless signals over a distance of 1,551 miles. In March Marconi wireless telegraph service begins between islands of the Hawaiian group. On December 12, Marconi receives transatlantic signal at St. John's, Newfoundland from Poldhu, Cornwall, England. The Canadian government orders two Marconi telegraph sets for use at coastal points along the Strait of Belle Isle.

1901 -- Fessenden procures US patent no. 706737 for a system of radio signaling employing long waves (low frequency). De Forest develops a system of wireless telegraphy in Chicago. 1903-06 10,000 to 50,000 cycle machines, 1 kW, are developed by Steinmetz and by Alexanderson of GE for Fessenden. 1905 Marconi procures patent number 14788 in England, covering the invention of the horizontal directional antenna.

1906 -- At Brant Rock, Massachusetts, Fessenden employs a generator of one-half kW capacity, operating at 75,000 cycles, for radio purposes. He succeeds in telephoning a distance of eleven miles by means of wireless telephone apparatus.

1907 -- De Forest procures a U. S. patent for an audion amplifier of pulsating or alternating current.

1908 -- Marconi stations in Canada and England are opened for radio telegraph service across the Atlantic. Fessenden constructs a 70,000-cycle alternator with an output of 2.5 kW. at 225 volts, for radio signaling purposes. He reports successful radio telephone tests between Brant Rock and Washington, DC, a distance of 600 miles.

1909 -- US House of Representatives passes the Burke Bill for the compulsory use of radio telegraphy on certain classes of vessels. The United Wireless Telegraph Company and the Radio Telephone Company of New York (De Forest and Stone systems) begin the erection of radio stations in the Central and Western states. Marconi shares with Ferdinand Braun of Germany the Nobel prize in recognition of contributions in wireless telegraphy.

1910 -- An act of the US government requires radio equipment and operators on certain types of passenger ships. The Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Marconi station is opened in September. This station communicates with Clifden, Ireland. The transatlantic tariff is seventeen cents a word.

1911 -- A radio section is organized by the US Department of Commerce to enforce the provisions of national radio legislation. Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company acquires the Lodge-Muirhead patents.

1912 -- Rotary gap is used with Fessenden 100 kW 500 cycle spark set at NAA, the Navy's first high-power station at Arlington, Virginia. Marconi Wireless of America acquires property of the United Wireless Telegraph Company. British Marconi secures the important radio patents of Bellini and Tosi, Italian inventors. Wreck of the SS Titanic on April 15th. The act of 1910 is extended on July 23 to cover cargo vessels. requires an auxiliary source of power on ships and two or more skilled radio apparatus operators on certain types of passenger ships. On August 13, an act provides for licensing radio operators and transmitting stations.

1912-1913 -- High vacuum amplifying tubes (an improvement on De Forest's), using the findings of pure science, are produced almost simultaneously in two great industrial laboratories, by Dr. H. D. Arnold of AT&T and Irving Langmuir of GE.

1915 -- De Forest Ultra-audion three-step (cascade) audio amplifier is announced and introduced into practice.

1916 -- GE and the Western Electric Company develop the first experimental vacuum tube radiotelephone systems for the Navy.

1917-1918 -- First production of vacuum tubes in quantity, both coated filament and tungsten filament types, by Western Electric Company and GE.

1918 -- Lloyd Espenschied procures US patent number 1,256,889 for the invention of a duplex radio telegraph system. (See Lloyd Espenschied Papers, Archives Center, NMAH, Collection #13.) The House of Representatives passes a resolution on July 5, authorizing the President to take over management of telegraph and telephone systems due to war conditions.

1919 -- Bills are introduced in Congress for permanent government control of radio stations. The widespread resentment of amateurs has more to do with the defeat of these bills than the objections of commercial companies. Roy Alexander Weagant, New York, reports having developed means of reducing disturbances to radio reception caused by atmospherics or static. This is the first successful static-reducing system. GE purchases the holdings of the British Marconi Company in the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America, the name of the latter company being changed to Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in October. Edward J. Nally is elected president of the new company.

1920 -- E. F. W. Alexanderson is appointed Chief Engineer of RCA. RCA begins the installation of 200-kW Alexanderson alternators at Bolinas, California, and Marion, Massachusetts. The Tropical Radio Telegraph Company, a subsidiary of the United Fruit Company, New York, operates ten long-distance radio stations at points in Central and South Americirca RCA purchases 6,000 acres at Rocky Point, Long Island, New York, and begins erection of a Radio Central station, comprising a number of operating units for communication with European stations and stations in South Americirca On May 15, RCA inaugurates radio telegraph services between installations at Chatham and Marion, Massachusetts, and stations at Stavanger and Jaerobe, Norway. Westinghouse Company's radio station KDKA, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, broadcasts returns of the national elections, November 2. Development, design, and manufacture by GE of the early receiving and transmitting tubes made available to the public by RCA (UV-200,201,202). Radio telegraph stations and properties taken over by the government under war time powers are returned to their owners at midnight, February 29. The government calls for bids for the sale of large quantities of surplus radio and telegraph and telephone apparatus purchased for war needs and not used.

1921 -- RCA develops Vacuum tubes UV-200(detector) and UV-201(amplifier) -- both triodes with brass shells known as the UV base, and incorporating a filament that required 1 ampere at 5 volts for operation -- for storage battery operation; and at the same time also released to the public the WD-11 for dry cell operation, which employed an oxide-coated tungsten filament. RCA station at Rocky Point, Long Island, opens on November 5. WJZ station established by the Westinghouse Company in Newark, NJ. RCA broadcast station at Roselle Park, NJ (WDY) opens on December 15. It continues operation until February 15, 1922, when its operation is transferred to WJZ, Newark, previously owned by Westinghouse. RCA installs 200-kW alternator at Tuckerton, NJ.

1922 -- First use of tube transmitters by RCA for service from the United States to England and Germany. RCA begins substitution of tube transmitters on ships to replace spark sets. RCA begins replacement of crystal receivers by tube receivers on ships.

1923 -- Broadcast stations WJZ and WJY opened in New York in May by RCA. WRC opens in Washington on August 1. The UV-201A, receiving tubes developed by GE and consuming only 1/4 of an ampere are introduced by RCA. Tungsten filaments coated and impregnated with thorium were employed.

1924 -- Edwin H. Armstrong, demonstrates the superheterodyne receiver on March 6th. In November RCA experiments with radio photographs across the Atlantic. RCA markets the superheterodyne receivers for broadcast reception.

1925-26 -- Dynamic loudspeakers introduced. Magnetic pick-up phonograph recording and reproduction developed. RCA opens radio circuit to Dutch East Indies. Direction-finders introduced on ships.

1927 -- Fully self-contained AC radio receivers introduced.

Provenance:

The collection was donated to the Smithsonian in 1959.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research but a portion of the collection remains unprocessed and is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.

Gloves must be worn when handling unprotected photographs, negatives, and slides.

Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Topic:

Radio engineers -- 1880-1950  Search this

Electric engineers -- 1880-1950  Search this

Radio -- History  Search this

Electricity -- 1880-1950  Search this

Communication -- 1880-1950  Search this

Genre/Form:

Technical manuals -- Electrical equipment

Clippings

Patents

Correspondence -- 1930-1950

Blueprints

Letters patent

Photographs -- 1850-1900

Sale catalogs -- Electrical equipment -- 1880-1950

Technical drawings

Photographs -- 1900-1950

Citation:

George H. Clark Radioana Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0055

See more items in:

George H. Clark Radioana Collection

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep833dbe2b0-891b-4411-a413-3b4b1e3306ad

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0055

Company Name:

American Design Components  Search this

Related companies:

ADC ; B. L. B. Inc. ; American Relays, Electronics Div.  Search this

Notes content:

electro-mechanical equipment and components ; pressure transducers ; accelerometers ; thermal switches ; temperature transducers ; motors ; laboratory ovens ; test chambers ; test equipment ; power supplies

Includes:

Trade catalog and price lists

Black and white images

Color images

Physical description:

3 pieces; 2 boxes

Language:

English

Type of material:

Trade catalogs

Trade literature

Place:

New York, New York, United States

Date:

1900s

Topic (Romaine term):

Electrical apparatus and equipment  Search this

Engines and motors: steam; oil; gas; etc.  Search this

Laboratories and laboratory supplies and equipment  Search this

Measuring; calculating and testing devices  Search this

Topic:

"Laboratories -- Furniture, equipment, etc."  Search this

Calculators  Search this

Electric apparatus and appliances  Search this

Engines  Search this

Measuring instruments  Search this

Motors  Search this

Weighing instruments  Search this

Record ID:

SILNMAHTL_45468

Collection:

Smithsonian Libraries Trade Literature Collections

Data source:

Smithsonian Libraries

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:SILNMAHTL_45468

Company Name:

Auburn Armature Inc.  Search this

Related companies:

AAI  Search this

Notes content:

electrical products ; wire and cable ; lugs, terminals, connectors ; tapes, splicing kits, aerosols ; conduit ; outlet and switch boxes ; channel and fittings ; raceway and plugmold ; wiring devices ; fuses ; safety switches ; transformers ; enclosures and cabinets ; motor controls ; time switches and signaling ; ventilating and heating products ; lighting products ; lamps and ballasts ; flashlights and batteries ; tools, testers and anchors

Includes:

Trade catalog

Color images

Physical description:

1 piece; 1 box

Language:

English

Type of material:

Trade catalogs

Trade literature

Place:

Auburn, New York, United States

Date:

2000s

Topic (Romaine term):

Electrical apparatus and equipment  Search this

Lighting (electric; gas; candle; oil; etc.)  Search this

Measuring; calculating and testing devices  Search this

Topic:

Calculators  Search this

Candles  Search this

Electric apparatus and appliances  Search this

Lamps  Search this

Lighting  Search this

Measuring instruments  Search this

Weighing instruments  Search this

Record ID:

SILNMAHTL_45475

Collection:

Smithsonian Libraries Trade Literature Collections

Data source:

Smithsonian Libraries

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:SILNMAHTL_45475

Author:

United States National Bureau of Standards  Search this

Physical description:

v. ; 20 cm

Type:

Periodicals

Place:

United States

Date:

19uu

Topic:

Measuring instruments  Search this

Weights and measures  Search this

Call number:

QC100.5 .U56

QC100.5.U56

Data Source:

Smithsonian Libraries

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:siris_sil_239665

Maker:

Queen and Company  Search this

Physical Description:

brass (overall material)

Measurements:

overall: 11 1/4 in x 8 in x 10 in; 28.575 cm x 20.32 cm x 25.4 cm

overall: 11 1/8 in x 7 in x 12 1/4 in; 28.2575 cm x 17.78 cm x 31.115 cm

Object Name:

reading telescope

Place made:

United States: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

Date made:

1859-1889

around 1890

Subject:

Science & Scientific Instruments  Search this

Credit Line:

Gift of Princeton University

ID Number:

PH.328891

Catalog number:

328891

Accession number:

277637

See more items in:

Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences

Data Source:

National Museum of American History

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a7-10ec-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:nmah_1455731

Variant company name:

Dearborn, MI  Search this

Company Name:

Ford Motor Co.  Search this

Related companies:

Continental Div. ; Lincoln Motor Co. ; Lincoln Motor Car Div. ; Fordson Div. ; Mercury Div. ; Lincoln-Mercury Div. ; Henry Ford & Son, Inc. ; C.E. Johansson, Inc. ; Dearborn Village ; Ford Tractor Operations (Troy, MI) ; Ford Motor Co. Ltd. (Dagenham, Essex, United Kingdom) ; Upholstery Leather Group, Inc. (New York, NY)  Search this

Notes content:

Ten envelopes OVERSIZE ; Organized by divisions and subject categories

Includes:

Trade catalog, price lists, manual, photographs and histories

Black and white images

Color images

Physical description:

1089 pieces; 46 boxes

Language:

English

Type of material:

Trade catalogs

Trade literature

Place:

Detroit, Michigan, United States

Date range:

1900s-2000s

Topic (Romaine term):

Agricultural tools and machinery  Search this

Automobiles and automotive equipment (including trucks and buses)  Search this

Aviation (aircraft; balloons; etc.)  Search this

Boats and ships (including marine hardware and supplies)  Search this

Farm equipment and supplies (including dairy and poultry equipment)  Search this

Iron and steel products (castings; sheet steel; steel wire; wire rope; pig iron and structural steel products )  Search this

Luggage; travel; travel services and traveling accessories (including trunks; briefcases; and other traveling accessories)  Search this

Measuring; calculating and testing devices  Search this

Recreation  Search this

Topic:

Aeronautics  Search this

Agricultural implements  Search this

Agricultural machinery  Search this

Airplanes  Search this

Airships  Search this

Amusements  Search this

Automobiles  Search this

Balloons  Search this

Boats and boating  Search this

Briefcases  Search this

Calculators  Search this

Dairying  Search this

Farm equipment  Search this

Hobbies  Search this

Iron industry and trade  Search this

Luggage  Search this

Marine machinery  Search this

Measuring instruments  Search this

Motor vehicles  Search this

Recreation industry  Search this

Ships  Search this

Steel industry and trade  Search this

Travel  Search this

Weighing instruments  Search this

Record ID:

SILNMAHTL_16108

Location:

Trade Literature at the American History Museum Library

Collection:

Smithsonian Libraries Trade Literature Collections

Data source:

Smithsonian Libraries

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:SILNMAHTL_16108

Creator:

Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969  Search this

Extent:

3.25 Cubic feet (consisting of 7 boxes, 1 folder, 2 oversize folders, 1 map case folder.)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Catalogs

Invoices

Business records

Advertising fliers

Publications

Advertising mail

Commercial correspondence

Correspondence

Business ephemera

Printed ephemera

Business letters

Exhibition catalogs

Receipts

Sales letters

Trade literature

Advertising

Sales records

Ephemera

Manuals

Business cards

Sales catalogs

Illustrations

Trade catalogs

Print advertising

Advertising cards

Technical manuals

Advertisements

Periodicals

Reports

Mail order catalogs

Catalogues

Letterheads

Trade cards

Photographs

Manufacturers' catalogs

Date:

undated

1791-1943

Summary:

A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Accounting and Bookkeeping forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subseries 1.1: Subject Categories. The Subject Categories subseries is divided into 470 subject categories based on those created by Mr. Warshaw. These subject categories include topical subjects, types or forms of material, people, organizations, historical events, and other categories. An overview to the entire Warshaw collection is available here: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana

Scope and Contents:

Scales contains business records and advertisements created by manufacturers and distributors of scales, as well as companies employed to weigh items for communities. Additional materials include scale design patents and educational material on weights and measures.

Extensive business documentation for the Riehlé Brothers is present. The Riehlé Brothers were a scale and testing-machine manufacturer based in Philadelphia. In 1865, Frederick Riehlé purchased two-fifths of interest in the Banks, Dinmore and Company and later helped coordinate the purchase of the Abbott Scale Works company. Frederick's brother Henry later purchased another three-fifths of interest in Banks, Dinmore and Company and the brothers changed the company name to the Riehlé Brothers in 1867.

Material concerning specific subject areas within the topic of scales provides a narrow window into the field of scales, weights, and measures but nonetheless a unique one. The subject category contains a broad view of the business of manufacturing scales and measuring goods for communities, as well as a small amount of social commentary on the necessity of the field in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Arrangement:

Scales is arranged in three subseries.

Business Records and Marketing Material

Genre

Subject

Forms Part Of:

Forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana.

Series 1: Business Ephemera

Series 2: Other Collection Divisions

Series 3: Isadore Warshaw Personal Papers

Series 4: Photographic Reference Material

Provenance:

Scales is a portion of the Business Ephemera Series of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060 purchased from Isadore Warshaw in 1967. Warshaw continued to accumulate similar material until his death, which was donated in 1971 by his widow, Augusta. For a period after acquisition, related materials from other sources (of mixed provenance) were added to the collection so there may be content produced or published after Warshaw's death in 1969. This practice has since ceased.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.

Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Topic:

Consumer goods -- Catalogs  Search this

Measuring instruments  Search this

Measuring instruments industry  Search this

Scales (Weighing instruments)  Search this

Patents  Search this

Retail trade  Search this

Genre/Form:

Catalogs

Invoices

Business records

Advertising fliers

Publications -- Business

Advertising mail

Commercial correspondence

Correspondence

Business ephemera

Printed ephemera

Business letters

Publications

Exhibition catalogs

Receipts

Sales letters

Trade literature

Advertising

Sales records

Ephemera

Manuals

Business cards

Sales catalogs

Illustrations

Trade catalogs

Print advertising

Advertising cards

Technical manuals -- 20th century

Advertisements

Periodicals

Reports

Mail order catalogs

Catalogues

Letterheads

Trade cards

Photographs

Manufacturers' catalogs

Citation:

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Scales, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Scales

See more items in:

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Scales

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep82ac49d9e-9fbf-498e-bd9b-8a065224839b

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0060-s01-01-scales

Creator:

Park-Brannock.  Search this

Park, Ernest N.  Search this

Brannock, Otis C.  Search this

Brannock, Charles F., 1903-1992  Search this

Brannock Device Company.  Search this

Names:

Selby Shoe Company  Search this

United States. Armed Forces -- Supplies and stores  Search this

United States. Army -- Supplies and stores  Search this

Extent:

12 Cubic feet (34 boxes)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Patents

Trademarks

Slides (photographs)

Advertisements

Sales records

Photographs

Photographic prints

Filmstrips

Design drawings

Date:

1925 - 1998

Summary:

The Brannock Device Company began with the 1925 invention of the Brannock Device, a tool to measure foot length and width at the same time, by inventor and businessman Charles F. Brannock. Early in his career Brannock worked as a shoe salesman at the Park-Brannock shoe store, and in 1962 he became the CEO of the company. This collection documents both the Park-Brannock store and the Brannock Device. Materials in The Brannock Device Company Records, 1925-1998, include of correspondence, design drawings, United States and foreign patents and trademarks, advertisements, product information, sales records, photographs, and a film strip documenting the invention, promotion, and sale of the Brannock Device as well as the concurrent development of Park-Brannock as a leading shoe store in Syracuse, N.Y.

Scope and Contents:

The Brannock Device Company Records, 1925-1998, consist of correspondence, design drawings, United States and foreign patents and trademarks, advertisements, product information, sales records, photographs, and a film strip documenting the invention, promotion, and sale of the Brannock Device as well as the concurrent development of Park-Brannock as a leading shoe store in Syracuse, NY. The collection is useful to researchers for its stories of invention and entrepreneurship and its exemplification of the patent and trademark process in the United States and internationally in the early 20th century. The process of manufacturing and marketing in the shoe industry, and manufacturing of military supplies during World War II is also highlighted.

Arrangement:

The collection is divided into two subgroups.

Subgroup 1, The Brannock Device Company, 1925-1998

Series 1: Historical Background, 1928-1995

Series 2: Operational Records, 1926-1980

Subseries 1: Book for Recording Devices on Hand, 1927-1929

Subseries 2: Correspondence, 1926-1951

Subseries 3: Census, 1947-1980

Subseries 4: Insurance Inventory, 1956

Subseries 5: Royalties Accrued, 1946-1951

Subseries 6: Time Records, 1952-1958

Subseries 7: Notes, undated

Series 3: Product Development Records, 1925-1981

Subseries 1: Competitors' Devices and Other Products, c. 1928-1981

Subseries 2: Fitting Stool, 1936-1947

Subseries 3: Design, 1925-1975

Subseries 4: Manufacture, 1927-1959

Series 4: Advertising and Marketing Records, 1926-1998

Subseries 1: Correspondence, 1926-1998

Subseries 2: Mailing Lists, 1947-1950

Subseries 3: Ideas and Copy, undated

Subseries 4: Printed Materials with the Brannock Device Name (stationery, business cards, leases), undated

Subseries 5: Advertisements and Product Information, 1934-1980

Subseries 6: Measuring Device Instructions, undated

Subseries 7: Advertising and Merchandising Plans, 1938-1956

Series 5: Sales and Distribution Records, 1925-1986

Subseries 1: United States--Private Sector, 1925-1973

Subseries 2: United States--Military, 1928-1972

Subseries 3: Foreign, 1937-1986

Series 6: Photographs, c. 1930-1997

Subseries 1: Personal, undated

Subseries 2: Foot-Measuring Devices, undated

Subseries 3: Military, undated

Subseries 4: Employees and Factory, undated

Subseries 5: Negatives of Brannock Device, 1933-1958

Subgroup 2, Park-Brannock Shoe Store Records, 1916-1918, 1927-1981

Series 1: Historical Background, 1936-1981

Series 2: Operational Records, 1936-1972

Subseries 1: Financial Materials, 1936-1972

Subseries 2: Financial Materials, 1937-1961

Subseries 3: Business Course Tailored to Park-Brannock, undated

Subseries 4: Business Course Tailored to Park-Brannock, 1935-1961

Subseries 5: New York City Business Trips, 1945-1952

Subseries 6: Miscellaneous Notes, undated

Series 3: Advertising and Marketing Records, 1933-1962

Series 4: Sales Records, 1916-1977

Subseries 1: Customer Correspondence, 1928-1977

Subseries 2: Supplier Correspondence, 1927-1944

Subseries 3: Florsheim Sales Instruction Manual, undated

Subseries 4: Inventories, 1961

Subseries 5: Promotions, undated

Subseries 6: Receipts, 1916-1918

Subseries 7: Sales Floor Management, undated

Series 5: Photographs, 1932-1967

Biographical / Historical:

The Brannock Device Company began with the 1925 invention of the Brannock Device by Charles F. Brannock. Charles Brannock was working as a salesman in the Park-Brannock shoe store, co-owned by his father Otis C. Brannock and Ernest N. Park, in Syracuse, New York when he saw the need for an improved foot-measuring device. The Brannock Device soon gained favor over size-sticks because it measured foot length and width at the same time. Additionally, it measured heel-to-ball length, a feature which aided in fitting heeled shoes.

Charles F. Brannock (1903-1992) was an inventor and businessman. He began tinkering with the idea of a new foot-measuring device while attending Syracuse University, where he would get up in the middle of the night and work on sketches and calculations. Brannock obtained a patent for the device on August 28, 1928, but by then manufacture and sale of the device was already underway. Brannock assembled the device in the Park-Brannock shoe store and gave the device a trial on the sales floor. In 1926, Charles Brannock began offering the device to shoe retailers first on a rental basis and then by sale through the use of salesmen who lived throughout the country and each covered a geographic area. By 1929, the company began to phase out salesmen because it offered quantity discounts to shoe companies which distributed the devices to their stores at a lower price than salesmen could offer.

Brannock sold his device internationally beginning in 1929 through Mr. I. Singer of London, England. In 1936 distribution rights transferred to Henry Maitland Marler of Feature Shoes Limited of London, an affiliate of the Selby Shoe Company. Renewing and protecting foreign trademarks proved to be a legal challenge. Due to some confusion, Brannock's British patent was allowed to lapse. In order to prevent other companies from using the Brannock name in England, H.M. Marler set up Brannock Fitting Device Limited in October 1937. The company began manufacturing Brannock Devices in January 1946, but royalties accrued through European sale by 1951 did not even cover a third of the cost of trademarks, patents, and designs.

Fortunately for the Brannock Device Company, these costs were absorbed by the Selby Shoe Company, with whom it had entered into agreements about foreign distribution in November 1941. Selby had exclusive rights to distribute the Brannock Device in South America, South Africa, and other countries, and assisted Brannock in securing trademarks in many foreign countries.

In 1933 a United States Navy captain asked a shoe salesman to find the source of many sailors' foot problems. The salesman, after measuring sailors' feet with the Brannock device, declared that the Navy shoe was not the cause of the problem; the sailors were simply wearing the wrong size shoes. The captain was so happy that he would not have to order special shoes for his men that he wrote an article in the July 1933 issue of United States Naval Institute Proceedings which described how the Brannock Device had eliminated foot troubles aboard the ship. This gave Brannock an opportunity to promote his device in the Navy by sending the article to other ships. He calibrated his device for use in other branches of the military and by World War II the Brannock Device was being used by most of the armed forces. Several articles were written about the greater foot comfort enjoyed by the military after the introduction of the device. Charles Brannock was proud of his small but widespread role in the war effort and in the comfort of America's enlisted men and women.

Through the years Charles Brannock developed many different models of his device, including the women's, men's, junior, growing girl's, athletic, ski-boot, and military models. In 1947, Brannock moved the device company to a machine shop at 509 East Fayette Street in Syracuse, where it remained for 50 years.

Brannock advertised both the store and the device in local papers, and the device in trade literature such as Boot and Shoe Recorder. He encouraged other shoe stores to promote themselves by using the device in their advertising. He also attended the annual National Shoe Fair in Chicago from 1938 to 1968 in order to promote the device as well as learn about shoe-fashion trends for the Park-Brannock shoe store.

Concurrently, Charles Brannock also played a significant role in the Park-Brannock shoe store. His father, Otis C. Brannock and Ernest N. Park founded Park-Brannock in 1906 in a small store at 321 South Salina Street, focusing on women's shoes. In February 1937, they moved to a three-story building at 427 South Salina Street. Finally, in 1946, a six-story store was built at 473-475 South Salina Street through 129 East Onondaga Street. While waiting for the newest store to be built, Park-Brannock temporarily moved to the Chimes Building at 510-512 South Salina Street and 113 West Onondaga Street. Park-Brannock gained fame in Syracuse for a wide selection of men's, women's and children's shoes, handbags, millinery, hose, and accessories. In an advertisement, the store declared itself "one of America's finest shoe stores." The design of the two newer stores was state-of-the-art, and Park-Brannock was featured in shoe magazine articles. For example, the men's department was designed to look like a great room inside a ship. Charles Brannock became the CEO of Park-Brannock after both his father and Ernest Park died in 1962. Park-Brannock closed its doors in 1981, after the Hotel Syracuse offered to purchase the property for its new Hilton Tower.

Charles Brannock died on November 22, 1992, at the age of 89. The company was purchased in 1993 from the Brannock Estate by Salvatore Leonardi. Leonardi continues to manufacture Brannock devices in a small factory in Liverpool, New York. Over a million Brannock Devices have been manufactured, and it remains the shoe industry standard

Related Materials:

Materials at the National Museum of American History

Artifacts (several Brannock Devices and competitors' devices) are in the Division of Culture and the Arts (now Division of Cultural and Community Life) and the Division of Armed Forces History (now Division of Political and Military History).

Provenance:

The collection was donated to the National Museum of American History by Salvatore Leonardi on November 4, 1998.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.

Gloves must be worn when handling unprotected photographs and negatives.

Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning intellectual property rights. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Topic:

World War, 1939-1945 -- Equipment and supplies  Search this

Show-windows -- New York -- Syracuse  Search this

Shoes -- Sizes  Search this

Shoe industry -- New York -- Syracuse  Search this

Shoes -- Fitting  Search this

Shoe machinery  Search this

Foot -- Measurement  Search this

Design, Industrial -- New York -- Syracuse  Search this

Military supplies  Search this

Measuring instruments industry  Search this

Measuring instruments  Search this

Genre/Form:

Patents

Trademarks

Slides (photographs)

Advertisements

Sales records

Photographs -- Black-and-white negatives -- Glass -- 1890-1920

Photographs -- 20th century

Photographic prints

Filmstrips

Design drawings

Citation:

Brannock Device Company Records, dates, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0672

See more items in:

Brannock Device Company Records

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep884ed7f98-35b5-4cce-998a-fac08db27ab5

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0672

Names:

Public Schools of the District of Columbia  Search this

Collection Photographer:

Apeda Studio (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Camuzzi, M.  Search this

Harris & Ewing  Search this

Collection Creator:

Sommariva, Emilio, Photographer, 1883-1956  Search this

Harris, Fred (photographer)  Search this

Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)  Search this

Extent:

59 Pages (7 1/2 x 12 inches.)

Type:

Archival materials

Pages

Catalogues

Place:

Washington (D.C.) -- African Americans

Date:

1902-1903

Biographical / Historical:

Armstrong Manual Training School, built in 1902, was authorized by congress as a vocational high school for African American youth in Washington, DC. The school was named for Samuel C. Armstrong (1839-1893), a white commander of an African American Civil War regiment and founder of Hampton Institute, now University. Designed by local architect Waddy B. Wood, the Renaissance Revival building provided carpentry, machine, foundry, and blacksmith workshops. In addition, the school taught chemistry and physics. Dr. Wilson Bruce Evans, the father of performing artist Lillian Evans Tibbs, served as founding principal. Duke Ellington, William "Billy"Eckstein, and John Malachi are among a host of Armstrong graduates who became prominent in their profession. In 1996 the school was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in the District of Columbia.

Collection Restrictions:

Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist at acmarchives@si.edu.

Collection Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Topic:

African Americans  Search this

Genre/Form:

Catalogues

Collection Citation:

Evans-Tibbs collection, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution, gift of the Estate of Thurlow E. Tibbs, Jr.

Identifier:

ACMA.06-016, Item ACMA 06-016.2

See more items in:

Evans-Tibbs Collection

Evans-Tibbs Collection / Series 1: Lillian Evans Tibbs papers / 1.1: Biographical Materials / Wilson Bruce Evans--Armstrong Manual Training School

Archival Repository:

Anacostia Community Museum Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/qa709f608e6-1f0d-43ce-b393-f179dc537c4b

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-acma-06-016-ref1278

Publisher:

Watson, J. Forbes (John Forbes), 1827-1892.  Search this

Kaye, John William, Sir, 1814-1876  Search this

Collection Publisher:

Watson, J. Forbes (John Forbes), 1827-1892.  Search this

Kaye, John William, Sir, 1814-1876  Search this

Extent:

1 Volume

Container:

Box 11

Culture:

Hindus  Search this

Muslims  Search this

Christians  Search this

Malay  Search this

Type:

Archival materials

Books

Volumes

Local Numbers:

FSA A1990.03 8

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Topic:

Indigenous peoples -- South Asia  Search this

Ethnography -- South Asia  Search this

Collection Citation:

The People of India. FSA.A1990.03. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Purchase.

Identifier:

FSA.A1990.03, Series FSA A1990.03 8

See more items in:

The People of India: A Series of Photographic Illustrations, with Descriptive Letterpress, of the Races and Tribes of Hindustan

Archival Repository:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc39ad05066-9319-4b1b-a92c-244db95fc32e

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-fsa-a1990-03-ref8

Company Name:

Thomas A. Edison, Inc.  Search this

Related companies:

Emark Battery Div. ; Edison Storage Battery Div. ; Edison Storage Battery Co. ... See also Edison Electric Light Co. ; Edison Lamp Works of General Electric Co. ; Edison Portland Cement Co. ; Edison Electric Institute ; Edison Electric Illuminating Co. of New York ; Edison-Splitdorf Corp. ; Edison Mfg. Co. ; Edison Swan Electric Co., Ltd. ; Edison Electric Pen & Writing Agency ; Edison Phonoplex ; Edison Co. for Isolated Lighting ; Edison Phonograph Works ; A.B. Dick Co. ; General Electric ; Edison Blue Amberol ; National Phonograph Co.  Search this

Notes content:

One item OVERSIZE - Music re-creation discs (unique item). Aircraft instruments ; automatic valves ; thermometers ; thermostats ; relays ; "EDiphones" electronic dictation machines ; Emark batteries ; radio receivers ; catalogs of record releases ; phonographs ; "Edison" steel alkaline storage batteries ; nickel, iron, alkaline storage batteries for industrial trucks, marine power, and light systems ; battery charge test forks ; electric safety mine lamps ; motorcycle batteries; Edison Blue Amberol records ; cylinder records ; projecting kinetoscopes

Includes:

Trade catalog, price lists, manual and histories

Black and white images

Color images

Physical description:

201 pieces; 7 boxes

Language:

English

Type of material:

Trade catalogs

Trade literature

Place:

Orange, New Jersey, United States

Date range:

1800s-1900s

Topic (Romaine term):

Automobiles and automotive equipment (including trucks and buses)  Search this

Aviation (aircraft; balloons; etc.)  Search this

Boats and ships (including marine hardware and supplies)  Search this

Electrical apparatus and equipment  Search this

Hardware and hand tools  Search this

Heating; ventilation and air conditioning  Search this

Lighting (electric; gas; candle; oil; etc.)  Search this

Measuring; calculating and testing devices  Search this

Mining machinery; equipment and supplies  Search this

Motorcycles  Search this

Office equipment and supplies  Search this

Photographic equipment and supplies  Search this

Radios and radio equipment  Search this

Scientific and optical instruments  Search this

Sound recording and playback equipment (including phonographs; microphones; and phonograph records)  Search this

Topic:

Aeronautics  Search this

Air conditioning  Search this

Airplanes  Search this

Airships  Search this

Audio equipment industry  Search this

Automobiles  Search this

Balloons  Search this

Boats and boating  Search this

Calculators  Search this

Cameras  Search this

Candles  Search this

Electric apparatus and appliances  Search this

Hardware  Search this

Heating  Search this

Heating and ventilation industry  Search this

Lamps  Search this

Lighting  Search this

Marine machinery  Search this

Measuring instruments  Search this

Mining machinery industry  Search this

Motor vehicles  Search this

Motorcycle supplies industry  Search this

Office equipment and supplies industry  Search this

Optical instruments  Search this

Phonograph  Search this

Photographic industry  Search this

Record ID:

SILNMAHTL_14401

Location:

Trade Literature at the American History Museum Library

Collection:

Smithsonian Libraries Trade Literature Collections

Data source:

Smithsonian Libraries

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:SILNMAHTL_14401

Variant company name:

Since 1873  Search this

Company Name:

Hammel, Riglander & Co., Inc.  Search this

Notes content:

tools, supplies, and equipment for jewelers, watchmakers, clock repair, instruments, electronics, opticians, engravers, craftsmen, school shops, laboratories, silversmiths, metal workers, and die sinkers ; safety equipment ; oil ; lubricants ; "Ceramit" colors

Includes:

Trade catalog

Black and white images

Color images

Physical description:

1 piece; 1 box

Language:

English

Type of material:

Trade catalogs

Trade literature

Place:

New York, New York, United States

Date:

1900s

Topic (Romaine term):

Clocks and watches (including clock-making and watch-making equipment)  Search this

Educational institutions; equipment and supplies (includes playground equipment)  Search this

Electrical apparatus and equipment  Search this

Hardware and hand tools  Search this

Jewelry  Search this

Laboratories and laboratory supplies and equipment  Search this

Measuring; calculating and testing devices  Search this

Metalwork products (architectural and ornamental)  Search this

Paint; varnishes; adhesives; coatings; etc.  Search this

Scientific and optical instruments  Search this

Topic:

"Laboratories -- Furniture, equipment, etc."  Search this

"Schools -- Furniture, equipment, etc."  Search this

Adhesives  Search this

Architectural metal-work  Search this

Art metal-work  Search this

Calculators  Search this

Clocks and watches  Search this

Electric apparatus and appliances  Search this

Hardware  Search this

Jewelry  Search this

Measuring instruments  Search this

Metal-work  Search this

Optical instruments  Search this

Paint industry and trade  Search this

Playgrounds  Search this

Scientific apparatus and instruments  Search this

Tools  Search this

Weighing instruments  Search this

Record ID:

SILNMAHTL_45426

Collection:

Smithsonian Libraries Trade Literature Collections

Data source:

Smithsonian Libraries

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:SILNMAHTL_45426

Collection Creator:

American Petroleum Institute.  Search this

Container:

Box 24, Folder 16

Type:

Archival materials

Date:

undated

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.

Collection Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Reproduction permission from Archives Center: fees for commercial use.

Collection Citation:

American Petroleum Institute Photograph and Film Collection, 1860s-1990 (bulk 1955-1990), Archives Center, National Museum of American History

See more items in:

American Petroleum Institute Photograph and Film Collection

American Petroleum Institute Photograph and Film Collection / Series 1: Historical Photographs, 1850s-1950s / 1.29: Research, 1920-1957

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep82d8cd774-1fc1-4fc0-a328-715fa62ca4d7

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0711-ref1236

Collection Creator:

Brown, Brian Ivan  Search this

Kearns, Robert W.  Search this

Kearns, Timothy  Search this

Quan, John  Search this

Container:

Box 12, Folder 3-4

Type:

Archival materials

Date:

1957 - 1968

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.

Collection Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Collection Citation:

Robert W. Kearns Papers, 1963-1992, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

See more items in:

Robert W. Kearns Papers

Robert W. Kearns Papers / Series 3: Patents / 3.1: Robert W. Kearns Patents

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8bfe41d8d-3ad6-40b1-b61a-485e41f50299

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-1406-ref284

Maker:

Berge, Matthew  Search this

Measurements:

sextant: 10 5/8 in x 9 1/4 in x 3 9/16 in; 26.9875 cm x 23.495 cm x 9.04875 cm

box: 11 1/4 in x 12 3/4 in x 4 3/4 in; 28.575 cm x 32.385 cm x 12.065 cm

overall in box: 4 13/16 in x 11 1/4 in x 12 1/2 in; 12.22375 cm x 28.575 cm x 31.75 cm

Object Name:

sextant

Place made:

United Kingdom: England, London

Date made:

1800-1819

Credit Line:

Wells Morris, Jr.

ID Number:

1981.0744.01

Accession number:

1981.0744

Catalog number:

1981.0744.01

See more items in:

Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences

Navigation

Measuring & Mapping

Data Source:

National Museum of American History

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746aa-2d7c-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:nmah_1183754

Creator:

Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969  Search this

Extent:

6.02 Cubic feet (consisting of 10 boxes, 3 half boxes, 1 folder, 8 oversize folders, 1 map case folder, 1 flat box (partial). )

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Ephemera

Business ephemera

Date:

circa 1750-1970

Summary:

A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Aviation forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subseries 1.1: Subject Categories. The Subject Categories subseries is divided into 470 subject categories based on those created by Mr. Warshaw. These subject categories include topical subjects, types or forms of material, people, organizations, historical events, and other categories. An overview to the entire Warshaw collection is available here: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana

Scope and Contents note:

This material consists of information from a number of different businesses related to the manufacture, development and design of airplanes and other aircraft. There is also a substantial amount of material from airline companies and from companies involved in the manufacture and production of aeronautical parts and supplies. A number of these companies were involved in manufacturing engines and were automobile manufacturers. Other parts and supplies include aircraft measuring instruments, radiators, wings, tires, carburetors, and fabric. These companies tend to have catalogues of the aircraft that they manufacture including information on controls, wheel retraction, fuel system, cabin construction, etc. The aircraft is manufactured for commercial, military, sporting and personal use. A small amount of material concerning companies involved in aerial advertising, aerial photography and map making is included. There is also information on businesses that served as agents for people who performed acts relating to aviation particularly at amusement parks and fairs. There is very little information from clubs, associations and training schools.

The material consists primarily of scattered correspondence on letterhead stationery, printed advertisements, articles, catalogues, menus from airline companies, luggage tags, timetables,postcards, lithographs,photographs, company publications, bulletins, newspaper clippings, early advertisements, reports, periodicals, pamphlets, patents, and books. There is a substantial amount of images including photographs and lithographs of airplanes, airships and balloons. A file of visual references was made by staff consisting of images of aircraft used by companies to advertise their products. There is also information on Lindbergh and Byrd mainly articles, photographs or programs honoring them.

Publications relating to aviation include topics such as aeronautical occupations, linking rail and air transportation, problems with improving aircraft, airplanes in warfare, aircraft safety and a chronology of the development and utilization of aircraft.

Arrangement note:

Materials in box one and two are information from airline companies and are arranged by name of company. Box three, four and five consist of manufacturers and dealers of aeronautical parts and supplies and are also arranged by name of company. Box six contains general images mainly photographs and lithographs. Publications including periodicals, bulletins and newsletters devoted in the interest of the aviation field is in box seven. The publications are arranged in alphabetical order. Box eight and nine are arranged by type including newspaper clippings, manuals, early advertisements dating from the late eighteenth century,maps, catalogues, programs, patents, etc. Articles, pamphlets and books discussing various topics related to aviation are in box ten. These publications are also arranged by type. Box eleven also has books on aviation but the bulk of the material is bulletins from the War Department and are arranged by date.

Materials in the Archives Center:

Archives Center Collection of Business Americana (AC0404)

Forms Part Of:

Forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana.

Missing Title

Series 1: Business Ephemera

Series 2: Other Collection Divisions

Series 3: Isadore Warshaw Personal Papers

Series 4: Photographic Reference Material

Provenance:

Aviation is a portion of the Business Ephemera Series of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060 purchased from Isadore Warshaw in 1967. Warshaw continued to accumulate similar material until his death, which was donated in 1971 by his widow, Augusta. For a period after acquisition, related materials from other sources (of mixed provenance) were added to the collection so there may be content produced or published after Warshaw's death in 1969. This practice has since ceased.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.

Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Genre/Form:

Ephemera

Business ephemera

Citation:

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Aviation, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Aviation

See more items in:

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Aviation

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8f7ed06f0-e6e8-4268-aff7-9a19fb481e4d

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0060-s01-01-aviation

Company Name:

Rockwell International  Search this

Related companies:

Fincor Div. (York , PA) ; Rockwell Automation ; Allen-Bradley ; Municipal & Utility Div. (Pittsburgh, PA)  Search this

Notes content:

Portable electric screwdriver ; industrial drives ; motor controllers ; Rockwell Model "S" manual parking meters

Includes:

Trade catalog and manual

Black and white images

Physical description:

11 pieces; 1 box

Language:

English

Type of material:

Trade catalogs

Trade literature

Place:

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States

Date:

1900s

Topic (Romaine term):

Automobiles and automotive equipment (including trucks and buses)  Search this

Engines and motors: steam; oil; gas; etc.  Search this

Hardware and hand tools  Search this

Measuring; calculating and testing devices  Search this

Topic:

Automobiles  Search this

Calculators  Search this

Engines  Search this

Hardware  Search this

Measuring instruments  Search this

Motor vehicles  Search this

Motors  Search this

Tools  Search this

Weighing instruments  Search this

Record ID:

SILNMAHTL_14159

Location:

Trade Literature at the American History Museum Library

Collection:

Smithsonian Libraries Trade Literature Collections

Data source:

Smithsonian Libraries

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:SILNMAHTL_14159

Company Name:

Thermo Electron Corp.  Search this

Related companies:

Thermo Instrument Systems Inc. (Santa Fe, NM) ; Thermo Jarrell Ash Corp. (Franklin, MA) ; Thermo Electron Web Systems, Inc. (Auburn, MA) ; Labsystems Oy ; Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. ; Fisher Scientific International, Inc.  Search this

Notes content:

Analytical instruments to detect and measure air pollution, nuclear radioactivity, complex chemical compounds, toxic metals, etc. ; spectrometers. 1992 Annual Report.

Includes:

Trade catalog

Black and white images

Color images

Physical description:

9 pieces; 2 boxes

Language:

English

Type of material:

Trade catalogs

Trade literature

Place:

Waltham, Massachusetts, United States

Date:

1900s

Topic (Romaine term):

Laboratories and laboratory supplies and equipment  Search this

Measuring; calculating and testing devices  Search this

Topic:

"Laboratories -- Furniture, equipment, etc."  Search this

Calculators  Search this

Measuring instruments  Search this

Weighing instruments  Search this

Record ID:

SILNMAHTL_25126

Location:

Trade Literature at the American History Museum Library

Collection:

Smithsonian Libraries Trade Literature Collections

Data source:

Smithsonian Libraries

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:SILNMAHTL_25126