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Western Electric Co., Inc. was an American electrical engineering and company that operated from 1869 to 1996. A subsidiary of the AT&T Corporation for most of its lifespan, Western Electric was the primary manufacturer, supplier, and purchasing agent for all telephone equipment for the from 1881 until 1984, when the Bell System was dismantled. Because the Bell System had a near-total over telephone service in the United States for much of the 20th century, Western Electric's equipment was widespread across the country. The company was responsible for many technological innovations, as well as developments in industrial management.


History

19th century
In 1856, George Shawk, a craftsman and maker, purchased an electrical engineering business in , Ohio.

In January 1869, Shawk had partnered with Enos M. Barton in the former repair shop of Cleveland, to manufacture burglar alarms, fire alarms, and other electrical items. Both men were former Western Union employees. Shawk was the Cleveland shop foreman and Barton, was a telegrapher from Rochester, New York. During their partnership, one customer was an inventor sourcing parts and models for experiments. That inventor was , a former physics professor at . Barton thought of future growth in electrical apparatus potential for the company and shared a common enthusiasm with the inventor, who was interested in leading a manufacturing plant capable of long-term developments.

Shawk found those plans were beyond his business goals and offered to sell his half-interest partnership to Gray. , a former Chief of the U.S. Military Telegraphs during the American Civil War, advanced money for Gray to buy the half-interest and become a partner when Gray and Barton moved operations to . Gray and Barton previously knew Stager and an agreement was signed on November 18, 1869, to launch the company as Gray & Barton. The firm was open for business by the end of the year in Chicago. In December 1869, the location was at 162 South Water Street in Chicago. On December 31, 1869, Stager entered a partnership with Barton, and later sold his share to inventor Gray. In 1872, Barton and Gray moved the business to Clinton Street, and incorporated it as the Western Electric Manufacturing Company on the Near West Side of Chicago. They manufactured a variety of electrical products including typewriters, alarms, and lighting and had a close relationship with telegraph company , to whom they supplied relays and other equipment. In 1875, Gray sold his interests to Western Union, including the that he had filed against Alexander Graham Bell's application for the . The ensuing legal battle between Western Union and the Bell Telephone Company over patent rights ended in 1879 with Western Union withdrawing from the telephone market and Bell acquiring Western Electric in 1881. This purchase was a crucial step in standardizing telephone instruments and concentrating manufacturing in a single entity.

In the company's first few years as Western Electric, there were five manufacturing locations located at Chicago (220-232 Kinzie St.) New York, Boston, Indianapolis and Antwerp, Belgium. The locations were not permanent, as the headquarters in Chicago had moved to a new building on Clinton Street, the New York shop had moved two city blocks to a new building on Greenwich Street, and both Boston and Indianapolis factories closed. The Antwerp location was at the same location under Western Electric operations until sold in 1925 to ITT.

In April 1879, the New York shop was located at 62-68 New Church Street, Lower Manhattan, New York. Western Union had a factory at that location and the Western Electric company known as W.E. Mfg. Co., at the time, had purchased Western Union's New York Factory to continue the increase of phone production. This site would also place the end to Western Union factories.

The Boston shop was located at 109-115 Court Street and it was previously known as the Charles Williams, Jr factory that was purchased by Western Electric in 1882. The consolidation of operations was done in 1884 to Chicago and New York factories by Charles Williams becoming a Western Electric Manager.

In 1888–1889, Western Electric built a 10-story factory building at 125 Greenwich Street in Lower Manhattan, to manufacture some of the first telephones. The New York shop that was renting the Western Union building moved to this building.

In preparation for the Chicago Worlds Fair of 1892, Western Electric was responsible for the organized Bell System sales activities and merchandising of apparatus for the 900 long-distance circuit from New York to Chicago. In 1897, the building at 463 West Street, New York was constructed and housed the New York shop as well as the company Eastern headquarters.

Western Electric was the first company to join in a Japanese joint venture with foreign capital. In 1899, it invested in a 54% share of the Western Electric's representative in Japan was Walter Tenney Carleton. The company, later known as NEC, would eventually become a major international manufacturer of electronics equipment including semiconductors and personal computers.


20th century
In 1901, Western Electric secretly purchased a controlling interest in a principal competitor, the Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company, but in 1909 was forced by a lawsuit to sell back to Milo Kellogg.

The Manufacturers Junction Railway Company was incorporated in January 1903 to provide rail connections to major railroad systems. There were approximately 13 miles of track in and out of Hawthorne Works for rail freight of inbound materials and outbound finished products. Western Electric had a tenure of 50 years up to 1952, in the responsibility and operation of its use for Hawthorne and other nearby industrial companies.

Also, in 1903, the construction of Hawthorne Works first buildings were authorized by Barton.

In 1907, the research and development staffs of Western Electric and AT&T were consolidated to 463 West Street, New York. The location served the newly Western Electric Engineering Department for the responsibility of the testing and inspection of its telephones and equipment. AT&T's Engineering Department retained the responsibility for the growth of the Bell System with compatible equipment and service. Gradually the consolidation improved and advanced the telephony response to expanding use.

On July 24, 1915, employees of the boarded the in downtown Chicago for a company picnic. The ship rolled over at the dock and 844 people died.

In 1920, Alice Heacock Seidel was the first female Western Electric employee given permission to stay on after she had married. This set a precedent in the company, which previously had not allowed in their employ. Heacock had worked for Western Electric for sixteen years before her marriage, and was at the time the highest-paid secretary in the company. In her memoirs, she wrote that the decision to allow her to stay on "required a meeting of the top executives to decide whether I might remain with the Company, for it established a precedent and a new policy for the Company – that of married women in their employ. If the women at the top were permitted to remain after marriage then all women would expect the same privilege. The policy was expanded quickly, so that a few years later women were given maternity leaves with no loss of time on their service records."

Western Electric was expanding beyond making telephone equipment and American Bell noticed its division from a manufacturing business to a supply business. Western Electric in 1921 split the supply department from the manufacturing business, and this led to a separate entity.

In 1925, purchased the Bell Telephone Manufacturing Company of Brussels, Belgium, and other worldwide subsidiaries from AT&T, to avoid an antitrust action. The company manufactured switching equipment under the Western Electric brand.

(2025). 9784274906114, IOS Press. .

Western Electric also managed an electrical equipment distribution business, furnishing its customers with non-telephone products made by other manufacturers. This electrical distribution business was spun off from Western Electric in 1925 and organized into a separate company, Graybar Electric Company, in honor of the company's founders, Elisha Gray and Enos Barton.

(2018). 9781351836166, CRC Press. .

Bell Telephone Laboratories, created from the engineering department of Western Electric in 1925, was half-owned by Western Electric, the other half belonging to AT&T.

The company began to increase its presence in other sectors of industry for new products. In September 1931, the Teletype Corporation headquartered in Chicago on Wrightwood Ave, became a subsidiary of Western Electric and it was a manufacturer of teletypewriters for TWX services. There was the acquisition in 1931 of the Nassau Smelting and Refining plant located in Totenville, Staten Island, New York to recycle Bell System scrap wire, metal, and becoming a subsidiary of Western Electric. The acquisition of the Queensboro factory in Middle Village, New York became a Western Electric Shop in the 1930s to produce wooden telephone booths.

In 1974, the IBEW members at Western Electric's 16 plants went on strike over improved benefits, cost‐of‐living adjustments, and pay increase for up to three years. The ratified contract was agreed on September 3, 1974, with employees at 13 plants returning to work. Only the company's subsidiary Teletype Corporation plant in Little Rock, Arkansas and two plants, the Columbia River Switching Equipment factory in Vancouver, Washington and in San Ramon, California were subject to ratification or in negotiations to settle local agreements.

In 1983, corporate announcements were made at the three oldest manufacturing facilities for product manufacturing transfers and employee expected layoffs. The Kearny Works facility that made systems to convert commercial power to run various telecom equipment, would transfer remaining work to Dallas Works. The shutdown of the plant would eliminate 4,000 jobs. The Baltimore Works facility that made connectors and protectors for wire and cable had work moved to Omaha Works. A total of 2,300 jobs were potentially eliminated after that announcement. The Hawthorne Works facility, had the operations for pulp cable relocated to Phoenix Works. A loss of 400 positions were expected eliminated in the process.

After the Bell System breakup, Western Electric facilities were known as AT&T Technologies facilities in 1984. The three largest and oldest facilities, Hawthorne Works, Kearny Works, and Baltimore Works were closed shortly after due to "excess space".


Company logos
Western Electric used various logos during its existence. Starting in 1914 it used an image of a statue originally named Electricity, but later renamed Spirit of Communication, which was raised to the roof of 195 Broadway on October 24, 1916.


Presidents
+Presidents
1825–1885
1845–1886
1842–1916
1858–1936
1870–1940
b.-d.?
b.-d.?
1890–1966
1902–1994
b.- d.?
1907–1973
1908–1996
b.?-1998
1923–2016


Development of a monopoly
In 1915, the assets of Western Electric Manufacturing were transferred to a newly incorporated company in New York, New York, named Western Electric Company, Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T. The sole reason for the transfer was to provide for the issuance of a non-voting preferred class of capital stock, disallowed under the statutes of the state of Illinois.

In the Bell System, telephones were leased by the operating companies to subscribers, and remained the property of the Bell System. Service subscribers paid a monthly fee included in the service charge, while paying additionally for special types or features of telephones, such as colored telephone sets. Equipment repair was included in the fees. This system had the effect of subsidizing basic telephone service, keeping local telephone service inexpensive, under $10 per month. After divestiture, basic service prices increased, and customers became responsible for inside building wiring and telephone equipment. The Bell System had an extensive policy and infrastructure to recycle or refurbish equipment taken out of service, replacing all defective, weak, or otherwise unusable parts for new installations. This resulted in extraordinary longevity of Western Electric telephones, and limited the variety of new designs introduced into the market place.

(1984). 9780961143206, Center for the Study of Services.
This led Western Electric to pursue extreme reliability and durability in design to minimize service calls. In particular, the work of Walter A. Shewhart, who developed new techniques for statistical quality control in the 1920s, helped lead to the quality of manufacture of Western Electric telephones.

AT&T also strictly enforced policies against using telephone equipment by other manufacturers on their network. A customer who insisted on using a telephone not supplied by the Bell System had to first transfer the phone to the local Bell operating company, who leased the phone back to the customer for a monthly charge in addition to a re-wiring fee. In the 1970s when consumers increasingly bought telephone sets from other manufacturers, AT&T changed the policy for its Design Line telephone series by selling customers the phone housing, retaining ownership of the internal mechanical and electrical components, which still required paying AT&T a monthly leasing fee.

Starting in 1983 with the breakup of the Bell System, Western Electric telephones could be sold to the public under the brand name American Bell, a newly created subsidiary of AT&T. One of the terms of the Modification of Final Judgment in the Bell System divestiture procedures prohibited AT&T from using the name Bell after January 1, 1984; prior to this, AT&T's plan was to market products and services under the American Bell name, accompanied by the now familiar AT&T globe logo.


Manufacturing plants
In 1903, Western Electric began construction of the first buildings for on the outskirts of . In 1905, the Clinton Street power apparatus shops moved to Hawthorne.

Further expansion of large factories began in the 1920s. In 1923, construction began on the second factory located in Kearny, New Jersey. The location was known as Kearny Works and in 1925 began telephone cable production. On June 15, 1928, Western Electric employees, photographed by Rosenfeld and Sons, were pictured, in a groundbreaking ceremony, for their expansion of the Kearny Works manufacturing facility at 110 Central Ave, Kearny, New Jersey. Kearny Works would achieve the largest square foot size of 3,579,000 throughout the years and be the second largest plant for Western Electric manufacturing plants built before the 1930s, only second in size to the at Cicero, Illinois. Here is an aerial image of Kearny Works, between 1925 and 1930, held in the Library Company of Philadelphia. with the picture of the entire plant and railways. In 1929, work began at Point Breeze, Baltimore, Maryland as the third manufacturing location, Baltimore Works, began its occupancy by 1930 for various cable and wire production.

Two manufacturing plants in Lincoln, Nebraska were leased in 1943 to Western Electric to manufacture signal corps equipment and later production demands from Hawthorne Works. The Eighth Street building, known as "Lincoln Shops," and the 13th Street building were the locations, the latter was sold in 1950 for $500,000 to Western Electric. The plants were closed after the Omaha Works opened in 1958.

Western Electric acquired in 1943, the old Grad and Winchell buildings located at Haverhill, Massachusetts. New Jersey supervisors taught former textile and shoe workers the manufacturing process of coil winding. The employees' acquired skills demonstrated their versatility in this new manufacturing process for a Western Electric decision to join Haverhill and Lawrence locations in 1956 as the Merrimack Valley Works.

In 1944, Western Electric purchased a factory in St. Paul, Minnesota to restart manufacture of telephone sets for civilian installation as authorized by War Production Board. By 1946, some of these facilities were relocated to the Hawthorne plant as space became available from war-production scale down.

Also, the reduced production of home telephones because of the war, began to have a backlog of two million orders in late 1945 for the Hawthorne plant. Western Electric had acquired a former Studebaker plant on Archer Avenue (Chicago, Illinois) for assemblers that produced out one hundred thousand Model 302s telephones by March 1946.

After World War II, the National Carbon Company left a facility that had manufactured United States Navy submarine batteries and underwater detonators in Winston-Salem. This facility at 800 Chatham Road, was passed to Western Electric Company and operated until 1966 for production of national telephone companies' switches and circuits. Additionally, the location complex was one of three nationwide Western Electric field engineering sites.

The mid-1940s brought occupancy to locations. A plant was established in 1946 at Tonawanda, New York to produce equipment wiring cable, telephone cords, enamelled wire, and insulated wire. This plant was called "Buffalo Plant." A satellite shop was established in Jersey City, New Jersey called "Marion Shops" and occupied in 1947. This location produced portable test sets, rectifiers, and power equipment for the main plant known as the Kearny Works. In July 1948, the equipment plant at Duluth, Minnesota was involved in the National Labors Act with bargaining units of IAM and IBEW.

Between 1947 and 1961, eight Works locations were built and occupied, located in Allentown, Pennsylvania, , Winston-Salem, North Carolina, , Omaha, Nebraska, Columbus, Ohio, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Kansas City, Missouri for the high volume of manufacturing products. The North Carolina Works was located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The Merrimack Valley Works location was in North Andover, Massachusetts. The Kansas City Works location was in Lee's Summit, Missouri.

A Lawrence, Massachusetts factory opened on November 13, 1951, and was called the "Garfield Shops." The location started with as a wired units job and there were thirteen workers with a section chief and one maintenance man. In 1955, the Lawrence plant reached its peak employment at more than 2,000 employees. This Bell Labs research and development satellite had 40 Bell Telephone Laboratories engineers and 25 Western Electric employees. Carrier equipment used filters made with Polystyrene condensers at this Garfield Shops or later referred as Lawrence Shops.

In 1952, the Reading, Pennsylvania plant began when Western Electric converted an old Rosedale knitting mill in Laureldale into a factory. On August 22, 1952, the facility opened to produce new electronic components for the U.S. government for use by the military and the space program.

In the mid-1950s, Western Electric established several more satellite "Shops" that were smaller locations reporting to the larger "Works" locations. The "Montgomery Shops" were occupied in 1955 to produce Data-Phone data sets, wire spring relays, and test sets. Although, it was located in Montgomery, Illinois, it reported and supported production of the main plant, Hawthorne Works in Cicero, Illinois. The Kearny Works facility had satellite shops that were apart from its location but were part of the manufacturing process. Located in Fair Lawn, New Jersey and occupied since 1956, the "Fair Lawn Shops" produced coils, resistors, transformers, and keys under Kearny manufacturing. The Indianapolis Works facility was producing telephone sets and components with a satellite shop. The Indianapolis shop known as "Washington Street Shop" produced miscellaneous subscriber apparatus since its occupancy in 1957. The "Lawrence Shop" that was occupied in 1957 produced BELLBoy receivers, telephone repeaters and carrier products under Merrimack Valley Works. The "Clark Shop" was occupied in 1959 at Clark, New Jersey and manufactured submarine cable repeaters and components. The satellite shop was under Kearny Works.

The 1960s and 1970s had various new facilities built and occupied by Western Electric to produce new technologies such as electronic switching equipment (Dallas and North Illinois), fiber optic cable networks (Atlanta), power systems (Phoenix), business equipment (Denver), and telephone equipment (Shreveport).

In 1970, Western Electric purchased land in Bishop Ranch, San Ramon, California for a permanent plant. The 200,000 square-foot leased plant began in June 1971. In 1974, there were 490 IBEW employee members on strike over local agreement issues. In 1975, this San Ramon Valley Plant announced a September 30 closure of its telephone transmission equipment manufacturing operations.

On January 27, 1983, the Kearny facility was announced for closure due to technology changes, underutilized, and too costly to maintain. The phase out of the facility jobs started in fall of 1983 and the 59 year old, 3 million-square-foot, 144-acre facility was sold officially on May 21, 1984, with nearly 1000 last employees left at the plant. The former facility was purchased and later existed as warehouses, distribution, research and light manufacturing facilities.

As modern facilities around the country were used for the operations of Hawthorne and its productions distributed, announcement was made on June 24, 1983, for closure. Between 1975 and 1983, the Foundry and most of the Telephone Apparatus buildings were demolished and in 1986–1987, the remaining Telephone Apparatus buildings and the Executive Tower were demolished. The Hawthorne facility was in operations for 83 years when it closed its doors in 1986 and torn down for a shopping center. Another building was demolished on April 10, 1994, for a shopping center parking lot, with a remaining two buildings converted. A water tower is the remaining physical association of the industrial research complex where telephones, electronics, military equipment and business management innovations were produced by a facility that once existed.

The Baltimore facility closed on February 28, 1986. The facility, which had once employed 6,200, was staffed by 65 employees on the closure date.

By the time AT&T was dissolved in the early 1980s, more than twenty production plants around the country ("Works" locations) had been established.

(1985). 9780801827105, Johns Hopkins University Press. .

In 1967, a telephone directory provides the following snapshot of manufacturing facilities:

+ !Facility !width=25%Address / Location !Date of occupancy !Floor space
(gross sq. ft.) !Principal products / Notes
Allentown Works555 Union Boulevard / Allentown, Pennsylvania19481,036,000microelectronics / later Agere Systems
Atlanta Works2000 Northeast Expressway / Norcross, Georgia1969 undersea cables, later fiber-optic cables /
(1984). 9780932764041, AT&T Bell Laboratories. .
Baltimore Works2500 Broening Highway / Baltimore, Maryland19302,491,000coaxial and marine cables, wire, cords / plant operated from 1930 to 1984The Baltimore Works, The Works (August 1978)
Buffalo PlantKenmore Ave and Vulcan St. / Tonawanda, New York1946968,000telephone cords and switches / ceased operation November 4, 1977
Burlington Shops204 Grahman-Hopedale Rd. / Burlington, North Carolina1946698,000military equipment—Nike Missile System, underwater sound systems, waveguide, Bell System speakerphone / Known as Tarheel Army Missile Plant, Operations 1946-1954
Columbia River Switching Equipment WorksVancouver, Washington crossbar switching equipment / 590 IBEW employees in 1974
Columbus Works6200 E. Broad Street / Columbus, Ohio19591,661,000switching equipment /
Dallas Works3000 Skyline Drive / Mesquite, Texas1970 electronic switches and power equipment/supplies /
Denver Works1100 W. 120th Avenue / Westminster, Colorado1972 Dimension and Horizon business PBX systems /
Engineering Research Center (ERC)330 Carter Road / Princeton, New Jersey1961 research & development on manufacturing technologies /
Greensboro Shops801 Merritt Drive / Greensboro, North Carolina1950336,000printed wiring boards, machined parts, crystal filters, ESS card writers, military magnetic apparatus and printed waveguide devices / ceased operation in 1976
Cicero Avenue and Cermak Road / Cicero, Illinois19044,908,000cable, rod, wire, step by step, panel dia panel, 1ESS, 2ESS, 101 switching, metal parts/tools, capacitors, thin-film circuits, switchboards / During World War II, 48,000 employees peaked; in 1970, 23,364 employees; in 1983, 4,200 workers. Closed in 1983 and subsequently demolished, one of the towers remains.
Indianapolis Works2525 Shadeland Avenue / Indianapolis, Indiana19501,824,000consumer telephone sets /
Kansas City Works777 N. Blue Parkway / Lee's Summit, Missouri19611,517,000electronics, switching equipment /
Kearny Works100 Central Ave / 3 Distribution Avenue / Kearny, New Jersey19253,579,000cable, wire, switchboards and consoles, relays, jacks, power supplies and other equipment /
Merrimack Valley Works1600 Osgood Street / North Andover, Massachusetts19561,565,000transmission equipment /
Montgomery ShopsRiver Street / Aurora, Illinois1955 Data-phone transmission sets, traffic service position sets, telephone parts / closed and demolished 1987
New River Valley PlantCaller 21 / Radford, Virginia1980500,000light electronic assembly operations, microelectronics / Purchase price of land and building were over $7 million. The 563,000-square foot facility was located on a 743-acre peninsula overlooking the New River. AT&T Microelectronics phased out in a closure 1990/1991.
North Carolina Works3300 Old Lexington Road S.E. / Winston-Salem, North Carolina19541,084,000broadband carrier equipment, inbound signaling, telephone and telegraph repeaters, capacitors, thin film resistors, sealed contacts, magnetic apparatus /
North Illinois Works4513 Western Avenue / Lisle, Illinois1970s 3ESS, 4ESS switches, 3B5/15/4000 computer systems
Oklahoma City Works7725 W. Reno Avenue / Oklahoma City, Oklahoma19601,307,000payphones, switching equipment /
Omaha Works132nd and L Streets / Omaha, Nebraska19581,849,000crossbar, dial, and PBX equipment, cable, relays / "Two key buildings that were part of the original complex: Building 20 (the property's iconic office building) and Building 30 (a former manufacturing/warehouse facility)." were purchased upon the closure in November 2011.AT&T, Omaha Works: 30th Anniversary Open House, June 1988
Orlando Works9701 and 9333 John Young Parkway / Orlando, Floridaearly 1980s microelectronics / later Agere Systems
Phoenix Works505 N. 51st Avenue / Phoenix, Arizona1968850,000cable and wire /
2525 North 12th Street / Reading, Pennsylvania19521,214,000microelectronics / later Agere Systems
Richmond Works4500 Laburnum Avenue / Richmond, Virginia1973400,000printed circuit technology / In 1979, Fortune Magazine designated as one of the 10 best-managed American factories. The 120 acre property was sold by Lucent to Viasystems in 1996. Although, the site was sold by Lucent in 1996, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) required remediation of chemicals underground from the operations of Western Electric/AT&T era.
Shreveport Works9595 Mansfield Road / Shreveport, Louisiana19671,206,000business and consumer telephone sets, payphones /


Distribution houses
Western Electric had nine divisions in the mid-1960s. Manufacturing was one division, service was another, and there was also the distribution division. The distribution division was important for supplying the Bell System with day-to-day supply or emergency needs of the telecommunications supply chain. In 1964, there were 35 Distribution Houses that stocked equipment and supplies. They were the supply centers and repair shops for the Bell System. The distribution houses were established as east and west geographical zones in similarity to the service division. The following table showed the distribution houses at that time.
+ !Name !Location !Address !Established !Notes
AtlantaService East 1905
BostonService East 1908
CarolinasService East Charlotte, North Carolina 1958
CincinnatiService East 1904
ClevelandService East 1912
ConnecticutService East Orange, Connecticut 1913Formerly New Haven.
DallasService West 1908
DenverService East 1903
HoustonService West 1912
IllinoisService West 1904Moved from Chicago to West Chicago. Formerly known as Chicago.
IndianaService West Indianapolis, Indiana 1906
JacksonvilleService East 1927
Kansas CityService West 1903
Long IslandService East 1926Formerly Brooklyn.
Los AngelesService West 1906
MiamiService East 1960
MichiganService West Plymouth, Michigan909 North Sheldon Road1908Formerly located in Detroit since 1930 at 882 Oakman Boulevard. A $5 million building construction began May 1957 on that 420,000 square feet Plymouth building, after 66 other sites were reviewed for this selected 36 acre property. Initially move in December 1958, expected 600 distribution and 50 installation employees. Michigan Bell would have 90 workers for their supply related needs in this facility.
MilwaukeeService West 1924
MinneapolisService West 1907
NashvilleService East 1955
New JerseyService East Union, New Jersey650 Liberty Avenue1926Formerly Newark. Located in the town of Union.
New OrleansService East 1912
New YorkService East 1904
OmahaService West 1963
PennsylvaniaService East King of Prussia, Pennsylvania 1901Formerly Philadelphia. Located in King of Prussia.
PittsburghService East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania6585 Penn Avenue1904260 employees in 1966 Original 1904 building was rented near Shadyside Station until this building was complete in 1955. Bell of Pennsylvania was the servicing area for supplies. Refurbishment of wood related items on- switchboards, phonebooths. Repairs of switchboards, teletypewriters, telephone booths, and Bell telephones.
PhoenixService West 1958
PortlandService West 1910
St. LouisService West St. Louis, Missouri4250 Duncan Street1902The 1902 building was located at 814 Spruce Street and no longer standing. A new building was completed in 1948. The three-story building was designed in Art Moderne architectural style. The Southwestern Bell was the customer base for the supplies in Missouri. The single concrete building was noted that there were eastern and western sections for Western Electric and Southwestern Bell, respectively, accessed from the lobby. Historically, the communications industry and the architecture were the criteria for consideration as a historical place for the National Park Service.
Salt Lake CityService We 1962
San FranciscoService West 1903
SeattleService West 1907
SyracuseService East 1953
WashingtonService East 1923
WestchesterService East Yonkers, New York555 Tuckahoe Road1961Provided supply for New York Telephone.


Technological innovations
In 1926, Western Electric issued the first Bell System telephone with a handset containing both the transmitter and receiver in the same unit. Western Electric News, Volume 15, p. 19 (1926) Previous telephones had been of the candlestick type which featured a stationary transmitter in the desktop set or the wall-mounted unit, and a hand-held receiver to be placed on the user's ear. The first version of the desktop unit was constructed by shortening the candlestick shaft to about an inch in height and placing a handset cradle on the top.
(1995). 9780887408724, Schiffer Publishing Company.
This was the A-type handset mounting, which was replaced by 1928 by the B handset mounting, which featured a streamlined shape integrating the shaft as a short neck for the cradle. It still had the same circular footprint of the candlestick, which proved too unstable when dialing numbers, and was henceforth replaced with a wider design using an oval footprint, the D-type base in 1930.

Concurrently with the mechanical advances, the electrical circuitry of Western Electric telephones saw advances in reduction. Sidetone is feedback by which the users of the telephone can hear their own voice in the receiver. While a desirable property, this feedback, when too loud, causes most users to lower their voice volume to unacceptable levels.AT&T, Bell System Practices, Section C32.102 Issue 2 (June 1, 1931) Sidetone Hand Telephone Set Until after the introduction in 1930 of the D handset mountings, sets still contained no active sidetone compensation. Such handset telephone types were designated with the assembly code 102, while later models containing anti-sidetone circuitry were the type 202 telephone set. These early desktop telephones relied on an additional or subscriber set ( subset) containing the ringer with gongs, the induction coil, and capacitors to interface with the telephone network. These subscriber sets were typically mounted on a wall near the operating location for the telephone.AT&T, Bell System Practices, Section C32.103 Issue 1 (June 1, 1931) Anti-Sidetone Hand Telephone Sets

In 1936 the model 302 telephone was announced, which was the first Western Electric instrument that combined the desktop telephone set with the subscriber set and ringer in one unit. It became the mainstay of American telephone service well into the 1950s, and was followed by the model 500 telephone starting in 1950, which became the most extensively produced telephone model in the industry's history. The 500-set was continually updated over time, reflecting new materials and manufacturing processes, such as quieter and smoother dial gearing and a printed circuit board for the network electronics. The model 500 was discontinued in 1986, in favor of the type 2500, that had been available since 1969. The 2500-series employed dual-tone multi-frequency () signaling for transmitting digits to the central office, replacing the rotary dial. DTMF technology was referred to by the trademark .

Further innovations were evident when in 1954, the production of color telephones began to outproduce the black sets. Later, for 1958, production of the nite-light telephone, the Speakerphone, and the CALL DIRECTOR telephone were done at Indianapolis Works. Other innovations included the Princess telephones of the 1960s, followed shortly by the Trimline models.

Western Electric's switching equipment development commenced in the mid-1910s with the and the , later several generations of , and finally the development of several generations of electronic switching systems (ESS). The No. 1 ESS was first installed in 1965. The 4ESS was the first digital toll switching system, implemented in 1976. Finally, in 1981, the 5ESS was implemented throughout the United States.

In 1929, Western Electric entered as a market competitor for early cinema sound systems. It created the Western Electric Universal Base, a device by which early silent cinema projectors could be adapted to screen sound films. Western Electric designed a wide-audio-range for cinemas. This was estimated to be 25% efficient, thus allowing a cinema to be filled with sound from a 3-watt amplifier. This was an important breakthrough in 1929 because high-powered audio valves (tubes) were not generally available.

In addition to being a supplier to the , Western Electric played a major role in the development and production of professional recording and reproducing equipment, including:

  • the system which brought sound to the movies;
  • the electrical recording technology adopted by record companies in the late 1920s (despite the popular electrical system used by Autograph Records and its manager, Orlando R. Marsh);
  • the Orthophonic phonograph, an acoustical phonograph with a flat frequency response tailored for reproduction of electrically recorded disks;
  • the Westrex (variable density) optical sound that succeeded it for motion picture film production and release prints;
  • the Westrex magnetic sound (mono and stereo) that succeeded it for motion picture film production and a few productions' release prints;
  • the Westrex stereo variable-area optical sound that succeeded it for low-cost stereo release prints;
  • the Westrex (Model 3, and derivatives) cutter and system for recording stereophonic sound in a single-groove gramophone record (StereoDisk®) that was compatible with monophonic equipment.
For these reasons, many American films of this period feature the Western Electric/Westrex logo in their on-screen credits.
(1988). 9780899502427, McFarland & Company. .

In 1950, at the start of the , Western Electric was selected to build the first demonstrator for the anti-submarine sound surveillance system. Later, the company was prime contractor for the Safeguard anti-ballistic missile system, which operated briefly from 1975.


Manufacturing innovations
Western Electric also invested heavily in improving processes and equipment to manufacture their products.

In 1958, the company established the Engineering Research Center (ERC) near Princeton, New Jersey. With a charter distinct from , Western Electric's ERC was one of the first research organizations solely dedicated to the advancement of manufacturing-focused, rather than product-focused science. Here, more than 400 researchers and engineers worked to bring new manufacturing technologies into the company's production environment. Their developments included computer-driven mathematical models and related statistical quality-control systems to improve production flow and logistics, novel metal-forming techniques, circuit board assembly automation, fiber-optic waveguide manufacturing techniques, application of lasers for industrial processes and early efforts in cleanroom robotics for semiconductor production. In the early 1970s, some of the first practical to make integrated circuits were also developed at ERC and later deployed at Western Electric's chip-making factories.

Although the ERC was later integrated into Bell Labs, it – along with AT&T's nearby Corporate Education Center – was closed by the late 1990s, victims of the deregulation of telecommunications, shrinking revenues from long-distance calls and accelerating innovation in telephone equipment by an increasing number of global manufacturing players.


Management innovations
  • Western Electric were pioneers of the scientific management of Frederick Winslow Taylor.
    (1974). 9780853453406, Monthly Review Press. .
  • Walter A. Shewhart developed the at the in 1924.
    (2025). 9781118058107, John Wiley & Sons. .
  • Joseph M. Juran pioneered the use of statistical analysis for quality assurance at the Hawthorne Works.
  • At , Cicero, Illinois, conducted research of the effect on manufacturing productivity of lighting changes and work structure changes, such as working hours or break times. The reactivity identified in the studies became known as the .
  • The Hawthorne experiments in industrial productivity were conducted there from 1924 to 1936.
  • Western Electric's reputation for sound management was such that in 1949 President Truman requested that Western Electric manage a major defense laboratory, Sandia National Labs. 70 Ways Sandia has Changed the Nation


National Defense and Nike-Zeus
Western Electric was authorized on November 15, 1955, with Air Force Contract AF33(616)-3285 to conduct a competitive study directed specifically only to anti-ICBM (AICBM) defense. In February 1957, the U.S. Army awarded the company, as a contractor, responsibility in developing an AICBM defense system called . On February 12, 1959, a test program for Nike-Zeus was approved by Department of Defense for as the down-range test site. After the site was inspected on August 4, 1959, by Western Electric project managers and various agencies/contractors, the completion of the technical building and launch facilities were done. Shortly after, Western Electric equipment engineers and installers arrived for the installation of the NIKE-ZEUS test site. The North Carolina plant made the R&D models for the system elements and installed, tested, and operated the components at the test site.


NASA and Project Mercury
In 1960, awarded Western Electric a contract for over $33,000,000 () for engineering and construction of a tracking system for the program. As part of this effort, Western Electric engineers trained remote-site flight controllers and Control Center and operations personnel.


Closure
As of January 1, 1984, a newly formed company, AT&T Technologies, Inc., assumed the corporate charter of Western Electric, which was split into several divisions, each focusing on a particular type of customer, e.g., AT&T Technology Systems, and AT&T Network Systems. Telephones made by Western Electric prior to the breakup continued to be manufactured and marked with the company emblem, however, lacking the Bell System logo, or having it hidden by metal filler inside of all telephone housings and most components, including new electronic integrated circuits with the initials WE. Electronic switching systems, outside plant materials, and other equipment produced for the consumption of the continued to be marked "AT&T Western Electric" well into the 1990s.

Cost-cutting measures resulted in the consumer telephones being redesigned and modernized in 1985, as well as more plastic being used in place of metal in the 500 & 2500 series phones, as well as the Princess. In 1986, the Indianapolis Works telephone plant closed, and US production of AT&T single-line home telephones ended. Business telephones and systems continued production in the Shreveport Works plant until 2001. Home telephones were redesigned, and production was moved to Hong Kong, Singapore, China, and Thailand. Western Electric no longer marked housings of telephones with "WE", but continued to mark the modular plugs of telephone cords with "WE".

Western Electric came to an end in 1995 when AT&T changed the name of AT&T Technologies to , in preparation for its spinoff. Lucent became independent in 1996, and sold more assets into Advanced American Telephones, , , and Consumer Phone Services. Lucent itself merged with , forming , which was acquired by in 2016. Western Electric's structured cabling unit, once known as AT&T Network Systems or SYSTIMAX, was spun off from and became part of .


Subsequent developments
Since the demise of Western Electric, telephone equipment design and manufacturing is an open market place in which numerous manufacturers compete. As a result, modern telephones are now manufactured in Asia, generally using less expensive components and labor.

Some telephone subscribers declined to purchase their existing telephones after the AT&T breakup, and continued to lease their existing Western Electric models from QLT Consumer Lease Services, formerly known as AT&T Consumer Lease Services. Such subscribers paid leasing fees for their telephones far in excess of the purchase price, but the phones were perceived by some users to be superior to telephones commonly made today in aspects of durability and sound quality. Today, many of these Western Electric telephones have become collector's items.

Western Electric's audio equipment from the 1920s and 30s, designed to be used in movie theaters, is now prized by collectors and audiophiles due to its quality construction and sound reproduction. This includes its massive horn loudspeakers designed to fill a large theater with sound from a relatively low-powered tube amplifier.


Name acquisition
In 1995, the license to manufacture vacuum tubes, audio equipment, and the stylized brand name Western Electric trademark was acquired by Western Electric Export Corporation, a privately owned high-end audio company in Rossville, Georgia. The company specializes in manufacturing and high end . Amongst other products, the company has revived the Western Electric 300B electron tube.


Publications
During the span of its existence of over a dozen decades, Western Electric published a variety of publications for various audiences, including periodicals for employees and customers.

The first employee magazine was Western Electric News, commencing in March 1912 (Volume 1, Number 1) under company president Harry Bates Thayer. Its purpose was to provide a forum where ideas could be exchanged, the company events and activities could be recorded, and to serve as clearing house for technical and commercial information of value to the employee.Western Electric News, 1 (1) (March 1912), Editorial, p. 1

In November 1935, Western Electric published a magazine, Pickups, for its developments in sound transmissions, mostly for its radio and communications customers. The magazine changed its name to Oscillator after the May 1942 issue was published and returned in September 1944 with the issue after a hiatus. There are approximately thirty-three issues archived of Western Electric's radio history up to November 1948.

In 1948, Western Electric began publishing the monthly house magazine WE for employees of the company. The magazine was published into the 1980s.

Starting in 1957, Western Electric published The Western Electric Engineer (), later known as The Engineer, on a subscription basis. The Western Electric Engineer. Vol. 1 (1957)


Educational films
Western Electric produced many educational and marketing films that focused on the products associated with telephony or the company's inventions. For example,
  • "Finding His Voice" (1929) is an animated cartoon with voice and sound. The animation shows using a sound booth to pick up sound on a microphone. It also explains the process of using a machine to record sound to film. The cartoon shows a picture and sound projector called the Vitaphone, which was invented in 1926. Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJl2iRsneD0< /ref>
  • "Bottling Electrons" Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPmfk7S2nrk< /ref>
  • "A Miracle for Mrs. Smith" (1940s) is a film showing "how the Bell telephone system works and how Western Electric manufactures the materials and products used in the telephone industry."
  • "Adventure In Telezonia" (1950) is a puppet film intended to teach proper telephone usage. It uses puppets by /ref>
  • "A Family Affair" (1955) is a promotional film about using telephones in a home environment. There is an appearance by actor /ref>
  • "Tools of Telephony" Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbRR748N9Jw&t=926s< /ref>
  • "Tools of Telephony" Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTG7y1GxVzY< /ref>
  • "Speedy Cutover Service" (1984) showed an electronic switching system.


Notable employees
In April 1913, developed amplified sound in a high- for telephone cables using expertise in physics.
Worked at the company from 1902 until 1929. In the 1920s, made the decision for the company to work on sound systems for the moving picture industry. Held 70 patents in electrical communication.
Worked with Shewhart and Juran to become the three founders of the quality improvement movement. A continuous improvement method of management and policy was called the Deming cycle, commonly known as the Plan–Do–Check–Act (PDCA) cycle. The was established in honor of Deming's help with statistical quality control in Japan.
A summer hire at Hawthorne Works and a player of company sports, was late arriving to the summer picnic on the 1915 S.S. Eastland disaster. After Western Electric, was one of the founders of the National Football League and the coach for the ."Chicago Stories -- The Eastland Disaster" Https://interactive.wttw.com/a/chicago-stories-eastland-disaster< /ref>
Worked producing vacuum tubes during World War II. After leaving the company in 1944, served in the New Hampshire House of Representatives for 28 years.
(2012). 9781429989442, St. Martin's Publishing Group. .
In 1942 became Western Electric's first female engineer. Worked on long-distance telephone technology and developed a crystal oscillator, utilized for aircraft communications that generated radio frequencies. Attended Columbia University for courses in electrical engineering while working at Kearny Works. Left Western Electric in 1945 and became a consultant.
Started at Western Electric in 1918 as a physicist with the research division of the engineering department before it become Bell Laboratories. Retired from Bell Laboratories on March 1, 1959, with scientific and administrative service. At Bell Labs, served as director of vacuum tube development and as development director of electronics and transmission instruments, before being director of research in 1936. Served on the Bell Laboratories board of directors beginning in 1944, and was a director of the Sandia Corporation from 1952 through 1958. Was Board of Directors for about 1959.
Engineer who in 1917, while at Western Electric, created the first crystal oscillator using a piece of .Nicolson, Alexander M. Generating and transmitting electric currents , filed April 10, 1918, granted August 27, 1940.


Bibliography


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