Carlisle & Finch

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Carlisle & Finch
Company typeCorporation
IndustryElectrical equipment
Founded1893 or 1894
Founder
  • Robert S. Finch
  • Morten Carlisle
HeadquartersCincinnati, Ohio, United States
Products
  • Electric toy trains
  • searchlights
Websitecarlislefinch.com

Carlisle & Finch is a manufacturer of nautical equipment founded in 1894 in Cincinnati, Ohio where, as of 2026, it still has its headquarters. The company's main products through its entire history have been searchlights, mostly for marine applications. Variants of the basic searchlight design have also been used for navigation beacons by airports and lighthouses.

Contents

The company is often considered the first in the US to produce electric toy trains, introducing innovations such as using the rails to conduct electrical power to the cars. Although other US companies had produced trains, Carlisle & Finch were the first to manufacture and market them in volume, which they did for about the first 20 years of operation. Their sets have become highly prized by model train collectors.

Other early products included electric generators (powered either by water pressure or by gasoline engine). The earliest models were small, intended to power train sets, but they later produced larger units. They also produced electric-powered appliances such as clothes dryers.

Corporate history

Carlisle and Finch (C&F) began as a branch office of General Electric (GE) at 18284 Elm Street, Cincinnati, Ohio, where electrical engineers Robert Sterett Finch and Morten Carlisle were employed. Finch had graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1890 with a B.S. degree. [1]

Work included repairing electrical machinery, such as armatures, transformers, and arc lamps. [2] [3] In 1893 or 1894, C&F purchased the shop from GE for $2,500 (equivalent to $840,000in 2024), intending to continue the repair business and branch out into manufacturing. [2] [3] [4] [5] [a] The new company was incorporated on April 17, 1897, with Carlisle serving as president. [2] [6] The same year, they introduced their first new products, a searchlight based on the carbon arc principle, and a toy train, which also used a carbon arc for its headlight. [7] As the company grew, they added gasoline engines. [2] [8] [9]

Carlisle sold his share of the business to Finch on August 4, 1926. Brent S. Finch, Robert's son, was named president, and the company started concentrating entirely on its searchlight business. After World War II, Brent R. Finch (son of Brent S.) was hired, at which point three generations of Finches were simultaneously employed by the company. As of 2024, a fourth generation leads the company, with brothers Kurtis B. Finch and Garth S. Finch serving as president and senior vice president, respectively. [2]

Toy trains

A No. 42 Trolley and Trailer in the permanent collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. Made between 1904 and 1909. The Childrens Museum of Indianapolis - No 42 Trolley.jpg
A No. 42 Trolley and Trailer in the permanent collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. Made between 1904 and 1909.

One of C&F's earliest products was electric toy trains, and they are often stated to be the first company to manufacture them in America. [10] The toy train industry had begun in Europe, with simple designs from British and German toy manufacturers. These were followed in the late 19th century by American companies such as C&F who began manufacturing more substantial models. [11]

Other American companies had made toy trains before C&F. Edward Ives, for example, had a factory in Plymouth, Connecticut, in 1896. These other makers used wind-up clockworks, steam, electric batteries, or overhead wires to power the cars. According to model railroad historian George E. Hoffer, C&F's 1896 advancement was to use the two rails as electrical conductors. [12] Hoffer called this a "striking innovation" although this technology had been demonstrated as early as 1851 by Thomas Hall. [12] [13] Toy encyclopedist Sharon M. Scott, however, writes that C&F's 1897 train set, which she describes as "revolutionary in its day", was driven by a dry-cell battery enclosed in the locomotive body. [14] The Train Collectors Association asserts that C&F should be credited with having invented the electric toy train since they were the first to produce them in volume. [15] In his 2007 essay about the company, Cincinnati historian David Conzett takes the same track, describing C&F's electric trains as "the world's first mass-produced and marketed". [5]

C&F's wood and metal trains entered the marketplace c.1897. They were approximately 5.5 inches (14 cm) tall and ran on metal track with rails 2 inches (5.1 cm) apart, known as 2 gauge. [6] In 1897, they made a train set with a 4-wheel coal mining locomotive, three coal cars, two zinc-carbon elements, and a can of chromite. The locomotive included a switch for starting and reversing, and was powerful enough to pull the three loaded cars up a grade. That same year, they also made an "electric railway with double truck car" set, with a car running on two 4-wheel trucks. It was 12 inches (30 cm) long, 5 inches (13 cm) high, and 3.5 inches (8.9 cm) wide, and made of polished brass with iron wheels. It had two motors and could run at 150 feet per minute (46 m/min). Both sets included 18 feet (5.5 m) of 2-inch (51 mm) gauge track. [16]

Although best known for their toy trains, C&F also produced some electric toys of other types. Two models were introduced in 1899; an automobile and a 24-inch (610 mm) torpedo boat probably based on those used in the Spanish-American War. Both of these were battery powered. [5]

Miniature Electric Railway Construction

Banked model railway curve.png
Construction of a banked curve
Recharging wet cells from a 110 volt lighting circuit.png
Battery charging from 110-volt lighting circuit
Model railroad DC motor diagram.png
Wiring diagram of a DC train motor
Illustrations from Miniature Electric Railway Construction

In 1906, C&F published a 58 page booklet titled Miniature Electric Railway Construction. The introduction stated that the book was intended for "wide-awake boys" who are interested in the study of electricity, that model railroads were "undoubtedly the best means of studying the practical workings of electricity", and that it would be useful to readers looking to purchase electrical toys as Christmas presents. The book consists of seven chapters, each of which concentrates on a particular aspect of model railroading. [17]

Chapter 1 described how to build track from steel rails and homemade wooden sleepers and how to design a layout. Topic included using conducting or insulating rail joints for proper signalling, the geometric implications of how a car travels around a curve, and banked curves. It also covered the operation of switches, suggesting that it was better to buy these as finished items rather than trying to build your own. Chapter 2 discussed how to hook up batteries, electrification of track, and how to deal with crossovers and switches, and to avoid short circuits when designing track loops. Chapter 3 went into greater detail about batteries. Series and parallel connections were discussed, as well as the electrochemistry of wet and dry cells of various types. Chapter 4 covered trolleys; trains which used overhead electrical connections. Chapter 5 discussed how a direct current motor worked, including field and rotor windings, commutators, and brushes. Chapter 6 covered electrical switches used to reverse the direction of travel of a train. Chapter 7 went over how electrical current flowed through a complete car. [17]

The book garnered some literary attention. Brookline, Massachusetts librarian Harriet Stanley included it in her 1908 Something to Read for Boys and Girls under "Occupations for Boys". [18] [19] In 1913, the New York Public Library placed it on A Selected List of Books on Engineering, Industrial Arts and Trades and the San Francisco Public Library included it in their 1910 List of books on electricity under "Experiments and Amateur Apparatus". [20] [21]

1910 Catalog

Carlisle & Finch catalog, c. 1910 Carlisle & Finch 1910 Catalogue of electrical novelties and scientific toys.pdf
Carlisle & Finch catalog, c.1910

C&Fs c.1910 catalog included three different train sets. The smallest included one single-truck car and a 3-foot (0.9 m) circle of track for $3.50 (equivalent to $118in 2024). Another set included a double-truck car and 18 feet (5.5 m) of track which could be configured into various shapes for $6.50 (equivalent to $219in 2024). The third included a coal train with four single-truck cars and 18 feet (5.5 m) of configurable track for $5.00 (equivalent to $169in 2024). All of these included components to build a three-cell battery with the customer supplying their own glass jars for the chromite wet cells. [22]

For $7.00 (equivalent to $236in 2024), the double-truck set could be ordered with motors wound to run from a 110 volt direct current lighting circuit; this was intended to be used in a show window, where the train would run continuously. Available options included additional non-powered cars, an inclined plane railway, a truss bridge made from brass, a cross-over track fixture for building a figure-8 layout, a rail switch, a railway station with automatic signals, and miniature lamps. Also available were two options for providing electric power: a dynamo which could be configured with either a hand crank or a belt-drive pulley, and a water-driven generator. [22]

The 20-inch (510 mm) tall inclined plane model was patterned after Cincinnati's Price Hill incline, located near the C&F factory. The $4.00 (equivalent to $135in 2024) model had two platforms which rode on inclined rails with one going up as the other came down, driven by a small electric motor. Conzett writes that only 120 of these were ever produced and none are believed to still exist. [5]

Collectability

By 1991, C&F train sets had become rare collectables. W. Graham Claytor Jr, who was president of Amtrak at the time, was reported by the Train Collector Quarterly to have "one of the finest collections anywhere of trains by Carlisle & Finch". Clayton noted that the trains were not exact scale models, but were proportionally shorter, fatter, and taller than full-sized trains. The shortness helped the models negotiate curves better. [23]

In 2014, a C&F model 45 train set sold for $46,020 at auction. The exact manufacture date of the set, consisting of a locomotive, tender, and passenger cars, was unknown but stated to be c.1904 – c.1908. A boxed set of freight cars sold at the same auction for $23,600. Reporting on the auction, Antique Trader described C&F as a "revered American manufacturer". [24]

Searchlights

Carbon arc lamp mechanism from C&F 30-inch searchlight Carlisle and Finch 30-inch lamp mechanism.jpg
Carbon arc lamp mechanism from C&F 30-inch searchlight

C&F introduced a searchlight in 1897. [7] [25] Their "Form 2" model included steering gear for remote adjustment of azimuth and elevation and a ball-bearing mount. [25] By the next year, C&F searchlights were in use on several Yukon River steamers including the Charles T. Hamilton, the John Cudahy, and the T. C. Powers, as well as on the City of Seattle . [26] A 1914 C&F advertisement claimed that 90% of the vessels on US and Canadian inland waterways had searchlights manufactured by the company. [27]

When World War I started, production was shifted entirely to searchlights, to aid the war effort. The U.S. Government was a major purchaser, with additional large orders from Greece, Spain, Norway, and Russia. [2] [28] By 1917, C&F was one of the few companies worldwide producing searchlights, and had supplied a large proportion of the searchlights then in use by the United States and other countries. They produced a line of commercial searchlights, and also specialized in navy and military designs. Units were built with 9-to-60-inch (23 to 152 cm) diameters, and 2-to-6-mile (3.2 to 9.7 km) ranges. Current draw was 10 to 200 amps. [29]

The earliest models used a carbon arc for the light source. Other companies had previously built carbon arc searchlights, but C&F added the innovation of mounting the carbon electrodes horizontally on the beam axis. The tip of the positive carbon faced the reflector, maximizing the amount of light reflected, and spacing of the carbons was adjusted by motorized screw-feed mechanisms. [30] A manually-activated screw moved the entire mechanism forward and backward, positioning the arc at the mirror's focal point. A pair of carbons had a lifetime of about seven hours. [31]

Signal lights

Carlisle & Finch 12-Inch Arc Signal Searchlight, Front (cropped).jpg
Front
Carlisle & Finch 12-Inch Arc Signal Searchlight, Rear (cropped).jpg
Rear
Carlisle & Finch 12-inch signal searchlight

A 1918 US Navy technical training manual listed two manufacturers who supplied low-power signal searchlights to the Navy: GE and C&F. [32] A signal searchlight is optimized for sending coded light signals rather than illuminating a target. It is equipped with a hand-operated shutter for rapidly turning the beam on and off, a precision sight for accurate beam aiming, and mounting clamps so the unit may be easily relocated. [33]

The major differences between the GE and C&F signal lights were the mechanisms used to adjust the carbon rods as they were consumed. In both types the adjustment was automatic, but the GE unit used a ratchet while C&F employed a pair of motor-driven leadscrews. The manual said that the C&F mechanism was "excellent and gives almost no trouble; it operates smoothly, easily, accurately, and is seldom in need of repair or attention". [32]

Modern era lights

The company introduced Xenon arc searchlights in the 1960s. [34] LED models followed in 2019. [35]

C&F searchlights are used in the US federal prison system. They also produce searchlights which combine a xenon light with an infrared filter to emit a beam which in invisible to the human eye. These can be used in conjunction with night-vision systems to illuminate targets without disclosing the position of the searching vessel. [36]

Carlisle & Finch marine beacon warning plate.jpg
Carlisle & Finch marine beacon name plate.jpg
Information plates attached to marine beacon at the Beavertail Lighthouse museum

In 1929, a 24-inch C&F beacon was installed on top of the Union Central Life Insurance Building in downtown Cincinnati, as a visual navigation aid for Lunken Airport. The five million candlepower beam was visible from 50 miles (80 km) away on a clear night. [37] Known as a "course marker beacon", it included a two-position automatic bulb changer which was tied into the building's main telephone switchboard to activate a warning light when the backup bulb was put into service. [38]

C&F produced rotating beacons in the DCB (Directional Code Beacon) series starting around 1950. [39] These project a narrow light beam. The light rotates, causing it to appear to flash from the viewpoint of a distant observer. These were originally used as aerodrome beacons, but in the 1990s, the U.S. Coast Guard adopted them for use in lighthouses, replacing existing Fresnel lenses. Models included DCB-24 with a 24-inch (61 cm) diameter, DCB-224 with two such lights, and DCB-36 with a 36-inch (91 cm) diameter. [40]

In 1961, the United States Coast Guard installed C&F's first beacon designed for a coastal lighthouse. Described at the time as "the most powerful lighthouse beacon on U.S. coasts", it consisted of a rotating assembly with a pair of 36-inch lights facing in opposite directions. Each light had a 2500-watt mercury-xenon arc lamp and a 36-inch mirror, producing a 100-million candlepower beam. It drew 100 amps of current in steady operation and required 50,000 volts during startup. It was installed in the new Buzzards Bay Entrance Light where it would be used mostly in bad weather, supplementing a smaller beacon which would operate on clear nights. At the time, C&F was reported to have 35 employees. [41]

As of 1984 the DCB-24 and DCB-224 were the standard optics used in landfall lights (the first lights seen when approaching the coast from the open sea). [42] They have a nominal range of 13–26 nautical miles (24–48 km; 15–30 mi) depending on the rotation speed and whether a colored cover was installed. They could operate in winds up to 100 knots (190 km/h; 120 mph), and included an automatic lamp changer. [43]

C&F manufactured a 14-inch range light (RL-14). These could be configured to show a white, yellow, red, or green beam. A 1998 US Coast Guard technical manual lists two variations on the RL-14; one manufactured by Tideland Signal Company (model RS-355) and the other from C&F (model RS-10668) with the C&F version being considered the standard unit. Both versions were equipped with a six-position automatic bulb changer using 12-volt bulbs. [44]

Other products

Gasoline powered dynamo, 1912 Carlisle & Finch gasoline dynamo.png
Gasoline powered dynamo, 1912

In 1897, C&F offered a hand-powered dynamo, capable of lighting a ten candlepower, ten-volt incandescent bulb, or to run several electrical toys simultaneously. They also offered a water-powered version, which produced a similar amount of electrical power from a water faucet supplying 50 psi (340 kPa) of pressure and could be used with as low as 40 psi (280 kPa). [16]

In 1912, C&F introduced a dynamo driven by a directly connected gasoline motor. The engine was 1.5 horsepower (1.1 kW), and the dynamo produced 42 volts at 15 amps. A belt pulley was included for driving an external load. The entire assembly weighed 395 pounds (179 kg). [45]

In 1923, a clothes dryer was introduced. The device used a wire mesh drum rotated by an electric motor. Air heated by either gas or steam was forced through the drum, with the temperature controlled by a thermostat. The machine was 30 inches (76 cm) deep, 38 inches (97 cm) wide, 42 inches (110 cm) tall, and weighed 400 pounds (180 kg). [46]

Clifton marine engines

Larger gasoline engines for marine use were also produced, marketed under the "Clifton" brand, and exported to as far away as New Zealand. Stock sizes were offered from 10 horsepower (7.5 kW) to 65 horsepower (48 kW), with larger sizes available on special order. The engines were designed to include a variable number of cylinders, each of which produced 7 horsepower (5.2 kW); for example, three cylinders could be ganged together to produce a 21 horsepower (16 kW) engine. The engines used a single casting for the head and cylinder, with piston replacement done by unbolting the big end of the connecting rod and removing the piston through the bottom of the cylinder. Lubrication was automatic, with a pump drawing oil from a sump. [47]

The canal boat Monitor, built in 1903 and designed specifically for use on the Erie Canal by the Ohio Boat Company, used a C&F 16 horsepower (12 kW) four-cylinder four-cycle marine engine. The design was in response to a $50,000 (equivalent to $1,700,000in 2024) reward offered by New York State for a type of boat which would not cause destructive erosion of the canal's banks. [48] Monitor, owned by the Fox Paper Company, was one of about six similar vessels built by Ohio Boat; some used the C&F Clifton engines; others used engines from Fairbanks, Morse or from Meitz & Weiss. [49]

    Notes

    1. The early chronology of the company is uncertain, with sources giving conflicting dates for when the company was formed and when the repair shop was purchased.

    References

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