Eagle Electric Manufacturing Company, founded in 1920, was a maker of electrical devices, switches and circuit units based in Long Island City, New York, in the borough of Queens.
The company was founded by Louis Ludwig and his younger brother Philip Ludwig both of whose children ran the company after the founders died.
The company's New York workers were represented by a union. Picketers were arrested outside the company's plant in January 1938. [1]
For many years, Eagle had a giant neon billboard overlooking the Queensboro Bridge that became a familiar sight to motorists. It read, in capitals, "Eagle Electric-Perfection is not an accident". The slogan was written by founder Louis Ludwig. In 1987, under the direction of Mel Ludwig, the Advertising Manager, Oswald Fernandez began a process of updating the slogan the logo and packaging graphics. When the building was purchased the company had moved production to various parts of the world. As of 2006, Cooper Wiring Devices has moved all their manufacturing out of Long Island City, to Mexico, China, and the south-east United States.
By the early 1980s Eagle Electric was selling thousands of wiring device SKUs to hardware stores across the country. In 1991 Eagle Electric introduced a line of surge protector wiring devices under the brand eSmart, with the strong support of senior management. The eSmart brand was the first trademark with an "e" in front of it. The brand sold well to the big box stores as there was no competitive surge protector line in the industry. Eventually the brand was dismantled by then Marketing Director Jim Cook, because he felt that computers were a "passing fad."
The company began to move its production facilities away from New York to Greensboro, North Carolina in the early 1980s and later to Mexico. In 1997, the company announced that a new labor contract and tax abatements had convinced it to keep its operations in New York. [2] But a year later, the company's president and some other executives were removed by its board of directors. [3]
In the spring of 2000, Eagle was purchased by Cooper Industries to form Cooper Wiring Devices, Inc. [4] Cooper Wiring Devices is now based in Peachtree City, Georgia. Eaton Corporation bought Cooper Industries in 2012, and Eagle Electric is now known as Eaton Wiring Devices.
Panasonic Corporation, formerly Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. is a major Japanese multinational conglomerate company, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka. It was founded by Kōnosuke Matsushita in 1918 as a lightbulb socket manufacturer. In addition to consumer electronics of which it was the world's largest maker in the late 20th century, Panasonic offers a wide range of products and services, including rechargeable batteries, automotive and avionic systems, industrial systems, as well as home renovation and construction.
Eaton Corporation PLC is an American Irish-domiciled multinational power management company with 2020 sales of $17.86 billion, founded in the United States with corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, and operational headquarters in Beachwood, Ohio. Eaton has approximately 92,000 employees and sells products to customers in more than 175 countries.
Cooper Industries was an American worldwide electrical products manufacturer headquartered in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1833, the company had seven operating divisions including Bussmann electrical and electronic fuses; Crouse-Hinds and CEAG explosion-proof electrical equipment; Halo and Metalux lighting fixtures; and Kyle and McGraw-Edison power systems products.
A surge protector is an appliance or device intended to protect electrical devices from voltage spikes in alternating current (AC) circuits. A voltage spike is a transient event, typically lasting 1 to 30 microseconds, that may reach over 1,000 volts. Lightning that hits a power line can give a spike of over 100,000 volts and can burn through wiring insulation and cause fires, but even modest spikes can destroy a wide variety of electronic devices, computers, battery chargers, modems and TVs etc, that happen to be plugged in at the time. Typically the surge device will trigger at a set voltage, around 3 to 4 times the mains voltage, and divert the current to earth. Some devices may absorb the spike and release it as heat. They are generally rated according to the amount of energy in joules they can absorb.
Leviton Manufacturing Company, Inc. is an American manufacturer of electrical wiring equipment in North America. It produces electrical light sockets, receptacles and outlets, switches, dimmers and other lighting control systems, wire, power cables, power cords, wall and ceiling occupancy sensors, wall plates, datacom, and other electrical products.
TCL Technology is a Chinese electronics company headquartered in Huizhou, Guangdong Province. Founded as a state-owned enterprise, it designs, develops, manufactures, and sells products including television sets, mobile phones, air conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators, and small electrical appliances. In 2010, it was the world's 25th-largest consumer electronics producer. Since 2015, it remains the third-largest television manufacturer by market share.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company is an American company that specializes in the design, manufacture, marketing and sales of replacement automobile and truck tires, and has subsidiaries that specialize in medium truck, motorcycle and racing tires. With headquarters in Findlay, Ohio, Cooper Tire has 60 manufacturing, sales, distribution, technical and design facilities within its worldwide family of subsidiary companies, including the UK-based Avon Tyres brand, which produces tires for motorcycles, road cars and for motor racing.
VF Corporation is an American global apparel and footwear company founded in 1899 and headquartered in Denver, Colorado. The company's 13 brands are organized into three categories: Outdoor, Active and Work. The company controls 55% of the U.S. backpack market with the JanSport, Eastpak, Timberland, and North Face brands.
Murray was an American company whose assets are now owned by Briggs & Stratton and Dorel Industries. The corporate brand is a descendant of the Murray Ohio Manufacturing Company, which manufactured bicycles and lawn and garden equipment. The company went bankrupt in 2005 selling most of its assets to the current owners.
Jamaica Buses, Inc., also known as Jamaica Bus Lines or the Jamaica Bus Company, was a bus company in New York City, United States, operating local service in Queens and express service to Manhattan until January 30, 2006, when the MTA Bus Company took over its operations.
The Bryant Electric Company was a manufacturer of wiring devices, electrical components, and switches founded in 1888 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, United States. It grew to become for a time both the world's largest plant devoted to the manufacture of wiring devices and Bridgeport's largest employer and was involved in a number of notable strikes, before being closed in 1988 and having its remaining interests sold to Hubbell in 1991.
Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. is a manufacturer of electric wire and optical fiber cables. Its headquarters are in Chūō-ku, Osaka, Japan. The company's shares are listed in the first section of the Tokyo, Nagoya Stock Exchanges, and the Fukuoka Stock Exchange. In the period ending March 2021, the company reported consolidated sales of US$26,5 billion.
Cooper Wiring Devices is a division of Cooper Industries and provides a range of residential, institutional and industrial grade electrical devices and wiring for consumers and building contractors. The company is the successor to both Arrow-Hart & Hegeman and Eagle Electric, both of which Cooper Industries had acquired. The Arrow-Hart brand is still used by Cooper Wiring Devices for some of their commercial products.
Belkin is an American consumer electronics and networking company headquartered in Playa Vista, California. It produces mobile and computer connectivity devices and peripherals for consumer and commercial use. These include wireless chargers, power banks, charging cables, data cables, audio and video adapters, headphones, earbuds, smart speakers, screen protectors, surge protectors, Wi-Fi routers, smart home products, electronic device sanitizers, docking stations and data hubs, network switches, KVM switches and network cables.
TP-Link Technologies Co., Ltd., is a Chinese manufacturer of computer networking products based in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
Crouse-Hinds Electric Company, a manufacturer of high grade electrical specialties, was established in 1897 in Syracuse, New York. They later shortened their name to Crouse-Hinds Company and beginning in the early 1920s specialized in the manufacture of traffic signals, controllers and accessories. The company name remained in use as a subsidiary of Cooper Industries, however, the traffic signal production ended in 1981 after Cooper sold the traffic products division. It is now a division under Eaton Corporation.
Standard Motor Products, Inc. is a manufacturer and distributor of automotive parts in the automotive aftermarket industry. The company was founded in 1919 as a partnership by Elias Fife and Ralph Van Allen and incorporated by Fife in 1926. It is headquartered in Long Island City, New York, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange.
Hubbell Incorporated is an American company that designs, manufactures and sells electrical and electronic products for non-residential and residential construction, industrial and utility applications. Hubbell was founded by Harvey Hubbell as a proprietorship in 1888, and was incorporated in Connecticut in 1905. It is ranked 577 by the fortune group. The company’s reporting segments consist of the electrical segment and the Power segment. Hubbell’s manufacturing facilities are located in the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Puerto Rico, Mexico, the People's Republic of China ("China"), Italy, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Australia and maintains sales offices in Singapore, China, India, Mexico, South Korea, and countries in the Middle East. Hubbell was previously headquartered in Orange, Connecticut, and has now moved its headquarters to Shelton, Connecticut. Hubbell Inc. assisted Allied efforts during World War II by manufacturing military vehicle electrical circuits, battery-charging systems for M4 Sherman tanks, power jacks for test meters, vacuum tube sockets for radio communications, and a line of electrical and electronic connectors for aircraft. Hubbell Inc is in List of S&P 400 companies having stocks that are included in the S&P 400 stock market index, maintained by S&P Dow Jones Indices.