Rea Magnet Wire

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Coordinates: 41°3′40″N85°5′30.8″W / 41.06111°N 85.091889°W / 41.06111; -85.091889

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Contents

Rea Magnet Wire Company
Private
Industry Copper Mining
Founded 1933
Headquarters Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States
Key people
Jerry Long, President & CEO
Number of employees
800
Website www.reawire.com

Rea Magnet Wire Company, Inc. is one of the world's largest manufacturers of magnet and nonferrous wire products. Rea produces copper, aluminum and brass-insulated magnet wire and bare wire used in the manufacture of motors, transformers and coils. Rea also manufactures a number of specialty wire products.

Copper Chemical element with atomic number 29

Copper is a chemical element with symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orange color. Copper is used as a conductor of heat and electricity, as a building material, and as a constituent of various metal alloys, such as sterling silver used in jewelry, cupronickel used to make marine hardware and coins, and constantan used in strain gauges and thermocouples for temperature measurement.

Brass Alloy of copper and zinc

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve varying mechanical and electrical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other within the same crystal structure. Bronze is an alloy also containing copper, but instead of zinc it has tin.

Magnet wire industry

Until George Jacobs invented a practical enamel for the purpose, cloth was used to insulate magnet wire. This had a number of drawbacks such as, the cloth being too expensive, becoming worn, and bulky. Wire with enamel insulation could be more densely packed, allowing smaller, more efficient motors, coils and other electromagnetic devices.

George Jacobs (inventor) American invetor

George Jacobs was an American inventor, who invented enamel insulation for magnet wire. He founded Dudlo Manufacturing, which became part of General Cable Corporation, and Inca Manufacturing, which became Phelps-Dodge Magnet Wire.

Magnet wire

Magnet wire or enameled wire is a copper or aluminium wire coated with a very thin layer of insulation. It is used in the construction of transformers, inductors, motors, speakers, hard disk head actuators, electromagnets, and other applications that require tight coils of insulated wire.

Jacobs had worked as a chemist in GE's Fort Wayne, Indiana plant. In fact, he met and married his wife Ethel when he worked there. He got a better job as a chemist with Sherwin-Williams in Cleveland, Ohio but continued to work privately on an enamel wire insulation. He tried to exploit his invention there, but lack of capital and management skills hampered him. His father-in-law, successful Fort Wayne hardware wholesaler W.E. Mossman, was a lonely widower. He agreed to back Jacobs with capital, if he would move to Fort Wayne. Once there, Ethel's brother, P. Paul Mossman, provided additional management skills.

General Electric American industrial company

General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate incorporated in New York City and headquartered in Boston. As of 2018, the company operates through the following segments: aviation, healthcare, power, renewable energy, digital industry, additive manufacturing, venture capital and finance, lighting, and oil and gas.

Fort Wayne, Indiana City in Indiana

Fort Wayne is a city in the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Allen County, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is 18 miles (29 km) west of the Ohio border and 50 miles (80 km) south of the Michigan border. With a population of 253,691 in the 2010 census, it is the second-most populous city in Indiana after Indianapolis, and the 75th-most populous city in the United States. It is the principal city of the Fort Wayne metropolitan area, consisting of Allen, Wells, and Whitley counties, a combined population of 419,453 as of 2011. Fort Wayne is the cultural and economic center of northeastern Indiana. The city is within a 300-mile radius of major population centers, including Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Indianapolis, Louisville, Lexington, and Milwaukee. In addition to the three core counties, the combined statistical area (CSA) includes Adams, DeKalb, Huntington, Noble, and Steuben counties, with an estimated population of 615,077.

Sherwin-Williams company

Sherwin-Williams Company is an American Fortune 500 company in the general building materials industry. The company, with headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio, primarily engages in the manufacture, distribution, and sale of paints, coatings and related products to professional, industrial, commercial, and retail customers primarily in North and South America and Europe. The company is mostly known through its Sherwin-Williams Paints line. On March 20, 2016, Sherwin-Williams announced the acquisition of Valspar for approximately $9 billion.

Jacobs built a plant on Wall Street in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1912. By 1922, Dudlo Wire was the largest magnet wire manufacturer in the country—but by 1927, the owners were concerned about the financial health of the country. They sold out to a conglomerate, General Cable Corporation, in 1927, with the Great Depression beginning in 1929. George Jacobs left Dudlo in 1928 to form a new company, Inca Manufacturing, that later became Phelps Dodge Magnet Wire. Victor Rea became manager of Dudlo.

Great Depression 20th-century worldwide economic depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place mostly during the 1930s, beginning in the United States. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations; in most countries it started in 1929 and lasted until the late-1930s. It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how intensely the world's economy can decline.

A photo of Victor Rea. VictorRea.jpg
A photo of Victor Rea.

Rea strikes out on his own

The new owners closed the Fort Wayne offices in 1930. In 1933, shortly before the manufacturing facilities were moved to Rome, New York, Victor Rea resigned and started his own company, Rea Magnet Wire, with several other former Dudlo employees. It was difficult to get a company off the ground in 1933, but an order by Jefferson Electric started the ball rolling, and the company quickly developed a reputation. Victor Rea died of a heart attack in 1954, thus Samuel Rea (his son), became the new president.

Rome, New York City in New York, United States

Rome is a city in Oneida County, New York, United States, located in the central part of the state. The population was 33,725 at the 2010 census. Rome is one of two principal cities in the Utica–Rome Metropolitan Statistical Area, which lies in the "Leatherstocking Country" made famous by James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, set in frontier days before the American Revolutionary War. Rome is in New York's 22nd congressional district.

On January 18, 1960, Rea Magnet Wire was purchased by Alcoa. Sales manager Robert L. “Bob” Whearley—another Dudlo employee—was named President in late 1960 when brothers Samuel and David Rea left the company. Jim Vann, who had been president of Rea since 1982, joined with several others to buy Rea Magnet Wire from Alcoa. It remains a private corporation today.

Recent growth

Rea Magnet Wire, Inc. purchased Phelps Dodge Magnet Wire Company North America on February 14, 2006. This was a major acquisition, adding about 600 more employees to their North American payroll of 675. This brings Rea to eight manufacturing locations in North America, with a second plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and a manufacturing plant in Monterrey, Mexico, as well as manufacturing in Lafayette, Indiana, Las Cruces, New Mexico, Guilford, Connecticut, Ashland, Virginia, and Osceola, Arkansas. As a joint venture with Tongling Jingda, Rea built magnet wire factories in China in 2002 and 2004, expanding the earlier plant in 2005.

Phelps Dodge has been restructuring to focus on mining operations. In March, 2006, they sold Phelps Dodge High Performance Conductors and Columbian Chemicals Company. In March, 2007, Phelps Dodge Corporation was acquired by Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. which is now the world’s largest publicly traded copper producer, and a leading producer of molybdenum and cobalt.

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