Sylvania Electric Products

Last updated
Sylvania Electric Products Inc.
FormerlyHygrade Sylvania Corporation (1931–1942)
Industry Electronics
Predecessors
  • NILCO
  • Sylvania
  • Hygrade Lamp Company
Founded1931;92 years ago (1931)
Defunct1959 (1959)
FateMerged with General Telephone
SuccessorGeneral Telephone and Electronics (GTE)

Sylvania Electric Products Inc. was an American manufacturer of diverse electrical equipment, including at various times radio transceivers, vacuum tubes, semiconductors, and mainframe computers such as MOBIDIC. They were one of the companies involved in the development of the COBOL programming language.

Contents

History

Sylvania Model 4P14 (1961) radio, made of plastic Sylvania Model 4P14 (1961).jpg
Sylvania Model 4P14 (1961) radio, made of plastic
Sylvania was a major manufacturer of vacuum tubes until the early 1980s Sylvania-tube.jpg
Sylvania was a major manufacturer of vacuum tubes until the early 1980s
Vacuum tube cartons displaying two generations of Sylvania branding Sylvania Boxes.jpg
Vacuum tube cartons displaying two generations of Sylvania branding
SG7460 (7400 series) integrated circuit manufactured by Sylvania 7460 Sylvania 935 package top.jpg
SG7460 (7400 series) integrated circuit manufactured by Sylvania

The Hygrade Sylvania Corporation was formed when NILCO , Sylvania and Hygrade Lamp Company merged into one company in 1931.

In 1939, Hygrade Sylvania started preliminary research on fluorescent technology, and later that year, demonstrated the first linear, or tubular, fluorescent lamp. It was featured at the 1939 New York World's Fair. [1] Sylvania was also a manufacturer of both vacuum tubes and transistors. In 1942, the company changed its name to Sylvania Electric Products Inc.

During World War II, Sylvania was chosen from among several competing companies to manufacture the miniature vacuum tubes used in proximity fuze shells due to its quality standards and mass production capabilities. [2]

In 1959, Sylvania Electronics merged with General Telephone to form General Telephone and Electronics (GTE).

Sylvania developed the earliest flash cubes for still cameras, later selling the technology to Eastman Kodak Company, and later a 10-flash unit called FlipFlash, as well as a line of household electric light bulbs, which continued during GTE's ownership, later sold off to the German manufacturer Osram, and is today marketed as Osram Sylvania.

In June 1964, Sylvania unveiled a color TV picture tube in which europium-bearing phosphor was used for a much brighter, truer red than was possible before. [3]

Through merger and acquisitions, the company became a significant, but never dominating supplier of electrical distribution equipment, including transformers and switchgear, residential and commercial load centers and breakers, pushbuttons, indicator lights, and other hard-wired devices. All were manufactured and distributed under the brand name GTE Sylvania, with the name Challenger used for its light commercial and residential product lines. GTE Sylvania contributed to the technological advancement of electrical distribution products in the late 1970s with several interesting product features. At the time, they were the leading supplier of vacuum cast coil transformers, manufactured in their Hampton, Virginia plant. Their transformers featured aluminum primary winding and were cast using relatively inexpensive molds, allowing them to produce cast coil transformers in a variety of KVA capacities, primary and secondary voltages and physical coil sizes, including low profile coils for mining and other specialty applications. They also developed the first medium voltage 3 phase panel that could survive a dead short across two phases. Their patented design used bus bar encapsulated in a thin coating of epoxy and then bolted together across all three phases, using special non-conductive fittings.

By 1981 GTE had made the decision to exit the electrical distribution equipment market and began selling off its product lines and manufacturing facilities. The Challenger line, mostly manufactured at the time in Jackson, Mississippi, was sold to a former officer of GTE, who used the Challenger name as the name of his new company. Challenger flourished, and was eventually sold to Westinghouse, and later Eaton Corporation. By the mid-1980s, the GTE Sylvania electrical equipment product line and name was no more.

In 1993 GTE exited the lighting business to concentrate on its core telecomms operations. The European, Asian and Latin American operations are now under the ownership of Havells Sylvania. With the acquisition of the North American division by Osram GmbH in January 1993 Osram Sylvania Inc. was established. [4]

Brand name

In the early 1980s, GTE Sylvania sold the rights to the name Sylvania and Philco for use on consumer electronics equipment only, to the Netherlands' NV Philips. This marked the end of Sylvania's TV production in Batavia, New York, USA, and Smithfield, North Carolina, USA. The Sylvania Smithfield plant later became Channel Master. The rights to the Sylvania name in many countries are held by the U.S. subsidiary of the German company Osram. The Sylvania brand name is owned worldwide, apart from Australia, Canada, Mexico, Thailand, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and the USA, by Havells Sylvania, headquartered in London.

Osram Sylvania

Osram Sylvania manufactures and markets a wide range of lighting products for homes, business, and vehicles and holds a leading share of the North American lighting market [2]. In fiscal year 2008, the company achieved sales of about 1.75 billion euros, which comprised about 38% of Osram's total sales at the time. [5] Osram's worldwide lighting businesses employed about 9,000 people at the time. In 2016, Osram spun off the general lighting business which included the North American Osram Sylvania unit into an independent company called LEDVANCE headquartered in Garching, Germany. In 2017, LEDVANCE was merged into a consortium of Chinese investment companies and the Chinese lighting manufacturer MLS under the LEDVANCE name. The North American headquarters of LEDVANCE, previously referred to as Osram Sylvania, and located in Danvers, Massachusetts, was relocated to Wilmington, Massachusetts in 2015, a town north of Boston, MA. LEDVANCE continues to use the well known Osram and Sylvania brand names in their corresponding and representative markets throughout the world.

Advertising

Sylvania Skylark portable radio seen in a television commercial from the 1950s. Sylvaina skylark commercial.jpg
Sylvania Skylark portable radio seen in a television commercial from the 1950s.

Accidents

The Sylvania Electric Products explosion, which involved scrap thorium, occurred on July 2, 1956, at their facility in Bayside, Queens, New York City. [7] [8] The incident injured nine people; [7] one employee subsequently died of his injuries. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philips</span> Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation

Koninklijke Philips N.V., commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is still in Eindhoven. Philips was formerly one of the largest electronics companies in the world, but is currently focused on the area of health technology, having divested its other divisions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Incandescent light bulb</span> Electric light bulb with a resistively heated wire filament

An incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe is an electric light with a wire filament that is heated until it glows. The filament is enclosed in a glass bulb that is filled with vacuum or inert gas to protect the filament from oxidation. Current is supplied to the filament by terminals or wires embedded in the glass. A bulb socket provides mechanical support and electrical connections.

The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and defence electronics, communications, and engineering. The company was founded in 1886, was Britain's largest private employer with over 250,000 employees in the 1980s, and at its peak in the 1990s, made profits of over £1 billion a year.

Sylvania may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neon sign</span> Electrified, luminous tube lights

In the signage industry, neon signs are electric signs lighted by long luminous gas-discharge tubes that contain rarefied neon or other gases. They are the most common use for neon lighting, which was first demonstrated in a modern form in December 1910 by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show. While they are used worldwide, neon signs were popular in the United States from about the 1920s to 1950s. The installations in Times Square, many originally designed by Douglas Leigh, were famed, and there were nearly 2,000 small shops producing neon signs by 1940. In addition to signage, neon lighting is used frequently by artists and architects, and in plasma display panels and televisions. The signage industry has declined in the past several decades, and cities are now concerned with preserving and restoring their antique neon signs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Compact fluorescent lamp</span> Fluorescent lamps with folded tubes, often with built-in ballast

A compact fluorescent lamp (CFL), also called compact fluorescent light, energy-saving light, compact fluorescent tube and chloro fluorescent lamp is a fluorescent lamp designed to replace an incandescent light bulb; some types fit into light fixtures designed for incandescent bulbs. The lamps use a tube that is curved or folded to fit into the space of an incandescent bulb, and a compact electronic ballast in the base of the lamp.

OSRAM Licht AG is a German company that makes electric lights, headquartered in Munich and Premstätten (Austria). OSRAM positions itself as a high-tech photonics company that is increasingly focusing on sensor technology, visualization and treatment by light. The company serves customers in the consumer, automotive, healthcare and industrial technology sectors. The operating company of OSRAM is OSRAM GmbH.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Induction lamp</span> Gas-discharge lamp in which an electric or magnetic field transfers energy to the gas inside.

The induction lamp, electrodeless lamp, or electrodeless induction lamp is a gas-discharge lamp in which an electric or magnetic field transfers the power required to generate light from outside the lamp envelope to the gas inside. This is in contrast to a typical gas discharge lamp that uses internal electrodes connected to the power supply by conductors that pass through the lamp envelope. Eliminating the internal electrodes provides two advantages:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hydrargyrum medium-arc iodide lamp</span>

Hydrargyrum medium-arc iodide (HMI) is the trademark name of Osram's brand of metal-halide gas discharge medium arc-length lamp, made specifically for film and entertainment applications. Hydrargyrum comes from the Greek name for the element mercury.

Lucas Industries plc was a Birmingham-based British manufacturer of motor industry and aerospace industry components. Once prominent, it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was formerly a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In August 1996, Lucas merged with the American Varity Corporation to form LucasVarity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thorn Electrical Industries</span> Former British electrical engineering company

Thorn Electrical Industries Limited was a British electrical engineering company. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange, but merged with EMI Group to form Thorn EMI in 1979. It was de-merged in 1996 and became a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, but was acquired by the Japanese Nomura Group only two years later. It is now owned by Terra Firma Capital Partners.

Philco is an American electronics manufacturer headquartered in Philadelphia. Philco was a pioneer in battery, radio, and television production. In 1961, the company was purchased by Ford and, from 1966, renamed "Philco-Ford". Ford sold the company to GTE in 1974, and it was purchased by Philips in 1981. In North America, the Philco brand is owned by Philips. In other markets, the Philco International brand is owned by Electrolux.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electrical ballast</span> Device to limit the current in lamps

An electrical ballast is a device placed in series with a load to limit the amount of current in an electrical circuit.

Orion Electronics Ltd is a consumer electronics company headquartered in Budapest, Hungary. Orion supplies a wide range of brown and white goods including televisions, DVD players/recorders/with HDD, home theatre systems, Navigation Systems, Portable DVD Players, active speaker systems, computer monitors, MP3/MP4 players, washing machines, dishwashers, cooking ranges, microwave ovens and the full range of small domestic appliances. The company is owned and managed by the Thakral Corporation of Singapore.

Curtis Mathes, Inc is a North American electronics retailer initially based in Garland, Texas, and specializing in the sale of private label brand electronics and repair services. It manufactured its own brand of televisions in Athens, Texas, until July 31, 1982; ten years later, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and reorganization which allowed it to stay in business and use future earnings to pay off creditors. The company is now based in Frisco, Texas.

SABA is a German electronics company founded in 1923 at Triberg im Schwarzwald, present-day Baden-Württemberg. SABA started as a clock-making company, then became a radio manufacturer, and a few years later a record label. In 1968, SABA sold the majority of the company to GTE, an American telephone company. In 1980, the company was purchased by Thomson SA and integrated as a separate business unit.

Osram Sylvania Inc. is the North American operation of lighting manufacturer Osram. It was established in January 1993, with the acquisition of GTE's Sylvania lighting division by Osram GmbH. In 2016, Osram spun off its general lighting business to Ledvance which received a license to sell lighting products under the Osram and Sylvania names.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Havells</span> Indian electrical equipment manufacturer

Havells India Limited is an Indian multinational electrical equipment company, based in Noida. It was founded by Haveli Ram Gandhi, later sold to Qimat Rai Gupta who was his distributor. The company manufactures home appliances, lighting for domestic, commercial and industrial applications, LED lighting, fans, modular switches and wiring accessories, water heaters, industrial and domestic circuit protection switchgear, industrial and domestic cables and wires, induction motors, and capacitors among others. Havells owns brands like Havells, Lloyd, Crabtree, Standard Electric, Reo and Promptec.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian General Electric</span> Canadian multinational conglomerate

GE Canada is the wholly-owned Canadian unit of General Electric, manufacturing various consumer and industrial electrical products all over Canada.

Havells Sylvania and formerly SLI, is an international designer and manufacturer of lighting products, trading as Sylvania. It has plants throughout Europe, Asia, North Africa and Central and South America, and is one of the few lighting companies that produces both lamps and lighting fixtures. It is owned by Shanghai Feilo Acoustics Ltd., having previously been owned by the Indian electrical company Havells.

References

  1. "The Nilco story" . Retrieved 2009-01-11.
  2. Linwood S. Howeth (Captain.); Chester William Nimitz (Amiral.) (1963). History of Communications-electronics in the United States Navy ... U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 437–.
  3. "Sylvania Develops New Color-Tv Tube". The New York Times. 5 June 1964.
  4. The Washington Post: GTE to Sell Sylvania Light Unit, 1992-08-07
  5. Osram Sylvania Management presentation June 25, 2009 Archived October 21, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  6. "Theme Parks: SYLVANIA to Sponsor Iconic 'it's a small world' at Disneyland Resortsort". blooloop. 2009-12-17. Retrieved 2019-02-28.
  7. 1 2 "Nine Injured In Atomic Lab Blasts". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . Associated Press. July 3, 1956. p. 2.
  8. "No Radiation Threat Seen In A-laboratory Blast". St. Petersburg Times . Associated Press. July 3, 1956. p. 2.
  9. "Dies of Sylvania Blast; Chemical Engineer Succumbs to Burns Suffered July 2". The New York Times. 1956-08-09. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-11-27.