Thomson-Houston Electric Company
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Electrical manufacturing |
| Founded | 1882 |
| Founder | Elihu Thomson, Edwin Houston |
| Fate | Merged with Edison General Electric Company in 1892 to form General Electric |
| Headquarters | Lynn, Massachusetts , United States |
Key people | Charles Albert Coffin (investor and financial manager), Edwin Rice (manufacturing supervisor), Elihu Thomson (head of Model Room) |
Number of employees | 4000 (1892) |
The Thomson-Houston Electric Company was a manufacturing enterprise that played a significant role as a forerunner to General Electric.
History
The company was initially established in 1882 as the American Electric Company by inventors Elihu Thomson and Edwin Houston. A group of investors, mainly shoe manufacturers from Lynn, Massachusetts, led by Charles Albert Coffin, later took control of the firm. They renamed it Thomson-Houston Electric Company and transferred its operations to Western Avenue in Lynn.
Financial management, marketing, and sales were handled by Coffin; manufacturing operations were supervised by Edwin Rice; and Elihu Thomson led the Model Room, one of the earliest industrial research laboratories. By 1892, the company had grown to approximately in sales and employed around 4,000 workers.
In 1884, the Thomson-Houston International Company was created to facilitate expansion into overseas markets.
Key achievements included the installation of electric incandescent lighting at the Lynn G.A.R. Hall in 1885 and providing both generation and propulsion equipment for Massachusetts' inaugural electric streetcar route on the Lynn & Boston Railroad Highland Circuit in 1888.
To resolve patent disputes concerning arc lamps and dynamos, Thomson-Houston acquired the Brush Company in 1889.
In 1892, under the guidance of financier John Pierpoint Morgan, Thomson-Houston merged with Edison General Electric Company based in Schenectady, New York, resulting in the formation of General Electric. The Lynn facility remains one of GE's two original plants alongside the Schenectady site.
British Thomson-Houston
British Thomson-Houston (BTH) was founded as a subsidiary of American General Electric in May 1896, evolving from Laing, Wharton, and Down, which had been established in 1886. In 1928, BTH merged with its competitor Metropolitan-Vickers to form Associated Electrical Industries (AEI), which became the British Empire's largest military contractor during the 1930s and World War II. AEI was subsequently acquired by the General Electric Company (GEC) in 1967. Later, GEC divested its defense divisions in 1999, creating Marconi plc and Marconi Corporation plc; these entities now operate under the name Telent.
Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston
Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston (CFTH), founded in Paris in 1893 as a French counterpart to GE US, eventually developed into Alstom. A corporate restructuring in 1999 led to a demerger producing what are currently known as Vantiva and Thomson-CSF.
References and sources
- References
- Sources
- Hammond, John Winthrop. Men and Volts, the Story of General Electric (1941).
- Carlson, W. Bernard. Innovation as a Social Process: Elihu Thomson and the Rise of General Electric, 1870-1900 (Cambridge University Press, 1991).
- Woodbury, David O. Elihu Thomson, Beloved Scientist (Museum of Science Boston, 1944).
- Haney, John L. The Elihu Thomson Collection American Philosophical Society Yearbook (1944).