Philadelphia Battery Company

Place: Philadelphia

Born: 1892

Death: 1981

Biography:

Philco, also known as the Philadelphia Battery Company, was an American electronics manufacturer based in Philadelphia. The company was a pioneer in battery, radio, and television production. In 1961, Philco was purchased by Ford and 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, while in other markets, the Philco International brand is owned by Electrolux. In the early 1920s, Philco made storage batteries, 'socket power' battery eliminator units, and battery chargers. With the invention of the rectifier tube, which made it practical to power radios by electrical outlets, in 1928, Philco entered the radio business. By the end of 1930, they were selling more radios than any other maker, a position they held for more than 20 years. Philco built many iconic radios and television sets, including the classic cathedral-shaped wooden radio of the 1930s (aka the 'Baby Grand') and the Predicta series of television receiver sets of the 1950s. Philco was also a pioneer in transistorized computers, also known as second generation computers. After the company developed the surface barrier transistor, which was much faster than previous point-contact types, it was awarded contracts for military and government computers. Commercialized derivatives of some of these designs became successful business and scientific computers. The TRANSAC (Transistor Automatic Computer) Model S-1000 was released as a scientific computer. The TRANSAC S-2000 mainframe computer system was first produced in 1958, and a family of compatible machines, with increasing performance, was released over the next several years. However, the mainframe computer market was dominated by IBM, and Philco went bankrupt and was purchased in 1961 by Ford Motor Company. The computer division carried on until the Philco division of Ford exited the computer business in 1963. The Ford company maintained one Philco mainframe in use until 1981.