Talk:A. Atwater Kent

Copying of content from "Atwater Kent: The Man and His Radios"[edit]

I see the need for an autobiographical article on A. Atwater Kent, but I found when going from one of the external links referenced from this page that it is almost word-for-word copied from this page.

There's a mention on the target page that it was used with permission, which made me wonder if it was derived from this page, but a glance at the Waybackmachine entry shows that the target page was present by April 2005, and according to the history of this article on Wikipedia, it came later, in August of that year.

There have been subsequent edits to the article, so to my mind it is no longer a clear copyright violation, but it still reads very closely to the original poached bio.

Anyone up for a re-write? Captmondo 10:21, 29 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah unfortunately this is a total copyvio. It may actually have been contributed by the author, but copyright is actually claimed on the initial version of this page. I'm going to drop it all and replace it with a stub. We need to write our own article. If you're so inclined you can look through the article history and see if there is anything you can salvage. ike9898 (talk) 00:54, 15 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Information to incorporate[edit]

The following is copied from the talk page of All American Five, and could be useful for this article:

Note: Atwater-Kent did not go bankrupt because they refused to make an AC/DC set. Atwater-Kent refused to unionize.Dfoley51 00:30, 7 October 2006 (UTC) RESPONSE: Not true. Unionization issues may have been one added reason for the owner's decision to get out of the radio business, but did NOT cause Atwater Kent's precipitous fall in market share as a radio manufacturer. Atwater Kent was the #1 manufacturer of radios in the country from 1926 through 1929. In 1929 they were producing almost a million receivers a year. However, during the Depression, where the cost of the average purchased radio dropped 75% or more, it was Atwater-Kent's refusal to produce cheap AAF table radio designs and concentrate on upper-end console models that first caused its business troubles. By 1931 the engineering department had already closed, meaning that the company was simply mass-producing existing designs until they ran out of steam. Sales continued in a downward spiral. In the last years the company's workforce was only 800 employees (down from a high of 12,000!), mostly on-call workers, and unionizing would have resulted in little leverage anyway. By 1936 Arthur Atwater Kent was tired of the radio business, and made the decision to close the factory for good..^[1] -AK 6 MAR 2007[reply]

I can buy that version, I can't imagine AK even CONSIDERING building less than a high end unit. The old version made it sound like he was forced to pick between making a stock RCA design or going out of business. I can imagine more than a few makers were caught by the combination of the depression, and the technological change represented by the AA5. cmacd 12:49, 22 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I have certainly heard that the impending unionization of the Kent workforce was what led Atwater Kent to sell off the business, but the fact of the matter is that by the 1930s the radio business had changed substantially. People could no longer afford the large, luxury sets that Kent produced, and the invention of the superheterodyne circuit meant that radio sets could be made that were much smaller and did not rely on the large metal shaping presses that the Kent plant used. This explains why he briefly went into the refrigeration business before deciding to retire. The unionizing of his workforce may have helped him to decide to retire, but being a sound businessman it would not have been the sole reason for his selling-off of the firm.

Anyways, I found a decent source to expand the article somewhat. If I can track down more, will add more info. Captmondo (talk) 03:59, 12 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ Douglas, Alan, Radio Manufacturers of the 1920s ( Vol. 1) Vestal, New York: Vestal Press, Ltd. (1988); Schiffer, Michael, The Portable Radio In American Life, Tucson: Univ. of Ariz. Press (1991)

Thwarted![edit]

A Veteran's Administration building now sits on the former site of the Atwater Kent factory on Wissahickon Ave. and I have reason to go there about twice a year. In the lobby they have a great display, partly consisting of things pulled out of a time capsule retrieved when the factory was demolished. It includes an unused AK radio made in the factory and other artifacts. There are also posters with some interesting history. Anyway, yesterday I took my camera there with the intention of gathering content for this article, but the rent-a-cops in the lobby stopped me. Someday, info and images from there could be gathered by finding the right person to ask permission from. ike9898 (talk) 14:46, 6 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Too bad! Am surprised that no-one has posted a picture of an actual Atwater Kent radio to Wikipedia or to Wikimedia Commons. Hate to say it, but the poster that is currently posted here is from September 1926, which is three years *after* the point at which the image has fully lapsed out of copyright. It *may* still be valid, but something from 1923 or earlier would be better. If I can source something, will add it. Captmondo (talk) 18:37, 12 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

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[1] Douglas, Alan, Radio Manufacturers of the 1920s ( Vol. 1) Vestal, New York: Vestal Press, Ltd. (1988); Schiffer, Michael, The Portable Radio In American Life, Tucson: Univ. of Ariz. Press (1991)

[1]