Jump to content

Electro-Dynamic Company

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 2600:1002:b118:a8c0:878:5483:5874:5272 (talk) at 18:40, 24 May 2016 (References: Added historical content.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Electro-Dynamic Company
IndustryElectrical machinery
Founded1880
FounderWilliam Woodnut Griscom
FateDissolved 2000
Headquarters
Key people
ProductsElectric motors and electric generators

The Electro-Dynamic Company manufactured electric motors and generators 1880-2000, principally as a subsidiary of the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics and its predecessors.

History

The company was founded by electrical inventor William Woodnut Griscom in 1880. An important early customer for electric boat motors was the Electric Launch Company, also known as Elco. Following an 1892 bankruptcy, financier Isaac Rice bailed out Electro-Dynamic and became a co-owner. Griscom died in a hunting accident in 1897. Electro-Dynamic manufactured the main propulsion motor for USS Holland, the United States Navy's first modern submarine, launched in 1897.[1] In 1899, Rice founded Electric Boat and made Electro-Dynamic and Elco subsidiaries of it. Electro-Dynamic, relocated from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Avenel, New Jersey, went on to manufacture electric motors and generators for numerous submarines built by Electric Boat as well as naval and civilian boats built by Elco. The company retained this function as a division of General Dynamics Corporation when that company was formed by a reorganization of Electric Boat in 1952.[2] The company was dissolved in 2000 and its functions were relocated to Electric Boat's main facility in Groton, Connecticut.[3][4]

References

  1. ^ Bauer and Roberts, p. 253
  2. ^ "General Dynamics Corporation". U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission. Retrieved 2008-12-01.
  3. ^ GD article on closure of ED
  4. ^ Elco Records, Introduction

Electro Dynamic relocated from Philadelphia t o Bayonne, NJ. A fire in 1964 destroyed the plant on Avenue A and a facility, formerly belonging to Security Steel, was secured in Avenel, NJ.