The Western Electric Company

The information on this page has been reproduced from the book New Jersey: Life, Industries and Resources of a Great State published in 1928 by the New Jersey State Chamber of Commerce. It is included on this site because of its historical interest to those who grew up in Kearny, New Jersey

The Western Electric Company

The Western Electric Company, whose plant at Kearny is one of the most modern industrial establishments in the country, is the largest manufacturer of telephones and telephone equipment in the world. In this New Jersey plant and in its Hawthorne Works at Chicago the company manufactures the major portion of the requirements of telephone apparatus and cable for the Bell Telephone System and associated operating companies in the United States. It also acts as purchasing agent and maintains warehouses for all equipment and supplies for the system.

In addition, the company is the manufacturer or licensor of such important by-products outside the field of wire communication as radio broadcasting equipment, public address systems, electrical methods of recording sound, the Permalloy type of high-speed submarine telegraph cable, and equipment for the production of talking motion pictures.

About 60 years ago the company started as a general electrical business with a capital of $2,500. Its present name came into existence in 1881, since when the corporation has grown until it has 40,000 employees and in 1927 reported sales amounting to $153,724,013. In addition to its Kearny and Hawthorne plants, it has distributing plants, repair shops, and warehouses in the principal cities of the United States.

For many years the Western Electric confined its manufacturing activities to its Hawthorne Works at Chicago. In 1922. it decided to construct a large plant in the East, and Kearny was selected as its site. Work was begun there in 1923, and these works have a floor area of 1,250,000 square feet.

Submarine cable