- Philco
Philco, the Philadelphia Storage Battery Company (formerly known as the Spencer Company and later the Helios Electric Company), was a pioneer in early battery, radio and television production as well as former employer of
Philo Farnsworth , inventor ofcathode ray tube television . For a time, during the 1930s Philco produced very sophisticated radio-phonographs in conjunction with RCA'sVictrola brand.Philco began in 1906 making batteries for
electric vehicle s. Philco built many iconicradio s and TV sets, including the classiccathedral -shaped wooden radio of the 1930s, and the very futuristic (in a 1950s sort of way)Predicta series of television receivers. Philco began making radios in 1926 [ [http://www.oldradio.com/archives/hardware/philco.htm A Brief History of Philco] Oldradio.com] , car radios in 1930 and later expanded into other areas including refrigeration, air conditioners, home entertainment products, automotive electronic controls, aerospace tracking systems and artificial satellites. In 1960,NASA contracted Philco to build the world-wide tracking station network forProject Mercury , and all subsequent Man-In-Space projects until the ground station network was replaced by theTDRS communication satellites in the 1990s.Acquired by
Ford Motor Company onDecember 11 ,1961 and renamed Philco-Ford, it continued to make many car radios for Ford vehicles as well as its other products. Eventually, the name was abandoned. The company was acquired byPhilips in 1981 in order to gain the rights to use thePhilips trademark in theUnited States . (Philco had been able to keep Philips from using its trademark legally because of the similarly sounding names.) Philips continues to use the Philco name for promotional consumer electronics and has licensed the name for private brands and retro style consumer electronics. Philips also is using the Philco brand name for digital converter boxes for analog TVs in the USA [ [http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205203693&printable=true EETimes] ] . The Philco brand in this case is being licensed by Philips toFunai , who is manufacturing these boxes.In 1962, the Philco 2000 Model 212 computer was chosen for use in the
North American Aerospace Defense Command 's famousCheyenne Mountain facility. Three of the machines were installed that year and ran until 1980. The machines were also used by research labs at Westinghouse Electric andGeneral Electric . The Philco S-2000 Transac was the first solid state computer. It used discrete transistors instead of vacuum tubes, the integrated circuit not yet having been invented..The Aerospace portion of
Philco Ford was renamedFord Aerospace in 1976.Non-U.S. branding
In
Brazil , Philco (then Philco-Hitachi) was acquired in 1989 byItautec , becomingItautec-Philco and in August 2005 Itautec sold Philco toGradiente . In August 2007, Gradiente sold the brand to a group of investors, who intended to license the brand to Brazilian appliance makerBritânia . [http://ultimosegundo.ig.com.br/mundo_virtual/2007/08/30/gradiente_confirma_venda_da_marca_philco_por_r_22_milh245es_985884.html]In 2003, the
Merloni Group acquired rights to the Philco brand (from Philco International) for use inItaly [http://www.antoniomerloni.it/extranet/eng/area1_azienda] . The Italian Philco produces household appliances in affiliation withBendix andThorn EMI Moyor Electronics (e.g. Bendix 71258 1000 automatic washing machine 1986). As of 2006, the company is mainly recognised inAustralia .In
Argentina , in March 2004, Philco was acquired by a group of Argentine investors. The presence of Philco in Argentina dates since 1930 (seeInfamous Decade ), remains a traditional mark of appliances in this country. It currently manufactures refrigerators and white line products by Philco Argentina S.A. and Helametal Catamarca S.A.Argentina [http://www.philco.com.ar]ee also
*
Philco Television Playhouse
*Philco Predicta References
External links
* [http://www.philco.com.ar/ Philco Argentina Website] (in Spanish)
* [http://www.philco.gr/ Philco Greek Website]
* [http://www.oldradio.com/archives/hardware/philco.htm A brief history of Philco]
* [http://www.philcoradio.com/ A Resource for Vintage Philco Radios]
* [http://www.philcorepairbench.com/ Everything for the PHILCO Antique Radio Collector and Restorer]
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