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Colonial
Radio Corp. was founded in 1924
by Dr. Fulton Cutting and Bowden Washington of
Cutting & Washington
Radio Corporation, Minneapolis, founded in 1922. Cutting & Washington,
which made receivers and
transmitters for the Government services, and for
steamship lines to use in ship-to-shore radio
telegraph communication,
was summoned by
Westinghouse because of
infringement of its Armstrong
wireless patents, and the company went
bankrupt in August 1924.
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In September, they opened
a new business in Long Island, New York under the name
Colonial Radio Corporation. The
company had two locations: East Avenue and Tenth Street
in Long Island. |
| In
November 1925 the company had 200 workers and had
finished quite a few radios for the Chicago Radio Show. |
| Colonial soon outgrew its original
plant and moved into a new five-story building at Long
Island City. By 1929 the company had outgrown this plant
as well. Its sales and engineering departments had
expanded greatly, and from less than one hundred
employees in 1924, the organization had increased to
more than five hundred employees. |
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In February 1930, Colonial
took over Valley Appliances in Rochester, New York and
in October 1930, King Radio in
Buffalo. In that year its headquarters were
also moved to 254 Rano Street, Buffalo, New York. |
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Starting
in 1931, many Colonial
products made for other companies,
such as Sears, Roebuck & Company, Graybar
Electric, Firestone, Goodyear,
General Motors, Chrysler and Dunlop. The company had
855 employees
in 1931. The production figures
increased from 40,000 units in 1930 to
150,600 in 1934.
Six years later, in 1940, Colonial had 1762
employees and 631,000
radios were
made. |
| Colonial accepted its first military
production contract late in 1940 and started production
of military communications equipment in 1941. For a
while, this work was carried on along with the
production of civilian sets, but in April 1942, the
company converted its facilities to 100 per cent
military production. |
| In 1944 Sylvania Electric bought
Colonial. |
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