The business was founded in 1919 by Alfred L. Williams as
Brush Labs to develop products that used
piezoelectric crystals. Associates spun off the
Brush Development Company in 1930, with piezoelectric phonograph pickups as their main product. Later, it began manufacturing
wire recorders,
microphones, and
speakers. During World War II, Vice President for Research Dr. Semi Joseph Begun was awarded a contract from the US National Defense Research Council for research on a substitute for stainless steel wire used in wire recorders by the military. Post-war, Brush manufactured a dictation recorder in 1946, and released the first USA built tape recorder in 1947 with the Brush Soundmirror. In 1950, Brush built the Model BL-206 and BL-216 Multichannel Oscillographs, and associated Model BL-932 DC Amplifiers. ==References==