• 1901: Federal Electric Company founded in Chicago by John Gilchrist, James Gilchrist, and John Goehst, making electrically luminated store signs. • 1902–1909:
Insull's utilities group gained control of the company, expanding it to manufacture goods that increase demand for electrical generation and supply. Products include washing machines, vacuum cleaners, and small kitchen appliances. • ''1902–1910:
Georges Claude finds a way to produce large quantities of
neon gas for industrial use. The production of
neon signs, superior to Federal Electric's incandescent-lit signs, becomes viable.'' • 1915: The signs division starts producing sirens. • 1927: Federal Electric organizes Claude Neon Federal Companies division to sell neon advertising nationwide. • 1948: Reduces size and employment of
Hartford, Connecticut facility, a legacy Federal Electric plant. • 1949: Federal Electric Company patents a new type of circuit breaker panel.
Note: It is unclear whether Federal Pacific bought FEP, or was a name change, or a successor company. It appears to be a name change, with "Federal (Pacific) Electric Company" appearing as the name in several newspaper reports. • 1952: Affiliated US company Federal Electric Products (FEP) registers the STAB-LOK trademark in Canada. FEP was later absorbed into the parent company. Executive offices at 50 Paris Street in Newark. Spins off sign and siren division as a separate company. James Gilchrist retires from the new Federal Sign and Signal Corporation, dies the following year. • 1957: In December purchases Roller-Smith, an electrical distribution and measuring device manufacturer located in
South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It dates to the 1908 consolidation of the local Switchboard Equipment Company and the Whitney Electrical Instrument Company of
Penacook, New Hampshire. Roller-Smith plant is closed and operations move to existing Federal Pacific plant in Scranton. • 1958: Maintains 14 factories and 70 sales offices. The Eastern Division of the company has four plants between Newark and Scranton. • 1960: Consolidates control of Cornell-Dubilier Electric Company 1960, a move engineered by the presidents of the two companies, Thomas M. Cole and Octave Blake. Cole is a youthful executive, a member of the family that owned Cole Electrical Products of Long Island City. The Cole family invested heavily in their supplier, leading to Thomas Cole joining the company. The firm is involved in a
price-fixing antitrust scandal with the other "big 5" electrical equipment manufacturers and dozens of smaller manufacturers. • 1964: Expanded to 22 United States plants with plans to open a 23rd. There are four plants in Europe and one in Australia. Frank H. Roby is president of the company. • 1970: U. S. Smelting buys Federal Pacific. The company's formal name is United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company. • 1972: Parent company U. S. Smelting renames itself to UV Industries. • 1979: Reliance Electric buys Federal Pacific Electric from UV Industries for
US$345 million in March. UV Industries liquidates its remaining assets to avoid a large capital gains tax assessment on the sale. Its largest shareholder files suit to block the plans, but they are ultimately consummated. • 1980: Reliance Electric engineers identify flaws in the Stab-Lok line in June, and halts distribution of the product in July. The devices are listed as meeting
Underwriter Laboratories (UL) specifications, but fail some UL-specified tests. Reliance files suit in federal court to undo the sales or to receive $450 million in damages. A 2011 updated version of the investigation report clarifies that CPSC did not find them safe, and could not prove they were either safe or unsafe. • 1984: Lawsuit settled with UV Industries' successor paying $39 million to Reliance after several false starts in 1981 and 1982. Previously-reached agreements were renegotiated after completion of an investigation into Stab-Lok by the Consumer Products Safety Commission. Challenger sells the non-circuit breaker parts of the business to Electro-Mechanical Corporation, which becomes the sole remaining commercial marketer using the Federal Pacific name. • 1988: FPE-Pioneer sold to
Schneider Electric Canada. • 1993: ACBC stops manufacturing, and instead contracts with Schneider to manufacture Federal products (black circuit-breakers). Schneider may only sell independently in Canada (gray circuit-breakers). • 1995: Cutler-Hammer, which had bought the Linden plant form Westinghouse, decides to close the plant. The plant manager, John Cifrodella, forms Federal Pacific Equipment, buys the plant and remaining stock, and continues to manufacture and sell circuit-breakers. • 2007: Circuit Breaker Sales Company (CBS) purchases all assets from Federal Pacific Equipment, including the plant, inventory, and documentation. Everything is moved to the CBS site in Mathews, North Carolina. == References ==