From revolutionizing home entertainment tech to trailblazing computers that guided NASA, Philco sparked advancements that transformed 20th century life. This comprehensive company profile explores Philco‘s 63-year journey of innovation.
Overview
While you may not recognize the Philco name today, this Philadelphia firm was an ever-present tech pioneer in millions of American homes during the early-to-mid 1900s.
Philco‘s Many Firsts:
- Mass produced home radio consoles
- Battery-powered car radios
- Televisions
- Refrigerators with modern convenience features
- Transistors enabling computers
- Mobile military computing systems
We trace Philco‘s rise, diversification into appliances, eventual decline, and lasting impact:
1892 – Founded as carbon arc lighting company
1920s – Key player in growing home and auto radio market
1930s-40s – Leader in radio, TV, and refrigerator tech
1950s – Computing pioneer via transistors and TRANSAC line
1960s – Acquired by Ford, then GTE-Sylvania
Today – Philco brand lives on under Philips ownership
So how did Philco spark so many advances that shaped the 20th century‘s household and technology landscape? Read on in our data-rich, expert-led Philco company history guide…
The Early Years: Illuminating Homes & Vehicles (1892-1920)
It all started with lightbulbs in 1892…
Brothers Frank and Thomas Spencer founded Helios Electric Company to produce carbon arc lamps. Carbon arc lamps powered early streetlights and home lighting via high-intensity arcing electricity.
But the electric lighting market grew fiercely competitive, eventually declining. So in 1906, the company reorganized into Philadelphia Storage Battery Company to make batteries for electric vehicles instead.
Energizing nascent electric cars kept Philco‘s next decade profitable. By 1919, Philco batteries powered 75% of American electric vehicles. Gasoline cars quickly dominated though, forcing Philco to pivot again.
Luckily, Philco possessed battery know-how perfectly matched to the explosively growing home radio market. VP James M. Skinner led Philco‘s key 1920s product – radio batteries allowing households to make their radios portable.
Home Radio Ownership in the 1920s:
| Year | % of US Homes with Radio |
|---|---|
| 1922 | 30% |
| 1927 | 60% |
| 1929 | 72% |
With mobile battery-powered radios taking over America, Philco sales surged. The company even captured 30% market share of all US radios by 1936.
Now a radio household name, Philco leaned into innovation for the next step – all-electric plug-in household radio consoles.
Pioneering Plug-In Radios & Television (1930s-1940s)
While once dependent on cumbersome batteries, radios underwent an electrification revolution by 1930. Alternating home power current couldn‘t directly power radios though, requiring bulky transformer devices to first convert AC to the necessary direct current.
Again centered on power supply technology, Philco cracked the plug-in radio challenge in 1928 by developing compact rectifier tubes. The tubes efficiently converted AC into DC current for radios.
Philco‘s rectifier tube enabled the convenient wall-socketed tabletop radio consoles that soon dominated 1930s living rooms. Now with a steady power supply, radios evolved into information and entertainment hubs constantly providing news, shows, and music.
Television followed a similar trajectory later – progressing from experimental to adopted in households nationwide by the 1950s.
Philco again stood at the forefront of the TV revolution. After showcasing early television prototypes in 1939, Philco made history on November 11, 1947 by beginning full mass production of TV sets.
The initial Model 48-1000 series marked America‘s very first commercially manufactured TVs available to consumers at scale. Priced between $395 and $795, over 200,000 Model 48 units sold within a couple years!
Breakthrough inventions enabled both product lines. For television, Philco developed special high-frequency transmitting tubes and some of the earliest transistor prototypes. As a result, the company once provided 1 in 3 TVs purchased in America!
Diversification Into Appliances & Computing (1950s-1960s)
By dominating America‘s living rooms with radios and TVs, Philco ranked among the nation‘s leading home electronics brands by the 1950s. But the company set its innovative sights on totally revamping households beyond media..
In quick succession, Philco introduced major home appliances:
- 1938 – Refrigerators
- 1949 – Room air conditioners
- 1953 – Combination freezer/refrigerators
- 1959 – Laundry centers
Each appliance integrated sophisticated features matching evolving consumer needs. For example, Philco‘s debut refrigerators [some model details] introduced closed foamed insulation and automatic interior lighting.
The 1949 Coolerado room air conditioner allowed household spot cooling three decades before central AC adoption spread. Weighing over 100 pounds, Coolerado units retailed at a hefty $449 – equivalent to $4900 today!
Beyond appliances came computing – driven by Philco‘s transistor innovations powering new levels of miniaturization and efficiency. Engineers at the Philco labs invented the Surface Barrier Transistor in 1953. Silicon-based, it vastly improved the signal reliability achievable vs earlier transistor incarnations.
Surface barrier transistors enabled fully transistorized computing equipment for the first time. Philco unveiled its breakthrough TRANSAC line in 1955 – marketed as commercial data processing machines but also seen in early "supercomputers" employed by research facilities and the military.
Governmental organizations and corporations used TRANSAC systems:
- NORAD – To build Cheyenne Mountain‘s computerized defense infrastructure
- Bank of America – As branch accounting systems network
- US Navy – Naval Training Device Center
By 1961, Philco annual computing revenues reached $60 million – driven by over 500 TRANSAC installations delivered.
Changing of the Guard (1960s Onward)
Despite Philco‘s diverse technology strengths across sectors, business conditions began deteriorating by the late 1950s. Several factors (foreign imports, low-cost appliance competition) steadily eroded Philco‘s radio dominance. Even the promising computer division struggled as IBM solidiifed leadership of the young but enormous industry.
These declines resulted in Ford purchasing Philco in December 1961 for $75 million (over $650 million today) to add consumer electronics to its conglomerate. Yet financial troubles persisted, leading Ford to offload Philco to competitor GTE-Sylvania just eight years later. There Philco operated as a subsidiary focusing on defense products and appliance manufacturing.
Today the Philco brand lives on globally under the ownership of Philips. No longer developing new technologies itself, the company sustains residual recognition of Philco‘s quality engineering during its 20th century prime.
From a carbon arc startup to pioneering transistors and computing, Philco spent over 60 years brightening homes and progressing technology along the way. The Philco name will endure as an icon of early consumer technology innovation.
