philadelphia pennsylvania u.s. parent ab electrolux website philco international philco founded as helios electric company renamed philadelphia storage battery company was a pioneer in battery radio and television production . in north america it is a brand owned by philips . in other markets the brand is owned by electrolux . in the early 1920s philco made storage batteries socket power battery eliminator units and battery chargers . with the invention of the rectifier tube which made it practical to power radios by electrical outlets in 1928 philco decided to get into the booming radio business . 1 they followed other radio makers such as atwater kent zenith electronics rca freshman masterpiece fada radio and ah grebe into the battery powered radio business . by 1930 they were selling more radios than any other maker a position they held for more than 20 years . philco built many iconic radios and tv sets including the classic cathedral shaped wooden radio of the 1930s aka the baby grand and the predicta series of television receivers of the 1950s . philo farnsworth who invented cathode ray tube television worked at philco for some time . contents 1 early history 1.1 first major product 2 expansion into other products 2.1 transistor research and product development 2.2 space systems 2.3 water purification systems 3 demise 4 non u.s. branding 5 see also 6 references 7 external links early history edit from its inception until 1904 the company manufactured carbon arc lamps . as this line of business slowly foundered over the last decade of the 19th century the firm experienced increasingly difficult times . as the philadelphia storage battery company in 1906 it began making batteries for electric vehicles . they later supplied home charging batteries to the infant radio industry . the philco brand name appeared in 1919 . from 1920 to 1927 all radios were powered by storage batteries which were fairly expensive and often messy in the home . first major product edit philco had produced socket power a b and ab battery eliminators starting in 1925 . philco socket power a & b battery eliminators 1925 august brochure . a very successful august 1925 product called the socket power battery eliminator was a rectifier unit that allowed users to operate their battery powered radios from standard light or wall sockets . by 1927 over a million of these units had been sold . however the invention of the vacuum tube rectifier incorporated into the coming 1928 line of radio sets made this technology obsolete . philco was founded in 1892 as helios electric company . 2 in 1926 philco decided to begin making radios . 3 the first philco radios were introduced in mid 1928 and 96 000 were produced that year making philco radios 26th in the nation in production volume . up to that time most radios were handmade and priced for relatively wealthy consumers . atwater kent the leading radio seller coincidentally was also located in philadelphia . the philadelphia storage battery company decided that prices of radios could be scaled for a mass market by incorporating assembly line techniques then only used by the automobile industry . by the 1929 model year philco was in third place behind atwater kent and majestic grigsby grunow corp in radio sales . in 1930 the company sold 600 000 radios grossed 34 million and was the leading radio maker in the country . by 1934 they had captured 30 % of the domestic radio market . 4 a philco 90 cathedral style radio from 1931 . philco radios were notable for their economy of design without sacrificing quality or durability . like other makers of the era they offered a wide line of radios beginning with five tube sets all the way up to high fidelity consoles with 20 tubes in 1937 38 . philco also made battery powered radios which were by then called farm radios most of which had cabinets identical to their ac powered versions . the philco baby grand today called cathedral radios by collectors was a shape that featured an arched top that wrapped from the sides over the top . this was for economic reason partly as one piece of wood formed both the top and sides . philco sold far more of this style than any other maker a total of over two million in over twenty models with from four to eleven tubes from 1930 to 1938 ; 5 many of them exist today in collections . by today s standards most of them are still excellent performing am band radios when restored . a few of their innovations were very futuristic . from 1939 to 1941 they sold radios that were remotely operated by wireless controls the one tube mystery control used on their 13 tube model 116rx su or 39 116 . 6 this feature was not offered by any other maker until the 1970s stereo receivers . philco ranked 57th among united states corporations in the value of world war ii military production contracts . 7 another interesting product was the philco beam of light 78 rpm record players offered in 1941 and 1942 . these units had a tiny mirror attached to the player s needle . a beam of light was focused on the mirror which caused a vibrating light to hit a solar cell and produce the audio signal . while this system had some advantages over the standard crystal phono cartridge of the time it was unreliable and is today a very difficult unit to restore . expansion into other products edit philco predicta tv set 1958 1959 dallas museum of art philco began marketing car radios in 1930 and later expanded into other areas including air conditioners 1938 refrigerators 1939 home freezers 1946 consumer televisions 1947 electric ranges 1949 home laundry washers and dryers 1954 and home entertainment products . their first consumer television set the 1948 table model 48 1000 had a 10 in 25 cm screen and sold for us 395 . by 1954 philco had led the radio industry in volume sales for 24 straight years selling over 30 million radios . 8 philco was also a pioneer in television broadcasting launching experimental station w3xe in 1932 . in 1941 the station became the third commercially licensed tv operation in the united states as wptz . it was sold to westinghouse broadcasting in 1953 and operates today as kyw tv . the philco predicta tv set was introduced in 1957 for the 1958 model year . it was a black and white television with the picture tube mounted in a unique steerable pod on a pedestal . there were many versions 17 or 21 picture tubes wood or metal cabinets and table or floor standing versions some with rare uhf tuners . its specially designed high deflection angle to achieve a shallow front to back depth picture tube turned out to be a very unreliable design and cost the company dearly in repairs and reputation . many of them were sold to motels and bars due to the convenience of the swivel tube arrangement . it was discontinued in 1960 ; a great failure for philco like the edsel automobile was for ford which coincidentally ran exactly the same model years . 9 today due to the unique design the predicta is a collector s favorite and restored examples can easily be found . philco surface barrier transistor announcement all transistor car radio developed and produced by chrysler and philco in 1955 transistor research and product development edit in late 1953 engineers at philco corporation invented the surface barrier transistor 10 the first high frequency transistor suitable for use in high speed computers . 11 in june 1955 the national security agency and the united states navy entered into a contract with philco to build a specialized scientific transistorized computer based on philco s surface barrier transistor technology . the project was called solo since the idea was to have powerful personal workstations and the computer was later named the philco transac s 1000 . philco also entered into a contract with the u.s. navy s david taylor basin research division in 1955 to build a larger scale fully transistorized computer using its surface barrier transistor technology which was named the cpxq model and later became the philco transac s 2000 . 11 12 philco had developed and produced a miniature transistorized computer brain for the navy s jet fighter planes in 1955 which was called the transac c 1000 c 1100 and which stood for transistor automatic computer . it used philco s high frequency surface barriers transistors in its circuitry design . 13 14 15 1955 chrysler philco all transistor car radio breaking news radio broadcast announcement . chrysler and philco announced that they had developed and produced the world s first all transistor car radio and it was announced in the april 28 1955 edition of the wall street journal . 16 chrysler made the all transistor car radio mopar model 914hr available in fall 1955 for its new line of 1956 chrysler and imperial cars as a 150 option . philco s radio manufacturing plant in sandusky ohio had produced the all transistor car radio unit for the chrysler corporation which also used philco s surface barrier transistors in its circuitry design . 17 18 19 20 philco all transistor model tpa 1 phonograph developed and produced by philco in 1955 in 1955 philco had developed and produced the world s first all transistor phonograph models tpa 1 and tpa 2 and was originally announced in the june 28 1955 edition of the wall street journal newspaper . 21 philco had started to sell these all transistor phonographs in the fall of 1955 for the price of 59.95 . the october 1955 issue of radio & television news magazine page 41 had also written a full page detailed article on philco s new consumer product all transistor phonograph . the philco all transistor portable phonograph tpa 1 and tpa 2 models played only 45rpm records and used four 1.5 v d batteries for its power supply . the tpa stands for transistor phonograph amplifier . its circuitry used three philco germanium pnp alloy fused junction audio frequency transistors . after the 1956 season had ended philco had decided to discontinue the all transistor portable 45rpm phonograph models for transistors were too expensive compared to vacuum tubes . 22 23 the philco transac models s 1000 scientific computer and s 2000 electronic data processing computer were the first commercially produced large scale all transistor computers which were introduced in 1957 . 24 25 it used discrete surface barrier transistors instead of vacuum tubes as the integrated circuit had not yet been invented . 11 26 27 28 it also used a fast adder originally invented by bruce gilchrist james h. pomerene and y.k. wong of the institute for advanced study . it incorporated a speed up technique for asynchronous adders reducing the time for additive carry overs to propagate . 29 in 1959 philco had developed and produced the world s first battery powered portable transistorized tv . 30 this tv model was called the safari and it contained 21 transistors inside . philco had developed the vhf micro alloy diffused base madt transistors 31 and used them in its safari transistorized tv circuitry . 32 the retail selling price was 250.00 plus the cost of the rechargeable battery which was 5.25 extra . 33 in 1962 the philco 2000 model 212 computer was chosen for use in the north american aerospace defense command s famous cheyenne mountain complex . three of the machines were installed that year and ran until 1980 . the machines were also used by research labs at westinghouse electric and general electric . philco safari portable tv from 1959 space systems edit in 1960 nasa contracted with philco to build the world