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Automatic Electric Company (AE) was a telephone equipment supplier for independent telephone companies, comparable to the Bell System's Western Electric. It was located in Northlake, Illinois with Research and Development labs in Elmhurst, Illinois. AE acquired a manufacturing facility in Genoa, Illinois from Leich Electric, and, in 1979, opened a research and development branch in Phoenix, Arizona.
A precursor to the company was founded in 1891 by Almon Strowger, who was inspired by the idea of manufacturing automatic telephone exchanges that would not require operators. His company, the Strowger Automatic Telephone Exchange Company, held patents for equipment and leased them exclusively to Automatic Electric, which he helped form.
Among other equipment, Automatic Electric manufactured automatic stepping switches (specifically, "Strowger switches") which enabled Strowger's vision. These switches allowed customers to connect their own calls without operator assistance. Because AT&Ts Bell System used Western Electric equipment exclusively, automatic switches proliferated in independent exchange companies in the 1920s, well before the Bell System adopted similar Panel switch technology. The most notable independent was General Telephone (GTE). GTE bought Automatic Electric outright in 1955, and it continued operating into the 1980s. Lenkurt, a manufacturer of carrier equipment, was purchased by GTE in 1959, and held separately from Automatic Electric until 1983, when GTE merged Automatic Electric and Lenkurt into GTE Network Systems, which was quickly renamed GTE Communication Systems when AT&T announced the renaming of Western Electric as AT&T Network Systems.
Western Electric's rotary dial phones have a distinctive buzzing sound as the dial returns to the stop position. AE's dial make a single click sound as it is released but was otherwise fairly silent. Many AE telephones use a distinctive dual-gong ringer, the low and high tones of which were a musical minor fifth apart, rather than the typical natural third interval of most Western Electric ringers.
In 1989, the assets of the company were placed into a joint venture between AT&T and GTE called AG Communication Systems (the A and G respectively standing for the partners' names). This company ceased separate existence in 2004, and became fully incorporated into Lucent, now Alcatel-Lucent. Alcatel-Lucent also owns many of the assets of the Western Electric Company, Automatic Electric's former rival and Bell counterpart.
See also
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