Sylvania Electric Products was a U.S. manufacturer of diverse electrical equipment, including at various times radio transceivers, vacuum tubes, semiconductors, and mainframe computers. They were one of the companies involved in the development of the COBOL programming language.
Contents |
History
Sylvania started as Hygrade Sylvania Corporation when NILCO, Sylvania and Hygrade Lamp Company merged into one company in 1931. In 1939, Hygrade Sylvania started preliminary research on fluorescent technology, and later that year, introduced the first linear, or tubular, fluorescent lamp ever made. It featured at the 1939 New York World's Fair. [1]
Sylvania was also a manufacturer of both vacuum tubes and transistors.
In 1942, the company changed its name to Sylvania Electric Products Inc. (note no comma)
The proximity fuze tube was manufactured by Sylvania, Emporium, PA during WWII. Sylvania Emporium was the only approved defense contractor for the proximity fuze tube. This was a self-oscillating sub-miniature tube that was fitted to anti-aircraft shells. It acted like a miniature radar system, firing when a reflection was detected. As the shell approached an enemy aircraft, the emitted signal was "bounced" off the aircraft creating a signal that triggered the shell to explode in close proximity to the aircraft.[citation needed] This greatly increased the kill ratio for the US, especially in the South Pacific theater. Its development was a highly classified secret, not even shared with the other Allies.
In 1959, Sylvania Electronics merged with General Telephone to form General Telephone and Electronics (GTE)
With the acquisition of GTE’s Sylvania lighting division by Osram GmbH in January 1993 the Osram Sylvania Inc. was established.[2]
Brand name
In the early 1980s, GTE Sylvania sold the rights to the name Sylvania and Philco for use on consumer electronics equipment only, to Holland's NV Philips. This marked the end of Sylvania's TV production in Batavia, NY, USA and Smithfield, NC, USA. The Sylvania Smithfield plant later became Channel Master. The rights to the Sylvania name in many countries are held by the U.S. subsidiary of the German company Osram which, itself, is a subsidiary of Siemens AG (SI-NYSE). OSRAM acquired the Sylvania businesses in North America from GTE in 1993.[citation needed] The Sylvania brand name is owned worldwide, apart from Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and the USA. by Sylvania Lighting International, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. In March 2007 Havell's, an Indian manufacturer of lighting products, signed an agreement to acquire SLI Sylvania from its owners.[citation needed]
India
It was very successful in the early and late 1980s in India under the name Laxman-Sylvania.[citation needed]
Osram Sylvania
Osram Sylvania Inc. manufactures and markets a wide range of lighting products for homes, business, and vehicles and holds a leading share of the North American lighting market [2]. In fiscal year 2006, the company achieved sales of about 2 billion euros, which comprises 43% of total Osram sales [3]. It employs about 11,200 people in North America and is headquartered in Danvers, MA, north of Boston. Most of the company's products are marketed in North and South America under the SYLVANIA or OSRAM brand name.
Advertising
From 1951 until 1956, Sylvania were sponsors of the game show, Beat the Clock. The grand prizes on the show would be Sylvania television sets, and some consolation prizes would be Sylvania radios. Sylvania "Blue Dot (tm) for sure shot" flashbulbs would be used to take a photograph of the contestants in awkward outfits or messy stunts. One of Sylvania's heavily-advertised TV features was a lighted perimeter mask of adjustable brightness called "HALOLIGHT", which was purported to ease the optical transition if a viewer glanced from a dark background to the bright TV screen. Today Philips markets an Ambilight feature, lighting the wall behind a flat display to soften the viewing experience. HALOLIGHT could not be adapted for color TV, because color TV white balance (aka tracking from low to high brightness) was unpredictable. Since the white color temperature of the HALOLIGHT and the illuminated color screen could not be made equivalent, HALOLIGHT was withdrawn.
Accidents
The Sylvania Electric Products explosion is a well-known industrial accident which occurred at their Bayside, New York City facility.
References
- ^ "The Nilco story". http://www.oldchristmaslights.com/nilco.htm. Retrieved 2009-01-11.
- ^ The Washington Post [1], 1992-08-07
See also
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
