Sunday, February 26, 2012

Hammarlund

Hammarlund Mfg Co. Inc., New York


An old ham radio set I picked up years ago. The company's founder, Oscar Hammarlund, was born in Sweden, but emigrated to the US and ended up working for Elisha Gray, co-inventor of the telphone, and his National Teleautograph Company, whose purpose was to transmit writing over wires.  (The company would eventually become part of Xerox.)  In the process, Hammarlund invented what is now known as the mechanical pencil.  He started his own company in 1910, and produced radio sets for decades.  Although he died in 1945, the company soldiered on, but eventually the factory was closed in the early 70's.  (The Hazeltine Corporation was most famous as a designer and manufacturer of  WWII "Identification Friend or For" (IFF) military detection and identification systems. The Radio Corporation of America--or RCA--developed the 8-track cassette.)  A lot of history in one radio set!

1 comment:

Eldon said...

IFF that is an interesting story. If someone hadn't been asleep at the wheel 911 wouldn't have happend. Nice radio!