Bryant Electric Company
Encyclopedia
The Bryant Electric Company was a manufacturer of wiring devices, electrical components, and switches founded in 1888 in Bridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in Fairfield County, the city had an estimated population of 144,229 at the 2010 United States Census and is the core of the Greater Bridgeport area...
, USA. It grew to become for a time both the world's largest plant devoted to the manufacture of wiring devices and Bridgeport's largest employer and was involved in a number of notable strikes
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
before being closed in 1988 and having its remaining interests sold to Hubbell Incorporated
Harvey Hubbell
Harvey Hubbell II , was a U.S. inventor, entrepreneur and industrialist. His best known inventions are the electrical plug, and the pull-chain light socket....
in 1991.
Founding and growth
Bryant was founded by Waldo Calvin Bryant in 1888 (incorporated 1889) in Bridgeport, ConnecticutBridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in Fairfield County, the city had an estimated population of 144,229 at the 2010 United States Census and is the core of the Greater Bridgeport area...
with seven employees working in a loft on John Street in Bridgeport. Waldo Bryant and others at Bryant invented and patented a number of switch and electrical component designs, including "the first push-pull switch". Although responsible for more than 500 patents by 1935, Bryant's most significant contribution to the wiring devices industry was the idea of standardization. For example, in 1888 there were eight different types of electrical light bases. Bryant led the industry to accept standardized devices.
Bryant grew quickly and, in 1890, acquired the Standard Electric Time Company and Empire China Works. In 1891, Bryant relocated to a former school building owned by P. T. Barnum
P. T. Barnum
Phineas Taylor Barnum was an American showman, businessman, scam artist and entertainer, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and for founding the circus that became the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus....
off State Street and, by 1905, employed 700 people. Perkins Electric Switch Company was acquired in 1899, with the employees and plant relocating to Bridgeport. Waldo Bryant needed more capital for expansion sold the majority interest to Westinghouse Electric
Westinghouse Electric (1886)
Westinghouse Electric was an American manufacturing company. It was founded in 1886 as Westinghouse Electric Company and later renamed Westinghouse Electric Corporation by George Westinghouse. The company purchased CBS in 1995 and became CBS Corporation in 1997...
in 1901, though he continued to run the company as the Bryant Electric subsidiary of Westinghouse until 1927. One reason for downplaying the Westinghouse ownership was to keep Bryant distributors who had exclusive franchises to sell products of Westinghouse's competitors from dropping the Bryant line.
For a time, Bryant was Bridgeport's largest employer and, by 1912, its 200000 square feet (18,580.6 m²) plant in Bridgeport's West End was the largest in the world "devoted exclusively to the manufacture of wiring devices". As electrical components began to be made with plastic, Bryant acquired Hemco Plastics Company in 1928. By that year, Bryant was selling over 4,000 different products. By 1938, the plant had grown to 500000 square feet (46,451.5 m²) and employed 1537 people, increased to 1600 in 1946.
Labor relations
At the time of Bryant's founding and rapid growth Bridgeport's West End was a dense, congested working-class neighborhood and a large population of mostly Hungarian immigrants, as well as Swedes, Slovenians and French Canadians, lived to the south of the industrial zone where Bryant was located. Subsequently, a large number of Hungarians were employed by the company in its early days. In 1944, in an effort to maintain good relations with its Hungarian employees, Bryant transferred a strip of land to the Hungarian Reformed Church to be used for construction of a basketball court, gymnasium and auditorium.Workers at the Bryant plant were involved in a number of notable strikes
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
over the years, including a 1915 strike when a number of Bridgeport companies were closed down amid demands for union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
representation and an eight-hour day
Eight-hour day
The eight-hour day movement or 40-hour week movement, also known as the short-time movement, had its origins in the Industrial Revolution in Britain, where industrial production in large factories transformed working life and imposed long hours and poor working conditions. With working conditions...
and a 1955 UE
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America
The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America , is an independent democratic rank-and-file labor union representing workers in both the private and public sectors across the United States....
strike over working conditions and pay.
1915 strike
While thousands took part in the Bridgeport strikes of 1915, few were actually union members and many were women who had been denied membership in craft unions. The Bryant Electric strike was started by five hundred women assemblers and a handful of men who walked off the job on August 20, marched downtown for a mass meeting at Eagle's Hall and elected a strike committee with equal representation for women. The company responded by shutting the plant and charging the strikers with "rioting". The remaining two thirds of the plant joined the strikers and after two weeks the company acceded to the workers' demands for an eight-hour day, overtime pay and union representation.Deindustrialization and plant closing
As part of a larger process of regional deindustrializationDeindustrialization
Deindustrialization is a process of social and economic change caused by the removal or reduction of industrial capacity or activity in a country or region, especially heavy industry or manufacturing industry. It is an opposite of industrialization.- Multiple interpretations :There are multiple...
, Westinghouse shut down the Bryant Electric plant in 1988 after transferring most of the work to non-union plants in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
and the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
. The closing exacerbated the neighborhood's already bleak economic situation. Westinghouse sold its remaining interests in Bryant Electric to Hubbell Incorporated
Harvey Hubbell
Harvey Hubbell II , was a U.S. inventor, entrepreneur and industrialist. His best known inventions are the electrical plug, and the pull-chain light socket....
in 1991. Bryant's 20 building, 6 acres (24,281.2 m²) site in Bridgeport's West End was torn down in 1996 to make way for a new industrial park.