Hammarlund
The Hammarlund Manufacturing Company founded by Oscar Hammarlund in New York City, New York in 1910, initially designed and produced shortwave radio equipment.
The first Hammarlund plant was a loft operation on Fulton Street in lower Manhattan, New York City. The variable capacitor, one of the most notable of all Hammarlund developments, was designed in 1916. Hammarlund's first house-manufactured radio was called the Comet-Pro. This was also the first commercial short wave superheterodyne receiver. Within five years, thousands of these receivers were in use at commercial radiotelegraph and radiotelephone stations, aboard ships and at broadcasting stations as well as by amateur radio operators the world over. Following introduction of the Comet-Pro came an improved receiver, called the "Super-Pro." The latter was put in production in 1936. Expansion came quickly at Hammarlund when World War II broke out. More than 2000 people were employed a 14 different Hammarlund plants. It has been estimated that almost 90% of American wartime military electronic equipment employed Hammarlund capacitors. In addition to Super-Pro receivers and capacitors, Hammarlund produced radar and electronic counter-measures equipment for the armed forces.
In the late 1950’s, Hammarlund was sold to Telechrome, which several years later sold out to Giannini Scientific. In the late 60’s the company was once again sold to the Electronic Assistance Corporation (EAC). But, this sale was final. The product line was sold off in parts or phased out. The Cardwell Capacitor Corporation purchased all remaining stocks, and in the early 1970s the Hammarlund factory closed. At the time of its dissolution, Hammarlund was among the USA's very oldest producers of radio equipment. [1]
Today, many Hammarlund receivers are collected, restored and used by vintage amateur radio enthusiasts.
Notes
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