MARCHI

Sylvania's history begins where the lamp industry meets the new demand for radio valves. Its corporate roots reach back to several American lighting businesses, including Bay State Lamp, Hygrade and Nilco; the Sylvania name itself, however, first appears in 1924, when Sylvania Products Company is formed. At Emporium, Pennsylvania, an experiment by George Rishell in making radio tubes launches production. The first Sylvania valves are shipped on the eve of Thanksgiving in 1924. The distinction between the predecessors' history and that of the brand matters: dating Sylvania to 1901 assigns the name an origin earlier than its actual use.

The valves quickly find a national market. They are advertised by 1925, and a new plant is built at Emporium in 1929, when radio tubes have become a central part of the business. Factory life even enters the brand's publicity: in 1928 the “Sylvania Foresters”, an orchestra made up of Emporium employees, take part in a broadcast carried by several stations. The episode illustrates both commercial growth and the connection between the people making the valves and the new medium that used them.

In 1931 Sylvania, Nilco and Hygrade combine to form Hygrade-Sylvania Corporation. The names do not disappear: Hygrade remains associated mainly with lamps, Sylvania with radio valves. Salem, Massachusetts, and Emporium retain different manufacturing roles; an electronics department is established at Clifton, New Jersey, in 1933. In 1942 the company takes the name Sylvania Electric Products. Reading a valve or catalogue from these years therefore requires distinguishing the brand printed on the product from the company's name and the plant that made it.

The range expands beyond receiving valves. Its work includes radio and television tubes, cathode-ray tubes and special products. During the Second World War, engineering at Emporium contributes to developments for the war effort; the Mill Hall plant works on miniature tubes for proximity fuzes. After the war the laboratories also return to projects for civilian customers, while research covers radio tubes, microwaves, optics and materials, among other fields. Sylvania's industrial history thus combines mass production, tube design and laboratory work.

In 1959 Sylvania joins the General Telephone and Electronics group; from 1971 the name GTE Sylvania also appears. These corporate phases do not erase the name on earlier valves. Likewise, Hygrade and Nilco explain the company's origins, but they are not simply alternative spellings of Sylvania. A valve bearing the Sylvania name should be understood in the light of its period, type and place of manufacture, without automatically assigning every example the entire history of all related companies.