Eveready
of the USA
The Ever Ready Company was founded by Akiba Horowitz, who emigrated from Russia to the USA.
Horowitz arrived in the US from 1891. He was born in Minsk, Russia. A successful businessman in the distillery trades, he emigrated due to anti-Semitic policies in Russia. On his arrival in America, aged 35, he changed his name to Conrad Hubert. Unable to re-establish himself in that trade, he opened a cigar store in New York City; soon followed by many other businesses, including a restaurant, a jewellery and watch store, a boarding house and a novelty shop. It was the shop that became a pivotal contribution to American industry and manufacturing.
Hubert's success was rooted in a now-obscure novelty - the electric scarf or necktie light which were available in a wide variety of shapes and styles. As his business grew, he purchased a patent for an electrical bicycle light, and later, the patent for the first tubular flashlight.
1898 Hubert founded the American Electrical Novelty and Manufacturing Company. He was 42 years old, and financially successful. He started making bicycle lights and the Flash Light, then spelled with two words. His Flash Lights were offered to New York City policeman, resulting in high visibility for the product and a near instant success for him.
1899 Soon he had established a 10,000 square foot factory on Centre Street in New York City. In those factories the company made flashlights, batteries and light bulbs under the name Ever Ready, and employed 60 men and women.
In 1986, Union Carbide sold its Battery Products Division to Ralston Purina Company, becoming the Eveready Battery Company, Inc.
1992 it bought the British Ever Ready Electrical Company (manufacturer of Gold Seal and Silver Seal batteries) from Hanson Trust, bringing its former subsidiary back under common ownership.
1999 Eveready sold its rechargeable battery division, although it still markets them for retail sale.
2000 Ralston spun off Eveready, and it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange as a holding company, Energizer Holdings, Inc., with Eveready Battery Company, Inc continuing.
Note: In 1901 a British company was formed as a private venture named the American Electrical Novelty and Manufacturing Company Limited to acquire a small business for the marketing of electrical novelties imported from the USA, the dry batteries for which were manufactured on the company's premises in this country under the brand name of Ever Ready. Since about 1904 there have been no connections between the two companies, which have developed independently. In 1906 The British company's name was changed to the British Ever Ready Electrical Company Limited (the acronym BEREC was used later for export products). See Ever Ready Co (Great Britain).
See Also
Sources of Information
- [1] Wikipedia - Eveready_Battery_Company