Central Scientific Company was founded in 1900 in downtown Chicago. It was formed out of what was left of the Olmstad Scientific Company.
Central Scientific manufactured and distributed science teaching equipment for schools, colleges, and universities by catalog mail order. The trademark CENCO was used from 1909 onwards. CENCO dominated the field of selling science education equipment through their
mail order
Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as:
* Sending an order form in the mail
* Placing an order by telephone call
...
catalog.
By 1935, the company established itself as one of the leading national suppliers of science equipment. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, part of the manufacturing facility was turned over to the production of war necessities, making
bombsight
A bombsight is a device used by military aircraft to drop bombs accurately. Bombsights, a feature of combat aircraft since World War I, were first found on purpose-designed bomber aircraft and then moved to fighter-bombers and modern tactica ...
s for airplanes and fuses for large bombs.
After 1968, the company began having financial difficulties. In 1974, the assets were sold off to competitors. The educational business retained the name Central Scientific Company.
In April 1979, Central Scientific's assets and activities were acquired by two businessmen from
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...
. Sargent-Welch (a major competitor) bought them out in 2000.
See also
*
VWR International
VWR International is an American company involved in the distribution of research laboratory products, with
over 1,200,000 items to more than 250,000 customers in North America and Europe. The U.S. division is headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvan ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
*http://www.humboldt.edu/scimus/Manufac/Cenco/Cenco.htm
*http://www.scripophily.net/cenin.html
Smithsonian historyInstruments from the Central Scientific Company at Greek Schools
*Entire 1912 catalog K of
Physical Apparatus for Universities and Colleges
' has been digitized (all images freely available for download in a variety of formats from Science History Institute
The Science History Institute is an institution that preserves and promotes understanding of the history of science. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it includes a library, museum, archive, research center and conference center.
It was ...
Digital Collections a
digital.sciencehistory.org
1900 establishments in Illinois
2000 disestablishments in Illinois
Manufacturing companies established in 1900
Manufacturing companies disestablished in 2000
Defunct companies based in Chicago
Science education in the United States