The Electro-Dynamic Company manufactured electric motors and generators 1880–2000, principally as a subsidiary of the

Electric Boat An electric boat is a powered watercraft driven by electric motors, which are powered by either on-board battery packs, solar panels or generators. While a significant majority of water vessels are powered by diesel engines, with sail power ...

Division of

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales and fifth largest in the Unit ...

and its predecessors.

History

The company was founded by electrical inventor William Woodnut Griscom in 1880. An important early customer for electric boat motors was the

Electric Launch Company The Electric Launch Company, later renamed Elco Motor Yachts ("Elco"), is an American boat building and electric motor company that has operated from 1893 to 1949 and from 1987 to the present. History Elco first made its mark at the World's Col ...

, also known as Elco. Following an 1892 bankruptcy, financier Isaac Rice bailed out Electro-Dynamic and became a co-owner. Griscom died in a hunting accident in 1897. Electro-Dynamic manufactured the main propulsion motor for , the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

's first modern

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

, launched in 1897. In 1899, Rice founded

and made Electro-Dynamic and Elco subsidiaries of it. Electro-Dynamic relocated from

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Bayonne, New Jersey Bayonne ( ) is a City (New Jersey), city in Hudson County, New Jersey, Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey, in the Gateway Region on Bergen Neck, a peninsula between Newark Bay to the west, the Kill Van Kull to the south, and New York ...

at some point prior to 1964, with a plant on Avenue A. In 1964 a fire destroyed this plant and the company acquired a facility in

Avenel, New Jersey Avenel is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Woodbridge Township, in Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.

, formerly occupied by Security Steel. In the 20th century the company manufactured electric motors and generators for numerous submarines built by Electric Boat as well as naval and civilian boats built by Elco. The company retained this function as a division of

General Dynamics Corporation General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales and fifth largest in the Unit ...

when that company was formed by a reorganization of Electric Boat in 1952. The company was dissolved in 2000 and its functions were relocated to Electric Boat's main facility in

Groton, Connecticut Groton ( ) is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States, located on the Thames River (Connecticut), Thames River. It is the home of General Dynamics Electric Boat, which is the major contractor for submarine work for the United St ...

References

External links

Article on General Dynamics' website on closure of Electro-Dynamic
American companies established in 1880 Defunct manufacturing companies based in Pennsylvania Defunct manufacturing companies based in New Jersey {{US-manufacturing-company-stub

History

See also

References

External links