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 po ...

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 5th largest in the Un ...

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 Co ...

, also known as Elco. Following an 1892 bankruptcy, financier

Isaac Rice Isaac Leopold Rice (February 22, 1850 – November 2, 1915) was a German-born Jewish American businessman, investor, musicologist, author, and chess patron.

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 maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

's first modern submarine, launched in 1897. In 1899, Rice founded

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

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

to Bayonne, New Jersey 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, New Jersey, United States.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 5th largest in the Un ...

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 located on the Thames River. It is the home of General Dynamics Electric Boat, which is the major contractor for submarine work for the United States Navy. The Naval Submarine Base New London ...

.Elco Records, Introduction
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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