Leslie Controls, Inc., part of the Thermal Fluid Division of
Circor International Inc., is a manufacturer of industrial
water heaters, control systems and regulators headquartered in
Tampa, Florida
Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough C ...
. It is one of two major manufacturers of
train horn
In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often kn ...
s in North America, the other being
Nathan Manufacturing, Inc.
Products and services
In addition to air horns, Leslie Controls manufactures
control valves
A control valve is a valve used to control fluid flow by varying the size of the flow passage as directed by a signal from a controller. This enables the direct control of flow rate and the consequential control of process quantities such as press ...
,
shutoff valves, control instrumentation, steam conditioning systems, steam water heaters and regulators.
Leslie has a service center located in Tampa, which remanufacture valves made by a number of major companies. Other service centers repair valves from
Watts ACV,
R.G. Laurence, K&M,
Contromatics, and
Chas M. Bailey.
History
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
John Leslie made a
steam
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizat ...
powered
snowplow
A snowplow (also snow plow, snowplough or snow plough) is a device intended for mounting on a vehicle, used for removing snow and ice from outdoor surfaces, typically those serving transportation purposes. Although this term is often used to re ...
for railroads. By 1905, Leslie was operating a
foundry
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals ...
in
Lyndhurst, New Jersey
Lyndhurst is a township in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township's population was 20,554, reflecting an increase of 1,171 (+6.0%) from the 19,383 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in tu ...
and making
steam pressure valves and regulators. During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
and
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, Leslie supplied
military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distin ...
and
merchant ships with steam control equipment.
In 1968, after the company had expanded its product line to include industries and utilities, Leslie built a plant in
Parsippany, New Jersey.
[
Leslie moved to Tampa and was purchased in 1990 by Watts Industries, Inc. Leslie bought K&M Valve Company in 1995.][
Watts started Circor International in 1999 when it spun off valve and control businesses relating to ]oil
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...
and gas
Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma).
A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or ...
.
References
{{reflist
External links
Leslie Controls website
Manufacturing companies based in Florida