My Aunty Bell

As I said before,  my dad worked for Western Electric at Montgomery Works. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T until the divestiture in 1984.  His location manufactured telephone parts and data transmission equipment.  He tested equipment during his tenure there.   I remember visiting him at the plant once during a strike.  I also remember when the bell on the water tower turned into the death star.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AT%26T_logo_12-bar_vertical_lockup.svg

The anti-trust ruling in the 1980’s was the second one for AT&T.   They settled out of court in 1913 and divested of their controlling interest in Western Union.  After WWI, AT&T resumed their monopoly.  

Ma was a vertical monopoly.  Under her skirt, she had local exchange telephone services (the Bell operating companies), long distance (AT&T Long Lines), research (Bell Labs),  and finally manufacturing (Western Electric).  Basically Ma covered it all from soup to nuts.  She built the phones that folks rented, maintained the lines for local and long distance calling.  Ma Bell owned your phone and you rented it.

It’s mind boggling the berth of telecommunication control the company had. The goal was universal service and they achieved it. Bell Labs solely invented or contributed to the invention of the transistor and the development of long-distance calling, satellite communications, the cellular phone system, UNIX,  and the 911 emergency system. Nine Noble Prizes were awarded for work done at Bell Labs –  the first in 1937,  for demonstrating the wave nature of matter and the last in 2018 for the optical tweezers and their application to biological systems

Western Electric divested into AT&T Technologies in 1983 then morphed into Lucent Technology in 1996 which merged into Alcatel-Lucent in 2006 then was absorbed into Nokia in 2016.  The Montgomery Works location closed in 1995. My dad transferred to a different AT&T location to stay ahead of layoffs.

The site once housed an amusement park in the 1920s.   The United Wallpaper Factory acquired the land in 1940 and proceeded to build a new facility.  United Wallpaper produced bombs and flares.  During WWII bombs were loaded there – 2,289,492 bombs in all. The factory mainly produced white silk parachutes with flares attached.

I had no idea!  Western Electric took over the factory in 1955 and used it until 1986. The site was demolished before 1995. One site says it went in 1987, another 1991.   Lucent Technology was on the hook with the EPA for cleaning up the 45-acre former AT&T site.  Contaminants from the south end were left from the munitions and wallpaper operations.  Hazardous materials at the north end were left manufacturing spring relays and circuit boards.

My dad worked at AT&T for his entire career.   The most steadfast thing from his years at Western Electric was his friend Jim.  They arranged a car pool back in the day.  If I remember correctly,  Jim took divestiture buyout and found a second career. 

 In fact,  I’m still in touch with Jim and he solved the Radio Shack mystery, referred my previous post, “Radio Shack”.   My dad’s friend from Western Electric knew the people who owned the Radio Shack in my hometown.  It was a separate shop.