Description: Check out our eBay store Telecommunications and electronics were the original primary businesses of International Standard Electric (ISE), the Europe-focused arm of the telecommunications giant International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT).ISE originated as Western Electric, one of the earliest American telephone companies. Soon after Alexander Graham Bell devised the first transmission of sound over wires in 1876, American Bell Telephone licensed Western Electric to manufacture telephone equipment. Western Electric built its first European factory in Antwerp in 1882, although much of its equipment was imported to Europe from Chicago.From 1880 to 1910, Western Electric manufactured cable and wire and telephone instruments in Antwerp and through a factory in North Woolwich, England, bought from Fowler-Waring Cables. In these years, Western Electric's engineers developed techniques to improve and lay cable and to expand telephonic infrastructure internationally, from Europe to China.The company was incorporated in 1918 as the International Western Electric Company, a subsidiary of AT&T (formerly Bell Telephone). Each country had its own telephone company under the aegis of International Western Electric; these national companies, such as Standard Telephones and Cables (STC) in Britain, each operated independently.Over the next few years AT&T faced pressure from American trustbusters. The anti-trust forces eventually succeeded in forcing AT&T to sell its interests in the international arm of Western Electric.Sosthenes Behn (1884-1957), who had founded ITT in 1920, purchased International Western Electric from AT&T in 1925 for nearly $30 million. The company was renamed International Standard Electric and became a subsidiary of ITT.The purchase of ISE made ITT into an international manufacturer of telephone equipment. The newly combined companies soon dominated the European telecommunications business.Behn was an American colonel in the Spanish-American War and used his multilingual, cosmopolitan allure to business advantage. Behn's parents were Danish and French; he was born in the Virgin Islands (then a Danish possession, but later bought by the United States in 1917); his education took place in Corsica and Paris; his early businesses in sugar trading and telephony were based in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Spain. Behn's command of languages and glamour gained him business contracts despite his relative inexperience.After ITT's acquisition of ISE, Behn built an international network of telephone manufacturing companies and providers. Cartel agreements between the major world telecommunications companies—ITT, Siemens, General Electric, AT&T, and Ericsson—gave near-monopoly power to each company in its region.ITT controlled Western Europe's telephony, with additional control of areas of Sou
Price: 29.95 USD
Location: Emmitsburg, Maryland
End Time: 2024-12-01T02:33:57.000Z
Shipping Cost: 5.95 USD
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Item Specifics
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 30 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Brand: ITT
Unit Type: Unit
Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
Unit Quantity: 1
