Corporate History - via Wikipedia.com
In 1905, Western Electric began construction of the Hawthorne Works on the outskirts of Chicago and which, by 1914 had absorbed all manufacturing work from Clinton Street and Western Electric's other plant in New York. Later large factories included the Kearny Works in Kearny, New Jersey, Columbus Works in Columbus, Ohio and Kansas City Works in Lee's Summit, Missouri.[2] By 1966, more than fifteen production plants ("Works" locations) were in operation.[3][4] Company facilities included:
It doesn't say Omaha made cable... that must have started in 1959 ?
And then there was Phoenix, Denver and others? A starting point for further research?
Click on the below link for further information.
Facts obtained from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Electric
- Hawthorne Works, Cicero, Illinois (metal parts/tools, capacitors, thin-film circuits, switchboards)
- Kearney Works, Kearny, New Jersey (power supplies and other equipment)
- Baltimore Works, Baltimore, Maryland (coaxial/marine cables, telephone wire)
- Allentown Works, Allentown, Pennsylvania (microelectronics)
- Reading Works, Reading, Pennsylvania (microelectronics)
- Indianapolis Works, Indianapolis, Indiana (consumer telephone sets)
- Winston-Salem Works, Winston-Salem, North Carolina (military equipment)
- Merrimack Valley Works, North Andover, Massachusetts (transmission equipment)
- Oklahoma City Works, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (payphones, switching equipment)
- Omaha Works, Omaha, Nebraska (dial equipment, PBX gear)
- Columbus Works, Columbus, Ohio (switching equipment)
- Atlanta Works, Atlanta, Georgia (undersea cables, later fiber-optic cables)
- Shreveport Works, Shreveport, Louisiana (business and consumer telephone sets)
- Kansas City Works, Lee's Summit, Missouri (electronics, switching equipment)
- Pittsburgh Works, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (plates/glass, 260 employees in 1966, established 1904)[5]
- Engineering Research Center (ERC), Princeton, New Jersey (R&D on manufacturing technologies)
- Orlando Works, Orlando, Florida (microelectronics, built in the 1980s)
It doesn't say Omaha made cable... that must have started in 1959 ?
And then there was Phoenix, Denver and others? A starting point for further research?
Click on the below link for further information.
Facts obtained from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Electric
Aerial view from Bing.com website of the works land previous land, and changes.
Click on image to go to site and turn on "birds eye" view...much nicer!
Click on image to go to site and turn on "birds eye" view...much nicer!
Plant managers I knew of ...from 1968 when I started
How many "General Managers
Vice Presidents of Manufacturing" managed our start in 1958 and beyond... Guessing here! and according to printed publications I have scanned in to this website. If you know their years with the facility..please tell me. Herb Heath = First plant manager Jim Herbert ( 1957 - ) Died Howard Nilson (?) F.J. (Frank) Lefebvre --(deceased 2014) Warren Corgan (?) Jack McKinnon -- ? (deceased 2014) Warren Corgan (?) Jack Childs 1983 - ? (deceased) J.R. Newland 1988? Jay Carter John Heindel Les Cole Stephan Clark (deceased 2014) Ray Swartz - 2001 -? (deceased 2018) THEY should receive recognition email below: stephenmiller@cox.net 
BEFORE... iPads, tablets and flat screen TVs, voice recognition and many new technologies... Bell Labs/AT&T thought of the answer. Watch AT&T's
" Vision of the Future". I remember this being a most requested videos to be shared at the plant. It may even show the next... "Big Thing"? Click on the image to view the video. 
A link to a photography site of lots of images from our plant and others from the Western Electric Days.
Click on the logo and it will take you to a image bank of hundreds of items we and other made. 
OUTLOOK 2014
Rebirth: Site of former Western Electric plant has been transformed through the years. By Howard K. Marcus / World-Herald staff writer Please click here or on the image for further information about an article published in the Sunday issue of the Omaha World Herald... a lot of history explained. Sure glad Omaha people remember this expansive site from 1956 - 2011 under many names. ** Information provide as an idea/information to share with former employees and out of town former employees who worked at this facility and remember the location. Permission has not been released to this site, yet provided as a source of further information. To get the whole article, buy the paper or get a copy of the Sunday World Herald. This site administrator wishes to share information and takes no credit for this fine work about or former place of employment. Thank you Mr. Marcus for keeping the plant and it's 50 years of history alive. We at one time were a very LARGE employer in Omaha and Nebraska. |
A different aerial perspective of the "Omaha Works", AFTER THE LANDSCAPING....JUST IMAGINE A LOT OF GREEN GRASS/TREES from L street north
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It's the dawn of the information age. So what role did Western Electric play in ushering it in? While some of the Bell System's advancements in technology laid the foundation for our current global network, the company also developed tangent technologies that were not adopted widely. Click on the image of "Western Electric" above to link to the AT&T Tech channel about W.E. our changing times, and WATCH the movie on your computer or iPad Omaha Works had a part in the new path for the information ago of the future. All " branded visual TM" LOGO'S... above are of the corporation appropriate logo's (trademarks) of our former employer(s) at this Omaha, Nebraska location and used in all newsletters and other articles portrayed on this website.Multiple Logos on a shirt...their were more shirts/items we chose to wear due to a performance or goal award exceeded by the employees....where are they?
Anyone remember all those types of shirts we sold or were awards for performing some great task?
Here's one I found... only WE kept adding more companies later on. If you've got one, contact me to include an image here. I do remember we had a tan/light brown "Cabinet Workshop" shirt?... anyone got a photo..email mail it to me. Humor Section via TV...AT&T "You Will" and David Letterman also... |
CSMI- WE/AT&T/Lucent/Avaya video history via CSMI
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Before Divesture and the breakup in 1984, including W. E.History 1847 - 1945 of AT&T and a sale of W E products to ITT. And then came Lucent? Watch and learnAbout Western Electric ...part 2 and our productsSome of the FACTS of our former history with AT&T
AT&T THROUGH THE CENTURIES 1876: Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone, for which he receives two patents. 1885: American Telephone and Telegraph is formed with a charter to build and operate the original long-distance network. 1894: Alexander Graham Bell's second telephone patent expires, opening the telephone industry to competition. Early 1900s: AT&T refuses to allow rival phone companies to connect to its network until they sell out to AT&T. 1913: AT&T settles its first federal antitrust suit in a deal that establishes the company as a government-sanctioned monopoly. 1925: AT&T establishes Bell Laboratories as its research and development subsidiary. 1927: AT&T begins trans-Atlantic telephone service between the United States and London. The initial capacity is one call at a time, at a cost of $75 for the first three minutes. 1937: Clinton Davisson of Bell Telephone Labs wins the Nobel Prize in physics, becoming the first of seven Nobel Prize winners produced by AT&T. 1946: AT&T begins offering mobile telephone service. Initially, no more than 12 to 20 simultaneous calls could be made in an entire metropolitan area. 1974: MCI and, later, the U.S. Justice Department sue AT&T on antitrust grounds. 1982: Justice Department and AT&T sign landmark agreement breaking up the AT&T monopoly by allowing long-distance competition and creating seven independent regional phone companies. 1984: Bell System breakup takes effect. AT&T retains Bell Laboratories research arm, Western Electric phone manufacturing arm and long-distance business. 1991: AT&T acquires computer maker National Cash Register, or NCR, in an attempt to integrate computing and telecommunications. 1993: AT&T reaches a merger agreement with McCaw Cellular Communications, the largest provider of cellular service in the United States. 1995: AT&T announces it is restructuring into three separate companies: a services company retaining the AT&T name; a products and systems company (later named Lucent Technologies); and a computer company (which reassumed the NCR name). 1997: AT&T opens talks with SBC Communications about a possible merger valued at $50 billion or more. The talks break down a month later after federal regulators voice antitrust concerns. 1999: AT&T acquires TCI, the second-largest cable company in the United States. TCI becomes AT&T Broadband. The following year, AT&T Broadband acquires cable company MediaOne and becomes the largest cable company in the United States. 2000: AT&T announces it will reorganize into a family of companies: AT&T (including AT&T Business and AT&T Consumer), AT&T Wireless and AT&T Broadband. 2001: AT&T Wireless is spun off. 2002: AT&T Broadband completes a merger with Comcast. 2003: Reported talks between AT&T and BellSouth about a possible merger end without a deal. 2004: AT&T's stock (ticker symbol: T) is dropped from the Dow Jones industrial average. Company stops selling traditional consumer phone service. Jan. 30, 2005: AT&T agrees to be acquired by SBC for $15 billion. Is their more.... awaiting further information from you or others... |
The AT&T Tech Channel is your source for originally-produced videos about the past, present and future of the world of technology. From the depths of tech history to the latest in Cyber Security, you'll find something to feed your inner geek at the
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