The story
Founded by Bern Dibner in 1924.1
The company was founded in 1924 as Burndy Engineering Company by engineer, science historian, and civic leader Bern Dibner.The corporate name, Burndy, was derived from a contraction of Dr. Dibner’s first name and last initial.
While employed as an engineer unifying the electrical system in Cuba, Dr. Dibner identified the urgent need for improved methods for connecting electrical conductors and joining power system substations. He proceeded to design a universal connector, requiring neither soldering nor welding – which enabled a unified grid. He patented and fabricated his design, then formed his company with an investment of just $5,000. Building on a technical foundation of 24 patents granted to him for connector design, he guided the growth of Burndy until his retirement as chairman in 1972.
In 1956, the Burndy Corporation went public, and later was bought by the French corporation Framatome Connectors International (FCI) in 1988. In 2009, Burndy was acquired and became a subsidiary of Hubbell (NYSE: HUBA, HUBB).
In Europe, the former Burndy Europe, FCI's Electrical Power Interconnect Division is now part of the Sicame Group and known as SBI Connectors Espana.
Burndy today is a global organization that manufactures of electrical connectors for the commercial/industrial, utility, renewable energies, telecommunications, and OEM markets.
In addition to his association with the company he founded, Bern Dibner is frequently identified with two of the world’s leading collections of source material in the history of science: the Burndy Library at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California; and the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.
Dr. Dibner’s son, David Dibner, had a more than 30-year career at the Burndy Corporation, and served as chairman prior to his death in 2005.
From Wikipedia’s article on Burndy, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3