Carlisle & Finch

Corporate history

Carlisle & Finch (C&F) began as a branch office of General Electric (GE) at 182–84 Elm Street in Cincinnati, where electrical engineers Robert Sterett Finch and Morten Carlisle were employed. Finch graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1890 with a bachelor's degree. Carlisle also received a bachelor's degree, in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the same year.

Work included repairing electrical machinery, such as armatures, transformers, and arc lamps. In 1893 or 1894, C&F purchased the shop from GE for $2,500 (equivalent to $60,000 in 2024), intending to continue the repair business and branch out into manufacturing. The new company was incorporated on April 15, 1897, and a June 1897 advertisement listed 830 West Sixth Street as their address. The same year, they introduced their first new products, a searchlight based on the carbon arc principle, and a toy train, which also used a carbon arc for its headlight. C&F's 1900 catalog listed sales agents in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.

In 1913, C&F protested a ruling by Dudley Field Malone, the Collector of Customs at the Port of New York, that parabolic mirrors imported by the company were subject to a 60% duty as decorated glass. C&F claimed they should be classified as projection lenses which were assessed at 45%. The US Board of General Appraisers upheld the 60% duty. In the years leading up to World War I, toy train sales fell and the company branched out into other lines of business including gasoline engines.

Carlisle sold his share of the business to Finch on August 3, 1926. Brent S. Finch, Robert's son, was named president, and the company started concentrating entirely on its searchlight business. After World War II, Brent R. Finch (son of Brent S.) was hired, at which point three generations of Finches were simultaneously employed by the company. As of 2024, a fourth generation leads the company, with brothers Kurtis B. Finch and Garth S. Finch serving as president and senior vice president, respectively.

Adverse events in the company's history include a 1901 strike, a 1950 fire, and the early 1980s recession. The 1901 strike by 5,000 machinists and allied craftsmen in Cincinnati had only a small effect on C&F. About a dozen workers joined the action, with about 65 men left at work and shop productivity reported to be "slightly handicapped". The 1950 fire destroyed 229 Clifton Avenue, which until shortly before had been their headquarters. C&F had already sold the building to the Cincinnati Board of Education in 1949 and had just moved to a new location at 4562 Mitchell Avenue the previous week. The old building, however, still contained stores of early trains and catalogs which had not yet been removed and these were destroyed in the fire. The 1980s recession severely impacted sales of spotlights for offshore oil rigs (which had previously been their largest market segment) leading to the company's first layoffs.

In a 1962 interview with The Cincinnati Enquirer, Brent R. Finch said that the company "just sort of drifted into the lighting business". Before World War I, they were producing both marine engines and searchlights but government influence during the war pushed them to concentrate on lighting while other companies built engines. According to Brent, "After the war, the competitors were too far ahead of us in engine manufacturing so we stuck with the lights." At the time of the interview, the company was working on lights that could operate at water pressures of 2,000 psi (14,000 kPa) for use on nuclear submarines, and mercury-xenon lamps for coastal lighthouses.

In 2001, Garth Finch told the Cincinnati Business Courier that C&F was starting to use the Internet to improve international sales, which were under pressure from competitors in Europe; he was hoping to reach $1.6 million ($2.91 million in 2025) in overseas sales within three years. Garth also said that they received several inquiries a month from larger companies wanting to buy the business, but that they intended to keep the business private and family-owned. The company had 35 employees at the time. A year earlier, Garth had spoken of expanding into new markets: architectural lighting, smaller ruggedized lighting for use on high-speed boats, and searchlights which could project product images for advertising.

1910 catalog

C&F's c. 1910 catalog included three train sets ranging from one car and a 3-foot (0.9 m) circle of track for $3.50 ($120.94 in 2025) to a coal train with four cars and 18 feet (5.5 m) of configurable track for $5.00 ($172.77 in 2025). All of these included components to build a three-cell battery with customer-supplied glass jars for the chromite wet cells.

In 1897, C&F offered a hand-powered dynamo, capable of lighting a ten candlepower, ten-volt incandescent bulb, or to run several electrical toys simultaneously. They also offered a water-powered version, which produced a similar amount of electrical power from a water faucet supplying 50 psi (340 kPa) of pressure and could be used with as low as 40 psi (280 kPa).

In 1912, C&F introduced a dynamo driven by a directly connected gasoline motor. The engine was 1.5 horsepower (1.1 kW), and the dynamo produced 42 volts at 15 amps. A belt pulley was included for driving an external load. The entire assembly weighed 395 pounds (179 kg).

In 1923, a clothes dryer was introduced. The device used a wire mesh drum rotated by an electric motor. Air heated by either gas or steam was forced through the drum, with the temperature controlled by a thermostat. The machine was 30 inches (76 cm) deep, 38 inches (97 cm) wide, 42 inches (110 cm) tall, and weighed 400 pounds (180 kg).