For most of its 40 years in the lighting business, Hygrade Sylvania Corp. has lived off scraps from other people's patent tables. It has not been a bad living. Hygrade has missed no dividend since 1921, earned $856,807 on an $11,022,424 gross last year. But last week Hygrade directors began to move out from under the table. Gathered in their Salem, Mass, office, they voted $250,000 (or more if needed) for a new factory. Its product-to-be: fluorescent lighting, in which Hygrade owns basic patents of its own.
Hygrade was started by husky, sporting Yankee Frank Poor, later joined by his brothers...
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