On the society page of the Philadelphia Evening Ledger one day last week appeared this note: "Mr. & Mrs. A. Atwater Kent and their son, A. Atwater Kent Jr., of West Hills, Ardmore, will leave for Bar Harbor the latter part of the month to occupy their place, Sonogee, for the summer."
On the same day on the front page of the Philadelphia Record appeared a story which Radio Weekly declared ''bore intimations of the most sensational news, in all likelihood, that has ever broken the macabre radio industry." The news was that A. (for Arthur) Atwater Kent was getting out of radio for good. Laconic, the official announcement was merely that "Atwater Kent Manufacturing Co. has decided to be less active in radio lines and has so informed its distributors." But it was learned that all the company's radio production had ceased, that sales were solely from sets on hand. "Mr. Kent is known to view the possibility of profitable operation in radio very dubiously," explained Radio Weekly, "and, as the possessor of a large personal fortune, he is believed to be preparing for a period of rest and recreation."
Once the largest maker of radios in the U. S., Atwater Kent is the personal property of its ingenious founder. During its peak year, 1929, it turned out nearly 1,000,000 sets, and its total sales were supposed to have been $60,000,000. At that time Mr. Kent was certainly not dubious about the profit possibilities of radio. He rushed a tremendous addition to the plant on Philadelphia's Wissahickon Avenue, starting production in it before the cornerstone was officially dedicated. Visitors were awed by Atwater Kent's luxurious general offices, dumfounded when they peeked through a special window to watch solid gold bars dissolving in acid to supply 14 carat plating for the Atwater Kent trade mark. "Mr. Kent," it was briefly explained, "ordered it."
Atwater Kent payrolls listed 12,000 workers when the bottom dropped out of the stockmarket as well as the radio market. Lately the number has been 800, mostly workers subject to call when jobs were available.
Born 62 years ago in Burlington, Vt., where his father was a physician, Arthur Atwater Kent was sent to Worcester (Mass.) Polytechnic Institute on the strength of his youthful preoccupation with electrical and mechanical gadgets. After graduation he worked for a little New Hampshire tool company. In Philadelphia in 1902 he set himself up as a maker of batteries, battery testers and intercommunicating telephone systems. His first plant was in a loft where the floor cracks were so wide that he never needed a dustpan.
After three years Mr. Kent was able to buy a one-cylinder automobile, "not being married and not having to conserve cash," he explains. From the ignition trouble in that car dates the rise of Kent. Develop ing an ignition system of his own, which earned him a Franklin Institute award in 1914, he proceeded to make Atwater Kent synonymous with good electrical equipment on the pre-War U. S. automobile. Self-starters and lighting systems followed logically. By 1917 Atwater Kent was big enough to get special Army orders for precision war tools like fuse setters, machine-gun sights.