THE BLILEY ELECTRIC COMPANY · This is based on the booklet I authored and was published in 1982 by the Bliley Electric Company in association with the Antique Wireless Association.

THE BLILEY ELECTRIC COMPANY THE EARLY YEARS 1930-1955

By Charles A. Bliley, K3NAU

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Contents

A YOUNG MAN AND HIS HOBBY ..................................................... 4

BORN OF THE DEPRESSION .......................................................... 5

THE PARTNERSHIP .................................................................... 5

DISCOVERIES AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES .......................................... 7

NEW PRODUCTS FOR RADIO AMATEURS .......................................... 9

DAWSON'S FAMILY AND VHF ACTIVITIES .........................................11

THE SECOND WORLD WAR ..........................................................12

THE SECRET "X-LAP" PROCESS.....................................................13

A TEST OF PATRIOTISM..............................................................14

THE POSTWAR YEARS: YEARS OF UNCERTAINTIES .............................14

REDEDICATION AND NEW PRODUCTS: 1945-1950 .............................15

1955 MANAGEMENT TEAM..........................................................16

THE SILVER ANNIVERSARY: CELEBRATION AND DESPAIR ......................17

POSTSCRIPT: 1998—THE COMPANY IS SOLD.....................................18

Bliley Electric Company Acquired By Local Attorney(Official Press Release)..................................................18

Personal Comment ...........................................................18

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Welcome...This booklet contains a brief history of the first 25 years of the Bliley Electric Company of

Erie, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. The company was then a manufacturer of frequency control andselective devices based on crystal technologies.

This PDF file is based on the booklet I authored and was published in 1982 by the BlileyElectric Company in association with the Antique Wireless Association. It contains all of thematerial from this booklet and some additional photographs from my scrapbook. Every efforthas been made to guarantee accuracy. Nothing has been deleted from the original publica-tion.

Overall, the content of this booklet is based on patent drawings, magazine articles, news-paper clippings, personal notes and letters, and audiotaped interviews with retired employ-ees:

• Isabelle Bliley Kaiser, W3KPE (Deceased)—Chairwoman of the Board 1954-1997• George Wright—V.P. Sales (Deceased)• John Wolfskill, W3QKT—V.P. Engineering (Deceased)• John Pinar, W3DKL—Supervisor, Calibration Dept.• Robert Johnson—Personnel Manager• Richard Shreve, W3PIX—Production Supervisor

Special thanks is given to the Antique Wireless Association (AWA) for its support of theoriginal publication and to AWA members Joel Ross and Lou Vermond for their personal inter-est and encouragement.

This publication is dedicated to the loving memories of my father, Frank Dawson Bliley,and my mother, Isabelle Bliley Kaiser.

Thank you for your interest in my father's work and that of the many fine people thathave dedicated their working lives to the Bliley Electric Company.

Charles A. Bliley

K3NAU

October 5, 2001

From 1938 Ham radio convention program

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The story of Bliley Electric is, further-more, the story of a man and those he chosefor his friends and business associates. Thefounder of the company, Frank DawsonBliley, a lawyer's son, was born in Erie,Pennsylvania, on April 29, 1906. Dawson, ashis friends called him, received his firstamateur radio license in September 1920 atage 14 and operated under the call sign of8AGR. The station consisted of two antennas(L&T), a crystal receiver, a single Audiontube receiver, and a 1 kW spark transmitter,which he bought for $14.00. An amateurradio diary indicates his crystal set outper-formed his Audion tube receiver, at least atthe first.

In the Fall of 1920, Dawson moved withhis parents to Boulder, Colorado, for thebetterment of his father's health. He oper-ated from Boulder under the call sign 9AXTwith a rebuilt version of his Audion receiverand an A.C. powered 1/2 kW spark transmit-ter. His new antenna was a 58´ long cage“L” with the horizontal element made offive wires (two aluminum and three copper)spread apart at each end with bicycle wheelrims. A note in his log says the bedspringswere part of the ground system and thehouse lights flickered because of the highcurrent demand of his spark transmitter.

Boulder did not help Dawson’s father'shealth sufficiently, so after a couple of yearsthey moved back to Erie, Pennsylvania. InDawson's high school years, he acquired aninterest in radio circuit design and in thepropagation of the “new shortwaves”.Armed with an experimental license underthe call of 8XC, he cooperated with theNaval Research Laboratory station NKF andexperimental amateur radio station 1XAM ona project analyzing propagation duringvarious times of the day on frequencies upto 30�MHz. In these 1924 tests Dawson usedan experimental self-oscillated single stage

transmitter which he later described in theJune 1924 Radio magazine. (Figure 1)

Spurred on by the success of these tests,he attempted a transcontinental contact in1925 with 6AJF on 56 MHz. In spite of a newparabolic antenna at 6AJF and a daily sched-ule, the tests were a failure. Even so,Dawson's quest for an understanding of VHF/UHF propagation would be with him always.From what is now known about the nature ofpropagation above 30�MHz, we would con-sider a successful contact over such a longdistance unpredictable.

Dawson followed up his teenage interestin radio communications by attending Pratt

Institute. He graduated from Pratt in NewYork City, NY in 1929 with a degree in Elec-trical Engineering. When in college he pur-

A YOUNG MAN AND HIS HOBBY

Figure 2. Station 8GU

Figure 1. 1924 Experimental Station 8XC

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chased a steel saw and used it in conjunc-tion with a Carborundum slurry for slicingquartz crystal in the basement of hisparent's home. He experimented with cut-ting and grinding crystals for his own trans-mitter and for those of his friends. Aftersome success, amateur radio operators prombeyond Erie began asking him to make crys-tals for their equipment and Dawson wasswamped with "orders" for crystals.

BORN OF THE DEPRESSION

The expectations and thrill that Dawsonfelt in June 1929 at his graduation wereshattered by October when the stock marketcrashed. The depression that followed of-fered little hope for the future. Here he sateager to apply what he had learned fromexperiences spanning the years of sparktransmitters, the development of self-excited oscillators, and finally the develop-ment of the crystal as a practical frequencycontrolling device: yet, there was little hopefor anything to do except tinker in his base-ment. With financial help and encourage-ment from his father, Dawson decided toturn his hobby into a vocation and startmanufacturing crystals commercially. Thus,early in 1930 Bliley Electric Company wasfounded in a basement on West 9th Street inErie, Pennsylvania.

It really was not much of a business atfirst, yet Dawson convinced RobertSchlaudecker (a ham friend) and, soon after,Winfield Riblet to join him in his basementfactory making coarsely ground crystals forthe amateur radio market. Dawson's mothercomplained so often about the traffic in andout of the house and the noise, they decidedto box the diamond saw into a room ten feetsquare. The project helped the acoustics,but they soon ran out of space.

In 1931 Winfield Riblet asked GeorgeWright, an old high school friend of Dawson,if he were interested in joining the group on

West 9th Street. George, who had beenworking on the nearly completed PulaskiExpressway in New Jersey as a civil engi-neer, decided to accept the job offer.George started working on the crystal cut-ting machine, but later Dawson decided hisgift of gab and pleasant personality wouldmake him better suited to be a salesman forBliley's. George's success led him to becomeChief of Sales and Advertising until 1955. Hethen spent the balance of his fortuity yearsof service with Bliley's as its President.

THE PARTNERSHIP

Also in 1931, Dawson approached a localoptometrist, Dr. Conrad H. Collman for somehelp in the lapping process common to boththeir fields. Dr. Collman had the advantageof motor-driven lapers, which interestedDawson. The two men made an agreementthat Bliley's could rent the use of the ma-chines, but the Bliley crew soon was spend-ing more time in Collman's laboratory thanexpected. Seeing an opportunity for mutualbenefit, Dr. Collman suggested that his sonCharles Collman (Figure 3), a mechanicalengineer, and Dawson form a partnership.Dawson agreed, and the new Bliley Piezo-Electric Company moved into Collman'slaboratory on the second floor of Erie'sMasonic Temple Building on West 10thStreet. Two rooms were now set up with anoffice for the expanding business.

Figure 3. Charles Collman (L) andFrank Dawson Bliley (R), Circa 1938

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All things considered, 1932 was a goodyear for Bliley's. The first big orders fol-lowed Jim Lamb's "single signal" filter design(featuring Bliley crystals) in QST magazine,and there was also a significant increase inthe number of orders from commercial andbroadcast markets. This was the start of anenduring positive growth pattern that wouldrequire Bliley's to move again to new facili-ties in 1933, this time to the new UnionStation Building in the center of Erie, alocation next to the railroad lines. Later, asthe company grew in these facilities, thesoot and vibration from the coal fired steamengines rumbling through the station pre-sented constant problems and a threat ofpossible contamination of the crystal unitsunder calibration.

In 1933 Bliley crystals were taken to theAntarctic with Admiral Byrd for his radiotransmitters. The crystals were "standard"

units given to Byrd as sort of an apology forDawson's refusal to go along as his radiooperator. The use of the crystals, and Byrd'sadvertised endorsement, certainly did nothurt the young company's pride and image.(Figure 4)

The first big government contract inpeacetime was supplying oscillator crystalsfor a Navy transmitter built by NationalElectric Supply. The technology of crystalmanufacturing in 1935 did not allow closecorrelation of circuit parameters, so GeorgeWright and Bob Schlaudecker traveled toWashington, D.C., to set up a temporarymanufacturing facility at National ElectricSupply. Unfortunately, crystal technologywould not allow units to be reliably trans-ferred from one transmitter to another. Theteam's mission was to do the final grindingand calibration of each crystal unit to matchan associated transmitter.

Figure 4. Byrd Advertisement in QST Magazine

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DISCOVERIES AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES

from his low frequency Bell Laboratoriesexperiences, John placed a headphone atthe end of a quarterwave transmission line(resonant at the crystal frequency) in serieswith a 5 MHz range crystal plugged into thetest oscillator. As the test oscillator’s feed-back circuit was tuned to each odd harmonicof the test crystal, a “click” was heard inthe headphone. This click was the result of asurge of current created when the crystaland the oscillator feedback circuit reached aharmonic resonance. Feeling that he was onto something, John transferred the crystalto an oscillator designed with a tank circuittuned to the third harmonic of the crystal.He was successful in getting the oscillator todrive a dummy load test lamp to full bril-liancy. This became the birth of the over-tone crystal. Work now began to perfect thecrystal which would later be sold as a Blileytype HF2. This new crystal would allow radioamateurs to build single stage high outputlevel oscillators with confidence. When theovertone crystal patent application was filedthe patent office reported the Radio Corpo-ration of America was contesting the appli-cation. Bliley’s won the suit, and JohnWolfskill won a promotion to Chief Engineer.

Figure 5. John Wolfskill at Work in theEngineering Lab

Bliley’s made patentable improvements inthe four big engineering problems of thethirties, specifically: crystal manufacturingtechnology, temperature stability, agingeffects, and frequency limitations. Theseimprovements and resultant patents gaveBliley’s a competitive edge over many com-panies, and helped establish Bliley’s as atrend setter in the industry for years tocome.

One of the key persons in this period ofdevelopment was John Wolfskill. He wasintroduced to Bliley’s at the 1933 World’sFair where Dawson and George Wright wenton a lark to set up a display. John was doingresearch work at the Bell Telephone Labora-tories at the time, but realized his lowposition on the seniority list meant he was

likely to lose his job eventually as aconsequence of the depression. Havingspecialized in piezoelectric phenomena inengineering school, and knowing radio ama-teurs were becoming keenly interested incrystal techniques, John submitted an ar-ticle to QST magazine for publication inDecember 1934 on quartz crystal fundamen-tals.

Shortly after its publication John wrote toDawson Bliley asking if he were interested inhiring him. Dawson was impressed withJohn’s article and, to John’s delight, heinvited him to come to Erie for an interviewin March 1935. John accepted Dawson’ssubsequent job offer and increased Bliley’semployment to twelve. Shortly after Johncame to Bliley’s, he convinced Dawson toorder an “inexpensive” test oscillator for hislaboratory work on crystal characteristics.Wolfskill knew a need existed to push higherthe upper frequency range of crystal oscilla-tors. He decided to work on getting a crystalto oscillate reliably above 9 or 10 MHz, thenconsidered the highest operable frequencyon a fundamental mode. Using a technique

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Figure 6. Detail from Overtone Crystal (HF2) Patent

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Following the successful development of avariable frequency crystal for the broadcastindustry, Bliley's introduced an improvedvariable crystal for the amateur radio mar-ket called the VF1. John Wolfskill's engineer-ing excellence now made it possible foramateurs to vary the fundamental frequencyof a crystal up to 6 kHz. Using the variablecrystal technique, Wolfskill built a quadnetwork of crystals controlled by a rotatingcommon shaft which could shift each crystalin succession for a total spread of 24 kHz.This arrangement became the heart of apatented, but unsold, series of frequencysynthesizers covering a wide frequencyrange.

Immediately preceding the introductionof the variable crystal to the amateur mar-ket, Bliley's conducted a market ; survey ofradio amateurs in 1936. Four hundred andeighty questionnaires were circulated withan outstanding return of 62%. By 1982 stan-dards, with the average amateur respondingthat he owned five crystals and planned topurchase no more than one a year, theamateurs could hardly be considered alucrative market. Even so, Bliley's did a goodbusiness with amateurs and knew that manyof them were engaged in using or recom-mending crystals for commercial applica-tions. In these early years Bliley's also con-sidered the commercial and broadcast mar-kets as valuable sources of business anddeveloped a broad base of products tosupport them.

During the mid-thirties so many peoplewere looking to this small company fortechnical information regarding crystaloscillator techniques that a booklet "Fre-quency Control with Quartz Crystals", Engi-neering Bulletin E6, was printed, twice in1938 and four additional times betweenthen and 1943. The booklet was a practicalguide to crystal selection and circuit design.It struck such a responsive chord in both

amateur and commercial circles that thebook remained popular with engineers formore than two decades.

Selling anything during the depressionwas difficult, but Bliley Electric succeededin selling many units through a network ofdealers who received crystal units on con-signment. This policy, coupled with heavyadvertising in amateur radio magazines,helped make Bliley's a popular "standard ofquality" among the amateurs. Bliley's contin-ued to advertise for amateur radio tradeuntil the end of World War II when the ama-teur radio market changed due to competi-tion and new technologies. Relatively highstability variable frequency oscillators madecrystals less desirable.

NEW PRODUCTS FOR RADIO AMATEURS

Figure 7. Dawson testing his 5 Metertransceiver in his brand new 1937 sedan!

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Figure 8.VF1 Patent Illustration(To the left)

Figure 9. VF1Advertisement in QST Magazine

(To the right)

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In 1940 Dawson with his new wifeIsabelle, his former secretary, moved into anew home on the south side of Erie on top ofa ridge overlooking the city. He chose thesite as a beautiful compromise betweenconvenience to the plant and his amateurradio interests. This new homestead had a13' x 15' "radio room" on the third floor and apartially hidden staircase giving access tothe flat "widow's walk" above. From hisrooftop perch he erected experimental VHFantennas rotatable by hand using a mastextended into the radio room. Many con-tacts were made with Canada, which istwenty five miles away and can be seen withthe naked eye on a clear day. With theaddition of a 65' freestanding utility pole forpermanent antennas, Dawson's VHFer'sparadise was complete. Unfortunately, thewar years followed all too quickly after theymoved in, prohibiting him from taking fulladvantage of his new location.

DAWSON'S FAMILY AND VHF ACTIVITIES

Figure 10. W3GV's 2M Array,Located above the roof of family house.

Figure 11. W3GV's VHF Station in theThird-Floor Radio Room, Circa 1952

(The hand-rotated antenna mast passed through adesktop map. A mast-mounted pointer indicated theantenna’s direction.)

Like so many hams restricted during thewar years, Dawson remained "active" on VHFthrough the War Emergency Radio Serviceserving the local Civil Defense. Dawson wasa radio aid officer and his wife was an activeW.E.R.S. member who obtained her amateurradio license after the war. Dawson encour-aged her so she could help as a radio opera-tor in his antenna and propagation experi-ments. After the war he offered free crys-tals to anyone contacting him on the newlyassigned two-meter (144 MHz) amateur bandas an enticement to use these frequencies.

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As the years of World War II approached,Bliley Electric was well established in themarketplace and employment approachedforty. As a result, Bliley's became a keymember of a corps of crystal manufacturerscalled upon to support the war effort. Withupcoming government guaranteed contractsand federal loans, Bliley's quickly expandedand filled the entire second floor of theUnion Station Building. Eventually, a feder-ally funded second manufacturing facilitywas built on West 12th Street and incorpo-rated under the name of Bliley Manufactur-ing Corporation. This was dedicated solelyto the manufacture of products for govern-ment defense contracts.

Most industries had problems findingqualified people required to meet the newdemands of war, and Bliley Electric was nobetter off. Robert Johnson was hired tocoordinate a grandiose project to trainhundreds of people ( mostly recent femalehigh school graduates and housewives) to fillthe specialized job openings. Bob designed

THE SECOND WORLD WARcourses of study taught to Bliley trainees ina special short program at Erie TechnicalHigh School. This project, paralleling manyother industries' programs, gave Bliley theinitial group of employees needed to handlethe war effort. Even with this help, requestfor higher levels of production demandedimprovements in crystal production technol-ogy.

The single largest bottleneck in the pro-duction cycle was the calibration of crystalunits. John Pinar, Supervisor of Calibration,devised a scheme whereby one frequencymeasuring station could serve six to eightfinal grinding stations, each equipped withits own oscillator. Because an operator spentonly one in every five minutes actuallytesting the crystal in an oscillator, onemeasuring station with a single qualifiedperson was all that was needed to check thecalibration of a crystal unit and relay theresults back to the grinder. Thus, an effi-cient division of labor was developed.

Figure 12. 1938 Employees of Bliley Electric Company

The offices and manufacturing areas were located on the second floor of the Union Station Building next tothe Nickel Plate Railroad Tracks. The location provided for efficient transfers of heavy crystal stock from thetrain to the slicing department. The Union Station was the company’s home from 1932 to 1962.

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John Wolfskill developed a new techniquefor doing the final calibration. In order tomislead competitors should they hear of thenew process, it was referred to as "X-LAP".This process, more correctly described as"etch-to-frequency", gave Bliley Electric adistinctive, high quality, competitive prod-uct and a production advantage over therest of the government contract crystalmanufacturers.

X-Lap included an entire sequence ofoperations starting by sampling one of alarge group of crystal blanks in one batchand measuring its frequency. Next, thesample crystal blank was placed in an acidetch bath for a fixed period of time, perhapsa minute. The blank was measured forfrequency shift versus time. This data wasentered onto a slide rule type calculator,and the time to etch the entire batch towithin ten kilohertz, or so, would be shownon the scale. The final step was to etch eachcrystal unit on to frequency, rather than usethe older time-consuming hand grindingtechnique. The X-LAP process meant that a

THE SECRET "X-LAP" PROCESS

Figure 14. X-Lap Patent Detail Showing Batch Processing

Figure 13. X-Lap Slide Rule Used in theCalibration Department

single inexperienced operator could learn toaccurately calibrate crystal units in a rea-sonably short time. There were other signifi-cant benefits which were not expected butlater proved invaluable. The entire processwas a closely guarded company trade secretfor several years.

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As the U.S.A. was gearing up for war,many thousands of crystals were ordered bythe Army Signal Corps from numerous com-panies, but Bliley crystals proved to be themost reliable after many months of deadstorage. Many competitive units showedsigns of premature aging, a lack of activity,or erratic frequency shifts. As a result ofBliley's superior performance, the SignalCorps asked Bliley's for some explanationregarding Bliley's performance. Not eager togive up its trade secret, Bliley's initiallyrefused to divulge the details, but did agreeto conduct tours of the plant for top militarybrass only after they signed an oath ofsecrecy regarding what they would learn ofthe "X-LAP" process. The officers were de-lighted with the simplicity of the procedure,and demanded Bliley's offer the "formula" tothe other crystal manufacturers havinggovernment contracts. (By the war's endthere were over two hundred manufacturersof crystals in the U.S.A.) Giving in to politi-cal and patriotic pressures, Bliley's divulgedthe process to anyone who was interested,giving tours of the plant to many of theircompetitors.

Even though Bliley's was later given thepatent for the process and it was writteninto military specifications for crystal units,Bliley's lost a significant competitive advan-tage for which they never received propercompensation. In effect, the process's useduring the war became so basic to themanufacturing of crystals that any attemptto control it would be futile. The war years,however, were good to Bliley's. The circum-stances presented opportunities to do re-search on new and improved products. Onseveral occasions during the war, the com-pany was honored by receiving the Army/Navy "E" award for production efficiency andcontributions to the war effort.

A TEST OF PATRIOTISM

With the news of victory in Japan mostwar contracts were immediately terminated,and Bliley's was not spared. Suddenly theemployment dropped from a peak of 1,300to less than 100. Now Bliley's had to com-pete with many of the two hundred or socrystal manufacturers to whom they had fedtechnology during the war. Most of the warcreated competitors faced similar problemsand folded in short order, not having estab-lished civilian customers to call on onceagain.

Within Bliley's engineering department,work was going on to push wartime proto-type projects into finished products, readyfor manufacture and sale. Dawson Bliley andCharles Collman now had to pour wartimeprofits back into the company in order tokeep it alive until new orders and hard-to-get materials came in. These monthsbrewed many uncertainties and encouragedsome key members of the managementteam to consider leaving the company andforming a company of their own. Feedingthe fuel of this fire were Charles Collman'sattempts to persuade Dawson to manufac-ture Collman's pet interest, an electricshaver, and convert Bliley's primarily into amanufacturer of consumer goods. The twomen disagreed on the future of the companyand its direction. They decided to dissolvethe corporation. Dawson bought outCollman's interests, and once again Bliley'swas a privately owned business with re-newed dedication to establishing itself as aviable competitor in the electronics market-place. The dissension in the ranks of themanagement disappeared, and the coreremained intact. The key to future successappeared to be diversification of the prod-uct line and obtaining more commercialbusiness.

THE POSTWAR YEARS: YEARS OFUNCERTAINTIES

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In the years following the war, Bliley'slooked to the ship-to-shore, amateur andbroadcast radio, and government marketsfor sales. For a while, Bliley's even at-tempted to enter the test equipment marketin the infant television repair industry.Unfortunately, the product, a test oscilla-tor/signal generator, was too well made andnot competitively priced. The competitionproduced a functionally equivalent modelbuilt with surplus crystals and employingfrequency synthesis. The competitor's circuitwas technically inferior but functionallyadequate. In the amateur radio and marinemarkets, Texas Crystal (and a few others)became keen competitors using regroundwar surplus crystals, selling them at a lowerprice than Bliley's. Even so, Bliley's decidedto remain a producer of first-quality prod-ucts, with customers eventually puttingquality before price.

One interesting development after thewar was a request from Western Electric/Bell Telephone Laboratories asking for use ofJohn Wolfskill's patented design of a lowfrequency "resonant pin" crystal holder.Western Electric had free use of the patentduring the war and now wanted to maintainthe status quo. The result of the months ofnegotiations which followed, was an agree-ment to allow free use of all of each other'spatents. This agreement was the first step ina long and enduring relationship betweenthe two companies which still exists today.

Just prior to the Korean War, Bliley'smanufactured crystals for the WurlitzerCorporation for use in their carrier-currentjukebox remote control system. Dozens ofcrystals were required for each installation,with the total crystals produced by Bliley'snumbering in the hundreds of thousandsbefore the contract ended.

REDEDICATION AND NEW PRODUCTS:1945-1950 The years of the late forties and early

fifties saw many new products incorporatingelectronics added to the product line. Crys-tal ovens and packaged high stability oscilla-tors turned out to be the new "meat-n-potatoes" products for Bliley's without af-fecting their standards of quality. Newcontracts from both the government andprivate sectors gave Bliley's solvency andstability.

From 1950 to 1953, the Korean Warbrought a short boom to Bliley's business,but it was small compared to the magnitudeof the World War II level of activity. Theyears of employment levels exceeding 1,300were over, but the company was alive andwell as it approached 1955, the year mark-ing its twenty fifth anniversary.

Figure 15. �CCO-1C TV/Radio Test BenchTest Oscillator Advertisement

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1955 MANAGEMENT TEAM

Frank Dawson BlileyFounder and President

George WrightV.P. Sales

John WolfskillV.P. Engineering

Joseph HallerProduction Manager

Donald StoutTreasurer

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THE SILVER ANNIVERSARY:CELEBRATION AND DESPAIR

The twenty fifth year for Bliley ElectricCompany was one for celebration a celebra-tion of years of achievement in developmentand quality, but the joy soon turned todespair. In May 1955, the founder, DawsonBliley (49), suffered a fatal heart attackwhile vacationing in Florida. His passingmarked the end of the first twenty fiveyears for Bliley Electric. Thanks to a solidfoundation in the electronics field, and agood management team, the company wasable to continue manufacturing the qualityproducts for which it had become famous.

Figure 16. �CCO-1C TV/Radio Test BenchTest Oscillator Advertisement

The Bliley Electric Company is still asuccessful and growing business in Erie,Pennsylvania after 68 years in operation.The once important amateur radio businesshas been replaced by the needs of the com-mercial communications and computerindustry.

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POSTSCRIPT: 1998—THE COMPANY IS SOLD

Bliley Electric Company Acquired By LocalAttorney (Official Press Release)

October 12, 1998 -- Erie, PA

Bliley Electric Company, an internationalcustom electronics manufacturer, and itswholly-owned subsidiary, Sunburst Electron-ics, were acquired on October 9, 1998 bylocal business attorney Roger W. Richards.Bliley Electric Company, which continues toemploy approximately 200 people in ErieCounty, will preserve its nearly 70 yeartradition of providing unique quality prod-ucts to the electronics industry.

Attorney Richards has appointed John T.Johnson president of Bliley Electric Com-pany, and David A. Christopher president ofSunburst Electronics. Johnson has beenemployed with the company for over 18years and has served as treasurer since1983.�Christopher has been associated withSunburst for seven years and previouslyserved as vice-president of operations.

“Although our dedication to quality andservice behind the Bliley name will notchange, the approach to improving ouroverall business philosophy will,” saidJohnson. “Our immediate goals includedevelopment of innovative low-profile crys-tal packages with surface mountable tech-nology, and the expansion of our oscillatorline to include a surface mountable productfamily - some of which will feature lowpower consumption.”

A family-owned business since 1930,Bliley Electric Company is recognizedthroughout the electronics industry as amajor supplier of components for computer,telecommunications, space, aerospace, anda continuing number of defense applica-tions. Sunburst Electronics, the local leaderin subcontract printed circuit board and

wire harness assembly, will continue itsdedication to servicing the regions’ topindustrial manufacturers.

Personal Comment

As a result of the sale of the company, nomember of the Bliley family continues tohave any financial or employment interest inthe company. Dawson and Isabelle Bliley’stwo eldest sons—Richard D. Bliley (Presi-dent) and David M. Bliley (V.P. of Sales)—officially “retired” from the company as theownership changed hands. The sale of thecompany was done with the knowledge andapproval of my mother, Isabelle Bliley Kai-ser, prior to her death in March of 1997.

The contents of the paper form of thisbooklet were translated into electronicformat and posted on the Internet in Sep-tember 1997 as a memorial to my father andmother. In October of 2001, an expandedsite for the company’s history was createdand posted on www.Bliley.net.

Thank you for your interest in the work ofmy father and the many fine people thatworked with him at the Bliley Electric Com-pany.

October 5, 2001