Printable View
Well, I have been searching long enough, now it is time to ask the obvious.
What exactly was the relationship between Altec, Altec Lansing, and JBL?
I have some early 417 drivers marked Altec, but later ones were Altec Lansing, then Liang Altec or something.
Why was the Lansing name associated with Altec?
appologies if this was either too stupid or too obvious,
... watchman
All the information is in our library, click on the square in the top left hand corner that says Lansing heritage, the history is there!
Thanks, I checked the excellent history and it says that Altec purchased Lansing Manufacturing in 1941, did this make Altec the parent company of JBL?
http://www.audioheritage.org/html/hi...altec-1963.htm
Many thanks,
... watchman
After a five year contract as an Altec Lansing employee, James Lansing left Altec Lansing and formed James B. Lansing Sound in 1946... hence this year is the JBL 60th anniversary.
Altec was just a diversion... really a company of no real importance. :bs:
Widget
What about family? Jim Lansing and his brother Altec, remember?:D Despite their Illinois birth, I think Lansing, Michigan is named after James and AllTechnical.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Widget
Clark
So nobody wants to give this poor guy a straight answer?
Western Electric was the manufacturing division owned by AT&T
AT&T was given a limited monopoly in their telephone business in order to accelerate the developement of the phone system.
But the government felt that AT&T shouldn't get the same advantages in other areas, notably theatrical sound reproduction where AT&T's subsidiary Western Electric was the dominant supplier.
So in 1938 Western Electric's inventory of theatrical sound equipment was turned over to the newly formed Altec (stands for "All Technical") company to support the movie sound systems that Western Electric would no longer service.
But Altec did not get Western Electric's manufacturing facilities, so when their inventories started running low a few years later their attention turned to Lansing Manufacturing.
Lansing was already manufacturing the Iconic but was in financial trouble when Altec bought it in December of 1941 and changed their name to Altec-Lansing. They got the manufacturing facilities they needed, and eliminated one of their most significant competitors in one stroke.
As not only the founder and owner of Lansing Mfg. but also it's key engineer Jim Lansing's services were retained in a 5 year contract as Vice President of Engineering. Jim Lansing continued to contribute new designs and evolutionary improvements, to Altec's products. So when he left Altec at the end of his 5 year contract announcing that he would start his own speaker company they certainly took him seriously.
As James B. Lansing started his own company he introduced a speaker tagged with the "Iconic" and "Lansing" names. Altec-Lansing frowned on this and got some lawyers involved, the outcome being that Lansing's new company could not use the "Iconic" name and Jim would have to use his full name on his products in order to make them more distinct from the Altec-Lansing product. So carried on as "James B. Lansing Sound Inc."
Altec carried on too, and in 1956 Altec began trading stock as "Altec Companies" and in 1959 merged with Ling Electronics. Then that company merged with Temco Electronics in 1960 and then THAT company merged with Chance-Vought Aircraft in 1961 and became know as Ling-Temco-Vought Inc., then just LTV.
In 1971 Altec was spun off as LTV Ling Altec.
A nice, concise Altec timeline is here:
http://www.audioannals.com/altec.htm
Printed in their 1966 catalog:
http://www.lansingheritage.org/image...vott/page6.jpg