The Bryant Electric Company was a manufacturer of wiring devices,

electrical components An electronic component is any basic discrete device or physical entity in an electronic system used to affect electrons or their associated fields. Electronic components are mostly industrial products, available in a singular form and are not ...

, and

switches In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...

founded in 1888 in

Bridgeport, Connecticut Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the List of cities by population in New England, fifth-most populous ...

, United States. It grew to become for a time both the world's largest plant devoted to the manufacture of wiring devices and Bridgeport's largest employer and was involved in a number of notable strikes, before being closed in 1988 and having its remaining interests sold to Hubbell in 1991.

Founding and growth

Bryant was founded by Waldo Calvin Bryant in 1888 (incorporated 1889) in Bridgeport, Connecticut, with seven employees working in a loft on John Street in Bridgeport. Waldo Bryant and others at Bryant invented and patented a number of switch and electrical component designs, including "the first push-pull switch". Although responsible for more than 500 patents by 1935, Bryant's most significant contribution to the wiring devices industry was the idea of standardization. For example, in 1888 there were eight different types of electrical light bases. Bryant led the industry to accept standardized devices. Bryant grew quickly and, in 1890, acquired the Standard Electric Time Company and Empire China Works. In 1891, Bryant relocated to a former school building owned by

P. T. Barnum Phineas Taylor Barnum (; July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman, businessman, and politician, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus (1871–2017) with James Anthony Bailey. He was ...

off State Street and, by 1905, employed 700 people. Perkins Electric Switch Company was acquired in 1899, with the employees and plant relocating to Bridgeport. Waldo Bryant needed more capital for expansion and sold the majority interest to

Westinghouse Electric The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" in ...

in 1901, though he continued to run the company as the Bryant Electric subsidiary of Westinghouse until 1927. One reason for downplaying the Westinghouse ownership was to keep Bryant distributors who had exclusive franchises to sell products of Westinghouse's competitors from dropping the Bryant line. For a time, Bryant was Bridgeport's largest employer and, by 1912, its plant in Bridgeport's West End was the largest in the world "devoted exclusively to the manufacture of wiring devices". As electrical components began to be made with plastic, Bryant acquired Hemco Plastics Company in 1928. By that year, Bryant was selling over 4,000 different products. By 1938, the plant had grown to and employed 1,537 people, increased to 1,600 in 1946.

Labor relations

At the time of Bryant's founding and rapid growth Bridgeport's West End was a dense, congested working-class neighborhood and a large population of mostly Hungarian immigrants, as well as Swedes, Slovenians and French Canadians, lived to the south of the industrial zone where Bryant was located. Subsequently, a large number of Hungarians were employed by the company in its early days. In 1944, in an effort to maintain good relations with its Hungarian employees, Bryant transferred a strip of land to the

Hungarian Reformed The Reformed Church in Hungary ( hu, Magyarországi Református Egyház, MRE) is the largest Protestant church in Hungary, with parishes among the Hungarian diaspora abroad. Today, it is made up of 1,249 congregations in 27 presbyteries and four ...

Church to be used for construction of a basketball court, gymnasium and auditorium. Workers at the Bryant plant were involved in a number of notable strikes over the years, including a 1915 strike when a number of Bridgeport companies were closed down amid demands for

union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

representation and an

eight-hour day The eight-hour day movement (also known as the 40-hour week movement or the short-time movement) was a social movement to regulate the length of a working day, preventing excesses and abuses. An eight-hour work day has its origins in the 16 ...

and a 1955

United Electrical Workers The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), is an independent democratic rank-and-file labor union representing workers in both the private and public sectors across the United States. UE was one of the first unions to be ...

strike over working conditions and pay.

1915 strike

While thousands took part in the Bridgeport strikes of 1915, few were actually union members and many were women who had been denied membership in

craft unions Craft unionism refers to a model of trade unionism in which workers are organised based on the particular craft or trade in which they work. It contrasts with industrial unionism, in which all workers in the same industry are organized into the sa ...

. The Bryant Electric strike was started by five hundred women assemblers and a handful of men who walked off the job on August 20, marched downtown for a mass meeting at Eagle's Hall and elected a strike committee with equal representation for women. The company responded by shutting the plant and charging the strikers with "rioting." The remaining two thirds of the plant joined the strikers and after two weeks the company acceded to the workers' demands for an eight-hour day,

overtime pay Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society), ...

and union representation.

Deindustrialization and plant closing

As part of a larger process of regional

deindustrialization Deindustrialization is a process of social and economic change caused by the removal or reduction of industrial capacity or activity in a country or region, especially of heavy industry or manufacturing industry. There are different interpre ...

, Westinghouse shut down the Bryant Electric plant in 1988 after transferring most of the work to non-union plants in

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and the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

. The closing exacerbated the neighborhood's already bleak economic situation. Westinghouse sold its remaining interests in Bryant Electric to

Hubbell Incorporated Hubbell Incorporated is an American company that designs, manufactures, and sells electrical and electronic products for non-residential and residential construction, industrial, and utility applications. Hubbell was founded by Harvey Hubbell a ...

in 1991. Bryant's 20-building, site in Bridgeport's West End was torn down in 1996 to make way for a new industrial park.

References

External links