Enos Melancthon Barton (December 2, 1842 – May 3, 1916) was an American electrical engineer who, with
Elisha Gray, co-founded
Western Electric Manufacturing Company
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
* Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that i ...
.
Biography
Born in
Lorraine, New York
Lorraine is a town in Jefferson County, New York, United States. The population was 1,037 at the 2010 census, up from 930 in 2000. The town is named after Lorraine, a region in France.
The town is on the southern border of the county and is sou ...
in 1842, Enos M. Barton attended the
University of Rochester
The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants Undergraduate education, undergraduate and graduate degrees, including Doctorate, do ...
. During the U.S. Civil War and prior to 1869, Barton was a telegraph operator.
In 1869, Barton became partners with George Shawk in an electrical engineering business in Cleveland, Ohio. Later that same year, Shawk sold his share to inventor
Elisha Gray and the company was renamed the Gray and Barton Co. Barton became the secretary of the company.
In 1872, Gray and Barton moved the business to Chicago, Illinois, and manufactured typewriter parts, fire alarms, electric light fixtures,
telegraph
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...
equipment, and related electrical devices. One of their best customers was the giant
Western Union Telegraph Company
The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado.
Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company chang ...
.
In 1881, after Western Union became a partner in the Gray and Barton Co, the latter was reorganized as the
Western Electric Manufacturing Company
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
* Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that i ...
that was later licensed under the Bell telephone patents to manufacture telephone equipment for AT&T.
In 1887 Barton became president of Western Electric and oversaw the international expansion of the company from its beginning. He retired in 1908.
In 1926
Graybar Electric Company
Graybar is an American employee-owned corporation, based in Clayton, Missouri. It conducts a wholesale distribution business for electrical, communications and data networking products, and is a provider of related supply-chain management and l ...
was spun off from Western Electric to handle distribution of Western Electric products. This new company was named Graybar in memory of Elisha Gray and Enos Barton.
Personal life
Barton married Katherine S. Richardson in 1869, and they had three children. She died in 1898. He remarried to Mary C. Rust on October 6, 1899, and they had three children.
[
He died in 1916 on his family farm in Biloxi, Mississippi.]Rosehill Cemetery
Rosehill Cemetery (founded 1859) is an American garden cemetery on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois, and at , is the largest cemetery in the City of Chicago. According to legend, the name "Rosehill" resulted from a City Clerk's error – the a ...
in Chicago.
See also
* Alexander Graham Bell
* Elisha Gray and Alexander Bell telephone controversy
The Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell controversy concerns the question of whether Gray and Bell invented the telephone independently. This issue is narrower than the question of who deserves credit for inventing the telephone, for which ther ...
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barton, Enos
1842 births
1916 deaths
American electrical engineers
Burials at Rosehill Cemetery