Federal Signal Corporation is an American manufacturer headquartered in

Oak Brook, Illinois Oak Brook is a village mostly in DuPage County with a small portion in Cook County in Illinois. Per the 2020 census, the population was 8,163. This suburb of Chicago has the headquarters of several companies and organizations including Ace Ha ...

. Federal Signal manufactures street sweeper vehicles,

public address system A public address system (or PA system) is an electronic system comprising microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers, and related equipment. It increases the apparent volume (loudness) of a human voice, musical instrument, or other acoustic sound sou ...

emergency vehicle equipment Emergency vehicle equipment is any equipment fitted to, or carried by, an emergency vehicle, other than the equipment that a standard non-emergency vehicle is fitted with (such as headlights, steering wheels, and windshield/windscreens). Visu ...

, and

emergency vehicle lighting Emergency vehicle lighting, also known as simply emergency lighting or emergency lights, is a type of vehicle lighting used to visually announce a vehicle's presence to other road users. A sub-type of emergency vehicle equipment, emergency veh ...

. The company operates two groups: Federal Signal Environmental Solutions and Federal Signal Safety and Security Systems. Federal Signal Environmental Solutions Group manufactures

street sweeper A street sweeper or street cleaner may refer to a person's occupation or to a machine that cleans streets. Street sweepers have been employed in cities as "sanitation workers" since sanitation and waste removal became a priority. A stre ...

vehicles, sewer cleaner and vacuum loader trucks, hydro excavators, waterblasting equipment,

dump truck A dump truck, known also as a dumping truck, dump trailer, dumper trailer, dump lorry or dumper lorry or a dumper for short, is used for transporting materials (such as dirt, gravel, or demolition waste) for construction as well as coal. A t ...

bodies, and

trailers Trailer may refer to: a Transportation * Trailer (vehicle), an unpowered vehicle pulled by a powered vehicle ** Bicycle trailer, a wheeled frame for hitching to a bicycle to tow cargo or passengers ** Full-trailer ** Semi-trailer **Horse trail ...

. Federal Signal Safety and Security Systems Group manufactures campus alerting systems, emergency vehicle lighting, emergency sirens, alarm systems, outdoor warning sirens, and public address systems. Currently, the company has 14 manufacturing facilities in 5 different countries.

History

Federal Signal was founded in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, as the Federal Electric Company in 1901 by brothers John and James Gilchrist and partner John Goehst, manufacturing and selling store signs lit by incandescent lamps. By 1915, they began manufacturing and selling electrically operated mechanical sirens (such as the Q Siren and the Model 66 Siren). During this time, Federal Electric came under the ownership of

Commonwealth Edison Commonwealth Edison, commonly known by syllabic abbreviation as ComEd, is the largest electric utility in Illinois, and the in Chicago and much of Northern Illinois. Its service territory stretches roughly from Iroquois County on the south to ...

, eventually becoming a part of the utility empire of Samuel Insull. By the 1950s, the company was manufacturing outdoor warning sirens, most notably the Thunderbolt series, primarily intended for warning of air raid attacks or fallout during the Cold War. Many of these sirens have been removed, but some still are operating in tornado siren systems. Longtime engineer Earl Gosswiller patented the Beacon-Ray and TwinSonic products, which were popular emergency vehicle lightbars. In 1955, the company became a corporation, renaming itself "Federal Sign and Signal Corporation" . By this time, it made outdoor warning sirens, police sirens, fire alarms, and outdoor lighting. By 1961, Federal Sign and Signal had gone public, trading on the NASDAQ market. This was when new products started being manufactured and sold, such as the Federal Signal Model 2. In 1976, the company became Federal Signal Corporation. On Feb 22, 2000, Federal Signal Corporation announced the signing of a definitive agreement for the acquisition of P.C.S. Company. On June 27, 2005, Federal Signal Corporation announced the signing of a joint venture agreement to establish a Chinese company, Federal Signal (Shanghai) Environmental & Sanitary Vehicle Company Limited, based near Shanghai, China. On February 29, 2016, Federal Signal announced the signing of a definitive agreement for the acquisition of Canada's largest infrastructure-maintenance equipment supplier Joe Johnson Equipment
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, and the rights to the name and company. On May 8, 2017, Federal Signal announced the acquisition of Truck Bodies and Equipment International (TBEI), making it the owner of six dump body and trailer brands, including Crysteel, Duraclass, Rugby Manufacturing, Ox Bodies, Travis and J-Craft. On July 2, 2019, Federal Signal completed the acquisition of the assets and operations of Mark Rite Lines Equipment Company, Inc., a manufacturer of road-marking equipment. along with HighMark Traffic Services, Inc., which provides road-marking services in

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

. The signing of the purchase agreement was previously announced on May 14, 2019. On November 17, 2022, Federal Signal announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all the assets and operations of Blasters, Inc. (“Blasters”), a leading manufacturer of truck-mounted waterblasting equipment, for an initial purchase price of $14 million, subject to post-closing adjustments. In addition, there is a contingent earn-out payment of up to $8 million.

References

Company History - Federal Signal Corp. (Funding Universe)
{{Authority control Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Fire detection and alarm companies Emergency population warning systems Sirens Oak Brook, Illinois Companies based in DuPage County, Illinois Emergency services equipment makers Articles containing video clips

History

See also

References