White-Westinghouse is an American

home appliance A home appliance, also referred to as a domestic appliance, an electric appliance or a household appliance, is a machine which assists in household functions such as cooking, cleaning and food preservation. Appliances are divided into three ty ...

brand currently used under license by trademark owner

Westinghouse Licensing Corporation The Westinghouse Licensing Corporation (now named Wilmerding Licensing Corporation) was a Delaware General Corporation Law organized subsidiary that was founded in 1998 by Westinghouse-CBS (the renamed original Westinghouse) in managing the in ...

. It was created in 1975 when

White Consolidated Industries The White Sewing Machine Company was a sewing machine company founded in 1858 in Templeton, Massachusetts, by Thomas H. White and based in Cleveland, Ohio, since 1866. History Founded as the White Manufacturing Company it took the White S ...

bought the

Westinghouse Electric Corporation 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 ...

's major appliance business. White Consolidated Industries was in turn acquired by

Electrolux Electrolux AB () is a Swedish multinational home appliance manufacturer, headquartered in Stockholm. It is consistently ranked the world's second largest appliance maker by units sold, after Whirlpool. Electrolux products sell under a variety ...

in 1986. Electrolux made White-Westinghouse branded appliances as recently as 2006.

History

Westinghouse entered the major appliance industry by acquiring the "Copeman Electric Stove Company" in 1917. It later moved production from

Flint, Michigan Flint is the largest city and seat of Genesee County, Michigan, United States. Located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit, it is a principal city within the region known as Mid Michigan. At the 2020 census, Flint had a population of 8 ...

Mansfield, Ohio Mansfield is a city in and the county seat of Richland County, Ohio, United States. Located midway between Columbus and Cleveland via Interstate 71, it is part of Northeast Ohio region in the western foothills of the Allegheny Plateau. The ci ...

. Copeman had begun manufacturing its first

electric ranges An electric stove or electric range is a stove with an integrated electrical heating device to cook and bake. Electric stoves became popular as replacements for solid-fuel (wood or coal) stoves which required more labor to operate and maintain. ...

in 1914.

Electric ranges An electric stove or electric range is a stove with an integrated electrical heating device to cook and bake. Electric stoves became popular as replacements for solid-fuel (wood or coal) stoves which required more labor to operate and maintain. ...

were first demonstrated by

Thomas Ahearn Thomas Ahearn, PC (June 24, 1855 – June 28, 1938) was a Canadian inventor and businessman. Ahearn, a native of Ottawa, Ontario, was instrumental in the success of a vast streetcar system that was once in Ottawa, the Ottawa Electric Railw ...

in 1892, gained in popularity as

electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histor ...

became widespread throughout the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The company claims to have made several important innovations: * 1930s refrigerators with sealed refrigeration units * 1930s room air conditioners * 1930s portable

dishwasher A dishwasher is a machine that is used to clean dishware, cookware, and cutlery automatically. Unlike manual dishwashing, which relies heavily on physical scrubbing to remove soiling, the mechanical dishwasher cleans by spraying hot water, ty ...

s * 1939 automatic

washing machine A washing machine (laundry machine, clothes washer, washer, or simply wash) is a home appliance used to wash laundry. The term is mostly applied to machines that use water as opposed to dry cleaning (which uses alternative cleaning fluids and ...

that was not bolted to the floor. * 1950s

auto-defrost Auto-defrost, automatic defrost or self-defrosting is a technique which regularly defrosts the evaporator in a refrigerator or freezer. Appliances using this technique are often called frost free, frostless, or no-frost. Mechanism The defrost ...

refrigerators. The company manufactured both large and small appliances for many years. Today, appliances bearing the White-Westinghouse name are still made by

under license from

Paramount Global Paramount Global (doing business as Paramount) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned and operated by National Amusements (79.4%) and headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York. I ...

through its Westinghouse brand management subsidiary. In the mid-1990s, household products and electronics bearing the White-Westinghouse name were sold by

Kmart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inc ...

stores in the United States. This essentially gave Kmart a private-label brand in the value category for household goods. This agreement was between Windmere-Durable Holdings, Salton/ Maxim Housewares and New M-Tech Corp., who licensed the name from the then Westinghouse Electric. Most larger-sized TVs were relabeled models produced by Daewoo Electronics Corp. This partnership dissolved in the early 2000s and many of the products were discontinued or switched to Kmart's "Home Essentials" brand. Televisions continued to be produced by Daewoo, but were re-labeled as Curtis-Mathes, another brand licensed to Kmart for a brief period of time.

References

External links

* {{Home appliance brands Home appliance manufacturers of the United States Electrolux brands Westinghouse Electric Company White Consolidated Industries 1986 mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 1975