Talk:Federal Telegraph Company

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Radio, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Radio-related subjects on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.RadioWikipedia:WikiProject RadioTemplate:WikiProject RadioRadio

???

This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

To-do List:

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests : Create: Missing years and articles in radio, National Association of Radio Distress-Signalling and Infocommunications (Hungary)
Assess : Unassessed Radio articles; Unknown-importance Radio articles
Cleanup : Radio articles needing attention
Expand : Midweek Politics Bob Crane
Maintain : Portal:Radio
Stubs : Expand: Radio stubs
Verify : Unreferenced BLPs
Other : Collaboration of the Week:
Requests for Radio peer review:

Telecommunications

	Telecommunication portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Telecommunications, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Telecommunications on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.TelecommunicationsWikipedia:WikiProject TelecommunicationsTemplate:WikiProject TelecommunicationsTelecommunications
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

1927 vs. 1931 acquisition

From what I've read there appears to be some confusion with regards to what happened in 1927 between Mackay companies and FTC. Sources such as NY Times and Elliot Stone's testatment to congress (1930) both say that it was only the radiotelegraphy system that was sold to Mackay companies by Federal. That and they entered a 21 year contract to provide equipment to Mackay companies who would underwrite 50% of cost of Federal's labs as a result.

Federal remained part of Federal-Brandes (later rebranded as Kolster Radio Corporation) when Kolster was liquidated in 1931 as per court order it was bought by Orange Securities Corporation which was controlled by IT&T. At this point the Federal Telegraph Company (of California) became an ITT subsidary. This is also mentioned in the IT&T 1931 annual report:

https://www.nytimes.com/1927/08/25/archives/mackay-now-enters-the-wireless-field-buys-out-federal-plans.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1931/04/29/archives/kolsters-assets-will-go-to-it-t-purchaser-will-obtain-control-of.html

The April 29th article specifically mentions FTC of California as one of the assets of Kolster.

https://www.nytimes.com/1931/06/05/archives/mackay-gets-control-of-the-kolster-radio-federal-telegraph-of.html

IT&T Annual report:

https://books.google.ie/books?id=VBAhAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=%22kolster%20brandes%22&pg=RA1-PA17#v=onepage&q&f=false

So from what I can see is FTC was not taken over by Mackay, instead they sold their Pacific radiotelegraphy stations and maintained their manufacturing/research with locked in contract to Mackay system. Given the liquidation of Kolster in 1931 IT&T stepped in and bought the assets so as to protect their supply chain.

Useful read also is: Federal Telephone and Radio Corporation, A Historical Review: 1909–1946^[1]

"became purely a manufacturing and engineering company engaged in the design and supply of electrical equipment to the Postal Telegraph Commercial Cable Companies and their subsidiaries-now augmented by the Mackay Radio and Telegraph Company which was organized to take over the Pacific Coast Federal radio stations"

Dóeltenga (talk) 22:16, 16 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

^ Mann, F. J. (December 1946). "Federal Telephone and Radio Corporation, A Historical Review: 1909–1946" (PDF). Electrical Communication. 23 (4): 397–398.

Dóeltenga (talk) 22:16, 16 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

[1] Mann, F. J. (December 1946). "Federal Telephone and Radio Corporation, A Historical Review: 1909–1946" (PDF). Electrical Communication. 23 (4): 397–398.

[1]