Sometime around April 1892 (the exact date is as yet unknown), Thomas Spencer, his brother Frank G. Spencer, Frank S. Marr and two business associates started a small company at 1310 Filbert Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to produce carbon arc lamps.

At a business meeting between the two brothers on April 21 of that year, it was decided to temporarily name the new firm the Spencer Company. Thomas Spencer’s salary was set at $200 a month while his brother Frank received $100 a month.

In October, the young company changed its name to Helios Electric Company, having acquired the USA rights to use the patents and manufacturing methods of the Helios Company of Germany. At this time, Marr became President of the firm, as Thomas Spencer took the lesser role of Superintendent of the plant.

The original Helios Electric Company logo. Illustration courtesy Carlos A. Altgelt.

This large building in downtown Philadelphia, which houses a hotel, now stands at the 1300 block of Filbert Street in Philadelphia, where the original location for Helios Electric once stood.

Ron Ramirez standing at the approximate location of 1310 Filbert Street in Philadelphia. Photo by Kandi Ramirez.

Early the following year, articles were appearing in the trade journal Electrical World describing the Helios lamps and how they could be seen at the Columbian Exposition. But despite this publicity, business was not good for Helios Electric. It operated close to bankruptcy throughout the time it produced lamps. In August 1893, their plant temporarily closed for two weeks due to a lack of business.

In 1895, Helios advertisements in Electrical World would claim that more Helios carbon arc lamps were in use “than all other makes combined.” John Wolkonowicz, in his 1981 master’s thesis on Philco, opines that this claim most likely included the production of Helios of Germany. The ads also featured “the Spencer Improved Alternating Current Arc Lamp” as well as “focusing lamps (for) plate engraving and stereopticon work.”

Late that year, the firm moved from its downtown Filbert Street facility to a new location at 1229 Callowhill Street.

1229 Callowhill today – a parking lot.

By 1899, the carbon arc lamp business had come to a standstill. A new firm, the Helios-Upton Company of New Jersey, purchased the rights to use the German Helios patents from Helios Electric Company.

Now known as Helios Manufacturing Company, they apparently continued to manufacture electrical supplies. Business remained poor for Helios. In 1904, the company was forced to appoint a receiver, who reported to the company’s directors that the firm’s remaining assets would only bring twenty cents on the dollar at a forced receiver’s sale. After taking this into consideration, the directors decided that “the company’s property would be more valuable as a going concern than if sold out at a receiver’s sale.” Thus, instead of selling out, the firm liquidated some receivables and managed to remain in business.

The company moved yet again, to Garden Street near Kennedy Street in the Bridesburg district of Philadelphia, close to the Delaware River. (Today, Kennedy no longer intersects with Garden; it ends just north of Interstate 95, several blocks north of Garden. Meanwhile, Garden Street now ends at Brill Street, about a block southwest of where Kennedy would have been at the time.) By 1905, it appears that Thomas Spencer had left Helios.

Finally, on July 25, 1906, the company reorganized, changed names, and changed its manufacturing focus. The new Philadelphia Storage Battery Company would now produce storage batteries, mainly for electric automobiles, trucks, and mine locomotives. It had five stockholders and $10,000 in capital. The company’s charter was broader in scope, as it mentioned “manufacturing, contracting for, and furnishing material and appliances relative to the use and application of steam, electricity, water, heat, power, natural and artificial gas.”

Marr remained President of the newly reorganized firm as well as sales and advertising manager. Another partner, Edward Davis, was Secretary-Treasurer. E. Earle Everett, plant superintendent, Edward Yarnall, and a Mr. Witmer were the remaining members of the new company’s board of directors.

The firm’s very first battery was purchased by a Dr. Woodward, and installed into his Baker Electric Brougham automobile on August 10, 1906.

Philadelphia Storage Battery Company faced strong competition from an already established and successful crosstown rival, the Electric Storage Battery Company, makers of the Exide and Willard batteries. Business was not very strong during P.S.B.’s first years of battery manufacturing. The Electric Storage Battery Company already claimed the lead in the lucrative original equipment battery business; thus, P.S.B. had to settle for being a supplier of aftermarket batteries. Nevertheless, the switch to the manufacture of storage batteries would eventually prove to be a wise decision by Marr, Davis, et al.

Northwest corner of Emerald and Tioga Streets. This may have been the location of Philadelphia Storage Battery Company’s offices in 1907…

…and this is the southwest corner of Emerald and Tioga, where one of the company’s two sheet iron buildings may have been located. There is a similar building on the southeast corner of Emerald and Tioga, but it is finished in brick, instead of the stone facade of this building.

Less than one year after Philadelphia Storage Battery Company began producing batteries, they moved to larger quarters at the corner of Emerald and Tioga Streets in the city’s Kensington district. Eighteen employees worked at the new location, which covered 20,000 square feet, including the yard. The new office consisted of one desk, two chairs, and a letterpress. That office would move across the street from the factory the following year, to give the factory more room.

The company would rapidly outgrow the two sheet iron buildings at Emerald and Tioga, prompting another move in 1909, to the area which would end up as the company’s permanent home – Ontario and C Streets in Kensington.

Philadelphia Storage Battery Company’s new offices were located on the northeast corner of Ontario and C Streets, behind the Baxter, Kelly & Faust textile mill at Tioga and C.

P.S.B. built a large battery plant next door, at Ontario and Arbor Streets.

Philadelphia Storage Battery Company moved here, to the northeast corner of Ontario and C Streets, in 1909. Ray MacWilliams, former Philco employee, advises us that this is not the original 1909 building. The back of Plant 1, the original battery plant, can be seen at right.

One block east, at Ontario and Arbor – Plant 1, the old storage battery factory, now empty.

According to legend, at one point during P.S.B.’s early years, plant superintendent Everett was forced to climb inside the company’s smokestack and scrape out soot so that the firm would have enough carbon for the plates of its batteries.

The replacement battery business was going well by 1910, when the company reported a profit of over $30,000. Most of that money was distributed to the company’s five directors, since the firm was now soundly financed.

In 1911, just two weeks prior to his graduation from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Chemical Engineering, a young man accepted the position of chemist with the Philadelphia Storage Battery Company for a salary of $75 per month. This young man was, without a doubt, the most important person the company ever hired, for he would eventually prove his worth in ways no one could have expected at the time.

His name was James M. Skinner.

The Philadelphia Storage Battery Company’s President, Frank S. Marr, and Secretary-Treasurer, Edward Davis, both lived in the city’s Germantown district. Located five miles northwest of downtown Philadelphia, the area originally called German Township dates back to 1691 and is the site of a Revolutionary War battle. The firm’s new chemist, James M. Skinner, soon became a neighbor of the company’s top executives, first moving to Louden Street, later to Phil-Ellena Avenue.

A means of starting a gasoline-powered automobile had been developed by 1911 using an electric motor, eliminating the need for a hand crank. Displaying his sense for business early on, P.S.B.’s new chemist suggested that his employer add starting batteries for automobiles to its line, which they did.

The Philadelphia Storage Battery Company continued to grow, and by 1913, they had reached $576,000 in sales.

Long-time company president Frank S. Marr passed away on December 1, 1916, and was succeeded by Edward Davis. Two men would fill the offices of Secretary and Treasurer, both of which were formerly held by Davis: Edward S. Peyton and John S. Thomas, respectively.

Edward Davis, President of Philco from 1916 to 1930. Illustration courtesy Carlos A. Altgelt.

One of Davis’ first moves as P.S.B.’s new President was to initiate a new stock plan. Stock would be sold to its executives, with the understanding that it could not be sold to anyone outside the company; that the firm could buy it back at any time for $110 a share; and that the stock would revert to the company upon the death of the holder. Davis’ theory was that P.S.B. should buy in stock belonging to older executives and sell it to younger ones. As Davis put it, this would “constantly [refresh] the management with new young blood.” Stock was also issued to key men and officers as bonuses. This plan made all of Philco’s executives pull together toward the common goal of profits. And as it was set up, by 1935, Edward Yarnall’s widow and Frank Marr’s daughters were the only stockholders who were not Philco executives.

By now the battery manufacturer was enjoying steady growth. P.S.B. had sales of over $1 million for the first time in 1917. The firm supplied the Navy with auxiliary electric systems for its battleships during the First World War, which also helped increase sales during this period.

In 1918, Walter E. Holland joined the company. He was previously Chief Engineer of the Edison Storage Battery Company, having spent ten years working with Thomas A. Edison to develop an alkaline storage battery.

As the Philadelphia Storage Battery Company continued to grow and prosper, so did James M. Skinner. He had become an engineer within the company in 1915. By 1919, he had risen to the position of Vice-President and General Manager. This was the year he instituted a national advertising campaign, with ads running in several major magazines, notably the Saturday Evening Post and the National Geographic Magazine, among others. It proved to be successful, bringing even more sales to Philco – and more accolades to Skinner, its rising star.

The advertising campaign also introduced the company’s new trademark – the name which the firm would be more easily recognized as – Philco.

Partly from sales to the Navy during the war and partly from increased civilian sales due to Skinner’s advertising blitz, sales jumped to over $4 million in 1920. This success came in spite of a serious fire which broke out on March 20, 1920, at 4:30 p.m. It nearly demolished the company’s new factory on the northwest corner of Ontario and C Streets. Undaunted, company workers pitched a large circus tent across the street, on the southwest corner of Ontario and C, and resumed making batteries a mere 24 hours after the fire.

In 1921, due to a postwar recession, Philco sales dropped by $1 million. However, better things were in store for the battery manufacturer.

As the decade of the 1920s dawned, a new curiosity was beginning to be more widely known – radio. The inaugural broadcast of KDKA, across the state in Pittsburgh, carried returns of the 1920 presidential election. This helped to create great interest in what had previously been a “toy” of a relatively few amateur operators. By 1923, the number of broadcasting stations had grown to over 580, and was still growing. More than 200 manufacturers were producing radio receivers. At the time, radio sets were quite primitive, often difficult to use, and they all required batteries to operate; low-voltage, high-current “A” batteries to light the tube filaments, and high-voltage, low-current “B” batteries to supply needed operating voltages for the radio. While Philadelphia Storage Battery did not initially take part in the radio craze as far as radio manufacturing was concerned, the company’s Vice-President and General Manager, James Skinner, had moved the company into the radio battery business by 1923.

A postcard promoting Philco battery sales and service, 1923.

Philco batteries installed in a telephone company central office, circa 1928.

Unlike many battery manufacturers, Philco’s “B” batteries were wet, not dry. As with Philco’s “A” batteries for radio use, their “B” batteries were shipped dry from the factory, with the electrolyte being added at the time of sale.

In order to assist its dealers in selling the new line of Drynamic storage batteries and battery chargers, Philco issued a manual which described its radio battery line in great detail. Philco would continue to supply its dealers with booklets designed to increase sales of its products, including detailed instructions on how to sell them, in the years to come.

During radio’s early days, many set owners often experienced the frustration of not being able to listen to their radio because the set’s “A” battery had become discharged. To meet this new demand, companies began to market battery chargers for home use. In 1923, along with its new line of radio batteries, Philco was offering its own battery chargers so that one could charge their storage battery at home instead of having to take it to a service station.

Philco did not let up on its national advertising. It kept its name – and products – before the public on a regular basis, with monthly ads in such magazines as the Saturday Evening Post, the American Magazine, National Geographic, Farm Journal, Successful Farming and Radio News.

Once again, Philco’s whiz-kid, James Skinner, had made the right decision. Philco’s sales for 1924 rose to $4,700,000.

In addition to the inconvenience of discharged batteries, the “A” batteries contained acid, which could be spilled on the rug in the home, which naturally was an annoyance to the lady of the house. A demand for being able to operate the radio from the AC light socket was growing. However, the tubes in use at the time required direct current (DC). Engineers were working on the problem; the initial answer was a battery eliminator.