SignalTraffic Forums

by **Fully Actuated** on Tue Jul 03, 2007 2:38 am

Essco, or Eagle Signal and Sign COmpany started in Peoria, IL and then moved North to Moline, IL in the mid to late 30's. About that same time they changed the name to Eagle Signal. They were the same company. They moved across the river to Davenport, IA in 1964.

by **EdT.** on Tue Jul 03, 2007 10:04 am

http://wiki.signaltraffic.com/index.php?title=Essco

by **Fully Actuated** on Tue Jul 03, 2007 11:55 am

A bit more re Essco / Eagle Signal.

I have seen historical ads that read "Essco of Peoria, IL...a Harrington-Seaberg Company of Newton, MA" That is a part of their history which is still cloudy for me. However it is apparent that Essco and Harrington-Seaberg were for a period of time operating under one umbrella. Harrington was a fire alarm equipment manufacturer before it allied with Seaberg. (I collect fire alarm boxes too.) Another curiousity is that Newton, MA was the home of Gamewell, another fire alarm equipment manufacturer. Trying to determine the exact chronology of who owned who and when has been a challenge.

An important consideration in the challenge to determine chronology of ownership is that this was during the Depression and Post-Depression era of the late 20's early 30's. Lots of companies were going broke and folding and others were merging to stay alive. This was also the era of corporate monopolies where there was very lax enforcement of anti-trust laws. A few companies "covertly" owned other companies as fronts to edge out competition. (ADT and Gamewell eventually were busted by the feds for anti-trust violations.)

Which brings us to the modern era. In 1964 E.W. Bliss bought Eagle Signal and they moved from Moline, IL to Davenport, IA E.W. Bliss itself was purchased by Gulf + Western within the next few years. G+W subsequently sold Eagle Signal to Wickes in the early 80s. Wickes sold Eagle Signal to Mark IV corporation in 1987 and the company moved from Davenport, IA to Austin, TX. Mark IV got out of transportation equipment and sold Eagle Signal to Siemens around 1997. Siemens ITS continues own Eagle Signal.

--Fully Actuated

by **EdT.** on Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:56 pm

Fully, excellent info! That Harrington Seaberg link is a very interesting one.

I checked through my adverts and catalogs and found that all of the ones that I've collected over the years range from 1924 through 1929. Certainly jibes with your thoughts on the effects of the Great Depression on the traffic signal industry. Perhaps 1930 was the year that ESSCO changed their name to Eagle? It would certainly make sense if they dropped their sign division and decided to focus on one core market.

by **EdT.** on Tue Apr 29, 2008 1:37 pm

Fully,

Just a couple of quick notes:
- Updated the Essco Wiki entry (albeit very clumsily)
http://wiki.signaltraffic.com/index.php?title=Essco
- Check out the Harrington-Seaberg entry for some interesting related info
http://wiki.signaltraffic.com/index.php?title=Harrington-Seaberg

Ed T.

by **EdT.** on Fri Nov 07, 2008 11:13 am

Fully Actuated wrote:I have seen historical ads that read "Essco of Peoria, IL...a Harrington-Seaberg Company of Newton, MA"

Vince, do you have this ad? Does anyone? I've seen the Eagle Co. ads for 'exclusive distributors of Harrington-Seaberg equipment', but never one linking Essco with anyone else. A little while ago I discovered some detailed information on Harrington-Seaberg, but it doesn't mention Essco at all (but it does mention getting bought up by Gamewell). The H-S Wiki entry has the details.

I'm just real curious as to whether Eagle really was Essco..

I mean, aside from the admittedly hard to ignore fact that ESSCO could very easily be an acronym for Eagle Signal Sales COrporation and that they were both based in Illinois (Eagle in H-S' old Moline offices and ESSCO in Peoria), what other evidence is there? In 1930 ESSCO and Eagle were competing against each other (according to ads running concurrently in 1930 at least). I understand your point about companies seeking to circumvent the Sherman Act but if they were in fact playing such a dangerous game, would they not have chosen a substantially different name than the expansion of an acronym?

There's ample evidence that Harrington-Seaberg was folded into Eagle (click here to see an Eagle advert showing an H-S signal body, several Eagle ads specifically mention being distributors of H-S signal equipment, etc..), but why then is there no trace whatsoever of ESSCO in Eagle (either signal design or signs)?

Was ESSCO indeed part of the Gamewell empire? If so I'd say that's enough proof right there, but I've not seen anything to that effect.

Hopefully this is more easily solved than the Ruleta/Horni/Marb enigma... :scratch:

by **EdT.** on Fri Nov 07, 2008 11:33 am

For some odd reason that I can't recall the source of right now, I had assumed that the Chi.Essco signal was introduced specifically for the 1933 World's Fair, but was it? And looking through some old Essco photos, there are two Essco pics labeled 1925 & 1926 respectively.

1925 west madison.jpg

1926 north clark west randolph.jpg

Anyone?