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From: jcb@loral.UUCP (Jay Bowden)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Who is Packard Bell and why are they making clones?
Message-ID: <2416@loral.UUCP>
Date: 13 Nov 89 19:37:05 GMT
References: <89110820303364@masnet.uucp>
Reply-To: jcb@loral.UUCP (Jay Bowden)
Organization: Loral Instrumentation, San Diego
Lines: 35

Many people are surprised to learn the *real* origins of Packard Bell.
Even as the R of TRW (aka Thompson Ramo Woolridge) participated in the
formation of many successful companies (like Bunker Ramo,
Ramo-Woolridge, etc.), Packard Bell was a result of an early
collaberation between Dave Packard (of Hewlett Packard) and Alexander
Graham Bell (of telephone fame).  Bell asked Packard if he could 
produce a portable sound source that could be used in the (then silent)
movie theatres to bring realism to one of the first feature-length
films based on the works of the American poet Edgar Allen Poe.  Bell
was paritcularly interested in producing Poe's poem "The Bells", and
Packards' resulting device, the Tintinabulator, proved to be
a huge seller in the early part of this century.

The relationship turned sour, though, when Packard insisted on devoting
his energies to "cloning" another hot seller in the new century,
the automobile.  Although he enjoyed limited success for a while, 
Packard Motor Company was eventually absorbed by its own subsidiary
which made the seat covers for the cars, American Thread and
Thimble, a company that Bell later purchased.

Again Packard tried to start a company using his name, but was plauged
by a negative stigma that resulted from customer's insistence on
refering to his products by only the initial "P".  On a recommendation
from his close friend Frank Lloyd Wright, Packard hired an unemployed
construction worker named Bill Hewlett, and re-named the company
Hewlett-Packard.  Today we see that Hewlett's name was the key to the
phenominal success of the company, and pay him a tribute whenever we
speak of an "HP" product.


-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------
Jay Bowden, EE/Consultant; see also Bowden Engineering
Currently contracted at Loral Instrumentation, San Diego
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