Corwico - Cornish Wire Company

Corwico — Cornish Wire Company

By Dan Howard

Little published information is available on the corporate history of The Cornish Wire Company. However the found objects — the insulators, the lightning arresters, and wire - are seen quite often and speak volumes. Adding in the clues that are revealed through Corwico's ads, an image develops, and an article is more than warranted. So, based mainly on what has been found and what can be learned from the company's many ads, here is a look at the history of Corwico.

The Cornish Wire Company, "Corwico," was originally a manufacturer of wire and wiring products. Like Birnbach and many others, they found that selling insulators and lightning arresters was a great way to promote their brand and to sell more wire. Corwico's porcelain and glass products were likely made by others and "privately-labeled" on their behalf.

According to several sources, Corwico's wire manufacturing facilities were based in Williamstown, MA, in the far northwest corner of the Commonwealth. Apparently Corwico was a large and important employer in the area. The 1930's-vintage aerial photograph and caption, is from The North Adams Transcript.

The company's Williamstown facility is known locally as the Water St. Mill. The mill was constructed in 1873 by A. Loop and Co, a company that made twine. Over time, the plant was enlarged out into a peninsula on the Green River, shown in the background. "The 1873 mill was a relatively small structure, two stories; it may lie buried within the many wings at the rear of the complex." "The twine factory soon failed, and in 1892, the mill was bought by a fabric company, and then by another fabric company, the Boyd Corduroy Co., which added to the building after 1912. Cornish Wire took over the plant in 1836 [sic] 1936 and used it for finishing electrical wiring, applying rubber coatings to cables.

The company's advertising refers to addresses in New York City exclusively. On this basis, I assume that New York was the location of their central sales and or administrative facility.

The earliest information that I have on Corwico dates from late 1924, but I believe that the company was in business prior to that time. In the mid 1920's, the company was only advertising radio wires.

Their product line included wires both internal and external to the sets. In the 1920's many manufacturers of radio accessories sold loop-style antennas - providing an important market for Corwico wire. Wound on open wooden frames ranging in size from 6" to 7', loop antennas were often swivel-mounted so that they could be turned to maximize signal strength. Wire for such antennas was typically covered in cotton or silk woven insulation that was stained brown or black. The Volumax loop antenna shown here was sold in the mid 1920's. At 7'9" tall, this is the largest antenna of the type that I've seen (discounting the huge direction-finding loops used commercially and in military service).

During the 1920's radio boom, other markets for Corwico wire would have been headphone cords and wiring harnesses necessary to the battery-operated radios. Birnbach (OFS 10/97) was another competitor in these markets.

In addition to the fabric-insulated wire products, Corwico sold wire insulated with varnish for outdoor antennas, for winding transformers, and for other applications.

The company's first "complete" antenna products were probably the ribbon-style antennas that were sold in the mid-1920's. Such antennas are woven from very fine wires, making a conductive ribbon. Ribbon antennas were typically tacked up around the ceiling of the living room (and probably taken down just as soon as there was a viable alternative available). I had the good fortune to purchase several examples of ribbon antennas recently, the first that I've seen outside of old magazine ads. Although ribbon antennas come in various styles, they usually resemble woven metallic Christmas tinsel, or narrow lawn chair webbing. Because of their fragile (and disposable) nature, any original Corwico examples should be considered rare and desirable.

In 1925, the National Board of Fire Underwriters promulgated regulations that required the use of lightning arresters for all outdoor antennae. This requirement spawned huge growth in the sales of lightning arresters and for antenna kits. By 1927, Corwico was advertising complete outdoor antenna kits, but lightning arresters and insulators were not advertised separately until later.

The Corwico Vulcan glass arresters were probably Corwico's first lightning arresters. We pictured some of the L.S. Brach-made glass arresters in the June 2000 issue. The glass Vulcan was a two-post style. Since the previous article, I've had the opportunity to study more examples of the glass arresters. The two-post neon arresters used a simple two-wire neon lamp as a gap. The doublet style arresters used, what is to me, an unusual three-wire neon lamp. Interestingly, the nearly identical Kantstrike arrester uses a more conventional resistance-type gap in place of the neon tube. I don't know which type of gap the glass Vulcan used.

Corwico introduced the porcelain No. 800 Vulcan lightning arrester in 1929. The two-post porcelain arrester was glazed in a very unusual dark green finish. I don't believe that I've seen any other arresters or insulators glazed in that color.

The very-common blue-glazed No. 825 (two-post) and No. 827 (doublet) Corwico arresters replaced the Vulcan.

By the late 1920's, the company was selling its own brand of glass insulators. I believe that the same house that made glass insulators for the Knox Porcelain Company manufactured Corwico's glass insulators. The glass insulator boxes exactly match Knox's own products (except for the name). Examples of glass insulators embossed with the KNOX name are commonly found. Since no embossed Corwicos are known, I have to assume that the Corwico examples either bore the KNOX name or were unmarked.

Though I have seen several Corwico boxes, the insulators were always unmarked, and I have no way of telling if they were original to the boxes.

Advertising from the 1940's mentions the No. 790 glazed porcelain insulator. Unfortunately there are no pictures of the item and I have no examples of an embossed Corwico porcelain strain.

The company's later lightning arresters were cobalt-glazed porcelain. It would be reasonable to expect that the company's strains, often sold with the cobalt arresters as parts of antenna kits, would have been glazed to match. In addition to the oft-seen large, blue, FEDCO strains, small, unmarked, blue porcelain strains are commonly found. Perhaps some of them are Corwicos. I believe that it is quite likely that either Federal Porcelain (FEDCO) or Knox Porcelain were the source of Corwico's insulators and arresters. Both products are typical of the companies' production.

In the mid 1930's, Corwico began producing doublet-style antennas under a licensing agreement with Amy, Aceves, and King. AAK patented a design for an antenna transformer that improved the efficiency of dipole-style antennas and eliminated electrical interference to a great degree. During the shortwave listening craze of the later 1930's Corwico cataloged a series of doublet-style antenna kits, many of which are illustrated later in this issue.

Corwico sold an unusual antenna lead-in called a Cor-nex connector in the late 1930's. I believe that Woodruff and Company of Meridian, MS made the Cor-nex for Corwico. Lead-in straps (which Corwico also sold) called for placing a small flat wire across the sill of a double-hung window. The Cor-nex connector placed a plug connection on the inside of the wall that was coupled to a lightning arrester on the outside. Drilling a hole in the wall and passing wires through made the connection between the inside and outside. The Cor-nex connector might create a more reliable connection, however I question the wisdom of trading a temporary, portable, under-thewindow connection for drilling a hole through your wall to accommodate a Cor-nex. Apparently many consumers were dubious as well because the Cor-nex connectors are almost non-existent today.

There is ample evidence that Corwico produced wire products for the military during World War II and an ad about post-war reconversion appears on the back cover of this issue. Since they were a value-added producer of insulators and arresters, it is doubtful that Corwico made either product under military contract. I've been unable to find a military manufacturer's symbol for the company.

By the late 1940's, Corwico had returned to its core business of manufacturing wire and cables. In fact, although the doublet antennas continued to be advertised during the War years, the shift to military wire production for World War II may have spelled the end of Corwico's radio antenna business. The company's wire and cable business continued to thrive into the 1950's.

According to a Wall St. Journal article, in December 1958, General Bronze, the company that had purchased out the The Cornish Wire Company. The Water St. Mill article goes on to say that a company named General Cable purchased Corwico (date unknown). Today General Cable's website provides no information on Corwico and the list of North American locations does not include Williamstown, MA. One must assume that Corwico's assets have long-since been dispersed.