Friday, October 18, 2013

Eldridge Johnson: Unschooled but Successful



Eldridge Johnson was an American industrialist and businessman who co-founded the Victor Talking Machine Company. At one time, this company was the leading producer of phonographs and phonograph records in the US.

Johnson’s mother died when he was just two years old. He lived with his aunt until he was ten when his father remarried. He lived with his father and stepmother until he was fifteen. Because he was poor, he did not have the chance to go to college after high school. Instead, he entered trading.

In 1883, Johnson apprenticed in a Philadelphia machine shop, J. Lodge & Son. When he became an experienced machinist, Johnson moved to Scull machine Shop in New Jersey.

Johnson became the foreman, and later, manager of Scull. He continued on the work left by John W. Scull, who died earlier that year – a bookbinding machine. After completing the machine, he went as far as Washington.

There, he established the Eldridge Johnson Manufacturing Company. He manufactured and sold bookbinding machines and other devices such as the gramophone.

No comments:

Post a Comment