Black & Decker

Black & Decker Corporation
Subsidiary
Industry Power tools, home improvement products, hardware, fastening technology
Founded 1910
Founder S. Duncan Black
Alonzo G. Decker
Headquarters Towson, Maryland, U.S.
Key people
Nolan D. Archibald ceo
Products Power tools
Revenue $6.09 billion (FY2008)[1]
$293.6 million (FY2008)[1]
Number of employees
27,000
Parent Stanley Black & Decker
Website Consumer Website
A Black and Decker drilling machine
A Black and Decker drilling machine

Black & Decker Corporation is an American manufacturer of power tools, accessories, hardware, home improvement products and technology based fastening systems headquartered in Towson, Maryland. On March 12, 2010, Black & Decker merged with Stanley Works to become Stanley Black & Decker.[2] It remains as a wholly owned subsidiary of that company.

History

Black & Decker Corporation was founded in 1910 by S. Duncan Black and Alonzo G. Decker as a small machine shop in Baltimore. Decker, who had a seventh grade education, had met Black in 1906, when they were both 23-year-old workers at Rowland Telegraph Co.[3]

In 1917, Black & Decker invented the familiar portable electric drill, obtaining a patent for a hand-held drill combining a pistol grip and trigger switch.[4] Its logo, a hexagon, was used in one form or another from 1912 to 2014; it represents a hexagonal nut, a universal fastener.[5]

For many decades, the director of design was Glenn Calvin Wilhide, a friend of Walter Gropius and other leading industrial designers of the day. Wilhide filed many US patents for Black & Decker, including, granted in August 1941, the patent for a portable power driven tool unit USD129046 S which is the famous drill known today.

Brands

Black & Decker (the corporation) is distinct from "Black & Decker" the brand; more than one corporation uses the brand. In particular, "Black & Decker" branded household products in the Americas (but outside of Brazil) are marketed by a division of Spectrum Brands, a consumer products corporation based in Madison, Wisconsin. In December 2012, Spectrum Brands also purchased Black & Decker's hardware and home improvement division.[8]

References

Further reading

External links

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