View source for Clevite

{{Short description|Ohio-based manufacturing company}}
: ''For the radioactive mineral, see [[Cleveite]].''

'''Clevite, Inc.''' was a [[Cleveland]], [[Ohio]] based manufacturing company, founded as the '''Cleveland Graphite Bronze Company'''. The company was a leading producer of [[Babbitt (alloy)|Babbit]] [[Bearing (mechanical)|bearing]]s and a significant US government defense contractor. The bearings were licensed in Britain to [[Tony Vandervell|Vandervell Products Ltd]]; [[W. A. Robotham]] of Rolls-Royce said that "it was an exceedingly difficult task for [[Tony Vandervell]] ... knowing the American company well".<ref> {{cite book |last= [[William Arthur Robotham|Robotham]]  |first= William Arthur |title= Silver Ghosts and Silver Dawn |accessdate=  |edition=  |year= 1970 |publisher= Constable |location= London |isbn=  |oclc= |page= 113 }}</ref> 

In 1952 the Cleveland Graphite Bronze Company absorbed the [[Brush Development Company]] and Brush Labs in a merger.  In 1953 it acquired 51% of Transistor Products Inc., and with other acquisitions such as the German ''Intermetall'' in 1955 (a company founded in 1952 by pioneering German physicist and developer of the first "European" [[transistor]] [[Herbert Mataré]], and subsequently sold to [[telecommunications]] giant [[ITT Inc.#International telecommunications|ITT]] in 1965) developed a [[semiconductor]] division.<ref> Mark P D Burgess [https://sites.google.com/site/transistorhistory2/home/transistor-products Transistor History 2: History of Clevite Transistor Products], 2014. Accessed and archived, 1 January 2016.</ref>

By 1959, over one-third of Clevite's sales were in electronics, split over four units: Clevite Transistor Prods.; Brush Instruments; Clevite Electronic Components; and Clevite Ordnance. Clevite won defense contracts for some of its products and opened a new ordnance plant in 1967.<ref name=cwr>[https://case.edu/ech/articles/c/clevite-corp Clevite Corp., ''Encyclopedia of Cleveland History'', Case-Western Reserve University]</ref> Clevite purchased [[Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory]] in 1960 and continued operating it until selling it (again to ITT as it had done with Intermetall) in 1968.

In 1969, Clevite was acquired by [[Gould Electronics|Gould-National Batteries]],<ref> [http://www.scripophily.net/clevgrapbron.html History of Cleveland Graphite Bronze]</ref> a firm one-quarter its size. It adopted the Gould name in the hopes of having better brand recognition in the marketplace.<ref name=cwr/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://ech.cwru.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=CC13 Company history from the Encyclopedia of Cleveland]

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[[Category:Manufacturing companies based in Cleveland]]