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Brown Instrument Company

1857 establishments in PennsylvaniaAmerican companies established in 1857Companies with year of disestablishment missingDefunct manufacturing companies based in PennsylvaniaInstrument-making corporations
Manufacturing companies based in PhiladelphiaManufacturing companies established in 1857
Honeywell brown
Honeywell brown

Brown Instrument Company was a U.S. firm known for high-quality instruments (such as pyrometers, thermometers, hygrometers, tachometers, pressure gauges, flow meters, ammeters, and voltmeters) and industrial controls. The company was founded in 1857 in Philadelphia by Edward Brown, inventor of the first pyrometer of American design. In 1934, the firm became a division of Honeywell. The company was a large employer in North Philadelphia during most of the 20th century. A large brick factory building across Windrim Avenue from Wayne Junction, currently Extra Space Storage, was a principal Brown Instrument Company building. A 1921 catalog mentions laboratories here. The Wayne Avenue façade still has "Brown Instrument Co" relieved into the concrete. A Google Book search for "Brown Instrument" "Wayne Ave" shows multiple addresses for the company on the 4400 and 4500 blocks of Wayne Ave, which straddle Wayne Junction. Another search result from 1915 mentions 311 Walnut St. Across the regional rail tracks from Fern Rock Transportation Center there is another old factory building topped by a sign marked "Honeywell – Brown Instrument Division". The firm later moved to Fort Washington, Pennsylvania. Honeywell's automation and control businesses still have a campus there, although the Brown Instrument name has been retired.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Brown Instrument Company (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Brown Instrument Company
Windrim Avenue, Philadelphia

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Latitude Longitude
N 40.021388888889 ° E -75.159444444444 °
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Extra Space Storage

Windrim Avenue
19144 Philadelphia
Pennsylvania, United States
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Honeywell brown
Honeywell brown
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Keystone Dry Plate Works
Keystone Dry Plate Works

The Keystone Dry Plate and Film Works was founded by John Carbutt in 1879 in Philadelphia, and its 113 Berkley Street location was constructed in Germantown in 1884. The factory became the location for his pioneering work in new photographic technologies, including improved glass plate photography, x-ray imaging, the first 35 mm celluloid film, and very early color photography procedures. Carbutt developed the first gelatine-bromide dry plates (1879), the first orthochromatic dry plates (1886) and the first celluloid dry plates(1888) in this location. He produced the first 35mm film here and sold it to Thomas Edison. In 1888, he introduced the less than a decade-old Edison light bulb to increase productivity in his factory, and in 1896, Carbutt began to manufacture the first x-ray plates for commercial use. In his later years, Carbutt experimented with color photography.John Carbutt died in 1905. In the early 20th century the factory was bought by Defender Photo Supply, based in Rochester, NY, and became known as the Defender Dry Plate Company. From 1912 to 1977 the building was occupied by Moore Push Pin Company; Edwin Moore invented and patented the push pin, and subsequent occupants included a drug rehab facility. The building forms part of a cluster of 19th-century industrial buildings around Wayne Junction rail station. In January 2021, Ken Weinstein, the current owner of the property through Wayne Junction Properties/Philly Office Retail, submitted a financial hardship application to the Philadelphia Historical Commission to permit the building to be demolished.