Already in 1895 Arthur Atwater Kent founded the Kent Electric Manufacturing Co. in the back room of his fathers machine shop. He designed, made, and sold small electric motors and fans.
In 1902 the Atwater Kent Mfg. Works were founded in Philadelphia, which later (1919) became the Atwater Kent Manufacturing Company.
Having invented the Unisparker, an improved ignition system which gave a single hot spark at once, Atwater Kent received in 1914 the John Scott Legacy medal. The Unisparker consisted of contact points, centrifugal advancing mechanism, distributor, and condenser in a single unit, to work with a spark coil. This system was used for more than half a century, until electronic ignition took over.
In 1919 Atwater Kent had already 25 U.S. patents (he eventually held 93).
In 1921 he started to engage in radio, and the following year 1922 saw him advertising for Radio parts and units, and end of 1922 he offered the first breadboards, the 39xx types.
Atwater Kent became the leading radio manufacturer. The production figures are impressive: from 1923 to 1927 not less than 1,317,766 sets have been produced.
In 1936 Arthur Atwater Kent, being fed up from struggling cheap competition and unions, closed down the factory.
Being rich enough, he retired to Hollywood and enjoyed to live among movie stars and high society. He died in 1949.
Ref.: A.Douglas, Radio Manufacturers of the 1920's, vol.1
After quitting radio making in 1936 he ran a real-estate business in Florida, then moved to Bel-Air in the Los Angeles area.
He built on top of the highest hill in L.A. "Cappo di Monti"(=Mountains head), a palace-like mansion in Italian style with 32 rooms.
Famous as Mr.Host he ran extravagant parties, with a regular guest list of over 800 people. He invited scores of Hollywood luminaries, and he would frequently dress as the "Mad Hatter" (Alice in Wonderland) while he fed them choice wine and foods. He would mingle with the guests for a few hours and then go to bed while the party went on. He never dined with his guests - he was a vegetarian.
Ref.: "A.Atwater Kent, The Man, the Manufacturer and his Radios", by Ralph Williams and John P.Wolkonowicz.
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