Mignon Wireless Corporation
Elmira, New York

Became later (ca.1918/19) Universal Radio Mfg.Co.

Ernest C. Mignon immigrated to the USA and arrived on August 4, 1907 in Ellis Island. Ernest Mignon was of German decent and sailed on the Caledonia from Glasgow, England to the United States. 
In 1914 he founded the Mignon Wireless Corporation located in Elmira, NY. The company became later Universal Radio Mfg. Co. 

Ernest Mignon was a pioneer in the field of Wireless and had a great future. However, he was robbed of his opportunity to show his true potential. The same way the US government rounded up Japanese Immigrants after the attack on Pearl Harbor to keep them looked up in detention camps in the desert of Nevada during World War II, the US government interned immigrants of German decent at Fort Oglethorpe, GA. Among the detenies rounded up at the outset of World War I was Ernest Mignon. He was held against his will in the detention center till the end of WW I. It can only be imagined what else he would have contributed to the develpment and improvement of early wireless technology. 

After being interned for nearly two years as an enemy alien in the government detention camp at Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., Ernest C. Mignon, former Elmira wireless apparatus manufacturer, has returned to civilian life with a "clean bill" from Uncle Sam. Mr. Mignon was in the city early in the week visiting friends and winding up the lapsed affairs of the Mignon Wireless Corporation, of which he was at the head when war broke out and forced to abandon when the government caused his internment. Mr. Mignon now is the general manager and radio engineer of another Mignon Wireless Corporation, a newly organized concern which he says is financed by New Yorker capitalists. The offices of the company are located in New York while the factory is in Newark, N.J. 
The former Elmiran was not interned at the outbreak of the war with Germany because of any particular evidence of unloyalty on his part, but chiefly on suspicion. Mignon, who came here from Germany, did not have his final papers from the Fatherland. He was looked at as askance because of his occupation and knowledge of wireless and also because of his alleged association with the former Kaiser, William Hohenzollern. Mr. Mignon admitted at the time that he knew the gentleman who formerly occupied the Teuten throne. Despite his confinement for the period of the war, the wireless expert bears no ill will against the United States. He says he was well treated in the enemy alien camp in the south. (Article in The Telegram, Elmira, N.Y., September 21, 1919)

Report of all proceedings under the Trading with the Enemy Act During 1918 by United States Alien Property Custodian. Mignon's Trust, according to the report, had the number 26,458 and the value of his property was reported as $7,806.

CERTIFICATE TO DO BUSINESS UNDER AN ASSUMED NAME 
Mignon Industries and Export Company Ernest C Mignon, 211 Smith St. 
THE DAILY RECORD, 29 North Water Street, Rochester N.Y., August 28, 1923. 

CERTIFICATE TO DO BUSINESS UNDER AN ASSUMED NAME Mignon Co, 441 Wilkins St. Ernest C Mignon, 180 Broadway and Edward A Rudy, 1126 North St. 
Discontinuing Business Under an Assumed Name: Mignon Co., Ernest C. Mignon and Anna M Mignon. 
THE DAILY RECORD, 29 North Water Street, Rochester N.Y., Tuesday, October 19, 1948, Anna