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History of the manufacturer  

Peirce Wire Recorder, Evanston, IL

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Name: Peirce Wire Recorder, Evanston, IL    (USA)  
Abbreviation: peircewire
Products: Model types
Summary:

Peirce Wire Recorder Corporation (PWRC), 1328 Sherman Ave., Evanston, Illinois, USA.

The Wire recorder 55B and its documentation bears the name Peirce. Nevertheless all the Internet articles use the wrong spelling Pierce, although they show photos with the correct spelling !

History:
Founded in the late 1920's as Radiotechnic Laboratories, Evanston, Illinois. Started to make Wire recorders for the U.S.Army around 1940. Changed their name to Peirce Wire Recorder Corporation (PWRC).
In September 1945 Peirce puts the first generally available wire recorder on the market - through Macy's Department Store in New York. The company also marketed a dictation machine with a max. recording time of 60 minutes, which uses foot pedals for starting, stopping, and rewinding. In 1945, the price was $400. Weight is over 30 pounds.

One of their subcontractors, Webster Chicago (Webcor) soon offered a cheaper personal recorder and. Peirce concentrated on the dictation market, but had rather no chance against competitors. Peirce lost most of its dictation business after the introduction of disk recorders by Audograph and Gray, but Peirce had an exclusive contract with the U.S.Air Force to supply them with recorders. An example is the "Cockpit Voice Recorder" RD106/ANH-2. In 1948, Peirce had courted the IBM company, though IBM turned down the offer to buy the 260 series technology.

Because of the recession in 1957/58, Charles Peirce tried to sell his enterprise. By August 15, 1959, IBM had acquired the patents and assets of the Peirce company. The comany's name changed to Pierce Dictation Systems, and its assets were sold to IBM in July 1959, where it became the basis for IBM's dictation division.

Peirce remained the smallest manufacturer of dictation machines until introduction of the Peirce Dictation Belt in 1961, which is a small transistorized magnetic belt recorder. At the same time IBM offered the IBM Executive line of dictation equipment.

This manufacturer was suggested by Konrad Birkner † 12.08.2014.


Some models:
Country Year Name 1st Tube Notes
USA  45 Magnetic Wire Recorder Model 55 B 6SJ7  PEIRCE Modell 55B, a Magnetic Wire Recorder and Reproducer / Peirce Wire Recorder Corporat... 
USA  48 Wire Recorder Peirce 265 6J7  Peirce model 265; Wire recorder, table model, push button operation. There is a similar ve... 
USA  48 260 6J7   
USA  50 270E    

[rmxhdet-en]

Further details for this manufacturer by the members (rmfiorg):

Thanks for the photos, Mr.András Pintér!tbn_usa_peircewire_55b_logo.jpg
Thanks for the photos, Mr.András Pintér!tbn_usa_peircewire_55b_data1.jpg

  

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