The Black & Decker Corporation is the world's leading maker of power tools and accessories--and is the firm most responsible for the creation of the post-World War II consumer market for power tools. Black & Decker (B&D) also leads the world in the production of electric lawn and garden tools, specialty fastening systems, glass container-making equipment, steel golf club shafts, and security hardware (locks and locksets). The company is also the largest full-line supplier of small household appliances in North America. B&D products are sold in more than 100 countries and are manufactured in plants located in 14 countries.
Alonzo G. Decker and S. Duncan Black, two industrial tool designers and engineers, formed The Black & Decker Manufacturing Company in September 1910. With $600 from the sale of Black's second-hand car and a loan of $1,200, they set up a machine shop in a rented warehouse in Baltimore, Maryland. Black was the president of the company. In their first years the partners contracted to manufacture industrial products invented and sold by others, such as a milk bottle cap machine, a cotton picker, and machinery for the U.S. Mint. In 1916 Black and Decker began to design and manufacture their own electric-powered tools. The German-made electric tools then available were heavy and difficult to operate, and, as a result, had not been commercially successful. Black and Decker designed a universal motor--the first for electric-tool use--which employed either alternating or direct current, and a trigger switch modeled after the mechanism in the Colt revolver. The first tool incorporating these innovative elements was a 1/2-inch portable drill with the innovative "pistol grip and trigger switch" that have remained standard for electric drills ever since. The drill was comparatively light at 21 1/2 pounds, and it was considered inexpensive at $230. B&D grew consistently during the 1920s, as businesses bought labor-saving devices to deal with rising labor costs. In 1917 the company was awarded patents for its pistol grip and trigger switch and constructed a factory on the outskirts of Towson, Maryland. By 1918 sales surpassed $1 million. Immediately after World War I, more portable electric tools were introduced, including a 3/8-inch drill, a grinder, and a screwdriver. To accommodate demand the Towson plant was expanded three times by 1927. A Towson headquarters building was also constructed in 1924. Black & Decker used aggressive salesmanship and product services to build its client base. The company's first service centers were opened in Boston and New York in 1918. B&D also organized clinics to teach distributors how to use and sell the tools; demonstrators toured the country in two buses. At the end of the 1920s the company even outfitted a monoplane to showcase its tools. In addition, the firm began its first mass-media campaign in the Saturday Evening Post in 1921. With its initial success The Black & Decker Manufacturing Company expanded outside the United States, marking the beginning of its development into a global business. During the last year of World War I, burgeoning overseas sales led the company to establish representatives in Canada, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, Australia, and Japan. Canada was the site of B&D's first foreign subsidiary, started in 1922. Three years later a London sales and service subsidiary was formed. In 1928 the British company began manufacturing operations at a leased facility in Slough, outside London. The British company eventually built its own plant at Harmondsworth, Middlesex, in 1939. In 1929 an Australian subsidiary was established in Sydney. Until the 1950s the British subsidiary remained Black & Decker's only foreign manufacturing operation. It was the most important of B&D's many foreign operations after World War II. In the latter half of the 1920s Black & Decker expanded its U.S. operations through several acquisitions. In 1926 the Marschke Manufacturing Company of Indianapolis, Indiana, a maker of grinders, was purchased. Two years later the Van Dorn Electric Tool Company of Cleveland, Ohio, was acquired. In 1929 B&D purchased the Fleming Machine Company of Worcester, Massachusetts, and the Domestic Electric Company of Cleveland. Fleming Machine made wire brushes, saws, and grinding stones, and Domestic Electric was a major producer of electric motors. In addition Black & Decker acquired the Loadometer Company, from which it previously had bought the rights to a portable truckweighing scale.
