Innovation Ignites Automotive Icon
After a falling out between Champion and his investors, he and the Champion brand were torn apart. Never discouraged, Champion joined forces with Flint, Michigan's Buick Motor Company to form the AC Spark Plug Division.
In the same time-frame, Charles Kettering was planting the seeds of his industrial contributions. Born in Ohio in 1876, Kettering was a school teacher turned engineer. After graduating from Ohio State University in 1904, Kettering was hired into the inventions department at the National Cash Register Company (NCR) in Dayton, Ohio. There, he developed an electric motor for cash registers, the OK Charge phone for department stores and several other contributions to a revolution then taking place in business machines.
In 1909, Kettering and an associate at NCR, formed their own industrial research laboratory, the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (DELCO). Within three years, they had produced a new all-electric starting, ignition, and lighting system for automobiles. The system first appeared as standard equipment on the 1912 Cadillac and as its use spread, women could conveniently become drivers without the assistance of a chauffeur. In 1916, Alfred Sloan purchased DELCO, along with six other companies to form United Motors Corporation. UMC was sold to General Motors in 1918.
Over the span of a century, ACDelco, as it exists today, was formed through several name changes, many mergers, and countless reorganizations. During that time the brand has taken part in many events. Some of those events include Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic flight, Amelia Earhart's solo flight, and Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins, and Buzz Aldrin's trip to the moon.
