Delco Electronics
Delco Electronics Corporation was the automotive electronics design and manufacturing subsidiary of General Motors based in Kokomo, Indiana, that manufactured Delco Automobile radios and other electric products found in GM cars.
Working in one of Deeds' barns with spare-time help from William A. Chryst and other NCR friends, Kettering developed a high-energy spark ignition system to replace the weak-spark model supplied with the kit.
Leaving NCR in 1909, Kettering focused on final development of this ignition set and demonstrations were favorably received.
In 1909, when Henry Leland of Cadillac ordered 5,000 ignition sets, Deeds and Kettering formed the Dayton Engineering Laboratories company.
In 1911, Kettering invented and filed for U.S. patent 1,150,523 for the first useful electric starter, adapted from a cash register motor.
At the time, one of Kettering's widely known inventions was the Delco-Light, a small internal combustion generator with battery intended to provide a source of electric illumination and mechanical power to rural residents (mostly farmers) who were yet to be connected to the nascent electrical grid system.
In 1918, General Motors (GM) bought the United Motors Company which had been formed several years earlier by William C Durant to house several prominent parts manufacturers, including Delco, Dayton-Wright, and the Dayton Metal Products Company.
The division was transformed in the following years as it grew to meet the needs of General Motors for engine and powertrain control modules to meet the U.S. government's strict 1981 Clean Air Act and other improved vehicle safety items including anti-skid brake system controllers and inflatable restraint (airbag) systems.
On May 28, 1999, Delphi became a separate publicly traded company, and continued to use the Delco Electronics name for several of its subsidiaries until 2004.
[9] This included all of the former Delco Electronics' plants in Kokomo, Indiana, where only a fraction of the previous manufacturing remains.
