It was created in 1957 through a merger of McGraw Electric and Thomas A. Edison, Inc., and was in turn acquired by Cooper Industries in 1985.
Today, the McGraw-Edison brand is used on industrial, commercial, and institutional lighting products, and has been owned by the Pennsylvania Transformer Technologies Inc. since 1996.
Later that year, the Griswold brand and housewares division were sold to the Wagner Manufacturing Company of Sidney, Ohio.
[5] In September 1979, McGraw-Edison purchased Studebaker-Worthington, a company formed from a merger of Studebaker and the Worthington Corporation.
[9] In September 1980, the company sold its power tool division to Shopsmith, Inc.[5] McGraw-Edison manufactured equipment such as air conditioners, cooling fans, electric space heaters, air humidifiers, portable hair dryers, toasters and other household appliances at their 24 acres (9.7 ha) site in Calhoun County, Michigan between 1958 and 1980.
During its operations between 1970 and 1980, the company spread about 15,000 US gallons (57,000 L; 12,000 imp gal) of oil waste contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE) to control dust on the site's dirt roads.
The State of Michigan and McGraw-Edison Corporation registered a consent decree on June 11, 1984 for clean-up of the contaminated soil and groundwater.