Happy 100th Birthday To The Consumer Technology Industry! Part 4: The Birth Of A Business
This week we’re celebrating the 100th birthday of the consumer technology industry with the story behind how our business came to be and of those responsible for creating it. You can read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.

Dr. H.P. Davis was unusually excited when he bounced into his office in the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company’s sprawling 92-acre complex in East Pittsburgh bright and early on Thursday morning, September 30, 1920. In the bookish VP’s coat pocket was a clipping of the Horne’s Department Store radio set ad from the previous evening’s newspaper.
Davis bade his secretary a chipper “Good morning!” then, without missing a beat, told her to “ask Frank to come in.” She knew her boss was referring to Frank Conrad, Westinghouse’s sudden resident radio star.
When Conrad arrived, Davis pulled the Horne newspaper clipping out of his pocket, and