# Circle F wiring devices



## robmac85

Anyone ever use "circle F" devices back in the day? I have boxes and boxes of devices I got from an old timers garage. Now there gonna sit in my garage for the next next 50 years haha. They seem pretty tough and I like their logo haha I'm guessing they're out of business.


----------



## TOOL_5150

Yeah, Ive seen them. Usually removing them though. replacing them with chinese crap that isnt going to last a year.


----------



## ponyboy

Was this a failed spinoff of square d?


----------



## robmac85

Yup, I've pulled out many myself. These are from a time when there was dozens of manufacturers of wiring devices, all of em with MADE IN USA stamped on them. What do we have today maybe 4 brands? Hubbell and Pass & Seymour barely make anything in US. The only ones still making some things here are Leviton and Cooper. Yeah I'm anal and try and use US made stuff whenever I can.


----------



## robmac85

I actually did a quick search on them. Started out as E.H. Freeman Company around the turn of the last century in Trenton NJ. I'm not sure when they banged up shop.


----------



## ampman

nice can you show the auctual device


----------



## Shockdoc

I've replaced many of their snap switches and three prong grounding outlets in my teenage years. Many sub divisions in my hometown used that brand.


----------



## MTW

ponyboy said:


> Was this a failed spinoff of square d?


I believe that was Bell wiring devices.


----------



## macmikeman

I used to install those, lots of those.


----------



## Going_Commando

I think I have some new in package down in the shop somewhere. They look great with Uni-line plates.


----------



## papaotis

i remember seeing them , but dont remember when!


----------



## retiredsparktech

papaotis said:


> i remember seeing them , but dont remember when!


I remember seeing Challenger-Circle F breaker panels. They looked like the generic type panels, that everyone seems to use competitive type breakers in, even though it's against the code.


----------



## drhalleron

Kind of old thread, but I installed many of those in the early 1980s. My boss must have bought a truck load. I remember the switches had a problem of the plastic cracking when I tightened the wire under the screw and I had to be more careful with them than any other brand we used.


----------



## Meadow

When did those stop being produced btw?


----------



## TOOL_5150

ponyboy said:


> Was this a failed spinoff of square d?


Yeah, right between hexagon E :brows:


----------



## MTW

meadow said:


> When did those stop being produced btw?


Not soon enough. :laughing:


----------



## Meadow

MTW said:


> Not soon enough. :laughing:



they look a lot like those Bryant wiring devices.


----------



## robmac85

meadow said:


> When did those stop being produced btw?


Well I was working on a house the other day that was built in 1989 and they had them in there so some time after that I guess. I do know that the factory where they were made in Trenton NJ is now apartments.


----------



## MTW

Once upon a time, New England, New York and New Jersey was the epicenter of wiring device and wire and cable manufacturers. T&B, Lightolier, Leviton, Eagle, Murray, AIW, Colt, GE, Hubbel, Bryant, P&S, and long defunct wire and cable brands were here. Some of the headquarters remain (Leviton, for instance) but the manufacturing is long gone.


----------



## TOOL_5150

For the record... theres nothing wrong with Hubbell.


----------



## Norcal

Circle F was also known as Sylvania wiring devices & later Challenger, but have no idea what happened to them.

Used to use Eagle switches, receptacles, & Sierra wall plates.


----------



## wmbinnj

auld lang syne
my dad was a qc manager and engineer for them. back in the heyday, it was true: Trenton Makes, The World Takes. My dad used to say if you can't find a job in Trenton in the '60's it must be because you have two left hands/feet. Anyway, my dad went from Crane to Circle F as a line inspector, QC manager, and worked at Meade, Prince, and probably Monmouth (where the apartments are now) as iirc he roved various product lines. The company was privately owned and after some time and some lawsuits and other woes, the owners just milked it and moved along. There was a very large estate on River Road going out of Trenton toward Washington Crossing/Hopewell/ and that was one of the owner's estates. I remember hearing names like Ring, Yarmark, and others that were principals in the company, mentioned by dad. By the time Challenger got to it, some of the long timers went there but eventually it all dried up. My dad left in the early '70s. He went to a different firm in Bucks Co., PA. But to think my dad (grhs) was responsible for making sure that every one of those switches with a box around a circle and an "F" in it were according to strict standards, I think it's his way of saying he may be gone but his work ethic as an engineer lives on. He was a brilliant man and like working for anyone else, they capitalized on the talent. He could have run that company but, alas, after a while one grows weary. His secretary was Lillian. There were articles from old newspapers online years back that used to list names of the Circle F employees, some of whom I met or remembered. Not sure if they are preserved somewhere else behind google's various layers. I remember I met Lillian once when I walked over to Meade or Prince from school down the street when I missed the bus home. Some other people he knew were George P., Harry G. whose family I knew, Mike S. and Mike's dad even . . . and a guy named Butch and another, Lester, who I think moved to the new company some time later. anyway, probably by now, nobody gives a rat's patootie. (just anonymity's sake. . . . many have gone). All of Trenton is that way now. Out with the old. I remember my dad even inspected the porcelain casting lines for some of the porcelain parts as well as working with the tool room, changing procedures off the production lines, redesign and other things. Renaissance guy. You had to know a lot about manufacturing, raw materials, production, tooling, efficiency, and play nice with the workers. It was not a bad way to earn a living and provide for a family. These days, "factory" work is at Amazon, shipping a bunch'o' worthless crap that nobody needs. That's the new age of factory, I guess. My dad also used to travel to Charlotte, Charleston a few times in the late '60s for meetings with key management. Bastages were probably fixin' to sell everybody down the tubes by then. Anyway, just sharin' some of the good ole days . . . keep or toss. Thanks for reading. thanks for the topic, which I just found while surfing names of old factories in Trenton. I hope whoever has Circle F parts stockpiled makes a fortune on them some day. My dad was Jerry. I don't remember if he was there at the time Sylvania and Challenger were operating. He had probably moved for greener pastures by then. Yet another company that had similar lines . . . and games: Triboro Electric / Mohawk in Doylestown, PA. (No, I am not crazy -- not on paper. I just type a lot.) Regards,


----------



## joe-nwt




----------



## HertzHound

Thanks for the read. It is a shame. There was a time when everything you touched in your daily life was made here in NJ. Like you qouted “Trenton makes - The world takes”.


----------



## wmbinnj

joe-nwt said:


>


oh, a wiseguy, huh? we don't need no stinkin' paragraphs nyuk nyuk


----------



## wmbinnj

HertzHound said:


> Thanks for the read. It is a shame. There was a time when everything you touched in your daily life was made here in NJ. Like you qouted “Trenton makes - The world takes”.


that sign is still shamelessly on one of the bridges near trenton going across the delaware into bucks county, pa. back when it was true, Trenton was a great town. 

Now, a lot of the factory areas are desolate, though they did take some of the former factory shells and turned them into housing down at the Roebling wire rope complex. And part of that also became an arena. 

A few others in East Trenton are storage facilities, and even furniture warehouses (down by the old Meade/Prince plants in pottery row). 

Somewhere within that same area there was a huge sportswear contractor, which is where my mother used to work sewing shoulder pads into military uniform jackets. Piece work. You made how ever many dollars that week based on the bundle tags you turned in on your timesheet. Imagine doing that on the 3rd floor of a factory where it's about 110 in the shade, no central air. Lucky if you got a breeze from the windows. The old folks surely had strong constitutions. I wuldn't be able to do that now even at half my age.


----------



## Quickservice

Meadow said:


> When did those stop being produced btw?


Bryant-Westinghouse acquired Circle F around 1989, it enabled Bryant to enter the residential market for a very short time. When Westinghouse refused to fund the badly needed upgrade of the Circle F plant it was then sold to a Canadian company that changed the brand name to something I can't remember.


----------



## wmbinnj

Quickservice said:


> Bryant-Westinghouse acquired Circle F around 1989, it enabled Bryant to enter the residential market for a very short time. When Westinghouse refused to fund the badly needed upgrade of the Circle F plant it was then sold to a Canadian company that changed the brand name to something I can't remember.


very interesting. i am finding articles that show Circle F of record with operations until around 1978 such as on some historical websites for the area. That was the same year that there was a price fixing lawsuit that involved them and other similar companies in the region. 

Also reading online of many people now deceased whose obits stated they retired from Circle F after 30 years, one example being from 1969 to 1999. I had no idea they were around that long. The last I knew of anyone there whom I or people who worked there knew personally, around 1990 I think they dismantled the tooling operation (my s/o at the time had friends he worked with in the tool shop). By then it was Challenger if not some other incarnation.


----------



## Quickservice

wmbinnj said:


> very interesting. i am finding articles that show Circle F of record with operations until around 1978 such as on some historical websites for the area. That was the same year that there was a price fixing lawsuit that involved them and other similar companies in the region.
> 
> Also reading online of many people now deceased whose obits stated they retired from Circle F after 30 years, one example being from 1969 to 1999. I had no idea they were around that long. The last I knew of anyone there whom I or people who worked there knew personally, around 1990 I think they dismantled the tooling operation (my s/o at the time had friends he worked with in the tool shop). By then it was Challenger if not some other incarnation.


I was guessing at 1989 because I was working at a SH at the time and we stocked everything that Bryant made, and I remember the Bryant rep talking about the Circle F deal because we were always bugging him about not have any residential devices. I remember very well him losing his job when Westinghouse sold Bryant to Hubbell in 1992.


----------



## wmbinnj

Quickservice said:


> I was guessing at 1989 because I was working at a SH at the time and we stocked everything that Bryant made, and I remember the Bryant rep talking about the Circle F deal because we were always bugging him about not have any residential devices. I remember very well him losing his job when Westinghouse sold Bryant to Hubbell in 1992.


IIRC I believe my s/o's friend was laid off from the tool room around that time or if not then around 1990. they still had a tooling staff onboard which seems strange but production was going on until they yanked operations to N.C. 

Circle F was a gem in the area. I am reading the historical designation report of the building turned into lofts (Monmouth St., which is where I think my dad had a office for a short time, possibly drafting before he managed production for wire lines. I think he had to walk there from S. Trenton when the car was on the blink, before we moved to the 'burbs). 

I also remember he was not all too thrilled to have been assigned to Monmouth even though later he roved among many of the operations within town. I was in grade school in those days, late '60s. Mead and Prince was already the "bad area" well beforehand. 

But around Monmouth, you had a good share of upscale citizenry with it being close to the hospital. Still a few medical offices in that area. I remember working for a switchboard company in Trenton and remember some of the doctor names from around that area, which is now called Circle F, Greenwood and Hamilton. Oh, the mansions and professional suites. The Victorian buildings. (Now it looks like 'who did it and ran'.) Best regards,


----------

