Ever Ready Company 1899

The Ever Ready Company based in the US was founded by Russian immigrant, Akiba Horowitz who changed his name to Conrad Hubert after arriving in the US in 1891. He was joined by David Misell, a British inventor living in New York City. Misell had obtained a number of electrical patents before joining with Hubert and it is likely that they met through Hubert selling Misell's products in his novelty store that he had set up after arriving to the US.

In 1897, Misell went to work for Hubert and succeeded in acquiring further patents. When these were granted, they were assigned to Hubert's new company, The American Electrical Novelty and Manufacturing Company. They began by manufacturing electric novelties such as flashing necktie pins and flashlights under the company name. The products were marketed under the title of 'Ever Ready' and in 1905, Hubert changed the name of the company to 'The American Ever Ready Company'. The company created an array of battery powered devices and grew very quickly.

In 1914 the name was shortened to 'Ever Ready' after becoming part of the National Carbon Company.

The company is perhaps best known as being the inventor of the alkaline battery in 1957. However, they did not focus marketing on this and missed out on a significant market share to Duracell because of this. In 1980, however, the company rebranded these batteries to become Energizer, now a well-known household name.

The company continues to sell batteries and is now known as the Eveready Battery Company.