Grew out of Stone & Webster CO, power plant manufacturers active in Boston in the early 1900s; incorporated Malden, Massachusetts, 1914, as National Toy Company, by 1916 rabge had expanded to include household products; name changed to National Company Inc; 1920s saw increasing involvement with radio, manufacturing capacitors and latter amateur radio receivers; supplier of radio equipment to US and Allied forces during second world war; briefly produced television recievers in late 1940s, before concentrating amateur radio market; company ceased trading in 1991.