Arvin Industries Incorporated 1950 - 2000

Indianapolis Air Pump Company founded 1919 by Quinton G Noblitt and Frank H Sparks manufacturing automobile tire pumps; 1920 founds Arvin Heater Company subsiduary with Richard Hood Arvin, inventor of a car heater, consolidated into Indianapolis Air Pump Company in 1922; 1921 incorporates as Indianapolis Pump and Tube Company; 1924 purchases Dan Patch Novelty Company, diversifies into toy manufacture as well as mufflers and exhausts; 1927 name changed to Noblitt-Sparks Industries;1933 begins manufacture of car radios; 1939 reduces radio line to table top models; concentrates on war production 1941 to 1945; expands into consumer goods post-war (washing machines, AM/FM radios, waffle makers etc); 1949 produces first television receiver; 1950 name changed to Arvin Industries Inc.; 1955 develops Arvinyl, a vinyl-to-metal sheet laminate process; manufactures televisions under Arvin name unitl 1955, then under 'Silvertone' name for Sears until 1971; enters advanced electronics field in 1962 when acquired Westgate Laboratory, Inc. (renamed Arvin Systems, Inc.); succesfully expands overseas between 1960s and 1990s; taken over by rival automotive parts manufacturer Meritor Automotive Inc. in 2000 to form ArvinMeritor Inc.