Category: Technology

The 50 CLUB OF CLEVELAND is made up of top business executives, corporate lawyers and other well-known Cleveland figures who meet to hear prominent speakers and engage in strictly off-the-record, frank discussion.

A. LOPRESTI AND SONS was founded in 1908 when Carl LoPresti began selling apples and oranges from a pushcart. The next stage was the acquisition of a horse-drawn cart. At this point, the firm's "warehouse" was the family garage, and there was also a retail outlet—a stand at the CENTRAL MARKET. The company first appears in a city directory in the early 1930s.

ACME-CLEVELAND CORP. was formed in 1968 by the merger of the Cleveland Twist Drill Co. and the Natl. Acme Co. By 1980 it was one of the largest machine-tool manufacturers in the U.S., with net sales of $405 million.

ACTRON MANUFACTURING CO., largest producer of automotive test equipment in the nation, was incorporated 13 March 1964 by John W. Moran to make tachometers, voltmeters, and transistor ignitions for automobiles.

ADDRESSOGRAPH MULTIGRAPH. See AM INTERNATIONAL.

ADVANSTAR COMMUNICATIONS is one of the top 5 publishers of trade journals in the U.S. Its presence in Cleveland can be traced back to HBJ Publications, the business periodicals division of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, a leading publisher of textbooks and periodicals. In a major reorganization early in the 1980s, HBJ established Cleveland as a third corporate headquarters, along with San Diego and Orlando.

AEROSPACE INDUSTRY. Although Cleveland seemed unimpressed by the first flight of a heavier-than-air machine by two Ohioans from Dayton, Orville and Wilbur Wright, the city played an important role in the early development of the airplane.

Agricultural Land in Cuyahoga County

AGRICULTURE. The first settlers in Cuyahoga County followed the usual pioneer routine. They made clearances, planted corn, buckwheat, and rye, fenced in garden patches, and kept oxen, cows, and swine. When the soil had been "tamed" by other crops, they sowed wheat. They carried on their activities in spite of malaria, the ravaging of crops by multitudes of squirrels, and attacks on their livestock by wolves.

The AIR-MAZE CORP., manufacturer of a variety of air and liquid filters, was organized in 1925 by Albert E. Schaaf, a business executive in bicycle and automobile manufacturing. First located at 321 the CAXTON BLDG., 812 Huron Rd., the company originally made air filters for automobiles, but it soon became a pioneer in the development of a variety of filters.

AIRCRAFT INDUSTRIES. See AEROSPACE INDUSTRY.

The AJAX MANUFACTURING CO. was incorporated in 1875 by John Rollin Blakeslee (1843-1906). Blakeslee had earlier operated the Blakeslee Manufacturing Co., also in Cleveland, which manufactured nuts, bolts, rivets, and pins. Ajax Manufacturing Co., operating at 3830 Lakeside, discontinued headed products to concentrate on forging equipment and cold drawing equipment for the cold-heading industry.

AJAX TECHNOLOGIES. See AJAX MANUFACTURING CO.

AKZO NOBEL SALT, INC., with headquarters in Clarks Summit, PA, is the largest salt producer in the U.S. and the only exporter of raw materials in Cleveland. The company began production in Cleveland in 1962 as the Intl. Salt Co.

The ALCAN ALUMINUM CORP., the 3rd-largest aluminum fabricator in the nation, was created on 6 Jan. 1965 by its parent company, Alcan Aluminium, Ltd. This Canadian firm, formed in 1928, served the U.S. for years as a supplier of aluminum ingots. In 1960, seeking to enter the U.S. fabrication market, the firm purchased the plants of the Natl. Distillers & Chemical Corp. and the Cerro Corp.

The ALCAZAR HOTEL, at 2450 Derbyshire Rd. in CLEVELAND HTS., was built in 1923 as a residential apartment hotel, one of the earliest suburban hotels in the Cleveland area. It is designed in a Spanish-Moorish eclectic idiom, intentionally reminiscent of the complex in St.

The ALCO STANDARD CORP., a leading firm in the manufacturing, distribution, and resource fields, was organized in 1965 by a group of entrepreneurs, which included Clevelander Tinkham Veale II as its principle founder and first president.

ALCOA. See ALUMINUM CO. OF AMERICA.

The ALLEGHANY CORP., an investment holding company chartered in 1929 and headquartered in Cleveland, was originally financed through its holding of the Van Sweringen brothers' stock in 5 eastern railroads.

The ALUMINUM COMPANY OF AMERICA (Alcoa) was founded in 1888 as the Pittsburgh Reduction Co., and since 1900 has had a branch in Cleveland, locating the headquarters of its forging division here in 1977. Alcoa established a sales office in Cleveland's Cuyahoga Bldg. in 1900; it moved to the Garfield Bldg. in 1907, the same year the company changed its name to the Aluminum Co. of America.

AM INTERNATIONAL, INC., formerly Addressograph Multigraph Corp., was organized on 5 May 1931 by the merger of the Addressograph Intl. Corp. and the American Multigraph Co. Addressograph Intl., an Illinois firm, had been formed in 1893 to manufacture an envelope-addressing service. The American Multigraph Co. was organized in Cleveland by Harry C. Gammeter, who invented a machine to duplicate letters, and Henry C.

The AMERICAN AUTOMATIC VENDING CO., which sold goods through vending machines, was founded in 1933 by Louis and Miriam (Gometz) Golden as the Golden Tobacco Co. The firm's name was changed to the Ace Cigarette Service Co. about 1936 and began significant growth with the rise of electric vending machines. By 1946 it had become one of the nation's largest cigarette vendors.

The AMERICAN BOX CO., founded in 1901, grew to become one of the nation's top 3 box manufacturers before it moved out of Cleveland in 1962. American Box was founded by John P. Kubes, who guided the company until illness forced him to resign as president in Nov. 1944, shortly before his death. A native of Bohemia, Kubes came to the U.S.

The AMERICAN CHICLE CO., one of the world's leading chewing-gum manufacturers as a subsidiary of the Warner-Lambert Co., was established in New York by Cleveland chewing-gum manufacturer WM. J. WHITE, who merged his company with another Cleveland chewing-gum maker, the Beeman Chemical Co. Working as a confectioner from his Lorain Ave.

AMERICAN GREETINGS CORP. began as a one-man card-jobbing business founded in 1906 by JACOB SAPIRSTEIN, a recent immigrant and son of a Polish rabbi. By 1993 it was the world's largest publicly owned manufacturer and distributor of greeting cards, with $1.6 billion in sales and a net income of $112 million. In the 1930s the Sapirstein Greeting Card Co.