Historic Philadelphia

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Above: L-3 Communications, SPD Electrical
Systems’ 165,000-square-foot facility in
northeast Philadelphia.
Below: President and General Manager of
SPD Electrical Systems Jay Wilcox.
L-3 COMMUNICATIONS
SPD ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS
L-3 Communications, SPD Electrical
Systems, which is the nation’s largest designer
and manufacturer of military specification
circuit breakers and switchgear for the U.S.
Navy, is also a leader in the development of
advanced shipboard monitoring systems. This
Philadelphia-based company also applies
proven, American-made technologies to power
challenges in transportation, utilities, and other
non-military applications.
Jay Wilcox, named president of this centuryold
company in 2000, joined SPD following a
twenty-seven-year career with defense
contracting giant Lockheed Martin and its
predecessor companies.
Viewing SPD as it is today, it is difficult to
believe that at one point, after over one hundred
years in business, the company was just one
week away from closing its doors. One of
Philadelphia’s largest manufacturing firms and
one of the top five hundred corporations in the
country by the mid-1950s, the company was
heavily dependent on defense contracts. When
the defense market evaporated with the thaw in
Cold War tensions in the late 1980s and early
1990s, sales figures plummeted. The core
business was down by more than seventy
percent by 1991, revenues were less than half the
total liabilities, and long-standing labor disputes
added to the almost overwhelming problems.
In 1992, SPD implemented a growth
strategy, reinstituted efforts for developing new
products, reached long-term labor agreements,
increased competitiveness, and established an
effective acquisition/consolidation program, to
lead one of Philadelphia’s most historic
businesses back to financial health.
SPD Electrical Systems, a subsidiary of
Anaheim, California-based SPD Technologies,
Inc., specializes in circuit breaker design,
engineering, manufacturing, and testing for the
world’s most demanding applications; SPD
Switchgear, also headquartered in Philadelphia,
builds the most reliable line of electrical power
control and distribution products for commercial,
industrial, and military applications; and
Electronic Design (EDI), located in Jefferson,
Louisiana, manufactures control and monitoring
systems, training and simulation systems, and
related products for oceangoing ships and landbased
installations.
Henry B. Cutter founded SPD’s ancestor,
Cutter Electrical Manufacturing Company in
1888. The company’s first major success came in
1890 with the flip of a switch—the one used to
turn on the electric light. Known as the I-T-E
Circuit Breaker, it was developed by Cutter in
consultation with Walter E. Harrington, chief
engineer for Camden Railroad. Manufacture of
this unique double-push snap switch was
followed by development of a less expensive,
more reliable, safer circuit breaker to replace the
fuse in protecting electrical systems.
Now the world’s foremost manufacturer of
military circuit breakers and related electrical
systems protection equipment, SPD has
undergone several name changes—I-T-E Circuit
Breaker Company (1928), I-T-E Imperial
Corporation (1968), Gould Electronics (1976),
and SPD Technologies (1987).
HISTORIC PHILADELPHIA
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