Editing Automatic Electric (section)

==Facilities==
With the corporate establishment of the Automatic Electric Company in 1901, the facilities of the Automatic Electric Company were located in a six-story complex erected at the intersection of Morgan Street and Van Buren Street in the western part of Chicago.<ref>''Telephony,'' 4 December 1909, p. 583</ref>

In 1957, Automatic Electric was relocated to [[Northlake, Illinois]], and maintained research and development facilities in [[Melrose Park, Illinois|Melrose Park]] and [[Elmhurst, Illinois|Elmhurst]], Illinois. The company acquired a manufacturing facility in [[Genoa, Illinois]], from [[Leich Electric]], and, in 1978, opened a research and development branch in [[Phoenix, Arizona]]. In the mid-1960s, a manufacturing plant was built in [[Huntsville, Alabama]]. Public coin-operated telephones and the ''Styleline'' series of consumer telephones were manufactured there. A smaller rental telephone refurbishment operation was also moved to the Huntsville plant in the 1970s. The plant was closed in the mid-1980s as domestic labour and production costs rose sharply against overseas competitors.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Q7QfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=R9cEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4260,4144334&dq=gte+huntsville+closing&hl=en GTE to close out Huntsville operation]</ref>

In Canada, Automatic Electric acquired Phillips Electric Works, a cable factory in [[Brockville, Ontario]], in 1930. Telephones were manufactured at that facility from 1935 to 1953, when Automatic Electric sold the cable plant and built a 33-acre, $1.5 million telephone factory at 100 Strowger Boulevard.<ref name="telephonecollectors1955">{{cite book|url=http://www.telephonecollectors.info/index.php/document-repository/doc_view/10538-this-is-automatic-electric-1955-ocr-r |title=This is Automatic Electric |publisher=Automatic Electric |date=1955 |accessdate=2013-10-27}}</ref> The Strowger Boulevard factory was sold to [[BC Tel]] (as Microtel) in 1979, then was owned by [[Nortel]] (as Brock Telecom) from 1990 to 1999; it closed in 2002. The Phillips Cables factory closed in the 1990s and was later demolished.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.islandregister.com/phones/ae.html |title=The Telephone on Prince Edward Island - On-Line Telephone Museum - Automatic Electric Telephones! |publisher=Islandregister.com |date= |accessdate=2013-10-27}}</ref>

{{anchor|England}} In England, the [[Automatic Telephone Manufacturing Company]] Ltd. operated a manufacturing plant in [[Liverpool]]. [[British Insulated Callender's Cables|British Insulated Cables]] had founded the company in November 1911 to manufacture the Strowger system under licence from the Automatic Electric Company of Chicago. The first maker of automatic exchanges in the UK, this company (as of 1923) was one of four (later five) which manufactured equipment for Post Office-owned [[telephone exchange|central offices]]; see [[General Post Office]] (GPO or BPO, a government department).. The company became part of International Automatic Telephone Co. in 1920, which changed name to Automatic Electric Co. in 1932 and then to Automatic Telephone and Electric Co. in 1936 to reflect a product range which included sidelines ranging from Xcel heating appliances to traffic signals.<ref>[http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Automatic_Telephone_Manufacturing_Co Automatic Telephone Manufacturing Co history]</ref>

In the 1950s, two Automatic Electric factories were manufacturing in [[Europe]]: Automatique Electric SA of [[Antwerp]], [[Belgium]], and Autelco Mediterranea SATAP of [[Milan]], [[Italy]].<ref name="telephonecollectors1955"/>