Emerson Electric: First US Electric Fans, Bomber Turrets and a TV Lawsuit

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In October 2006 NBC's Heroes showed cheerleader Claire Bennet regenerating a hand mangled in a garbage disposal, and Emerson Electric, then parent of InSinkErator, sued the network, settling by early 2007. The company began in St. Louis in 1890, when Civil War Union veteran John Wesley Emerson built the Emerson Electric Manufacturing Company around an alternating current motor patented by Scottish-born brothers Charles and Alexander Meston. By 1892 it was the first company to sell electric fans commercially in the United States, then motorized sewing machines, power tools and dental drills. In World War II, under Stuart Symington, it became the world's largest maker of airplane armaments and ranked 52nd among U.S. firms in wartime production contracts.

After the war, W.R. Persons diversified the company and Charles Knight, CEO from 1973 to 2000, ran a global acquisition program: U.S. Electrical Motors in 1962, InSinkErator in 1968, and later Textron's tool and test businesses, including Greenlee, for over $800 million in 2018. Under David Farr, Emerson reversed course and sold its legacy hardware, from U.S. Motors in 2010 to InSinkErator and the Copeland climate business, to fund a move into process automation software for refineries, chemical plants and water systems.

• The NBC suit argued the scene cast the disposal in an unsavory light by implying a hand in the unit would be badly injured.
• Emerson's precision motor expertise let it drive bomber defensive turrets that had to work under extreme cold and combat vibration.
• Its network power division was spun off as Vertiv in 2016 for over $4 billion, and InSinkErator was sold to Whirlpool for $3 billion in 2022.
• Copeland went to Blackstone between 2022 and 2024 in a multi-stage deal valued in the tens of billions.
• In 2023 Emerson bought National Instruments for over $8 billion to own testing and measurement technology.