Johnson Controls: The First Thermostat, a Supreme Court Loss and Tyco

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In 1883 Warren S. Johnson, a professor at the Whitewater Normal School in Wisconsin, patented the first electric room thermostat, a bimetallic strip that rang a bell for the janitor in the boiler room, and later used compressed air to open valves automatically. Backed by Milwaukee investors, he formed a company in 1885. After his death in 1911 it focused on large non-residential buildings, then diversified into clocks, automotive seating, lead-acid batteries and, in 1989, a Pan Am facilities management division serving airports, military bases and government space centers.

In 1982 the company adopted a fetal protection policy that barred women from lead-exposed battery jobs unless they could prove they could not have children. The United Automobile Workers sued in 1984. Mary Craig chose surgical sterilization to keep her job, Elsie Nason was transferred to lower-paying work, and Donald Penney was denied leave to let his blood lead fall before becoming a father. In 1991 the Supreme Court unanimously struck down the policy, rejecting the company's bona fide occupational qualification defense under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.

• The 2016 merger with Tyco International moved the legal headquarters to Cork, Ireland, a tax inversion projected to avoid about $150 million a year in U.S. taxes, which Hillary Clinton publicly condemned.
• Tyco's former CEO Dennis Kozlowski was convicted on more than 30 counts after using forgiven company loans, with a $6,000 shower curtain and a $2 million party in Sardinia among the spending.
• After a nine-month trial over the 1986 DuPont Plaza Hotel fire in San Juan, which killed 98, a judge issued a directed verdict clearing its energy management system.
• In 2016 it paid $14.4 million to settle SEC Foreign Corrupt Practices Act charges over a Chinese marine subsidiary that routed about $5 million through sham vendors.
• It cut its workforce 52 percent in six years after the Tyco deal, spun off automotive seating, agreed in 2024 to sell HVAC units to Bosch for $6.7 billion and was hit by ransomware in 2023.