inventor manufacturer philanthropist
Arthur Atwater Kent was born on December, 3, 1873 in Vermont, United States, the son of Prentiss Jonathan Kent, a physician who had served in the Civil War, and Mary Elizabeth (Atwater) Kent. Through his father he was descended from Joseph Kent, who came from England to Rehoboth, Massachusetts, in 1634.
Atwater Kent was mechanically precocious, and his family sent him to the Worcester (Massachusetts) Polytechnic Institute. He left after two years without obtaining a degree.
Kent started his work experience with a manufacturer in Lebanon, New Hampshire. After a brief stint selling electrical equipment for a firm in Brookline, Massachusetts, he moved to Philadelphia, where in 1902 he established the Atwater Kent Manufacturing Works. The firm, incorporated in 1919, was wholly owned and directed by Kent and laid the basis for his personal fortune. He began by manufacturing small voltmeters and home telephones but rapidly expanded to make a variety of electrical devices--notably, automotive ignition systems. Many of these devices were of his own invention. During World War I the company manufactured gunnery fire-control instruments.
Kent began receiving orders for radio parts in 1922, and the following year he devised, assembled, and sold his first five-tube receiving set. He proved phenomenally successful in this burgeoning new industry: by 1926 Atwater Kent had produced more than 1, 000, 000 sets, and annual sales exceeded $60 million in 1929. New factories were constructed in which 12, 000 workers could turn out 6, 000 receivers a day. By 1930 Atwater Kent was the leading firm in the industry.
The success of Kent's radio receivers did not rest primarily on his inventive skill. Like other manufacturers seeking to meet the booming demand, he drew on the best current technology, much of which rested on patents controlled by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). In 1927 RCA successfully sued Kent for using its Alexanderson frequency tuner but shortly thereafter permitted him to continue manufacturing the device under a licensing agreement. The following year Kent lost a similar patent case to the Hazeltine Corporation.
Kent's distinctive contribution seems to have been the ability to mass-produce receivers of high quality, a quality achieved by frequent inspections during the manufacturing process. His company suffered severely, however, during the Great Depression. In 1936, with only 800 employees, Kent despaired of resuming profitable operations, closed down production permanently, and retired.
Kent's interest in radio extended to the quality of programming. Beginning in 1925, he sponsored the "Atwater Kent Hour, " a network program that pioneered in presenting the best classical musicians of the era. In 1927 he set up the Atwater Kent Foundation, which over the next five years sponsored nationwide auditions to discover first-class young singers; winners were awarded cash prizes and tuition at leading conservatories of music. As Kent's prosperity increased, so did his philanthropic activities; his contributions at one time reached $300, 000 annually. In the depression winter of 1931 he set up a private relief program providing aid to 3, 500 former employees. More characteristically, in 1930 he contributed $225, 000 toward the construction of a new building for the Franklin Institute. Subsequently, heeding the appeal of Philadelphia's mayor, he took over the old Franklin Institute building, modernized it, and donated it as a municipal historical museum, which was given his name. In 1936-1937 he also restored the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia. In 1940 Kent moved to California and purchased a thirty-two-room mansion on a twelve-acre hilltop estate in Bel Air, a Los Angeles suburb, where he entertained Hollywood celebrities at elaborate social affairs.
Atwater Kent was known as the founder of Atwater Kent Manufacturing Works. He became one of the major suppliers of electrical systems to the automobile industry and achieved great success in radio manufacturing and in combining the inventive and entrepreneurial functions. He invented the first jump-spark ignition systems, which brought him the John Scott Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1914.
Kent was a Congregationalist in religion.
Kent was politically a Republican who thought the New Deal a "dreadful blight".
Kent was characterized as "suave, affable, approachable but highly individualistic.
On May 24, 1906, Kent married a Philadelphia socialite, Mabel Lucas. They had three children, Arthur Atwater, Elizabeth Brinton, and Virginia Tucker, and adopted a fourth, Jonathan Prentiss. The family acquired estates near Philadelphia; Bar Harbor, Maine; Southampton, Long Island; and Palm Beach, Florida. They maintained membership in a large number of social clubs, and their yachts plied the waters from Maine to California. Kent launched his daughters into society with elaborate balls. He legally separated from his wife in 1940.
