"-exray" wrote in message
...
Keyboard In The Wilderness wrote:

Saw a post asking about this and I recall a James Knight company -- maybe
making crystals.
Did Allied buy them and then adopt the Knight name to their kits ????

Just a guess

There were Knight brand consumer radios going back into the mid-30s and
maybe earlier. It is my understanding that this was the same Allied
company. I don't know of any affiliation with James Knight.

-Bill

However, they were somewhat close geographically. Allied was based out of
the west side of Chicago (100 North Western Ave.) during it's Knight Kit
heyday. James Knight Crystal Company was located about 40 west of Chicago,
in Sandwich, Illinois.

I visited their plant in 1973, while involved in selling them thermistors.
Sandwich was just a dot on the side of (IIRC) US Route 30, even then. I dug
up a reference that really surprised me:

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/p...ries/_randall/

The lady is saying that she lapped crystal for Knight during World War I!!
If this quote is correct (her memory too), then Knight was making crystals
at a very early time in electronics. personally, I think she must have been
in a time warp.

Here's a more believable citing, where the James Knight company was being
formed at the beginning of WWII:

http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/97/970801/

And another:

http://www.bliley.net/XTAL/Industry-...#_Hlk390359909

Hmmm, looks like they finally left town, one way or another, circa 2003:

http://www.sandwich.il.us/econdev/ctsknights.html

There's even a pix of the vacant plant. As you might expect with a company
that had been a major employer in a little town, there's Knight street,
Knight park, etc....

If you're really obsessed, you might try emailing the local Sandwich
officials for more detail.

http://www.sandwich.il.us/cityofficials.html

Seems that James Knight company became CTS Knights sometime in the 70's; was
that a merger with another local Chicago company called Chicago Transformer?
But that must be another story.

Finally, if you have to name your product line with something symbolic,
doesn't Knight just sound better than Rook or Pawn?

Ed
wb6wsn