# Carlisle & Finch

Carlisle & Finch is a manufacturer of nautical equipment founded in 1894 in Cincinnati, Ohio where, as of 2024, it still has its headquarters. The company's main products through its entire history have been searchlights, mostly for marine applications. It was also known for navigation beacons used by airports and lighthouses.
In addition, it was known as the first company in the US to produce electric toy trains in the early years of the company. Other early products included electric generators (powered either by water pressure or by gasoline engine), and various electric-powered appliances.

## Corporate history

The company began as a branch office of General Electric at 182–84 Elm Street, Cincinnati, Ohio, where Robert S. Finch and Morten Carlisle were employed. Work included repairing electrical machinery, such as armatures, transformers, and arc lamps.
In 1894, Carlisle and Finch purchased the shop from General Electric, intending to continue the repair business and branch out into manufacturing. The new company was incorporated on April 17, 1897, with Carlisle serving as president. The same year, they introduced their first new products, a searchlight based on the carbon arc principle, and a toy train, which also used a carbon arc for its headlight. As the company grew, they added gasoline engines.
Carlisle sold his share of the business to Finch on August 4, 1926. Brent S. Finch, Robert's son, was named president, and the company started concentrating entirely on its searchlight business. After World War II, Brent R. Finch (son of Brent S.) was hired, at which point three generations of Finches were simultaneously employed by the company. As of 2024, a fourth-generation leads the company, with brothers Kurtis B. Finch and Garth S. Finch serving as president and senior vice president, respectively.
A subsidiary company, C&F Polishing, provides metal polishing and restoration services.

## Toy trains

One of Carlisle & Finch's earliest products was electric toy trains, and they were the first company to manufacture them in America. The wood and metal trains entered the marketplace c. 1897. They were approximately 5.5 inches (14 cm) tall and ran on metal track with rails 2 inches (5.1 cm) apart, known as 2 gauge.
Other American companies made toy trains before Carlisle & Finch. Edward Ives, for example, had a factory in Plymouth, Connecticut, in 1896. These other makers used wind-up clockworks, steam, electric batteries, or overhead wires to power the cars. Carlisle & Finch's innovation was to use the two rails as electrical conductors although this technology had been demonstrated as early as 1851 by Thomas Hall.
In 1897, they made a train set with a 4-wheel coal mining locomotive, three coal cars, two zinc-carbon elements, and a can of chromite. The locomotive included a switch for starting and reversing, and was powerful enough to pull the three loaded cars up a grade. That same year, they also made an "electric railway with double truck car" set, with a car running on two 4-wheel trucks. It was 12 inches (30 cm) long, 5 inches (13 cm) high, and 3.5 inches (8.9 cm) wide, and made of polished brass with iron wheels. It had two motors and could run at 150 feet per minute (46 m/min). Both sets included 18 feet (5.5 m) of 2-inch (51 mm) gauge track.

## Searchlights

When World War I started, production was shifted entirely to searchlights, to aid the war effort. The U.S. Government was a major purchaser, with additional large orders from Greece, Spain, Norway, and Russia. By 1917, it was one of the few companies worldwide producing searchlights, and had supplied a large proportion of the searchlights then in use by the United States and other countries. They produced a line of commercial searchlights, and also specialized in navy and military designs. Units were built with 9-to-60-inch (23 to 152 cm) diameters, and 2-to-6-mile (3.2 to 9.7 km) ranges. Current draw was 10 to 200 amps.
The earliest models used a carbon arc for the light source. Other companies had previously built carbon arc searchlights, but Carlisle & Finch added the innovation of mounting the carbon electrodes horizontally on the beam axis. The tip of the positive carbon faced the reflector, maximizing the amount of light reflected, and spacing of the carbons was adjusted by motorized screw-feed mechanisms. A manually-activated screw moved the entire mechanism forward and backward, positioning the arc at the mirror's focal point. A pair of carbons had a lifetime of about seven hours.
The company introduced Xenon arc searchlights in the 1960s. LED models followed in 2019.

## Navigation beacons

Distinct from searchlights, Carlisle & Finch also produced rotating beacons in the DCB (Directional Code Beacon) series starting around 1950. These project a narrow light beam. The light rotates, causing it to appear to flash from the viewpoint of a distant observer. These were originally used as aerodrome beacons, but in the 1990s, the U.S. Coast Guard adopted them for use in lighthouses, replacing existing Fresnel lenses. Models included DCB-24 with a 24-inch (61 cm) diameter, DCB-224 with two such lights, and DCB-36 with a 36-inch (91 cm) diameter.
As of 1984 the DCB-24 and DCB-224 were the standard optics used in landfall lights (the first lights seen when approaching the coast from the open sea). They have a nominal range of 13–26 nautical miles (24–48 km; 15–30 mi) depending on the rotation speed and whether a colored cover was installed. They could operate in winds up to 100 knots (190 km/h; 120 mph), and included an automatic lamp changer.

## Other products

In 1897, Carlisle & Finch offered a hand-powered dynamo, capable of lighting a ten candle power, ten volt incandescent bulb, or to run several electrical toys simultaneously. They also offered a water-powered version, which produced a similar amount of electrical power from a water faucet supplying 50 psi (340 kPa) of pressure and could be used with as low as 40 psi (280 kPa).
In 1912, they introduced a dynamo driven by a directly connected gasoline motor. The engine was 1.5 horsepower (1.1 kW), and the dynamo produced 42 volts at 15 amps. A belt pulley was included for driving an external load. The entire assembly weighed 395 pounds (179 kg).
In 1923, a clothes dryer was introduced. The device used a wire mesh drum rotated by an electric motor. Air heated by either gas or steam was forced through the drum, with the temperature controlled by a thermostat. The machine was 30 inches (76 cm) deep, 38 inches (97 cm) wide, 42 inches (110 cm) tall, and weighed 400 pounds (180 kg).

## Gallery of early advertisements

* 1912: Toy train
* 1913: Searchlights and dynamo
* 1920: Searchlight
* 1923: Clothes dryer