page_title: Exide
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Exide / History
caption_attribution_description: Nickel–iron batteries under the "Exide" brand originally developed in 1901 by Thomas Edison. Exide acquired the Edison Storage Battery Company in 1972 and manufactured this type of batteries until 1975. Photo taken at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange, New Jersey.
context_page_description: Exide Technologies is an American multinational lead-acid batteries manufacturing company. It manufactures automotive batteries and industrial batteries. It is based in Milton, Georgia, United States.
  It has both manufacturing and recycling plants. The former are located throughout the U.S., Pacific Rim, Europe and Australia. Recycling plants are located in Canon Hollow, which is north of Forest City, Missouri, and Muncie, Indiana. Two recycling plants in Frisco, Texas and Vernon, California have been closed in 2012 and 2013. The plants in Reading, Pennsylvania and Baton Rouge, Louisiana have also been closed.
context_section_description: Exide's predecessor corporation was the Electric Storage Battery Company, founded by W.W. Gibbs in 1888. Gibbs purchased the ideas and patents of inventor Clement Payen to make the storage battery a commercial product. Gibbs targeted electric lighting companies so they could use the storage batteries to provide services to their customers.
  An important early customer for Electric Storage was the Electric Launch Company, also known as Elco.
  In 1893, the Norwegian explorer, Fridtjof Nansen, used Tudor accumulators supplied by the AFA during the expedition to the North Pole, which began in 1893, and from which he returned safely and intact in 1896. The batteries which gave light during the long polar nights were charged by a windmill, and the dynamos which were used for recharging are exhibited in the Fram Museum in Oslo, Norway.
  In 1898, an Electric Storage battery provided the submerged power for the USS Holland (SS-1), the first submarine commissioned in the US Navy.  Electric Storage remained a significant supplier of US Navy submarine batteries at least through World War II. Isaac Rice, president of Electric Storage in 1899, was instrumental in founding the Electric Boat Company as a bailout of the Holland Torpedo Boat Company.
  In 1899, a Fulmen battery equipped the "La Jamais Contente" electric car – the first car in the world to exceed 100 km/h (62 mph).
  In 1900, the Electric Storage Battery Company developed a product of greater capacity and less weight for electric taxicabs. This battery was the first to bear the name Exide, short for "Excellent Oxide".
  In 1902, The Electric Storage Battery Co. formed Willard Storage Battery Co. when they acquired the battery-making assets of a jewellery manufacturer in Cleveland, OH and incorporated them.  By 1950 Willard automotive batteries were outselling Exide automotive batteries although The Electric Storage Battery Co. was larger due to diversification.
  In 1911, Charles F. Kettering turned to the Electric Storage Battery Company for a suitable automotive battery to complement his new electric starter. This project yielded the first car battery of the modern type. (Within 5 years, there was a substantial field of aftermarket brands in storage batteries and starters for automobiles, as evidenced by the advertisements in automotive trade journals of the era.)
  When the United States entered World War I, Exide batteries were used to operate airplane radio sets and power radio stations.
  In 1920 the Electric Storage Battery Company purchased 40 acres of land in Crescentville, Philadelphia Pennsylvania to build a new plant at the estimated initial cost of two million US dollars. 
  In 1934 the Electric Storage Battery Company filed for the trademark Exide Ironclad and in 1935 their trademark was registered.
  In 1938, the Electric Storage Battery Company acquired the Giant Storage Battery Company, and expanded into battery chargers and testers.
  During World War II, the Electric Storage Battery Company was a major supplier of batteries for U.S. Navy submarines and primary contractor for batteries used in the Mark 18 electric torpedo.
  Exide entered the dry-cell battery industry in 1957 when it acquired the Ray-O-Vac Company, the then second-largest producer of dry-cell batteries in the US.
  Following the acquisition of the Wisconsin Battery Company, Exide started producing motorcycle and speciality batteries.
  NASA used solar-charged, nickel-zinc Exide batteries on all of the Apollo space missions.
  In 1972, Exide acquired the Edison Storage Battery Company, which had developed a practical nickel-iron battery in 1901. The production of this type of battery was subsequently discontinued in 1975.
  In 1987, Exide acquired General Battery Corporation and moved the company headquarters to Reading, Pennsylvania.
  Exide became a publicly traded company in October 1993.
   In 1996, Exide acquired the French/Italian battery corporation CEAC, Clichy. With this acquisition also came the rights to the German brands Sonnenschein and dryfit. The company Accumulatorenfabrik Sonnenschein had been founded in Be
caption: Nickel-iron batteries manufactured between 1972 and 1975 under the "Exide" brand, originally developed in 1901 by Thomas Edison.
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