Atwater Kent

The Atwater Kent iHORN is made from an Atwater Kent radio horn, Model H, which was made in 1925.  It is full metal construction with a beautiful brown finish.  Atwater Kent made radios and speakers from 1922 to 1936. In 1895 Arthur Atwater Kent founded the Kent Electric Manufacturing Co. in the back room of his father’s machine shop, selling small electric motors. Arthur invented the “Unisparker,” an improved ignition system which gave a single hot spark at once and was used in all automobiles until the electronic ignition took over.  In 1919 Atwater Kent had already 25 U.S. patents, eventually holding 93 patents.  In 1921 he started to engage in radios.   Atwater Kent became the leading radio manufacturer. The production figures are impressive: from 1923 to 1927 not less than 1,317,766 sets have been produced.  In 1936, fed up, Kent closed down the factor.  In 1937, Kent helped to organize and pay for the restoration of the Betsy Ross House in Center City Philadelphia. In 1938, Kent helped found the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia.  The museum is still operating today.  He retired to Hollywood and enjoyed to live among movie stars and high society. He built on top of the highest hill in L.A. "Cappo di Monti"(Mountains head), a palace-like mansion in Italian style with 32 rooms.  Famous as “Mr.Host” he ran extravagant parties, with a regular guest list of over 800 people. He invited scores of Hollywood luminaries, and he would frequently dress as the "Mad Hatter" (Alice in Wonderland) while he fed them choice wine and foods. He would mingle with the guests for a few hours and then go to bed while the party went on. He never dined with his guests - he was a vegetarian.   He died in 1949. The Atwater Kent iHorn is a tribute to a man with vision, philanthropy, who was just quirky enough to do great things.  It bangs it out!