Central Scientific Company

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Central Scientific Company was founded in 1900 in downtown Chicago. It was formed out of what was left of the Olmstad Scientific Company.

Central Scientific manufactured and distributed science teaching equipment for schools, colleges, and universities by catalog mail order. The trademark "CENCO" was used from 1909 onwards. CENCO dominated the field of selling science education equipment through their mail order catalog.

By 1935 the company established itself as one of the leading national suppliers of science equipment. During World War II, part of the manufacturing facility was turned over to war production, making bomb sights for airplanes and fuses for large bombs.

After 1968, the company began having financial difficulties. In 1974 the assets were sold off to competitors. The educational business retained the name Central Scientific Company.

In April, 1979, Central Scientific's assets and activities were acquired by two business men from Buffalo, NY. They sold the business to Sargent-Welch (their main competitor) in 2000.

[edit] See also

• VWR International

[edit] External links

• http://humboldt.edu/~scimus/Manufac/Cenco/Cenco.htm
• http://www.scripophily.net/cenin.html
• Smithsonian history