James Bullough Lansing

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James Bullough Lansing
Born	James Martini January 14, 1902 Millwood Township, Macoupin County, Illinois
Died	September 24, 1949 Suicide
Occupation	Engineer, inventor, designer

Born James Martini, (January 14, 1902 - September 24, 1949). Later took the name James Bullough Lansing.

1 Biography
- 1.1 Early Years
- 1.2 Career
2 External links
3 Sources

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early Years

He was born in Millwood Township, Macoupin County, Illinois to parents Henry Martini of St. Louis, Missouri and Grace Erbs Martini of Central City, Illinois. His father was a coal mining engineer which meant the family moved around quite a bit in James' early years. He was the ninth of fourteen children. He lived for a short time with the Bullough family in Springfield, Illinois and later took their name when he changed his from Mantini to Lansing.

Lansing graduated eighth grade at Lawrence School in Springfield, Illinois, attended Springfield High School and also took courses at a small business college also in Springfield.

At a young age he built a Leyden jar to play pranks on his friends. He also built crystal sets which were apparently powerful enough for the signal to reach Great Lakes Naval Station in Illinois, which was then dismantled when the Navy tracked the source down.

Lansing had worked as an automotive mechanic and attended and automotive school in Detroit courtesy of the dealer he worked for.

His mother died on November 1, 1924 when he was 21 and he then left home. He then met his future wife, Glenna Peterson, in Salt Lake City in 1925. At the time he was working for a radio station as an engineer. He also worked for the Baldwin loudspeaker company and met his future business partner, Ken Decker in the city.

[edit] Career

Lansing and Ken Decker moved to Los Angeles where they set up a business manufacturing [loudspeakers]]. It was called the Lansing Manufacturing Company. Just before the company was registered on March 9, 1927 Lansing changed his name from James Martini to James Bullough Lansing for an unknown reason. Most of his brothers had adopted the surname Martin, two of which (Bill and George) came to LA to work with him.

He later became the founder of JBL and onetime VP of Engineering for Altec Lansing.

James Lansing was noted as an innovative engineer, but a poor businessman. As a result of deteriorating business conditions and personal issues, he took his own life by hanging himself from an avocado tree in the courtyard of his factory in September, 1949.