Trico

Trico

Type	Private
Industry	Automotive
Founded	1917
Headquarters	formerly Buffalo, New York; now Rochester Hills, Michigan, USA
Area served	worldwide
Key people	Luis B. Braga (President and CEO)
Products	Wiper blades
Owner	Kohlberg & Company
Number of employees	6,000
Website	TricoProducts.com

Trico is an American company that specializes in windshield wipers. Trico, then known as Tri-Continental Corporation, invented the windshield wiper blade in 1917.^[1] Its original Trico Plant No. 1 is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.^[2] Trico is today one of the leading manufacturers of windshield wiping systems, winshield wiper blades and refills globally, with wiper plants on five continents.

History

When a bicyclist and a National Roadster collided on a Buffalo, New York, street one rainy night in 1917, it was an impact felt around the world. Although the cyclist was not seriously injured, the accident was enough to profoundly shake the driver of the car, Buffalo theater owner J.R. Oishei. Oishei vowed that such an accident should never happen again, claiming that hitting the bicyclist was "a harrowing experience which imprinted on my mind the definite need for maintaining vision while driving in the rain." Oishei formed the Tri-Continental Corporation to solve this problem experienced while driving in the rain.

In 1917, the Tri-Continental Corporation introduced the first windshield wiper, Rain Rubber, for the slotted, two-piece windshields found on many of the automobiles of the time.

In the years after the creation of the first windshield wiper, Trico was involved in the development of vacuum-powered wiper systems. Trico was involved in a patent dispute with William M. Folberth who, with his brother Fred, invented a vacuum-powered wiper motor in 1919. The patent was granted in 1922, and Trico later purchased the Folberth company to settle the dispute. Vacuum wiper motors produced by Trico carry an earliest patent number that dates back to 1928.

In 1928, as Trico Folberth Ltd, Trico opened a UK plant on the Great West Road in Brentford, Middlesex, that was situated on the so-called Golden Mile. The site closed in the late 1990s and the company relocated its UK operations to Pontypool, South Wales.

Trico also produced an air-pressure powered system for heavy-duty trucks and large military vehicles, as well as marine applications such as Chris-Craft and others where diesel engines were used. The air-pressure system uses a Trico-Folberth wiper motor that has patent dates cast into it that go as far back as 1922. Later versions of these motors carry patent numbers that show an earliest patent date of around 1936.

Trico in Brentford Middlesex, U.K., was the scene of one of the first successful strikes over equal pay for women in May 1976. The company at the time continued to pay more to male than to female workers, and the women walked out in protest, gathering at the local Griffin pub. Trico eventually gave in after 21 weeks, offering the women workers their legal equal pay.^[3] This strike is now commemorated in a local folk song, written by Sam Richards, Totnes, Devon, UK.^[4] Its fifteen verses describe the struggle to gain legal recognition of equal pay rates. A national disgrace, not just for the Trico employees, but most other major employers of the times. Trico were the unfortunate party to be recorded, by posterity, in the national press for this.

Ironically, the strike was held in the summer of 1976, this was the hottest and longest water drought for a hundred years, breaking all the known heat records. This is why the right wing press attached the nickname "Costa del Trico" (owing also to the irony - that new fashionable booked Spanish " Costa" summer holidays at the time, were actually cooler, but more expensive that very hot long summer).

In 1998, Trico then moved their head office from Buffalo to Rochester Hills.^[5]

In 2002, Trico closed its "Plant #1" in Buffalo, New York. This ended a nearly 20 year process of shifting its production to Mexico. The building is currently being redeveloped as part of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

References