Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company

Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company was a major manufacturer of telephone exchange equipment. It was founded in Chicago, Illinois, by Milo G. Kellogg, an electrical engineer. Along with Western Electric (who supplied the Bell system), Automatic Electric (who supplied General Telephone) and Stromberg-Carlson, it controlled the nation's supply of telephone equipment until after World War II.

Kellogg was born into a prominent and wealthy New England family. He attended prep school, and received two degrees in engineering from the University of Rochester. He married into one of Chicago's most prestigious families, and relocated to Illinois.

In the 1880s, Kellogg had been a manager at Western Electric (he was superintendent of Western Electric's Chicago manufacturing and research plant) and the Southern Telephone and Telegraph Company. In 1897, with Alexander Graham Bell's patent for the telephone expiring, Kellogg set up his own manufacturing firm, Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company. Kellogg himself held more than 150 patents, and he had invented and patented the Divided Multiple telephone switchboard. The new company manufactured the equipment as its flagship product. This switchboard offered greater flexibility and efficiency than earlier designs in handling large numbers of telephone subscribers at each urban exchange. Kellogg Switchboard & Supply primarily supplied local independent telephone companies.

In 1901, Kellogg fell seriously ill. His brother-in-law, Wallace DeWolf, proved to be a poor manager. Concerned that the company might fail, DeWolf secretly sold a majority of Kellogg's stock to Western Electric. Easily manipulated by Western Electric executives and legal advisors, DeWolf also helped Western Electric attempt to take over the country's other large telephone equipment manufacturer, Stromberg-Carlson. A bitter stockholder fight ensued, which led to Stromberg-Carlson's reincorporation as a New York state corporation in 1902.

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