American District Telegraph Company (ADT)

Product Details

Historical Context

In 1874, 57 diverse "district" telegraph delivery companies were joined to create the new American District Telegraph Company - the forerunner of today's ADT.

With the advent of advanced Call Boxes and multi-signal electric protection system in the early 1890s, ADT became a pre-eminent security protection company. The multi-signal Call Boxes allowed watchmen at businesses to do more than just signal for police or fire department assistance - now he could also send a specific signal to the ADT office, at designated times, to let the monitoring office know that all was well. If a district office didn't receive its scheduled signal, something was assumed amiss, and help was dispatched. By 1899, electric signal services were still only available in 50 towns, though messenger services were widespread throughout more than 500 localities.

In 1901, ADT became a subsidiary of Western Union.

In 1909, Western Union and ADT came under the control of AT&T.

During World War II, as more and more young men were called to the armed services, the resulting domestic manpower shortage drove the demand for new and better protection systems that would not only detect problems, but signal an alarm automatically. Because ADT provided a unique integration of systems and services, it was a logical step for the company to create these automatic services. As a result, the company pioneered developments such as the Teletherm automatic fire detections system, the Telewave automatic intrusion system, and other advancements.

In 1987, ADT was purchased by the Hawley Group, Ltd., and renamed ADT Security Systems, Inc. The U.S. headquarters were relocated from New York City to Parsippany, New Jersey.

In early 1998, ADT, Ltd. was acquired by Tyco International Ltd. Today, ADT has residential and commercial coverage in about 230 major U.S. markets.

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