Elihu Thomson and American Electric Company staff

Elihu Thomson sits on the lowest step of the porch of the boarding house where much of the staff lived in New Britain, CT. E.W. Rice, Jr. is seated above Thomson's left shoulder. Investors convinced Thomson to move to Connecticut and form the American Electric Company in 1880. The business was on the verge of failure in 1883 when Charles Coffin, a shoe factory owner in Lynn, MA took an interest, moved the business to Lynn, and renamed it Thomson-Houston.