Rea Magnet Wire Company, Inc. is one of the world's largest manufacturers of magnet and nonferrous wire products. Rea produces copper, aluminum and brass-insulated magnet wire and bare wire used in the manufacture of motors, transformers and coils. Rea also manufactures a number of specialty wire products.Magnet wire industryUntil George Jacobs invented a practical enamel for the purpose, cloth was used to insulate magnet wire. This had a number of drawbacks such as, the cloth being too expensive, becoming worn, and bulky. Wire with enamel insulation could be more densely packed, allowing smaller, more efficient motors, coils and other electromagnetic devices.Jacobs had worked as a chemist in GE's Fort Wayne, Indiana plant. In fact, he met and married his wife Ethel when he worked there. He got a better job as a chemist with Sherwin-Williams in Cleveland, Ohio but continued to work privately on an enamel wire insulation. He tried to exploit his invention there, but lack of capital and management skills hampered him. His father-in-law, successful Fort Wayne hardware wholesaler W.E. Mossman, was a lonely widower. He agreed to back Jacobs with capital, if he would move to Fort Wayne. Once there, Ethel's brother, P. Paul Mossman, provided additional management skills.Jacobs built a plant on Wall Street in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1912. By 1922, Dudlo Wire was the largest magnet wire manufacturer in the country—but by 1927, the owners were concerned about the financial health of the country. They sold out to a conglomerate, General Cable Corporation, in 1927, with the Great Depression beginning in 1929. George Jacobs left Dudlo in 1928 to form a new company, Inca Manufacturing, that later became Phelps Dodge Magnet Wire. Victor Rea became manager of Dudlo.
