During the 1920s and the first half of the '30s Frederick S. Kingston and Brooks L. Conley were electrical engineers who worked at various manufacturing businesses. They both were working for Sunlight Electrical Manufacturing Co. in 1933 when that firm was acquired by General Motors subsidiary Delco Products Corp. The two men soon went their separate ways—Kingston to Crocker-Wheeler Electric Co. and Conley to the Hoover Co.—and then in late 1934 they announced the formation of the Kingston-Conley Electric Co., to manufacture fractional-horsepower electric motors.

Both separately and together Kingston and Conley patented various electric motor improvements. From the patent assignments and the new-company announcement we can piece together their work history:

• Frederick S. Kingston
  • Sunlight Electrical Manufacturing Co. of Warren, OH, 1927-1930
  • General Motors Corp., of Detroit, MI, 1932.
  • Crocker-Wheeler Electric Co., of Ampere, NJ, 1934.
  • Kingston-Conley Electric Co., of Jersey City, NJ, 1935.
• Brooks L. Conley
  • Emerson Electric Manufacturing Co. of St. Louis, MO, 1927.
  • Sunlight Electrical Manufacturing Co. of Warren, OH, 1930.
  • General Motors Corp., of Detroit, MI, 1932.
  • The Hoover Co., of North Canton, Ohio, 1934
  • Kingston-Conley Electric Co., of Jersey City, NJ, 1935.

Kingston-Conley earned themselves a reputation for building quality motors. During World War II they continued manufactured motors for the war effort. At war's end in 1945 the company was acquired by the Hoover Co. of North Canton, OH, and operated as the Kingston-Conley Division of The Hoover Co., eventually becoming just the Electric Motors Division of the Hoover Co. By the late 1950s Kingston-Conley had become part of Ohio Electric Manufacturing Co., which in 1959 was acquired by Howell Electric Motors Co., which in turn was acquired in 2007 by Imperial Electric Co. More research is needed to determine when, exactly, the Kingston-Conley name completely disappeared from electric motors and bench grinders.

Kingston-Conley motors and grinders (especially grinders) were branded by other manufacturers:

• Atlas Press Co. Kingston-Conley also made the Atlas-badged motors used on Atlas woodworking machinery.
• Cincinnati Electrical Tool Co. Cincinnati made their own grinders, but some of their smaller (7") grinders appear to be Kingston-Conley designs.
• Hoover Co. after Hoover's acquisition of Kingston-Conley
• Millers Falls Co.
• Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp.
• Skilsaw, Inc. / Skill Corp.
• Snap-on Inc., as part of their "Blue Point" line.
• Stanley Electric Tools, made from the late 1930s through to the early 1960s.
• Independent Pneumatic Tool Co., under their "Thor" brand used for nearly all their products.
• Walker-Turner Co., Inc. Their grinders and motors were made by Kingston-Conley until Walker-Turner was acquired by Rockwell Manufacturing Co. in 1956. After that time, Rockwell made the Walker-Turner-badged grinders and motors.

The majority of the grinders made by Kingston-Conley were branded Stanley or Walker-Turner. Kingston-Conley was not the sole grinder manufacturer for the above brands; another important OEM maker was Wissota Manufacturing Co. K-C and Wissota grinders are easily distinguished from one another: K-C grinders are heavy-looking with 1930s styling, and Wissota grinders are lighter looking with modern clean-lined styling.

If you see a for-sale listing for any other type of machine from this maker, such as a drill press or tablesaw, it is most likely someone else's machine with a Kingston-Conley motor. Kingston-Conley made motors for various makers of woodworking machinery. We have seen one tablesaw that was labeled as "Hoover Co. / Kingston-Conley Division".

Information Sources

• The December 1934 issue of Power carried the following snippet.

  Kingston-Conley Electric Co., 66 York St., Jersey City, N. J., has been formed by F. Kingston and B. L. Conley to manufacture fractional-horsepower, heavy-duty motors. Mr. Kingston was formerly superintendent of the small-motor department of Crocker-Wheeler at Ampere, N. J., and Mr. Conley was formerly electrical engineer with the Hoover Co., North Canton, Ohio.

• 1959-02-19 Cincinnati Enquirer: "Directors of Ohio Electric Mfg. Co., Cleveland, and Howell Electric Motors, Howell, Mich., have approved a plan to merge. Howell acquires the business and assets of Ohio Electric and its wholly owned subsidiary, Kingston-Conley, Inc., Plainfield, N. J."
• 1959-03-26 Detroit Free Press: "HOWELL ELECTRIC MOTORS COMPANY has acquired THE OHIO ELECTRIC MFG Co and its subsidiary KINGSTON CONLEY INC".
• Information on the founders and their history comes from patent records
• Information on the bench grinders made by these companies comes from posting by Joe Potter (1, 2) to an owwm.org discussion forum (membership required; it's free).
• Seen in an owwm.org forum discussion: a ½ HP induction motor labeled, "Howell Electric Motors Co. / Kingston-Conley Div. / Plainfield, New Jersey".