O’Conor filed for a patent in February of 1913 – and was rewarded with one dollar, the amount Westinghouse paid for rights to employee inventions. Within weeks, O’Conor and Faber quit Westinghouse to start their own business, enlisting lawyer and banker John G. Tomlin as an investor. Tomlin put up $7,500 and became a silent partner in the fledgling business.
How did Formica get its name? At that time, the mineral mica was commonly used for electrical insulation. Because the new product acted as a substitute “for mica,” Faber designated the name “Formica.” The company began operations on May 2, 1913, filling an order for V-rings for electric motors from Chalmers Motor Company. By September, Formica Products Company, as it was then known, had 18 employees trying to keep up with the demand for electric motor parts by Bell Electric Motor, Ideal Electric and Northwest Electric.
Faber and O’Conor renamed their company The Formica Insulation Company in its first year of operations. As president and treasurer, Faber ran the business side. O’Conor, as vice president and secretary, handled the technical and manufacturing end, as well as sales. This partnership would endure for more than twenty years, when the company reorganized with Faber as chairman and O’Conor as president and secretary.
The Company’s success drew the attention of giants. Westinghouse started making plastic laminates, buying resin from the Bakelite Company, as did Formica. Soon, Bakelite licensed only its big customer Westinghouse to make sheet laminate. Formica was limited to the less profitable tubes and rings. Faber and O’Conor started looking for a new resin process and found “Redmanol,” a resin developed by L.V. Redman, with backing by the Karpen brothers.
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