Scintilla Magneto Company

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Scintilla Magneto Company was an American maker of magnetos for aircraft and automobiles, based in Sidney, New York, and part of the Bendix Corporation. Its roots lay in a Swiss magneto design; American rights were brought to the United States in 1921. The company started in New York City but, in the mid-1920s, moved to the Cortland Cart & Carriage site in Sidney after persuasion by local businessman Winfield Sherwood. In 1925 it was purchased by the American subsidiary of Brown, Boveri & Company. Bendix Corporation bought the firm in 1929 and it became the Scintilla Magneto Division. After acquiring Hurley Townsend in 1935, the plant expanded and workers were housed in a new project. During World War II, Scintilla produced magnetos for engines like the Allison V-1710 and employed more than 8,600 people by 1944. In 1966 the name was changed to the Electrical Components Division. The Bendix Engine Products Division split off in 1980 and moved to Jacksonville, Florida a few years later. By 1985 the Sidney operation was renamed Bendix Connector Operations. In 1987 Amphenol’s products division was sold to LPL Investment Group from AlliedSignal. The former Scintilla factory later housed Amphenol Aerospace until it was demolished after floods in 2006 and 2011. The plating annex remains in use, but most of the site is now a solar farm, and Amphenol Aerospace moved to a nearby higher location in Sidney.